‘So boxing came to an end?’ Harry said.
‘Yes,’ Toowoomba replied.
‘What happened then?’
‘Well.’ Toowoomba signalled that he wanted the bill. ‘Andrew was probably more motivated when he went back to studying and for a while things went well. But it was the early 1970s, hippies, party time and free love, and he may well have been taking various substances which weren’t helpful to his studies, and his exam results were so-so.’
He chuckled to himself.
‘So one day Andrew woke up, got out of bed, looked at himself in the mirror and took stock. He had a terrible hangover, a black eye – God knows where from – probably a growing addiction to certain chemical compounds, and was over thirty without any qualifications. Behind him lay a ruined career as a boxer and before him, to put it mildly, an uncertain future. So what do you do then? You apply to Police College.’
Harry laughed.
‘I’m just quoting Andrew,’ Toowoomba said. ‘Unbelievably, he got in despite his record and advanced age – maybe because the authorities wanted more Aboriginal police officers. So Andrew had his hair cut, removed the ring from his ear, dropped the chemicals, and you know the rest. Of course, he’s a no-hoper as far as climbing up the career ladder is concerned, but he’s reckoned to be one of the best detectives in the Sydney force nevertheless.’
‘Still quoting Andrew?’
Toowoomba laughed. ‘Naturally.’
From the stage bar they could hear the finale of the evening’s drag show and ‘Y.M.C.A.’, the Village People version, a sure-fire winner.
‘You know a lot about Andrew,’ Harry said.
‘He’s a bit like a father to me,’ Toowoomba said. ‘When I moved to Sydney I had no plans, other than to get as far away from home as possible. I was literally picked up off the street by Andrew who started training me and a couple of other boys who had also lost their way. It was Andrew who made me apply to university as well.’
‘Wow, another university-qualified boxer.’
‘English and History. My dream is to teach my own people one day.’ He said that with pride and conviction.
‘And in the meantime you knock the shit out of drunken seamen and country bumpkins?’
Toowoomba smiled. ‘You need capital to make your way in this world, and I have no illusions about earning anything as a teacher. But I don’t just box amateurs; I’ve put my name forward for the Australian championships this year.’
‘To get the title Andrew didn’t?’
Toowoomba raised his glass to a toast. ‘Maybe.’
After the show the bar began to thin out. Birgitta had said she had a surprise for Harry, and he was impatiently waiting for closing time.
Toowoomba was still sitting at the table. He had paid, and was now twirling his beer glass. Harry had an indefinable feeling that Toowoomba wanted something; he didn’t only want to tell old stories.
‘Have you got any further with the case you’re here for, Harry?’
‘I don’t know,’ Harry answered. ‘Now and then you feel like you’re searching with a telescope and the solution’s so close to you it’s no more than a blur on the lens.’
‘Or you’re standing upside down.’
Harry watched him drain his glass.
‘I have to go, but let me tell you a story first which might help to redress your ignorance of our culture. Have you heard about the black snake?’
Harry nodded. Before he’d left for Australia he’d read something about reptiles you should be wary of. ‘If memory serves the black snake is not very impressive in size, but all the more venomous for that.’
‘That’s right, but according to the fable it wasn’t always like that. A long time ago, in the Dreamtime, the black snake was innocuous. However, the iguana was poisonous and much bigger than it is today. It ate humans and animals, and one day the kangaroo called all the animals to a meeting to find a way to overcome the ferocious killer – Mungoongali, the great chief of the iguanas. Ouyouboolooey – the black snake – the fearless, little snake immediately accepted the task.’
He continued in a low, calm voice while keeping his eyes fixed on Harry.
‘The other animals laughed at the little snake and said they would need someone bigger and stronger to fight Mungoongali. “Just you wait and see,” said Ouyouboolooey, and slithered off to the iguana chief’s camp. When he got there he greeted the huge brute and said he was only a little snake, not particularly good to eat, just searching for a place where he could be left in peace, away from the other animals that teased and tormented him. “Make sure you’re not in my way or it will be the worse for you,” Mungoongali said, not appearing to pay much attention to the black snake.