The term had not gone particularly well for Debbie. She had been moved from a nice matriculation college on the eastern shore of Sydney to a rough outback mining town. Her pupils now consisted of a mixture of white and aboriginal children who were not the greatest learners. Although the younger children were keen and interested the older ones were an up hill battle.
One of the most difficult classes was her senior grade which was a class of six boys five white and one black and all were cheeky and full of themselves. She supposed that's the way it is when you're eighteen and way out in the whop whops. Most of the kids would follow their dads onto the farm or the mine, so it didn't really matter what they did at school. It was strange to get a class with just boys, but that was the way it panned out.
Of course added to that was the fact that she was a young teacher, and an attractive platinum blonde at that. With her 38D-25-35 figure she often caught the older boys staring at her chest, even though it was modestly covered. Of course because of the heat, along with the other teachers, she wore light weight clothes with open necks to try to keep as cool as possible. This did little to hide her rather larger than normal chest. Many's the time she would be leaning over telling some boy how to do something when she would note him peering at the gap in her blouse, staring at her cleavage. She knew he could only see her very conservative bra, but sometimes she would find herself blushing at this unwanted attention. She never said anything, but tried to avoid it happening in the future. Of course she always wore calf length skirts, she wasn't giving them the chance to look up her skirt, no way hosay.
It was a particularly hot Friday when even the air conditioning did little to cool the stifling heat.
She was trying to get the senior boys interested in the history of the Roman Empire, but to no avail. The black boy Jonno was being particularly obnoxious and against her own nature she got stuck into him, saying he had to listen if he wanted to get on and it was no good being a lazy abo, and as soon as the words slipped out of her mouth she knew she was in trouble.
"What you say, lazy abo, what do I want to learn this shit for, it's no good to me. You don't know nothing. You're just the same as the other white fellas, no fucking idea!"
Debbie was shocked, how could she have let herself get so upset, and say such a stupid thing. She tried to apologise, but the boy just pushed his books onto the floor and stormed out. Of course the other boys though it was a real hoot.
"You're in trouble now miss, his dad's on the Native land council and is very strong about racist remarks."
Debbie found herself trying to defend herself, but it only got worse. Fortunately the bell rang, and the boys charged out.
The rest of the day, went along alright. Luckily she managed to compose herself and by the afternoon had forgotten all about the incident, putting it down to another altercation. However she was abruptly reminded of it when during her free period at the end of the day Mrs Wilson the headmistress came in.
"Debbie, did something happen this morning in the senior group. Apparently Jonno stormed into the tutor group, picked up his swag and left, saying "he was finish with all this crap", I believe were the words used."
"Oh dear, well something did occur now you mention it."
Debbie blushed as she told Mrs Wilson of the incident. She apologised saying that it would never happen again.
"Well, you're very silly Debbie coming here with those sorts of attitudes. It's not the same here as in the big city, where one can forget about our indigenous people, here you have to live with them. We have spent a long time building up a good relationship with them and a stuck up girl like you comes along and we are back to square one."
"I'm terribly sorry Mrs Wilson, I was just frustrated."
"Well here you have to keep those feelings to yourself. Knowing Jonno's dad it won't be the last we hear about it. Whatever happens you are not, and I repeat, Not to offend them again. One more incident and you will never get another teaching job in this state. Do you understand?"
"Yes Mrs Wilson, I'm terrible sorry, I just didn't think."
"Yes well the next time, remember to hold your tongue, these people have very strong traditions going back thousands of years, but for them it's as if they are as strong today as they ever were."
The bell rang and the two women parted leaving Debbie to pack up her bags and the big pile of home work she had to mark and drive back to her rented house.
She was just about to make her dinner when there was a loud knocking at the door. She put down her peeler and opened the door to be confronted by a huge aboriginal man he must have been at least six foot and solid with it. He peered at her.
"You the teacher girl for my boy."
"I'm sorry who are you talking about."
Debbie started to have a bad feeling about this.
"Jonno, my boy, he said you called him a lazy abo, that right?"
"Well I must admit that during the class I di......."
"No crap, did you say that."
"Well yes, I suppose I did."
"Look whitey, you don't know nothing, come here with your big town ways, we's alright here, we don't need little girls like you to tell us what to do. My boy, he's a good boy and he works hard, just not your kind of working hard."
"Look I'm terribly sorry, the words just slipped out I didn't mean them."
"Of course you did, you white fellas are all the same, you never see what's in front of your face. Wake up girl, there's more to the world than books. You need to see the real places not these white fella places."
"Well I'm always ready to learn, maybe you can help me."
"Me, I got no time, I'm busy and it's not that easy, I can't just take you to our places. I have to see important men to do that."
The man paused, as he suddenly looked down, as if seeing Debbie for the first time. She felt a little uneasy as his eyes wandered down her body, automatically she hugged her hands over her chest.
"Let me think, I'll see what I can do, but remember I'm a busy man I don't want no messing about. This is important. I'll talk to Jonno as well. You will hear from me."
With which he turned around and walked away leaving Debbie heaving a sigh of relief. What had she got herself into now.
The weekend passed and she seemed to spend all her time doing homework and preparing for Monday. It was about five o'clock when there was a knock on the door. She opened it to find herself looking at Jonno's father again.
"I've sorted it, you be at Massa Milena's hut tomorrow at nine o'clock, he's our local medicine man, he will show you the way."
"But I can't, I've got classes, I can't just come with you.
"Don't you worry I've talked to Mrs Wilson, she said it will be ok, in fact she seemed very keen on the idea and told me to tell you to remember what she said."
"Oh, well then thank you, I will look forward to it, do I need to bring anything?"
"No nothing, you will be going to a traditional village. You just bring yourself, and don't be late. Massa he's not happy when people are late. You'll find his place out of town about five miles, look for a big tree on the left, with a termite nest in the roots, turn left there and just drive until you find it.
With which the big man again just turned and left."
"How extraordinary!" thought Debbie, as she closed the door.
That night she tossed and turned wondering about the next day, finally getting to sleep in the early hours. The alarm woke her with a shock.
