Best Australian Yarn: Grandad’s Farm by Brooke McDougall

“We’re selling the farm.” Those words echo around Alice’s head. She tries to rearrange them in her brain to make more sense. They don’t. Farm we’re the selling. The we’re farm selling. She stares back at her Dad.

“What do you mean? Why?”

Her Dad sighs. She notices the grey hairs on his head seem to have doubled overnight. “Even with Kai and David and your, – your grandad it was hard, now…”

Alice stares back, tears already starting to fill her eyes. “I’ll help more! Kai and David can … can quit boarding school! And I won’t go next year! We’ll train Rani’s next litter to be even better than her! Please! Please!”

Her Dad shakes his head. Alice notices the red outlines of his eyes. “Nobody’s quitting school. It’s just you and me here Alice, and with, with your Grandad’s… now that your grandad’s not around, we just can’t do it. I’m so sorry Alice. If we had more money maybe I could hire a worker or two, but we don’t. We’re moving to Perth next month, in December.”

Alice runs. She’s not proud of it, but she does. Rani runs with her, her tail down like she knows, she knows. Alice’s boots send small clouds of red dust up behind her as she pounds across the rocky mountain track. Her equally red hair whips her in the face. But she doesn’t stop. She keeps going until she reaches the cliff edge. Then she sits, the evening sun shining and lighting up her face. Rani sits next to her, her head on Alice’s lap, Alice’s tears dripping on her head.

“Why, Rani?” Rani looks up at her, it looks to Alice as if Rani’s big black eyes had tears in them too. Then Rani stands up, ears up and nose sniffing. Her tail is stiff and her eyes stare into the darkening scrub behind them. Alice stands up too, scanning the bush. “What is it, Rani? Is it a goat? Get it, Rani!” But instead of barking and racing forwards, Rani slowly moves forward, hackles raised and muscles tense. Then she lunges, diving into a wall of trees.

Alice follows the crashing of the kelpie. “Rani! Come back! RANI!” But Rani keeps running. Alice is debating whether to keep going or just to let Rani run all night when she nearly runs into her. “Rani! What the hell did you do that for you bloody d-…” But then Alice sees something she never thought she’d see again. “Grandad?”

Standing there is her Grandad. He looks like himself, but not himself. He is pale, and translucent. He is fuzzy at the edges, like someone rubbed out his outline. “Ranga,” he says and his voice is far away and all around at the same time. Alice smiles. He is the only one who she would allow to call her that. She slowly walks up to him. Am I hallucinating? She wonders. But when Rani barks, she remembers Rani could see him too. She wraps her arms around him – but they go around herself, through him. A sob escapes her. An almost transparent tear slides down his ghostly cheek. “I don’t have much time, I just needed to say a few things. Firstly, I love you and I wish I could’ve had all the time in the world. Second – and this is very important, I’m not letting you sell my land. Follow the creek. When you see the two gums on either side, and they have sheep on them, in the creek there’ll be the box. Remember!” But her Grandad is fading. “Wait! I love you Grandad! I won’t let them sell your land!” He smiles. “I know Ranga, I know.” Then he is gone.

Alice runs back to the house as fast as her already exhausted legs will carry her. She bursts through her flimsy front door. The flyscreen shudders as she slams it shut. Her Dad seems to not even notice because when Alice flies into her Dad’s bedroom, he is on a call and doesn’t even acknowledge her. His conversation is only one sided, but she guesses who he’s talking to straight away. Her mother. “No Molly! She’s staying with me. I don’t care! No! I’m not letting you take her away. She’ll like Perth. Yes, of course I told her brothers!” Alice backs out of the room. Her Dad is already stressed and she doesn’t want to get his hopes up. She grabs a bag from her room and runs into the kitchen. She doesn’t take long deciding what to grab. She gets what her Dad gets every camping trip. A few cans of fruit, beans, etc. A knife, two water bottles, a hat, matches, sunscreen and a few other things. She then runs back to her room and grabs a spare change of undies. When she’s done, she grabs her stuff, the four-wheeler keys, and a pen and paper. A note.

I’m going to save the farm. For Grandad. Be back soon. A xx

When she stops under a tree for the night she starts to wonder if she was maybe a little bit impulsive. But she decides that as long as she’s being stubborn, she’ll do it stubbornly. She’s followed the river for a few hours now and hasn’t come across any… sheeptrees. But she’s not stopping. She believes that Ghost Grandad was just as honest as real grandad. So, she sleeps. It is a comfortable sleep in the warm summer air and when she wakes up and has her canned breakfast, she feels refreshed and ready for some sheeptree hunting.

But when she’s been travelling for 3 hours, she starts to have some itty-bitty doubts. And by the 4th hour, she is not even sure where on the property she is. Which is why what happens next is such a shock.

The two trees. The sheeptrees! They’re… beautiful. The reddish carvings stand out beautifully from the gum’s white bark. They’re carvings of sheep! And farmers, and shearers, and dogs, all intricately designed on the smooth creamy tree bark. The tree’s bend over the creek in a graceful ark, green mixed together so you can’t tell which branch is from which tree. It creates a green curtain over the water, some of the branches brushing lightly against the creek’s surface.Alice jumps off the bike and runs over to the trees. She longs to run her hands over the beautiful tree trunks, but instead she looks into the creek. It’s about two meters deep but the water is so clear that she can see the sandy bottom. But more important than that, Alice see’s the metal box. She doesn’t even think. She dives into the creek. Despite the warm weather, the water is freezing. The cold water wraps itself around her, tugging her downstream. But Alice is a strong swimmer. She tugs the heavy box. It moves, so she heaves and pulls and eventually throws it over the riverbank.

When she surfaces, she heads straight over to the box, which is bigger than she originally thought. If she wasn’t so desperate, she doubts she would’ve been able to heave it out of the water at all. The lock is rusty and old and her knife opens it easily. But when it does open, she gasps. It’s filled with… a piece of paper. Alice’s gasp was a mixture of anticipation, disappointment, and wonder at how the paper isn’t wet at all, just yellowy and delicate from age. The box must have been waterproofed; she decides. Alice picks it up and reads it, hoping for a map to some real treasure. What she finds though… is better.

14th January, 1949Dear Mr WorthingtonThe War Bonds purchased by you have now matured. The maturation sum is £20 000. This sum will be held for you to collect or transferred to your estate as required. The Australian Government thanks you for your patriotism and support.Benjamin BlackGovernorReserve Bank of Western Australia

Alice stares at the paper. 20 000 pounds? What on earth was a war bond? But she didn’t really care. She carefully put the paper in her bag and the jumps onto the 4-wheeler, then speeds off. It is night when she gets back. She throws open the door and marches in, holding the page high in the air. She is triumphant but she quickly stops smiling when her Dad comes in. His eyes are bloodshot and he has big purple smudges under them. But he runs to her and wraps his arms around her. “Oh Alice. Where were you? I was so worried! No, I was beyond worried.” He takes a step back and looks at Alice, tears in his eyes. “Are you hurt? You were gone all night!” For a dumb second Alice wonders if it ever occurred to him to be angry. But only for a second. “Dad! I’m fine! I’ve saved the farm! Well, Grandad did. He came to me Dad! Twenty thousand pounds Dad!”

Her Dad stares at her for a second. He doesn’t look relieved, he looks… worried. “Did you hit your head, Alice? Your Grandad’s… gone, remember? Oh, God, she’s in shock. What do I do?” Alice shoves the paper in his face. “No Dad! Look! The farm! It’s saved! We’re saved!” Her Dad stares at the paper in her hand. “Is this for real Alice? Is it really real? Oh, Alice, oh, Alice! We’re saved!!Alice hugs her Dad. “I’ll go to Perth this week. Oh, Alice, what did you do?” He asks, his forehead creasing.

So, she tells him. She tells him everything from Rani’s weird behaviour to the beautiful sheeptrees. And when she’s finished, they laugh and sing and have a big dinner that is mostly made up of dessert. That night, as Alice lays in bed, ready to go to sleep, she hears a voice. “Well done, Ranga. You saved my farm.”