Chapter 28 – Re-meeting the Unknown J
About a month later Mark was in Katherine collecting mail from his mailbox. He had a small flat in the town which he stayed in for a few days a year. He used Katherine, more than any other place in the NT, as his base. It was at the crossroad to the Kimberley and not far down to the road to the Gulf and to Queensland. The road to the east of Arnhem Land, where he had first gained his crocodile totem, turned off not far down the highway, heading up through Mainoru and Bulman. Also it was not so far from here to the good cattle country of the Barkly and VRD where he did a lot of contracting. All in all it was a good place for a base, as he often passed through it on his way to other places.
After he got that opal money he had decided that it would be good to have a few places he could call his own. He was not much interested in blocks of land that someone had to maintain. But a flat that could be locked up and left without anyone to care for it suited him. So when he was in the NT he had places in Katherine and Alice Springs which he used when he needed them. The rest of the time they gave him a place to store things. He never rented them out because some of his things were private and he did not want others snooping around. Since he had found that big stash of opals he had money aplenty without needing to get rent. He did not need to work but he liked the purpose and satisfaction it gave him.
He had got to Katherine the day before yesterday and last night was his second night here. He planned two more nights here before he headed out to the VRD and on to Halls Creek for a series of jobs. His post office box in Katherine was the place where his phone bills and other business correspondence came.
So, not having checked it for more than a month, he thought he should call and clean it out. There was a man he paid a few dollars to do this when he was not around, but today he would attend to it himself.
He almost tripped over a girl who was sitting on the steps of the post office; she must have been half asleep the way she was sprawled out part blocking his way to the boxes at the side. She sat up with a start. As he did he realised with a jolt that he was looking at Josie.
He knew at once this was no accident. Somehow she had tracked him down here. He remembered there had been a couple missed calls on his mobile that had turned up a few days ago. No messages and he did not recognise the number, when he had called back there was nothing at the other end. Perhaps that had been her trying to ring him.
He remembered giving her the card with his mobile, this Post Box address and with the name Mark Butler on it. So she had come to find Mark Butler at the only place she knew.
He had known all along she was resourceful. Somehow he was not surprised she had tracked him down even if she had crossed the country to do it. He looked her over. She had cleaned herself up, cut her hair and was now wearing a nice dress and sandals; she actually looked good, easy on the eye. He felt a wave of affection for this girl; she had started off hard with a tough life so much like what he had lived as a child. So if she had come looking for his help he would help her gladly.
He sat down on the step next to her. “Well, fancy finding you here, not by chance on the other side of the country, I assume.”
She sat up straight and smiled at him, an almost dazzling smile. Then she said. “I wondered whether you would remember me, or if you did whether you would even speak to me. Part of me thought it was a bad idea. But then you seemed to like me and be kind. I thought, Sometimes you just have to go for the things you want.
“So I tried to ring a couple times and you did not answer. I thought then my best bet was to come here and wait until you showed. I have only been here for three days so far. So, all in all, that is pretty good. Plus, as a city girl, I wanted to see this place called “The Outback” that you kept telling me stories about. It took four days of hitching from Sydney but here I am and here you are.”
Mark stood up and reached out his hand for her. She took his hand and he pulled her up. “First things first, I don’t know if you still have that great appetite from last time I saw you. But I am famished. I decided to call here before I went up town to buy breakfast. That way I could sit and read my mail over a cup of coffee. So I am hungry for a big plate of bacon and eggs, what about you? After we eat you can tell me your news.”
Josie nodded. “That sounds real good Mister.”
Mark looked at her and smiled again. This girl brought out kindness in him. “Josie, my name is Mark, please call me Mark. That is the name my friends call me, or sometimes MB or Mark B, but none call me Mister.”
“OK, I will try and remember to call you Mark.”
Over breakfast Mark told her his news. He had spent three weeks working in central Queensland fixing up broken houses in an aboriginal community, then a week at a mine in Tennant Creek. He had arrived the night before last. Then he looked at Josie, “Your turn now.”
She said, “When you told me that story of how you made good it got me to thinking. I realised that I don’t need to run and hide from my Mum anymore. Sure she made me do some real bad stuff, but now I am grown up I can look after myself.
“So I moved back with her, except I don’t do the men things for her anymore. But, at least I can take some of her social security money each week, buy food and cook it for us both, and there still is some money for her grog and other things, no point me trying to stop that.
“So I started to look for some courses I could do, like you said, start to do TAFE courses and get a proper job, one where I have money for myself without being on the game. That way I don’t have to do the sex stuff with men except those I like. I even used some of the money you gave me to buy new clothes.
“Then I found a fashion course that I want to do, like in TAFE but in a private college. It starts in a bit over a month from now. Only trouble is it costs ten thousand dollars and I don’t have ten thousand dollars. Sure I could make it on the game but I don’t want to do that anymore either.
“So that is when I remembered about your promise to help me, just to lend me the money until I can pay it back from a real job. So I tried to ring you. Maybe I should have sent a text or left a message, but it was from my mother’s phone and I didn’t want her knowing or her getting her claws into you, she would try if she thought you had money. Her phone almost never has credit, but I bought twenty dollars and for two days she did not notice as it had been left in the drawer. Then on the third day she found it and used up the rest of the credit so I could not ring again.
“So I thought that, rather than keep trying to ring you, it was better if I came and found you at the place where your card said. I did not know it was so far and a few times I felt a right dork for coming. But once I started I could not bear to go back without trying. So here I am.”
Mark laid his hand on her arm. “Of course you must have the money for your course, I am happy to give it to you to keep, but if you prefer it to be a loan that is fine too. I am glad you have gone back home though I think you might be better off if you rent a place of your own. It might be hard to study if you are staying with your Mum and she gets drunk. So how about I organise to rent a small flat for you, somewhere not too far from where your Mum lives? You can stay there until after you have finished your course and can decide what you want to do from there.”
Josie nodded, “That would be real kind, Mister, Mark”
With breakfast finished Mark told her he had to do a bit of business in the town. He asked where she was staying.
Josie looked a bit shamefaced. “Well I used up my money getting here, so the last couple nights I just found a place down on the river. There were some abos camping there. They shared their food with me and let me sleep near the fire. They even gave me an old blanket to cover me so I could take my dress off, cause I only have the one good dress and did not want to get it dirty before you met me.
Mark found himself amazed at the pluck of this girl, to travel across the country with almost nothing; it was foolhardy, but admirable. He looked at her; she had an awkward sh
y smile as if waiting to see what he said. He patted her arm again. “Josie, you did great. I am so proud of you.”
She beamed with pleasure, realising she had done alright.
Mark said, “OK now I need to take you shopping. There is a spare bedroom in my flat. So you can stay there for the next couple nights while I am in town. And we must buy you some more clothes. I don’t know much about women’s clothes but there are quite a few shops in the main street so I am sure we can find somewhere to help.”
By lunchtime she had a new wardrobe, and he brought her back to the flat, showing her to her room and also where other things were.
Then he said, “I have to go out for a few hours but I will be back before dark.”
He gave her a key and told her directions to the main street where the shops were. Then he gave her $100 and told her to spend it on anything she needed as there was not much in the flat. He suggested she make herself at home, she could even think about something for dinner if she wanted, though he was happy to eat out.
As he went to leave he called back. “Josie, don’t run away on me now. I am looking forward to our dinner and you telling me more of your plans.”
She smiled and waved and even blew him a playful kiss.
As Mark drove away, he had to head down to Mataranka for the afternoon, he found himself wondering about the way this girl had just breezed into his life. She was an enigma, both shy and confident. There was a hard edge to her which he had yet to plumb but there was also a kindness, particularly for someone who had grown up on the wrong side of the street. He really wanted to help her make a new and good life, it was as if he was acting like the uncle she had never really known and giving her a leg up. She was also much prettier than he first realised, not quite beautiful, but with a lovely smile which lit up her face. He realised he actually liked having her around. Never before had he allowed anyone into his place and yet he had instantly given her the keys with no restrictions and without a second thought.
It was strange to trust someone he did not really know, but then in a way he felt he had known her all his life, a sort of kid sister who had come up the hard way, just like him.
The next two days passed in domestic harmony. Josie cooked meals and went out around the town during the day and came back with both food and other little treasures with which she decorated the flat, some flowers, a painting from someone in the street who was trying to support themself, some brightly coloured stones which she put in a bowl in the middle of the table.
He found he liked having her around, she was good company and easy to talk to now that she had relaxed in his company. Now that she had nice clothes and made herself up, she was also seriously sexy, she knew she was aware of that part of herself and was enjoying him becoming aware of it too. He tried just to think of her as his kid sister, but it was getting hard.
On the third night, he fell asleep in his chair after dinner, tired after a long day out. She woke him up after a while and took his hand and led him into his bedroom. She climbed in beside him, taking off her clothes as she did, and then unbuttoning his shirt and undressing him too. In that way they become lovers and it was surprisingly good. She was not the soul-mate that Belle had been, but joining his body to hers felt good and she was experienced in many ways to pleasure a man.
He also marvelled at her creative flair. She had taken to drawing pictures and she had a real gift for it, mostly of beautiful ladies with beautiful clothes. She bought fashion magazines and improved on the pictures she saw there. She had also started to make little things out of pieces of fabric, mixing colours and shapes into exquisite little objects, some clothing like, some decorative. He gained a strong impression that this girl could go far, she had such an obvious flair for colour, design and creating beauty from whatever was to hand.
So he stayed for an extra two days in town enjoying being with her. It was in his mind to give her the money she needed and send her on her way to get on with her life in the city. He felt she was a city girl at heart and needed to return to where she belonged. On the fifth day he brought her into the bank, set up an account in her name and deposited fifteen thousand dollars in it, along with an instruction to transfer five hundred dollars a week, for a further year, from his funds into her account. He figured that would give her enough to allow her to live comfortably for the year and it was better to give her the money in a steady stream lest her mother somehow got hold of it, if it was all in a lump sum.
As they walked outside the bank into the hot Katherine midday sun, she thanked him with tears in her eyes, saying, “You are the kindest man I have ever met. I really want to stay on here in Katherine with you, not to go back to Sydney, don’t you like me staying with you.”
Mark put his arm around her shoulder; he felt great affection for this waif of a girl. “Josie, I can’t pretend I don’t like having you around and I particularly like sharing my nights with you. You are really something, and with so much ability that needs to be given the chance to grow. You are like the kid sister I never had, and I so much want to see you get on with your life. I want to see you succeed and still stay the best of friends.
“But I am a boy from the bush and you are a city girl. There is nothing for a girl with all your ability out here. I really think you should grasp the opportunity to make a new life in the city, go to fashion college, get a qualification, then get a job that pays good money and get on with living.
“I will look forward to coming to see you every time I get the chance to visit the city. In time you will meet a man who is much better for you than I could ever be, get married, have children and live in a nice house. You can have all this if you set your mind to it and work hard.”
As he spoke Mark could see a hurt look come into Josie’s eyes, a wild animal look, as if that trusted hand that fed it had now rejected her.
She replied, “Could I not just stay on here for a while, I know you need to go bush and do work and I would love to come out with you and see these outback places, maybe even help you. The rest of the time I would be happy just to stay here, make your house nice for you, cook you nice food and give you pleasure in the nights.”
Mark glimpsed real pain in her face; she was getting in far too deep, getting attached to him. He liked her and wanted good things for her. But he was not ready to share his life with her. She was too like him, a wild animal, used to treating life as an adversary and dangerous if she did not get what she wanted. He knew that her idea of living here with him would not work. In a month, or two, or maybe three, it would become boring. She needed to take the chance he offered and make good.
He said, “Josie, it just would not work, you staying on here. I am almost never at home; these last five days are the longest I have spent in this place in more than a year. I would come and see you more in Sydney than if you stayed here, and you would be learning there, using all your creative flair to make a life that you like and find interesting.”
As he spoke this time it was as if shutters came down over her eyes, she had offered herself to him on any terms he would take her and now she understood he did not really want her at all. Now she pulled herself together, trying to cover the hurt, stood straight and smiled brightly. “Well at least you must to take me bush for a few days before I leave. Having come all this way I still want to see the outback. I will not get in the way if you let me come along for a few days.
Mark thought, what the hell, she was good company and he liked being with her. He was due to go out to the southern VRD, doing work on Wave Hill and Kalkaringi for four days before he headed up the Duncan Highway, through Rosewood Station to Kununurra for two days before he came back to Katherine for a night before heading east to the Gulf.
It would not hurt to bring her along; he knew she was smart and would not get in the way and she would give him pleasure in the nights. He nodded and grinned. “OK, deal, I have a week’s work out west. You can come along so long as you promise to jump on a bus or plane to Sydney to do your co
urse once we get back to town.”
She smiled and nodded her head, her smile seemed too bright and brittle, as if covering hurt, but he hoped that would pass.