Red Dust and Spinifex

This was to be my first contribution to the Sunburnt Country Story Contest, but the typo goblins struck and missed the deadline for the event, oops?

Anyway, I'm from the land down under and thought I would throw together a story, based on a recent trip I made out West to north of Mt Isa. This is purely a work of fiction based on some of the country and people I met on the trip.

I would like to acknowledge this land we call Australia, and the indigenous people who cared for, and lived with the land, as the original landholders and their beliefs and customs. Respect is paid to aboriginal elders past, present and future.

This story does contain some historical facts, but I have taken the liberty of using my literary input to add Amber. This does not reflect on the Kalkadoon belief in such a spirit. Please don't read this story, if talking of those who have passed on, offends your beliefs.

My story is self edited, so no doubt some occasional typos may sneak in here and there, enjoy the read because it's not an entry for the Nobel prize, it is what it is, just a story, Cheers Frika..

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SPINIFEX by Frika.

It's strange actually, how you suddenly see things, when you never noticed them before.

Fourteen hundred kilometres I was driving out west to Mt Isa, for a work assignment at a copper mine for ten days work. The trip was nice seeing the country change, from the Great Dividing Range with the eucalyptus trees, changing to the box tree swathes with their silver leaves then to the wattle trees coming out in flower.

Then it was the grasslands around Hughenden and Cloncurry, to the deep red rocky country out near Mt Isa. Something you don't see every day that's for sure.

The next day I was in a F250 being driven out the minesite, watching the country change in the early dawn light, The red soil interspersed with the clumps of spinifex grass amoung the trees, gods own country indeed.

We pulled up at the camp near the copper mine, where we unloaded our luggage and grabbed our meals, before getting our room keys and leaving our suitcases in our rooms.

Ten minutes later, we arrived at the mine where we met the supervisor for the workshop, and during the tour it felt like someone was watching me, but being the new guy there I figured it was nothing, after all the people working there all seemed nice.

The rest of the day was filled with doing site courses, chatting with the people who worked in the office and the plant, and after work finished at 6 pm, we jumped into the bus for the trip back to camp. Strangely enough, there was a diverse range of people there from the indigenous workers to white Australians to Indians, Pakistanis Europeans, Canadians, you name it they were there. Still the feeling I was being watched followed me.

A quick shower followed by the short walk to the mess and a nice meal, chicken schnitzel and vegetables, then a walk back to my room where I sat on the steps drinking my coffee and having a smoke.

Footsteps on the concrete, preceded a woman walking down from the dongas behind me, and I looked up to see a woman in her mid twenties, blonde hair, slender figure and brown piercing eyes. She slowed down, stopped and turned to look at me.

"I haven't seen you here before, you must be new here. Hi, I'm Amber."

To be brutally honest I'm not the best looking man, I'm in my fifties but I look mid forties, about five foot seven, ninety kilos weight, hazel eyes and sandy coloured hair with a whisp of greys in places, I have the moustache and a trimmed beard.

Amber on the other hand was beautiful, and I looked around to see if she was talking to someone else. She wasn't.

I'm not used to people paying close attention to me, especially from females, as usually I'm in the background trying not to be noticed.

" Uh hi, I'm Doug, did I do something wrong?"

She laughed, genuinely, now I'm not blind but her chest wobbled when she did that, her tank top with the straps of her crop top showing under the edges of her tank top,her breasts perched up, and the soft swells of her mounds pushed up into a display of flesh blind Freddie couldn't ignore.

"Eyes up here buster," Amber laughed again, I'm sure I pretty much embarrassed myself, looking guiltily up to her heart shaped face,framed by her blonde hair which was tied back into a pony tail, and dangled down to between her shoulder blades.

"Sorry, got distracted by the view, first time here for me."

"Enjoying the view then, " she asked?

"It certainly has its charms," I replied.

"How about you put that cigarette out, throw some shoes on and I'll give you the guided tour then, then maybe we grab a couple of cold drinks afterwards?"

Well to be perfectly honest, I had nothing better to do so I accepted her offer, since I was trying to quit smoking anyway. I stubbed out the cigarette in the ashtray and threw some trainers on, and then I got the 20 cent tour of the camp.

Amber seemed to know quite a lot about the area, she had grown up in the area since she was born here, and she told some of the stories of the local aborigine tribe, the Kalkadoon, and to be honest, she was the perfect tour guide.

Let's face it, mid twenties, wearing those stretch workout black yoga pants and a tank top, damm it felt good to be walking beside her as she spoke. Wisps of her perfume, something familiar, yet not quite recognisable surrounding me, not terrible at all.

Half an hour later we ended up at the bar, sitting on the outside deck, sipping on a couple of beers, I had a Pacific Radler, Amber had a Great Northern. We talked, about where we grew up, both from North Queensland, Amber from the northwest in Mt Isa region, I was born in the coastal area near Townsville.

We both liked the North Queensland NRL team, the North Queensland Cowboys, camping,fishing, and the outdoors, and she was smart as well.

She worked in the mining industry, as did her parents it seemed, Amber was a geologist, part of her family tradition it seemed, the land was in her blood.

The more we talked, the closer it seemed we got, Amber started off sitting opposite me but after several beers she had moved around a bit, so we were sitting next to each other. The last beers call went out,as it was nearly nine thirty pm, camp rules being as they were so we started walking back. She shivered.

" Are you cold?" I asked, as I looked over to her eyes. I swear they were brighter than before, but Amber just shrugged. The small brain between my legs, took control just then as the soft mounds of her breasts rose and fell.

"Hey " Amber said, " up here buster." I just laughed.

"Guilty as charged your honour, I'm but a mere mortal man, and the distraction was too great."

"Distraction you say, " said Amber as she took my hand in hers and pulled me into the shadows behind a building. She turned and pushed me gently against the wall of the building, then took my hands in hers, and raised my hands over my head and moved in closer. Her body pushed up against mine, her breasts squashing against my chest, her hips sliding onto mine as her mouth moved to beside my ear.

"So on a scale of 1 to 10, how distracting is this then?"

Her tongue flickered out, tasting the skin on my jaw as her hips ground against mine. Her breasts pressed against my chest felt damm good, so good in fact the blood flow went downwards and now I'm definitely not a pornstar, just average in length about 6 inches long but about 3 and a half inches in girth.

My ex wife never complained about it while we were together, and Amber wasn't either, as she lowered my hands to run her hands over my shoulders and chest. This freed up my own hands, which seems to find a home on her hips, pulling her against me as her lips found mine.

Tongues touching, teasing, my hands on her hips, then sliding one on her lower back as she moaned quietly, moving my other hand to the side of her breast. Yup, all natural breasts, soft, warm, her body betraying her arousal, by how hard her nipples were poking through the material of her tank top. All I could think was I'm the luckiest guy in the world at this moment.

I've always admired the fairer sex, especially the younger ones than myself, the twenty plus age women who seem to have the good looking guys with them, and now I found myself in that position.

Her yoga pants hugging her curves, my hand following them, sliding over the material, Amber worked out a lot it seemed, her taut butt proof of that, my fingers sliding up teasing the top edge of her pants not finding the line of her underwear. Yup, no VPL.

Amber laughed as she pulled her mouth away from mine.

"Enough for now buster, you made me soaking wet. Maybe tomorrow we might carry on this discussion, but only if you can not smoke any cigarettes. You up for that challenge?"

To be honest, I was as hard as a crowbar by that point, and my little brain was screaming out YESSSS in my head. Not that I had any choice in the matter, as the touch of Ambers body pulled away from mine.

"Close your eyes" she whispered, so I did.. and Amber was gone.

I opened my eyes, to see myself standing alone in the shadows. No Amber in sight, yet I could still smell her perfume on me. I walked back to my room, sat on the step, went to pull out a cigarette then pushed it back into the packet, had a quick shower and went to bed alone, wondering what had happened...

Every night followed the same routine after that, for the next three nights, Amber teasing my senses then suddenly leaving, I stopped smoking, eagerly waiting the walk back to my room, and the feel of her body pulled up against mine in the shadows.. it was like I was hooked on Amber.

The next afternoon as I saw her walk, a local Kalkadoon man called Simon approached her, but his brown eyes were opened wide, his posture respectfull more than normal. Amber talked to him for a minute as she leant close. His head nodded and he turned and walked away, looking back once, as Amber nodded her head and tilted her head to the left.

Simon literally ran around the corner of the accomodation black, and I saw him climb the hill behind it, not stopping as he disappeared over the crest of the hill.

"What was that about, " I asked Amber as she casually walked over towards me.

"Nothing, just some family stuff Simon had to work out, he'll be fine now. So your ready for our walk?"

"Sure, where are we going today?"

"There's something I wanted to show you but it's a bit of a walk to get there, you up for it? "

As she had already started walking away I had no option but to follow her, watching her taut buttocks move under the denim material of her firm fitting shorts. The sexual innuendo wasn't lost on me either, I replied something about liking the view already.

"Come on mister, your in for a lesson, " she replied. " Try and keep it up with me."

Now I wasn't complaining, Amber had a skin colour you could only describe as a permanent light tan, honey coloured skin and to be perfectly honest, the view wasn't only Ambers body in front of me. She lead me up over the crest of the hill, the same hill Simon had disappeared over earlier. Twenty minutes later my calves were burning from climbing the gumtree covered hills around the camp at Gunpowder Mine.

At the top of the tallest hill, Amber stood beside me as the sun set in the west, the orange light filling the sky. In the distance she pointed out a mountain, it was called Battle Mountain.

She told me the story of the Kalkadoon tribe, the original inhabitants of the area before the white man ventured to this area..

"They were a nomadic tribe, roaming in bands of about twenty people, and their borders were marked by blue emu or stork feet symbols on rocks and trees. They were a pierce fighting tribe, renowned for the battles they fought, hence the fighting Kalkadoon was how they were known to other tribes of aboriginals."

"When the white man came they resisted the encroaching invasion, fighting guerilla tactics, striking by attacking then fading away into the bush land."

"But they were also known for the trading they carried on with the other tribes, making granite axes, clubs, spear tips and even a two handed sword. But eventually the threat of the white invasion came home to the

Kalkadoon."

"Four white police officers were attacked, three killed but the fourth one escaped after being speared in the thigh. The resulting uproar resulted in the first militia being formed in Australia. A joint force of police and white settlers pursued the Kalkadoon tribe."

"Eventually the tribe were surrounded on a place called Battle Mountain. It remains there today, a link to our savage past. The Kalkadoon threw rocks and spears down at the militia, the officer leading the militia force was struck in the head. That night the militia split into two groups and attacked from two sides, modern weapons and ruthless fighting resulted in all of the Kalkadoon tribe being pursued and killed."

"Now days, Kalkadoon is seen everywhere on signs in the area, some of the Kalkadoon escaped the bloody massacre at Battle Mountain because they didn't reach Battle Mountain in time for the fight. Simon is one of the descendants of them."

A long silence followed as I thought of the Kalkadoon fate.

" We live in a cruel world " was all I could say. " Was there no way for the Kalkadoon and white people to co-exist in peace"?

" Not then," Amber replied,"but now, maybe there is a way. " we have moved on, Kalkadoon are the recognised original owners of the land, with royalties going to them from the lucrative mineral operations in their area. On a personal level tho... "

she turned and caressed my face with both her hands.

" I want you to trust me, close your eyes, and hold me ." So I did leaning my forehead against hers as I wrapped my hands around her lower back.

" Breath slowly," she whispered, my breathing slowed then it felt warm around us. " Open your eyes now."

I opened my eyes to see a group of aboriginals around us, but we weren't on the hill top anymore. We were standing at the foot of Battle Mountain itself, and the local aborigines, the Kalkadoon had lit a small fire, with freshly broken branches of gum tree smouldering on the edges of the fire.

" This is a smoke ceremony to welcome you to their sacred place and purge any bad spirits away," Amber said.

For the first time I truly realised what it meant. I was Australian, my skin colour meant nothing to the spirits, why should the colour of my skin make a difference?

Amber held my hand as the elders performed the smoke ceremony, and thanked the elders for their welcome.

" Thank you," I said to the elders and as they pointed up the mountainside to the track, we turned and started walking. A prickling sensation ran up my backbone and I turned to see only Simon standing there, no elders, and only three sets of footprints in the red dust..

Amber tugged my hand, I followed her without doubt, as she led the way to a fire burning up on small, flat clearing, on the side of the mountain. She knelt on the kangaroo skins piled up into a bed, as I sank down opposite her.

"You asked if there was a way nowadays, maybe there is." Amber looked at me before lifting up her tee shirt, rolling it up and over head, the bra unclipped and dropped to the ground also."

"You've probably realised by now I'm not a human, but a spirit of the land, the land gives the land takes. Neither am I white or black skin, I am the colour of the land itself, and your over dressed mister."

My reply? My clothes came off quicker than the change of Prime Minister in the Coalition Government in Canberra. Amber undid her shorts and panties dropping them onto her shirt as I kissed her softly.

" I felt your heart beating as we first talked, " she said, "it beat true, and I understood by your words you were kind, respectful and loving. So now," as she wrapped her legs around my thighs pulling me down on her, " where were we?"

My hand caressed her face as I leant down, kissed her lips, looked into her brown eyes and said, " I am of this land, and I think I'm in love with brown eyes and red dust," as we kissed.

Seconds, minutes passed or was it eternity? I was home finally......

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Postscript.. for anyone actually interested, google Kalkadoon, read part of our history, not really known by our history books. Thanks for reading this story. And feel free to vote your honest, cheers... Frika