Educating Harry Ch. 18

This chapter is, more than any other, about Harry and his friends outside of Hawksworth.

When Harry woke up the next morning in Byron, Susan had already been at work for several hours fifteen hundred kilometres away in Adelaide. "Where is everyone?" Harry asked.

"Al and Lynn are at the beach; Al's trying to show Lynn he can stay on a board for more than five seconds," grinned Emma, "He gets so pissed off that she's a much better surfer than him."

"And you two girls love to tell him, don't you," laughed Gary.

"Well," confirmed Harry, "It's never too early in the day to start giving Al a hard time."

"That's true enough," agreed Freddy as she walked into the room, "Where is Lynn and her pet oaf?"

"At the beach; would you like tea or coffee?" asked Harry.

"Neither thanks, I'll stick to water."

As if on cue, the fly screen door banged open and Al hopped painfully into the room, he was bleeding slightly from his knee.

"What happened?"

"Oh Lynn was dumped by this huge wave and I dived in to rescue..." began Al expansively.

"No he didn't," interrupted Lynn, she had just followed Al in carrying all their gear; "Al tripped over his own feet crossing the road."

"I liked my story better," grinned Al.

"You'd better get that cleaned up," suggested Gary, "Get the grit out."

"Are you volunteering," responded Al, "After all you are the budding doctor."

"Nah, I'm gonna be a psychiatrist, this is nurse's work."

Freddy intervened, "I've got some Savlon, or something like that in my bag, you clean off the grit Lynn and I'll just go and get it."

"How about that," declared Al, "It takes my little sister to show some sympathy."

"Oh come on you big wuss," laughed Lynn, "it's just a big graze with a small shallow cut."

Freddy returned bottle in hand, "Hold his leg firmly Gary, it might tickle a bit." Freddy tipped a generous amount of liquid onto a pad of tissues and placed it firmly over the cut.

"Holy sheeeeit," yelled Al, "What the hell is that, my God it stings."

"It's a bit of, 'or something like that,' I didn't have any Savlon," smiled Freddy malevolently, "It's old fashioned iodine." She applied another generous amount, much to Al's consternation.

"You know," suggested Gary "It would probably be just as good not to cover it, after breakfast if we go down to the beach again, let the sea water clean it off that would probably be as good as anything."

"Not only that," suggested Harry unhelpfully, "Your major injury will give you a good excuse not to make an ass of yourself on a board, you can have a nice safe paddle in the shallows."

Al was immune to micky taking; in fact he enjoyed it, and probably most of all when it was aimed at him. "Come on, that's enough of that, lets have something to eat."

After breakfast they fell into a routine that was to prevail over most of their stay, time on the beach, where Gary and Lynn in particular liked to surf and Al's big frame spent a lot of time swimming, he was no surfer but would spend hours tirelessly swimming to nowhere in particular. Emma had found a second hand bookshop and indulged herself with trashy novels; Harry teased her that it was an odd choice for a geneticist, but Emma didn't care, "They're like fairy tales for adults Harry, pure escapism."

Freddy was the odd one out, she went for a swim, read the paper but more often than not took herself off on long walks, she was clearly pre-occupied with her own thoughts, and although Harry asked if she would like him to come with her, it was made quite clear that she would rather he didn't . "Got the brush off there Harry," observed Lynn. "You're too nice to her," added the usually equable Emma, "What Freddy needs is someone or something to give her a good kick up the butt...shake her out of her self pity, she's becoming a bit of a pain."

But after two or three days Freddy surprised them one morning, "Gary, is there any chance you could lend me your car, I thought I'd like a change of scenery and go up to Murwillumbah for the day, and maybe walk up Mount Warning."

"Sorry Freddy, can't help you, the car's only insured for me and Emma to drive."

"Oh, how about your ute Harry, I didn't really want to use that fuel guzzling monster but..."

"It doesn't guzzle anything, it runs on LPG but it's the same answer as Gary's, it's only insured for me to drive, but," Harry added, "I wouldn't mind a change of scenery myself, I'll take you if you like."

"Oh, I had hoped to get away by myself a bit, but if you don't mind, maybe tomorrow."

"Ok," grinned Harry, ignoring her graceless response, "We'll leave at eight tomorrow morning."

If Harry thought Freddy's mood had improved, he was reminded forcefully that evening that it had not. Harry and Freddy had both gone to bed early, but at about midnight, Harry was woken up by a furious Freddy who burst into his room.

"Lynn and Al are driving me mad, I woke up an hour ago, they were making so much noise."

"Noise making, what d'you mean?" questioned Harry, who was still only half awake.

"Screwing! protested Freddy angrily, "Screwing each other in the bed right next to me."

Harry was by now sufficiently awake to realise there was no reasoning with her.

"I tried sleeping on the damn couch in the living room but it's as uncomfortable as hell and it just made me angrier."

"Well that's true enough," thought Harry.

"So, move over, there's plenty of room for two in here."

"What," exclaimed a startled Harry, "You want to sleep with me?"

"Want to! It's the last thing I damn well want, but there's no alternative;" Freddy yanked back the doona. "Oh my god, you're naked!"

"Why the hell shouldn't I be?" Despite his resolution not to, Harry was getting pretty angry himself.

"Well I'm past caring anyway, said Freddy flinging herself into bed, "Just don't come anywhere near me...Don't even think about it," she added as she turned her back to him.

Harry lay still for a few seconds, still totally pissed off with Freddy, angry despite his resolution not to be, he leant over and tapped her on the shoulder.

She looked up. "What the hell d'you want?"

"Why," said Harry levelly, smiling at her, "Why would you imagine that anybody, anybody at all, for even a split second, would be even remotely interested in a vile tempered virago like you?"

Freddy made as if to respond for a moment but in the event said nothing, just furiously pulled the doona around herself and turned her back on Harry. She was still incensed but now it was with Harry, and not even for what he had said: "He's laughing, laughing at me, the bastard," she muttered in rage to herself.

Harry's feelings were more mixed in one sense he was almost relieved to have stuck it to Freddy after her incessant low level provocation, but almost straight away he began to wish he hadn't been quite so vicious. Pride, however, ensured that neither of them made any concessions and it was a long time before either fell asleep.

Not surprisingly, they both overslept; in the morning. Freddy dragged herself out of bed and found that Emma was the only one left in the house. "Where's Harry?" she asked.

"I think he's gone for a walk and the others are at the beach, weren't you two supposed to be going up to Mount Warning today?"

"I doubt it now," replied Freddy ruefully, "We had a bit of a row last night,"

"A bit of a row, yes we heard, at least we heard you."

"Sorry," responded Freddy, without much conviction, "I was mad, mad at Al really, but then Harry was there so he copped it, then he said something really mean, and do you know what, he laughed at me, the rotten bastard, he laughed at me."

Emma thought plenty but said nothing, Freddy made herself a coffee and sat down thinking for a while; "Emma, do you think I'm a virago, a vile tempered virago?"

Emma was diplomatic, "I guess only you can answer that... did he really call you that?"

Freddy gave a ghost of a smile and nodded, "Yes he did and I suppose the truth is I was, but," added Freddy with renewed determination, "I'm damned if I'm going to admit that to him."

"Up to you I suppose, but don't think you'll get the better of Harry that easily, he's tougher than he seems, well not so much tough, but resilient, you'll wear yourself into a frazzle if you take him on."

"Oh come on he's just a kid."

"I've known Harry for more than three years," grinned Emma, "And the first thing you should know, is that in a few minutes he'll come through that door and ask if you're ready to go, he'll just ignore last nights fracas."

"You reckon?"

"Yeah I reckon."

Emma was right, and Freddy was surprised but ready

"Have you got anything to eat and a change of clothes?" asked Harry.

"No, just a bottle of water."

"Hmm, well as we are late starting, we'll stop in Murwillumbah for coffee and maybe something to eat, it'll only take us an hour or so to get there and then another twenty minutes drive onto Mount Warning."

They soon made the short run out to the Pacific highway and turned north for a few miles before taking the Tweed valley road towards Murwillumbah. "Weather's beginning to look a bit uncertain," observed Harry, "Let's hope these few clouds don't come to anything."

Neither Harry nor Freddy were much in the mood for conversation, but the initially tense atmosphere gradually relaxed, and in rather less than an hour they crossed the River Tweed into the town. They quickly found a café and as neither had eaten much breakfast, both opted for a bacon butty.

"What do you want to do at Mount Warning?" asked Harry, "Anything particular in mind."

"I'd like to try the summit track, from a leaflet I picked up in Byron it said three to four hours.

"That's pretty generous; I did it years ago with my sisters a fair bit quicker than that. It will be wet underfoot; they have had a lot of rain in the last week or so."

Harry stopped on the way back to the ute to buy some sandwiches a couple of buns and some water.

"This isn't a big expedition, we won't need all that"

"You might be surprised, it's a stiff climb, though not all that long and it's a hot sticky day, so you'll be ready for something when we get to the top."

It was a twenty minute drive to the car park at the foot of the mountain, and at almost exactly eleven o'clock they set out on the walk. It was soon obvious to Harry that Freddy had put last nights row to the back of her mind, and was in a better mood than at any time since he had picked her up from the station.

Freddy was unfamiliar with the huge buttressed rain forest trees which they picked their way through and clearly enjoyed the change of scenery. They didn't talk much, especially when the track began to get steeper and the going harder. Then the well known, one thousand steps started. Soon they encountered some people coming down who had obviously started early. There was a brief shower, but they were already wet because of the high humidity. By the time they were close to the top, another party on the return told Harry and Freddy they were the last ones on the track.

Eventually they got to the top and looked over the magnificent view of the old crater and the mountains beyond. Harry handed Freddy a water bottle and they both took a drink. Harry then turned and looked towards the south. "Hey Freddy look at that, we had better get out of here." Away to the south and moving swiftly towards them was a massive black cloud. "O Lord," exclaimed Freddy, "We are going to get a soaking."

They started down straight away, at first there were a few large drops, then it became very dark and the rain teemed down. "Let's just keep going Freddy, because we don't know when it might stop and there's no shelter anyway. Just take it easy, don't rush."

They were both soaked to the skin within thirty seconds, but the rain lashed down without remission. The steps were immediately turned into mini waterfalls, the path into a muddy shallow stream and it was miserable pressing on as the weather gave no sign of giving up. Then as suddenly as it had started, the rain stopped. "Are you alright?" asked Harry.

"Ok, but I'm getting a bit chilly with all this rain"

"We'll have something to eat," suggested Harry, and he gave her a bun.

"Ok thanks, now we had better keep going."

They made good progress for ten minutes or so unhampered by any rain when suddenly and for no obvious reason Freddy slipped, falling off the steps in the path they were negotiating. At first everything seemed well as she had fallen on her backside, Harry was with her in a moment and saw straight away that her face was white as a sheet. "My ankle Harry, oh Christ my ankle hurts. I turned it over."

Harry felt it gently, "Well I don't think you've broken it, but it's already swelling so at the least you have sprained it badly.

"Harry, I don't think it's going to get any better, so if you can help me, I think we should get back on the path."

Freddy couldn't put her foot to the ground, Harry suggested a way forward "On these steps cut into the path, I'll hang onto you and move down a step, then you hop down that step on your good foot, while I support you on your injured side." This worked though very slowly and Freddy soon remembered the leaflet which said there are over one thousand steps on the climb, how many had they done so far? No more than two maybe three hundred.

And then things got worse, it started to rain again and their progress went from painfully slow to snails pace. The rain flogged down on them and twice, then a third time Harry slipped and Freddy came tumbling down upon him. She never complained once, but Harry could sense that she was getting desperately tired.

They were to remember the next three hours with a clarity that they would both have cheerfully done without, one step, one hop, one step, one hop they crawled their way down the mountain. They barely spoke at all; they were concentrating so hard on just moving forward until at last Harry shouted above the racket of the storm. "That's the last of the steps Freddy, just the walk to the car park now."

But Freddy was almost beaten, the pain of her ankle and the shock had knocked the stuffing out of her, "I've got to rest Harry, just for a minute."

"Ok but not for long, here get this sandwich into you, and have some more water."

Freddy laughed almost hysterically, "More water, more damn water, there's bloody water everywhere."

Harry too, despite their predicament laughed with her but they both realised they had to get moving again. Within two hundred metres Harry realised they had a major problem, Freddy just couldn't go on, the constant jarring of her injured foot had become unbearable and she was completely exhausted. "Come on" said Harry "There's only a kilometre or so to go, I'll have to carry you."

Freddy was just too tired and cold to argue, Harry bent down and hoisted her on his shoulder with a fireman's lift. Although he had to stop every hundred metres or so for a break, they made quite good progress for the first time in almost four hours. At last through the teeming rain Harry saw the welcome sight of his ute a little distance ahead of them.

He soon got Freddy onto the passenger seat and pulling back the tarp found the sports bag he was looking for. Harry got into the cab with Freddy; "this is my emergency kit" he explained I've got stuff in here I hope I never really need but today it might be handy. He pulled a big beach towel out first; "Get your shirt off... and your bra."

Harry towelled her soaked hair vigorously, "Now shorts, panties, socks and boots, get them all off... I've got a change of clothes for you."

Harry helped her with her boots; taking the right one off caused a suppressed gasp of pain but Freddy put up with it, Harry was concerned when he saw just how much her ankle had swollen, but was distracted as Freddy started to giggle, "I never thought, never, that when we set out this morning that I'd end up stark naked in your ute."

"Ah well, "You never know your luck, now get this on," He handed her an old tee shirt and a pair of his shorts that he had dug out of the bag.

Harry then dried off and tidied himself up as best he could, he had run out of dry clothes so decided to just sit on the towel in his wet gear. "Ok Freddy lets go."

Freddy had never heard a more welcome sound as the V8 roared into life but just as Harry edged the ute towards the car park entrance a four wheel drive came lumbering towards them its headlights blazing. It was the park rangers. "Are you alright?" yelled the driver over the storm, "D'you know if there is anyone else still on the summit walk?" They confirmed that they were the last, and Harry added, "We had an accident, Freddy has hurt her ankle."

"I'll get my mate to look at it; she was a nurse before she joined the park's service."

The second ranger jumped out and came around to look at Freddy's foot. "Don't think it's broken," she announced feeling it carefully, "But it looks like at least a bad sprain."

Then the first ranger asked, "Where are you headed?"

"Back into Murwillumbah, and then down to Byron where we are staying."

"Not a chance, there's been a truck accident just outside the town, a semi trailer slid and blocked the whole road, nothing serious but all the emergency services are really stretched at the moment and there's flash floods every where. "Your best bet is to head down the road and instead of turning left for Murwillumbah take a right to Uki, it's a small village on the Kyogle road only about fifteen minutes from here." He scrawled a note, "Go to this place, it's a Bed and Breakfast, and tell Mrs Seagram that Clarrie sent you. You'd do better to avoid travelling any further this evening, because we don't even know which roads are flooded and which aren't, it's all changing by the minute.

"Ok thanks."

"We don't seem to have much choice Harry," said Freddy, "Mrs Seagram here we come." They headed off and Harry soon turned onto the Kyogle road. "Uki, weird name for a place but here's an even odder one, Dum Dum," but Freddy was taking no notice, she had fallen fast asleep.

As Harry turned into the address he had been directed to, the rain almost to add insult to injury came to a sudden halt. Even before Harry rang the bell, the door opened and a neat middle aged woman appeared.

"Mrs Seagram?"

"That is me," she agreed in the precise accent of an Edinburgh Scot, "Clarrie rang to say you would be along. Let me show you your room." The room was in fact a small two roomed timber cottage, Harry guessed a converted old timber getters cottage, it consisted of a kitchen /sitting room and a bedroom.

"I understood there were two of you."

"There are but Freddy, she's still in the ute...she fell asleep as we left the car park, she's exhausted.

"Then you had better bring her in and make the wee lassie comfortable," instructed Mrs Seagram, Harry did as she suggested with a grin, Mrs Seagram was obviously used to being in charge.

Harry slid Freddy's legs round and taking one arm slung her over his shoulder as he had before.

"Oh the poor wee child, you're carrying her like a sack of potatoes," scolded Mrs Seagram, nevertheless she held the door open for Harry as he brought Freddy in and deposited her on the sofa. Not surprisingly this woke Freddy up thoroughly, "Are we already here," and that being confirmed, Mrs Seagram told him, "Get your young lady in the shower, then get her wrapped up warm."

"Yes I will," confirmed Harry, "oh and could you tell me, will we be able to get a meal at the pub later."

"Ye'll no be going to any pub," the redoubtable Scots woman declared severely, "Get yourselves cleaned up and I'll bring you something hot within the hour."

Freddy and Harry did as she had recommended, and Harry as soon as he found some towelling housecoats in the closet, decided to put all their clothes through the washing machine. Mrs Seagram was true to her word and on the hour there was a knock on the door. Harry answered it to an enormous young man who carried a loaded tray. The young man ducked under the door and announced, "I'm Georgie, wee Georgie me mam calls me...because I'm the youngest," he explained, "Mam asked me to bring over dinner for you, said you'd feel better when you were fed."