12. Visitors

Halley woke just before dawn. The night’s sleep had been fitful and he didn’t know why. Actually it was for two reasons – he had disrupted his own circadian rhythms with two days of sulky daytime dozing – and - finding himself an object of ridicule was hurtful and disorienting. 

A lifetime near the top of the social ladder had led him to believe that he possessed innate dignity but apparently these people couldn’t see it. It wasn’t polite to point and laugh at a person – especially him. For their next visit he decided to wash, shave and wear his best suit and hat to see if that might rescue the situation.

The first shafts of light were cracking the sky and he heard the first tentative calls of the dawn chorus as he dipped his hands into the water barrel – empty. He looked around at the shapes of his companions sleeping on the ground. Conway was half-hidden under the stores platform. The Edwards boys were spooning beside the ashes of the fire and Manu was nowhere to be seen. Halley took the decision to fetch his own water. How hard could it be?

He decided his under-drawers would be sufficient clothing for the exercise, donned his boots without lacing, found a metal bucket and made his way to the river. He’d never been. He’d organized Manu and the boys to do the menial tasks but now he found himself quite excited by the prospect. It was bracing. He started to whistle a music-hall song he’d heard in London. Having established the melody, he began to quietly sing.

Oh dem Golden slippers Oh dem golden slippers

Golden slippers I’s going to wear because they look so neat..

If he’d known how many sets of eyes were on him he might not have added the exaggerated strut or flamboyant hand gestures he remembered from the wonderfully entertaining nigger minstrels – white folk imitating black folk imitating white folk. What fun!

He had no idea where Manu and the others might have gone to draw water but he found a break in the mangroves and a lovely stretch of grey-blue beach beside a little channel that ran right up to the bushes. The water was calm as a millpond. When he stepped from the red pebbly soil onto the grey-blue beach he discovered it was mud that gripped and sucked at his boots so he paused to fasten the laces.

The closer he got to the water, the deeper became the mud. It reached over his ankles and seeped into his boots but since the waters edge was so close he thought he should make the extra step or three. To take a step forward with his right foot he had to push down firmly with his left which sank even deeper. When he pushed down with his right to extricate his left, it sank deeper again. The mud came to mid calf and soaked into the linen twill of his drawers. When he got to a point where he might dip the bucket he was up to his knees.

Most of the eyes watching the scene belonged to the Karundi men. Manu was with them. He'd gone to meet them when he heard their confident approach. The men started to laugh again but were quickly silenced by the senior man. He made a sign by drawing together the fingers of his hand and tucking the thumb underneath to create a tubular shape. All but Manu knew what he meant.

In the water on the far side of the river, about a hundred yards from Halley, there were three dark bumps.

Crocodile was home.

They quickened their pace and urged Manu to do the same. They wanted to get a good view of this performance. Manu was still in the dark.

Halley managed to secure some water and, anchored by his legs, twisted his torso to place the bucket closer to the bank. He then tried to extract his left foot only to find that the action drove his right leg into the mud up to his crotch. He tried again but he was hopelessly anchored.

When it was clear that Crocodile was homing in and about eighty yards from the firmly glued Halley, the senior man made a yackai and the others took it up.

Halley’s first reaction was embarrassment. He thought he was being laughed at again. Then he realized they were pointing at something in the water. He couldn’t make out what it was but it must’ve been big – and fast. It made a bow-wave that raced towards him and a wake of six or seven disturbingly large waves streamed astern in a perfect  chevron.

Then Crocodile raised his head. It was huge!

Halley’s poor, tired body released an overdose of adrenalin which, instead of energizing him, had the opposite effect. All his strength deserted him.

Manu was stunned too. He’d never seen an animal that size. He made to rush to Halley’s aid but the Karundi restrained him. They were just twenty yards away on the firm dirt, all shouting and encouraging Halley to run. They were having a whale of a time.

Crocodile was forty yards away when Halley’s strength returned in a rush. He twisted his body violently toward the bank and made a desperate dive forward. The mud gave a little on his legs and he flailed his arms like a swimmer until he dragged his feet clear and was lying face down on the surface of the mud. His eyes bulged and his head craned around on his neck to keep the fearsome beast in sight.

If he’d had his senses about him he might have thought to stay in that position and skid his body across the top of the mud crocodile-style. But he was delirious with fear. As soon as his legs were clear he tried to stand and run. Crocodile was within twenty yards.

He drove with his legs and embedded himself in the mud again. He twisted around in terror. Crocodile was within five yards. His huge head with its cruel teeth was now clear of the water. Monstrous claws spread wide taking purchase on the mud. His baleful eyes were fixed on Halley.

Manu was dimly aware of the man beside him making some room to heft his ironwood spear but he seemed in no hurry. All the other men shouted encouragement like spectators at a football match.

Halley was held hypnotized while Crocodile slowly, relentlessly advanced. Halley saw the bucket now slightly in front of him. He grasped it with both hands, raised it high above his head and hurled with all his force straight at Crocodile's eyes. 

Crocodile caught it easily in his gargantuan maw and crunched it flat in his jaws. Huge teeth pierced the metal and he shook it like a dog shakes a rat. Gobs of mud flew everywhere and Halley was shocked into action. 

He turned and dived, withdrew his legs, stood and dived again. Behind him there was a fearful clatter and the earth was shaking. He knew Crocodile was inches away.

On the bank the Karundi were howling with delight and Manu was caught up in the excitement.

Crocodile was furious. A bottom tooth had wedged itself into the metal of the bucket and the handle had flipped over his nose.  He was smashing his head into the mud with alternate crashes but it wouldn’t dislodge. He rolled his great body in titanic anger and shook the earth.

Halley didn’t see any of this. All he knew was the immediate certainty of jaws clamping on his buttocks. His feet found firmer ground. He thrust his pelvis forward and drove his strangely angled body in a deranged sprint to welcoming hands on the bank.

He’d stepped out of his boots and his drawers were around his ankles.

He had, of course, shit himself.

© Ray Lillis 2012

11. Contact

 When Manu had established the camp to his liking he decided it was time for fishing. He tucked his tomahawk in his belt (for the construction of a fish-trap) and suggested a scouting party to Halley. Unfortunately, Halley had slipped into a mild depression. The discovery of his mendacious compass, and the absence of a goldfield had a deleterious effect on the young man. Rather like a child who wakes on Christmas morning to find nothing under the tree, he threw a tantrum and took to his bed.

Because the large bed occupied the entire interior of the small tent Manu was forced to stand outside and address the feet of the sulking Halley.

The Karundi took this to be some kind of ceremony. They had taken their usual seats in the audience and returned to the game of trying to figure out the dynamics of the strange group. At first they thought it might be a family group with Manu as the father, Halley the mother and the other three, the children. This made no sense of course since the woman did no work and the man made the camp, did the cooking and looked after the kids.

Some said it might be the time of her menses and the little calico tent with its huge wooden platform must be some kind of special women’s business. This held no water because two of the younger warriors who'd tracked Halley to his morning evacuation reported the existence of a tiny pink appendage reminiscent of a penis.

Someone floated the idea that they may be a scouting party making a track for others to follow but this made no sense either. It also raised the question of how they’d managed to make it this far without a guide. Every square inch of the entire continent came under the authority of traditional owners. Every local group was a part of a huge network of independent, interlocked groups like the mesh on a fishing net. Each of them had strict and binding diplomatic protocols with their neighbours. To negotiate your way through any given area you needed the services of a string of local ambassadors. There was no one who looked vaguely local with this mob – they were four pinks and a brown.

It was certain they had no dreaming with the possible exception of the decorated one who they assumed must’ve been through some extreme initiation.

They decided to make contact.

Though they numbered about fifty they sent only five. Two elders and three young warriors armed with clubs and spears. They approached the camp directly and fearlessly. The fearlessness was largely an act - they’d never seen a firearm but they’d heard of them. Now, as their distance from the camp dwindled, they were made even more tense by the realization that nobody had yet seen them. The senior man decided to issue a call in the way they used when entering an unknown camp. He yackai’d loud and long. A loose translation might be:

“Hay everybody I’m coming into your camp. Don’t worry I’m very friendly. That’s why I’m calling out to you.”

Conroy and the Edwards boys shrieked and ran to hide behind Halley’s tent. Manu, who still had his head stuck inside the fly of Halley's tent, leapt vertically like a startled cat and knocked the ridge-pole out of it’s cleat. The front of the tent collapsed and cocooned a hysterical Halley with heavy calico.

Manu, supercharged by a surge of adrenalin, snatched the tomahawk from his belt and performed an impromptu haka. He announced his name and his lineage, mountain and river. He showed his patiti skills with precise, violent swings of the tomahawk. He demonstrated deft footwork with exaggerated raising of his feet. He finished with a flamboyant pukana, bulging his eyes and protruding his tongue in the traditional fierce grimace. A loose translation might be:

“Mess with me and you die.”

The Karundi understood the mime perfectly. They liked it. It confirmed for them that this man might have some dreaming and was the one they should be talking to. A tense silence fell (slightly leavened by the thuds of Halley trying to fight his way out of the tent) as they regarded each other.

It occurred to Manu that he might now choose a more conciliatory stance. He held the tomahawk in front of him with both hands as a gift, danced forward four steps, laid it on the ground and retreated.

The Karundi understood this too. The senior approached and accepted the offering. They knew immediately that the tomahawk was a marvelous thing. Not only was there the wonder of the steel blade but even more significant was the intricate carving on the handle. They saw wind and waves and water in the swirling patterns and, at the base, a crouching gargoyle with bulging eyes, an obvious dreamtime figure.

A smile is a natural law.

When the senior man smiled at Manu the tension went out of everyone’s shoulders and they all started to talk. No information was exchanged but the sound was very comforting.

Having escaped through the back of the tent Halley emerged with the three children behind him.

“I say,” he said, “Do any of you chaps speak English?”

They laughed. From that point on any gesture or statement from Halley moved the Karundi to such extreme degrees of glee that it hurt their ribs. They had to cling on to each other to remain upright. 

When the remaining members of the group made their way to the camp they were stricken with the same debility. One look at Halley made them hoot, point and roll around on the ground in fits.

No useful interaction occurred on that first afternoon except for the discovery of sugar. The senior man who’d made the first introduction noticed the canvas sack covered in a swarm of native bees. When he was given a taste of the brown crystals he thanked Manu for the gift, handed the bag to his youngest wife and sent her home with it. When the afternoon thunder and lightning rolled they took their leave with assurances they’d return tomorrow. 

They'd quite forgotten about the crocodile.

© Ray Lillis 2012