Black Cockatoo by Hakea Hustler

Author:Hakea Hustler
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Magabala Books

8

The weeks went by and the dirrarn gained physical strength, but his mind was still broken. He walked from one side of the cage to the other and constantly chewed on the corner wire.

In the mornings before the family woke, other dirrarn gathered in the trees. They took turns landing beside his cage and copying his sad dance.

Jy sometimes came outside to puff on a smoke that he had pocketed from his grandfather. Sometimes it was the mangirrigirri tata lizard he was hunting— hiding them in his pockets to take to school to frighten his teachers. Occasionally, it was the newly arrived cane toad—grabbing them by their legs and picking a stick off the ground to hit them across the yard like a tennis ball.

At night, occasionally, the silence was broken by the laughter of the family as they sat around outside eating marlu kangaroo or jarrambayi fresh off the fire. Other times, it was broken by loud music, the songs from the old people as they sat on the back porch, or the quiet crying of Mia who was worried by the sounds of relations arguing.

One day, Mia was slow to return home from school—her cousin-sisters had persuaded her to join them for a swim at the town pool. Afterwards, with her hair still wet from the swim, Mia walked into the yard, ready to fill up the water in the cage. As she rounded the garden shed, she stopped. Jy and an older cousin, Tobias, were kneeling by the cage, smiles plastered across their faces. Mia watched as Jy guided the end of a thin, scaly tail through the bars.

She screamed and ran. Driving her shoulder into her brother’s stomach, she bumped him aside. Groping for the key that was on a string around her neck, she kneeled at the cage door. Tobias grabbed her by her shoulders, yanked her up and locked her arms behind her back. She kicked out as Jy stood up. The murnduj black-headed python sniffed the air with its tongue. The dirrarn squawked and climbed higher up the branches in the cage. Jy turned towards her, anger in his eyes. Tobias laughed. She held her breath. The back door banged open.

‘Stop!’ shouted their grandfather. ‘Enough fighting. You should feel shame fighting your sister.’

The grip loosened and Mia quickly dropped to her knees by the cage; lock off. She wasn’t afraid of the python and easily grabbed it by its neck and threw it out into the grass. With the bird safe, she lowered her head in relief.

Jy seethed, his anger rippled under his scarred skin—the skin of a fifteen year old who had grown up hard in the red-ground country. Mia, her skin unblemished, radiated optimism and hope.

The grandfather watched Tobias run off out of the yard. He then turned to face his grandson, who stared defiantly back at him, veins popping in his arms, down to his clenched fists. The old man met his gaze sadly, his disappointment clear. Jy broke the stand-off, bowed his head and stormed back into the house.

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