Published: 4 Apr 2022
It had been some time since Travis’ release from Hospital and to his surprise, with knowledge of the Queensland Police and how they protected their own, Sergeant O’Sullivan had been dismissed and charged but more than likely it was for misappropriation of police property that brought the rogue cop undone, not his treatment of his fellow human beings. Nevertheless it was a good outcome and Travis was more than pleased. Also pleasing with the initial hearing being held in Cairns therefore Travis’ written statement sufficed although his presence would be mandatory when the case finally came to trial.
There was also a letter from Noah, penned by another’s hand as his writing skill was poor. After returning from giving evidence against O’Sullivan, he had settled back into the Croydon community and found stock work on a local cattle station. As for Titch, she was well and being looked after but Noah still called her Titch, he couldn’t submit to change her name. Travis was pleased and with Evan by his side no longer had the urge to travel. Now when he cast his gaze to the western horizon he saw nothing but trees and did not wish to know what lay beyond them.
After thanking Goddard for the use of the cottage, the boys caught the return mail truck to the rail junction at Forsayth and took passage on the following day’s train, with a stay overnight at the hotel. Robyn the publican’s wife remembered them well. Firstly it was Travis who came to mind, then Evan as the lad in search of a friend.
“So you eventually found each other?” She noted as they entered the bar.
“Yes he was the patient at the Georgetown Hospital, I must thank you for you help Mrs. Beasley,” Evan gratefully expressed.
“It’s Robyn we don’t stand on ceremony out this way. What can we do for you this time?”
“Rail tickets and rooms for the night,” Travis requested forthright.
“Two rooms,” Robyn declared and checked her register, “I have two but they are at either end of the verandah, does that worry you?”
“Not at all,” Travis quickly agreed as he felt his face flush with embarrassment, thinking maybe Robyn had picked up on their attachment.
“Good, you can have room numbers two and nine,” She placed the keys on the bar top. “You can decide among yourselves which one.”
Travis collected the keys and with one in each hand placed his hands behind his back.
“Take a pick?” he offered in humorous play. Evan pointed to his right side and Travis handed him the key.
“Good number nine my favourite number,” Evan says and pocketed the key.
“Is it?” Travis asks.
“No, I’m just playing your silly game.”
Robyn completed writing out their rail tickets and passed them to Travis. “I believe you brought O’Sullivan undone,” she freely admitted.
“He brought himself undone and nearly me,” Travis admitted.
“He was a right nasty piece of work I must say and you’ve done us all a favour. You do realise he was running what some would call a protection racket.”
“Yes I heard it came up in the hearing, I didn’t have to attend as he was mostly charged on other matters.”
“You weren’t the first, he shot and almost killed a bloke over at Croydon but got out of that as self defence. It was suggested he planted a rifle on the fellow and O’Sullivan’s mates backed his story.”
Reaching the door to his room Travis paused before entering, “Looks like we will have to behave ourselves tonight Mr. Williams,” he whispered.
“I’m sure one night won’t kill us Mr. Brown?” Evan answered.
During the night there was a heavy thunderstorm and the two sat through most of it on the hotel’s verandah with a beer. After the rain there was a cooling breeze then the night became alive with the croaking of frogs, while squadrons of insects and moths attacked the naked light bulb at the end of the verandah.
Travis shook his head and laughed.
“What’s so funny?” Evan asks.
“Nothing really it’s just that I’ve never felt so happy and it’s all because of you.” Then the smile dissolved, “there is one thing that is concerning.”
“What would that be Travis?”
“What are we going to do back home?”
“It will work out, Bradley knows,” Evan answered.
“What does he know?”
“I told him how I felt about you.”
“Did you tell him about me?” A gulping pause as there was a measure of trepidation in Travis’ question but how could Evan tell Bradley, as Travis didn’t even know himself. Even while seated on the hotel verandah during the first of that year’s monsoon storm Travis remained unsure where to place his persona. Realising was only half his quandary, admitting his preference was most difficult while relating it to others even more so.
“I didn’t have to, he told me and held me in keeping our meeting, not that I needed encouragement; in fact he paid my way,”
Travis releases a gently sigh.
“What’s worrying you?”
“You know there is one thing I will miss,”
“What is that?”
“Nights like this after a rain storm and the sound of frogs and plovers.”
“Plovers what are they?” Evan had not heard the word before.
“They are sometimes called storm birds and often come out after the rain.”
“Oh – will you miss anything else?” Evan asks.
“Probably but I will have you as a diversion, although there is one thing that does concern me,” his voice soft and distant as his sensible nature rises.
“I suppose I should ask you what it may be,” Evan didn’t like the sound of his friends tone and expected the worse.
Travis faltered then dragged out his concern word by anxious word.
“Maybe I’ve seen too many films but what happens when the shine wears off. Watching a feel-good film isn’t the same as living it. The poor buggers in the film are usually in turmoil, while the audience is choked with tears and no one mentions the mundane existence after the romance,”
“Is that how you feel about us?” Evan asks.
“Of course not but I don’t think I could take losing you now,” Travis explained.
“Travis, I have known you since your days when you would visit Mareeba from Herberton. I followed you around then and joined in with Greg and his stupid gang simply to be near you. I think you could give me a little more credit that that.”
“Sorry mate but it is me. I fear I won’t be capable of living up to your expectations.”
“You will I assure you,” Evan assures.
The down train to Mareeba was ready a little past one in the afternoon after yet another lengthy delay and was much shorter than usual as there had been some trouble with the guard van’s bogies, so it was decided to make the run without it. With the rumour of the line’s closure well advanced, little attention was given to the service’s reliability or rolling stock condition, so the vans and carriages were in as much need of repair as the engines and the track, while even the promised diesel engines would not alleviate the compounding problem.
At first the guard was to ride in the single passenger carriage but it was decided seeing there wasn’t any break-van they may as well do the trip without a guard and he could ride with the driver and fireman, besides there was only one goods car and a single carriage, therefore the guard could keep watch for problems from the engine and seeing the average speed for the trip hardly topped forty miles an hour and there weren’t any steep gradients to encounter, little could go wrong.
As the train pulled away from the Forsayth siding Travis stood alone on the carriage’s verandah and for the first time since Evan had arrived he felt sadness in leaving the gulf country but his sadness was for his childhood days on Cumberland Downs, for Mrs. Mitchell for Ralph and Noah with Titch and the sale and division of the Downs but most of all for a childhood he could never return too, or ever again visit. He closed the door. Inside was his future reading a comic.
“Interesting?” Travis asks from the seat close to Evan.
“I found it on the floor do you want it after I’m finished?” Evan offers without lifting his eyes from the comic. Travis checked its cover.
“Na, I’ve read that one.”
“See we have another thing in common,” Evan declared and closed the comic.
“What’s that?” Travis asks.
“Reading comics,”
“That’s one for a start.” Travis says with a smirk.
“There’s something else,” Evan declared.
“What?”
Evan leaned forward and whispered close to Travis’ ear.
“And that is a fact,” Travis smiled and within a deep breath attempted to remember a time before Evan. There wasn’t any, only denial and now it didn’t matter what it was called, as to Travis it was contentment.
The air hung damp in the carriage, even with open windows, while the previous night’s rain lay hot upon the ground in the late afternoon’s sun, quickly evaporating back to the atmosphere to again leave hard baked soil. Late afternoon came with little relief except for the distraction of a stop at Einasleigh.
“Einasleigh,” A voice boomed from the siding as the train came to stop, bringing both boys to protrude their heads through the carriage windows. No passengers but the loading of a number of boxes and once again they were on their way.
Bullock Creek arrived at dusk with much conversation from the fireman and driver. “What’s the problem?” Travis asks with his head and shoulders protruding from the carriage window.
“More engine troubles, we’ll be here for some time and we won’t reach Mareeba until early morning, so if you want to visit the pub for a cool one,” the railwayman offered.
It didn’t take a second offer and as quick as rabbits they were down the steps and half way across the street towards the hotel.
“We’ll give you a whistle when we’re ready to leave” The railwayman called after them.
Travis turned and waved agreement.
“Well I’ll be, it’s the happy wanderer,” Bunny greeted as the two entered, “and his offsider, Evan if I recollect.”
“That’s the fella’,” Evan says.
“I suppose you knew Roy sold up?”
“I did; anything else new about?”
“The blacks have gone and the mining company bought the houses and now we have a population close on thirty. The Crossings are still here, Bill found work in the mine and Winnie works in its canteen and their boys are away at boarding school. Anyway enough of that how have you been?”
“I suppose you heard about my accident,” Travis asks.
“Much so, also that O’Sullivan got what he deserved.”
“You knew O’Sullivan?”
“We are somewhat out of his territory but you hear things. So what’s next young man?”
“Bradley has his own property near Tolga and has suggested we give him a hand for a while.”
“We had a visit from Jack Arnold last month, came up to give the old place a once over before he passed on and he was most disappointed.”
“Why is that so Bunny?”
“The mining company cleared away all his junk. He asked after you, still reports on how honest you were in sending his belongings.”
The cool drink turned into three as the hour’s delay extended. By the time the whistle to leave sounded the town was in darkness. Back in the carriage they were confronted with another mechanical problem. Once again no lights, so with further apologies the boys were advised they would have to endure darkness for the rest of the journey as the emergency lamps were left in the faulty Guard’s Van back in Forsayth.
At last the train was again moving and with three happy blasts on the whistle the aging engine strained into action and sped into the night at forty miles an hour, the sound of iron wheels over rail joints became hypnotic.
“You’re quiet,” Evan suggested as they travelling through the darkness and Petford siding without stopping. Travis sat at a window his gaze into the shadows beyond, his face illuminated by weak moonlight.
“I was thinking.”
“What about?”
“Mostly Bradley and his new property and believe it or not Greg.”
“Why Greg?” Evan asks.
“I suppose I feel sorry for him but as long as I can remember he was heading for disaster,” Travis yawned and stretched the journey from his body, “suppose we could catch up on some shut-eye,” he suggested.
“I’ve a better idea – what’s the next stop?” Evan asks.
“I should think Dimbulah but it only stops there if someone is getting on or off, so most probably Mareeba,” Travis curiously answered.
“I’ve never had sex on a train before,” Evan declared his face alive with a mischievous smirk.
“Neither have I but I did have a wank in the toilet on the Herberton railmotor back at school.” Travis offered shaking his head in disbelief for his friend’s suggestion.
“Who was it with?”
“Alone,”
“That doesn’t count as sex.”
“Then what does?”
“I suppose you need two, alone is just, well a waste of time, so what do you reckon?”
“Come here then you randy little bugger.” Travis answered as excitement towards Evan’s suggestion took away any reserve he may have felt.
Mareeba arrived as the sun brought life into the new day with a scurry of platform activity. There was the station porter and his whistle, then a second to help unload the meagre quantity of goods, calling out their intended destination as they did so, while the engine driver divulged the train’s problems to a team of fettlers and engineers.
“It’s ready for the scrap heap,” was heard over the hum of conversation beside the still hissing engine.
“I’ll try but can’t guarantee anything as well the new diesel engine is coming up from Cairns next week,” promised a second. A third stood by without comment on the obvious.
There was an atmosphere of resign about the station as if both rolling-stock and staff had come to realise that the Mareeba rail head would soon be gone. There would be goods for a time but trucks were now larger, stronger, and the roads well maintained and year by year the ribbons of tar stretched even further into the Gulf, while the family car with comforts was taking the place of the trusted land-rover and railway carriages without air-condition or proper windows to keep out the dust.
As the boys departed from the platform neither though of the railway’s future, they were much too excited by their own and their building relationship.
“You did let Bradley know we were coming?” Travis asks once clear of the station.
“Yes but I didn’t exactly say when.”
“Firstly we should visit our parents,” Travis suggested, thinking of the ordeal to come from his mother’s questioning.
“I don’t need to, they aren’t expecting me.” “You may not get along with yours but mine would kill me if I were in town and didn’t visit,” Travis complained, “seeing the railmotor for Tolga doesn’t leave until early afternoon, come home. We can have something to eat and a shower and give Bradley a call.”
“Will your mother mind if I turn up unannounced?”
“No but what is the story with your parents, of late you have been somewhat dismissive of them.”
“Mum is fine,” Evan says.
“Yes – and?”
“Dad hasn’t been the same since we came to Mareeba.”
“Why so?”
“Some is because in his old position as assistant manager there were work functions and he had importance but taking the promotion took him away from the highlife of a city and here although he was manager he had only three staff, then came the crunch and they closed the office and he became redundant.”
“That’s no excuse, if you have kids -,”
Evan cut Travis short, “that’s another point he never wanted kids,”
“So why did he marry?”
“He had too, I was the result of a quick romp in the back of his old man’s Valiant and possibly that is why he treats me worse than the others.”
“Still I think you should at least call in so they know you are alright.”
“Only because you ask,” Evan half agrees.
Gary’s stories are about life in Australia as a gay man. Your emails to him are the only payment he receives. Email Gary to let him know you are reading: Gary dot Conder at CastleRoland dot Net
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