The Dog with Seven Names Page 8

  I howled.

  Lee Wah hurried in from his room next door. ‘Hey, Gengi, everything’s okay.’

  He sat on the floor stroking my ears and belly until I fell asleep again.

  In the morning, I saw that it wasn’t a bad dream. My front leg was missing. I remembered Beth and whined as I understood that it really was possible to lose a leg.

  Lee Wah fed me soft pieces of mutton and crooned words in his kind voice. I couldn’t get up so he changed the newspaper under me when I dirtied it. I waited to be scolded but Lee Wah smiled and said, ‘No problem, Gengi.’

  I stayed in my pen in the darkest corner of Lee Wah’s kitchen. Every morning Doc came to check my wounds and Matron changed the dressings. Fred sat beside my cage when he had time between jobs. No one had made such a fuss of me since Elsie.

  When they’d all gone, Lee Wah fed me treats and whispered, ‘You still have three legs, Gengi. You’ll be all right.’

  One night when Lee Wah finished cleaning his saucepans, he carried me into the yard, put an old cloth under my belly and helped me stand. I fell over. Lee Wah lifted me again and then again. I kept falling. He tried again the next day. At last, when I was able to wobble alone for a moment, Lee Wah gave me a treat.

  Every day we played the wobble game. Lee Wah held me steady then, after I could stand, he tried to make me hop on three legs. I thought about Beth as I stumbled and was glad that Doc had been able to save her leg. Balancing on three was tricky. Standing on one leg would be impossible.

  Lee Wah stayed near me and slowly I became stronger. Every day we practised. Doc said I would have scars and a limp, but that soon I’d be walking well. Lee Wah’s care made me feel safe, maybe that was how Beth and Hendrik felt when I stayed near them. My tail wagged when I thought that.

  Doc guessed from the marks on my face that a bird had attacked me. For a while, one eye could only see blurry shapes, but Doc shone a light into it and said that in time it should heal.

  ‘You’re lucky to be alive, Gengi,’ Lee Wah said afterwards. ‘And Doc can fix you. You see, Golden-eyes do bring you good luck.’

  While I was stuck in the cage, Lee Wah spoilt me with meaty scraps, but when I tried to chew off my bandages, he smacked my nose and said, ‘No, Gengi. Doc saved you. Don’t spoil his clever work.’

  My balance was wonky, but Lee Wah was patient. He showed me how to change my weight. Soon I was able to hobble about on my own. After a while I could even run short distances. However my fear of birds took longer to heal. I stopped chasing parrots and whenever I heard wings, I cringed and curled into a ball.

  Lee Wah hung shiny paper above his vegetable garden to scare away the birds. Every morning he scattered tea leaves around his plants then watered them carefully. Sometimes he waved a good luck statue over the garden. The cyclone had ripped branches from trees and shrubs, but Lee Wah’s vegetables had survived.

  ‘They’re tough,’ he said. ‘Like me.’

  ‘And battered,’ Fred joked, tickling my ears. ‘Like you, Gengi-Flynn.’

  While my wounds healed, I heard Doc storming around. He was waiting for a reply from the Prime Minister. Lee Wah laughed and said, ‘Doc misses his wings like you’re missing your leg.’

  Doc told anyone who’d listen that his remote patients needed treatment and that he could only get to them by air. One day I heard him shout into the radio that, ‘If there’s an emergency, someone will die.’

  ‘And with war coming closer,’ Matron muttered, ‘an emergency is likely.’

  Lee Wah’s kitchen was peaceful. I loved resting on the floor listening to him chat while he cooked.

  ‘That cyclone flooded everything while you slept,’ he told me, ‘and left rotting fish all over the beach. The hospital almost blew away. You must have known, eh, Gengi!’

  Fred gathered some of the washed-up fish for Lee Wah’s garden. He said they’d make a bonzer fertiliser. When Matron found out, she made Fred bury the fish. By then the smell was so bad that even I didn’t want to dig them up.

  I listened to Fred and Lee Wah share stories about other cyclones.

  ‘Good thing the surge wasn’t as bad as ’39,’ Fred said as I snapped at mosquitoes. ‘Remember when that hotel fridge bobbed down the main street?’

  Lee Wah nodded. ‘Like a big cork.’

  ‘And then after the rain stopped, that old bloke found a cask of beer, miles inland.’

  ‘He said the beer still tasted okay. It was a terrible time, but hey, Fred, some of it was funny.’

  The air in Lee Wah’s kitchen was rich with interesting smells, and not just the lamb broth that he cooked for the patients. Every morning Lee Wah made soft warm damper. Sometimes he gave me a crust.

  ‘What you think, Gengi, too much salt?’

  I thumped my tail. His damper always tasted good to me.

  As Lee Wah baked, he shared stories about the old days, before War, when he cooked for stockmen on a cattle station. Lee Wah’s drover mates had gone away to fight but Lee Wah wasn’t allowed.

  ‘Wrong colour, wrong eyes,’ he spat.

  I looked into Lee Wah’s kind eyes and didn’t understand. Why wouldn’t the Army take him because of his eyes?

  Soldiers worked hard to fix Port Hedland’s broken buildings and soon tiny leaves appeared on the bare trees. I never forgot the eagle’s claws, but after a while I stopped watching the sky and trembling.

  Some nights, when bird fear overwhelmed me, I crept back to the kitchen. Lee Wah let me doze by the door while he and Fred told jokes. It felt like Fred and Lee Wah had been mates for a long time. In the evenings they liked playing a game called rummy with their cards, or a clicketty-clack game that Lee Wah called mahjong. Money changed back and forth as they swapped tiles or cards. I loved listening to them laugh and swear. The best fun was watching Fred jump if he heard Matron’s footsteps.

  Whenever Matron came for a fresh pot of tea, the men hid their coins and pretended to be cleaning knives and forks. I learnt to give a soft woof when I heard Matron coming. If I barked early enough, Lee Wah gave me a scraping of mutton fat after she’d gone.

  Lee Wah and I liked to sit together in the yard when everyone else was asleep. He pointed to the stars and taught me their names.

  ‘Stars are much more shiny in the bush.’ Lee Wah sighed. ‘Away from town.’

  I put my head on his lap, remembering bush evenings with Dave.

  Lee Wah told me that he missed watching the moon rise above a camp fire.

  ‘Full moon time was the best,’ he said.

  I licked his hand in friendly agreement, but I didn’t need to watch the moon. Even on cloudy nights I could feel her mood. As Moon fattened my skin tingled, and when she was fully round, I was silly for no reason. My senses settled as Moon shrank and when she disappeared, I liked to lay low. So did Lee Wah.

  Between droving stories, Lee Wah cursed the Japanese. He hated them even more than Elsie’s brothers did.

  ‘Bloody War. Bloody Japs,’ he grumbled. ‘Everything’s changed, Gengi. Not enough meat. Not enough butter. Too many soldiers …’

  One day I heard Fred yelling. I barked in support and hopped to the front of the hospital. Fred was standing between Lee Wah and a soldier. Even from a distance, I could smell the soldier’s hotel breath. The man was waving a knife at Lee Wah.

  I growled at the soldier and hopped closer.

  ‘Why isn’t he locked up with the other Japs?’ the soldier shouted.

  ‘He’s Chinese,’ Fred hissed. ‘They’re our ally.’

  The soldier’s blotchy face scowled. ‘Don’t give me that rubbish, mate. He looks like a Jap spy to me.’

  ‘Drop the knife, you drongo,’ Fred warned.

  The soldier spat. His spit landed on Lee Wah’s feet. It smelt nasty. Before I could nip the soldier’s leg, Fred punched his nose. I jumped as the soldier fell backwards into the dust.

  ‘Get up and have a go,’ Fred snarled, standing over the man who was squirming on the ground.

/>   I barked, and then Doc’s boots stomped down the hospital steps.

  ‘What’s going on?’

  Fred’s face changed. He stared at the ground. If Fred had a tail, it would be drooping. ‘This bloke was causing trouble.’

  Doc frowned. ‘And so you decked him?’

  ‘Sorry,’ Fred mumbled.

  Doc helped the man stand. ‘You’re drunk, soldier,’ he snapped. ‘Shall we take this up with Lieutenant Taplin?’

  The man shook his head.

  ‘Our cook is Chinese Australian,’ Doc continued, waving Fred away, ‘and I’m Acting Magistrate in town. If I hear that you or any of the other soldiers have bothered him again, there will be trouble. Do you understand?’

  The man nodded and staggered back towards town.

  My ears flattened as Doc turned to glare at Fred and Lee Wah. ‘And I suggest you two get back to your duties!’

  ‘Yes, Doc.’

  As they scurried into the yard, I heard a soft whistle. ‘Gengi,’ Lee Wah called. ‘Come away.’

  I hopped to Lee Wah’s kitchen. He and Fred brewed a cuppa. They poured a capful of strong-smelling drink into their tea, then clinked the mugs together. Lee Wah took a long sip and they both started laughing. Lee Wah pretended to punch Fred, then Fred pretended to fall to the ground. It was a fun game. I woofed and circled the table.

  6

  Doc’s Marvellous Flynn

  April – August 1942

  Doc’s letter to the Prime Minister worked. Mister Curtin made the soldiers give back his aeroplane. Not many more than four days after the cyclone, Fox Moth returned.

  ‘Doc has wings again,’ Fred said. ‘Now maybe things can get back to normal.’

  But things didn’t.

  After the cyclone people smelt more frightened than ever. I heard them making new plans to evacuate and hated that word even more.

  Doc’s newspaper told us that Japanese submarines had been seen off the coast. I didn’t know what submarines were but they sounded bad. I stayed close to Doc’s leg.

  ‘Don’t worry,’ Doc said, stroking my ears. ‘If a submarine comes, I’ll look after you.’

  Doc was evacuating more patients inland to Marble Bar in case Japanese bombers flew along the coast and some of his patients were nervous about flying. It was my job to keep them calm. Doc lifted me into the cabin between Fox Moth’s wings and I nuzzled everyone before take-off. Once we were in the air, I licked the hands of the most frightened people until they settled.

  After climbing into the sky, Fox Moth followed the beach while Doc searched for the railway line that stretched away from the coast. We followed those train tracks inland past scrubby hills with trees that looked as small as Lee Wah’s vegetables, until at last we saw the shiny roof of Marble Bar Hospital.

  On the way home, Doc let me sit with him in the hole on top of Fox Moth, instead of in the cabin between the top and bottom wings. That was my favourite place. If I balanced carefully I could look over the side and let my ears flap in the breeze. As we soared into the sky, cool air blew across my nostrils and I shivered. Sometimes Doc flew behind an emu family and we watched their shaggy feathers bounce as they darted away. Other times, Doc told me stories about the land and about a steam train called the Spinifex Flyer.

  ‘She runs across those tracks below,’ Doc said.

  Sometimes we saw Spinifex Flyer racing along or stopping at the Shaw River for a drink. Doc flew lower to buzz the train and the people on board cheered. If I barked, they cheered even louder.

  We spent more and more time inland. At first I was glad to fly away from noisy Port Hedland. While Doc was working inside the Marble Bar Hospital, I sniffed each dusty building in town, searching for my Elsie. I couldn’t smell her, but two mean dogs smelt me.

  I’d grown up with station dogs, so didn’t scare easily, but these dogs were vicious. Their owner was a grey-faced miner. When he came to town, the man chained his dogs outside the Ironclad Hotel. Hot chains made the mean dogs even meaner. They rattled their collars until they broke free, and if I was near, they chased me, growling and snapping. The miner laughed when he saw me quick-hopping away from his dogs.

  Before the cyclone I’d been a fast runner. With a missing leg, I was slower, so I learnt to dart from side to side. As I scampered back to the hospital, zigging back and forth, I confused the big dogs for a while, then they worked together to herd me. Some days I reached the verandah just in time to squeeze under the hospital floorboards, panting and trembling. Other times I was too slow and they bit me.

  One afternoon Doc found a gash on my rump. He warned the miner to keep his dogs away, but Doc wasn’t always around. Some days he had to leave me behind. I huddled under the hospital where the mean dogs couldn’t reach me, waiting a long time before I could come out for a drink. There were cockroaches and rats under the hospital. Rats and roaches didn’t bother me, but I was lonely without Doc.

  Thinking of Elsie helped pass the time. I remembered the soft touch of her hand and the funny bonnets she used to tie onto my head. Then I wondered where she was and whether she was missing me. When Doc returned, I didn’t leave his side. He was my only link to Stan and my past life as Elsie’s Princess.

  Doc always took me on his flights to Port Hedland. Things were changing there too. Nurse Edith was leaving to look after soldiers in Perth and Doc flew us back for a goodbye meal. I saw Matron wipe away a tear when no one else was looking, so I nuzzled her toes until she smiled. After lunch, Doc and his friend Len sat on the hospital steps to share the latest news.

  ‘I reckon it’s only a matter of time until the Japs strike again,’ Len warned.

  Doc made a ssh sound and led his friend into the yard. I followed, then rested my nose on my front paw as I listened to Len’s plans.

  ‘We have to get more women out to remote cattle stations, away from the coast,’ he said. ‘I need you to increase the flights out of Hedland.’

  ‘When do you want me to start?’

  ‘The sooner the better.’

  ‘What if the women won’t go?’ Doc asked.

  ‘Tell them they have to.’

  I snapped at a mosquito whining around Doc’s ankles. He ruffled my fur and whispered, ‘Thanks, Flynn.’

  The next morning, women gathered at the hospital. There were a lot more than four and they were all shapes and sizes. Ladies with babies in their tummies were the first to leave, and as long as my fur didn’t make anyone sneeze, I travelled in the cabin to guard them.

  We took the ladies out to Wallareenya. I knew the station Missus there. We’d met when she came into town to see Matron. Missus Kerr had tickled my ears and her hands smelt so good that I danced for her. Then I twirled in circles. Missus Kerr laughed and told me that I was ‘marvellous’. That made me like her even more.

  The trip to Wallareenya wasn’t far. We took three big-belly ladies and a boy on the first flight. I listened to the hearts of babies beating through the women’s stretched skin and remembered my own gentle mother. Those warm puppy days felt like forever ago.

  Missus Kerr met us at the airstrip and drove us to the Wallareenya homestead in an old truck. While the ladies sipped tea and nibbled pikelets, Doc checked the shearers’ mattresses spread on the verandah. He said he wanted to make sure each one was clean. I sniffed the bedding. They smelt of sweat and mutton fat. I’d be very happy to sleep on one.

  Before we left, Doc thanked Missus Kerr and gave her a bag of medicine in case any babies came early.

  ‘Can you manage a few more women?’ he asked. ‘There are dozens waiting to evacuate.’

  ‘As many as you need, Doc. If you bring the ladies to me, I’ll organise transport to Nullagine or Mulga Downs in our old truck. Then we’ll find a way to get them to the railway station at Meekatharra.’

  ‘Will you evacuate also?’

  ‘Maybe, when I know all the mothers are safely on their way.’

  ‘Don’t leave it too late,’ Doc warned.

  Missus Kerr s
hrugged. ‘The stock need water whether or not the Japanese invade, and with the men away, someone has to keep the bores open.’ The big woman smiled and patted Doc’s arm. ‘Don’t worry, I’ll be all right.’ I wagged my tail and Missus Kerr gave me a cuddle. ‘What about this wee mite?’ she asked. ‘Shall I keep Flynn here as well?’

  My tail stopped wagging. I moved closer to Doc. They both laughed as I sat on his boot.

  ‘Maybe not yet,’ Doc replied. ‘She keeps my patients calm in the plane.’

  Missus Kerr tickled my chin. ‘You’re a marvellous dog, Flynn, just marvellous! Stay safe and come back soon to visit me.’

  I licked her leg. It was warm and salty.

  ‘C’mon, Marvellous,’ Doc said as he lifted me into the sitting hole on top of Fox Moth.

  The day was clear and our trip back to Hedland was smooth. As Doc dipped Moth’s wings, he pointed to dark patterns on the land and told me that they were rivers. I peered down. There was no water glistening.

  ‘They’re dry now,’ Doc explained, ‘but in the wet, they’ll fill quickly.’

  I remembered the river coming down on Elsie’s station, and woofed so that Doc would keep talking.

  ‘See the way the river spreads out, Flynn?’ I turned and looked down. ‘The blood in your body is like that, with veins and arteries that make the same patterns as those waterways.’

  Looking below made me dizzy and Doc was using too many strange words. I leant against him and closed my eyes. Doc scratched my chin and hummed. Now that he had his plane back, Doc smelt peaceful. He let Moth do a few tricks and I howled in delight as she looped back and forth above the shining railway tracks.

  Len met us at the airstrip.

  ‘How are the women?’ he asked.

  ‘Fine,’ Doc replied. ‘Mrs Kerr said she can accommodate more, so I’ll take another group after lunch.’

  I stayed close to Doc. I didn’t want to be left behind.

  Doc hardly ever stopped for a break. When he did, I peered into his eyes and saw memories of burnt arms and legs and faces. I nuzzled his feet, trying to help him forget. When that didn’t work, I rolled onto my back, asking for a tummy tickle. I loved it when I was able to make Doc laugh.