The Great Plains (49 page)

September, 1935 – on the plains of Condamine Station,
Southern Queensland

Flossy fell asleep in the crook of Abelena's arm as soon as they stopped to rest. It was cool beneath the spreading tree. The ground was soft and powdery and Abelena stretched out her legs so that her bare skin pressed into the earth. She thought if they both stayed in this position for long enough that they too would take root. Their limbs would merge and entwine with the woody plant and they would be anchored in one place at last. Two women, once lost, found and nurtured by nature. From where they sat, the wide girth of the tree protected them from the chaos by the river. Before them extended the open plains. Cloaked in darkness, the vastness of the land before them was like a living being. Abelena could feel its energy. It was towards this mass of drying grasses and big sky that she had headed when she should have taken Flossy straight home, or at the very least headed in the direction of the Todd farm. Something had stopped her. Made her alter her plan. And now here she was, waiting. Waiting as she had done all those months ago at the rear of the stationmaster's house in Broken Arrow, when exhaustion claimed her and a sixth sense said that it was time to stop running.

‘Abelena?'

She pressed the back of her skull against the knobbly bark of the tree and extricated herself from the sleeping Flossy. Would she never be free of Tobias Wade?

‘You should not have followed me,' Abelena answered as she rose to face him.

Tobias dismounted and left his horse to forage. ‘For pity's sake, girl, let me help you.'

‘Why do you keep doing this, Tobias? I don't want your help. I never asked you for help.'

‘Look at you.' He gestured to Mrs Todd. ‘At least do it for her sake, Abelena.'

‘Take Flossy then. Will's mother is ill and needs to go back to their home. Do you know where the Todd farm is?'

‘Is she? Does she have …?'

Abelena guessed that Tobias had heard the truth of Flossy's madness. ‘She is quite well now.'

Tobias didn't believe her. ‘I won't leave you out here alone.'

Abelena patted the snuffling horse as together she and Tobias helped Flossy to sit astride the animal. ‘You must forget me, Tobias.'

‘I can't. I care for you.' His hand touched her cheek. She didn't flinch. ‘I can't explain it, maybe it's a curse, Abelena, for my grandfather and father both loved Philomena, and now I –'

Abelena quietened him with a finger to her lips. ‘It must end with us, Tobias, all of it must end with us. It can never be how you want it to be. You must understand that I don't love you.'

‘Then we will be friends first.'

‘Have the white man and the Indian ever been able to keep a pact?'

‘Perhaps we need to sit around a fire and smoke on it?' Tobias waited for a response that did not come. ‘Love will come with time, Abelena. Now get on the horse with Flossy.'

‘Stop it, Tobias. Are you even listening to yourself? Listen to me. I can
never
love you. You've taken everything from me. My family, my country. And what you haven't had a hand in destroying, your father has.'

Tobias grabbed her wrist roughly. ‘Your hate is so great you haven't even allowed the possibility of liking me? The past is not my fault. I am not my grandfather or my father.'

Abelena tried to pull away. ‘Aren't you?'

‘Now you are being childish.'

‘All I see is a man stamping his foot because he can't have what he wants.'

The slap to Abelena's face was hard and sharp. ‘Grow up, Abelena, you are on the other side of the world. You have no-one else. There is only me so you better get used to it.'

‘Abelena?' Flossy called meekly.

‘You're wrong. I have friends.' Abelena's free hand slipped to the knife at her waist.

‘Who, the dairy boy?' Tobias tightened his grip on her wrist. ‘I've tried being nice to you, I've tried –'

She grasped the knife-handle and slowly lifted her arm as Tobias drew her roughly to him.

Abelena placed the knife against his throat, and pushed the blade into his flesh until an indentation formed. A vision came of a thin red line, of gushing blood and of a sister's final retribution. She felt them all there, watching her and waiting; her mother, the twins, Uncle George, little Tess and Jerome – all the members of her family who had been taken from her. Abelena's hate was so great that she knew that she would kill this man to end it all. She would kill Tobias Wade and leave him to the night.

Tobias twisted her wrist, grabbed the knife and slapped her once across the face. Then she was falling, her cheek landing heavily on the ground. She tasted blood.

‘Hey, leave her alone!'

There were scuffling noises, a series of whacks. Someone else was with them and the two men were fighting, fighting over her. They fell to the ground and tumbled between the trees.

The battle was short. The victor stood slowly.

‘Will?' Abelena got to her feet. ‘Will?'

The boy lifted his hand and dropped a knife. ‘We've got to get some help.' Will whistled for his horse.

‘Is he dead?'

‘I hope not, otherwise I've done murder.'

Abelena walked to where Tobias was sprawled on the ground. ‘He's alive.' She got on all fours and searched the ground for the knife.

‘What the heck are you doing?' Will queried, as he led his horse forward. ‘We've got to get some help. That's Tobias Wade I've just stabbed.' The air grew thin with cold.

‘You go. Take your mother.' Finding the kitchen knife, Abelena wiped the blade on her skirt.

Will glanced over his shoulder, half-expecting something to appear from out of the depths of the scrub. His skin was prickling with fear. Something didn't feel right. It was as if the bush was suddenly a stranger to him, alive with the unknown. ‘I can't leave you or him. He might bleed to death.'

Abelena crouched on the ground beside Tobias. She held the knife at his scalp line and, letting out a guttural cry, pressed down drawing blood.

‘What the heck are you doing, Abelena?'

A large eagle swooped towards them, landing some feet away.

‘God's holy trousers. Come away, Abelena. Come away now.'

The bird tilted its head and screeched at Abelena. She dropped the knife and fell back on her bottom. ‘It was not my kill,' she muttered, ‘you do it,' she told Will. ‘You take his scalp.'

‘Scalp? I'm not taking anyone's scalp. Have you gone mad?' Ignoring the girl, Will dragged Tobias to his horse. ‘I'll never get him on without your help, Abelena,' he panted.

‘Then he lies where he fell.' The eagle was behind her, wings readying for flight.

‘If he lives I'll be in real trouble, if he dies I'll be in worse,' Will told her.

‘Who will know? The land will take him. It's as it should be.' The eagle disappeared into the shadows.

‘Abelena, you're speaking madness. You have to help me.'

‘No.' Abelena tucked the knife in her leather belt. ‘Take your mother home, Will. Tell your father that his wife is a good woman who has lost a child this night and that she needs comfort and care. Tell him Peanut has gone to the heavens, that if he looks to the west in the night-time sky he will see his little daughter in the stars. Tell him,' she implored.

Flossy stirred.

‘You're not coming with me, are you?' Will lay Tobias on the ground next to his horse.

‘No.'

‘But why?' He walked towards her. ‘We decided –'

‘
You
decided, Will. It's time I made some decisions for myself.'

‘But you made me believe –'

‘I promised nothing,' Abelena replied. She was pleased the darkness hid his face – it was enough to hear the yearning in his words.

‘But what about Mr Wade? What happens if he dies?'

‘Then he will die,' Abelena said simply.

Will grew angry. ‘You'd let me take the fall for this?'

‘I did not strike him down. You did.' If Tobias died Aloysius Wade's male line would die with him. She would be free, released from the Wade obsession, and it would be a boy on the other side of the world who had given her that freedom. Abelena's voice softened. ‘Will, listen to me. Leave him here. You are a boy with nothing, he is a great man. There are no other witnesses. Leave him here.'

‘It was self-defence.' But there was a faint trace of hesitancy to his tone.

‘They will call you a murderer. The poor have no rights. You know this to be true. You have a family to look after, you are richer than most, Will. Don't throw that away.'

‘Throw what away? My mother's mad and my father's a thief. At least let me come with you for a little of the way until we decide what to do.'

‘I will decide what I will do.' Abelena placed a hand on his arm. ‘You only have one family, Will, and families are precious things. Look after them.'

Will glanced at Tobias. ‘He's losing a lot of blood.'

‘He will not survive. Will,' Abelena implored, ‘if you go home, your mother will recover and, in her recovery, your father will understand the error he has made. But he will need your help, your strength. If you leave them now, we both know that it will be the end of your parents. And you will forever remain the only son that ran away.'

‘But what will you do, Abelena? Where will you go? You're only a girl. You need someone to look after you, to protect you.'

Abelena laughed softly. ‘I come from a different world, Will. I am of the moon and the stars, of the canyons and the prairies, the earth is my bed, the sky my shelter. I am like the eagle, born to be free.'

September, 1935 – on the plains, Southern Queensland

Abelena walked into the rim of light, as if a moth attracted to a flame.

‘I know you,' she said warily. ‘I should not have come here unannounced.'

Jim motioned for Abelena to sit. ‘I have been waiting for you. Share my father's resting place.'

Abelena sat cross-legged before the fire. Although the night was hot, her skin prickled as if winter neared. In the weak fire-light the red marks on her neck and the wounds on her arms spoke of a recent battle.

‘You have been hurt.' Jim pointed to a gourd sitting near the warmth of the fire. ‘The liquid will ease your pain.'

Abelena accepted the tonic – it was bitter but soothing. ‘I saw you at the river. You do not like me.'

‘I do not like the spirit you bring. It has made the world an upside-down place and turned friends against each other.'

‘It was not my intention to cause trouble.'

‘That was inevitable,' Chalk retorted.

She pointed to the old man on the ground. ‘Are you sick?'

‘Only the body is sick,' Chalk replied. ‘My mind is strong.'

‘Can you not fight the illness?' she asked. ‘There are things I can do to ease your pain.'

‘I do not wish for my life to be dulled at the end.'

‘You are in a new land now,' Jim began. ‘This land has its own spirits. They are in the mountains and the rivers, the moon and the stars. Very soon the Emu in the Sky will reappear above the horizon. That is the time for you to put aside old teachings and embrace your new life.'

‘But I don't want a new life.'

Jim spread his palms wide. ‘And yet the old life is gone. You know this.'

The girl didn't answer. Her fingers intertwined.

‘There are some things you will never forget, for they are as one with you. They flow through your blood, but this is an ancient land and you must respect those that were here before time began.'

‘I don't know what you're talking about,' Abelena responded.

Chalk pointed to the pouch hanging about her neck. ‘The history of your peoples, the hide you left on the riverbank that day, this you should keep but the medicine cord is not yours, is it?'

‘No,' she admitted warily, ‘it's not.'

‘Give it to my son.'

Abelena squeezed the worn leather.

Chalk gestured for it. ‘You must understand, girl, that some powers are uncontrollable if they are not meant for you.'

Abelena thought of how the eagle had appeared to peck out Wes Kirkland's eye and how close she'd come to scalping Tobias Wade. It was as if she'd been possessed.

‘Come,' Chalk repeated.

Abelena handed it over reluctantly. Around them, small creatures rustled the grasses. They listened to a branch fall to the ground, the slight breeze that made leaves quiver and they smelled the scents of musky leaf litter decomposing in the dry air.

‘I feel cold.' Abelena hugged her knees to her chest.

Jim dropped the medicine cord on the dying coals. It sparked brightly and, catching fire, burnt quickly, leaving behind only shrivelled hide. Jim fanned the smoke towards Abelena. ‘As it burns to nothing, so the anger inside of you will burn to nothing.'

‘They will not come for you again,' Chalk soothed. ‘From this world or the next.'

‘So I am free?' The girl looked exhausted.

‘The one who brought you here has gone. His spirit has left this place.' Chalk spoke reverently. ‘Good or bad, he has gone. You have killed one but you have saved another, you owe nothing.'

‘Tobias is dead?' Abelena said softly.

‘And you have saved Will and his parents. But now you must leave.'

‘Leave?' A tiredness had crept into Abelena's limbs, all she wanted to do was sleep. ‘But where will I go? What will I do?'

Chalk rubbed at a grizzled eyebrow. ‘In your eyes I see the distances you have walked, in your smile, your losses. After what you have endured, now you ask these questions? Go with her, Jim. I can teach you no more, my son.' Chalk looked to the horizon where the Emu in the Sky had partially reappeared. ‘Your time has come, mine has ended.'

‘But, Father.' Jim took the old man's hand.

‘The canoe comes for me, my boy. Soon I will be taken to the spirit-island Baralku in the sky, where their campfires can be seen burning along the edge of the great river.'

‘But, Father, you cannot go. I still have much to learn and what am I to do with the girl? Where do I take her?'

‘To the banks of the Condamine. To the special place, the sacred place. In the months to come you will call to your son, you will whisper to the boy you would have. There is great medicine within you.' He glanced at Abelena. ‘Make it stronger.'

‘And if I leave, what of you? How will I know you have arrived safely?'

‘When you see a shooting star you will know the canoe has returned to earth and that I have arrived safely in the spirit-land.'

‘You wish to come?' Jim held out his hand to her.

Abelena hesitated. It was growing light, false dawn approached.

‘Go now, the both of you.' Chalk closed his eyes. ‘You are the last of my line, Jim, and you, Abelena Wade, are the last of your womenfolk.'

Jim bade farewell to his father. Together, he and Abelena walked out across the plains towards the concealing timber and the river.

‘Will it be better here?' Abelena asked.

‘It will be both different,' Jim said thoughtfully, ‘and the same. For in the white man's world, the sky is very small.'