Chapter 13

Charlie

After she'd showered, Maddy cooked us up a fine dinner an' then Weena an' Gordy jes' went off to bed. I started to help clearin' the table, but Maddy said it'd go faster if'n I just set. But then I got thinkin'.

Where was Andy? "Maddy?"

"Yep?"

"Where's Andy?"

"With the men, I s'pose."

"Should I check up? I'm responsible to his parents."

"I'll phone. [pause] Hey, Arnie? Maddy. Is the kid with you? Oh. OK. His roll's here. Right. Don't let him get in too much trouble. Right. Yeah. You too."

"Well?"

"He's fine. He ate, sat down, and he's sound asleep. Arnie'll put him on a bunk for the night."

"Right. Now, where do I sleep?"

"Boy, are you dumb!"

A light went on in my head. "You sure?"

"Damn sure."

"Me too." And I walked over, put my arms around her and gave her a kiss.

"Lemme put out the lights. We c'n go into my room an' be more comfortable."

So we did.

It was the dern chickens that woke me.

Gordy

I woke with the rooster's cry. Weena's head was on my shoulder. Today was the day we'd get to see Maddy's station and Charlie's and get to look at the river. I turned my head and gave Weena a kiss.

"More." How could I refuse? But then I got up, threw on a shirt, grabbed my kit, and went to wash and shave. By the time I was done, I could smell coffee. I went back to the room, dressed and found my way back to the kitchen. Maddy and I greeted one another.

"I guess we each got a sleepin' beauty," she said.

"Yep."

"Coffee?"

"Please."

"What do you usually eat?"

"Whatever you've got. Toast. Cereal. Fruit. Eggs. Chops. I laughed. Not all of 'em."

"Wanna wait?"

"Sure. Don' want you to be workin' in the kitchen. My guess is there's work to be done."

There was a knock on the door. It was a rumpled Andy.

"Hi, Gordy."

"G'Day. You OK?"

"Yep. I jes' need my roll. Then I'll work with Arnie, 'less Charlie wants me."

"No, I'm sure that'll be fine. Your roll's right there."

"Thanks." And he was gone.

"You know, I never got a chance to thank you. Weena and I just disappeared."

"That's OK. It was a tough one for you. Unless you've lived on a station — or a farm, I guess — you don't get sun-up to sun-down seven days a week."

"I was brought up on a farm. But the university and work mean that it's more'n a dozen years. Weena's from the mining country, but she's spent a lot of time in Adelaide and Perth. Anyway, what's today's plan?"

"I need to get a report on my station. Then we'll see how Charlie's cattle are doing. Then we'll look at the river. If we've got time, we'll head for Charlie's lease. If not, we'll be real busy keeping animals and people out of the water. I'll phone Maryvale again. If they've got water, we'd best get Charlie and Weena up."

I decided to get Weena up, anyway. Five minutes later, I heard: "Get your skinny ass outta bed!" I guess that meant there was some water in the Hugh. One of the men — I think it was Steve — came in and told Maddy there was a "trickle" at the head of the bend, and that he'd cut across. She said "Five minutes," and raised her voice: "Weena, Charlie brekker in three minutes! You won't want to miss the high water! Boots an' long sleeves!"

They were both in the kitchen in seconds. "Why long sleeves?" asked Weena.

"You don't know what nested in the banks. Snakes, bugs, who knows. When they git flushed, they ain't happy. You gotta protect yourself."

"Yup, sounds like good advice," said Charlie, stuffing a piece of toast in his mouth.

We were out of the house in only a bit more than those five minutes. I saw Andy, and Charlie roared at him to "git his dern boots on, now!" and the boy ran back to the bunkhouse.

Arnie said, "Sorry. My fault. He's a good kid."

"Yeah. And I wouldn't want to have to tell his folks he'd been snakebit."

"Walk over here," said Maddy. The bushes and scrub grass gave way to a gentle slope, sort of a very flat "U," maybe a kilometer across, with a deeper groove down the middle. "Here's the Finke. I've seen it full only once, nearly ten years ago. But there was some water in it a while back. It's about 12 kilometers to the head of the horseshoe, but it's a drop of 40 or 50 meters, so it won't take the water too long. But keep Andy back. It won't look like much, but it'll fill an' the pressure's strong. I saw a car git swept downstream once, and the water waren't halfway up the wheels."