Kipp The Kid Read online

  “Out-of-towners,” his grumps would snicker, whenever their names were mentioned.

  “I’ve seen those three in action at school,” said Jane when Kipp told her about them. “They usually leave me alone, but they pick on the other boys something shocking. What are we going to do?”

  “Nothing we can do.”

  “But they know we’re here,” she said, concern in her voice.

  “Nothing we can do about that now.”

  “Won’t they come back?”

  Kipp thought hard about how to answer. He thought they probably would and there was no doubt it was them that wrecked the camp site. But in his mind he was already developing a cunning plan.

  “Yes, but if they do, we’ll be ready for them.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Come on, we have work to do.”

  The night before Jane had just wanted to go home. She had been frightened. But with the morning light and the warmth of the sun, she had wanted nothing more than to stay. She hadn’t been harmed. Whatever it was that haunted the chasm had not done anything but scare her.

  Just to be sure, Kipp had done the gentlemanly thing and asked her if she wanted to go. She shook her head and grinned. He was glad. They had planned to stay two nights. He dreaded having to explain to his gran and grumps why they came home early and he doubted they would let him come out again for at least a few days, if not a week.

  He also had grave doubts Jane’s own father would let her ever come camping again, once she got home. He began to worry what might happen to her when she did. In his wild imagination he had thought they might be able to run away together. It was a fleeting thought, so impractical and stupid. For all their faults, his grandparents needed him and he loved them, despite their strange ways. He had been imposed on them at a time of grieving. Abandoned by his father, they had had no choice but to look after him. He was thankful for that and he felt he owed them more than running away.

  Kipp and Jane packed up their stuff. Jane didn’t have to ask where they were going. There was only one other place safe enough, far enough out of the way. They made their way back down the shaft, along the narrow tunnels and down into the hovel. Just to be sure, Kipp closed the wooden latch above them.

  “We have to use candles,” he said, “The lantern burns too much oxygen,” he added by way of explanation.

  The air was stale and dank, but Jane didn’t have any problems breathing. Kipp opened up a vent in a tin pipe that went up into the timber ceiling.

  “What’s that?”

  It’s a ventilation shaft. It runs part way back down the tunnel. It’ll help provide enough breathable air. We’ll have to stay the night here, but we can’t have a fire or cook real food. We’ll have to make do with tinned.

  Jane shrugged and nodded. Kipp laid out their swags at one end of the hovel. “It’s still early. Come on. Time’s a wasting.” He grabbed Jane by the hand and led her through a small opening at one end of the hovel. It was covered at the entrance with sack cloth. There was only enough room to crawl and in the dark, Jane wondered what her clothes must look like. Kipp had the torch, which by now was just a dim glow. They came out into an opening, not much larger than the hovel. But at least here they could stand up.

  Kipp lit a candle he had brought and placed it on a stone ledge. Jane was surprised at how much light it cast. Around her the walls were a different color rock, but there were thin strips of colored stone in between the layers. Some of them glinted in the candle light.

  “What are they?” she asked.

  “Gems. Some crystallites and if you’re lucky, some opal.”

  “Wow!” Jane went over to the wall of the chamber and brushed a vein with her hand. So smooth.”

  Kipp had a small pick, which he handed to Jane. “Have a go.” She struck the vein hard, but nothing happened. “No, you have to chip at it, careful like, along the edge.”

  He took the pick off her and started chipping away at the vein. After a while he had dislodged a small gem. He held it up to the light of the candle. Jane could see the colors through the gemstone. She was amazed by the many colors in the small stone. He gave it to her and she held it up again. Then she went to give it back.

  “Keep it. Consider it yours.”

  “Really?” Jane said, trying not to sound too excited.

  Kipp chuckled at the child-like manner of Jane. After the events of the night before, he did not know when he would see the old Jane again, but he was glad she was back. She placed the gem stone in her pocket and Kipp started chipping away at the wall. After some time he had several stones, enough to fill a small cloth bag he had with him. He held it up, drawn tight by a string.

  “You said you had a plan…to deal with the boys?”

  The small bag swung back and forth in front of Kipp’s grinning face. “This is the plan.” Jane grinned too, though for the life of her she did not know why. She knew enough to know how cunning Kipp could be and she trusted he had it all worked out. “You see,” he began. “Boys like the Jansens don’t know a hell of a lot. They aren’t particularly literate. They are bullies. They will steal your lunch, get you into trouble, pick fights around the school, gang up, but for all that they don’t have much going for them. What they do understand though is greed. They see something they want and they will take it, whether they need it or not.”

  “So you are going to…tempt them? With those?”

  “Yep!”

  Jane smiled a beaming smile. She liked the way Kipp thought. For such an unassuming lad, he could be very clever and witty and this was just another side to him she liked.

  “You are full of surprises.”

  “And do you know what? These little gems, for all their apparent beauty, are worthless.”

  “What?” Jane said and then giggled.

  “That’s right, they aren’t the real deal. At least not a patch on the gems up north. And this?” He now held something that glowed gold. A piece a little smaller than his hand. “This will fool them completely.”

  “Is that what I think it is?”

  Kipp only smiled.

  chapter 8: A Fool’s treasure

  Kipp placed the treasure inside a wooden box that looked as old as the mines themselves. Then with a bit of hot iron he carefully inscribed a word he hoped the boys would recognize. Then he and Jane buried the box at the base of the chasm wall at the far end of the chasm. They then covered it with grasses and cacti they had dug up from elsewhere, planting them so that they looked like they had been there for a while. Kipp then inscribed something resembling the British Crown above it on the rock.

  The two of them stood back and admired their handy work. Then they looked at each other and laughed. Jane held a hand up to her mouth and laughed into her wrist. She noted for the first time how dirty it was.

  “Do I look as dirty as you do?” she said.

  “Filthy,” came the sure response, before they both broke out in laughter.

  They returned to the hovel and had a lively discussion about how long it would be before the boys returned and whether they were smart enough to at least follow the clues that two of them had planted all around the place, especially the tops of the chasm. Kipp knew it was only a matter of time before the boys could not resist returning. He suspected they would bring more than just their cameras.

  Kipp and Jane talked for what seemed like hours. Jane asked him about his parents and family and cousins and he told her almost everything. When he spoke about his dad, it was with careless indifference. But whenever he mentioned his mother, he softened and slowed down, turning his gaze towards the flickering candle light.

  He told her how his dad had left them and how it had broken his mother’s heart. Even though he was only four years old he still remembered the look of utter sadness on his mother’s face, as she read out loud the letter his dad had written.

  “I will never forgive him for that,” he said, then, after a moment’s pause he turned to Jane. “What about you? I mea
n, I’ve told you all about me.” For a little while Kipp was convinced she wouldn’t open up. But just when he thought she wasn’t going to say, she started to tell him a story that for the first time in a very long time, would bring a tear to his eyes.

  “My mother was killed right in front of me,” Jane started. Kipp was surprised at how forthright her manner was. “We went to town and caught the city tram because I had never been on it before. It was just before my seventh birthday. We had planned on spending the whole day there. Dad was off working in the mines interstate for weeks on end and he was due home that weekend for a long overdue break.”

  I had gotten off the tram, but mum’s dress got stuck. The tram driver had gotten up to help her pull the dress from the door. She turned to thank him and because she was distracted, she stepped off the tram without thinking and walked right in front of an oncoming car. The force of it killed her instantly. I remember staring at her. She was smiling as she looked up to check where I was. I will never forget that smile. It was the most beautiful and terrible thing I ever saw and the last time I would ever see my mother’s wondrous smile.”

  Jane had no tears as she said this. She related the story as if it had happened to someone else. Her eyes were glazed over and she looked absent, like her spirit and left her body as she sat motionless, not even blinking. Kipp could not help the tears in his own eyes. He did not know which of them he felt more sorry for. He had cried secretly many nights for the loss of his own mother. She had died giving birth to what would have been his sister. The baby had not lived to see the end of that day. He had never seen her. She lies in an unmarked grave with the hundreds of other infants in Moonta Cemetery.

  There was a funeral for his mother, but none for her new born child. His own father had not even come to say goodbye. He had not told Jane any of this. He had not told her how he wished he had a sister. He had thought of Jane as someone who might be like a sister. But now, when he looked at her, he saw someone truly beautiful, fragile, vulnerable. A treasure to outshine any precious gem.

  Kipp had never kissed anyone except his mother when he was younger and his gran every now and then, but only when she had given him something, a gift for his birthday or presents at Christmas. He had rarely kissed his grumps. Mainly because his face was so rough and bristly. Kipp almost broke out in a rash once after kissing his grumps on the cheek and swore he would never kiss him again.

  Almost without thinking about it, he leaned in and kissed Jane on the lips. To his surprise she did not move away. She did not even flinch. It was the briefest of kisses. But it was the softest, most delicate, most delicious thing he had ever touched with his lips and it left a memory that would stay with Kipp for many years.

  Jane held her gaze for a while, steely, steadfast, not looking away. Then, as a smiled crept slowly across her face, she said, “My mother would have liked you.”

  Jane didn’t talk much about her father. But she did say later how she felt sorry for him. After all, his wife had been taken from him in such a horrific way. It explained why he got so drunk.

  “But he shouldn’t hurt you,” Kipp had said.

  “He didn’t mean to. He can be very nice…when he’s sober.

  Kipp was reluctant to leave the hovel with Jane. He had hoped to steal another kiss from her, but decided he daren’t risk rejection. She liked him and that was enough for now. In the meantime they had work to do. If he had known what would follow, he might have taken his opportunity. But such is the habit of fate, he could not have then known.

  They left the hovel with all their things early in the morning. Then they sat at the camp site, after lighting a fire and rolling out their swags, as if they had been there all night. The could not know whether the boys had returned the night before. Kipp guessed that the boys would have gone about town gossiping about him and Jane. He hoped it made them jealous. He did not care for many of the locals. They had hurt his grandparents many times with their gossip. So he wasn’t interested in what the townsfolk would think about him and Jane. It was simply none of their business.

  As predicted the boys did return. Jane could hear them whispering at the top of the cliff. Kipp was ready for them.

  “No. I can’t tell you.” Kipp said suddenly, loud enough so that anyone within a mile could hear.

  “Why not?” said Jane, acting her role perfectly.

  “It’s a secret.”

  “So you’re keeping secrets now? What about yesterday. Would you have kept secrets from me then?”

  Jane thought she heard muffled laughter from above and had to stop herself from smiling.

  “That was different.” Kipp said, feigning annoyance.

  “How so?”

  “You were scared, vulnerable.”

  Jane was wondering how much of the act was Kipp and how much of it was just acting. He’s really good at this, she thought and then decided to step it up.

  “Well, wouldn’t you be?” She flung her head around in a desperate attempt to look insulted and almost overdid it. Out of the corner of an eye she saw three small heads peering over the top of the cliff, but she dared not look up.

  “Look. It’s not easy you know,” said Kipp, “I’ve never trusted anyone enough to tell them where the treasure is buried…”

  “Did you hear that?” said Arnold. “I told you there was treasure.” He had the cloth map he had found partially buried nearby. “See?” He was pointing at a spot on the map. “It’s right there, down below, at the end of this cut-out.”

  “Alright, alright. I heard you the first time,” Trent said and then ripped the map off him. The three boys peered down eagerly, waiting for their opportunity.

  Jane was hitting her stride at this point. She was standing, hands on her hips and wore a determined look on her face. “Not easy? Try living with a drunk. Try never going out. You kissed me, remember?” As soon as she said that, she wondered if she had gone too far with her act. Kipp had a flash of red on his face and scowled at her momentarily. He didn’t really care what the boys thought, but didn’t necessarily want them to know about that. Too late now.

  He heard more laughter above him. He did not look up but kept on with the act. “Ok, alright. I get it. I trust you. I’ll show you. Just don’t get upset.”

  “Did you hear that?” said Jake “They kissed? Yuk!”

  All three boys laughed. Arnold was on his back by now, holding his stomach. Spitting out laughs as if he had choked on them and wanted them out but couldn’t force them out.

  Kipp made a move towards Jane, who reluctantly let him place his hands on her shoulder. Then she slowly turned around and even though he knew she was still in character, he was still surprised when she kissed him again, full on the lips and for much longer than before. Too long in fact. Kipp pushed her away a little and then whispered, “Nice work.”

  “Do you think they bought it?”

  “I would have,” he said and then winked. Jane smiled again. She felt like a little kid who had just done the right thing in the school yard and the teacher had acknowledged it.

  “What are we going to do now?” said Jake. Arnold had flipped over and Trent was concentrating.

  “We wait.”

  Kipp took Jane over to the spot where they had earlier buried the box. He pointed deliberately at the marking and placed a small spade next to it as if to reinforce his trust. “There, satisfied?” The two of them stared at the ground for a moment and then they headed back to the camp, packed their things and climbed back up out of the chasm at the end opposite where the boys were.