Chapter 11

I had two reasons for going to Dymock's: I wanted to get Kathy Lette's most recent book and I wanted to see what was available about Australia where Patrick was concerned. What Mum had told Weena was far from silly — and we had to keep him busy on the airplanes.

Men: An Owner's Manual was easy to locate. And it wasn't even expensive. I then looked about for the woman who'd been helpful on Saturday, but failed to see her. I wandered towards the section Patrick and I had visited and spotted a bloke about my age.

"Can you assist me?"

"As long as it's books, I can leave and help you cross the street."

"Right. I want to get my little boy some books about Australia."

"Age?"

"Six, but he's reading. The Jungle Book since Saturday."

"Oh. You're the bloke who bought that nice illustrated edition. We all heard about your lad."

"Right. He's like that."

"Well, we've got a slew of little books, 'round 32 pages each." We walked a bit. "Here's Australian Animals, Animals of Australia and An Australian ABC of Animals. And there's Australia and Look What Came from Australia. And we've got this." He held up Australia and its Peoples. "Oh, and we've got one copy of this." He held up Hunt's old Puffin Book of Australian Insects.

"I'll need to look at those three about animals. I'm sure they overlap. But I'll take the other four, even though I've got a 20-year-old Hunt already."

"Certainly. I'll take them up to the register for you. Just leave the ones you don't want here. I'll straighten things out later."

"Thanks."

I ended up with Animals of Australia and rejected Look What Came From Australia as just too cute. So I got a book for me and four for Patrick -- though I wouldn't give them to him until we were about to leave for Queensland. Weena would probably read the Lette, too.

When I got home I found that Sarah's teeth had come through, that Weena was already "getting ready" for our trip, and that Patrick had finished "How Fear Came" and was beginning "Tiger! Tiger!" He was on his stomach on the carpet. I asked him whether his Grandmother was okay.

"I guess so," he said and went back to Kipling.

I gave Weena a peck and phoned Charlie and Maddy. They were both flourishing and I told them about Patrick and his reading. Charlie said he'd get him some Zane Grey. "He'll love Riders of the Purple Sage," Charlie said. "And The Rainbow Trail, too. Then I'll get him a couple every birthday. That'll hold him till he's 30."

I laughed. "Well, one or two, maybe. Then we'll see what happens."

Weena asked what I'd been laughing about. I told her what Charlie had said.

"Well, I'd get him King Solomon's Mines and Treasure Island," she said.

"Haggard and Stevenson? Not a bad idea. What about Conan Doyle?"

"When he's eight. Then we'll try a Holmes and a Professor Challenger."

"Well, he won't run out of stuff to read. He might be old enough for the Second Jungle Book by then. It's where Mowgli acquires a girl friend." I didn't tell her about my purchases. Little pitchers and all that.

The rest of the week was calm. Nothing at all from Canberra and everything appeared to be peaceful in my CSIRO realm. I told the folks at SciTech when I wouldn't be in and talked to Sue. She was going to try to get Chaz on camera again.

Patrick had "graduated" to a child's booster seat and we were using the capsule for Sarah. A second child really increased the volume of baggage. On Saturday, Weena took Patrick off to buy new clothes. He wasn't happy about it, as he could tell from where he was that he was nearing the end of The Jungle Book. He was at "The Spring Running," I think, and impatient for whatever resolution there was to be. But Weena was unrelenting and left me with Sarah. I had a fine time, I presume Sarah did, as she didn't complain. I told her a story.

Gumuduk was a tall, thin medicine man of the hill country. He owned a powerful magical bone. The bone was so powerful that Gumuduk could make the rain fall in season, the trees bear much fruit, the animals multiply, and the fish increase. Because of this, the hill people always had enough food.

But the tribe that lived on the plain below the hills captured the medicine man and his magic bone, convinced that they, too, could have more food.

But instead of prosperity, the theft brought them and their plain a calamity, totally destroying their country. For the medicine man escaped. And in his anger and fury he plunged his magic bone into the ground. Gumuduk decreed that wherever he trod in the country of his enemies salt water would rise in his footsteps.

Those waters contaminated the rivers and lagoons and flooded the tribal lands. And when the water dried up, there was nothing but desert and salt lakes, useless to animals and man.