CHAPTER 72
“Let’s get another round of brews in, then”

I did the business with Des, then nodded at Bobby.

“Right. You will all know where my family’s from, but it’s how we got here that’s the thing. My dad was just a kid when his parents left. It was panic time, ey? Grandpa had been a liaison bloke with the Aussie forces, and when it all turned to shit, they got him out before the Cong or the NVA could grab him. You’ve all seen that video of the prisoner being casually shot in the head? Yeah, that was the South, but what he’d been caught doing was just as bad. Loads of not-nice folks both sides, but my family was lucky. Australia got us out, settled us, Grandpa set up a seven-eleven in Freo.

“Mum, though, that was really shitty. We never found out what happened to her Dad, but her Mum took her on a boat. Get out of the country, in an overloaded boat, just sail as far as you can, sometimes hit land, sometimes get picked up, all too bloody often just die”

He lowered his voice to a snarl. A quiet one, but still a snarl.

“Every time that Nazi bitch in Queensland opens her trap to talk about bloody invasions, I just wish she could bloody find out, in as hard a way as possible, ey? First bloody hand. Anyway, sorry”

He paused for some calming breaths.

“Mum and Nan were two of a few that were picked up somewhere between Malaysia and Vietnam. A freighter doing a run from Thailand to Dampier. Didn’t have that much room on board, but as most of the rest were already dead, that didn’t matter. Did what they could, called up the Malays and left them to deal with the messy bits, Mum and Nan ended up in a shelter here, and the rest is history. Thing is that Grandpa and Nan Nguyen spoke English already, Nan Pham never really got the hang of it, but Mum made a real effort. I mean, you know my sis, Val: she’s about as ocker as you can get”

I laughed, saying, “I had noticed, mate”, and he grinned, much happier.

“You ought to hear her when she’s watching the Dockers! Anyway, we’re Aussies, and scuse my French, fuck Queensland’s finest, so are other new Aussies. They don’t all speak English, though…”

Maz burst out laughing.

“You devious bastard, Bobby! You have a language scheme, don’t you?”

“We do”

“Which employs people to, well, to teach English as a foreign language, am I right?”

He nodded, but Maz hadn’t finished. Keeping her own voice low, she asked the obvious question.

“How ethical would it be?”

“Ah, love, not really at all, but there are ways. Mike had a girl staying with him and Ish while you were… Before we brought you home”

“Alys, yes. Lovely girl, lovely wife, lovely bloody family”

I realised her eyes were a little moist, so I took her hand.

“My darling man, as well as a bloody frightening police woman, told me how it was Alys and co who stirred the pot, and I will also say that the time we spent with them, it probably did a lot of healing, both me and our little girl. I owe her more than I can repay”

Bobby took her other hand.

“That scary police woman, Diane, she was talking about stuff while we worked on things, and she used a phrase for payback, and for revenge, cuts both ways, good and bad. Let people see that you’ve had a good life, lived well. Leaves your friends happy, and really pisses off your enemies”

Another happy laugh from him.

“You should have seen her face when Carolyn came out! I’m sure she was trying to find her night stick or taser or whatever they get”

Maz laughed in turn.

“Yes indeed. We watched the footage on that BBC documentary, and it was Ish who spotted her hands going to where her baton would have been. I mean, she’s sweet as anything with their kids, but god help anyone she takes against”

“You got a copy of that programme, then?”

“Yeah. Tom Edwards, the producer, sent us a disc”

“Could I borrow it?”

I decided to break in.

“We can do better than that, mate. Why don’t you ask around the people with an interest, and we watch it together at ours?”

“You suggesting a few cold ones, by any chance?”

“Oh, of course”

“Mind if I shout Val and Phil?”

“Course not. Just need you to sort some times out to suit people. The boy’s away, though, with his girl, as you know”

“I was just thinking, mate. On their own?”

“Both adults, Bobby. They’re driving north in stages, letting Clara see a bit more of the country. We’ve done Maggie River and the south coast with her, and she’s only just stopped working on the Rotto ferry, so they’re scouting out the other side”

“How far per stage?”

“Broome, as we said, at the end, and first stage was Lancelin, then Geraldton. I suspect the stages will get longer as Ish gets used to the driving. If they do get to Broome, we’ll fly up for a few days”

“It’s an odd place, Mike. I think you’d like it, though. Back to the girl: I know Alys was on an academic exchange visa, okay?”

“You know a lot about us, mate”

“Yeah, well, mixture of looking up stuff while we were trying to find Maz and checking you out before my lot signed any contracts. Due diligence, ey? Anyway, like I said: depending on how she does, we might have a sort of starter place for her in the Uni, like a trainee crossed with an assistant. See how she does. And, yes, before you ask, I’ve run this past Colleen’s bloke, just to confirm what the rules are if she decides to stay in Australia. No, Maz: not unethical that time. We just need to be sure she’s on a visa that allows for things like that. How is your boy with her? Loved up, you say?”

“Honestly? Completely besotted; she’s the same. That’s one of the reasons we’ve sent them off on their own. Very different situation to having us with them. Let them do proper couple stuff, see how it works”

“You’re so relaxed, Mike!”

“Not really, Bobby. It’s just that all of us lost so much, so many years, and I’m only just starting to realise how much the lad did for me in the bad times, how lost I was. He’s got a chance at happiness now; might work, might turn nasty, but he’ll never know unless we give him the opportunity. I did make sure of one thing, though, and that was getting him driving well before his birthday. I wanted him to have at least a little road sense”

“And no worries about him getting her up the duff?”

Ah. Not quite as detailed as a search as he thought, then.

“No, mate, he won’t be getting her pregnant. And that definitely isn’t Clara’s style”

Maz was trying to smother a grin, but it was insistent on breaking free.

“You joke, but with Carolyn calling Clara her sister, that’ll be three of the sods calling me ‘Mum’, and it’s a bit early to be hearing ‘Grandma’, at least for me. So, what do we need to do?”

Bobby shrugged.

“We’re talking about three years’ time, Maz, so things could change big style. New governments, new priorities. What we can do is promise to keep an eye on the rules, just in case, as long as you keep us up to speed on how the kids are”

Colleen spoke up, breaking a long silence.

“You can be too much of a bloke sometimes, Nguyen. What he’s forgotten to say, Maz, is that we mainly want to know what’s going on with them because we’re bloody mates, ey? Simple as. Now, where exactly are they heading for? Bit more current than three years’ time, that”

“Broome, ultimately, as we said, but they want to see Ningaloo and Shark Bay, and ish was talking about an even longer drive, to Wolfe Creek”

“Strewth! Best to have a four-wheel-drive for that one, lot of it’s unmade roads, and if it rains, he’ll be stuck. It’s a bloody long way from Broome; almost halfway to bloody Alice, that place. Why there?”

“Ish has always been into science fiction, and it’s a meteorite crater. Enough said”

Colleen was tapping at her phone.

“Looked it up. Over eight hundred kilometres”

She showed us the screen, and Maz pointed at a small blue dot somewhere to the south of the crater.

“What’s that?”

“First People’s land, that. It’s a bird reserve; natural lake”

My wife’s eyes lit up, but before she could ask the obvious question, I simply said, “Could you scroll out on the map, please, Colleen? Right, Maz. This is WA. Get an idea of how far
‘a little trip’ to that lake would be? How much water we would need to carry? And food?”

I could tell, though, that seed had taken firm root, and resigned myself to the fact that at some point I would end up talking to Rod about four-wheel-drive vehicles.

Me. A dyed-in-the-wool biker, in a Wankpanzer. Could I bear the shame?