Tommy Makes It Rich

Chapter 13 22 January 1900

22 January 1900

I awoke with a slight jolt as I hit the ground. I was down by the creek where our new house is located. Up the hill I could see smoke where the house should be. I ran up. There was smoke and ash everywhere. It was still hot. I could see the house had completely been destroyed by fire. I wonder what could have happened. I was sitting there thinking about what had gone wrong when I noticed Jock coming up the track on a horse. What was I going to do? I couldn’t let him see me sitting here naked next to the burnt out ruins of the house. I skulked around the other side where he couldn’t see me for the pile of debris that was formerly the roof of the house.

I was amazed that Jock hardly gave the house a second look. He headed straight up to the cow yard where he proceeded to milk the cows. Then he fed the calves and pigs cleaned up then went home again. That’s odd, I thought. I wonder where Jackie and Mrs. Andrews were, in hospital perhaps? They may even be dead.

After Jock left I had a look around the house to see what I could find. It must have been a very hot fire because there was nothing left but ash and corrugated iron. I found the steel bed frame that was Jackie’s bed and a sick shock ran through me. On the bed was a grizzly lump that could be a body. Oh God! She was dead. I searched the main bedroom and found a similar lump in the big double bed that Mrs. Andrews used. I sat and cried.

About lunchtime two men arrived in a dray. I scurried away out of sight and watched. They had three wooden coffins. They took these into the ashes and picked up the lumps of human remains from the beds and placed them into two of the coffins. Then they searched around like they were looking for another body. I heard one of them say, “Maybe the Wilsons were wrong. Maybe the boy wasn’t here last night. They did say that he comes and goes.”

“Well, he doesn’t appear to be here. What do you reckon caused the blaze?”

“I am guessing a candle.”

“Yeah you are probably right they wouldn’t have had a fire going this time of year.”

They loaded up the coffins and headed back down the track.

Candle? I remember Jackie giving me a candle last night. Just like she always does. I remember I was very tired after the big day at the races. Did I blow out the candle? Surely I did. Didn’t I? I can remember putting the candle on the floor while I got into bed. Oh no I didn’t blow out the candle. I caused this disaster. I killed Jackie and her mother. I was sick with grief and guilt.

I sat there the rest of the afternoon grieving, crying and blaming myself for being so forgetful. I had been so proud of myself last night. “Pride comes before a fall,” my father’s voice rang in my head. Well, I would have to do something. But what?

Then it dawned on me. The letter had said if I am not happy with things go back and fix it. So what do I need to do to fix it? Well, go back to yesterday and put out the candle of course. Ok how do I go back to yesterday? Yesterday was 21 January 1900. So if I go to bed at 7 o’clock tonight that will take be to 23 January 1900. Oh I will have to wait till the 21 January next year and make sure I got to bed at 7 o’clock. What do I do in the mean time? Just have to work the beans I suppose and where do I go at night?  It is not much fun back here without Jackie. There are no clothes for me to wear. Surely over the year there will be someone else come to live here. How do I explain popping in every day, naked? What choice did I have? Mum would send me to bed at 7 pm anyway. If I stayed up later then where would I be? There is a war coming. That shouldn’t affect anything here. No, I guess the best thing is to keep coming here maybe I can find something to make my days a bit more comfortable.

Jock came back in the afternoon and milked again. He collected the eggs and fed the chooks as well. Then he went home again.

I was going to go back to where the new house will be to go to sleep. Then I remembered that it was a low set house. I could wake up in the crawl space under the house or worse half way through the floor. So I went to the cow yard and lay down on some hessian sacks. I wish I had of come up here earlier in the day I could have made some clothes out of these bags.