On Cringila Hill (12 page)

‘Yeah, better not.'

Lupce smiles expansively. ‘Guido!'

Jimmy gets up to let Guido pass, watches as the vehicle is driven away. He sits in the chair beside the table.

‘Is he gonna get what he wants?'

‘Sure. Good idea, what he's sayin'. Do a bit of good. Good builders, the Italians. No worries.'

‘You're makin' him sweat.'

‘Am I?'

‘Yeah. Don't like Italians?'

‘Nah, not too much. An' don' like Guido especial. The Italians? They was here before us, got here first, think they own everythin'. Didn' want to move to one side a little bit, make a bit of room for us, give us some chances. Nah, I
don'
like Italians.'

Jimmy stares at the old man's deep brow, the tight, short hair brushed back from the forehead, high cheekbones, dark eyes, eagle's beak of a nose.

Lupce says, ‘What?'

‘What ya mean, “What”?'

‘You lookin' at me. You lookin' like you never seen me before. You watchin' me like I'm a strange animal.'

‘Am I?'

‘An' another thing – what's this “Grandfather”? When you was little, you used call me “Papa”. Now is “Grandfather”. Why you do that? Been thinkin' about this when I can't sleep. See, I liked it you called me Papa.'

‘Funny you ask me that. I'm thinkin' the other day about that myself. I guess when I was little Mama would say to me, “Your papa”. Then, later, she would say, “Your grandfather”. So then I said what she was sayin'. And I guess that started just after my father …'

The sentence hangs, unfinished.

‘Went away,' Lupce says at last.

Jimmy looks hard into the unmoving, dark eyes. ‘So is Grandfather now,' Jimmy says.

‘Ah.'

‘So. Five things,' Jimmy says. ‘Let's get them over with.'

Lupce holds Jimmy's gaze, removes a handkerchief from his pocket, gives a little cough. ‘First, time you joined the union.'

‘Can't. Don't work doin' nothin'.'

‘My problem. Don' worry 'bout that.
I
fix that up. An' you join the Labor Party.'

‘Yeah? Why I'm gonna do that? Stupid, boring meetings. People all talkin' Macedonian, which I don' understand too well no more. Don' think so.'

‘Now, you listen to your papa. Gonna tell you 'bout that.'

He settles himself lower into his chair, shifts his legs into the sunshine. ‘Gonna tell you somethin'. Maybe somethin' you already know. Gonna tell you what we was in Macedonia, before we come out here: in Macedonia we was the shit. We got our bits of jobs. I was a shepherd. Make our little bits of money. An' that was the way things was gonna be for us, you know, forever. No way to change what you was, what you had. Then a man comes to the village. Come to Australia, he says, work atta steelwork, make money. Says how much.
Fortune!
Couldn' believe it! Tell you what he said – always got money buy tobacco, as much as ever you want! Want coffee? Go in a caf
é
, always got money for that. See? Unbelievable to us. Unbelievable riches.'

‘Well, those parts come true.'

‘Yeah, they did.' Lupce smiles. ‘You got no idea what I got. I come here, inside I got a kettle turns itself off when the water boils!'

‘Yeah? Amazin'!'

‘In our own country, you born a thing, is what you stay. So, we come here. An' you know what we find?' Lupce rubs a thumb across his chin, frowns down at the steelworks. ‘We was the shit. We got what jobs no one else wanted to do. Dirty. Dangerous. Men got hurt. An' someone come from the union, say, join up, have a meetin', decide how is gonna be,
you
tell
them
if you got the balls for that,
you
tell
them
how is gonna be so long as you stick together, everyone hang tough. Big news for me, I can tell ya that. Who'da thought that's the way things could be. But we tried it out. Not easy to start. But we hung together. Won some stuff. So that made me interested then, how far can we go with this union business? Then I find out, what's the system? You know.
Outside
work. The
rest
of it – how's it work? Be the Labor Party, is what seems to me to be our answer, make a branch. Then we decide who can be in the election. If I can get everyone ta do what they told, vote like they told,
we
decide who's on council, who goes to parliament in Sydney an' Canberra. Not
all
of them, you know. Just the ones for roun' here. Not many. Just every now an' then, they got the votes that matter. People learn that. Better not to upset us.'

He smiles at the sunny morning, remembering.

‘So. Some man gets in the government – who's he need? He needs old Lupce. Because he comes to the meetings an' talks to people, no one understans him.
Lupce
gotta help tell 'em. An' he gotta talk to the people, or he thinks someone
else
gonna be our choice, get the seat.

‘One time, a man from Canberra. He got Throsby, which is what seat we're in, for Canberra. He comes to the meetings, everyone sit, lookin' at him, he tells me things. I look like I'm tellin' 'em stuff from God,
very
serious, no smilin', and he was watchin' me, a little Englishman, little moustache, an' I say, “This is what this little Walrus wants me to tell ya.” An' they laughin', you know, slappin' their knees, some got tears on their faces from laughin'.' Lupce chuckles. ‘That little Englishman, he was lookin' at me, all confused, upset, why they laughin'? After the meeting he says to me, “What I said wasn' funny.” An' I tell him, “I tol' them you said you didn' think you was good enough, be their person, others might be better, an' they laugh at that, cos they know you a great man.”' He smiles at his grandson. ‘These people get voted for, they like you sayin' that kinda stuff.
All
of 'em like that.'

‘Yeah.'

‘I couldn' believe how easy it was. I mean, it was tough, tough times, but stick with your course, you hadta win inna end. Took a bit of time. All have to do the same thing, hang together, make it happen. Tell you what you got then – little bit of power.'

He nods down at the works, then further to the north where he can see the city of Wollongong with its modest highrise. ‘See all that? State government gotta say yes, council gotta say yes, union gotta say yes, the men gonna build it gotta say yes. Ones with the money need all that, need the council, need the unions.' He shakes his head. ‘I couldn' believe how easy it was. An' now. Time
you
join the union, join the Labor Party.'

Jimmy looks up towards the escarpment. He thinks of two men rushing at him in the dark, the moments of fear and pain. ‘Can't have been as easy as you makin' it sound. When you was gettin' this done, anyone try to stop you, try to take it from you, try to be the ones?'

‘Sure. On the street. In the carpark. On the railway station. Some people thought they was tough guys, breathe on ya an' ya fall down. But you remember what I taught you, out the back of the house?'

‘I do. Right foot always behind the left foot; punch through in the last little bit; starts in the legs, bring in the chest, the shoulders; this is where the blood goes, hit him here the blood stops, he's out cold, he falls.'

‘All that. Tell ya somethin' – most people don' know nothin' 'bout how to fight. Some think they do until they meet someone who really can. Comes as a surprise. An' I'm strong, you know?' He gives a little cough. ‘Well, maybe, I
used
ta be strong. An' I had good men, stand by me. That Darko, you remember, had the boat where I took you fishin'? Jose Barradas? Dragan Mitrevski? Good men.'

Jimmy remembers. Dragan Mitrevski, Jose Barradas, old Darko with the wooden trawler moored behind the seawall at Shellharbour.

‘It was
important
then, you know? Important you could stan' up, say a thing, make it stick. Back then weren't like it is now. We got trouble, nobody cared. We didn' talk English good – well, most of us, not at all. We was the shit. No one took us serious, at the start. Man lost too much gamblin', can't pay back, someone says he gonna break his legs; some poor woman gotta do a shameful thing she don' wanna, to take care of the kids when there's no money, someone's treatin' her bad – where they go? They come to old Lupce. Who
else
they gonna go to? Police don' care, don' unnerstan' 'em. There was things we hadta settle for ourselves, settled on the street. We sorted out our own things, in the old days. Hadta be able ta stan' up, ta do that.'

Lupce's expression changes. ‘So,' he says. ‘Join the union. Join the party. Then, don' ask for much. Know what's reasonable. They take care of you. You, an' your people.'

‘You got my life all mapped out. Maybe I don' want that.'

‘Nah, not about me decidin'. This is it, is all – weren't easy for me. Gettin' somewhere safe, take care of people – was very, very hard sometimes. I want things be easier for you. So. I'm teachin' you what I know. No one to teach it to me. Now I can teach it to you.'

‘Sure. Now, other things.'

‘Got another parcel for your mother.'

‘Grandfather, there ain't no point.'

‘What you mean?'

‘She don' use that money.'

‘Never?'

‘She puts it in a drawer.'

‘In a
drawer
!'

‘Yeah. In a cabinet in her bedroom. Well, three drawers, now, after all these years of my takin' it to her.'

‘What, all that money in
drawers
! What, she crazy?'

‘Nah. My mother's not crazy.'

‘Someone know that they gonna come in there, take the money, maybe hurt her.'

‘I'm there, a lot of the time. She's your daughter.'

‘Maybe someone lose all his money gamblin', can't feed his children; maybe someone crazy for drugs. Get that money
outta
there, get it into a safe deposit.'

‘Yeah. That's a good idea. No record.'

Lupce is gripped by coughing. His eyes grow wide, his face goes red, he hacks and struggles. When the spasm has passed, when Lupce's breathing has eased, Jimmy says, ‘You gonna die.'

‘What? What stupid talk. Everyone gonna die.'

‘But not so soon as
you
gonna.'

‘Maybe.'

‘Then everythin' you know anythin' about is gonna die with you. I mean, Jose, Darko, Dragan – they're all dead. Now there's just you, an' you coughin' like that.'

‘Well, I'm tellin' ya, about the union an' things.'

‘Don' mean that. Mean other stuff.'

Jimmy's eyes sting with tears. His grandfather's presence always used to make him feel safe.

Lupce says, ‘Yeah, well, that's another thing I'm gonna tell ya. Time comes, the man knows all about the things you'd need to know is a man called Philip Lewis. He's a lawyer, in Kiama. Honest man.'

‘Kiama?'

‘Yeah. You go down there?
Nice
down there.
Air's
nice, got salt in it. You can walk aroun' them cliffs they got, look at the ocean, where that water spouts up through the rock.'

‘Sure, we went down there, when you'd take me fishin' on the sea. We went down there in Darko's boat, went in close near them cliffs. Good fishin'. Plenty snapper.'

‘Sure. That's gonna be
your
boat, that boat we went out in. He left it to me when he died, that an' the mooring, there inside the seawall at Shellharbour. I'm leavin' it to you. Well, you gonna have
two
boats. Got my little one we used on the lake, on Port Kembla harbour, that's round with my car, with that young Jose Barradas.'

‘Alright.'

Lupce begins to cough again, but not so violently as before. He calms himself, wipes his handkerchief across his mouth. ‘Goin' fishin' again.'

‘Are you?'

‘Yeah. Thought about it. Wanna go fishin' one last time. Wanna go when things are good for plenny of fish. Wanna catch plenny. Gonna go Tuesday mornin', go out one in the mornin', tide gonna be right, moon gonna be right.' He smiles. ‘Gonna catch them bream fish, gonna catch them John Dorys. Gonna sell 'em to people got caf
é
s that cook fish.'

‘Grandfather, no one's gonna buy them. Is illegal.'

‘Always was. That's the fun!
An' they gonna buy the fish from Lupce. Maybe take 'em outside, put 'em in the garbage, but they gonna buy from me. Like the old days.'

He is still hunched over from the coughing. Eventually he says, ‘It be good for me if you'd come.'

Jimmy says nothing for a time. At last he answers, ‘Alright.'

The old man's smiling. ‘One more thing.'

‘Okay.'

‘That girl, that Luz Solomona, that Abdul done that terrible thing to.'

‘Sure.'

‘She a fren of yours?'

‘Well …'

‘I don' jus' mean the man-woman thing. I understand 'bout that. I mean, is she a
fren
of yours.'

‘She was. We was close. Well, closer than I ever been with anyone. But then bad things happened between us.'