Chapter 30
Chapter Thirty
T he next morning, she woke early to someone banging on the front door. It was Katrina, and she carried in a basket of fruit, flowers and a bottle of wine. She hugged Evie as if she had always known her. ‘I haven’t seen you since you were a new baby. Gosh, you’re adorable. Lucky to get your father’s beautiful olive skin and dark eyes. Not that there is anything wrong with the way your mother looks.’
Katrina had long, blonde dreadlocks that came to below her waist. Her tanned face was smattered with freckles and long, dangling earrings matched her tie-dyed sarong. She wore nothing on her feet, and Evie couldn’t help but stare at the tattoos that covered a part of her arm. Mother’s friend was a hippie. Evie liked her. She was the opposite of Mother — completely unreserved. She was what Layla would call, out there . ‘I could have told you years ago Carlo was gay. I could pick it a mile away. Thank goodness you’ve both pulled the pin.’ Evie inhaled sharply at Katrina’s next words. ‘Don’t worry, Maya. There’ll be plenty of men around here knocking on your door once they know you’re single.
Mother held the bunch of flowers that looked like they had been picked from the trees nearby. Evie pulled a timber vase out from under the sink, as her mother grimaced. ‘Good grief, Katrina. That is the last thing I want. I didn’t move here to find a man. I’ve moved here to get away from them.’
Two of them, Evie thought.
‘You’re only young. You don’t need to find a husband. Just have a good time.’ She winked at Evie. ‘You know what I mean. How old are you now, Evie? Fifteen, sixteen? You know what I’m talking about. Your mother needs to get laid.’
‘Katrina. Enough. We, well, I don’t talk like that around Evie. She’s only young and she’s a good girl.’
Katrina bumped her hip up against Evie’s. ‘She’s the perfect age. You should go for it, Evie. You’re only young once. Look at us two. We both wish we looked like you. Why I’d be spreading my …’
‘Katrina,’ Mother yelled. ‘Stop!’
Katrina looked a bit bashful. ‘Sorry, I’m just excited you’re here. Plenty of time for me to introduce you to everyone, and I’ll make sure Evie meets some of the younger mob before she begins school in Mossman next year. That way she’ll have friends before she starts.’
Katrina cupped her hands around Evie’s face. ‘Would you like that?’
She couldn’t help but smile. ‘I would. Thank you.’
The three of them sat out the back, around an old cast iron table and chairs that perched on the grass. Katrina had wiped them over with a rag and was now filling three cups with tea from a large teapot. There were a couple of stairs that led down from the kitchen to a path made from flat rocks that had moss growing around the edges of them. When Evie looked up, the sky was nearly entirely blocked by the rainforest trees that were full of parrots and other birds that called out to each other. ‘Mould and moss are a problem here, and once this wet season really sets in, you’ll understand why.’
‘Does it flood here?’ Evie asked as she looked down the backyard towards a small creek that ran along the fence line. At the moment the waterway was only a trickle of water, but the banks were a lot higher than the water, and she could imagine what it would be like after a lot of rain.
‘You’re in the tropical north. We get more rain than Cairns. Sometimes sixteen inches a month, and that’s when there isn’t a cyclone. See that path at the back there, through that gate? If you follow that for a couple of miles, it’ll wind through the rainforest and eventually come out at the beach. There’s no one around.’ She looked towards Evie. ‘No need for togs here. Everyone just goes naked.’
Evie nearly spat her mouthful of tea out. She was a prude when it came to nudity, and there would be no way she’d be going anywhere without being fully clothed, or at least in bikinis.
‘There’s a commune further down the road you came in on last night. They’ve been trying to close it down, but no one is budging. They’re just living with the earth and the trees. Not hurting anyone. ’
‘Why do they want to close it down,’ Evie asked, curious as she had never seen a commune before.
‘No proper toilets, so they say it’s unsanitary and a health risk. It’s crown land though, so they’re not trespassing.’
Mother looked around the yard. ‘It’s safe here, isn’t it? You assured me it is.’
Katrina flung her head back and laughed, her dreadlocks shaking with her body. ‘Safe as houses. No one even has locks on their doors. Half the mob on the block across the road from you, live in teepees and shelters they’ve made themselves out of palm fronds and branches. It’s very safe.’
‘How will I get to school from here?’ Evie asked.
‘The school bus comes to the corner. You don’t have to walk far. You’ll meet kids from the commune and across the road. They all walk up the road together in the mornings and afternoons. They’re a friendly lot.’
The matter of enrolling in a school was going to have to wait until the new year. Everything was shut for the holidays, so thankfully Evie wouldn’t have to think about that for a few weeks.
As they waved goodbye to Katrina, she thought how natural and honest she was. She had not treated Evie like a child, and when Mother disappeared to make another cup of tea, she had talked to Evie like an adult. ‘Jeremiah’s the local bloke if you or your mum want any weed. He only has good stuff. Your mum probably won’t want any, but you never know, she might convert to our free style of living. Just remember, if you want anything you ask me. Jeremiah, as in Jeremiah was a bullfrog,’ she laughed at her own joke, ‘he also takes care of making sure everyone is safe when it floods. Make sure you have supplies for when that happens. Reeco and Mundy own the bait shop. You’ll see it up further. They can get you anything you want. Saves driving into the big smoke.’
When her mother returned, they sat and talked for a bit longer. ‘I’ll need to get a job. I can’t rely on Carlo for money forever. He’s been very good, and he’ll pay for Evie’s things, but I need to have some money.’
‘What sort of job?’ Katrina asked.
‘Anything but cleaning, or to do with schools. I want to try something new.’
‘There might be some work going at the resort. You’d have to catch a boat over to where it is, but it’s only a short drive to the dock. They were after office workers a while back. I know the fella who runs it. I’ll find out for you.’
When Katrina left, Evie’s mind was spinning. So much to take in and adjust to. This was going to be a very different lifestyle from what they were used to.
When she went to bed that night, she watched geckos run across her ceiling. They were drawn to the moths that fluttered around her wall lamp, and several of them scampered back and forth trying to catch one of the bugs that hovered nearby. There appeared to be a plague of bugs here, and although there were screens on the windows, it didn’t seem to stop them. She turned the lamp off. There were too many annoying insects to keep reading. Lying in the dark, she listened to the silence. She wondered what Layla was doing. Had she found out that Evie had left town? Her thoughts drifted to all the people she had left behind. What was Chris doing? Maybe he was rolling around on his bedroom floor again with Geraldine.
Cicadas started up just outside her window, the silence broken by their regular, high-pitched calls. Hopefully tomorrow would be sunny, because she wanted to walk up the road and have a look around. Mother was going to be busy arranging the house and seeing what else they needed. Reaching down, she pushed play on her cassette player. The tape was a mixture of ‘explosive hits’, but she only listened for a moment, until the lyrics of ‘Evie’ started. She pushed the stop button hard and the cassette player fell over, the noise as it hit the floorboards reverberating around her bedroom. That was the last song she needed to hear.