The Track -Chapter One

the start... not complete chapter yet....

 

 

The two Australians, dressed down to a pair of short, socks and boot, and of course, their wide slouch hats against the hot sun in the brassy sky overhead, decided it was time for a break from the endless unloading and shuffling of boxes and bags from very lighter that came ashore form the freighter moored out in Port Moresby harbour.

 

Taking a shaded spot behind a wall of boxes, they watch and marveled at the way the natives just continued to lift and carry eighty pound and 100 pound boxes and bags in the hot sun �" just plodding along at their pace and somehow getting it all done with a big smile all the time and hardly a heavy sweat amongst them.

 

“Jeez, Bill”, said on, “those fellas can sure take this heat!  I’m buggared!  I could do with a dozen or so fast schooners and then settle down to a bit of steady drinking!”

 

“Here  �" have a slug of this!”

 

The other one handed over an Army issue water bottle with a grin.

 

“Aw, jeez �" water!  Local water’ll give a man the s***s!  Hope you put plenty of chorine in it to give it a bit of taste!”

 

“She’ll right, mate!  Drink up, Clarrie �" good for ya!”

 

Clarrie took a big swig, and nearly choked, turning red in an instant.

 

“Jeeee-Zuz!  Whatcha got in this?  Tastes like rotten pineapple and coconut!”

 

“Local brew �" kill a black dog!”  Bill reached for the water bottle.

 

“You got that right!  Jeez �" I pity the dog!  Here �" don’t take it back just yet �" I’ll have another now that it’s settled down a bit!”

 

“Go ahead, mate �" Horrie’s got a stash of this stuff tucked away �" for a rainy day.”

 

“Well �" don’t look much like rain �" only cool things off a bit for a while, then the bloody humidity gets right back up again!  Christ �" what a place!”

 

“Yeah �" Japs can have it for mine!  I don’t figure they’d last very long in this heat either!”

 

“Yeah, well I ain’t got any ambition to get fightin’ with ‘em just yet �" we been nothing but bloody navvies on this dock so far, and I hear those Japs are right b******s in a fight!”

 

“Christ �" who’d wanta fight for this bloody place, anyway?  Heat, mosquitoes, no women but the natives, no cold beer, and no bloody races on Saturday arvo at the pub!  Jeez �" what I’d give for a kiss and a cuddle from the old missus right now!  And a good Sunday dinner!”

 

 

 

 “Hey �" look a this!”.

 

They looked around the end of the pile of boxes as a small power boat pulled into the wharf, carrying an officer, who alighted like a twenty year old even though he had to be going on 40. Two badges on the shoulders �" had to be a Light Colonel at that age…

 

“Wonder where ‘e’s goin’?”

 

“Yeah, well, just stay outta sight until ‘e’s gone.  Some’a those blokes take this Army life serious, you know!”

 

They watched until the officer strode out of sight, then settled back in the shade for a well-earned drink.

 

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