Through the Tiger's Eye by Kerrie O'Connor Read Free Book Online Page A

towards the stairs. A blue vase of flowers flies through the door, hitting the soldier and smashing to the floor. The man screams and drops Toro amongst the broken blue china and bright yellow flowers. Rahel launches herself into the open doorway, grabs Toro’s hand and tries to run down the stairs with him. But the smiling soldier, calmly smoking his cigarette, simply stretches out a lazy leg from where he stands beside the top stair and trips them. Both children tumble to the bottom. As Rahel and Toro lie helpless in the dust, Lucy can clearly see, on the top pocket of the smiling soldier’s brown shirt, a picture: the red-eyed face of a black bull with long yellow horns. Then Toro starts to cry.
    Lucy shivered back into her body, chilled to the bone. The scent of the smiling soldier’s cigarette was strong in her nostrils. It was so real! She looked around the cubby, but the only smoke came from the candles spluttering on the table. It was her turn to sit with wide eyes and stare at the two children on the lounge in front of her, Toro’s sobs still ringing in her ears. The Tiger-cat jumped on her lap and Lucy stroked its fur while she tried to think of something to say. She didn’t have to.
    ‘What were you doing in that school?’ asked Ricardo.
    ‘It’s not a school, Retardo!’ Lucy yelled – and then felt ashamed when Toro shrank away from her and the Tiger-cat sat up, startled, sinking its claws into her legs.
    ‘Indeed it is not a school,’ Rahel said quietly. ‘After they arrested our parents, they sent us to the camp. It is a special prison for the children of the rebels. My mama and papa are rebels. The Bulls despise us . . .’
    Her voice trailed off into silence and she hugged Toro closer.
    ‘The Bulls?’ asked Lucy, but she already knew the answer.
    ‘Soldiers. They have a picture of a bull on their uniforms.’
    ‘Are your mum and dad bank robbers?’ ventured Ricardo.
    Rahel looked horrified. ‘No! They are rebels!’
    Silence.
    ‘What are you doing in Australia?’ asked Lucy finally.
    Rahel looked puzzled but Lucy didn’t give her time to answer. ‘C’mon! You can tell me. I’m not going to tell anyone. You’re boat people, aren’t you?’
    ‘Boat people?’ Rahel echoed blankly.
    ‘Yeah, like we’re car people,’ said Ricardo helpfully. ‘We like cars best but some people like boats. Grandma likes buses, so I guess she’s a bus person. Then there’s bike people. Me, I’m a skateboard person and —’
    ‘Shut up, Ricardo. It’s not like that. I saw it on TV. Did you come on a boat and the Navy arrested you? I swear, I won’t tell anyone.’
    Rahel just looked at Lucy as though she were a weirdo.
    Then Lucy saw the flaw in her own logic.
    ‘No, that’s stupid, there are no Bulls in Kurrawong. I don’t understand any of this. I thought you were just a nightmare until the Tiger-cat sent me a picture of you this morning; and then we found the tunnel, and now . . .’
    Her voice trailed off and Rahel finally got a chance to speak.
    ‘We have been dreaming of you too. We watched you washing the rug and your meeting with the Tiger-cat. We have been waiting for you. But you took so long to come to our country.’
    ‘Your country?’ Even as Lucy spoke a voice in her head was whispering, It’s too hot at that jail and everyone speaks a different language.
    Rahel looked at Lucy steadily and repeated, ‘You came to our country and we are grateful. You saved us from the Bulls’.
    ‘That’s OK,’ said Ricardo. ‘What country?’ He didn’t seem to have any problem with the idea of another country tucked away at the back of little old Kurrawong.
    Toro whispered an answer: ‘Burchimo’, or that’s what it sounded like.
    Rahel looked fierce.
    ‘No, Toro! Say its proper name!’
    She sat up very straight, dark eyes flashing in the candlelight.
    ‘Toro is doing what the Bulls desire. They insist we call it East Burchimo or they beat us. But its name is Telares. The Bull