Read Online Fresh Fields by Peter Kocan - Free Book Online Page A

and sat with them and the youth stroked her head and soft coat. The youth said what a nice dog she seemed. “Yeah,” said Clem, “she’s a real good little workin’ dog.” Then he added grimly: “She’s clever enough that even belongin’ to Coles hasn’t ruined her.”
    They forced themselves to go back under the shed for another stint, and when they stopped for their next break Clem was in the mood to tell the story of the bulldozer.
    â€œWhen Jimson bought Dunkeld he had this grand vision of bein’ a big-time grazier and one o’ the landed gentry, and Coles egged him on. Jimson had never been closer to the bush than Pitt Street, and didn’t know a sheep-run from a hole in the ground, so he gave Coles a free hand to do whatever he thought best to improve the place. Coles kept sayin’ that in five years he’d have it lookin’ like a
park
. That was the big thing, to have it lookin’ like a
park
.
    â€œWell one day Coles went out and bought this bloody great Caterpillar, this bulldozer, that the shire council was gettin’ rid of because it was a clapped-out piece o’ junk. But Coles paid top price for it—thousands and thousands of Jimson’s money—and had it trucked to the property as if it was God’s gift to the place. The idea was that the dozer would clear all the felled timber that’d been lyin’ around on the slopes for the last sixty-odd years. But the dozer never did a proper day’s work of clearin’ because it was forever breakin’ down, and Coles was forever forkin’ out Jimson’s money to pay for new parts and for specialist mechanics to come out. Of course, it was a lucky thing that the dozer
was
a dud, otherwise somebody woulda got killed when it rolled over, seein’ as how most of the property is too steep and treacherous for any dozer to operate on.
    â€œWell, Jimson might not have known the first thing about the bush, but he knew about money and he knew that Coles was wastin’ heaps of it. Now Coles isn’t the kind of bloke who’ll admit he’s made a galah of himself, so he keeps insistin’ that the Caterpillar’s a great investment and it’ll be a real goer as soon as a few little problems are sorted out.
    â€œSo this day Jimson drives up from the city in one of his flash Eye-tie cars. A
Maserati
, I think it was, one o’ them racin’ cars that’s worth its weight in friggin’ diamonds.
And
he’s got his new girlfriend with him that he wants to impress, and she’s a fashion model or somethin’, done up to the nines. Anyway, after they have lunch, Coles decides to show Jimson and the girlfriend how good the dozer is so he jumps on and starts her up and goes roarin’ around the home paddock, churnin’ the ground to buggery. I seen this meself, because me and Gladys happened to be drivin’ past along the top of the hill just then, on our way to town. Suddenly the controls jam on the dozer, like they was always doin’, and it’s headin’ towards where the Maserati’s parked. Well, I s’pose the whole thing only took about ten seconds, but I can see it now like it was happenin’ in slow motion. Coles is wrestlin’ with the levers and shoutin’ at the dozer at the top of his voice that it’s a bastard swine of a thing. Jimson is jumpin’ up and down and yellin’ and wavin’ his arms like he’s got a goanna up his trousers. The girlfriend is leanin’ into the car to get somethin’, and she looks up and starts screamin’ and scramblin’ to get out. And Mrs. Coles is at the side o’ the house doin’ a sorta mad shriek. And the dogs are all barkin’ too.
    â€œWell, I thought the Maserati was gone for sure, and the girlfriend with it. The blade o’ the dozer is about twenty feet from the driver’s-side door when Coles gets control