On Cringila Hill by Noel Beddoe

Samuel.’
    â€˜Your other brother. Is he the same size as Samuel?’
    â€˜Nah. That’s Joseph. He’s older. Bigger.’
    â€˜I see. And they found Abdul in Sydney?’
    â€˜Yeah.’
    â€˜How did they do that?’
    â€˜There was people knew what Abdul had done, other Islander people who live in Sydney. They saw Abdul and tol’ my brothers.’
    â€˜So, what did your brothers do?’
    Luz smiles. ‘Drove up there. Drove around, let Abdul see them. What they did was play with him a little bit, made sure he knew they could find him. Then after that he came back here.’
    â€˜Yes. Have you ever told anyone else this, any other policeman?’
    â€˜Nah. No one asked me. Next we know Abdul was dead, give praise, because that meant that my brothers couldn’ do nothin’ bad to him.’
    â€˜You were glad they did nothing bad to Abdul.’
    â€˜I was.’
    â€˜The boys been in trouble,’ Luz’s sister interupts. ‘People started talkin’ ’bout taking their visas, after that was over. If they hadda done to Abdul what we was frightened of, it would have been a bad thing for them, which we didn’ want. Doin’ that to Abdul wouldn’a help Luz any. What’s been done to her is done.’ Luz’s sister dabs dribble off the baby’s chin. She says, ‘It was good news for us, what happened to Abdul. Was good news for this family.’
    â€˜The boys have been in trouble?’
    â€˜You think it’s easy? You think it’s easy, for people like my brothers?’ Luz says. ‘Before we come here we were on Tonga. We saw Aussies at Tonga, old people, you know, nice old people, visitin’. They was slow and easy, like Tongan people. We see missionaries on Tonga. They was slow and nice. So we come here.’ Her nose wrinkles and she bobs her head at Cringila Hill. ‘And it’s not slow here,’ she says. ‘I’ll tell you it’s not so nice sometimes. My brothers see pictures of women, you know, in magazines, see videos, and I say, “That’s not the right way,” and they say, “Is the way he re.” If they talk to women in a bad way, they get in trouble. Someone say silly things to them, from a car, my brothers drag those people out from the car and deal with them, they in trouble. On Tonga, you not want that done to you, you don’t say stupid things.’ She sits awhile, staring up at the street. ‘You think it’s easy for my brothers. But it ain’t.’
    â€˜Yes. And how it all started, what Abdul did to you. Can you talk about that?’
    Luz looks directly at the detective. ‘ I can talk,’ she says. ‘ I can talk. Tell you why. I didn’ do nothin’ wrong. Somethin’ was done to me. I’m not ashamed of anythin’ I done.’
    â€˜That’s for you to decide, Luz. I think it might be a good thing for you, that attitude.’
    â€˜So. I went to the house of a friend, and three of us danced together.’
    â€˜Danced together.’
    â€˜Yeah, like a show, you know? We put on good music, worked out a routine, danced together.’
    â€˜Ah.’
    â€˜Sometimes the school runs a concert, and we go in, we work out moves, work out steps, like the girls on television.’
    â€˜And you enjoy that.’
    â€˜Sure. Makes me feel good. There’s three of us.’
    â€˜I see.’
    â€˜One of my friends is a Philippine girl. One of my friends is a Thailand girl. They’re good dancers. That night my brother Samuel said not to go because he had to work, and couldn’t take me. My friend lived down the other side of the hill, near the lake, but my brother had to work. But I went anyway.’
    Gordon watches Luz as she sits awhile, thinking.
    â€˜So then I was walkin’ home and I walked through the grounds of the high school.’
    â€˜I see. You would have been used to feeling