Poppy and the Thief Read online

  The lady appeared at the doorway again. ‘Wait, boys! These are for you. Compliments of the house.’ She held out four buns on squares of newspaper.

  They thanked the lady and ate the buns as they walked. For the moment, Poppy forgot her distrust of Tian. The buns were hot and delicious with crunchy sugar crusts and soft, fluffy insides.

  A few miles on, Poppy spotted a paddlesteamer tied to a wharf, and a metal bridge crossing the river.Wahgunyah, at last! she thought.

  They reached the outskirts of the town and Poppy could hear cheering from a large crowd. Down one of the roads, colourful flags fluttered in the wind. The cheering mounted, then died down. Tian’s pace quickened.

  ‘Where are you going?’ Poppy asked.

  ‘See horse race.’

  Poppy didn’t want to see some old horse race. She needed to look for Gus and find Jimmy Ah Kew to ask him about the letter. ‘Let’s see your uncle first,’ she said. ‘Where does he live?’

  ‘Uncle in town. See race, then Uncle.’ When she met Tian’s gaze again, his face opened into a smile. ‘Money… Tian no have. You give. Tian make more. Pay back later.’

  Frowning, Poppy said, ‘What do you want it for?’

  ‘Money win race.’ He grinned.

  ‘I’m not giving you money to waste like that. Anyway, I don’t have any to give you.’

  Tian’s expression changed to disappointment and he began sulking.

  He was older than Poppy but he was acting like a spoilt child. They continued towards the township in silence.

  They found the Chinese part of the town, a row of dark-roofed wooden houses on either side of a muddy road. Small coils of smoke rose from thin burning sticks stuck into the ground at the verandah posts of the shops. At the end of the street Poppy heard a succession of loud bangs and saw clouds of smoke. A strong smell like gunpowder came to her nostrils and she looked at Tian, alarmed.

  ‘No worry. Firecrackers,’ he said. ‘Scare away evil spirit.’

  ‘Evil spirit?’ Poppy didn’t know what to be more scared of – the things Tian called firecrackers or the evil spirit. She held onto Fisher to keep him calm.

  ‘Bad ghosts. Bang bang bang then they go.’ He shrugged his shoulders as if there was nothing to be worried about.

  As they walked through the small town, Poppy didn’t see one woman or any children, only men. She asked Tian why, and he told her it was the men who came to seek gold, leaving their wives and families back in China. When they made their fortune they would return home.

  Tian’s eyes grew sad and he turned his face away.

  Poppy stared at the back of his head where his queue had been cut off, leaving scraggly shoulder-length hair. Although she didn’t trust him, at the same time she felt sorry for him. He would not be able to go home to China, not for a very long time.

  As they walked down the street, some of the older men looked at Tian and shook their heads. But the younger ones seemed to like him and called out his name, raising their hand in greeting. Poppy was sure they were calling him Lin Tian. ‘Where does Jimmy Ah Kew live?’ she asked, looking around.

  Without warning, he grabbed Poppy by the sleeve and pulled her into an alley.

  ‘What’s the matter?’ she said, holding Fisher close to her side.

  Tian put his finger to his lips then looked out of the alley again.

  ‘See bad man,’ he said.

  Poppy bet anything the ‘bad man’ was someone Tian owed money to.

  She frowned. ‘Come on, let’s find your uncle,’ she said, annoyed.

  Tian peered out, saw the way was clear and followed her.

  A little way up the road he stopped. He seemed nervous, one eye twitching uncontrollably.

  ‘Is this your uncle’s place?’ she asked, looking at the doorway of a shop with a big brown urn out the front.

  Tian nodded, took a deep breath as if to give himself courage, pushed in front of her and opened the door.

  Poppy told Fisher to wait and followed him in.

  The smell inside was strange – musty yet fragrant at the same time. Rows of tiny wooden drawers sat along one wall. A middle-aged man wearing a small blue cap stood behind a long counter, his back to them. He was weighing dried plants, which he then tipped onto squares of paper. Poppy watched as he folded the paper into packets, tied them all together with string, and set them aside.

  ‘Is he your uncle?’ she whispered.

  ‘No, Uncle in back with sick man. This is Uncle helper. He weigh herbs and put together.’ Tian looked around apprehensively.

  Why is he so nervous? Poppy wondered.

  The man glanced up from his weighing, saw Tian and called out something in Chinese. Tian straightened his clothes as he glanced towards a door at the back. He seemed scared.

  A door banged open, and an older man with greying hair burst into the room. Poppy instinctively ducked behind a shelf of jars, out of sight. Without a word, the man grabbed Tian by the ear and dragged him towards the back room. Poppy heard him yelping with pain.

  She wanted to run away but she had gone through too much to let Tian out of her sight. First she had to find out what he knew about Gus.

  Poppy crept towards the open doorway where Tian had been taken. There was a barrel, and she squatted behind it. What she saw was Tian kneeling at his uncle’s feet, while the uncle yelled at him in Chinese. Tian tried to say something but his uncle took off his slipper and began beating him with it. Poppy winced as the boy hunched his shoulders, holding up his hands to ward off the blows. What had he done to make his uncle so angry?

  As Poppy watched, her ankle began to throb. The top of her boot was cutting into it. Very slowly she shifted position, but as she did she hit something behind her and it fell with a clatter.

  The uncle looked up and stared straight at her.

  ‘WHAT are you doing there?’ he demanded. Poppy stood up shakily.

  ‘Are you one of my no-good-nephew’s no-good friends? Well, are you? What is your name?’

  ‘My name is Kal, sir. Tian… Well, he saved me from being trampled by a horse, so he is sort of a friend,’ Poppy began, her voice quivering. ‘But I think he also knows something about my brother who I’ve been looking for everywhere and he won’t tell me.’

  The doctor seemed to soften at her words. ‘I send him out two week ago to collect money from people who owe me and I not seen him since,’ he said. Then he turned back to his nephew. ‘Where you be all this time? And where is the money? Tell me, you little no-good rat, or I beat you again. And what do you know about this boy’s brother?’ He raised his slipper in the air.

  ‘Dai buk! Dai buk,’ Tian cried. ‘Gno gong …’

  ‘Speak English so this boy can understand,’ the doctor said.

  Tian began to speak with his head lowered. ‘A boy, his name Gus. We camp together. We talk, laugh. On tree I write name. He write secret code. Then he leave.’

  So he does know Gus, Poppy thought. But that can’t be everything. She bit her lip, hoping for the rest.

  The doctor seemed suspicious too. ‘Tell the truth!’ The slipper lifted above Tian’s head.

  ‘All right! All right … I … look in his bag. Just want knife to cut meat. But find gold.’

  Gold! Poppy thought. How much gold?

  ‘Not big lump! Small lump.’ Tian’s shoulders heaved as he knelt on the floor. ‘I take it. I run.’

  The doctor groaned. ‘And what happened to the gold, and to my money?’

  ‘I … I gamble with miners. They say I cheat. I no cheat!’ Tian began to sob. ‘They … they cut off my hair. Take everything.’

  Poppy stared at Tian.

  ‘Aiya!’ the doctor said. ‘You shame our ancestors. Your poor mother, she already lost a husband to New Gold Mountain, and now her only son. What should I do with you?’

  Tian shook his head. ‘I sorry, Uncle,’ he said between sobs.

  ‘Sorry not enough. You must work to pay back the gold and give it to this boy here. Do you unde
rstand?’

  Tian nodded.

  ‘Now, go!’ The doctor pointed up the narrow stairs.

  Tian stood, his head still bowed, and backed out of the room.

  Poppy was shaking with anger. Tian had stolen Gus’s gold, the gold that was to build them a home!

  The doctor looked at her sympathetically. ‘I am Doctor Lin. I apologise for my nephew but I promise he pay your brother back.’

  How long will that take? Poppy thought, but didn’t say it out loud. It was not the doctor’s fault that he had a greedy rat of a nephew. She took a sharp breath as she remembered Tom’s dream about the Rat that Little Echidna was to meet. Could Tian be that Rat?

  Maybe the doctor has seen Gus, she thought suddenly. ‘My brother looks like me but he’s fourteen. Have you seen him?’ she asked.

  The doctor looked at her face very closely and shook his head.

  Just then, Fisher barked and they both glanced towards the doorway of the shop.

  ‘That’s my dog, Fisher. He’s getting impatient. I better go,’ said Poppy.

  The doctor paused, thinking, then brightened. ‘I maybe have a solution for you,’ he said. ‘Bring him in.’

  Poppy wondered why the doctor was so interested in Fisher and what the solution could be. She was desperate to find out about Gus, so she called Fisher to her side.

  ‘You work for me today,’ Dr Lin said. ‘You take medicine to my patients and at the same time ask about your brother. What you think?’

  Poppy agreed immediately. She needed money to buy food. She hadn’t had a proper meal since leaving Summerhill. ‘But what do you want Fish to do?’ she asked, puzzled.

  ‘You see later,’ Dr Lin replied. ‘First we eat.’

  Tian was called downstairs to eat with them but he wasn’t allowed to speak. He sat in silence. The doctor gave Fisher a bowl of fresh meat, which Fisher gulped down in seconds. How kind the doctor was, Poppy thought.

  There were small parcels of meat wrapped in thin dough in soup, a plate of green vegetables, a fish in rich dark sauce and many other little plates of things Poppy had never seen before. It was all so different and delicious. It was the first Chinese meal Poppy had tasted. The doctor showed her how to use chopsticks but food kept slipping off into her bowl or onto the floor. Fisher snapped it up from his place lying under the table. In the end, the doctor offered her a spoon.

  Poppy was full before she wanted to be, and had to stop. An image of Gus floated into her mind. He might be somewhere around town, she thought. He might only be across the street! Now that she had eaten, Poppy was impatient to get out and look for him. And she desperately wanted to ask the doctor about the letter. But she had to be polite and wait for Dr Lin to finish.

  Before long, the doctor pushed himself up from the table. ‘You,’ he nodded to Tian. ‘Help Ah Lam pack the herbs.’

  ‘Yes, Uncle,’ Tian replied and left the room.

  ‘And you, Kal, come with me.’

  Poppy followed him to one of the back rooms. Dried herbs were piled in open baskets and roots and twigs hung from the rafters.

  Pushing up his sleeves, the doctor took down what looked like a harness hanging on the wall beside a window laced with cobwebs. Dust motes swirled around the room as he wiped the leather straps with a damp cloth. Then he rummaged around in a dark corner and brought out a small cart on two wheels.

  He looked at Fisher then at the harness as if sizing Fisher up.

  Poppy suddenly realised that the doctor wanted him to pull the cart. ‘I don’t know if… if he’ll like it,’ she said.

  Dr Lin squatted down beside Fisher and began stroking his fur. All the while he spoke softly in Chinese, first letting the dog sniff the harness then the cart. Poppy noticed Fisher listening with his tail wagging.

  The doctor gently placed a thick leather strap around Fisher’s tummy and another across his chest. Then the shafts of the cart were attached on either side of his body. Poppy was surprised at how patient Fisher was, allowing Dr Lin to fiddle with the buckles and adjust the size.

  ‘I have a dog but he die last winter,’ Dr Lin said. ‘He was very strong working dog. There, all good now.’

  When Dr Lin stood up, Poppy smiled. Fisher did look handsome.

  The cart was loaded with packets of medicine wrapped in old newspaper, each labelled with a name and address. Dr Lin drew Poppy a map and sent her out onto the street.

  Fisher had trouble at first. He stopped then started again, trying to shake off the harness and get rid of the thing he was pulling. But with Poppy’s gentle coaxing, he slowly grew used to it and trotted happily beside her, the harness jingling like a set of tiny bells.

  They passed men squatting in the midday sun, cooking their meals over small coal-burning stoves. Poppy was full, but the smell of garlic and onion was so enticing she could easily have eaten more. The men looked at her with curiosity as she went by.

  Poppy criss-crossed Chinatown, making deliveries up and down the street. She kept a lookout for Gus and at each stop she asked about him. But no one had seen a boy who looked like her. The last shop in the street was larger than the rest. She picked up a package, told Fisher to stay outside and went in.

  The room was dimly lit with oil lamps and filled with tobacco smoke. Through the bluish haze she could just make out a group of men standing around a long table. At one end, on a high stool, sat a man who looked like he was their king. He scattered some small blocks on the table. The men’s faces grew excited and they began throwing money down, yelling out words in Chinese.

  They must be playing a kind of gambling game, Poppy thought.

  Suddenly someone grabbed her arm. ‘What you doing here in fantan house? No children. Out!’ The man had his queue wrapped several times around his head like a crown.

  ‘I’m delivering herbs … from Dr Lin,’ Poppy said, holding up the packet of medicine and showing him the label.

  The man released her and pointed with his chin to the man in the high seat. ‘He busy. I take,’ he said, gruffly.

  Poppy was glad to hand the medicine over and get out of there. Her eyes were stinging from the smoke. As she turned to go, she thought she glimpsed Tian chatting with some men over in one corner. But it couldn’t be him, could it? He was supposed to be working back at the herb shop. When she looked again, he had gone.

  ‘Just one more delivery, Fish,’ she said, stepping outside into the fresh air. She was disappointed that nobody had seen Gus. She picked up the last packet of herbs. ‘Hmm … Mr Malcolm Thomas. He’s not Chinese and the address is in another part of Wahgunyah. This will give us a chance to look for Gus there. Come on, boy.’

  Poppy ran down the street, Fisher following her at a trot, buckles jingling.

  As she walked through town she kept a lookout for Gus. At any moment she expected to see him. ‘If our thoughts can connect, let mine find yours now, Moyhu,’ she whispered, and she imagined her thoughts wending their way around the town, seeking him out.

  A large red-and-yellow coach with the words ‘Cobb and Co’ painted on the door rushed past, almost knocking her down as she crossed the road. The driver jeered at her.

  Watching the coach head out of town, Poppy felt a sudden urge to turn down a quieter street, for no particular reason. It must be my heart telling me where to go, just like Gus had said it would. She felt hopeful again. What could be around the corner?

  The shops were behind her now, the street was quiet, but Poppy was trembling with anticipation. Could Gus be here? A few small cottages, then a larger building painted white with blue around the windows and a sign that read, The Carlyle School. She stared at the entrance.

  ‘Gwaaak, gwaaaak, gwaaaaaak,’ sang a crow high up in the branches of a tree.

  Poppy glanced up and smiled. ‘Napu, Dangamai,’ she said. The crow cocked her head to one side, looking down at Poppy, then ruffled her feathers. A single tail feather came loose, twisting and twirling in the air. Poppy caught it as it floated by. She held it between her fingers
, admiring its beauty, then she rubbed it across her forehead, closing her eyes at the same time. In an instant the Spirit Tree grew in her mind, and there were all the orphans of Bird Creek sitting in its branches, swinging their legs and singing while Gus stood at the base of the tree smiling at her.

  ‘Gwaaak, gwaaaak, gwaaaaaak,’ the crow, Dangamai, sang again.

  Poppy opened her eyes and looked at the door to the schoolhouse. ‘Gus …’ she whispered. She could feel her heart beating in her throat.

  THE door to the schoolhouse was standing slightly ajar, but Poppy resisted the urge to rush in. Her hands trembled as she pushed it open. A male teacher stood on the dais, pointing at the blackboard with a long stick. The children, who were all ages, recited a poem in unison.

  Their heads turned when they heard Poppy.

  ‘Have you left your manners at home, child?’ the teacher said. ‘Who are you?’

  ‘I … I’m looking for my brother … He’s …’ Poppy looked around the room for Gus. The excitement she had felt only moments before suddenly turned into a cold hard ache in her stomach. He was not there.

  Tears of disappointment welled in Poppy’s eyes. She tried to hold them back, but they ran down her cheeks. Whispers flew around the room.

  ‘What is your brother’s name, child?’ the teacher asked, taking a few steps towards her.

  Poppy sighed, ‘It doesn’t matter,’ and turned to leave, but as she did, she caught sight of a painting pinned to the opposite wall. Her eyes widened. It was the Spirit Tree! How well she knew the curve of its trunk, the graceful reach of its arms. And there, sitting in its branches, were the children of Bird Creek, just like in the vision she’d had earlier. There, too, was Dangamai, perched beside Poppy on her favourite branch.

  Only Gus could have painted this picture, she thought, clasping her hands together.

  The whispering grew louder and Poppy heard the word Moyhu being said over and over again.

  She turned around to face the class. ‘Yes, yes, Moyhu!’ she cried. ‘That’s him. Where is he?’

  The children began talking all at once.