Bella's Run Read online

  Chapter 2

  The two-way radio, sitting on a shelf near the dining-room door, crackled to life.

  ‘Anyone on Ainsley Station? Ainsley Station! Are you there? This is Red Eye. Over.’

  ‘Red Eye?’ said Bella, looking at Patty.

  ‘He’s one of the grain-truck drivers, supplying the feedlot. You know the dude with the red glass eye and the bung leg?’

  Bella looked puzzled.

  ‘The one with the fake leg from the station party last Friday night?’ prompted Patty.

  Bella vaguely recalled a nuggety bloke doing a boozy rendition of ‘Jake the Peg’ as he swung his fake leg from his crotch; a glass eye sloshing around in a pannikin of rum and coke.

  The call on the radio came again, this time more urgent.

  ‘Anyone on Ainsley Station? Come in, damn you, this is Red Eye! Over.’

  There was a pause then ‘For cripe’s sake . . . SOMEONE COME IN!’

  The radio was a party-line, with all the houses, vehicles and most buildings on the station having a UHF. No-one else was answering today.

  Bella leaped towards the Mixmaster to shut it off, as Patty strode across the kitchen and reached for the handset. ‘Yeah, Red Eye, this is Patty at the stockmen’s quarters. What’s up? Over.’

  ‘Thank Christ!’ Red Eye responded. ‘Call a bloody ambulance. I’ve run two kids on a four-wheel motorbike off the road. They’re in a big empty irrigation channel and I can’t see anyone moving.’ The voice quavered among the transmission crackle. ‘I didn’t see the little sods coming round the corner! Oh, hang on!’ The radio went silent for a minute. ‘One’s climbing out now. No-one else’s coming up the bank and there were two kids on the bike. Bloody hell! Call the ambo!’

  Bella already had hold of the phone. She dialled 000, filled them in on the details and agreed that if they could move the child they’d meet the ambulance halfway to town.

  Meanwhile, Knackers appeared at the cool-room door. ‘Did Red Eye just say kids?’

  ‘Yeah,’ said Patty as she swung to turn off the stove.

  ‘Oh fuck!’ Knackers’ florid face drained to white. ‘They’re probably mine. A couple of them took off on the motorbike.’

  Two remaining little dark heads appeared from the side of his blood-stained arms. ‘We didn’t do it, Dad! Whatever it was, we didn’t do it!’ But Knackers was already following Bella and Patty as they ran outside, Patty snatching a small first-aid kit as she went. Rodney followed from the dining room, leaving the two little boys staring at each other in confusion.

  Bella flung herself into the driver’s seat of a spare LandCruiser ute sitting idle outside the ring-lock fence surrounding the quarters. As she gunned the diesel engine, Knackers jumped into the passenger seat. Patty, Rodney and the first-aid kit went up onto the tray in the back.

  Bella grabbed the UHF mike as she spun the vehicle out and away from the tight cluster of weatherboard buildings. ‘Red Eye, this is Bella. We’ve called the ambo, and are now on our way to you. Where on the station are you? Over.’ With Ainsley covering over forty thousand hectares, Bella needed some idea where the child was and she was approaching a T-intersection up ahead on the gravel track.

  Knackers roared from the passenger seat. ‘Go right, RIGHT!’

  Bella swung the steering wheel, careering around the corner on two wheels, the back of the ute fishtailing on the stones.

  ‘They’ll be somewhere in the cropping area. That’s where the irrigation channels are,’ yelled Knackers, clutching the Jesus bar – a grab rail – on the dash in front of him. ‘He’ll be tangled up in some of those fuckin’ siphon hoses, I’ll bet. Bloody farmers, should know better than putting fuckin’ channels in the way of me kids’ motorbike.’

  Bella held her tongue. She’d come to understand that up here in northern Australia farmers worked the dirt and stockmen worked the cattle, with plenty of rivalry between the two. At the moment, however, the siphon hoses and farmers were the least of their worries.

  The radio crackled again. ‘Red Eye to Bella. We’re ten metres from the northern machinery shed – on a track running east–west. The kid’s not moving. His colour’s not good.’

  Bella peered intently through the ute’s windscreen. She could just make out the machinery shed towering in the haze out to her left. A sudden thump on the roof had her winding her window down, and Patty shoved a finger out in front of her. ‘I can see the truck over there. Turn left here and then head straight down past that sorghum crop to the next intersecting channel and I reckon we’ll be right on them.’

  Bella swung the steering wheel left, and drove on until she saw a truck pulled up some twenty metres down the track, angled across the road, which was laced with skid marks. Slamming on the brakes, she brought the ute to a stop right beside a main delivery channel.

  Amid a cloud of flying dust, a HiLux pulled up from the opposite direction. Wendy Anderson spilled from the passenger door. Running towards the channel where the motorbike’s skid marks disappeared over the side, she went sliding down on her bum, to a man huddled over a little body at the bottom. Her cries of horror echoed up the channel walls.

  Knackers sped past Bella, the next to skid down the bank after his wife.

  Sheila McLaverty, the feedlot manager’s wife, got out of the driver’s side of Wendy’s HiLux. Dragging an impressive-looking first-aid case and a spinal board from the tray of the ute, she yelled, ‘Heard the call over the radio. Wendy and I were having a cuppa.’

  Sheila, just like Patty, was a trained nurse. One-time registered, Sheila was retired now, and was designated station medic. Patty dropped her smaller first-aid kit into the dust and went with Rodney to help Sheila manoevre the case into the channel. Bella hesitated on the bank, and looked down at the scene in front of her.

  The child lay face up; near a motorbike that was on its side partially buried in the red dirt. Except it wasn’t buried at all. The right side of the bike had actually been pushed in on itself by the force of the fall. The kids must have been fairly flying to cause that kind of damage.

  Her gaze swung to Red Eye, kneeling in the dust a little way from the small, inert body. The poor man was a mess. A Vietnam veteran, she remembered. Holding his head in his hands, shoulders shaking, she could hear him talking to himself as he rocked to and fro. ‘I didn’t see them. They were going so fast. I’ve killed the poor little sod.’

  Wendy started to wail, ‘Max, oh my Max.’

  Bella stirred herself, sliding down the bank and in beside Wendy. The woman was leaning over trying to pick her unconscious son up around the shoulders and draw him to her breast.

  Grabbing Wendy’s hands, Bella said, ‘No, stop! He might have spinal injuries. We can’t move him yet.’

  Wendy ignored her. ‘My boy. Oh my boy.’

  Bella forcefully jostled her backwards out of the way of the two nurses. A glance at the boy and the other women had told Bella enough. Although there was no obvious blood, he was breathing quickly, lips slightly blue, and Sheila and Patty were unable to raise a response. Both nurses looked worried.

  In her peripheral vision, Bella could see Knackers watching stunned. The only part of him moving was his hands as they pulled and worried the felt hat he was holding. She wished to hell he’d come over and comfort his wife, but he just stood staring. Rodney was beside him, awkwardly patting his shoulder.

  Sheila spoke up. ‘Bella, jump on the radio, honey, and find out where that ambulance is. Rodney, Knackers, come here and let’s put the little bloke onto the spinal board.’ Sheila’s steady voice galvanised everyone into action.

  Bella left Wendy and scrambled up the bank of the channel to use the radio. ‘Ambulance travelling to Ainsley Station, this is Ainsley Station, do you copy? Over.’

  ‘Ainsley Station, this is the ambulance responding to your emergency call. We are approximately half an hour from your front gate. Is the patient conscious and able to be moved? Over.’

  Bella called down the bank to Shei
la. ‘They’re about half an hour away from the main gate. They want to know if he’s conscious and if we can move him?’

  ‘Yes, we can move him. Tell them he’s unconscious, not breathing too well and on a spinal board. We’ll meet them somewhere on the road. Tell them to look out for the HiLux.’

  While Bella lay across the ute seat relaying the message to the ambulance, a little dark head pushed into her crotch. When she finished on the radio, a husky voice said, ‘Me brother, miss, Max . . . is . . . is . . . is he gunna be or . . . orright?’ A grubby hand came up to wipe snot from a face with beseeching hazel eyes. Bella was at a loss at what to say. She wiggled her way upright, hauled the kid out of her lap and onto the ute floor beside her.

  ‘Rohan, isn’t it?’ The dark head nodded. ‘Well, mate, I’m not sure, but I can tell you everyone’s doing all they can to get Max to hospital and get him fixed.’ Bella crossed her toes inside her work boots, hoping she wasn’t lying. Max sure didn’t look good.

  Rohan brought an arm up to swipe at more snot running from his nose. ‘We were riding flat-out, didn’t want Dad to get us. We didn’t look before we turned the corner. We saw the truck. Maxy headed for the drain. I told him to jump off; I told ’im, miss. But he didn’t jump when I did. Me little brother, he didn’t bloody jump.’

  With a hiccup he hung his head and cried. Loud, gasping, little-boy sobs.

  Bella put her arm around him, cuddled him into her side and blinked really hard. She was supposed to be the grown-up here. She would not cry.

  At the sound of scrabbling rocks Bella shifted Rohan to one side and jumped to her feet. Knackers hit the top of the bank; little Max was laid out on the board behind him.

  ‘Go easy, ya bastard!’ Knackers roared at poor Rodney, who was jostling the other end, trying to fumble his way up the gravel and over the edge.

  Sheila, coming up on the outside of Knackers, placed a soothing hand on Knackers’ arm. ‘Easy, big fella.’

  Knackers just shook his head, a run of tears falling from his face, and strode towards the HiLux, towing his son and Rodney along behind. Gently placing the spinal board on the back of the ute, he jumped up and moved forward beside his son’s head while Rodney slid the rest of the board onto the tray.

  ‘Rodney, you drive; I’ll sit in the back with Knackers and Max.’ Sheila pushed Wendy towards the passenger door. ‘Wendy, you jump in with Rodney.’

  ‘But . . . but . . . Max needs me,’ Wendy quavered.

  ‘No buts, Wendy,’ Sheila instructed. ‘If he needs you, I’ll bang on the roof. We can stop. Now get in. We have to go.’ Sheila then turned to Bella and Patty. ‘Can you head back to the quarters, girls, and I’ll radio you if we need a relay to the ambo? The aerial on this ute looks like it’s taken a few pot shots while the boys have been out pig- shooting.’ They all turned towards the aerial. It dangled at half-mast.

  Sheila went on, ‘Take Rohan with you and ring Mrs Cunningham, the school-teacher’s wife. She’ll take care of the other Anderson kids until we get back. Okay?’

  Bella and Patty nodded.

  Rohan just stared up at them dazed. Sheila took in the expression on the child’s face and stooped to peer intently into his round eyes. ‘On second thoughts, mister, you’d better come with us too.’ She pushed him towards the cab door. ‘He’s probably got concussion, looking at those dilated pupils.’

  A door slammed behind Rohan as he hustled into the ute.

  ‘Righto, we’re off. I’ll radio or ring you. Thanks for your help, girls.’

  Sheila jumped up beside Max and banged on the roof. Rodney slowly took off. Bella and Patty, hands to their brows, watched the vehicle’s progress through the maze of tracks that cross-sectioned the Ainsley River flats, until the ute finally turned onto the main track leading to the station’s front gate.

  A noise behind reminded them there was one more casualty in this accident. Red Eye had arrived at the top of the channel bank, both eyes now living up to his nickname. Bella jogged towards him. ‘Hey, Red Eye, you probably should have gone to the hospital and got checked out too. Are you okay?’

  ‘Yeah, mate, I guess so. Just can’t stop seeing it all happen again and again before me eyes. Think I’ll just drive me truck home and have a lie down.’

  Patty spoke up. ‘You sure you should be driving the truck in your state? I can have a go at it for you. Me or Bella . . . ?’

  Red Eye pulled himself up to his full five-foot-five and pointed a hairy finger in Patty’s direction. ‘You don’t think I’m letting a Victorian behind the wheel of my baby.’ The girls laughed tentatively, not sure if he was joking. Somehow Bella didn’t think so.

  ‘You think he’ll be all right?’ she asked as Red Eye stomped away.

  Patty shrugged a shoulder. ‘Don’t know. Just adds another nightmare to those he’s got from Vietnam.’

  Both girls watched the man shuffle to his baby, a cab over Kenworth. The door slammed and the big rig rumbled to a start. As it moved off, an arm appeared from the window in a half-hearted wave. An arm still visibly shaking.

  Bella and Patty picked up the abandoned first-aid kits, loaded them onto the LandCruiser tray and then jumped into the ute, Bella taking the wheel. Slowly they meandered the vehicle through the sorghum and onto the main station track.

  Patty spoke up first. ‘You did ask what else was going to go wrong this arvie. You tempted fate, girl.’

  Bella didn’t answer. She was still reeling from the afternoon’s events, replaying them in her mind. That poor kid. She hoped he was going to be all right. And what about Knackers and Wendy? What was this going to do to them?

  ‘So, what’s for tea now, cookie?’ Patty stirred again.

  Before Bella could think of a smart reply, the radio crackled on the dash between them.

  ‘Bella? Patty? Come in, it’s Rodney.’

  ‘Oh hell, what’s happened now?’ Patty grabbed the mike. ‘Yeah, Rodney, we’re here.’

  Rodney’s panicked voice came from the radio. ‘Turn around and head back to us, will you? The kid’s having some sort of turn and we need . . . what was it, Sheila?’ They could hear Sheila yell something before he said, ‘Yeah . . . we need a can . . . a cana . . . a what?’

  More yelling.

  Sheila to Rodney.

  Rodney to Sheila.

  ‘A cannula, an IV cannula from the first-aid case you’ve got – and we need Patty.’

  More asides to Sheila then Rodney spoke again. ‘A cannula or a biro, Sheila’s saying. I can’t bloody find one.’ Rodney’s voice was rising. Desperate.

  The girls could hear Wendy in the background screaming, and that was enough for Bella. Without checking the rear-vision mirror or bracing herself, she reefed on the handbrake. Patty threw the radio mike to the floor and grabbed the Jesus bar as the ute did an immediate 180-degree turn, front tyres pegged, back wheels sliding in an arc, throwing dust and stones in all directions.

  It was a doughie that Bella knew her brother Justin would have been proud to see.

  The ute came to a halt, now facing the way they’d come. Dust obscured everything in front of them. Patty expelled the breath she had been holding. Letting go of the grab bar, she slapped Bella on the arm. ‘Woo hoo! Go, girlfriend!’

  And so Bella did.

  Right into the path of an oncoming ute.

  Chapter 3

  ‘Holy SHIT!’

  Slamming on the brakes, Will O’Hara spun the steering wheel of his four-wheel drive to the left. His passenger, Drew ‘Macca’ McDonald, threw his arm across his face; a fat lot of good that was going to do, but Macca knew he didn’t want to see what would happen next.

  Will wrestled with the steering wheel and finally managed to bring the vehicle to a halt twenty yards from the track, thanking God he got off the gas early because he’d seen all the dust up ahead.

  The other ute had already stopped.

  A head covered with a bird’s nest of blonde curls was thrust through the open driver’s-side wind
ow glaring at the boys, gesticulating with her middle finger and swearing.

  ‘You stupid bastards! You could have fucking killed us!’ yelled Bella, forgetting she was the one who’d been stationary in the middle of the track. ‘What the hell do you think you were—’

  Bella stopped shouting mid-sentence, staring at the male honey of a face that was looking at her with amazement. A face she had known all her life but seemed to be seeing clearly for the first time. ‘Oh my God . . . Patty . . . is that Will under that hat?’

  ‘Yep. Sure is. I’d know my brother’s dimples anywhere.’ Patty leaned across Bella and yelled, ‘Hey, bro. What the fuck are you doing here? Is that you, Macca? Bella, it’s Macca.’ Patty smacked Bella on the leg as Bella glanced at the passenger and realised it was her cousin. ‘Sorry, fellas,’ Patty continued. ‘Love to chat but we’ve gotta go. An emergency.’

  The radio beside the girls came to life again with Rodney’s voice, hysteria threatening: ‘For Christ’s sake, girls, where are you? We really need that flaming cannula thing and we need it NOW!’

  Bella snapped to attention, tearing her eyes away from the gorgeous features of the man she had run off the road. She needed to drive. And fast.

  Patty called out to her brother as she pulled herself upright, ‘Make yourselves useful, boys. Get in behind us.’

  And with that, Bella took off in a hail of stones and fury. Again.

  ‘Well,’ said Macca when the air cleared, ‘better do what the sweet lady asked and make yourself useful, bro.’ The toothpick poking from the corner of Macca’s mouth lifted as he smirked at his best mate.

  ‘Yeah well, I suppose so,’ replied Will. ‘There’s bound to be something worth seeing.’ He spun the steering wheel, bumped the ute back onto the track and set off in the direction of the flying dust.