A Day to Remember (Gordon)

It was a hot and dry summer. No job, family parted. The doorbell rang with a persistence that echoed with a vibration through the house. It rang three times before I could run down the stairs to open the door. I wondered, as I rushed, will the visitor have turned away. As I opened the door I could see it was James, my neighbour. “Hi James, how are things?” “Fine” he replied. He stood at the door with an awkward stance as though one leg were longer than the other. It was as though he were ready to run away. He said: “I hear you are out of a job?” “Yes”, I said with a soft uncertainty. “You know, I have just bought a small farm and I am looking for a share farmer. What do you think?” I was startled.

There was a long pause. My mind was racing. I had no experience with farming. How could I look after a farm? I knew nothing about it? Could I make enough money? What would I do with my townhouse? Would I need to have money? How much money would I earn? Would it be enough?

I said: “James, come in--we need to talk.” I waived him inside. James came through the door with a sort of a limp and an awkward walk and we shook hands. “What about a cup of coffee?” I asked. “Sure” he said.

The deal was done. I signed the share farming agreement and so began my new career.

There was only time to pack my bags and drive the 100 kilometres to the farm. “About 2,000 hectares and 3,000 sheep” James said, with excitement. He drove and talked of his dreams every moment of the way. It was his life savings, and more, invested in this farm but his health was not up to what was needed. He needed someone he could trust. How I felt buoyed by the life change this represented. We turned off the highway and into a lane of tall white gums overhanging both sides of the gravel road. The ground was undulating, dry and covered with scattered yet elegant grandfather trees. “Here we are” James said. This will be your house. It had a veranda surrounding a stone building, at least 100 years old. The only words I could utter were: “Wow this is fantastic.”

We walked around the house, we walked into each of the sheds—the shearing shed, the machinery shed, a garage, three large water tanks, a grain silo, stock yards and jetting equipment. There was a utility with a water tank beside it.

Suddenly, I felt a movement under my boot. I looked down—it was a snake urgently slithering through the long grass beside the machinery shed. I screamed: “Hell! James, help.” I ran and ran and in my mind ran even further past the utility, past the house and into the car. My blood was pumping like I had never experienced before.

Gordon MacAulay
15 February 2009