Somewhere around the Corner Read Online Free

all came to the gully for the gold, even if the gold isn’t there. Last year when the Briars’ shack blew down everyone got stuck in to build them a new one. You wouldn’t see that at the other camps, I bet. Then there was last year, when Ma and Mrs Hooper made doormats out of hessian bags on Dulcie’s sewing machine, and Gully Jack sold them up in town, till the machine went bung. I mean, there’s always things like that going on in the gully.’
    Jim waited for her to ask another question. She was always asking questions.
    There was no sound beside him. She was asleep.
    Suddenly the train jerked and shuddered. It began to move backwards, clang , then forwards, clank , and stopped, then began again. Shugg shugg-u shuggu , straining at first, as though not quite convinced that it should start at all, then gaining speed. ‘What!’
    ‘Shhh, we’re off, that’s all. Go back to sleep.’
    He reckoned she must have been exhausted, she dropped off so quickly. He listened to her quiet breathing in the soap-scented air under the tarp, a gentle sound with the wind on top and the furious rhythm of the wheels underneath. Finally, Young Jim slept too.
    He awoke at the first station, and peered up over the tarp. It was still pitch dark, the moon not yet risen. It’d be morning, he guessed, before they needed to get off. Young Jim pulled the tarp back over his head. The girl was still out to it. The train huffed like a dozing dragon. Finally it began to clank again.
    Clang…Clank…Shugg shugg-u shuggu…
    The rhythm of the train rocked him back into an uneasy sleep, buffeted by curves and burps of smoke and the faint hiss of cinders on the tarp. The girl muttered in her sleep.
    The train wheels seemed to chant her name…BUBBA bubba BUBBA bubba BUbbubbbubbbbaaa—
    Exhaustion crept over him and his breathing deepened.
    ‘Hey, you lot! You up there! What the flaming heck do you think you’re doing?’
    A sharp and angry voice woke him. A hand shoved the tarp back from his face. Cold air rushed in.
    The train had stopped. A man’s face peered over the edge of the wagon. It was grubby, angry and dark with yesterday’s whiskers.
    Barbara gave a small sharp cry. Young Jim rolled in front of her to protect her. He tried to clear his head.
    ‘Struth, it’s only a couple of kids.’ The anger in the man’s face softened. ‘I don’t know what the world’s coming to. Come on, out with you, you can’t stay here.’
    Young Jim sat up.
    ‘Where are we?’
    ‘Wingalooma.’ The man held out his hand. He wore overalls that were black with soot and a grubby badge on his chest that proclaimed ‘Lang is Right’.
    ‘Come on, down with you.’ He gave Young Jim a hand, then lifted Barbara over the edge.
    Young Jim tried to calculate, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. A good two hundred miles still to go and not even near the main road. They’d never hail a ride from here.
    ‘Are you the guard?’
    ‘No fear, mate. I’m the fireman. There isn’t a guard on this train. You should have wriggled down further, then I wouldn’t have noticed you. I saw your shapes poking up under the tarp. Don’t know how someone didn’t pick you up before now.’
    ‘I’ll remember next time,’ said Young Jim seriously.
    ‘You’ll do no such thing.’ The fireman shook his head. ‘Train jumping’s not for kids. Don’t you know it’s dangerous? A bloke got killed jumping the rattler just north of here the other day. Two other blokes got suffocated in a load of wheat last week. It’s a mug’s game and if you’d any sense you’d know it. Where do you think you’re going anyway?’
    ‘Home,’ said Young Jim.
    His voice was high with weariness. Home seemed very far away.
    ‘Where’s home then?’
    ‘Poverty Gully. It’s down from Binoweela.’
    The man looked them up and down. They could see the pity spread across his face.
    ‘Susso camp eh. Fair dinkum? That’s where your parents are?’
    Young Jim nodded.
    The fireman rubbed his