Blue Smoke (27 page)

‘Actually, yes, I do know Katarina. She’s my cousin, remember? Her father is my father’s half-brother.’

Betty looked momentarily confused, then shrugged and put the tractor back in gear. ‘Any way,’ she yelled over the racket, ‘I’m off to start on lunch. I’ll be back up at midday, all right?’ And with an almighty jerk and a belch of petrol fumes she was off again.

When Jack, Ana and Nola arrived at the shearing shed the gang were sitting on the rails of the yards waiting. They were a fairly motley-looking bunch, but then shearing gangs always were when they were working. The men wore work trousers and open shirts over their black singlets, and boots that would be wrapped with sacking to stop them slipping once the shearing started, and the women were dressed variously in trousers or old frocks, depending on what their job was. The children looked as though they’d dressed in anything they could find.

Ana noted a new face, a tall, fit-looking girl with handsome features and sharp, dark eyes. Her wavy hair hung free halfway down her back, and she stood with hands on sturdy hips staring back at Ana.

‘Who’s that?’ Ana asked her Uncle Haimona as she dismounted.

Haimona pushed his hat back off his brown face and scratched at the greying bristles on his head, his rolled shirt sleeves revealing fading vestiges of the tattoos from his days as a seaman in the merchant navy. ‘Tangiwai Heke that was, Joshua’s new missus. She didn’t arrive until last night. Your father, when he was a boy, sailed with her koro. Cassius, his name was, a big bugger with a wooden leg.’

‘Like my dad, eh?’

‘Oh, no, bigger than your dad.’

Joshua was Ana’s cousin, the eldest son of her Aunty Huriana.

‘I didn’t even know Joshua was married.’

‘About three months ago now. She’s a good worker, Tangiwai, but she’s nearly as mean as her koro was.’

‘Is that so?’ Ana mused as she looked over at the girl, who was now removing her shirt to reveal a singlet, a spectacular bust and a pair of very well-muscled arms.

‘Well, we’ll see.’

‘Just watch how you go, eh, girl. She’s got a temper on her like a sow with ten new piglets.’

‘Poor Joshua.’

Haimona snorted with amusement and walked off to round up his team, yelling at the top of his voice, ‘All aboard!’

The day’s shearing began as the first group of sheep were moved out from under the shed and into the yards, and Ngapere, Huriana’s youngest daughter, climbed over the rails and positioned herself beside the race gate, signalling that she was ready to begin.

As sheep came belting down the race in single file she swung the gate to the left or to the right, separating the animals so they ended up in two different pens. It was a very skilled job, especially done at speed, and her brow furrowed in concentration under the shadow of her hat. The sheep in the near pen were for the clip, while the others, mainly lambs, would be docked, and castrated if they were males, then held until their mothers had been shorn. There was a hell of a noise as the lambs realised they’d been separated from their mothers, and the ewes answered by bleating pathetically for their babies.

The sheepos chased the ewes up a ramp and into the pens behind the shearing stands, and Ana nodded with satisfaction as the Anderson spluttered into life. There were five stands, but only four would be used this time around because there were only
four shearers — her Uncle Haimona, his brother-in-law Piripi, Huriana’s husband Anaru, and Joshua. Neither she nor Jack would be on the end of a set of clippers today; there was too much other work to be done with the lambs.

She watched as the pen doors opened and the first sheep, their hard little feet scrabbling for purchase, were pulled out onto the boards and wrestled onto their backs as the shearers bent over them, their wrists strapped firmly against the possibility of injury. They would work hard all day, competing for the coveted honour of gun shearer — the man with the biggest tally at the end of the clip, and the better rate of pay that went with it. Beyond the stands Katarina, the wool classer, stood at the sorting table with her baby in a sling on her back ready to check each fleece as it came past, alongside her sister Elizabeth who would be keeping note of the figures; the presser — Joshua’s very well-built sister Rangimarie — waited in front of the one-man press into which the fleeces would go to be compacted before baling; and the five fleecos, women and the older children whose job it was to collect up the fleeces from the boards and pick off the worst of the dirt before they were classed, hovered in anticipation.

The remainder of the gang — several more children and the rest of the men — stayed outside to manage the smooth flow of animals up into the shed, and help out with the docking and castrating.

Satisfied that everything was progressing as it should be, Ana went outside and began to get her tools ready. But just as she was checking the sharpness of her docking knife, there was a loud and rather angry yell from Joshua. She glanced up at the shed and saw that he’d straightened up from his sheep and was gesticulating wildly at Tangiwai, who was in the empty stand next to him, attaching a set of clippers to the power cable.

‘What are you doing, woman?’ Joshua bellowed over the noise of the sheep. ‘Get out of there!’

It appeared that Tangiwai could not hear him, as she carried on obliviously.

Joshua swore and began berating his wife loudly. Ana, and no doubt everyone else, could hear what he was saying quite clearly. She glanced at Jack, who raised his eyebrows but shrugged, as if to say it would be more than his life was worth to get between the two. The other three shearers had stopped, and Ngapere had let the race gate close, backing up sheep behind it so that they were almost standing on top of one another.

‘Get out in the yard!’ Joshua demanded angrily. ‘You’re not shearing.’

‘I bloody am!’ Tangiwai shot back.

‘You’re bloody not!’

‘I
am
!’ she repeated, shoving her face forward until it was only inches away from that of her husband. ‘I’m as good as these fellas, and twice as young! I can do it!’

Joshua stamped his foot so hard the boards shook. ‘Maybe you
can
, but you’re not
going
to!’

Tangiwai stamped her own foot. ‘Why not?’

‘Because shearing is not a woman’s job, that’s why not. Go and help Rangimarie with the press if you want to do something useful! You might actually learn something. Every cloud has a silver lining, you know!’

‘
Make
me go and help Rangimarie!’

‘I bloody well will in a minute!’ he retorted, his face turning red.

Haimona stepped forward, although the shearers behind him looked on with interest, thoroughly enjoying the spectacle.

‘Have some respect, boy!’ he barked, irritated at his nephew for not being able to manage his wife. They would all be very busy over the next few days, and there was not time for the tiffs of lovers settling into a new marriage.

Joshua spun on his heel. ‘I would if
she
respected
me
!’

Haimona blew his cheeks out in frustration. ‘You married her, boy.’

There were guffaws from rest of the gang at this, and Joshua blushed furiously. He turned back to his wife and held his hands out, palms up in supplication. ‘Tangiwai, please, love, hop out of the stand, there’s enough shearers for today.’

She considered him through narrowed eyes, her own cheeks flushed with indignation, then unhooked the shears from the cable. ‘Only because you asked me nicely. Think of that next time!’

And she jumped down from the boards and strode out of the shed, her long hair bouncing behind her.

Ana rolled her eyes, and went back to her knife inspection. The shearers started up again and Joshua had his red face down over his sheep once more.

They had a very successful day. By nightfall the four shearers had clipped an average of three hundred sheep each, which kept them on their tight schedule. Betty had come out with extras to add to the food prepared by Arapeta, Haimona’s wife, and with lemonade she’d made for the children.

By the time the sun was sinking behind the hills, even Ana had had enough. Her back was very sore, her arms stung from various nicks, scratches and mosquito bites, and she could do with a really good bath.

They packed up when the light grew poor, prepared the shears for tomorrow’s work and packed their gear into the gang’s two trucks. Everyone piled in — except for those who were on horseback — and headed slowly home.

Ana and Tangiwai trotted along in front of the truck, going carefully as the shadows of dusk turned rabbit holes and dips in the ground into hidden dangers. Ana admired Tangiwai’s horse,
on which she’d arrived at the Leonard farm late last night. The gang had also brought four other horses with them, all products of Kepa’s breeding programme at Maungakakari, and they were fine animals, but none were quite as magnificent as Tangiwai’s mount. He was a stallion, big and grey and gleaming in the dull light like polished pewter. Tangiwai sat on him easily and confidently like the expert horsewoman she clearly was. Ana didn’t think the horse was quite as lovely as Mako, but still, she wouldn’t have minded a go on him.

She was about to ask Tangiwai how long she’d had him, when Mako suddenly shied violently to the left. Lulled by the gentle rhythm of his trot, Ana hadn’t been paying much attention, and so had to clutch wildly at his mane to avoid being flung out of the saddle. Tangiwai’s horse also shied, at exactly the same time, but in the opposite direction. Ana heard her swear as she gathered the reins and attempted to get him back in hand before he bolted. He bucked once, skittered sideways again, then settled, looking suspiciously back at the piece of ground they had just crossed.

‘What was that?’ Tangiwai asked. ‘Did you see it?’

‘No, was it a rabbit?’ Ana replied, settling Mako by stroking his neck firmly.

Tangiwai shrugged, and they both turned back to the offending stretch of grass as if whatever had frightened the horses might still be there.

And then it happened. They watched in open-mouthed incredulity as Haimona’s truck, with Anaru, Piripi, Joshua and four of the kids on the back, drove over the shadowed patch, then suddenly pitched nose first into the ground and partially disappeared. The children screamed and the men yelled out in surprise, and all but two of then were flung off the back.

There was a grinding creak as the vehicle settled further, and then quiet as the motor cut out.

Jack cantered up, dismounted and stepped cautiously over to the hole; it wouldn’t do to have it cave in even further, taking him with it.

‘Haimona!’ he yelled. ‘
Haimona
! Are you all right?’

A muffled expletive came from the cab, together with a loud metallic screech as Haimona attempted to wind the window down. The cab was wedged two-thirds into the hole, and through the windscreen they could see the top of Haimona’s jerking head, still in its hat, as he struggled with the winder.

He bent his head on an angle and yelled up at them through the glass, ‘Come round here and put your foot on the window, it’s bloody jammed!’

While Jack got down on his backside and eased his legs gingerly over the rim of the tomo, a subterranean cavity that had chosen that precise moment to collapse, Ana and Tangiwai checked to see that the dislodged passengers were unharmed.

Unfortunately, they were not. Piripi had jarred or perhaps even sprained his wrist as he’d hit the ground, and Joshua was grimacing and rubbing the small of his back. Anaru, however, was unhurt, and was checking the children for injury, who were starting to giggle now with the excitement of it all.

‘They’re fine,’ he declared after a moment.

The two children who had not been thrown off the truck had jumped off under their own steam and were now standing watching Jack as he shoved his boot down onto the half-open window of the cab.

‘Koro Haimona’s saying really bad words!’ Trumpeted the smaller of the two gleefully.

So was Jack. ‘Oh, for fuck’s sake, the bloody thing’s completely jammed now. Haimona, can you try the passenger window?’

Haimona hauled himself across the seat, causing the truck to lurch slightly and everyone else to jump back. He tried the window
on the passenger side, and looked very relieved when it wound down quite easily.

It took some minutes but eventually they hauled him out of the cab, slightly bruised but other than that unhurt.

He stood looking ruefully down at his disabled truck, then said to Jack, ‘Reckon your tractor can pull it out?’

‘Probably. Backwards, though. Nose is in too deep.’

Haimona nodded. ‘What’s the damage?’ he asked Ana, inclining his head towards Joshua and Piripi who were still sitting on the ground.

‘A sprained wrist and a wrenched back, which leaves us with only two shearers. What the hell are we going to do, Uncle?’

Haimona said to Jack, ‘You can shear, can’t you?’

‘Yeah, but there’s still the docking and all.’

‘Well, can’t Tangiwai or someone help with that? We’re on a bloody tight schedule, Jack.’

Jack rubbed his grubby hand thoughtfully across the bristles on his chin. Then he said something he suspected might make him the laughing stock of the district. Or perhaps not, depending on how it worked out. ‘Why can’t Ana and Tangiwai shear?’

Haimona’s mouth fell open. He knew that both women could shear quite competently, because he’d watched them both at one time or another, but to let them loose on a clip as important as this? And in
his
gang? It was … it was … it was not a bad idea, actually, given their current predicament.

He raised his eyebrows, and Jack shrugged; they didn’t have much choice at the moment. And any way, he could see the look of hope and expectation on Ana’s face. He nodded, and grinned broadly as she whooped with elation.

Haimona said quietly, ‘I hope you know what you’re doing, Jack.’

‘Oh, I think I do, but let’s see, eh?’

On the other side of the truck, Tangiwai crouched on the ground
watching Joshua, who was very cautiously twisting his back from side to side.