Vanishing Point

Two days later Benjamin paid Jenny for her services, gave her gifts of honey and kangaroo skins and instructed Karl to drive her back to where she came from.

Katherine did not see her again in spite of requests to Benjamin. She never got to say thank you.

Her logical mind wanted to hate the boy, conceived out of fear and loathing, but once she held Isaac to her breast all her venom towards him seemed to flow out with the milk. His eyes looked into hers and she saw him only as a vulnerable child, like Carolyn, dependent solely upon her for life and safety. That unfathomable bond between a mother and the baby was stronger than any potential hatred.

Life at the Factory soon returned to the routine much as it was before Isaac was born. Katherine’s remained desperately lonely and she reluctantly came to accept her lot in life. At times she even managed to laugh and share moments of pleasure with Benjamin, telling him of the children’s activities.

The old fears emerged only when Karl spent time at the Factory. Since Katherine had submitted to Benjamin and particularly after Isaac was born, there was a distinct change in the relationship between the two men. Benjamin deferred more and more to Karl. It was as though Karl had helped bring God’s plan to fruition and teach his woman to be proper wife and now the mother of his child Benjamin was immensely grateful. On each visit Karl’s authority grew. While he appeared to be following instruction from Benjamin, Katherine could see that, more and more, he was subtly setting the agenda.

By the time Isaac was nearly two summers old, Benjamin started to call Katherine to his bed regularly once more. She was terrified of another pregnancy, but equally terrified for the children if Karl used his influence. She tried all sorts of stratagems to avoid intimacy with her captor. Most requests came when Karl visited the Factory, leading Katherine to believe that it was he that made the suggestions.

Karl came to her room after the evening meals. He never knocked but the sweet smell of his cigarettes and ‘busy bee’ dust clearly signalled his arrival.

‘Ya man wants ya. Better git over there pronto.’

‘I can’t. I’m still putting the children to bed.’

‘Well, I’ll tell Benjamin ya can’t come ‘cause ya have ta spend time with ya kids. Mebbe he’ll tell me I could take ‘em with me next trip, give ya that special time with ‘im eh?’ Karl blew a cloud of the sweet smoke into the room.

‘All right, I’ll go.’

‘I’ll walk ya over. Wouldn’t want ya to git lost on the way, eh?’

He made sure he escorted her there and, worse, back, his hands frequently moving from the whisky bottle, always in his hand after dinner, to Katherine’s body. She was unsure whether she should tell Benjamin. Once she raised the subject and he became angry and suggested that she was at fault. Perhaps it was even she who needed to be punished because she was leading him into temptation. ‘But Karl’s me mate. He knows ‘e can’t do an’ won’t do nothin.’ So don’t ya lie ta me, woman.’

However, after that he always made her wear her kaftan back to her room. That didn’t stop Karl’s wandering hands. On one occasion when they reached her room he swung her round by her shoulders to face him, slipped his hands under her dress and squeezed her breasts. She threatened to tell Benjamin what he was doing. He sneered as he gave an extra hard and painful squeeze, hoarsely whispering ‘I ain’t fucked ya woman, not yet anyways. An’ if ya dob me in ta Benjamin’ll, ya know ‘e’ll go mad, that’s even if ‘e believes ya. He reckons women is liars all, an’ cause trouble for men. Jusht like Eve an’ Adam. Mebbe kill the both of us but sure as ‘ell, I’ll kill both youse kids, ‘fore I git outta here. I knows there’sh nobody knows ya here. Nobody’ll miss ya or ya kids. They ‘aven’t fa five, six years an’ they ain’t suddenly gunna start now, is they?’

Katherine twisted away and out of reach. She was scared now. ‘You’re drunk. And you’re going too far, Karl. I reckon if I told Benjamin about you and what you’re trying to do, he’d believe me and you’d be out of here. He wouldn’t hurt his son and I’m sure he wouldn’t hurt me now either. It’s not like before his baby was born. Things are different now —’

‘Dream on, ya shtoopid bitch. Ya wanna tesht it? I’se killed more than ‘roos an’ dogs before, an’ could do it agin, if I ‘ad ta. Accidents ‘appen.’

He trapped her against the wall, with one hand on each side and pushed his face against Katherine, trying to kiss her but she turned her face away as he burped.

‘Go away, Karl. You’re drunk. Leave me alone.’ Quickly bending her knees, she slipped under his arms and ran into her room. She slammed the door and hoped that Karl would leave. She wished there was a lock.

Katherine breathed a deep sigh of relief as she heard Benjamin and then Karl’s footsteps shuffling away across the veranda. She looked at her two children, fast asleep, and wondered what the future held. She had to work out a way to change the situation for the better, for their sakes. She could not understand why Benjamin was falling increasingly under Karl’s influence and Karl was drinking more and more heavily. She dragged her bed against the door then checked the sleeping children before fearfully climbing into bed to the sound of male laughter in the distance. Karl’s dog gave the occasional bark at the moon.

It would seem that, in spite of his apparent anger and blaming her for leading Karl on, something must have registered in the back of Benjamin’s mind because, after her revelations that she thought Karl was trying it on with her, Benjamin never left Karl in charge of the Factory when he went to Perth. Instead, he made sure that his trips away were just before, or just after, a visit by Karl. These were particularly lonely times for Katherine. She missed so many of the things that she once had taken for granted. Her memory played tricks on her. She longed for simple things, like the distinctive smell of fresh rain on hot bitumen after a scorching day. Here it was just red sand and the bush.

In a strange way, she began to appreciate the beauty of the desert, stark though it was. After the rare falls of rain, masses of small flowers appeared and covered the sand with a carpet of colours. Katherine took it as a sign that even in the most arid life, beauty and hope can flourish.

Once, while alone in the compound, she heard an aircraft in the distance and, thinking it might be a low flying geological reconnaissance plane, or government survey, she rushed out and made a huge S O S out of boxes. She could see the plane clearly. However, the plane droned across in the middle distance.

I reckon this could be my last trip over east,’ Petri was telling Shelley as they waited for Alec.

‘Oh! That’s a real shame. Why?’

‘There’s not much more I can get from research. Now it’s the proof of the pudding time with some more work in the field.’

‘We’ll miss your visits. I guess we’ll have to make a trip over to Perth.’

Petri noticed she used ‘we’ and not ‘I’. As the relationship between Alec and Shelley had prospered, he found it difficult to suppress feelings of jealousy towards Alec. Everything about Shelley made her seem like the woman he would like to be with for life. But Petri did not let it come between the friendship the two men shared.

‘So things are getting serious between you and Alec?’

‘Absolutely. There is the issue with Katherine though. He is finding it really hard to forget her. I wouldn’t want him to but he finds it difficult to even date me at times.’

‘It must be hard for h