Tough Times - 7. Tough Chapter 7

I nodded my head in understanding and headed down the passage and turned right, stopping just out of sight, to listen in. “Something is just not right, when he arrived, he was bright and cheerful and now he is jumpy and refuses to acknowledge Jack, and he is also sporting a bruise on his face that wasn’t there earlier either,” I heard Carol say, before continuing on into the office and half closing the door, before walking to the window, and looking out to the garden, as I heard the distant voices of Carol and Mike talking.

When I heard the door open, I turned to face Mike, who was frowning, as he looked carefully at me then sighed. “Ok, you have been here for less than half a day, and already something is not right. Spit it out and I want the truth, no garbage,” Mike said to me upfront, which caught me by surprise a little.

“There was just a difference of opinion and we shoved a bit and I hit the side of my face on the door frame, nothing to worry about,” I responded calmly. “Hmm, we will see about that. So have you had dinner?” Mike asked me, “No, I was going to cook up my steaks that I have in my car fridge in a short while,” I replied, “Ok, well make sure that you do eat. Now in the morning, breakfast is at 6am, and work starts half an hour later.

I will get you to do a bit of a clean-up around the homestead for the first few days and see how we go from there, you will find everything you need in the garden shed at the back of the homestead, just around the corner from the workers dining room door. I have to be out for the whole day tomorrow, so I will see you tomorrow night,” Mike said to me.

“Yes sir, I will do my very best,” I replied enthusiastically, “I am sure you will, from what I saw inside the cottage, you have done a very good job of cleaning up. That is all, goodnight,” Mike said to me, before exiting the office and disappearing to another part of the homestead.

I sat in the office for a few moments, realising that the boss had gone to the cottage, no doubt in search of me, and saw the cleaning job that I had done this afternoon. As I passed through the kitchen, Angela was finishing washing up the dishes. “Plate of dinner for you on the table there, just bring the plate back in the morning,” she said to me as she continued to work.

I stopped at the table and saw a plate wrapped with alfoil, which I picked up, “Thanks,” I said to her before leaving the kitchen and walking through the now empty workers dining room, and once outside, I headed in the direction of the cottage, then after about twenty metres, I changed directions, after I remembered where I had set up camp.

Luckily there was no logs laying around for me to trip on, and with the small amount of moonlight, I was able to weave through the grove of trees and I sat down on my swag, before unwrapping my dinner, which was a delicious roast dinner, and there was a knife and fork wrapped in a paper napkin included.

Once I had eaten, I retrieved one of my bottles of water, and gave the plate and cutlery a quick rinse, before placing them on the car fridge, and stripping down to my shorts, I climbed into my swag, making sure that the insect screen was closed properly, as a few mosquitos started to buzz around me.

I woke up the next morning to the sounds of the birds chirping away announcing the start of a new day, and after a bit of a stretch, I climbed out of my bed, and dressed for the start of a new day, and taking the plate and cutlery with me, I headed for the workers dining room.

“Good morning young Devlin, you are a bit early for breakfast,” Carol said to me, when she heard me enter. “I tend to do that when I am out bush, and I will just have a cup of tea and some toast thank you,” I replied, “No, you will have a proper breakfast, as you will need all your energy once the temperature rises, take a seat in here and you can keep me company while I get yours started,” Carol said to me.

I sat down at the kitchen table, and just a few minutes later, Mike entered and sat down opposite me. “Good morning. Any reason that you are sleeping in your swag in the tree grove, instead of in the cottage, or does it have something to do with yesterday’s incident,” Mike said to me. “In a way yes, I just wanted to stay clear of him for a while, until he gets use to me been around,” I replied.

“Ok, but you should have just come to us, and we could have allocated you one of the spare rooms in the workers quarters, since Angela sleeps in the homestead, there is just the other two over there at the moment,” Mike said, “Yes, that would be great if I can do that, please,” I responded.

“A very polite young man this one is, maybe he will be a good influence on a particular staff member,” Carol said, and Mike laughed at that comment, “That would take a miracle dear,” Mike replied, and I just smiled.

During breakfast, Carol asked me a few questions about what should be done about a particular tree, and a group of shrubs around the garden, and after been told the names of the plants, I gave my recommendations, from what I learnt when I was working while attending college. I was also asked about the best trees and shrubs that are drought tolerant, that would be ideal to expand on the garden around the homestead, and I made a few recommendations to the bosses.

After breakfast, I exited via the side kitchen door, and headed to the garden shed, where I had a good look at the selection of motorised and hand tools for gardening, and there was quite a bit selection of everything, with a lot of it looking fairly new. I decided to have a good look around the garden first and take note on what needs doing, and make a list of what needs to be done first.

Mowing and edging the lawn was big on the list, as well as a fair amount of weeding, plus there was some pruning to be done as well. With it still be cool, I decided to start on the weeding, as that was the most labour-intensive job to be done, and I set off to work on that, with occasional breaks to do a bit of pruning to break up the work a little.

“My, you have been a very busy man,” I heard Carol say from the doorway to the kitchen, and I was only about twenty metres away, still on my hands and knees weeding the garden. “Just doing a bit of a clean-up of the garden beds for starters, then I will get onto the mowing and edging,” I responded.

“It’s morning tea time, come in and have a cuppa,” Carol said to me, “Ok, just a quick one, I have lots to do today,” I replied as I stood and stretched my back muscles before walking towards the kitchen door. “Well, you have impressed me already, you have weeded most of the garden, and done a fair amount of pruning too,” Carol said to me as she handed me a hot cup of tea, and I sat down at the kitchen table.

“Just doing what needs doing, that is all,” I commented. “The garden looks so much better, with what you have done already, which makes me so happy,” Carol said, “I am glad,” I replied, as Carol was busy taking out some biscuits and cake out of the oven, and placing them on a cooling rack.

After my morning tea, which included two freshly baked biscuits, I headed back outside, and when it was time for lunch, I had completed mowing and edging the lawn and finished the weeding, as I washed up in the laundry, before heading for the workers dining room, where Jack was already seated.

“Oh, good you are here Devlin, can you assist me in the kitchen please” Angela asked me from the doorway, and I quickly headed in that direction to avoid any contact with Jack. “How may I assist you young lady,” I said as I entered the kitchen and Angela giggled at that comment. “Your lunch is here, can you please keep me company while you eat,” she said to me.

“I would be pleased to do that for you,” I replied smiling, knowing that I would not be eating in the same room as Jack the Mechanic, and we chatted together, as I ate my meal and Angela did the washing up. When I was finished, I thanked Angela for her company, and exited the homestead through the side kitchen door.

“Think you are smart, getting to eat with the kitchen staff all the time, don’t you,” Jack snarled at me, as soon as I had rounded the corner near the garden shed, and out of sight of everyone. “I was invited to go into the kitchen, I didn’t ask for it, so just back off,” I said to Jack, as I tried to back away from him.

“Why don’t you go and pack your fagot arse and get the fuck off this station, you clearly don’t belong here at all,” Jack said to me, “I might just do that, in a month or so… But in the meantime, I will happily keep clear of your bigot attitude and ugly face,” I responded, “Why you no good fagot, go and bury yourself in a hole and don’t come out, or I will bury you in one for you,” Jack snarled as he started to walk towards me, and I suddenly was stopped when I backed into a tree.

“Ha, not place to go you snivelling little weasel, I’m going to pound you…”. “Hey Devlin, are you out here?” I heard Angela call out, which was a perfect distraction to get away from Jack, and I walked quickly around the corner towards the kitchen, where Angela was standing at the door.

“I forgot to mention to you… was that Jack I just saw? Has he been threatening you in any way?” Angela asked me, “Yeah, and I am fine. What did you want to say to me?” I replied, “…Oh, yeah, if you ever need any laundry done, I am happy to do it for you,” Angela said to me, and I smiled at this offer.

“Thanks Angela, but I am all good at the moment. I did a laundry wash the day before I arrived here, anything else?” I asked, “No, that is all, I better get back to the kitchen, catch you later, come by here at dinner time and you can eat with me in the kitchen,” Angela said to me, and I smiled and nodded my head.

Although I was eating all my meals in the kitchen, I was still getting the occasional threats from Jack, when he managed to tack me down, and I also found my small campsite, scattered everywhere, but luckily the car fridge and all of my expensive belongings are locked up inside my vehicle, and I occasionally found cow dung splattered all over the windscreen and windows of the car.

At the end of my first full week on the station, I had just about had enough of the threats and messing around with my swag and vehicle, and I had mentioned the incidences to Angela during lunch one day, when Jack was out all day, assisting Billy with windmill maintenance.

“You should tell the boss about all of this, you shouldn’t have to put up with all of this from Jack,” Angela said after I told here all about what Jack has been doing to my vehicle. “No, I don’t want to do that, because if he sacks Jack, then they don’t have a mechanic to maintain all the vehicles,” I replied.

“Oh, yes I see what you mean, well we have to come up with some plane to keep him away from you and your belongings,” Angela said to me, “You do in a way, I get the pleasure of your company each day for meals, and that is the highlight of each day for me,” I replied, which got a giggle response from Angela.

A day later, was a Saturday, and it was a half day of work, and I had decided to spend my afternoon going for a long drive, to avoid Jack and I had invited Angela to join me, which she happily accepted. With a picnic basket of food and snacks made up, that includes soft drinks and water, we headed north to the Trans-Australian Railway line, were we would sit and watch for any freight trains that may pass by.

I set up the shade awning on the side of my vehicle and with my swag rolled out, we sat down and enjoyed each other’s company, as we ate a late light lunch, and we listened to the distant sound of an approaching train, which slowly came into sight, and eventually passed us.

We watched a spectacular outback sunset, before we packed up and headed back to the homestead, only to realise that there was trouble, as soon as I parked near the back gate of the homestead. “There you guys are, I was wondering where you were, we have trouble brewing,” Syd said to us, from the kitchen door.

“Why? What is happening, and where is the boss?” Angela asked, they have gone over to the neighbouring station for dinner and an overnight stay, and Jack is tanked up full of booze, and Billy is fairly full up too, so I grabbed my swag and some of my stuff and came to hide here in the homestead,” Syd said sounding concerned.

“Oh, that is not good. Last time Jack was on a bender, it took two whole days for him to get fully sober, and the boss was not at all happy with him,” Angela commented, as she quickly headed inside, and I quickly pointed the remote to my vehicle to remotely lock it before following her inside, and Angela closed and locked the door.

“I have already locked all the other doors, including the one between the workers dining room and the kitchen,” Syd announced, “Good, then there is no way he can get in here, we should be ok here. Go set up a place to sleep in the lounge room, while I get us some food organised,” Angela said.

When Syd and I returned to the kitchen, Angela had made up two trays of sandwiches, one for the other two men and one for us. Syd quickly delivered the tray for the other two workers, placing the alfoil covered tray on the workers dining table, before rushing back into the kitchen, closing he door and locking it.

We followed Angela into the formal dining room, switching off the lights in the kitchen as we left, and closing the door, so there was no sign of us in that part of the homestead, she left just one small light on in the lounge and closed all of the curtains, so as to hide us from vision from anyone trying to look in.

As we ate our dinner of sandwiches, we heard sounds coming from the workers dining room, and we sat quietly, not making a sound, to let them know that we were in the homestead. “Where do you think the others are?” we heard Billy ask. “Who the fuck cares, as long as the homo fagot is well away from me, I don’t care,” we heard Jack say, and I began to shake on hearing this.

“Just ignore him buddy, we don’t care what he says. You are a kind and descent guy, that is all we need to know,” Syd said to me, as he placed a hand on my shoulder to indicate that he was concerned for me, and I saw Angela nod her head in agreement to Syd’s comment. “Thanks guys that means a lot to me,” I whispered to them.

We heard a lot of shouting and drunken singing coming from the workers quarters during the night, as we settled down for the night, and eventually we fell asleep, although I was worried about my vehicle and if there was going to be any damage to it in the morning.