Chapter 7
Primary School –
continued......
Bing was
in no position to argue. Being squeezed between the two antisocial mongrels
gave him no room or justification for heroism, besides he could not access his
own knife undetected, and even if her could he knew any sudden resistance would
trigger a reaction causing the blade against his throat to be a bump closer
from cutting him. In the absence of available solutions, or incentives for noncompliance
to the order, he handed over his wallet. The driver slammed on the brakes
causing the car to skid sideways along the shoulder of the road and stopped
with its rear end only inches from the edge of a deep slope. The passenger,
still with knife in hand, dragged Bing out of the car and took great pleasure
in pushing him down over the embankment. To a degree the fall intruded on his
sentience but he was still conscious enough to hear the merciless laughter of
the perpetrators and the slamming of the car door before they sped off with his
belongings; they left him for dead.
Unknowingly they had his army issue pistol which was not really allowed
off the barracks. He knew he would be in grave trouble if it was not returned
to its rightful space by Monday morning and in a lot more trouble if it was
found to be used for illegal purposes. His mind endured many scenarios, none
good, and if any came to fruition he would probably be court marshalled and
discharged from the army. A little dirty and bruised but otherwise in good
physical condition, a recovery of senses stated the urgency of need to clamber
up the embankment back onto the roadside for help. The problem was he was
stranded in the middle of nowhere. It was around midnight, freezing cold, there
was absolutely no traffic to be seen or heard, and he was mentally anguished.
All there was left to do was settle down, brush himself off, continue his
journey by foot and pray another car would soon come along.
Another car did arrive, no more than fifteen minutes after his severe
and trying experience. The driver who offered him a ride was an older person
who lived in Wollongong . Bing did
not tell him of the robbery because of the missing pistol, he was scared the
police may get involved and thought long and hard as to how he can get help if
he kept it a secret. Even explaining his dirty appearance and disturbed state
meant fabricating a story to keep the driver happy.
“I’m an idiot. It was dark,
I slipped and fell down an embankment and hit my head. I still feel a little
woozy but I’m okay; a bit sketchy on details though.” The driver accepted his
explanation and agreed to take him as far as the turnoff from the highway to
his home. Only ten minutes lapsed from getting into the car to the point of
nearing a small wooden railed bridge, the driver noticed an abnormality, he
slowed and pointed to the broken railing and on further inspection, over the side in the dry creek
bed they could see a car toppled on its roof. Bing recognized it instantly, it
was the green Chevy, but he did not reveal specifics or disclose awareness to
their identity. The driver pulled off the road and unlatched the glove
compartment to produce a torch before walking back and shining a beam onto the
belly of the car. They could not see inside the car from above so slid down the
face of the incline. Inside they found two men trapped and unconscious. Neither
person was wearing a seat belt thus contributing to the reason for their spread
and mess of tangled limbs which lay twisted and torn on the roof inside;
dispersed particles of blood, broken glass, beer bottles and junk lay
everywhere. It was obvious they had many injuries, external and internal. Don
assessed the situation and deemed them lucky there was no danger of the car
catching fire or other deadly scenarios such as rising water. A weak pulse was
detected on both the unconscious occupants and the decision was made not to
move them in case of causing further injury such as spinal or neck damage. The
driver of the car told Bing to stay with them while he drove to the nearest
phone box to ring for help.
Bing was not a sadistic person but he knew this catastrophe was not his
doing, as far as he was concerned they got what they deserved. In further
processing the accidental results and in relation to his prior confrontation
with these people he concluded their welfare should come second to his getting
back the property which belonged to him. His duffle was easy to reach, he
pulled it out and checked its contents; everything was there, including his
gun. Then being extra careful not to bloody his hands too much he went through
every one of their pockets to locate his wallet. In the search he removed all
three wallets and found a bonus, they had lots of notes in theirs, ‘maybe from robberies,’ he thought, but
he was not worried were the money came from, it was all his now. He placed the
empty wallets back into their pockets, his in his own, and sat on a rock in the
still of the night holding lengthy deliberations into the availability of his
options. Mental exhaustion was strangling logical reasoning and intensified
fear in thoughts: ‘If I wait for the
police and the driver who left me here to come back and he mentions to them I
didn’t have a duffle bag on me when he picked me up, they’ll ask where it came
from. Christ, if they searched me they would surely want to know why I have
such a large sum of money, worse still, if they searched my bag and found the
gun it could be bedlam.’ With each waiting minute Bing grew restless and
impatient. The longer he sat there the augmentation of doubt eroded his better
judgment, and what was probably insignificant certainties regarding police
presence transgressed his boundaries of decency; he made a decision to gather
his things and take to the road in search of another ride and complete his
journey. But within a few short strides a reconsideration of his actions saw
him pause in a self-incriminating stoop. Deeply absorbed in thought he could
not leave, whatever the outcome, he was not maliciously wounded in character
enough to walk away from those injured. He returned and placed his duffle on
the side of the road before sliding back down to the scene of the accident.
Whilst waiting, pondering and evaluating the rationale of choice, he set
fire to a pile of dry tinder for warmth and light. As he clasped his hands and
vigorously rubbed them together over the welcome heat, one of the wounded made
a conscious murmur and few slight movements. Bing stuck his head in the car
body to offer comfort;
“I’m here. How are ya? Can
you talk? Are you all right?” The passenger was awake but not fully cognizant
of his whereabouts or his grim predicament. He groaned in pain;
“Ahhh. What happened? Please
help, please help me. Please.”
Bing tried harder to console him;
“Lay still you’ve been in a
car accident. Help is on the way.” The other person, the driver lay motionless.
Bing felt for a pulse again, but there was no more a sign or feeling of any
rhythmic contraction or expansion of the arteries; he was dead. As the
passenger started to wriggle erratically with noticeable incoherency, shock and
severe pain, he tried freeing himself from the entanglement of limbs and
debris. With each move his shrill cries in pain pierced the night and were made
louder in defiance of his confinement.
“Help, heeelllppp, get me
out, please help.” Loudly in sickly tones he repeated his plea. Bing was unsure
of medical protocols in this type of situation and was ignorant towards the
procedure for how the removal of an injured person should be performed to
ensure minimal damage, but he dealt with it as well as he could despite
difficulty in coming to terms with rescuing him; after all, it was this person
who robbed him and left him to die. He untangled the driver’s arms and legs
which must have broken in many places because they had the passenger entwined
like a knotted tree trunk, and then he put his hands under the passenger’s
shoulders, edged his cut and bruised body out of the car and placed him in a
spot next to the warmth of the fire. Bing did his best to make him comfortable
by using an old rag dipped in a puddle to wipe his brow and covered him with a
few items of his clothing, but without medical knowledge, equipment or
bandages, he could only wait for the professionals.
The blaring of sirens could be heard from far away and alerted him early
as to the arrival of the police and ambulance. He was very jittery over the
circumstances linking his attendance at the scene, but luckily for him when the
authorities arrived, the driver who gave him a ride and reported the accident
was absent. He already gave his statement to the police and was allowed to go
home. The medics pronounced the driver dead and did their doctoring on the
passenger before putting him in the back of the ambulance for transport to hospital.
The police thanked Bing for waiting and offered him a ride to the police
station so he could clean himself up; naturally he was uncomfortable with their
generosity but could hardly refuse for fear of raising suspicion. After a quick
wash and a wipe down he thanked them and paced swiftly out of sight to begin
thumbing a ride again. It was no
trouble finding another lift through to Wirrageen.
After detailing these events to Zoe and bleeding as much sympathy as he
thought possible from her he was gladdened by the attention he received. On
finishing his true but overinflated story he went for a shower, she followed
him in for a few stolen minutes, taking full advantage of the moment everybody
was busy serving and attending the shop. Don was in earshot of the bathroom and
heard pleasurable groans, being so young he knew not of their toying. Ignorant
to their blissful rapture he merrily went about his play.
The next day they were still lovey-dovey to the point of embarrassment.
Ted’s instant reaction was to punch the crap out of Bing but thought better of
it. Instead he used friendly tactics to get him away from her, he asked him to
help with the mechanics and cleaning of his newly purchased, faded red,
‘Hillman’ utility. Ted needed this car desperately to get himself to work and
back. It replaced the old worn out ‘Austin’ and was the only car he ever owned
he could actually drive home rather than have it towed. Also in his possession,
given free of charge, was an old car chassis with an operable motor, steering,
one seat and a tow-ball; no body. No-one knew how old the car was or what type,
but this bodiless work-horse was used around the property for towing things
like a trailer and plough. It was a great vehicle for Don to drive because
without a shell meant there were no obstructions like a dashboard to block his
view, all he needed was a small orange box to sit on and he could steer and
still reach the pedals. Business in the shop slowly improved and the sight of
seeing such a young boy driving a chassis with a trailer in tow and working the
shovel became a talking point among many of the travellers. Don enjoyed the art
of driving and yearned for the day when he could get his license and drive on
the road. Although he could not reach the pedals or see over the dash in the
full bodied ‘Hillman’ just yet, the privilege was not far away and before long
he was allowed to drive anything around the property.
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