Opal Dreaming (13 page)

‘
I
wasn't drinking!' Ryan protested. ‘I'm sober as a judge!'

Lawson dropped his fists and stormed off, calling for Stanley. He wrenched open the door of the truck and snatched his shirt from the front seat.

Lindy ran towards the trailer. ‘We got some stolen horses, Jude. Could you come and give us a hand?'

‘Sure they didn't just get loose?' asked Mrs Arnold, reaching for her jacket.

‘Someone's unbuckled the hobbles and left them behind.'

‘Which horses are missing?'

‘Marnie and Walkabout.'

Jess shot upright and smacked her head on the ceiling of the trailer. ‘Ouch!'

‘Grab some halters, girls.' said Mrs Arnold as she disappeared out the door.

The trailer came alive as four girls scrambled for four pairs of boots that all looked the same. One by one they filed out of the door and grabbed halters and buckets, anything to help lure a wayward horse.

Luke ran into the camp, yelling, ‘The cattle are out – someone pulled the fencing down!'

Lawson swore and turned to Mrs Arnold. ‘We've got some cattle to muster too, Jude.'

‘Oh, so
now
you want us to ride?' said Grace, as she stepped out of the trailer.

‘Who said anything about you riding?' Lawson said, shortly.

Grace stopped in her tracks and put her hands on her hips, a look of fury on her face. Lindy roared up on a motorbike and indicated to the seat behind her. ‘Hop on!'

Grace hoisted a leg over the back of the bike and planted herself behind Lindy. She pulled a face at Lawson as they buzzed off into the breaking day.

Jess ran straight to Bob, who was hurriedly pulling saddles out of the tack box. ‘How long have the horses been missing?'

‘Not even an hour, ay. I checked on 'em before I went for a wash down the creek.' He gave her a reassuring look. ‘Can't have gone far. We'll get 'em back.' He slung a couple of bridles over his shoulder and raced off.

Jess ran back to the trailer and hastily pulled a jacket on, buttoning it up to her chin. Then she rummaged around in Mrs Arnold's cooking gear, grabbed a rolling pin, shoved it down the front of her jacket and set off at a run. She had no idea what she would do with it, but she certainly wasn't going to let Wally fall into the hands of those men.

Way ahead she could see the dust trail of the motorbike and hear Lindy shouting. As Jess jogged in its wake, hoofbeats rang out behind her and she turned to see a jet black horse approaching her.

Luke cantered up on Legsy and held out an arm. Needing no further invitation, she took hold of his elbow and vaulted up as he slowed beside her.

‘They've stolen Walkabout,' she said, planting herself firmly behind the saddle.

‘Yeah, I know. Lawson's ropeable.' Luke turned the horse and cantered after Lindy and Lawson.

‘They must've let the cattle out on purpose so they could get away with the horses,' said Jess.

‘Yeah, probably.'

‘Walkabout doesn't have any brands! They'll be able to mark her themselves and put her through the sales.'

Lawson cantered up on Slinger. He ground the horse to a halt and swung him around. ‘The cattle are all headed for the creek,' he said. ‘It'll be chaos if they all jump in together.'

‘Want us to go head them off?' asked Luke.

‘Lindy and Stan have already headed out clockwise. I'm going to circle in the other direction and head them off. You guys ride to the next bore and make sure there's water in the trough; if we can head the cattle back there before they get too thirsty, they might leave the river alone. Fill the troughs up nice and full and open any gates for them.'

‘Yep,' said Luke.

Lawson paused and looked at Jess. ‘And then
I'll
be going for that filly, Jessica.'

Jess scowled and looked away. She heard him click up his horse and gallop away.

Luke turned Legsy and they cantered off in the direction of the bore.

‘Dave knew that Wally and Marnie were my favourite horses,' said Jess. ‘I told him all about Opal too. He's done this out of spite.'

‘And you thought he was a nice guy.'

‘He better not take it out on the horses. He better not—' She didn't even want to think about it.

They cantered steadily along the wide dirt track before coming to a wire gate strung across the road. Jess slid off the back of the colt, slipped a wire loop off the gatepost, then dragged it, clanging and jingling, back to the fenceline. With the track opened for the cattle, they set out to look for the bore.

After loping for quite a distance, the colt grew tired and slowed to a walk. Luke and Jess rode in silence, awed by the sense of limitless space that radiated around them. Jess rested her head against Luke's back and wrapped her arms around his waist. As Legsy lunged over a clump of grass, she lurched into his shoulder blades.

‘Ouch, what was that?' he asked.

‘A rolling pin.'

He laughed. ‘You're so funny, Jess.'

‘And I'm not afraid to use it,' she said, readjusting the rolling pin and replacing her hands on his ribs. His torso was lean and sinewy, but beneath his shirt, the bones down his right side felt all wrong. She had noticed them before but had never asked. ‘Did you break a rib or something?'

‘Five of them.'

‘How?' She felt his chest lift and fall as he drew a deep breath, and she suddenly felt awkward. ‘Did a drunk do that to you?'

‘Yeah. Long time ago,' said Luke.

Jess was so shocked she couldn't think of what to say. She ran her hands over his ribcage, wishing she could smooth them out and make that part of his history go away.

He put his hand on hers and moved it away. ‘I don't even think about that stuff when I'm out here, Jess.'

‘What do you think about?'

‘When I'm out here alone with the cattle I just look around and soak it all in. There's no sense of time. It's really hard to explain.'

Jess looked around her. Out to their left, jagged rocks rose magnificently from the horizon like giant sleeping dinosaurs. A creature, timid and unseen, rustled in a shrub as they rode past. ‘It's a really spiritual place,' Jess murmured, hoping she didn't sound too kooky.

‘Yeah, it is.'

‘I keep thinking I'm going to find answers in the land, like Harry used to say. I can't stop thinking about Opal being a min min horse.'

‘Bob calls her the
debil debil
horse,' Luke laughed. ‘But I think he's only joking.'

‘Reckon she could be cursed? I have nightmares about her, sometimes.'

Luke took a while to answer. ‘Did you know that there were tribes of people in ancient Britain who had horses and wolves as their totems?'

‘No.'

‘Maybe you have horse dreaming.'

Jess thought of Filth and Fang and their desperate loyalty to Luke. ‘I think you definitely have wolf dreaming.'

‘Yeah, those dumb dogs. They appeared out of nowhere. I swear to God, it was as if they just chose me and I had no say in it.'

‘I feel like that with Opal.'

‘Maybe you have Opal dreaming.' He pointed ahead. ‘There's the turkey's nest,' he said, pointing to a big earthen dam, rising up out of the flat country. A rusty windmill stood motionless beside it, despite the gentle breeze. ‘Hope it's got some water in it.'

Jess noticed a shadow slink behind the base of the dam. She felt Luke stiffen. He had seen it too.

‘What was that?' she hissed, squinting into the harsh morning sun.

Another shadow slunk between the windmill and the dam.

‘There's another one. It was a person!' Jess whispered urgently. ‘There are two of them.'

Luke gathered Legsy's reins and slowed his walk. ‘You still got that rolling pin?'

‘Let's just turn around and go back,' she said. ‘It's not worth it.'

‘It's too late, they've seen us. Give me the rolling pin.'

‘Let's just go, Luke. I want to go back. You're scaring me.'

Luke drew the horse to a halt and turned in the saddle. ‘Don't be frightened. I won't let them hurt you, Jess.' He reached into her jacket and pulled out the rolling pin.

‘I know, that's what scares me.' She reached her arm through to the reins and grabbed one. ‘Luke, I want to go back,' she pleaded.

All of a sudden, Luke burst out laughing. ‘It's a little calf! Two little calves; look at them!'

Jess exhaled a huge billowing breath of relief. ‘That scared the life out of me!'

Luke chuckled as he dismounted Legsy and led him closer to the bore. ‘Poor little fellas are just looking for a drink. The dam's fenced off.'

Jess slipped off Legsy's rump and walked alongside him. ‘Any water in the trough?'

Luke walked a few more metres before answering. ‘Nope!' He looked up. ‘There's something stuck in the wind-wheel.'

‘Gross, it's a bird,' said Jess, noticing the lump had feathers. ‘God, it's huge, what is it? Do they get pelicans around here?'

‘Whatever it is, it must have been pretty dumb to fly into a windmill.'

‘Maybe it had heatstroke,' Jess shrugged.

‘Birds don't get heatstroke.'

‘It's possible!' she said, indignantly. ‘Global warming and all that!'

‘Oh, shut up,' said Luke.

‘Hey, maybe it flew over from the Northern Territory because it was melting!'

‘Yeah, yeah, very funny.' Luke took hold of the rusty metal frame of the windmill and prepared to climb. ‘Either way, I'll have to go up there and get it out.' He was about to start hauling himself up when Jess saw his eye catch on something in the distance. She looked behind her in the same direction.

A spiral of dust was twisting out of the ground, sucking leaves and powdery red earth up into its vortex, and gliding over the ground towards them.

‘A willy-willy,' said Luke. ‘Turn your back to it, Jess!'

Jess turned and shielded her eyes from its dust as it whirled into her, grabbing at her clothes and messing up her hair, before dissipating quite suddenly into stillness and fading out.

Where the willy-willy had cleared a path along the ground, a twinkling caught Jess's eye. She bent and brushed away the dirt. A small piece of rock lay in the dry sand, craggy and grey.

‘It's an opal!' Jess picked it up and turned it over in the palm of her hand. Where it had broken open, the rough exterior encased a solid centre of red and turquoise, green and gold. It was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen. ‘Just like Dave talked about.'

‘See,' said Luke. ‘You do have opal dreaming.'

‘Don't be silly,' said Jess. ‘Maybe it's a floater. Usually you have to go digging for opals, but every now and then a chunk comes to the surface.' She rolled it in her hand, fascinated by it.

‘Weird stuff always happens around you,' said Luke.

‘Opal,' said Jess, almost to herself. ‘It's like I've found a little piece of her spirit.' She carefully placed the stone into her jeans pocket. ‘Hey – can I borrow Legsy, while you deal with the dodo bird?'

16

‘REMEMBER, LEGSY'S
a stallion now,' said Luke, as he gave her a leg up. ‘Don't let go of him or you'll never see him again. I don't want him running off to join the brumbies.'

‘Are there brumbies around here?'

‘No, but you know what I mean.'

‘I promise I'll be careful with him,' said Jess, adjusting the stirrups. ‘I just want to go for a bit of a ride – see if the land has anything else to show me.'

‘Don't go too far. You haven't got any water.'

‘Legsy'll look after me, won't you, boy?' She gave the stallion a pat. ‘See you in about an hour.'

As Jess set out across an open stretch of patchy grasslands, she pulled her phone from her jacket pocket, switched it on, then she tucked it back into her pocket. She legged the stallion from side to side and he responded lightly to her touch. ‘Hmm, nice,' she commented, and made her way to a small, open grove of stumpy mulga shrubs, sparsely dotted over the reddish earth. They had the bluntly cut ends and fuzzy new growth of trees that had been harvested.

As Jess rode into the grove, the scenery became identical all around; with nothing to distinguish the way home, it was almost like being in a maze. The sun was getting higher and she made note of the shadows stretching from the western side of the shrubs. She reached out and snapped small branches from the taller of the trees to mark her way.

Legsy walked with big ground-covering strides, brushing his legs through the silvery grey perennials that grew out of the dry land. Jess let him have his head and settled into the rhythm of his gait. ‘They don't call you Legsy for nothing,' she said, as she patted his neck and watched the ground roll along beneath, alert for anything shiny or out of the ordinary. It would be cool to find another opal. She passed an old car tyre, the occasional crushed beer can and a dead snake – nothing remarkable.

As she drew further away from the bore, the occasional ironbark tree popped up and the trees became taller. She followed a cattle trail up and over a small rocky hill. When she got to the top, she stopped and pulled out her phone – still no reception.

She rode on, coming down the other side; the trees suddenly opened onto a vast stretch of knee-high pasture. Legsy snatched at mouthfuls of grass as he walked through it, taking advantage of the long rein Jess gave him. She took a deep breath as a small breeze cooled her face, rippling the grass gently in its wake.

Legsy startled suddenly. ‘Whoa!' Taken off-guard, Jess grabbed at the pommel of the saddle. The stallion came to an abrupt halt, snorting suspiciously, his legs set wide apart.

‘What is it, Legs?' she said, quickly gathering the reins. She held onto his head as he began to turn in nervous circles.