Part 81 (1/2)
Larissa paled. ”For heaven's sake. How did the medical kit help you with that?”
”It didn't.” Billy-O laughed. ”But the fall only happened because I didn't have the kit. Every other mishap I've had since has been mild by comparison. Because now I always bring it.”
”All right, Mr. Superst.i.tious,” said Kai, tying the small kit to the rigging ring in front of him. ”Does it actually have anything in it, or is it just a talisman placebo?”
”It's got some s.h.i.+t. A Band-Aid. Some aspirin, Super-glue for the big stuff, like my head, and an anti-venom syringe for the really nasty motherf.u.c.kers out there.” He grinned. ”Pardon my French.”
”Right. Now, can we go?”
”Kai, do you have your phone?” Larissa asked.
”I do, but it's out of power,” he replied. ”I forgot to put it on the charger yesterday.”
”Don't worry, Larissa,” Billy said cheerfully, ”there's no signal where you're going even if you did have a full charge.” He patted the neck of Larissa's pale horse. ”All right, you. Be good for the missus. And remember, however long you spend heading out, it'll take you that plus another half-hour to get back.”
”Billy! I know.” Kai sounded exasperated. ”I've been out fifty times. I know the drill. We just need to time the ride for breaks, for mileage, and for scenic view points. I'm on it.”
”I'm just saying. Come back before the heat in mid-afternoon. You have a compa.s.s?”
”Don't need one. I know where I'm going. Come on, Larissa.”
Billy's hand reluctantly left the horse's neck. ”Larissa, be careful,” he said. ”I told Kai he had to bring back the horses, but I said nothing about the riders.” He grinned. ”Seriously, though, always hold the reins, okay, when you drive the horse.”
”Don't worry, Billy.” Squeezing the reins with one hand, Larissa leaned down and patted the little man on his plaid-s.h.i.+rted shoulder. She was changing her mind about Billy-O. He was a decent dude.
”Don't forget to gently cue her,” he went on. ”Not rough, okay? s.h.i.+loh needs the mildest instruction. Do you know how to use the anti-venom syringe?”
”Bill, for f.u.c.k's sake!” exclaimed Kai. ”We're not getting off the horses. There and back in four hours, stop clucking like a mother hen!”
”Billy,” Larissa smiled, ”forget about your mustering run. Just saddle up and come with us. Will that make you feel better?”
”Love to, but can't. I need to go to my own execution. Kelvin is about to kill me for being three hours late. Don't take your hats off, you'll get heat stroke.” He tipped his own hat to Larissa. Kai was already clopping ahead. Billy gave s.h.i.+loh a nudge in the quarters, and Larissa's horse rocked from side to side as it lurched forward.
Being on a horse when you're tired is terrible. The legs have to do so much to control the horse and to carry you slightly upward to protect you from the horse's constant rocking bounce. Larissa's right palm that dug tightly into the horn was sore, the left arm, slightly outstretched holding the reins was sore. After an hour of driving the horse through the dusty plain, Larissa was done. Kai was in front of her, marking the trail. All she saw was his back in a Jim Morrison ”Riders on the Storm” T-s.h.i.+rt, almost as though they were on his Ducati, except they were on horses, separated by ten feet of desert. He kept stopping, writing things down in the trail journal, moving on. He rarely glanced back to check on her. The cypress and the mallee were spa.r.s.e and far away. The blue-bush gra.s.ses were near, boulders, pebbles, uneven terrain, sand, stone, clay, blistering sun, not a cloud in the sky.
”I thought you told me Pooncarie was a river port town?” said Larissa.
”I did,” he said. ”It was.”
”Was? Like, what? Forty thousand years ago when the Aborigines ruled the wetlands? And you know, in Jersey, the dinosaurs once roamed the earth. I don't say, yeah, Summit is a prehistoric Jura.s.sic town.”
”You could say it. I wouldn't care.”
”It's misleading is all.” Because this is what Larissa was going to waste her precious breath on. Kai's ability for dissembling.
Every once in a while when she reached down to grab the water flask, the leaning over made her feel as if she were losing her balance, so she put up with unquenched thirst to continue sitting steady and straight in the saddle. s.h.i.+loh scared her. Sure the animal walked meekly now, but Larissa suspected that had nothing to do with her, and if suddenly the Waler decided to bolt, to careen from side to side, or to kick back on its hind hocks with a loud neigh, there would be nothing she could do. Pulling her wide-brim Stylemaster over her face and wrapping the reins around her wrist, Larissa held on to the horn as tightly as she could. She wasn't driving the horse. The horse was driving her. They were riders on two of the four horses in the Book of Revelation. What did the colors of the Apocalypse mean? She had studied the lines for a Great Swamp Revue soliloquy at the same time Evelyn was studying Job. How handy. Kai's red horse was what? War? And there went out another horse that was red, and power was given to himato take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another: and there was given unto him a great sword. And what of her own pale horse? Larissa didn't want to think about it for a second further. Was that the Hippos Thanatos?aAnd I beheld, and lo, a pale horseaand Hades followed with him.
Ridiculous. Look at Kai, take an example from him, how relaxed he was. Clearly three months in the bush made him comfortable in the saddle. He wore his riding boots, his big Akubra to keep out the suns.h.i.+ne. And there was some fierce suns.h.i.+ne.
But it felt as though she were three years on the horse. Her legs were so sore.
”What time is it?” she called to him.
”Eleven.”
Only eleven! ”You want to stop soon?”
”Not yet. Stop drinking so much. Then you won't need to stop. And hold on to your horse.” Kai glanced back. ”Don't tie up your wrist in the reins,” he said. ”If something happensa”
”What can happen?”
”A million things, Larissa. The horse can see a snake. They get startled by snakes and make sudden jostled moves. You heard Billy-O. If you fall off the horse and your wrists are tangled in the leather, s.h.i.+loh will drag you for a mile before she stops galloping. So do yourself a favor, okay, and don't wrap the reins around your wrists.”
The side-to-side motion of the horse's hind quarters worried Larissa needlessly. She felt like an uncooked egg on top of a car that was about to race down an unpaved road. ”What kind of snakes are around here?”
”King Brown everywhere in Australia, including here,” Kai replied. ”But it just so happens that in this part of Mungo, there is a small narrow habitat for the very uncommon inland taipan. The only location for it for hundreds of miles, by the way. Isn't that amazing?”
When they first got to Australia, both she and Kai had been fascinated by the plethora of dangerous, poisonous, extreme wildlife abundant in the country. That pa.s.sed. But Larissa remembered well the inland taipan, cousin to the western taipan, the most venomous snake in the world.
”We're not getting off the horses, so quit worrying.”
But this was the thing. Larissa was worried. She needed to get off the horse to rest her limbs. She was getting hotter and increasingly achy. Her legs in the constantly extended position kept hurting without relief. Much like her heart was hurting, and it wasn't even in the saddle. She hated it here, hated everything about this place. She would rather live a thousand lives in Che's broken-down shanty than spend another day in this burnt-out wilderness.
She kicked her horse awkwardly to speed up a little to sidle up next to Kai so they could ride neck in neck. They did. Silently.
After a while he said, ”We'll turn around soon. I really want to get to the Great Wall of China dunes. What a treat that would be for the tourists.”
”It wouldn't be a treat,” she said. ”It'd be torture. Like it is for me.”
”That much's obvious,” he retorted instantly.
”I hate it here. I want to leave as soon as we get back.”
”You can leave any time you want,” Kai said. ”You could always leave any time you wanted. I don't know why you didn't.”
”I like your friend Billy very much,” Larissa said, ignoring him, not responding to him. ”I was wrong about him. He's a good guy.”
Kai didn't say anything for a few minutes. They stretched out the mute moments in a times.p.a.ce continuum around them. Clomp, clop, heat, silence. They were both looking ahead at the desert, not at each other.
”Larissa,” Kai said. ”I'm not going back to Jindabyne.”
”What?”
”I'm not. I don't want to. I want to make a new life here.”
”Here where?” she gasped. ”In Billy's house?
”Noain my own house. There's a little place I found, near the stables. I want to stay. Run the trail ride business.”
”You want to run the trail ride business, do you?” Larissa squeezed the reins into her fist. Had the horn not been made of durable leather, it would've burst under the stress of her clenched hand. ”Tell me, was this trail ride business really Billy's ideaa”or was it yours?”