spiritual battle

Serial Saturday–Diamonds in the Cave (8)

/ lmkling / Leave a comment

The Diet of No Return

For a week after Tails’ news, my life stagnated. I’d given up. Didn’t eat—much. As for Sister Salome’s porridge, she could have it.

Sister Salome shoved a bowl of porridge under my nose. ‘It is good porridge! Eat it M-Anni, eat it!’

‘Eat it yourself!’ I muttered curled up on the bed.

‘Your baby needs you to eat.’

‘Why didn’t you tell me?’

‘What?’

‘About Andreas,’ I said. ‘Is it true?’

Sister Salome cleared her throat. She does that when she’s not quite telling the truth. ‘Officially.’

‘Officially? And what’s that supposed to mean?’

‘Andreas won’t be coming back, my dear.’

‘Why?’

‘Work it out for yourself.’

‘I can’t, that’s why I’m asking.’ I thumped the mattress. ‘Unless it was you who orchestrated the whole thing.’

‘Min—Anni! How could you!’

‘Easy, considering our discussions on the road trip here. I bet this whole Boris thing is a ruse.’ I paused. ‘Although, I wouldn’t put it past my mother.’

‘Oh, but it is real, my dear. We have our people closing in on the creature, at this very time,’ Salome said. ‘And a more serious situation has arisen. The son of Boris is on the loose. We have to find him. Very grave times. Very grave.’

‘So, your brother could be out there still…’

‘I cannot say.’

‘Then there’s hope.’ At light speed, then on Boris World, Günter’s life would be standing still, while mine moved on rapidly. I had to wait. If I followed, I would end up in a continuous game of time tag. I arrive, and he would have left, maybe only Boris-minutes before. He could arrive back on the Pilgrim Planet, and I could be out searching for him. Anyway, I was only days, maybe a week away from giving birth; the pursuit of Günter was not an option at this stage. Theoretically, the longer he was gone, the more chance that he would not return in my lifetime. However, there was a chance that he would be back. Time, space, black holes and Boris World become rubbery in space and the laws of physics become a law unto themselves. So, I had to wait, and hope and not move on.

‘Please do eat, Anni. This is g-Andreas’ baby, a-and your’s we are talking about. Go on it is very tasty. It is good for you—to eat it,’ Sister urged. I couldn’t fathom why she stuttered as if she had a speech problem.

‘I told you! What part of eat it yourself don’t you understand!’ I buried my head in the pillow to avoid Sister’s force-feeding tactics. Out of the corner of my eye I saw the porridge -laden spoon zoom towards me.

‘Look, what would Günter say if he saw the way you were behaving?’ Sister whispered, the spoon lingering above my cheek.

‘What? Are you doing a candid home movie to show him in twenty years’ time when he finally returns, are you?’

‘Who says it would be twenty years? He could come home tomorrow.’

‘He’s been gone weeks now. I’ve done my calculations—that’s twenty years or more!’

‘Oh, you don’t know that. Space can do funny things. And him too. Don’t underestimate him, dear. Now eat!’

‘As if you care—about us!’ I roared into the feathery down. ‘No! I will not eat! Go away! Leave me alone!’ With that I shut myself off. I pulled the blanket over my head and blocked out all light and Sister Salome.

‘Dear, can’t you see as Anni and Andreas it would’ve never worked. It wasn’t real.’

‘Too late to do the Dr. Phil routine on me!’ I screamed. ‘Get out!’

‘Very well,’ Sister said. ‘Have it your way.’ I heard the bowl touch down on the side table and the spoon go clink as she placed it inside the bowl. I counted the retreating steps as Sister stomped towards the door. The steps stopped and Sister Salome added one last biting comment, ‘But, if you don’t eat by tomorrow, I will be forced to call the doctor who will take your baby by caesarean. Understand?’

‘Fine, then I can go to Boris World and look for Günter myself,’ I mumbled into my bed linen.

‘You won’t find him there.’ Sister Salome chuckled. Then she said softly, ‘Just wait till I get my hands on that blabber-mouth Liesel.’

When I no longer heard her footsteps, I grabbed my voice recorder from under the sheets, saved the last comments and stored them. She had spoken in her ancient German tongue, but I had a translator. I played the results again and again.

The door burst open. I shoved the device under the blankets.

‘You haven’t seen my communicator around, have you?’ Sister Salome eyes wide paced the room picking up pillows, breakfast trays, and the bowl of porridge. Fancy that! Mobile phone detachment anxiety disorder.

I ignored her. Sister Salome’s communicator was stowed under the mattress by me. I had plans for that mobile phone…Who has she been talking to? Günter, I bet… I was glad that Sister Salome’s absent-mindedness had landed me the opportunity to hear what everyone was not telling me, and to try and make sense of it all. Salome never need know I was the “gremlin” that stole her phone and then put it back in an obvious place.

Unsuccessful in her quest to find the lost phone, or communicate with me,Sister Salome left me to my own and her state-of-the-art I-Phone. I stared at the cold porridge. It looked up at me in cold hard lumps saying: “Eat me!” Before I could consider what I was doing I dug into the bowl and scooped a spoonful of grey mass into my mouth. The lumps stuck to the roof of my mouth. I tipped the mattress and retrieved some sugar packets from the base. I sprinkled a few grams of sugar and ate a further few small spoonsful.

Holding Salome’s phone, I tottered to the window. Raindrops splattered on me as I pushed the pane open. I examined the communicator and my options. It rang. I pressed the answer button and put the phone to my ear.

‘Hello?’ A young man’s voice spoke. But not through the phone.

He stood at the door, bandages over his eyes.

‘What?’ I flung the phone out the window. Salome’s mobile smashed into a million pieces onto the path below. ‘Oops!’

[Read the continuation of Chapter 8 on Wattpad…]

© Lee-Anne Marie Kling 2023

Feature Photo: Murton, Switzerland © L.M. Kling 2014

***

And now, for some Weekend Reading…

Go on a reading binge and discover the up close, personal and rather awkward relationship between Gunter and that nasty piece of cockroach-alien work Boris in…

The Hitch-hiker

See how Boris seeks revenge in…

Mission of the Unwilling

And the Mischief and Mayhem Boris manufactures in…

The Lost World of the Wends…

Or if you would like some Aussie Outback adventure…

Check out my travel memoirs, click on the links.

The T-Team with Mr. B: Central Australian Safari 1977

Trekking with the T-Team: Central Australian Safari 1981

Serial Saturday–Diamonds in the Cave (7)

/ lmkling / Leave a comment

[Extract from Chapter 7–Pity in Their Eyes. Minna meets her nemesis then receives news that will devastate her future.]

Flash Point

I stowed along the corridors, glancing behind me, poking into rooms. Toe mountains of sheet were in the room opposite. I stuck my head around the door. ‘Hello? What? Three heads?’ Oh, well, it is the Pilgrim Planet and we’re not the only species in the galaxy. ‘Sorry about that, wrong room. Looking for three feet, actually. Seen any three-footed customers?’

The three-headed being waggled his heads and head-butted each other’s heads.

Down the corridor, crept past the nurses’ station. Good, they’re all busy…turn right. Hope I don’t lose my way. Next room, on my left. Nup, just a Grey alien the shade of green. Methane poisoning. Happens when there’s too many cows—like on this planet, for Greys, that is.

Crossed to the room on the right. Mutant frozen in wood. How’s that possible? I tiptoed in for a closer look. Curious. I touched its skin, like bark.

‘Hi,’ I said.

The man of bark blinked at me.

‘You wouldn’t—’ woops, hope he’s not offended by the pun, ‘—do you know of a three-footed patient in the hospital?’

The mutant nodded and pointed a branch in the direction further up the corridor. ‘Came in yesterday, saw him as I was returning from my oil bath.’

‘Thanks.’ I turned to go, then I looked back at the wood-paneled mutant. ‘How do you find the baths? Do they help?’

‘Oh, ye-es! I was like a forest before I came here and had them.’

‘Oh, well, all the best,’ I said, and then left. I tried to imagine how he looked before he came. If he were a forest, how did he fit into the Convent? Nah, must’ve been exaggerating. Or did he mean a Bonsai one?

[Read the whole of Chapter 7 on Wattpad]

© Lee-Anne Marie Kling 2023

Feature Photo: Through the window, Melbourne Botanical Gardens © L.M. Kling circa 1995

***

And now, for some Weekend Reading…

Go on a reading binge and discover the up close, personal and rather awkward relationship between Gunter and that nasty piece of cockroach-alien work Boris in…

The Hitch-hiker

See how Boris seeks revenge in…

Mission of the Unwilling

And the Mischief and Mayhem Boris manufactures in…

The Lost World of the Wends…

Serial Saturday–Diamonds in the Cave (6)

/ lmkling / Leave a comment

[Extract from Chapter 6–Limbo]

I gripped my bike’s handles and studied the sand. “There’s plenty of fish in the sea,” I recalled Liesel saying. Another embarrassing break up. The previous night, this latest ex drove straight past me as I waited on Jetty Road with my friends after meeting at the coffee shop eleven o’clock at night. How was I going to get home now? Walk? Thanks a lot mate. No one else had room. My brother John ended up making two trips to ensure my safe transport home. Monica reckoned she saw the ratfink the next day. She hid behind a rack of dresses. He came by to apologise a week later. I sent the crumb on his way saying I had to study for exams.

 Collecting shells on the beach calmed me.

That man again. Dressed in brown corduroy pants and beige top. He fell in-step with me. ‘If you could have anything in the world, anything at all, what would it be?’

‘Go away,’ I said and increased my pace.

‘Just a simple answer to a simple question, that’s all I ask,’ he said.

‘I don’t know.’

‘Oh, yes you do, you can tell me.’

If he made a move on me, I planned to use my bike as a weapon. ‘I don’t care, leave me alone.’

‘Not until you share with me your greatest desire,’ he said.

‘Fine, then you’ll leave me alone?’

‘Maybe.’

‘That doesn’t sound like you would.’

I jumped on my bike and pumped the pedals skidding the sand in my effort to escape. I sped along the hard sand until the intruder of the day was a speck spoiling the sea view. When I reached the ramp, I hopped off and with heart racing, I walked up to the road. On bitumen, I pelted home. Something about that man gave me the creeps.

I parked the bike at the back of my home under the plum tree. I raced inside, slammed the door shut and then fumbling locked the dead lock. Ah, safe, at last!

I strolled into the living room.

The man in brown reclined on the vinyl lounge. ‘You haven’t answered my question, Minna.’

‘How did you know my name? Who are you?’

‘I am Boris and I know many things about you, my dear. Except, perhaps, what you want most in life.’

Like rancid body odour this Boris wasn’t going leave in a hurry. Where was mum when I needed her to kick him out?  

‘Will you go, if I tell you?’

‘Indeed, I will,’ Boris said.

‘Okay, I want to be beautiful, find a handsome man, get married, have children, oh, er and I would like to travel too, like in space.’ Ha, I’d like to see this cockroach of a man grant that wish.

Boris waved his hand as if he were a royal. ‘Done.’

‘Good, so you can go now. I have an orthodontist appointment—in the city—which I must keep, so if you don’t mind.’

‘Glad that you answered my question. You won’t be disappointed, in time.’ Boris walked to the front door and then turned, ‘Although, for all wishes, there will be a cost.’

Boris strode out the house and then disappeared out the driveway.

[Read the whole chapter on Wattpad]

© Lee-Anne Marie Kling 2023

Feature Painting: Late Afternoon Kingston Beach © L.M. Kling 2022

***

Find out how this story began on the Pilgrim Planet when nineteenth Century meets the twenty first century in

The Lost World of the Wends

In the mid-nineteenth century, a village of Wends, on their way to Australia, mysteriously disappeared…

Who was responsible? How did they vanish?

Want to know more about the trials and tribulations of these missing people from Nineteenth Century Eastern Europe?

Click on the link below:

The Lost World of the Wends   

Serial Saturday–Diamonds in the Cave (5)

/ lmkling / Leave a comment

Safe but not Sound

Through the tent window, a thick cluster of stars spilt over the Milky Way. Dawn cast its frail light over Salome asleep one side of me, and Günter twitching on the other side. He muttered in sleep-speak, arguing. ‘No-no-no…you’re kidding me…no, I won’t…you must, you owe him…but my son…I won’t go…’

Best my mother didn’t know what was happening. She’d stress. Her blood pressure would rise, her feet would swell, and she’d need a larger pair of slippers. Not a good look for the Admiral of the Fleet. She could do with some Russian tablets for her blood pressure.

‘No!’ Günter screamed and snapped out of his doze. ‘What? Did you say something?’

‘Nothing! One of your nightmares.’ I needed to distract him from the distress of his night terrors. See? I am thinking of him. I took his hand and placed it on my tummy. ‘Can you feel it? The baby’s kicking.’

Günter softened and smiled. ‘What a cheeky baby! We’ll call him Philippe if it’s a boy, remember?’

‘Yes, Philippe is a good name, for a boy. Philippe Augustus, as your father was August Philippe.’

Günter withdrew his hand and turned.

‘What’s wrong?’

‘Nothing,’ he said. ‘It’s still early, go to sleep.’

I did as he commanded. Best not to cause waves. Best to wait for the right time and then ask. Thus, I held onto my questions and rode with them tucked inside the rest of the day’s journey to the Convent.

[Read how the cosy carpet of Minna’s life with Günter is pulled from under her in the continuation of Chapter 5 on Wattpad.]

© Lee-Anne Marie Kling 2023

Photo: The Door, Will, Switzerland © Lee-Anne Marie Kling 2014

***

The first story of Boris’ exploits set on the Pilgrim Planet…

The Lost World of the Wends

In the mid-nineteenth century, a village of Wends, on their way to Australia, mysteriously disappeared…

Who was responsible? How did they vanish?

Want to know more about the trials and tribulations of these missing people from Nineteenth Century Eastern Europe?

Click on the link below:

The Lost World of the Wends   

Serial Saturday–Diamonds in the Cave (4)

/ lmkling / Leave a comment

[You’ve been waiting for it…A war without Boris is not a war against that over-sized alien cockroach Boris without Boris. So here he is in all his slimy and cockroachy “glory” if you can call Boris’s nefarious presence that.]

Son of Boris

As the car jaunted over the rocky rises and dips of button grass studded hill and dale, I reclined in the arms of my husband. My memories transported me back to summer days of the beach, the sun, and my hometown Adelaide untainted by the corruption of Boris. Where Günter was himself, not some Grey Alien Boris’ second in command, not the blonde German Andreas. But even in my remembrances, the bitterness of reality and a universe at the mercy of Boris began to eat away at my peace.

An encounter with Boris wormed its way into my consciousness…

***

One of those summer days doused in grey…I rode my bike to the beach to collect shells. As I combed the surf-soaked sands of Somerton Beach, a man’s voice snapped me out of the zone. ‘Found anyone interesting?’

‘Nup, no bodies,’ I murmured.

‘That’s a shame, a nice-looking lady like you.’’

I fixed my sight on the grains of sand and ignored him. Hate those pickup lines.

‘Oh, what’s your problem? I’m not going to bite.’

I glanced at him—had to see what creep I was dealing with. Pale, pock-marked face, thirties and just a little taller than me at 165cm. He wore a grubby white t-shirt and brown trousers. “Never trust a man who wears brown trousers,” my school friend Liesel always said.

‘Come on, dear, just a little conversation. Tell me, what do you want more than anything in the world.’

I shrugged. ‘To leave me alone.’

‘Tell you what, you tell me, and I’ll leave you alone. Deal?’

I pushed my bike faster trying to escape this man, but he ran after me.

‘I promise, I’ll leave you alone—just tell me.’

Hopping on my bike I announced, ‘I don’t talk to strangers.’

‘I’m not going to hurt you. I bet, I bet you’re one of those girls who wants to get married, have a family, that’s what you want more than anything.’

‘If you say so, now leave me alone.’ I jumped on my bike and sped from the creepy little man with his odd questions.

‘Your desire will be arranged,’ he said as I splashed my bike wheels through the water. He then shouted, ‘But, I might add, there will be a price.’

‘Sure, sour grapes,’ I mumbled. Then pumping the pedals, I sailed along the damp-packed sand of Somerton beach. I glanced behind before alighting. The man in brown trousers was gone…

 ***

Was Salome right? Was I selfish? Using Günter? Surely not!

[…Chapter 4 continued on Wattpad]

© Lee-Anne Marie Kling 2023

*Feature Photo: Somerton Beach Sunset © L.M. Kling 2019

***

And now, for some Weekend Reading…

Go on a reading binge and discover the up close, personal and rather awkward relationship between Gunter and that nasty piece of cockroach-alien work Boris in…

The Hitch-hiker

See how Boris seeks revenge in…

Mission of the Unwilling

And the Mischief and Mayhem Boris manufactures in…

The Lost World of the Wends…

Serial Saturday Story–Diamonds in the Cave (3)

/ lmkling / Leave a comment

The Storm

His hand on my waist; his hand warm and steadying, comforted me. Again, I lay in my sleeping bag, awake. Lightning flashed illuminating the tent. Thunder rumbled in the distance. My lower arm reached around my enlarged belly and my fingers touched his fingers. I turned on the air mattress. Günter’s eyes gazed at me. ‘Our baby!’ he said.

‘Yes!’ I snuggled up to him.

On my other side Sister Salome snored, her back like a monolith faced us.

With an almighty crash, thunder rattled our tent. Günter held me close. I trembled, afraid. ‘Hush, the storm, it sounds worse than it is.’ He held me tighter in the sleeping bag. ‘Cosmic storms are worse.’

A violent gust of wind tore at our tent attempting to pluck it from the ground and fly us off. Waves lashed the rocks on the shore below.

‘We are high enough? We won’t be swamped by the tide, will we?’ I asked. Another blast of wind hit the tent. ‘We won’t fly off, will we?’

‘What a silly question. No! Anyway, this tent is built for extreme conditions—like Everest or Antarctica, no?’ Günter touched my face in the dark and kissed my forehead. ‘Now, sleep!’

‘I can’t! She’s snoring!’

Günter chuckled. ‘You want to go in the Merc with Dr. Zwar, then?’

‘No way!’

Massive drops of rain plummeted upon the canopy of the tent. Soon the gale joined in, and rain lashed the tent sideways. Waves hurled and smashed against the cliffs and rocks only a few meters away. I molded my back into Günter’s form, and he caressed my head and neck. I was blessed to have Günter. I pretended to sleep, but a tempest brewed,…

[continued on Wattpad…]

© Lee-Anne Marie Kling 2023

Feature Photo: The Storm, West Coast Tasmania © L.M. Kling 2016

***

And now, for some Weekend Reading…

Go on a reading binge and discover the up close, personal and rather awkward relationship between Gunter & Minna and that nasty piece of cockroach-alien work Boris in…

The Hitch-hiker

See how Boris seeks revenge in…

Mission of the Unwilling

And the Mischief and Mayhem Boris manufactures in…

The Lost World of the Wends…

Serial Story Saturday–Diamonds in the Cave (2)

/ lmkling / Leave a comment

[Diamonds in the Cave–

Undercover Minna is building up a case against her enemies Maggie and Tails. Her life and plans unravel as her enemies incite the Wend village to hunt witches. And Minna becomes their main target.

In the coming episode Minna receives bad news. She and her husband must move from their idyllic life in Luthertal. Read the complete chapter (or chapters 1&2) on Diamonds in the Cave on Wattpad]

The Habit of Playing the Devil’s Advocate

Light streamed through the slatted shutters and lace curtains. Had morning broken so soon? I rose and opened the window to greet the day. Pastel lime-green wispy clouds streaked the sky. Luminous clouds shone against the black night sky. The stellar show brightened and dimmed as dying coals on a fire do. I stood at the window transfixed by the cosmic aurora so brilliant that the land was touched with an eerie glow.

‘Wow!’ I exclaimed and scampered back to the bed and Günter buried under the quilt. ‘Günter! Quick! The sky is brilliant!’

Günter dug himself deeper into the bed linen and mumbled, ‘Just let me sleep! I’ve got to get up early to milk the cows.’

I sighed and gazed out the window watching the dying star for a few moments and then crawled back into bed.

 ‘You need your sleep. I understand. Anyway, you’ve seen more awesome cosmic fireworks when you traversed the galaxy with Boris as his 2-i-C.’ I was glad he was free of Boris’ hold and those days were behind him.

Wide awake, I lay in bed on my back, watching the light dancing on the ceiling. Under the covers Günter slumbered. He rolled towards me and draped an arm around my mountainous waist. Concerned that it was not good for Günter to be buried, carefully I peeled back the covers. I turned and stroked his hair from his face. I mused at how dark his hair looked in the night. As Andreas it was ash blonde. The lights brightened for a moment. In the dusky hues of the room, I imagined Günter as I had met on the beach all those years ago, ebony locks cascading over his tanned neck. I withdrew my hand and whispered, ‘No!’

Then I shook him. ‘Günter! Your hair’s gone dark.’

‘Really?’ Günter rolled the other way. The light went out turning the room pitch black again.

I wandered into the kitchen, the light of morning glaring in my sleepy eyes.

‘What time is it?’ I asked Salome and then poured myself a cup of tea.

She sipped coffee freshly picked and ground from the Convent plantation. ‘Breakfast time!’ She placed a hand on my arm. ‘Relax! Günter’s out doing the chores, it gives us time to talk.’

It was the way she emphasized “talk”.

‘What do you want to talk about?’ I asked, gazing at her.

Salome leant forward, clutched her knees with each hand and locked eyes with me. ‘I’ll get to the point.’

‘What point?’

‘Boris is back.’

I choked on my tea. ‘No!’

‘Yes, and we need Günter’s help.’ The nun flattened the white tablecloth over the roughly hewn wooden table.

‘You can’t take him; I’m having his baby.’

‘I’m sorry, you must understand this is of intergalactic importance—not to mention Earth. You’ll have to manage without him for a while.’

‘I can’t. I won’t! Can’t you find someone else?’

‘There is no one else.’ The holy sister’s words were infallible.

Stars clustered before my eyes. The headache intensified. Pounding. Pounding.

‘I have to go lie down…’ I staggered as far as the armchair before flopping into it.

My world turned white and hazy…

[continued on Wattpad…click on the link Diamonds in the Cave (2)]

© Lee-Anne Marie Kling 2023

Feature Photo: Seacliff Sun © L.M. Kling 2016

***

Read more, and lose yourself in this tale where the nineteenth century meets the twenty-first…

Just click on the link:

The Lost World of the Wends…

Serial Story Saturday–Diamonds in the Cave

/ lmkling / Leave a comment

[I’ve taken the plunge and launched my latest novel, (still in manuscript form and needing beta readers), on Wattpad. You can check out the first chapter of Diamonds in the Cave there and give feedback, dare I say, honest. Once the book is completed with helpful suggestions from my readers, with hopes that it is the best in quality that it can be, I will be doing the usual and self-publishing on Amazon.]

The Enemy Within

Diary of Minna Thumm

Life, my life undercover as Anni, wife of Andreas (Günter), was ideal. We fitted together like violin and a bow, the notes of our personality blending together, in perfection.

On this pristine planet, we work hard and enjoy the warm friendly atmosphere that the Wendish community afforded. Boris had kidnapped these little-known villagers of Luthertal as they travelled along the River Elbe on their way to Hamburg. This small but pious clan of Wends had planned to emigrate to Australia. But Boris who led the band of travelers had other plans for them. The IGSF (Intergalactic Space Force) rescued the Wends from slavery and being swamped by cockroaches at the hands of Boris. As Earth, in the early 21st Century, had changed so much since they had left, the Wends chose to settle on the Pilgrim Planet.

We lived the incognito life of disguise, the young husband and wife team, Andreas and Anni. Soon I was with child making our lives complete.

After all Boris was dead. Our duty to the IGSF had become redundant. Minna was dead to all except those in the know—my mother, Dr. Mario Leonardo and his wife Monica and Günter’s sister, Salome. Günter according to all who knew him, (just a handful of people), was some unknown loser frittering away his life in some forgotten corner on Earth.

On the Pilgrim Planet, we were free to live undisturbed while keeping an eye on those partners in crime, Maggie and Tails. I lived to avenge the murders of my brother, John, and others of the IGSF team who had died fighting the War against Boris.

As for my brother John’s death, I am certain Maggie and Tails were responsible—just have to prove it. We’d befriended the pair, and gradually, had made progress on the dossier pertaining to their guilt. Still that crucial piece of evidence eluded us. Meanwhile, my mother, Frieda Thumm as Admiral roamed the wormholes of the galaxy mopping up the mess left behind by Boris.

My father, Wilhelm Thumm had also died; killed when he was driving my Mazda. He was “gunna get round to fixing the brakes” but…

[continued on Wattpad…click on the link: Diamonds in the Cave]

Diamonds in the Cave

Minna and Gunter live the idyllic life as under-cover agents  in the village of the Wends…Minna is building up a case against her enemies Maggie and Tails, and suspected of being Boris agents…

…But when the IGSF (Intergalactic Space Force) sends Gunter on a secret mission in the war against Boris, Minna alone and vulnerable encounters the son of Boris…

Their idyllic life unravels…as does the Wend community.

Incited by her enemies, Tails and Maggie with fear and

superstition, the Wends succumb to a full-scale witch hunt…and Minna becomes their prime Target.

© Lee-Anne Marie Kling 2023

Feature Photo: Saas Fee, Switzerland © L.M. Kling 2014

Travelling Thursday–Gosse Range

/ lmkling / 1 Comment

T-Team Series — Tnorala Mystery

 [The T-Team with Mr. B — Dad’s friend Mr. Banks and his son, Matt, joined Dad, my brother (Rick) and me on this journey of adventure. I guess Dad had some reservations how I would cope… But it soon became clear that the question was, how would Mr B who was used to a life of luxury cope?

*A story based on real life events but some names and how those events have been remembered have changed.]

Tnorala — Gosse Range

An episode in the prequel to my memoir, Trekking With the T-Team: Central Australian Safari 1981. Books both in Kindle and paperback available on Amazon.

Our Indigenous guide, Sammy jiggled his knee. He clutched the paper-bag containing his pie, his fingers curled tight scrunching the top of the bag.

‘Aren’t you going to eat it?’ I asked.

The T-Team had just left Papunya; our first contact of “civilisation” since the trek way out west to Mt Liebig and Talipata Spring. Sammy’s first meat pie for at least a week, I reckon, and all he did was hold it in the bag like a prized souvenir.

[Photo 1: Haasts Bluff near Papunya © C.D. Trudinger 1977]

Dad promised us barbeque beef steak and sausages at Gosse Range before travelling onto Areyonga. Mr. B, our family friend who with his son Matt, had accompanied us on this trip, seemed pleased with this proposal.

‘I dare say, David,’ Mr. B said, ‘I can’t help having a certain satisfaction eating steak after what one of their sort did to us, there, camping near Mt Liebig. I mean, that beast of a bull terrorized Matt and me while you and your son and daughter hiked up the mountain.’

Dad sighed. ‘It is cattle country and we did camp on their territory.’

‘Hmm, I thought you would’ve checked that out, mate. Most uncomfortable.’

[Photo 2: Cattle near Gosse Range © L.M. Kling 2013]

With the mention of uncomfortable, I glanced at our Indigenous guides, Sammy who I’ve mentioned, and Harry. As the Rover lurched and rumbled along the corrugated road to the Gosse Range, Sammy fidgeted, twisting the top of the paper bag in his fist, while Harry sat relaxed, rolling with the bumps.

[Photo 3: Road to Gosse Range © L.M. Kling 2013]

I nudged my brother, Rick. ‘Why isn’t he eating his pie?’

Rick shrugged. ‘Perhaps he’s being polite, not eating in front of people.’

‘I don’t mind.’ I gestured to Sammy. ‘It’s okay, you can eat it.’

I watched Sammy pull the meat pie from the bag and bite into it. He chewed each piece as if a cow chewing cud. He grimaced. He looked like he was eating a pie full of worms. With each bite and grimace, I giggled.

Sammy persevered, his mouth downturned. Every so often, he muttered to Harry in their Aranda language. Harry nodded.

‘I reckon he doesn’t like the pie,’ I muttered to Rick.

‘Probably cold,’ Rick mumbled.

I snorted. ‘He took long enough to start eating it.’

[Photo 4: Outside Gosse Range © L.M. Kling (nee Trudinger) 1977]

A glimpse of the jagged peaks of the Gosse Range flitted past through the dusty Rover windows. I peered past Sammy who had finished his pie to catch more views of the range.

‘Hey, Rick, look!’ I pointed. ‘The Gosse Range, it’s just like the painting Grandma’s got in her lounge room.’

From the front of the Rover Mr. B asked, ‘Did you say, David that you met the famous Albert Namatjira when you lived up in Hermannsburg?’

‘Oh, of course. My father-in-law was a great supporter of Albert’s art.’

‘How did the Gosse Range come about?’ I asked my audience from the back of the Rover.

Rick sniffed. ‘A meteor, I think.’

‘Or comet?’ I added. ‘What do you think, Sammy?’

Sammy wiped his mouth and didn’t respond.

‘Harry?’

Harry smiled and also remained mute on the subject.

I sighed and said, ‘Another thing I have to look up in the encyclopaedia.’

Harry looked in my direction. ‘Sammy wants to leave before we go to Areyonga.’

‘Why?’

‘He doesn’t want to go there. No friends. Not his family.’

‘Oh, that’s a funny reason.’

The Rover began to jerk and rumble over rocks and ditches. The jagged walls of the Gosse Range towered above us as the T-Team navigated the track leading into the middle of the range.

[Photo 5: Track leading into the Gosse Range © L.M. Kling 2013]

Sammy glanced left and right and wrung his hands together. Beads of sweat collected on his forehead and temples.

Once inside, Dad built a fire for the barbeque. Rick and Matt dangled sausages on sticks over the yellow flames. I gazed around the plain, its dry flat surface dusted with red-tinted sand and golden grasses. The range in shades of salmon pink surrounded this paddock. There seemed to be one lonely tree in the vast field that spanned several kilometres, and this was the tree we found to picnic under. While Mr. B and Harry set up picnic essentials on the tarpaulin, I watched Sammy pace back and forth.

[Photo 6: Picnic in the Gosse Range © L.M. Kling (nee Trudinger) 1977]

‘Lee-Anne, can you select your beef steak, please, and put it on the grille?’ Dad called.

I turned and picked out a smaller portion to add to the sizzling pieces of meat on the grill on top of the coals. Then I looked up to track Sammy’s progress. Sammy had vanished.

‘What’s the matter with Sammy? Where’s he gone?’ I asked Harry.

Harry nodded. ‘The real reason Sammy no want to go to Areyonga—there’s a big initiation ceremony, a corroboree going on there.’

‘Ah, yes,’ Dad said. ‘He’s scared.’

‘Sammy’s not from that tribe,’ Harry explained.

‘Would he get killed if they saw him?’ Dad asked.

Harry nodded. ‘Even if he didn’t see the ceremony, they’d kill him just for being there.’

‘Really?’ I said. ‘No wonder Sammy wasn’t himself. He’s usually laughing and so funny. But not today.’

[Photo 7: Inside the Gosse Range © C.D. Trudinger 1977]

Munching on my steak, I absorbed the expanse of dried grass, and the ochre range that’s eroded, yet the mystery of the rites and customs of the Indigenous of this land on this day at least, fascinated me more than a crater created by a meteorite thousands of years ago. Still, I did wonder at the devastation and effect on the Earth such an impact would’ve had. The crater spans 4.5km in diameter, so must’ve been one big rock.

[Photo 8: Gosse Range from lookout © L.M. Kling 2013]

After lunch, we left Sammy in the Gosse Range, his country, and headed for the lookout. There the Gosses appeared mauve in the afternoon light.

Dad tapped his pocket. ‘I think we’ll go from here to Hermannsburg, it’s too late to drop into Areyonga.’

‘Pity,’ I remarked, ‘Sammy could’ve come with us, after all.’

© Lee-Anne Marie Kling 2018; Updated 2019

 Feature Photo: Sunset on Gosse Range © S.O. Gross circa 1946 (courtesy of M.E. Trudinger)

***

Keen to read more of the adventures of the T-Team with Mr. B?

Click on the link and come along for the adventure.

The T-Team with Mr. B: Central Australian Safari 1977

***

Want more but too expensive to travel down under? Why not take a virtual travel with the T-Team Adventures in Australia?

Click here on Trekking With the T-Team: Central Australian Safari 1981…

And escape in time and space to Central Australia 1981…

Fantastic Friday Fiction–Choice bits (4)

/ lmkling / Leave a comment

Last Slice of the Black Forest — Gunter’s Wish

Gunter hobbled up the path to his house. His feet squashed into shoes too small for him. Just before he entered, Gunter examined his reflection in the window. He touched his pink cheeks and admired the sculptured perfection—the high forehead with no acne, the strong chin with no spots but a beard like a man, and hair straight golden and manageable. He patted the top of his head. ‘Hmm, a bit thin on top,’ he mumbled. ‘Oh, well, now I can be happy that not even my brother Johann was perfect.’

Grandmother flung open the door. Gunter slammed against the window. The wood panel blocked her view of Gunter. ‘Now what am I going to do? The dinner is burnt,’ she said. ‘Where is he?’

‘Forgotten something?’ Boris said as he peeped around the corner of the house. He handed Gunter a pile of folded clothes. ‘Can’t go around the village dressed like a boy, now can you.’ Boris then vanished into the night.

Once Grandmother withdrew back into the house, Gunter tip-toed to the outhouse and changed into Johann’s dapper tights, striped breeches and white shirt with the obligatory lacy sleeves. As he strolled to the front door, he heard screams and then a slap. Then he observed Anna run down the path, and a gangly looking fellow in underclothes loping after her.

Gunter pushed open the door and waltzed into the kitchen. Grandmother continued to sweep the cracked black and white tiles. A cloud of dust chased her around the room as she swept. ‘Your soup is on the stove, Johann.’

Salome leaned on the balustrade of the stairs, her blonde locks pasted to her perspiring temples. She shook her head. ‘At the inn again, I presume.’

Gunter tugged at the hem of his shirt as Johann always did and said what Johann always said, ‘A man has got to do what a man has got to do.’

The door burst open and his brother stumbled in sporting a red welt on his cheek.

Salome launched into him like a fish-monger’s wife on an errant husband. ‘What have you been doing? How hard is it to find your brother? No supper for you. Off you go—bed—go on!’ She grabbed Grandmother’s broom and chased Johann in the form of Gunter into his sleeping quarters with Johann crying protests all the way.

Gunter hid his urge to smile behind his hand.

After helping himself to pumpkin soup and bread, Gunter yawned and mumbled his excuses for an early night and trotted upstairs to the bed he shared with his older now younger brother. Oh what a night it would be, sleeping on the less lumpy side for once, hogging the quilt and tormenting his brother. It was payback time.

The benefits of being Johann did not stop there. Next day, as he strolled in the village streets, men tipped their hats, women weaved out of their way through the crowd over to him and gifted him with fruit, home-made honey biscuits and apple cake. Milk maids, those same ones who reviled him the day before, this time, fluttered their lashes, blushed and shot him sideways glances. The tallest of the three sidled up to him as he stood talking to the tailor as they discussed his jacket for the May Day dance, and she pressed a note into his hand. Mein Gott, what a life!

Meanwhile his brother languished under the whip of Grandmother’s broom when she heard he’d been expelled from school—again. Ah, sweet revenge.

Then the icing on the kuchen—lunch with Anna. He arranged a picnic by the river. Blue skies, tulips blooming, green grass, the birds singing and the bees humming. What a picture! What a day with is maiden in his arms. Anna talked non-stop the whole two hours. Gunter as his brother, held his tongue when she prattled on about how much she didn’t like Johann’s younger brother, especially after the prank he pulled the previous night.

‘He’s creepy,’ she said and shuddered, ‘he tried to grope me. Ugh!’

Her words stabbed at his insides. He realised as Gunter he never had a chance.

After Gunter walked Anna back to the school where she helped her father, he spent the afternoon brooding, drinking beer at the Bierhaus until he was almost sick. Then he tramped through the forest alone. The novelty of being Johann had worn off and revenge didn’t seem as sweet anymore.

At the dinner table Johann as Gunter raged. ‘I’m not Gunter,’ he yelled and stabbed the table with his fork. ‘What is wrong with you people?’

Their mother made one of her rare appearances downstairs but she seemed far away and unmoved by Johann’s tantrum.

Gunter decided he had to leave. His face tingled as he slipped out of the house and hastened to the clearing with the moss-covered log; the meeting place designated by Boris.

The ground glowed with warped and weird shapes under the strange luminous disk that hovered over the hill. No frogs croaked. No birds chirped. The air was still and cold. Even the cows refrained from braying.

Gunter sat on the log and waited. Time seemed to stop in the silence.

A beam shimmered from the disk. Gunter rubbed his eyes and blinked. Boris materialised in the centre of the beam. He appeared cockroach-shaped, then, as he strode toward Gunter, he morphed into human-form.

‘Well, now, Herr Fahrer, have you decided?’ Boris asked.

‘Yes, I have.’

‘Well, then.’

‘More than anything else, I want to be handsome, brave, attractive to the ladies like my brother Johann. But, I want to be myself, not someone else.’

Boris raised one side of the hairy eye-brow that spanned his forehead. ‘Very well, then.’

‘And one more thing, you know, like a package?’

‘Yes?’

‘Could I, with this new face, have a new life, say like in the Great South Land?’

‘Hmm,’ Boris nodded, ‘that can be arranged, if you wish. But…’

‘What?’

Boris coughed and flapped his wings. ‘You’re not going to fit in with the people who live there at the moment. I’d say wait until I’ve finished with Great Britain…’ He paced the clearing with his hands tucked behind his back. ‘In the meantime, I could take you on an adventure up there, into the far reaches of the galaxy. Consider it an added bonus, seeing what no man on this planet has seen before. What do you say?’

‘Ja, voll!’

‘Just sign here.’

Boris presented Gunter with the tablet, its screen chock full of tiny black lines. ‘Don’t worry,’ he said, ‘it’s all routine. Just basically says you take responsibility for your decisions. Just covering my back and yours. You know, some civilisations can be quite litigious.’ Boris handed a fine pointy stick to Gunter. ‘Use this pen to sign your name.’

Gunter wrote his name using the fine script he had learnt at school, and within seconds, he sat in a velvet-covered chair on the bridge of Boris’ ship. The walls shone with fresh white paint, the silver instruments gleamed, and the furnishings were scented with potpourri. He studied the sun as it shrank to just a speck of light amongst many specks of light.

Boris reclined on his seat, fully armoured, fully cockroach. ‘You should notice the changes in your form soon, my fellow.’

Gunter tingled all over and he glanced at his hand. His warm, fuzzy sensation turned to cold hard panic.

‘My hand!’ he cried wriggling his three elongated fingers. ‘I’m turning grey!’

‘So, there you go,’ Boris said as he adjusted his light shields. ‘Right on schedule.’

Gunter picked up a looking-glass placed at his side and his hand trembled. He glared bug-eyed at his reflection. ‘I’m turning into a praying-mantis.’

‘You didn’t specify you wanted to be human.’

‘But a stick-insect? I’m hideous!’

Boris folded his four hands over his barrel chest. ‘So? Most Greys are females. So you, as a male, will be most attractive to them.’

Gunter unstrapped himself and jumped from his seat. He ran to the viewing screen. With his long fingers he traced the planets and sun of his solar system. ‘I have changed my mind. I want to go home.’

Boris smacked his lips and readjusted his bottom’s position on his seat. ‘Too late. You’ve signed the contract. Didn’t you read the fine print? All choices are final and cannot be changed.’

© Lee-Anne Marie Kling 2018; updated 2023

Feature photo: A door, Romantic Road, Bavaria © L.M. Kling 2014

***

Read more of the consequences of Gunter’s choices, the adventure, the war against Boris. Discover the up close, personal and rather awkward relationship between Gunter and that nasty piece of cockroach-alien work Boris in my novels…

The Hitch-hiker

Mission of the Unwilling

The Lost World of the Wends

Or

Join the journey of discovery,

With my new release…

The T-Team with Mr. B: Central Australian Safari 1977