Diamonds in the Dust Read Free

will.” She paused and chuckled softly. “That means yes.”
    To her horror the girl started to cry.
    * * *
    Hatti was busting to use the bucket in the corner, but no way would she bare her fat arse in front of the skinny runt sharing her cell. Time had crawled past but she had no idea how much time. The air was even hotter now, and sweat had seeped from under her breasts, soaking the front of her blouse. Sitting. Waiting. Thinking too much. It was driving her crazy. She wiped her face with her sleeve. Maya had taken to pacing the cell, four quick steps one way, four steps the other, and Hatti was sure that any moment now it would be four steps up the wall.
    “Maya,” she said heavily, “we gotta get ourselves a lawyer. Not a shonky one neither, not one pissed as a maggot. One who knows how to talk good.”
    The girl didn’t even break her stride, but her head sank lower on her narrow shoulders. Not a good sign.
    “You got no money, I’m guessing,” Hatti said.
    Maya flicked her gaze to Hatti’s face.
    “Don’t look at me like that, girl. My pockets are empty too.”
    Abruptly Maya came to a halt and crouched in front of her. “What happen to us now?”
    “Well, I reckon that they’ll let us stew in here tonight and then in the morning they’ll haul us into court and some Mr. Nobody Lawyer will speak a few words for us. But before you know it, they’ll stick us in a van and it’s six months in prison for us.”
    “No!”
    The word jerked out of the young girl as a thin wail of terror that made the hairs rise on the back of Hatti’s neck. She reached out and softly stroked the dark head in front of her, the way she would a nervous pup.
    “Hush now, no need for that. You have to see their point of view, Maya. We’re bound to be made examples of. They’ll want to show others what happens to dirty scum looters.” She gave a grim laugh. “We’re lucky they don’t just go ahead and shoot us.”
    “No!”
    “I’m only kidding.”
    “Why they not believe you? You white.”
    “White don’t get you everything in this world, Maya. You can be as sure of that as you can be of death.”
    The dark eyes grew muddy and the small chin drooped. “I seen too much death.”
    It was like an electric shock, the pain that kicked at Hatti’s heart. She felt her blood thicken, too stiff to push its way through her veins. A loud whumping noise started up in her ears, like somebody banging a drum in a tunnel. She closed her eyes and her fingers blindly touched the soft strands of dark hair.
    “
Mem
be mad at me. I never tell.”
    “Don’t call me
mem
.”
    “No. The other
mem.
”
    “What?”
    “You sick?” Maya asked in a concerned voice.
    “No. What other
mem
?”
    “
Mem
Hadley.”
    “Who is this
Mem
Hadley?”
    “My friend. She know people.”
    Hatti sat up. “Why the bloody hell didn’t you say so before?”
    “Because she be mad at me if she find out.” She hesitated and gave Hatti a sneaky sideways look. “I promise her I be good in Darwin.”
    Hatti grunted. “This
mem
of yours doesn’t need to know anything about the ‘I taking’ stuff you said. Don’t worry, I won’t tell her.”
    The girl’s mouth grew soft. She swallowed and looked down at her feet. Hatti studied her in silence. Like that, was it? Not used to kindness from strangers.
Well, you aren’t the only one, girl.
    “So.” Hatti rose to her feet and immediately the cell felt smaller, the concrete walls closer, the space shrinking each time she breathed it in. It took an effort to keep calm. “
Mem
Hadley it is, then.”
    She stomped over to the door and started walloping it with her laceless boot.
    * * *
    The waiting was hard. The girl spent it sitting cross-legged in a corner, her simple cotton dress hiked up above her knees for coolness. She had made use of the bucket with no trace of embarrassment, which made Hatti wonder about her past, what kind of life she was used to. At least it meant Hatti could sit on the bucket