The Girl Who Spoke Like Thunder

This story won the open award as best regional short story in the 1995 Bauhina Literary Awards in Queensland

This story highlights racist attitudes to different creed and cultures .
The moral to the story is justice must and will come to those who wait .
In the dry scrub of Yilla Valley there lived an aboriginal tribe called The Bugawula. They had been part of the territory as long as there had been kangaroo and lizards among the dusty tracks. The tribal leader of this region was King Wula Wula and in his domain there was nothing to fear or nobody else there to challenge his rule in the territory. Everyday life was easy and peaceful around the Yilla. The young men of the tribe hunted for food while
The children learned their ways.
King Wula Wula had a teenage daughter by the name of Taree.
Taree was a lonely child and spent most of her time painting inside a cave her father had given to her. King Wula Wula was so busy with tribal affairs and
Running off wild camels that he never noticed Taree was growing up.
As there were no other girls her age in the tribe Taree often went exploring
the dry lands around Yilla Valley. One of her favourite places was inside a large hollow tree on the track far side of her village.
Taree never spoke. She never knew how too. No one had really taught her.
The only sounds Taree could make were that of the wild animals in the Yilla.
She sang the soft song of the wild and laughed the chorus of the Kookaburra. She could hiss like the red bellied black snake and wisp like the strong southerly winds. She made swishing noises like a lizards tail and could whistle whiplash sounds of the bush birds. Within all of these sounds Taree had found her voice.
One night around the campfire King Wula Wula was enjoying some Wallaby Stew and Taree who normally sat quietly began to scream a high pitched shrill
And she jumped up and down angrily. The King was worried about Taree and tried to ask her what was wrong.
She never answered as the King fired question after question but the only response he got was the sound of some animal chatter. It was there and then for the very first time in his life King Wula Wula realised Taree could not talk. One of the tribe quickly realised what the problem was and removed the sharp bone that had got stuck in Taree’s mouth.
The King was shocked to learn of his daughter’s secret. Being unable to speak was only half of it because now the instant guilt feeling hit him. King Wula Wula had never helped Taree with life skills since the death of his wife.
He had passed Taree on to different women in his tribe and expected them to educate her. The fact was that these women never did the job they should have and left Taree to her wanderings.
With his worry now of Taree being unable to speak he had to seek out help from beyond the region. After calling a large tribal meeting a number of points were raised. A group of the people from tribe had offered to bring Taree into the coastal township of Woop Woop where some help could be found.
On the far side of the black stump near Woop Woop there a wise old man called white smoke who had been a schoolteacher before he worked with the local council in speech therapy programs.
The laws of the terrorist passed the motion and in the morning this small group left the Yilla Valley with Taree for Woop Woop. As they left the village on foot the head tracker placed markings on a few of the shrubs and plants along the track. Three days of tracking had passed when they managed to capture a wild camel and some brumbies. This made their journey a little faster and much easier.
It was a long hard ride that took them to the hill overlooking the coastline.
As the group made their way into Woop Woop the people made fun of them and shouted abuse at them. Then a Taree opened her mouth in anger to rebuke them she uttered the sounds of a dingo . The torment she received in return was humiliating . Only for a mounted policeman the crowd would have lynched her and the other members of her tribe.
With the help of the policeman they made their way to the home of White Smoke the wise man who was actually professor of English grammar and professional speech therapist of the Woop Woop Public health board.
White Smoke immediately saw the group. and after a brief examination of Tarees vocal chords decided to take on board the problem.
He asked the Bugawula tribesmen to leave Taree with him for one year and make their return after the wet season. The three elders were unsure what to do. White Smoke then gave them the alternative to leave the same way as they had come through the town with a girl who could not talk and back to Yilla Valley. He urged the tribe elders to trust him.
After some discussion it was decided to leave Taree there with him.
The three tribes elders returned to Yilla Valley that was now scorched and dry and lay open with cracked wrinkles in the drought. Dust storms were almost
A regular event and it wasn’t long before the blowflies left for the coast.
The it was time and the big wet came. Soon a scattered spray of colour carpeted the Yilla Valley with wild desert flowers sprouting up everywhere.
At the time King Wula Wula himself left the Village on the back of a camel to collect his daughter Taree. Now having travelled that far alone before the tribe were concerned about their King who reassured them he would be all right. The King of Yilla Valley never could have imagined what lay in store.
Just a short distance out of the Valley the King was set upon by six pot-bellied yobbos from a distant cattle station property. They had a serious problem with aboriginal people and a definite attitude problem affected by alcohol.
The six cruel men grabbed King Wula Wula and tied him up. They took his camel and drove it off. Then they began to make fun of him and one of they used a stock whip on his back. With blood oozing from his open wounds King Wula Wula stared to scream aloud in pain. The six mean hearted men poured cheap wine into his mouth until he was so drunk that he could not stand. Then they spat on him and beat him with their leather straps. Then they strung a rope around the limb of a Wattle Tree and hung King Wula Wula from the tree as the midday sun belted down on him.
The six yobbos left him for dead and they rode off on horseback laughing.
The Wattle Tree was brittle and weak and the branch snapped with the Kings body weight. He crawled slowly like a dingo to the edge of a creek where he
Washed his festered wounds. He rested up for some time before making his way to Woop Woop . He walked into town like a leper. Unwanted unclean and alone. He was abused and scorned by the people in the town. Some threw stones at him. When the King of the Yilla went into one of the shops and asked for some water and food the owner called the police to have him removed. When the police arrived the shop owner accused the King of stealing. King Wula Wula was arrested and put into jail awaiting trial.
Locked up like a criminal his noble head began to fall. Further charges of indecent exposure were fabricated along with assaulting a police officer in the course of his duty. The court hearing was set for Monday morning and as the jailer turned jingled the keys of the prison gates a tear fell from the eyes of the King of the Yilla as an outback sun set beyond the cold cell of Woop Woop.
On the morning of the court case the King washed and shaved. He proudly made his way into a packed courtroom and stood in the dock before the judge. The silence was broken with the thud of the judge’s hammer that called for the Kings defence team. Not a word was spoken. There was no one there to defend the king. As the King glanced up at the judge tears rolled down his black skinned face with the sight of his daughter all dressed up in a black robe with a white wig of curls placed on the top of her head.
Taree smiled at her father and spoke for the first time in his presence,
“Who and where is the arresting officer in this case?”
Tarees voice echoed like thunder all around the courtroom.
The King soaked up the moment like the dry arid land of the Yilla as the rains come. He smiled and allowed the elation of the moment to bring a loud laugh
A light seemed to shine on him like that of an outback sun in the twilight.
The arresting officer stepped forward and spoke to Taree.
He uttered about three words before he was set upon by regulations civil bylaw and various acts of making a false arrest.
Taree sent down the police officer for six months and he received fines that totalled hundreds of thousands of dollars. Further charges including
Discrimination and deprivation of civil rights were issued to the shop owner who refused food and water to a dignitary from the bush. The shop owner was fined and made to do twelve months community work in an aboriginal settlement. With the new instant wealth King Wula Wula built a new school
In the Yilla Valley and a set of town houses for each member of his tribe.
Life had changed and Taree remained in Woop Woop were she was earned the respect of all there. She eventually returned to the Yilla Valley and lived happily ever after.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rR3qxzykTyg

By Paul McCann

THE END