Tommo & Hawk Read Online Free Page B

chance she was always looking for. Tasmania is what saved Mary and gave her back her character. She doesn't pine for the good old days like Ikey did.

    'Blimey, what good old days was they, then?' she'd say sarcastically when Ikey got to reminiscing about London Town. 'For the likes of me they was shit!'

    'And this ain't shit, my dear?' Ikey asks, sweeping his arm to include the whole island.

    'Yes, but there be a difference,' Mary snaps back. 'There you was buried permanent in it, born in shit and drowned and died in it, no bleedin' hope o' rising above it. Here if you pushes 'ard enough you can get your 'ead up through the surface.'

    'And when you does, my dear,' Ikey cackles, 'all you can see is arseholes!'

    But Mary would not give in. 'Life's too bleedin' short to be frightened o' what's already been,' she'd say. 'Can't get yesterday back and change it, now can you?'

    That is why Mary can't see what has gone wrong with Tommo. She won't ever look backwards. When we were put to bed as young uns she'd often say, 'Today is all we got, ain't it? I mean, who knows, tomorrow we could all be dead.' She'd take Tommo's hand and mine so that we were joined to her. 'Be honest, fair, listen, keep yer gob shut. Anyone can get through one day at a time. It's light and then it's dark and then it's bleedin' over, ain't it? Persistence, that's all what gets you there in the end. Believin' in yerself and persistence!'

    Then, after she'd made this little speech, she'd let go our hands and tug at the chain about her neck and produce from her bosom the gold Waterloo medal Ikey gave her. She'd hold it tight in her fist. 'What's it say?' she'd demand.

    'I shall never surrender!' Tommo and I would shout together, that being the legend written on the back of Mary's talisman.

    'And don't you never forget it,' Mary would say. 'Persistence and character!'

    That is everything Mary believes - never give up no matter how painful the journey. Overcome and persist. I know that in her heart she can't understand Tommo, how he's sorry for himself and won't forget the past now that things are good again. Drowning his sorrows in grog, not showing grit in his character, that's what she can't abide in my twin. I can sense she sees too much of Ikey in him. Not the Ikey of London Town, not the successful fence and forger much admired amongst thieves and villains and even accorded a grudging respect by policemen and magistrates; but the broken Ikey, the Ikey who was brought to his knees by hard convict labour and trained to obedience with the warder's whip.

    Now I've told her Tommo doesn't want to take up her legacy of persistence and character, to work at her beloved brewery. She looks down at the white damask cloth and begins to smooth it with both her poor broken hands. A little frown forms, her top lip covered by the bottom one, then she begins to speak quietly without looking at me, like she's thinking out loud.

    'Course he'll want to work at the brewery! Tommo never were a lazy boy. He'll do his share. He'll come good,' she says, as though she's trying to convince herself, as though she secretly fears she might not be right about my brother.

    'Mama, it's not that. He isn't ready to come back to us yet.'

    But Mary will not look, doesn't want to see my hands, and continues. 'We'll buy all the new land in the Huon Valley we can get. We'll do it through Mr Emmett, so nosey parkers what can't mind their own business don't catch on. Surprise the buggers! We'll grow all the hops we need for the use o' the brewery and maybe some for the new colony of Victoria.' Mary lifts her chin and her eyes narrow. 'We'll not be caught short again because some bastard beer baron tries to put us out o' business. Not never again!' She grips the sides of the table, then she looks up and becomes aware of me again. 'Hawk, you'll not talk to no one about the money, Ikey's money, ever, you understand?'

    I've been back from England three months and this is the first time