Chapter 04

June to September

Life settles into a rhythm for Mack. School during the week, hunting three afternoons a week and every second Saturday. Twice a week he takes the children out to get them acquainted with the forest while he teaches them what he’s learned. They soon learn how to know where they are in relation to the houses and the camps. The kids and men spend a lot of time trying to thin the rabbit herds, but it still looks like they’ve not touched them. Many families enjoy their improved diets due to the rabbits and vegetables of Sandy Knoll Farm.

The logging company sends a fortnightly contract offer of one million per year to Irene. She sends them a counter offer of one and a half million. Without the camps at Sandy Knoll the company is working their other areas harder. They haven’t contracted with some of the smaller crews so the few crews the company doesn’t use are hired by Marker on a share basis. They go in to log a truck load from an area and both sides share in the cash payment from the sawmill. The sawmill is familiar with the crews doing a bit of side work when not on contract so they don’t think about where the logs are being cut. This isn’t providing a full wage but it’s enough to keep them going. These private crews don’t have the expensive gear for the major logging like the big company does.

Mack shows Marker, Hammer, and several others how they select and how to hand-log the exotics in a way that doesn’t make it obvious. Where Mack and Irene were limited to their trailer Hammer has his logging truck. So they take time to drop a few trees every now and then to store in the shed. When they have a truck load they take them down to the city. Irene goes with the first load to introduce them and to make sure there’s no troubles with the change of loggers. Without a logging contract they raise the money for the first few loan payments via sales of exotic woods. The increase in the supply makes the buyer very happy.

Irene’s condition deteriorates so the Hanson women help her with daily activities. She no longer cooks or cleans house. Most of her day is spent keeping an eye on the youngest of the children. Several women bring their children out to the farm for care while they’re working or are going to do things in the city of Rivers, and Irene helps with this care.

October and November

By mid October Irene is confined to bed and eats little. Mack spends a lot of time hunting, often taking a couple of the middle aged children with him to act as his porters to carry the rabbits he shoots. The inside walls of the big shed are covered with rabbit skins being stretched and cured so they can be used for making clothing and slippers.

Irene receives a letter from the Forestry Division of the New South Wales (NSW) Department of Primary Industries (DPI), this is the state government authority that manages the forestry leases. Their leases require the leaseholders to not over-log an area or under-log it. They’ve received a complaint about an area being under-logged and seek a reply. Mack grins when he prepares an answer on his computer. He completes the paperwork for Irene to sign and send it off. The response is a simple statutory declaration that all of the DPI leasehold lands under their control are being logged within complete accordance of the leases. If the Department wishes to identify a specific lease or lease area Irene will be happy to have an independent assessor inspect the area and report direct to the Department. However, since such things are expensive they must identify the specific lease involved. Irene gets a polite response acknowledging her reply. Since they’ve no land under leasehold from the DPI they don’t expect to hear much more from them about it. It’s a simple enough request for the lease to be clearly identified. The letters on such matters normally do identify the lease concerned.

After the reply is copied along to the NSW Senator who raised the matter with the Department the Senator has a meeting with his friend and financial supporter. The Senator says, “OK, Brian, DPI aren’t going to do anything more until such time as we provide lease numbers for them to use. I’ve got staff looking, but we can’t find the leases for the Dean family. Many of the old leases are still listed under the name of the original leaseholder, and others under later ones. It’s rare for a lease to be under the name of the current leaseholder due to the length of them. Also, they could be under the name of a trading company. I can’t do anything more for you about this until you have the lease numbers.” Brian Parks is not happy when he leaves the man’s office. He’s starting to get desperate. He has to get control of that forest area or he may lose control of his family company due to complaints about his management.

While he’s going home Parks mulls over the situation. It makes him very angry a small-time family operation like the Dean family one can defy him and cost him money, despite all of the economic pressure he applies to the farm and family. Without logging contracts the annual lease fees should be killing them, but they’re happy with the situation. He knows, from his contacts in the town branch of the bank, they’ve a few thousand dollars in the bank. He knows nothing about any other accounts. Their refusal to sign a contract with his logging company, the only large one in the area since he bought out the other big ones years ago, makes it hard for him to meet his contracts. To make things worse he just had to pay fines adding up to half a million dollars for over-logging some of the other leases he has contracts on. The orders are to pay the leaseholders an extra five hundred thousand in compensation as well. He’s keeping all of the big crews busy so the Deans can’t hire them, but they don’t seem to care. There’s very little logging going on in their area as he knows this from infrequent clandestine visits to the camps. Not knowing how they get by is frustrating for him. He’s determined a woman and boy won’t best him!

November rolls around. The end of school year exams are given and marks provided. Mid November sees the school children starting to sort things out for the next school year. Mack’s sixteenth birthday comes and goes. He makes it a low key affair so it doesn’t tire his mother out.

Family Affairs

A Friday afternoon in late November sees Mack getting ready to go hunting when Marker arrives home early. He stops Mack at the door and sends him back to get changed into some clothing he has for him. A few minutes later Mack is walking back down the hall in little more than a loin cloth. Ma Hanson sees him, and frowns. She turns to see both of her sons standing in the lounge room in similar garb. She looks at Marker, he nods yes, she smiles. Marker and Hammer escort Mack from the house and deep into the forest.

At dinnertime Jess takes Irene her dinner and is asked about Mack because Irene hasn’t seen him for a few hours and he spends a lot of his time with her. Jess gets her mother. Jemma sits down with Irene and says, “Mack is OK, but he won’t be back until tomorrow night. The Elders wish a long talk with him.” Irene is surprised, then she smiles.

Late Saturday night sees Mack walking into his mother’s room. He’s exhausted, and looks it. He’s dirty and he has a complex set of tattoos on his left shoulder. The shoulder looks sore from the tattooing, which it is. Irene reaches out and he takes her hand. She smiles and says, “Family is family, be it from blood, love, or adoption. This shows they want you for yourself, which is very good.” He nods agreement while he squeezes her hand. He stands there for a few minutes. They’re in a silent communion while they both think on this. This event need not have happened and he could have avoided it, but that would require him to talk of major secrets prior to the agreed on time, so he didn’t speak up. A little later he realises she’s fallen asleep - she does that a lot of late. Mack places her hand by her side and he goes for a bath. He sleeps late the next day.

It’s Time

A week later Mack arrives home from school to find all of the tribe’s women are on hand and the house is quiet. He sees nothing except pain, sorrow, and concern in the eyes of the women. Dropping his school bag he runs to his mother’s room. A few minutes later he walks out. He goes to his room, and he soon comes out dressed ready to go hunting.

Jemma stands in his way. He stops, and she says, “Jess, Ann. Go with Mack to help carry the rabbits.” She looks at him, “Bring us back lots.” He nods yes and leads the two girls out of the house. The women move outside and watch him walk toward the forest. “I doubt he would’ve done anything stupid. But I know he won’t now. Not with the girls along.” Some women nod agreement at her concern and planning.

Ma Hanson walks out to say, “The doctor is on his way out. He’ll write the death certificate once he’s examined her. He’s surprised she lasted this long.” The doctor’s examination is very short and he writes Irene’s Death Certificate. Jemma calls the funeral parlour in town and she arranges for Irene to be collected in the morning.

For over two hours the ladies listen to the sound of the shotgun in the middle distance. They go inside and start dinner. They’ll worry about what to do with Mack and the rabbits later, when he gets back.

Fools Rush In

It’s nearing seven-thirty when Mack and the girls walk out of the forest and onto the house plateau. The three are buried under a pile of dead rabbits. Mack had taken every shotgun shell he had, and now he only has a few left. They reach the tables and chairs set beside the shed for them to skin the rabbits. While they dump the dead rabbits on the table they hear a car racing along the road. That’s unusual because this road isn’t used by anyone except those who live or work along it. There are faster ways to get between the two towns than this road.

The engine noises change and Mack looks down the drive. A ute skids when it turns to enter the drive. Something doesn’t seem right to him so Mack says, “Move back behind the shed and keep down. I don’t like this.” While the car races up the long drive he uses his cell phone to call the house. They answer, he says, “It’s Mack. Get everyone down on the floor. I don’t like the way this car’s coming up the drive.”

Jedda turns to the crowd in the lounge room as all are in this house at the moment. She says, “Mack said to get down.” Hammer goes to the front door and he shuts it while everyone else gets below the windows.

Mack stands beside the shed and watches the ute race down the drive. At a reckless speed it turns around in front of the houses while tooting its horn. Getting no response a couple of people in the back of the ute stand up. The sight of rifle flashes along with the sound of gunfire makes it very clear what they’re up to.

Moving out from the shed Mack says, “Jess and Ann, stay here and stay down.” He takes a dozen paces out to the left of the shed toward where the ute is turning fast circles in the front yard while tearing up the ground. A passenger in the front seat is firing at the house as well.

Mack kneels, he takes aim, and he tracks the ute while it comes around the circle again. One person in the back of the vehicle is sitting on a box with has his legs spread while taking aim at the house. Mack aims at the ute and fires. It makes a sharp turn away from him. He switches aim to the back of it and he fires again. The two people standing in the back drop down when the driver swerves again to avoid more shots from Mack.

In the house Jemma is using the phone to call the Wood Valley police and ambulance services while Marker is using his cell phone to call the police and ambulance in the next town of Ryan’s Ridge.

The ute pulls out a bit and turns around to drive at where Mack’s shots came from. Both Hanson men are looking out of the corner of the family room window. They feel it’s safer because the shots seem to be aimed at the front porch due to its light being on for the kids still out.

The ute straightens up and the headlights shine on Mack kneeling on one knee on the ground in a classic rifle shooting pose while he loads two more shells into the open shotgun breech. His movements are calm, sure, and even. The ute’s engine rises in volume when it accelerates toward him. The watchers see a smile on Mack’s face. The shotgun comes up. He squints against the lights and he fires. The front passenger wheel of the car explodes. That corner drops and digs into the ground, then the car skids for a moment before it flips over to smash down on its roof. It slides a few more metres before it stops.

Hammer glances at Marker while asking, “What the hell did he just blast them with? I don’t know of a single shotgun shell that’ll do that sort of damage.”

“I don’t know why he has them, but he’s got a four pack of steel core sabot rounds in his ammo bag. They’ll punch through light steel plate.”

The ute is upside down on the ground with the cabin crushed, so all of the men are trapped in the cabin or tray of the ute. Hammer and Marker walk out of the house. When he stands up and approaches the ute Mack calls out, “Marker, Jess and Ann are over near the shed with a huge pile of rabbits that need dressing. Please send them some help.”

In a few minutes all of the others, kids and women, are over skinning rabbits while Mack and the two men look over the ute. The police and ambulance from Ryan’s Ridge are the first to arrive, despite being an extra fifteen kilometres away. The Sergeant takes charge, but there’s little they can do except wait for the rescue people to arrive to get at those in the overturned ute as its cabin is crushed too much to open the doors.

The local cops and ambulance from Wood Valley are surprised to see the others there and are surprised to see the residents won the battle in such a decisive way. When the Wood Valley Sergeant goes to take over by claiming jurisdiction the Ryan’s Ridge Sergeant responds, “First on-site, I’m in command until higher authority arrives. The detectives are on their way from the city, so is the Area Commander. He wants to know why I got here first.” The Wood Valley Sergeant goes pale.

Soon after the rescue people arrive they have the overturned vehicle righted with everyone out of it. All five are hurt, no serious injuries but bad enough for time in hospital as most have broken bones. John Parks, Jeff Parks, Paul Brown, Mark Green, and John Green are hospitalised due to several broken bones: ribs, legs, and arms. Mark Green and Jeff Parks have buckshot wounds. The worst injury is to Jeff Parks as he was sitting on a cooler near the side in the back of the ute when Mack’s round hit just in front of the rear tyre. Several pellets hit Jeff in the groin and they did some damage to his dick and balls that requires surgery, a very painful wound.

The police take statements from Marker, Hammer, Mack, Jemma, Jedda, Jess, and Ann. They take photos of the damage to the building of bullets stuck in two security screens and some chips in the stonework. The three rifles and a revolver on or near the ute are taken as evidence.

One interesting point is when the lead detective says, “It’s a good thing the lad isn’t a great shot or we could’ve had a few dead here.”

Marker turns around to say, “You’ve got that dead wrong. It’s good he’s a perfect shot. The centre of the shot pattern is where he aimed. Of that, I’m sure.” He raises his voice, “Hey, Mack, where did you aim?”

Mack turns to them, “The first shot was at the rear wheel. I wanted to blow the tyre. But he touched his brake just as I fired, so I hit in front of the tyre. I probably damaged it but I didn’t blow it. For the second round the only targets were the tailgate or the heads of the two standing. I went for the tailgate while thinking some of the shot will pepper the pants of the two men. I knew once I opened up they’d come at me so I had the sabot rounds out to reload with. I’d recognised the ute as the one John Parks has. It has fancy alloy wheels. I remembered someone once saying those wheels had a problem in they shatter like an explosion when hit hard. So when he came straight at me and gave me an easy shot I went for the front passenger wheel. I hit it and it made a nice explosion. I didn’t expect the ute to dig in and flip like that. I thought it’d drop onto the axle then skid to a halt.”

Marker decides to rub it in a bit more, “Mack, how many rabbits did you get today?”

“Well, we were up to a hundred and thirty-five by the time I calmed down. So I decided to peg out at a hundred and forty-four because I figured that would make a nice gross figure.” The detective is stunned.

“Your puns are getting worse, Mack. Please give it up.” Marker shakes his head. Then the full reality hits him. “Oh, shit! That means I’ve got to deliver about a hundred and thirty of them tonight. I’ll be up past midnight doing that.” Mack chuckles while the cop looks at Marker. So Marker turns to the cop, “The rabbits will last a few days in the fridge. We take extras into town to give them to other people to eat. That’s best done while fresh, so they should get handed out tonight.”

Mack speaks up, “Ask Ma if Hammer can take some to Ryan’s Ridge as well. I doubt we’d have enough people at Wood Valley to feed all those bunnies to. We usually dish them out in pairs, so that’s sixty-five pairs. Anyway, that’s for you and Ma to sort out.”

The police are done with him so Mack goes over to help with the rabbits. When a number of cars and utes soon drive in the farm gate Mack learns Ma is well ahead of him and Marker. The cars all go to the shed. Ma has a production line set up to dress the rabbits and put them in clean plastic bags, two rabbits to a bag. The cars arrive, people get out, speak to Ma, and she hands over bags of two rabbits. Mack doesn’t recognise many of the first to arrive, but those he does know are Ryan’s Ridge loggers. They’re given a big bag of fresh picked vegetables as well. Those collecting are short on work at the moment and are of both races.

Unknown to Ma, Marker, and Mack the Police Area Commander is watching this activity while he supervises the police work. When they start to pack up to go back to their stations he walks over to Marker and asks, “Why’d Mack Dean have to go out hunting to calm down?”

Marker glances at him, “He goes hunting when he needs to think or sort his mind out for some reason. His mother died late this afternoon. He took two of the older girls with him to help carry the rabbits since he knew he’d have a big load before he was ready to return. He must’ve just arrived back when these idiots arrived. I’m glad he got her death out of his system before they drove in. Otherwise he may have blown their heads off as he’s an expert shot with a shotgun and his bow. It’s really something to watch him hunt with a bow and arrow. Especially hitting the rabbits on the move. He never misses with either weapon.”

“I see. So we’re safe to accept he hit right where he meant to. That’s good because it shows he wasn’t out to do them serious harm, just to stop them from hurting others. There’ll be no charges against him. But those in the car have quite a few to face, including attempted murder.”

The police want Mack’s shotgun as evidence too. He ducks inside to get a padded carry bag for it. He slips it into the bag as he says, “I want a receipt with a detailed description and serial number before I hand this over. It’s a unique handmade gun that’s over one hundred years old. It’s insured for three hundred thousand dollars, so take good care of it.” All are surprised at the value and the fact he uses it on a daily basis.

The Police Area Commander, Superintendent Smith, decides they don’t need to take Mack’s shotgun to their custody area as long as Mack and Marker promise to make it available for the court case if it’s needed to be presented as evidence during the hearing.

It’s nearing midnight when the of the last police leave, taking the evidence from the ute with them, including the ute which they load on the back of a flat-bed tow truck. People from both towns have been out to collect one hundred and thirty-six rabbits to leave the residents eight for their meals. The residents organise a light meal from what they have and they set the rabbits to stew during the night.

Ma Hanson gives Mack a sleeping tablet the doctor left for him and she stays with him until he falls asleep at just after one in the morning. Everyone sleeps late the next morning.

Events

Mack doesn’t wake up until the mid-afternoon of the next day. His mother’s body was taken away by the funeral people while he slept. He doesn’t know if he should be angry it happened like that or relieved it did. The news of her death and the attack spreads fast through both of the towns, and both items are also covered in the city as local news items.

Over the weekend many people come around to see Mack about his loss because very few knew she was that ill. For much of it he’s in a sort of dreamy haze and not really aware of them. Most recognise it as his way of trying to come to grips with the grief and the changes in his life.

He doesn’t go to school Monday. Marker sends in a note. Mack does call his cousin Helen in Canberra and he asks for her to complete certain paperwork but not to lodge it with the court. She makes certified copies of many documents and sends them to Mr Malcolm, they include the family report by her local NSW Child Welfare office. Marker and Mr Malcolm start getting things ready for the expected court cases.

On Wednesday night Mr Malcolm comes out to the farm to read Irene’s will. Since all of the beneficiaries are there it seems the best way to do it. He has paperwork with him for Marker to sign. Thursday morning sees Marker lodging the paperwork at the local court. It has to be done at the local court due to the legislation involved. He and Mack would rather have the matter dealt with in the city, but they can’t.

Irene’s funeral is just like Jim’s and is held the Saturday a week after her death. This time Mr Parks is smart enough to stay away from it. After the cremation Mack takes her ashes back to spread them in the same flower garden Jim’s ashes are in as it’s in front of the main house.