there?
she yelled.
Jack Brown was surprised to see any human form after so long and especially a woman. He dismounted and walked his horse up to the fence line. She was already climbing up the rise to meet him.
Iâm Jack Brown
, he said.
I am looking for Fitzgerald Henry
.
Youâre Jack Brown?
she asked.
Yes
, he said,
Iâve an offer of employment from Mr. Henry.
He tapped his top pocket.
Iâm Jessie
, she said, surveying him. To him she looked steely and confused.
Keep heading down the track then
, she said,
and follow it till you get there.
She turned away suddenly and headed back towards the river.
Jack Brown mounted his horse.
Thank you
, he called after her. But she was already gone.
He steered his horse to the track and rode slowly, wondering who she was, if she was some forest dweller, some itinerant, and if he could expect to see her again.
He had set off from Sydney, where he had been convalescing for two months in a boardinghouse for ex-servicemen. The mood there was depressive and he was glad to leave it. It was filled with soldiers who had no family or wives or girlfriends waiting for them and they could not work immediately due to whatever injury they suffered. There were some single rooms, which were coveted, but otherwise they slept in bunk beds in a large dorm.
On Friday and Saturday afternoons most of the men would try to forget themselves by donning their army uniforms and cruising the pubs for good-looking girls before closing time in the early evening. Most often, Jack Brown was not allowed in because of the color of his skin so this usually meant smoking cigarettes outside before his party moved along to one speakeasy or another, where anyone could enter. If they arrived somewhere to find it shut down they would set up in a park or close to the harbor, which Jack Brown preferred.
Some of them began to partner off with the girls. One of the girls took Jack Brown on as her special project and one Saturday night she brought along a girlfriend for him. He thought the friend was attractive enough. She had big green eyes and yellow hair that was cut into a fashionable bob. She called herself a modern woman and she invited him back to her one-bedroom flat in Kings Cross and they went out for a picnic and once to a dance and once to the zoo.
For her, a modern womanâs best accessory was the hip flask she carried in her handbag. On the ferry ride to the zoo she swilled from the hip flask too many times.
Jack Brown
, she slurred,
I donât care if youâre black, white or brindle
, and she stuck her tongue in his ear. He felt so repulsed by her he thought he might prefer to swim across the shark-infested harbor rather than spend the rest of the day with her.
Aside from that, the city women kept such a pace Jack Brown did not think there was any use in catching one or keeping one when he knew the city was no place for him anyway.
And so he replied by letter to Fitzâs advertisement for an Aboriginal stockman, which he had found pinned up in the foyer of the boardinghouse. A couple of weeks later he received a letter from Fitz in return containing a hand-drawn map and instructions on how to find his property.
Jack Brown was nineteen years old and, aside from his years in the army and the stock work he had grown up doing on the property where his mother cooked and cleaned, this was his first real offer of employment.
After meeting my mother near the fence line of Fitzâs forest he made his way again along the track. Soon she came bolting past.She rode bareback and slipshod, like a man. She was all bones, and her hair whipped up and she raised her arm, a wave and a salute at the same time, and Jack Brown could not have guessed how familiar that sight would become, and how often he would find himself trailing behind her.
B efore Jack Brown appeared at the window of the station hut, Sergeant Andrew Barlow had been standing in the washroom naked except for his coat.
The
she yelled.
Jack Brown was surprised to see any human form after so long and especially a woman. He dismounted and walked his horse up to the fence line. She was already climbing up the rise to meet him.
Iâm Jack Brown
, he said.
I am looking for Fitzgerald Henry
.
Youâre Jack Brown?
she asked.
Yes
, he said,
Iâve an offer of employment from Mr. Henry.
He tapped his top pocket.
Iâm Jessie
, she said, surveying him. To him she looked steely and confused.
Keep heading down the track then
, she said,
and follow it till you get there.
She turned away suddenly and headed back towards the river.
Jack Brown mounted his horse.
Thank you
, he called after her. But she was already gone.
He steered his horse to the track and rode slowly, wondering who she was, if she was some forest dweller, some itinerant, and if he could expect to see her again.
He had set off from Sydney, where he had been convalescing for two months in a boardinghouse for ex-servicemen. The mood there was depressive and he was glad to leave it. It was filled with soldiers who had no family or wives or girlfriends waiting for them and they could not work immediately due to whatever injury they suffered. There were some single rooms, which were coveted, but otherwise they slept in bunk beds in a large dorm.
On Friday and Saturday afternoons most of the men would try to forget themselves by donning their army uniforms and cruising the pubs for good-looking girls before closing time in the early evening. Most often, Jack Brown was not allowed in because of the color of his skin so this usually meant smoking cigarettes outside before his party moved along to one speakeasy or another, where anyone could enter. If they arrived somewhere to find it shut down they would set up in a park or close to the harbor, which Jack Brown preferred.
Some of them began to partner off with the girls. One of the girls took Jack Brown on as her special project and one Saturday night she brought along a girlfriend for him. He thought the friend was attractive enough. She had big green eyes and yellow hair that was cut into a fashionable bob. She called herself a modern woman and she invited him back to her one-bedroom flat in Kings Cross and they went out for a picnic and once to a dance and once to the zoo.
For her, a modern womanâs best accessory was the hip flask she carried in her handbag. On the ferry ride to the zoo she swilled from the hip flask too many times.
Jack Brown
, she slurred,
I donât care if youâre black, white or brindle
, and she stuck her tongue in his ear. He felt so repulsed by her he thought he might prefer to swim across the shark-infested harbor rather than spend the rest of the day with her.
Aside from that, the city women kept such a pace Jack Brown did not think there was any use in catching one or keeping one when he knew the city was no place for him anyway.
And so he replied by letter to Fitzâs advertisement for an Aboriginal stockman, which he had found pinned up in the foyer of the boardinghouse. A couple of weeks later he received a letter from Fitz in return containing a hand-drawn map and instructions on how to find his property.
Jack Brown was nineteen years old and, aside from his years in the army and the stock work he had grown up doing on the property where his mother cooked and cleaned, this was his first real offer of employment.
After meeting my mother near the fence line of Fitzâs forest he made his way again along the track. Soon she came bolting past.She rode bareback and slipshod, like a man. She was all bones, and her hair whipped up and she raised her arm, a wave and a salute at the same time, and Jack Brown could not have guessed how familiar that sight would become, and how often he would find himself trailing behind her.
B efore Jack Brown appeared at the window of the station hut, Sergeant Andrew Barlow had been standing in the washroom naked except for his coat.
The
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