Red Dirt Heart 04 - Red Dirt Heart 4 (12 page)

When it was time to say goodbye, Ma gave a Bianca a big hug, and for once, Bianca looked happy and hopeful. Charlie looked at Ma questioningly, but she gave him a we’ll-talk-about-it-later glance and quickly said goodbye to Amos.

And with that, we hit the road.

It was a quiet drive, apart from Charlie talking business and meetings on the phone through the speakerphone as he drove. Bianca had her earphones in, listening to some audiobook, but she wasn’t frowning or scowling at anyone, so I considered it a win.

Amos was unusually quiet, staring out the window, and I wanted to ask him if things with Nara had gone okay. He really liked her, and it was hard to watch him hurting over his first crush.

When we stopped for fuel on the closest side of town, I took the opportunity to ask him when Charlie got out of the car. I turned in my seat to face him. “Everything go okay with Nara last night?”

“Yeah.” He brightened at the mention of her name. “She’s really cool.”

“Did you… you know, kiss her?”

He blushed. “Uh, no.”

“Shame.”

“Yeah,” he said with an embarrassed laugh. “She said it was just that I wasn’t stayin’, ya know?”

“Oh.”

“But it’s okay,” he said quickly. “I don’t mind.”

It was pretty clear he did mind. And it struck me then that I was pretty sure he was sad, not because he was just leavin’ Nara, but because he was leavin’ the station. Period.

“You’ve got friends and family who’ve probably missed your crazy ass, yeah?”

He tried to give me a smile, but it just didn’t quite cut it. “Yeah, yeah. Course.”

Charlie opened his door and climbed in. “Righteo. You ready, guys?”

Neither one of them answered.

* * * *

We said goodbye to the kids out in front of the community college, not certain we’d see them after our meeting with Peter. Their parents, or carers, were due to collect them at any time, and Charlie didn’t want to risk not sayin’ a proper goodbye.

I assumed we’d be having a meeting with Peter and the kids, but that wasn’t the case. It was to be done separately, in case either party wasn’t comfortable in sayin’ something in front of the other.

“Everything went well?” Peter asked.

“Yes, I think so,” Charlie said. “Bianca was a bit standoffish, but she came around.”

“And Amos?”

“Amos’s a good kid.” Charlie never mentioned Amos’s crush on Nara.

“Any trouble? Any issues we need to address?” Peter pressed.

“No, none,” Charlie answered. “I’ll admit, two teenagers at once was a reality check.”

Peter laughed. “Would you do it again?”

Charlie answered immediately, confidently. “Yes. As long as they don’t have a criminal record, any history of violence or drug use, then yes.”

“Fair enough.”

“Can I suggest something?”

Peter blinked in surprise, and smiled. “Yes, of course.”

“I assume you do a report on each kid and have a meeting with them or something?” Charlie said. “I think that’s what you talked about before, yeah?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“Then do me a favour. Recommend Bianca do some animal-related courses. Push her to volunteer her time at one of the local wildlife clinics. There are even a few local touristy places around with native animals”—he looked at me—“like the guy who took Matilda, who’d love some unpaid help.”

“Animals, huh?” Peter said. “She just finished a photography class.”

“She was very good at it, and she loved it. She was drawn to it, and the animals liked her.” Charlie shrugged. “I suggested she do some volunteer work. I know kids probably don’t want to work for nothing, but you don’t know where it will lead or what doors it will open. Even if it goes nowhere after a year or so, at least it might give her something to look forward to.”

“Was she unhappy?”

“I think she’s having some family problems,” I answered. “I’m sure with time it will be okay, but if the college has some free counselling…”

Peter started writing notes. “Yes, of course, of course.” When he was done scribbling down points, he said, “And Amos?”

Charlie swallowed. “He’s a good kid,” he said again.

I intervened. “Amos’s a real hard worker, and he’s a very funny kid. Loves attention, but more than that, I think he loves being a part of something. He fit in well.”

We talked some more, about future projects and things that worked and things that didn’t, and Charlie promised to use his position on the board of the Beef Farmers Association to recommend other stations run a similar project.

Peter shook our hands eagerly, happy at the outcome.

As we were walking out, I had to take a piss and went back inside. When I came out, Charlie was leanin’ against the Cruiser, looking over at the park as he waited for me.

“You ready?” I asked.

“Yeah,” he said distractedly, still looking over at something. “Hang on. Hey, Amos!” he yelled out and started after the kid, who was a few hundred yards away. I followed, of course.

Charlie walked over at a normal pace, like he had all the time in the world. “Whatcha doin’?”

“Oh, hey,” Amos said, looking a little uncertain, very unlike the confident kid we’d just seen for a week. He gripped the small backpack with his clothes in it. “Just goin’ home.”

“Where’s home?” Charlie asked.

“Um, just up this way.” He nodded toward the park.

Charlie took his hat off and scratched his head before putting it back on. “Amos,” he said quietly. “Have you got somewhere to live?”

“Yeah, I just said home’s this way.” But his trying-too-hard smile gave him away.

Charlie nodded and gave a deep sigh. “You know, when I was a kid growin’ up, there used to be people that slept under the bridge…”

Amos looked down toward the bridge, but never said anything more.

Oh Jesus.

“It ain’t nothin’ to be ashamed about,” Charlie said quietly.

“I ain’t ashamed,” Amos lied defiantly.

Charlie blew out a breath through puffed-out cheeks. “If I were to offer you a job—with conditions—would you be interested?”

Amos’s eyes went wide, as did his smile. “For real?” Then he narrowed his eyes. “What kind of conditions?”

“We’ll go back in and see Peter about maybe gettin’ you an apprenticeship.”

“A what?”

“A trade. Like a mechanic or something. Or a jackaroo. Something, I dunno. But that’ll mean two days a week will be schoolwork.”

Amos nodded, then shook his head, then nodded and ran his hand through his hair. He was still grinning. “You can do that?”

“We can try.”

“Are you pullin’ my leg?” he asked.

Charlie laughed. “No. But there will be new ground rules when it comes to Nara, you hear?”

His grin got impossibly wider, and Charlie rolled his eyes. “So, is that a yes?”

Amos just about burst. “Hell yes, it’s a yes.”

Charlie turned and started walking back to the community college building we’d just left. I smiled at him, so, so incredibly proud of him.

Amos was almost bouncing beside us as he yammered on and on about how much fun it was gonna be and how he couldn’t read or write too well, but it didn’t matter, boss, because he was gonna try real hard. He wouldn’t regret it, not for a second, boss.

Charlie held the door open and nodded for Amos to walk in first, then me. “You’re a good man, Charlie,” I whispered as I walked in.

Charlie huffed and mumbled, “No. Sam was right. I’m a glutton for punishment.”

Peter met us in the hall, clearly not expecting us. He looked at Amos, then at Charlie. “Oh. Everything alright?”

“Yeah, yeah,” Charlie said. “What have you got in the way of apprenticeships or permanent work placement programs?”

Ground rules and flowers.

Amos slept for a bit in the car, and when I was sure he was sound asleep, I reached over the console and took Charlie’s hand. “I’m very proud of you.”

Charlie shook his head. “He never said he was homeless.”

“Not something he wanted to admit, I guess.”

Charlie sighed. “I couldn’t just leave him to go sleep under a bridge, Trav.”

“I know. That’s why I love you.”

A voice from the back seat said, “Are you two like gay or something?”

Charlie pulled the Cruiser off the highway, going from sixty miles per hour to a standstill in a cloud of dust in about two seconds. Amos was immediately alarmed, as was I. “Um, Charlie?”

Charlie took a deep breath and turned in his seat to look at Amos. “Here’s the thing. Yes, Travis and I are together, so if you have a problem with that, tell me right now and we turn around right now and drive you back to town.”

Amos shook his head. He looked a little scared. “I ain’t got no problem with it.”

I didn’t want the kid to answer out of fear, so instead of Charlie’s sledgehammer approach, I tried for tactful. “Amos,” I said calmly. “You stayed all last week, when you… didn’t know, and it was fine, wasn’t it?”

He nodded.

“Nothing’s changed. We’re still the same people,” I continued.

“I said I ain’t got no problem with it,” he said. “I was just askin’. You told him you was in love with him, so it was pretty obvious.”

“Yes, it’s not something we hide.” I looked at Charlie, who was a little pale. “Everyone at the station knows, most of the farming community knows. Charlie’s on the board of the Beef Farmers, and they all know.”

“Even though it’s none of their business,” Charlie mumbled. “Look, Amos. It is what it is. You either like it or you leave. No one’ll hold it against you.”

“I said I don’t care.” He shrugged. “I got a uncle who’s in love with his cat. There was rumours that he… well, you know, did the nasty with it.”

Charlie bristled. “Being gay is not the same as having sex with a cat!”

“Well,” Amos deadpanned. “It was a male cat.”

I looked at Charlie, he looked at me, and after three heart-pounding seconds, we both busted up laughing. I think we laughed for a good five minutes, and Amos just grinned his huge, white-teeth smile.

When Charlie finally composed himself, he pulled the Cruiser back onto the highway and we headed home.

* * * *

We pulled the Cruiser up in the shed, and the three of us walked up to the house. Ma was at the clothesline hanging out some dish towels and her initial surprise at seeing Amos became a slow-spreading smile.

“Ma,” Amos said, his excitement renewed. “Charlie said I could stay.”

Ma looked fondly at Charlie. “Is that right?”

Charlie sighed and rolled his eyes. “I’m not gonna regret it, am I, kid?”

Still grinning, Amos shook his head. “Oh no, boss. Not at all.”

I walked over to Ma and kissed her cheek. “I’m sure you have a hundred questions. I’ll hang these out. You go in and start some tea.”

Ma gently squeezed my arm. “You’re a good one,” she said, then, putting her arm around Amos, led him inside.

I joined them just as tea was being poured. Ma had made me coffee and it was in front of an empty chair next to Charlie at the kitchen table.

“It’s a water irrigation course,” Amos said. “It’s called hi… hidra…” He looked to Charlie.

“Hydro-irrigation. He’ll study water sourcing, bores, that kind of thing.”

“It’s just the fancy name for irrigating,” Amos said. “I gotta do it all as part of my school, but they let me get qualified at the same time.”

Charlie clarified. “They do pre-apprenticeship courses in conjunction with his high school certificate.”

Amos nodded. “Yeah, that’s what I just said.”

Ma pressed her lips together so she didn’t smile, but her eyes gave her away. “That’s great, love.”

Charlie said, “And it was all Amos’s choosing. I suggested a mechanical course, but he wanted to do the water course.”

Amos shrugged it off. “Yeah, well, I figure it’s somethin’ worth knowin’ out here, ya know?”

Charlie smiled and looked at the kid with what could possibly have been wonder or even a little bit of pride. “It means, if he sticks it out, when he’s all qualified and with a good five years of jackarooin’, he’ll be one of the most employable people out here.”

Amos nodded. “I’ll stick it out, boss. You watch.” He spoke with such conviction it was hard to doubt him.

Ma smiled at him. “Well, I’m pleased you’re here. And I’m sure someone else will be too.”

Charlie looked at Ma, then at Amos, and he growled. “Yeah, well, about that. We need to discuss boundaries.”

I sighed loudly. “What Charlie means is, that Nara is like a sister to him, and he’d appreciate it if you treated her as such.”

“Hmm.” Charlie did the growly-huff thing again. “And sleeping arrangements. Now that’s it more permanent, you can have the spare room in this house.”

I’m sure my surprise matched Ma’s.

Charlie clarified. “He’s still six months shy of sixteen. Technically he’s a minor.”

Oh, I hadn’t really thought of that.

Charlie went on, “When he turns sixteen, he can share the third house with Ernie.” He turned to Amos. “I assume that’s okay with you?”

Amos nodded. It took a while for him to speak. I think he was a little overwhelmed. “Sure is, boss.”

Charlie stood up, his chair scraping across the linoleum floor. “I’ll show you to your room.”

Amos was quick to his feet, and followed Charlie out of the kitchen. When they were gone, I whispered to Ma, “Amos’s homeless. He sleeps under the bridge in town. Peter at the community college said he started hanging around the college, probably looking for food or money at first, but ended up doing a few day-courses there. Just for the company, probably. He said he charmed the ladies in the office enough that they’d give him cups of tea and cookies.”

Ma shook her head slowly. “Charlie did the right thing.”

“He really did.”

Ma was quiet for a moment. “How did Bianca go?”

“She was okay. Her dad picked her up. She seemed happy enough to see him.”

That made Ma smile. “We had a little chat.”

“Yes, we saw that.”

“She’s okay. Just feeling very dejected. But I think having a little talk with Nara might have made her see things from a different perspective. Nara had… a terrible childhood.”

I didn’t know details, but I knew enough. I’d seen her when she’d arrived here unwashed, unfed and scared out of her mind. I didn’t need to know any more than that.

“I think Bianca just needed to see that although she was hurting, it could have been a lot worse. I told her she needed to talk to her dad. He couldn’t fix anything if he didn’t know where to start,” Ma said. “She said her step-mum wasn’t
that
bad, but would never replace her mum. I told her she never could, but maybe she just be a little grown-up about it. I told her blood doesn’t make a family.” She smiled. “I mean, look at us.”

I smiled right back at her. “I know.”

We heard voices, then the front door opened and closed. Charlie came back into the kitchen looking a little worn. He slumped into his chair and sighed.

“You okay?” I asked.

“I showed him the room. I mean, it’s nothing special. Just a bed and an old wardrobe,” he said quietly. “You wanna know what he said to me?”

“What?”

“He’d never had a room before. Not his
own
room, just
any
room. He’d never had a proper bed before.” Charlie turned his half-empty teacup and shook his head. “And I went through and found him some old shirts that we don’t wear and some old boots of mine that haven’t fit me in years…” Charlie swallowed hard. “Well, he just about cried.”

“Oh, love,” Ma said, her eyes shiny. “You did the right thing.”

He nodded and looked at me. “I did, didn’t I?”

I put my hand over his. “You sure did.”

Charlie took a deep breath and shook his head. “I told him there was two hours before dinner so to go out and find George, ask him what needs doin’.”

Ma looked at her watch. “Shoot. Two hours…”

Just then, Nara walked into the kitchen, no doubt ready for the dinner shift. Her eyes were wide, as was her smile. “Did I just see Amos?”

Charlie took one look at her, how happy she was at the possibility of it being Amos, and sighed, utterly resigned. “Well, I can’t say for sure what you saw or didn’t see, but if you mean the tall, skinny kid walking to the shed looking for George, then yes, you did.”

I snorted a laugh. “He’s staying on at the station,” I told her. “He’ll be doin’ schoolwork like you did.”

“Oh,” she said, excited. “I can help him.”

Charlie looked at her. “You like him?”

The poor girl blushed a dozen shades of embarrassed. “Um… well… maybe…”

Ma stood up and, smiling, tapped Charlie’s arm. “Go on, go do something useful, you two. We’ve got work to do.”

* * * *

Everyone took the news of Amos staying on at the station in stride, barely even raising an eyebrow. The next morning at breakfast, Charlie put Amos with Billy to go check on the calving cows.

I wasn’t surprised by this. After all, Billy was basically an Aboriginal elder to this kid, and he’d learn a great deal from him. If Charlie wanted to give Amos a role model to aspire to, he’d get no better than Billy.

But by the end of the week, when it was pretty clear that Amos was fitting in really well—his permanence at the station was looking more and more likely—the more Charlie saw how Amos and Nara skirted around each other. It was teenage love at its awkward best.

And in the end, it got the better of him.

It was after lunch, and Amos was in the holding yard with the poddy calves. The others had gone into the Alice for their weekend off, and Amos had elected to stay at the farm. I figured he had no home to go back to, so it made sense. Nara almost never went back, so it left me, Charlie, George, Ma, Nara and Amos at the station.

Charlie bit the bullet and confronted him. “Amos, you got a sec?”

He stopped, all smiles and bright eyes. “Yeah, boss.”

Charlie looked back at the house, his eyebrows furrowed. “You and Nara seem to be… getting along.”

Amos blinked, but I think he knew where this going. “Um, I hope so, boss.”

“Have you kissed her yet?”

Amos was as shocked as me at Charlie’s question. “What?” he said. “No, no. She’s not that kinda girl, boss.”

Charlie smiled at that. “You like her, though.”

The poor kid looked like he wanted to die. “I think she’s real pretty, and she’s really smart.” His smile faded. “But girls like that aren’t interested in the likes of me.”

“Why not?”

Amos snorted. “You’ve seen her, right? She pretty as hell, and she’s older than me.”

“Don’t sell yourself short, kid,” Charlie said. “Don’t ever let anyone tell ya you’re not good enough.”

Charlie’s words warmed my chest. I can’t say I was surprised, because I knew Charlie, but he’d been so opposed to the idea of Amos and Nara being close. Or anywhere near each other, for that matter.

Charlie shook his head. “For reasons I’ll never understand, I think she does. Like you, that is.”

Amos was stunned. “You think I… I mean, could I ever have a chance with her? Even if she’d just talk to me really… I mean we talk, but I don’t really know what to say…”

Charlie sighed. “I’m gonna be honest with ya, kid. If you want her to like you, you need to show her you’re a guy worth likin’. And just so you know, I’m doin’ this for her benefit more than yours.”

Amos was wide eyed and smiling. “Yeah?”

Charlie cringed. “Girls like flowers, apparently… not that I’d know really. But it’s been well documented.”

I snorted. “Oh Jesus, Charlie. What the hell was that?
Well documented
?”

He gave me a pointed glare. “I’m trying here.”

“I’m listening,” Amos said. Amos nodded and listened, like Charlie was about to divulge the secrets of the world. And I guess to a fifteen-year-old kid, he was.

“And once you get her to talk, you need to listen. Now, guys I understand. We’re simple to figure out. But girls… well, they’re a complicated thing.”

I shook my head. “No, they’re not.”

Charlie eyed me. “Like you’d know.”

“More than you, it seems. I grew up with two sisters in Texas. I
know
,” I told Charlie. Then I looked at the poor confused kid. “Amos, look. All you need to remember is proper manners. Be polite and courteous. Treat her like a lady.”

“Right,” Charlie said. “That’s what I was gonna say.”