Free Ghost River by Tony Birch Page A

He’s a smart-arse.’
    â€˜He looked like a smart-arse, alright. And did you hear the big word he used? Accordingly . Only a smart-arse would use a word like that.’ Sonny defiantly spat on the ground. ‘Nobody’s touching our river.’
    Sonny dinked Ren along the track, passing the falls, the wheelhouse and the pontoon. The sun had fallen behind the cotton mill. It left a sawtooth shadow across the river, biting it in half. Ren could smell the campfire ahead and saw someone moving about under the bridge.
    â€˜We should tell Tex about the road, Sonny. If the bulldozers are going to come through here they’ll be thrown off their camp again.’
    Tex was resting in an old car seat. He was mumbling to Tallboy and sharing a drink. Big Tiny and Cold Can were curled up in the humpy, and the Doc was resting on his haunches over the fire, warming his hands. Tex shielded his eyes with one hand. He had trouble seeing anything at all from a distance.
    â€˜Who are yas?’ he called, as the boys rode towards him.
    â€˜Cool Hand Luke,’ Sonny called out. ‘Shaking it here, boss.’
    â€˜Ya can fuck off then. I don’t know any Luke.’
    The boys jumped off the bike and let it fall to the dirt. Tex pointed a finger at Ren. ‘And you’d be?’
    â€˜Come on, Tex. You know who I am.’
    â€˜Is the bird,’ Tallboy shouted across the fire. ‘Young Wren and the Sonny Boy.’
    â€˜Oh! Good then. Me own outlaws. Be good to me and fetch some wood for the fire,’ he said. ‘Old Cold Can’s hit it hard today and gone useless on me. Can’t hold his drink no more, that one.’
    The boys ran around the campsite and along the riverbank picking up dead branches and short logs until they’d built a decent pile of wood next to the fire.
    â€˜You after any food?’ Ren asked.
    Tallboy pulled a tin of baked beans and two potatoes out of one coat pocket and a large can of beer from the other.
    â€˜You’re some magician,’ Ren said. ‘You got a rabbit in there?’
    â€˜Might have.’ Tallboy grinned, showing off a pair of black pegs that passed for his front teeth.
    Sonny loaded the fire with wood and Ren dropped the potatoes in the coals. He also helped Tallboy out, piercing a hole in the baked-bean tin with a rusted screwdriver.
    â€˜You want me to open your beer for you too, Tallboy?’
    â€˜No need for that, Wren. A feed comes first. Then me and old Tex here will kick on.’
    Ren kneeled next to Tex’s car seat and told him about the surveyor and the plans he’d talked about. ‘He said some of the river will be blown up to build a road here. He called it a freeway.’
    Tex shook his head furiously from side to side and slammed a fist into his open hand. ‘What the fuck is a freeway, Tallboy?’
    â€˜Oh, it’s a big wide road and the cars drive real fast on it. I seen one of them up north one time. Frightening, it was.’
    Cold Can woke, stood up and staggered over to the fire. With Tallboy’s help Tex got to his feet. He tugged Ren by the sleeve of his shirt and waved Sonny over to him. ‘Two of you. Outlaws. Fight’s coming and Tex needs you to be ready.’
    He rested a palm on Ren’s head just as he’d done the first day they met. He lay the other hand on Sonny’s shoulder. ‘The river. Now, she needs you most of all. Tex’s time is nearly up and there’s nothin I can do. That’s all I can say. Are you ready to help me?’
    Ren didn’t know what to say. He loved the river, but didn’t know what he could do to stop any change that might be coming.
    â€˜I’ll stop em,’ Sonny said.
    â€˜Good boy,’ Tex said. ‘You got some mongrel in ya, Sonny. I like that.’
    Big Tiny stuck his head out of the humpy. ‘Neither of them can do bugger all.’
    Tex picked up the end of a fiery log from the fire and