part 3
Kurdaitcha
Now normally, you wouldn't go and check it out, but I was a pretty fucking stupid kid, and the more I listened to the humming, the more it felt right to go after it. I followed the source and it was only a minute or so away when I found it.
There was a bloated, rotting kangaroo corpse. The smell was so utterly heavy in the air I could feel it in my fucking throat, almost suffocating. Maggots were wriggling around in the exposed parts of the skull, falling gracelessly onto the leaves and dirt, flies were heavy on its fur, and parts of its flesh were discoloured and pulled oddly. Things that rot seem to always be warped, twisted versions of the living.
It was then I heard the sound of the grass moving, and I looked up to see something small moving through the grass. I was frightened and I gasped, and it was then that the dogs took off after it. It took me too long to make the command for the dogs to stop, because Herc came strutting back with his kill, an orphaned joey.
"Herc. Drop." Herc's tail wagged in a little circle as he sat down.
"Drop!"
He dropped the twitching body on the dirt, and I pulled the infant towards me, the little thing was bent oddly at its back, I could feel where its spine had twisted and one of its hind legs kicked out as though it couldn't help itself, it was making small noises.
I tried shushing it, cuddling it to my body, but nothing worked. Eventually it stopped moving and I held it for just a little longer.
"I'm sorry." I said, petting the joey. "I'm sorry. I didn't see you."
I didn't want to take it back to the house because mum would get mad. She wouldn't let me touch Sandy with dirty hands, saying that it would be all my fault if I got the baby sick.
So I put it on the ground next to its mother, and when I went to stand up Herc nudged me excitedly, and I fell. I fell face-first into the mother's corpse, surrounded by the thick smell of death. I could hear the maggots eating, feel them squirming against me, and she was so slippery and putrid I thought I was going to pass out. I couldn't even scream because I didn't want to open my mouth, but my hand closed around something inside of the kangaroo, something solid and hard and when I pulled myself up so I was kneeling, I kept going.
It was a bone that detached itself from the rest, the muscle and sinew slewing off it as I tugged. I scrambled backwards until my back hit the thin trunk of a tree. I gagged and I couldn't see properly. I scrubbed at my face I with my sleeves and once I could, I stood up and staggered out of there, determined on getting to the water tank so I could use the hose attached to it on my body. I remember the journey taking forever, I had vomited twice and was dry gagging, trying not to let any of the kangaroo fluids inside of my mouth or eyes.
Vav and the baby were on the other side of the house, but Herc was covered in crap too, and he took off towards where she would be. By the time I reached the water tank, I could hear a crunch of boots on some of the dry ground.
"Blue? What the fuck? Are you okay? Is that blood?" My dad came over and dragged me towards the water tank, ripping the hose off its holder and spinning the handle until water came flooding out. I gasped and clawed at him blindly, one hand still curled around the length of bone I had pulled from the kangaroo.
My dad was petting me down, wiping the gore off me with quick, efficient scrubs of his hand as he directed the hose over me. "Clothes off Blue, come on, we have to get the blood off." Dad pulled off my shirt, getting me to bend at the waist so it came off easier, without pouring the gore-water down my body again, then my pants and underwear, my shoes and socks.
"Are you hurt?" My dad kept asking, and I kept shaking my head, no.
"Oh my God, Bill. Is that blood? Where's Sandy?" My Mother's voice came from behind my Dad, and I felt my stomach drop. Where's Sandy?
A sick, bubbly feeling deep in my torso overcame me like a flame.
Where's Sandy?
I was so utterly angry at my mother in that moment that I raised my hand, pointing the bone outwards.
Vav came around the corner then carrying Sandy. The moment I realized Sandy was what I was pointing at, I felt victorious.
My Mother raced over to Vav, and took the baby from her, my hand wavering as Sandy was hidden from view. My mother took her inside and did not look back at me once. It was then that I looked at Vav's face, and she looked horrified. It lasted for a few moments as my dad made me drop the bone and put my arm down, more water sloshing over my head and making me cough.
When I saw Vav's face again, she looked furious. I told my dad and Vav about the Kangaroo, about the Joey, and my Dad went to check it out. While he was gone, Vav grabbed me by the arm, her short nails digging into my skin as she held tight enough to bruise.
"Do you have any idea what you've done?" she said. She pulled me towards the Verandah and forced me to sit in one of the lawn chairs, while she sat opposite. I felt something like dread settle in me.
I shook my head. "Blue, why did you point the bone at Sandy?" Because I wanted to punish my mother, I thought, but didn't say.
Vav stared at me for a while, with her lips pursed. "Do you want Sandy to be gone?" She asked, her hands wringing together on her lap.
"l was angry." I said.
"Angry at Sandy?"
I shook my head.
"If you weren't angry at Sandy why would you do that, Blue? I have told you that we don't curse people here, why would you-" She suddenly leaned over and grabbed my face.
"You do not punish others to hurt your real target, do you understand me Blue?" I started crying.
"Blue, you have done a terrible thing today. Go inside and shower."
That night Vav kept her distance from me, and the next morning the dead Joey was on the Verandah, as though Herc had dropped it off.
Vav made me scoop it up into a shoebox and bury it, and my dad left that night to go back to work. For those of you who aren't familiar, bone pointing is a means of wishing death upon those who have wronged you, there are many different ways of preparing the bone, but you have to really mean it.
You cannot take back bone pointing but you can try to appease the curse by offering it something else in return. Vav said that an offering of myself wouldn't work, because
I am a husk like her. S
he asked me if I wanted to use my mother, but I said no. She asked me if I wanted to use Herc, then. I said no. That night Vav went out in her truck and didn't come back until it was very late. She found me watching over Sandy while she slept.
"It's taken care of." She said, and then left to her room.
Vav didn't speak to me for a couple of days, and then it
was as though nothing had ever happened. My dad
wanted to move away for work after that and between all
of that and my parent's rocky relationship; I didn't see Vav
again until I was thirteen.
-Blue
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