Terra Australis

Not even the ancient monolith of Ayre's Rock lifted our spirits as it whizzed by our bus window. We grimly watched it as our teacher explained in excitement that it was 1142 feet high and 2 miles in length. No one seemed to be in the mood for a geography excursion to the middle of nowhere, only a week after a great tragedy.

From the time we left the school yard up until the time the bus pulled up in front of the old gas station I wondered why out of thirty students, only five of us agreed to go.

"Come on everyone -- out you hop. No pushing now!" Miss Lee, our guide and geography teacher, shouted enthusiastically as if talking to a whole team of netball players. Frankly, no one so much as touched anyone and we stood huddled together like frightened kittens once we got off. We all knew the reason for Miss Lee's excitement: she had always dreamed to be the supervisor of an excursion -- and she wasn't about to let our lack of numbers and enthusiasm ruin her first chance.

Feeling as though I had pillars for legs, I began to move and squinted at the bright glare reflecting off the red-tinged earth of the Australian outback. A few sun-scorched shrubs dotted the landscape and a couple of scraggly trees provided the only shade -- scarce as it was. "Welcome to the down-under of the land down under." I muttered sarcastically.

With a sigh, I pulled down the only food I had out of my backpack: a vegemite sandwich. I stared at it ironically.

"Hey, at least you have food," Katrina pointed out as if reading my mind. "I'd give anything for that right now."

I handed her the sandwich without a word and followed the rest of the group as they unloaded the suitcases and tents from the back of the Blue Ribbon bus. From the corner of my eye I saw Naomi sneak into the bus like a stealthy fox. My curiosity got the better of me and I followed her, making sure that no one noticed my departure.

"What are you doing?" I asked, watching her pick up a bag that had been left on one of the seats. She searched through it as if looking for a bomb, and pretty soon she pulled out a crumpled piece of paper.

"Miss Lee dropped it on the bus and I happened to pick it up," Naomi explained hurriedly, fluttering the paper in my face. "And I read it -- that upset her very much. So it should. Read it."

" 'Ayre's Rock Excursion, one way ticket. 10 per student' -- so what? It's a receipt from the bus company! Nothing top secret."

"One way ticket, Gerda. Miss Lee isn't planning on us returning -- "

"Come on girls. Chop-chop!" Miss Lee entered the bus with a meaningful glare in our direction.

We scoured the cave within Ayre's Rock with wonder-filled and curious eyes. The Dreamtime paintings surrounded us in all their glory, powerful remnants of a time long gone, but still enchanting the people of today.

"Well, maybe we should cheer up." Mandy suggested. "It's not every day we get to look at the inside of a prehistoric monolith thingy!"

Naomi shot her a look. "And it isn't every day one of our friends is murdered, either."

That remark threw a thick blanket over our existing silence. I sighed shakily and thought about what had happened to Linda. She had been found in the girls' toilets with a string loosely wrapped around her throat. From then on, everyone at school had been extremely edgy and jumpy because of the knowledge that the murder might have come from within. Everyone was a suspect -- even one's best friend.

Mandy smiled uncertainly. "I know. But think about it, Linda wouldn't have wanted us to waste this wonderful opportunity."

"Oh really!" Katrina broke in with a fiery look in her face. "And why are you acting so calm? You know what -- I've never seen you shed a single tear!"

This started an immense argument and accusations were thrown this way and that, most of the time not making sense -- but at least it was getting it out of their systems. Whilst Miss Lee had a go at calming them down, Naomi and I slipped away from the rowdy group and found a small, ragged corner in the cavern. I stared in awe at the aboriginal wall paintings that had probably stood there for hundreds of years. Some of the symbols I recognized: boomerang-shaped objects represented people seated around a fire. More realistic looking were the red ochre primitive hunters throwing spears at what looked like a kangaroo. Yellow-dotted snakes curved their way around the drawings.

"This is so amazing," I whispered. "What a pity the circumstances aren't more pleasant. We could have some real fun in this place."

"Look," Naomi spoke up, ignoring my comment. "I've been thinking about this receipt."

"Oh no, you don't think that Miss Lee would do anything -- I mean, there may be a perfectly good explanation for that. Like, she might have chosen a different bus company for the way back." Even I found that hard to believe, but it was possible -- anything was. "Just don't jump to conclusions please."

"I suppose you could be right Gerda, but I'm still keeping an eye on her." Naomi dropped her gaze to the ground.

"Come on girls -- exercise is good, you should know that since you all do PE." Miss Lee urged us on, leading the way with long strides. We dawdled along the narrow stretch of a road that slithered through the desert, and frankly, stuck out like a sore thumb in the wilderness. I felt the sweat pouring down my forehead and the shorts that I was wearing were rubbing against my legs quite painfully. More than anything else, I wanted to be back in my tent near the thin river where we had set up camp.

Passing an abandoned sheep farm and a rusty shearing shed, Miss Lee stopped suddenly and pointed to it. "Typical Aussie life girls. Imagine living there all your life." She continued to walk, whistling, and I stared at the farm as if traveling through a time warp. I could almost see white balls of woolly sheep scattered around, hear their baas and the buzz as the sweaty men sheared them one by one. I was snapped out of the daydream as the sun beat down on my forehead and caused me to feel slightly woozy and extremely thirsty. That sheep farm had been long unoccupied and the thing that mattered right now was my swimming head.

We walked unwillingly for another ten minutes until the enormous shape of Ayre's Rock was almost overwhelming. The thing stood there like a medal, proudly pinned to the center of Australia. Not even the tourists, souvenir shops, restaurants and the winding roads lined with coach buses marred its spectacular beauty and searing red colour.

"For forty-thousand years I've been; the first Australian." Katrina sang quietly with great uncertainty. She somehow managed to inject us with proud patriotism and we simultaneously began to sing, our voices rising with each note: "We are one, but we are many, and from all the lands on earth we come. We share a dream, and sing in one voice."

"I am."

"You are."

"We are Australians!"

. Unpredictably, we had a good time and even cracked a smile or two. The number of visitors at Ayre's rock was increasing and I tried to ignore it, to savor the rugged, Australian wilderness -- but the foreigners who had flown here from all over the world somehow didn't seem to fit in with the atmosphere. Also, the roads showed human development, but I turned my head in a different direction and imagined I was all alone with nothing but the air and the scorched land that had a beauty of its own.

I saw that a few people were beginning to climb Ayre's Rock, one of them being Naomi who was now adjusting her ropes. She tugged to make sure they were tight enough, and then sensed I was watching and turned in my direction. "Why don't you give it a go?"

"Rock climbing? I don't know. I was never really into that at school." I hesitated and put a hand over my eyes to shield them from the sun. "Look, at school we had a wall with stuck-on rocks. This is Ayre's Rock -- Uluru! Don't tell me you're gonna miss the chance."

I sighed and looked around. Katrina was sitting on a rock with her head in her hands, looking very strangely at Naomi. For some reason, every little thing seemed to make me suspicious these days. I knew I had to get a grip and realize that none of my friends could ever be the murderer. Katrina lowered her eyes to thin slits, reminding of an evil spy.

"Hello?" Naomi's voice startled me. "Are you coming with me or not?"

It took me a full two minutes but I made up my mind to join her. Grabbing a rope that was already fastened to the top of the rock, I fastened the harness around me and tugged like Naomi had. An Aboriginal guide came up to me and checked everything for the last time, then took one end of the rope to hold me up. Naomi was going through the same process with a young, blonde woman.

Sooner than I had expected, we were climbing up; gripping the rough surface of the rock and pushing off with our feet, being encouraged by our guides. It must have been lunchtime, because everyone was on ground and making their way to the restaurants -- everyone but Katrina, Mandy and Miss Lee, who -- for some reason -- were prowling around the rock like hungry tigers in a cage. Once again, Katrina had that look one her face, and this time she looked straight at me.

Unnerving as it was, I ignored her and continued to climb. Up and up with Naomi not too far away. "This is so great!" She cried into the wind. I scoured the land and thought that my breath had literally been taken away. For miles and miles around -- to the ends of the horizon -- yellow-red earth dominated. The manmade environment in the corner of my eyes was miniscule to the real atmosphere of this great southern land, and in comparison, it was nothing.

I saw the old sheep farm with its crooked wood fences and the shearing shed, and I thought about who might have lived there, and when. It seemed at least sixty years old -- and its age only added to the glory. A couple of red kangaroos were only dots as they shot by past the farm, kicking up dry earth in the process.

Looking down, I noticed that my guide, the aboriginal man, was sitting on a rock and applying what looked like white paint onto his face. Meanwhile, Miss Lee was holding my rope. I decided that maybe he was preparing for a show where he would play the didgeridoo and dance, stomping around a fire to ward of bad spirits.

Soon, we were so high up that the chatter from people below had faded to nothing -- until I heard a loud shriek. It was Kylie and she was waving a small book around in the air. I narrowed my eyes questioningly, but then yelped when I felt a strong pain in my side. Naomi! She was slightly above me and her eyes were fixed on me with a steel glare.

"So the little know-it-all found it!" She shouted angrily and continued to kick. I screamed at the top of my lungs and gripped the rope with all my strength. Naomi continued in the same, deranged tone. "Well see if I care -- this was going to happen either way.!"

"Arrhh!" I screeched and saw Miss Lee's frightened face below as she held on to my rope. Returning my gaze back to the crazed Naomi, I shouted: "What are you talking about -- stop it! Found what? What did she find? Why are you telling me this?"

"She found my diary!" Naomi spoke through clenched teeth. "Damn it -- I wasn't supposed to be found out this quickly. And I'm telling you because I don't care anymore, and you'll be nothing but a red stain down there soon."

"You killed Linda didn't you?" I gasped in shock. Panic gripped my whole being. Down below, Miss Lee was screaming and shouting for help, so Naomi took something out of her pocket, then aimed and threw it directly at Miss Lee. It was a knife and I saw the blade gleam in the sun, taunting me. "No! Move out of the way!"

"Stupid teacher is getting in the way. And yes, I killed Linda -- good work Sherlock!" As soon as the words left her mouth, I heard Miss Lee scream and she let go of the rope, falling to the ground. The rope whizzed through the pulley on my harness so fast that I thought it would start a fire -- but it didn't matter because I was falling anyway. There was no time to grab for anything. I heard someone shout and realized it was Naomi's guide who held her rope. The noise gave me new hope and I reached out with my hands, gripping the rock. It hurt and I thought my hands were torn to shreds, but I clenched my teeth and gripped with both feet and hands until I had managed to steady myself.

I was only a short way from the ground and I could feel my heart pounding a hole through my chest. With tears blurring my vision, I looked up to see Naomi lowering herself down towards me, and I found myself wishing that her guide would let go of the rope. But that would be murder on their part and it would never happen. I had to fight her off myself and hope that Miss Lee was all right. I had seen a few people attending to her, but most were transfixed by what was going on up here.

"I was so close to killing two birds with one stone," Naomi said menacingly as she drew up very close to me.

"Please, just let us get down and we'll talk about this normally?" I stalled for time when I saw that about ten people were carrying an enormous trampoline-like thing and positioning it right under us. Of course, they have to be prepared for accidents here; and there was an ambulance and police crew already down there, flashing their red and blue lights. There was only one thing left to do if I didn't want to end up being the red stain Naomi had referred to. With a burst of strength, I wrapped my arms tightly around Naomi, ignoring her shrill protests. Pushing off with my feet, I closed my eyes and hoped for the best.

Naomi screamed and screamed in my ear as we fell together and the wind rushed past us like a whirlwind. It only took a few seconds before I felt the trampoline underneath. We bounced a few feet into the air on impact. This happened a couple of times before we stopped, both of us sobbing in fright.

It all happened like in a dream. I was helped up and inspected by the paramedics and told that Miss Lee suffered a deep cut to her left shoulder, but other than that she was fine. Naomi was taken away by the police where she would probably be taken to a juvenile detention center, which according to some people was not a harsh enough punishment. On the other hand, I hoped that she would recover in time and become a better person -- she must have had a very serious problem.

Katrina had explained her odd behaviour to me on the way back home: "I suspected her, and when I saw you climb up there, I decided to investigate. I told Kylie and she searched through Naomi's backpack and found her diary, which explained all her thoughts and proved that she was the murderer. It was terrible."

I decided for myself that Naomi had used the bus receipt to throw off any assumptions on herself by framing Miss Lee. It worked for a while. Even I thought that it might be Miss Lee. I still don't know if it's a good or bad thing that I was wrong. Naomi had been a close friend.

We all returned home in a grave silence that fell even upon Miss Lee. When we returned home, we decided to pay a visit to Linda's grave. It was a sad occasion, but after it we seemed somehow cheered up, and even decided to go to the cinema together, with the images of Ayre's Rock firmly implanted in our minds. Not the tragedy, but the beauty.