Calypso Summer (16 page)

‘Yura Muda,' I said almost whispering.

‘What you say cuz?' Vic asked.

‘Yura Muda,' I said clearly.

‘Who recks, Calypso,' said Vic, ‘Your mum teach you that?'

I didn't get the chance to answer because Uncle Ray said, ‘Yep, Yura Muda, people looking after country … country looking after people.'

‘Some people call it Jukurrpa, hey?' Clare asked.

‘Yep,' said Uncle Ray. ‘Different languages, same thing, the same Lore ties us all together.'

‘Look there! There's Wirltu now,' Vic said pointing to the sky.

‘Oh man, look at how huge he is,' I said looking in amazement at the eaglehawk soaring towards us.

‘Yep,' said Uncle Ray, ‘he's a big one for sure. And you know what? His granddaddy might have been watching your granddaddy the first time he came up here too.'

My mind turned to Run as I watched the eaglehawk and saw the first faint star in the sky. I couldn't help but think about all that Run was missing out on.

°°°

Uncle Ray and Vic were right. That night Aunty Janet showed me my bed, a mattress on the dirt in the shed, out in the backyard. Clare had a bed in one of the rooms of the house. Before I made my way to the mattress, Clare came out to the veranda with me for a while.

‘Thanks Calypso,' she said as she held my hand. ‘Today was awesome.'

‘I'm glad you had a good time.'

‘I love this place, your family … all of it.' She looked up to the sky. ‘I wish I could be sleeping under these stars with you.'

‘Yeah, they're amazing. At least that's one good thing about sleeping out here while you're in there,' I said pointing my chin toward the house.

‘It sucks I know but, don't worry about it … there's plenty of time.'

‘At least Aunty Janet will be happy,' I said peering toward her kitchen window to see her spying back at me.

‘Calypso, why didn't you ask Uncle Ray and Vic about the stuff you're after?' Clare asked.

‘I was gunna but the last time I asked them Vic got pissed off and anyway, my cousin Bruce said he'd talk with everyone about it.'

‘Reckon they'll tell you?'

‘Maybe … all the mob is thinking about what to do with the land they own. If there's anything that can grow there that makes the type of money Gary has talked about, I'm hoping they go for it.'

‘Well they're telling you some things and showing you around so that's a start.'

I knew what Clare meant, and yeah, I was learning heaps. ‘Well we better get some sleep, hey, I guess tomorrow's another big day.'

Clare leaned into me and we started kissing like it was nobody's business and I pulled her in towards me … except Aunty Janet thought it was her business and we broke apart when we heard her banging around inside.

‘Goodnight,' Clare said, ‘Sweet dreams.' She went into the house and I shuffled toward my mattress in the shed. There's no way I was getting to sleep with Clare just there, inside the house. I could still taste her and I was thinking about the way her body felt pressed up against me. After laying there for ages I thought about sneaking into the house and jumping in her bed. But just as I had that thought I heard a dog howling its ring off in the distance and thought about Aunty Janet going crazy if she caught me. I dragged the mattress out from the shed and into the open.

°°°

I woke up sweating like crazy with flies buzzing around my head and crows squawking in the gum tree out the front yard. I tried shielding my eyes with the covers. I heard feet shuffling in the dirt, and then loud and close to my ear someone started yelling
‘Waaaarkala, waaaarkala,' mimicking the crows. I sprung upright to see Vic cracking up knowing that he'd scared the shit out of me.

‘Sorry cuz,' Vic said, ‘But everyone's up and you'll start to fry out here in this sun.'

‘What time is it?' I asked rubbing my eyes.

‘Don't know, maybe seven or something. Gotta get up anyway, we'll go into Port Germein for a bit, have a swim and that.'

‘Alright then, bloody hot isn't?'

‘Before we head off though,' Vic said, ‘I've got something for you, something to try out in the bath,' he said quietly. ‘Don't tell Dad and that I gave it to you though.' Vic handed me a plastic shopping bag with about ten pod things inside. I went to open the bag but Vic said, ‘Uh uh, not now. Just put them in your bag and when you get home, run a warm bath and put one in with you, only one, Calypso,' he warned. ‘That's real powerful stuff there. Then chuck yourself in with it.'

‘Thanks Vic,' I said, surprised that he'd come around.

My cousin Mel was sitting at the kitchen table with Clare, Aunty Janet and Uncle Ray when I walked into the house. Mel was wearing a cotton skirt over a pair of bright coloured bathers. I could see that Clare was wearing bathers too, beneath a baggy white t-shirt and denim shorts.

‘Sleep well neph?' Uncle Ray asked.

‘Not too bad,' I said although I felt like shit. My mouth was dry and my back was all kinked.

‘Well have some breakfast, dear, cereal there and coffee and things,' Aunty Janet said, ‘and then this mob will take you down the beach.'

As soon I'd eaten and put on some shorts, Mel drove Clare, Vic and me down to the Port Germein beach. The tide was full
but we had to walk for miles along the jetty until we reached deep water. The water was so crystal clear that I could see ripples in the sand metres below the surface. It was cool checking out the ranges from the jetty too. You could see them stretching the whole way along. You don't get to see the hills like that in Adelaide, all of the buildings block out the view.

When we were near some stairs, Vic ripped off his shirt and threw himself off the jetty without warning, sending a huge splash of water into the air. ‘Come on Calypso, show us your best bomb,' he challenged.

I'll show you, I thought. I kicked off my thongs and yanked off my t-shirt, positioned myself on the edge of the jetty and then launched into a backflip. I landed it with a bomb that I knew would have sent up a huge splash. Vic was crazy challenging me. All I ever used to do was spend the day doing bombs off the Semaphore jetty.

‘Who recks, Calypso,' Vic said when I emerged flicking my dreads and salt water out of my eyes.

‘Show off,' Clare said but I could tell that she was actually impressed.

Then Clare and Mel started walking toward the jetty stairs. It was the first time that I'd seen Clare in bathers and man I liked what I saw. I just sunk beneath the water after seeing her lovely brown legs and toned stomach.

When Mel reached the bottom of the stairs she immediately began breast stroking into open water before she turned and floated on her back. Clare hesitated. She stood on a step with the water up to her knees. ‘Any sharks?' she asked.

‘Don't worry, they'll bite Mel's big murntu first,' Vic joked, ‘but don't worry, I've never known of a shark taking anyone here before.'

‘Always a first time though,' Clare said.

‘It's lovely in here,' I said.

Clare took a breath and then dived beneath the water, coming up just in front of me. ‘It's nice, hey,' she said before moving in close to let me cradle her in the buoyant ocean, a few metres away from the jetty pylons encrusted with mussels and barnacles. Her skin felt wicked pressing up against mine.

‘So, are you sticking around for the meeting later today, Calypso, or what?' Mel asked me, her wet black hair slicked back.

‘What meeting?' I asked, catching a glimpse of Vic signalling with his eyes for Mel not to tell me anything.

‘Jingies Mel,' Vic said. ‘You don't know how to keep your mouth shut do you? Calypso wasn't supposed to know anything yet, don't want him to get his hopes up.'

‘Hopes about what?' Clare asked.

‘Oh Jesus, a few of us are getting together to talk about Calypso's herb thing. Bruce told us a bit about it. Your boss offering you some bunda for that stuff inny?'

‘Yep,' I said. ‘But if it works out, you know I want to share the money around. I didn't want to cause any trouble.'

‘It might be a good thing,' Mel said as she lied back to float, ‘Fuck-all else is happening'.

‘Yeah, we just need to talk about it,' said Vic. ‘You know when so many things have been taken from us mob a fella can't help but get paranoid.'

‘True,' Mel said shaking her head while wading in the water. ‘We'll have a yarn, give people time to think and then you'll hear from us.'

Clare dunked me beneath the water and when I came back up she kissed me on my salty smiling face.

°°°

We took off from Aunty Janet's after lunch even though we would have liked to stay there all afternoon. Like Mel had said, it was best to give people time to talk and think. Clare had made plans to go to dinner with her parents, Stephanie and her husband. Clare wanted me to go to dinner with her but I told her I had to do some odd jobs for Mum. I was keen to try out the stuff that Vic had given me.

Because the West Indies were so far in the lead against Australia, we listened to Clare's iPod, mostly old school hip-hop tracks, De La Soul and A Tribe Called Quest, instead of the cricket.

When Clare dropped me off she leaned over and gave me a big kiss. ‘Thanks, Calypso, I had an awesome time.'

‘It was alright, hey?'

‘Don't forget to call me as soon as you hear anything from your family about the plants. It's really exciting.'

‘Yeah, it is, and I will.' I was already thinking about running a warm bath and trying out the stuff Vic gave me.

‘Sure you won't come to dinner with us?'

‘Would love to but I have to give Mum a hand you know.'

I felt pretty shit watching Clare pull out of my driveway but the anticipation was too much. It was probably a good thing to give her a bit of space. I didn't want her to think I was coming on too strong anyway. I bounced up the stairs and ran a warm bath, even though it was as hot as hell inside the flat. I ripped off
my clothes and pulled the plastic bag Vic had given me from my backpack. I tipped a few of the pod things into the water and tied my dreads back.

I thought that the pods looked familiar, but I hadn't seen any trees with them anywhere around Aunty Janet's. I swirled the pods through the water with my foot and then lowered myself into the tub. I clumped up my dreads making a good cushion for my head against the porcelain. I closed my eyes in readiness for the pods to take their effect. The next thing I knew my arse and balls were burning and stinging like hell. I stood up and scratched my arms first and noticed these little microscopic needles covering them.

‘Fuck,' I yelled. ‘That bastard, what is this stuff?' I quickly pulled the bath plug and turned the shower on flat out cold water. My entire body was burning, itching and stinging. It was real painful and I tried to resist scratching because scratching my arms had only made it worse. I jumped out of the tub and searched desperately for tweezers on the rusted shelves behind my bathroom mirror. I threw out an empty screwed up tube of toothpaste, some rubber bands, a dog-eared toothbrush, packets of condoms, some blunt disposable razors and some deodorant before I found them. I jumped back beneath the cold shower and tried to use the tweezers to remove the hairs that were now torturous needles. Welts were starting to spring up on my body – down my arm, legs, my guts and even down the insides of my thighs.

‘You fucking prick, Vic,' I yelled.

I must have stood under that water for at least an hour pulling the microscopic needles out and wishing I wasn't so hairy. I got out and stood beneath the air-conditioner hoping it would help
cool the burning. It didn't so I decided to walk to Mum's hoping she'd have some cream or something to stop the itching and stinging.

I didn't even worry about putting on gundies, I just pulled on the baggiest pair of shorts I could find and the walked slowly and bowlegged to Mum's. I must have looked like a freak.

‘Mum,' I called out as I knocked like crazy on her door. ‘Muummmm, come on, hurry up,' I growled.

‘What's wrong?' she asked as she tied her gown around her and pulled me into the house.

‘Don't touch, don't touch,' I pleaded, ‘It's very itchy … ahhh fuck,' I screamed trying not to let my dreads brush against my skin.

‘Stand in front of the fan,' she ordered.

I could hear Mum searching flat out through her fridge. She returned with a bottle of pink stuff. ‘Calamine lotion will have to do,' she said, pouring a large blob of it into her hand and rubbing it onto my arm. ‘Careful,' I said, taking the bottle and pouring a whole lot into my hand.

‘Sorry,' Mum said, ‘we have the right bush medicine for this type of thing back home you know?'

‘Bush medicine!' I growled, ‘that's the reason I'm in this mess.'

‘What you mean?'

‘Your prick of a nephew Vic gave me this stuff to try.'

‘What'd it look like?'

‘Little pods,' I explained, showing the size and shape of them with my thumb and index finger. Then I sighed with relief as I rubbed the lotion around my arse and balls. ‘Itchy little spiky things in them.'

‘Oh Calypso, that's not bush medicine,' Mum said like I hadn't worked that out already. Mum's expression dropped to disbelief. ‘Vic gave you itchy pods.'

‘You bet they're bloody itchy.'

‘You wait 'til I get my hands on that little bugger,' Mum threatened.

‘Mum, I'm gunna stay here, I can't walk home, it's too painful,' I told her even though I could feel the lotion starting to work.

‘Of course.'

‘And if you know about stuff that can stop itching, why didn't you tell me about that stuff when I asked? That's the kind of thing I want to know about.'

‘Cause I wanted you to go and meet the mob, you know?'