Into That Forest - By Louis Nowra Page 0,56

second year of searching when he were in a country pub that he overheard two loggers talking about a rumour they had heard ’bout two tigers that had killed a sheep with the help of two humans. It were too dark for the shepherd who said he saw this to be sure if they were children or midgets or even some strange new human-type creature - after all, it were a different time then and most of Tassie were still an unknown land and who knows what creatures or monsters lived there? Mr Carsons tried to find out where the rumour came from but the loggers didn’t know. They guessed it were from the highlands in the north-west, a long way from where he had been searching along the length of the Munro River.

Mr Carsons had to stop searching when winter came, as the highlands were freezing cold and the snow so deep that it were impossible to travel through. Once spring came and lambing were over he were out searching again. Mr Carsons were certain that we were alive and no amount of chiacking from people who thought he were growing mad with grief could stop his quest to find us. Near the end of autumn in the third year he met a farmer who Mr Carsons thought were a bit simple. He spoke in whispers of what he had seen. It were a story that he had told no one else cos he didn’t want to be made fun of. He were riding ’cross his paddocks just after twilight when he seen two tigers and two human figures crouched over a dead sheep. All four were bent over it, their faces buried deep within it. He yelled out and rode towards them but they fled into the darkness. When he examined the sheep he seen that they had torn open its throat and crushed the skull in order to eat the brains. There were blood everywhere. The four had been drinking blood from the throat. So horrified were the farmer that he thought the two humans were vampires. No wonder he didn’t tell anyone ’bout it. Though I suppose when you think ’bout it, in a way we were vampires. The farmer were relieved to hear Becky’s father talk ’bout the girls being real and not vampires, but he could not imagine or conceive that two real human girls were living and hunting with tigers. The only way he could understand what he had been told were that the two girls were really the ghosts of drowned Hannah and Rebecca. Mr Carsons, who were practically a ghost himself the way he haunted the highlands and the west, didn’t believe in spirits but he were now absolutely certain we were alive.

It were in the late autumn of the fourth year and he were riding through the hills just after dawn when he heard a man’s voice, as clear as a bird, singing somewhere in front of him. When he eventually caught up with the singer he discovered his name were Ernest and he were travelling through the valleys, plains and highlands recording songs on his phonograph. They were all sorts of tunes: sea shanties, drinking songs, love songs, ballads, folk songs. He were recording the songs of farmers, shepherds, drunks and old women. He thought these songs would soon die out and be forgotten and believed it were his mission to make sure this didn’t happen. His father had been an opera singer and Ernie, as I heard many times, was no mean singer himself. He had a lovely clear voice like a boy’s, and when you first heard him, the soft voice didn’t seem to sit square with his big, round body. When he saw Mr Carsons for the first time, he thought he looked like a wraith on a stick. Mr Carsons had a long, black, unruly beard and were starvation thin, and looked as ancient as any prophet in the Old Testament. Before even introducing himself, Becky’s father asked whether Ernie had seen two girls out in the bush. Ernie thought Mr Carsons crazy. How could two girls survive in that wild countryside? When Carsons told him how long he had been searching and that he believed the girls were living with tigers, Ernie thought him, what’s the expression - that he had a couple of kangaroos loose in the top paddock.

Ernie were about to set off again when Carsons asked him where he were heading.