Many of the stories contained in this book began as exercises created in writing classes I attended. Each completed story was submitted, accepted and broadcast over two community radio stations. One radio station was in Brisbane and the other in Rockhampton at their interestingly named N.A.G. Radio Station. Both are in Queensland, Australia.
A story from the book:
Amma Alcheringa.
Kelly tilted the water bottle to her lips and sighed as the fluid ran down her parched throat. The heat outside the cave was intense and perspiration saturated her clothes and trickled down her body.
She grinned as she looked inside. Yes! I made it. She laughed and thrust her fist into the air. Amma Alcheringa, the Aboriginal men’s initiation cave from the Dreamtime. I’m really inside.
Flicking her halogen torch on Kelly swung its strong beam into the cave. Man-sized pinnacles of rock rose like sentinels from the red sandy soil, throwing grotesque shadows into the darkness.
She flashed the light onto the floor. Strange. There aren’t any animal signs, she thought. She sniffed the air. No bat smells either. It feels ... sterile.
Kelly guided the torch beam over the domed ceiling and discovered the hand paintings patterned there. Well, some unknown artist had been here and daubed his ochre, black and white colours onto the rocky canvas, she thought.
The paintings followed the roofline, ending at a narrow opening at the back of the cave. Kelly moved toward it. Shining her torch through the gap Kelly could see a round passageway. A faint current of air touched her face and with it a feeling of foreboding.
“Turn back, “a voice hissed inside Kelly’s head. “Enter and be lost forever.”
Kelly froze, hardly breathing. What was that?
The voice repeated “Enter and be lost forever.”
Goose bumps popped up on Kelly’s arms. Her gaze slid around trying to locate the speaker. She whispered into the void. “But I’ve only come to see the cave. I’m not going to take anything.”
“Women are forbidden. Powerful men’s magic is here. If you enter, you never leave.”
Kelly wavered, undecided. She thought of her struggle to get here. Of battling to keep her four-wheel drive on the bumpy track through the desolate rocky country to this cave. A cave few white people knew about - and no aboriginal would enter.
She thought about Steve Parker, her boss. The derogatory remarks he made a week ago when she told him about the cave and asked for funding so she could lead a group of other archaeologists to it. Even when she showed him the map he had laughed in her face.
“An attractive woman like you should just find some male to settle down with and raise kids as you are biologically programmed to do” he had told her. “Leave the field work to the men”. Chuckling, he turned and walked away leaving a furious, red-faced Kelly staring after him.
In her mind’s eye she was a child again in the family’s small fibro home at Liverpool. Mum cooking, washing, mending, always trying to please. No life of her own outside the home or wishes of her family; dad calling to her from the lounge-room. “Jeanie,” he would call and Mum would stop whatever she was doing, rush into the room and change the television channel or do whatever else dad was too lazy to get off the old brown velvet lounge and do for himself.
Kelly remembered her father’s reaction when she said she had won a scholarship to Uni and was moving to Darwin. Her family’s look of disbelief when she said she didn’t want to marry, stay home and raise kids. She wanted a career. To do something with her life, she told them, but she could see by their looks that no-one understood. “Your room will always be here for you when you get this foolishness out of your system” was all her father said – and that was that. They expected her to fail.
Steve Parker reminds me of dad, Kelly thought but despite their low opinions of me I have made it on my own. There was no going back now.
Probing the darkness with the torchlight and seeing nothing, Kelly called defiantly into the darkness. “I’m here now and I’m going to be the first woman to enter Amma Alcheringa.”
Kelly held her breath and waited. Only a current of air registered on her awareness. But to make sure I do come back I’ll use my precautions, she thought.
Unclipping a fishing spool from her belt Kelly carefully wound the loose end several times around one of the large rock sentinels. She tugged the line to test its firmness and, satisfied, Kelly entered the tunnel.
The smooth round walls were about two metres high and flowed out of sight. This must be an old lava tunnel, guessed Kelly. She swung her torch toward the wall and the beam illuminated the drawings there. Kelly stared in astonishment. Wow, I've never seen Aboriginal art like this. They’re more like hieroglyphics.
Kelly moved along slowly, studying each drawing. Men were depicted hunting large animals. She recognised emus and kangaroos but blinked in surprise at wombats as big as cows. At the next drawing Kelly gasped and moved her torch closer to get a better look. It was of a mammoth and next to it was a sabre-toothed tiger. Where would the aborigines have seen these animals, she wondered?
6
“Look, see here,” she called excitedly. “Here’s a picture of a centaur.” Then she froze. She had spoken to the person she felt standing next to her.
Galvanised, Kelly turned and flashed her torch up and down the tunnel. It was empty. She shone the torch onto the floor but the only imprints were her own in the soft red sand. Groping for her lifeline she tugged on it. It held firm so, summoning her courage, she moved on.
Pictures were drawn all along the wall and Kelly concentrated on them. I recognize the figures from the Aboriginal Dreamtime, but these are Maya drawings. Where did they come from?
She laughed excitedly; her nervousness forgotten. This is fabulous! When I bring the archaeologists and the scientist back here, they're going to have a wonderful time working this out. I’m going to be remembered as the woman who changed what we know of early Australia.
Kelly stopped and had a drink from her water bottle. Slipping the bottle back onto her belt she shone the torch on her watch and stared in amazement. Hey, I’ve been walking for two hours but it only seems like ten minutes. This tunnel must go on forever.
The feeling she was being watched intensified the further Kelly moved into the tunnel and she kept flashing the torchlight along the passageway to see who was there. Without warning the tunnel opened into a huge chamber. Kelly started in amazement. Where did this come from? It had to have come out of thin air.
Kelly paused, reluctant to go inside. I’m not so sure this was a good idea after all, she thought. She flashed the torch into the cave. It’s creepy. Anything could be in there waiting to grab me. An oppressive feeling of resentment surrounded her and now she could feel many hostile eyes watching. Her mouth had gone dry and she licked her lips, undecided on what to do.
A strange low wail started in her head and spread out, growing, filling the huge cave the moans of didgeridoos and the sounds of bones being struck together. “Amma Alcheringa, Amma Alcheringa,” the didgeridoos kept repeating like a mantra.
Kelly clamped her hands over her ears trying to shut out the noise. Something flew silently at her, striking the torch out of her hand and it broke as it hit the floor throwing the cave into total darkness. The didgeridoos stopped suddenly but the bones tapped furiously in time with Kelly’s heartbeat. She screamed and her voice echoed around the cave.
As Kelly backed away, groping for the tunnel, her hand brushed against the reel on her belt. Thank God! I can get out of here.
Unseen forces filled the tunnel and Kelly's nerves snapped. She screamed into the darkness “Let me go! I promise I’ll never tell anyone about the cave. I don’t want to die.”
“I don’t want to die ...” Her voice reverberated, trailing away.
Skin scraped off Kelly’s upper arm and left pieces of her flesh on the rock wall as she pressed against it. Her nails were torn and her fingers raw from the fishing line but she only registered it feeding through her fingers as she edged toward safety.
Kelly’s foot struck something in the sand and it broke her concentration. Whatever it was her lifeline was twisted around it. Easing on hand down Kelly ran her fingers over it. It’s a torch! How long has it been here? It wasn’t here before. She flicked the switch on and the beam shone into the darkness. Kelly screwed her face up while her eyes adjusted to the light.
“No! Oh, no! It can’t be. The string should have led me back to the cave opening: Not ... not ...” She felt her mind slip as uncontrolled terror overwhelmed her.
“No, oh, no ...” Her high-pitched scream echoed, mocking her. She was back in the huge cave with the sinister forces. The didgeridoos started softly resounding “Amma Alcheringa, Amma Alcheringa.”