By Chance

By chance I was strolling along with no particular thoughts in my mind and suddenly I had a strange feeling of uncertainty. Where was I going?, Where had I come from? My surroundings were familiar, I had lived in this area for many years, there should be no uncertainty. What was this feeling of not knowing? I stopped and looked around, what had been a familiar path that I often walked had now become unfamiliar. I was in an alcove, four doors with large numbers on them, minus 200, minus 100, plus 100 and plus 200. What did this mean?

Being a conservative person minus 200 and plus 200 were out of the question. For that matter minus 100 and plus 100 were also out of the question as I had no idea what any of it meant. Turning around and heading back from where I had come, a couple of steps and I could go no further. A strange force was pulling at me as if I had no choice but to go through one of these doors. I carefully opened minus 100, just a little and peered through to see what was beyond it. I did not recognise anything, it made me very uncomfortable. I pulled the door shut and gingerly opened plus 100 peering through as I had done with minus 100. At least here I seen some familiar looking scenery.

It seemed that I had no choice, like by some magical force I was through the doorway and in a great mall with people in many different styles of dress. It was a market place, I hate these places, people trying sell all sorts of useless stuff but there was one stall at least that attracted me, it had electronic looking stuff, I say stuff because I did not actually recognise any of it. I like electronic things, I started browsing and I picked up something that looked to me like a metal detector, it had an antenna and several dials, adjustments and what looked like a digital display panel. There were no particular labelling on it just in big letters FYA. I could not help myself, I just had to buy it. I could not explain why, I did not know what it was actually for.

My new acquisition, it just fascinated me, I found a quiet corner and sat down on a garden seat to examine my FYA. I had to unfold it a little, it even had batteries supplied, well they won't last long, they never do. I held it in my left hand and pressed the ON button. OUCH! Bloody thing, it had pricked my thumb and before I had even let go there was a little spot of blood on the handle. I wiped the blood off and I could not even see what had caused it. I now noticed the dials were active and there was a message on the digital display. It was obviously a touch screen as the message said "Select your preference" and the was a choice of minus 200, minus 100, plus 100 and plus 200. The same as the gates in the alcove, how peculiar. The choice was now obvious, I would now choose minus 100, I touched the minus 100 and message on the screen said "Follow the river and streams upstream". How curious.

I was compelled and seemed to be in a time warp. I was able to move at what seemed an incredible speed with no effort at all. The digital display had shown Newcastle and Hunter River, in no time at all there was Stockton on my right and Kooragang Island on my left. I was floating along, Tomago on the right, Ash Island on the left. One of the dials started to deviate to the left and a feeling of some familiararity came across me but I could not explain it and it soon passed. Tarro on the left, again this strange feeling but gone again as quick as it came. The river turned in a northerly direction and Motto Farm was on the right. Again the flickering dial and this strange feeling.

I seen a man working in a vegetable patch by the river. I stopped and said hello, he raised his head and looked at me from below his battered felt hat, rested his arm on his hoe and asked in quiet voice what I wanted. I said that I was on a journey and that I just wanted to pass the time of day. Could he tell me a little about himself? "I am Reuben" he said, " I live over there at Hollow Tree and I grow vegetables that I sell to the merchants at Morpeth. They take them to Sydney on the 70 Milers". "Do you have a good life" I asked. " I do what my father taught me, just like his father. We grow vegetables. My grandfather is long gone now but he farmed on Ash Island and my father over there at Tarro. I do well enough to feed my family and put a little away for the future." I thanked Reuben and said I must continue my journey. I found myself strangely connected to Reuben but we seemed worlds apart, he showed no interest in my FYA, it was like he did not even see it.

My journey continued, Heatherbrae, Raymond Terrace, a big decision, the river forked, no decision really, I was just drawn to the west following the Hunter River. Millers Forrest, I passed Hinton and the Patterson River on the right and then Morpeth, Maitland, Luskintyre, and Elderslie, where was this confounded thing taking me? Follow the rivers and streams upstream it had said.

Without any sense of anything about to happen, I was suddenly pulled to the left, the dials were indicating a disturbance and I noticed a man, bent reaping wheat and I was compelled to engage in conversation. He told me that his name was Thomas and that he really did not have time to waste time talking to me. He had a big family to feed and the wheat would not harvest itself. Rude old bugger I thought, but somehow I felt there was more to be learned from him. "Been growing wheat here long?" I ventured. "No, it was better when I grew tobacco up along Glennies" he said, "What do you want to know for anyway?"

"Why did you move from Glennies Creek then?" "The wife wanted the kids to get some schoolin, no school on Glennies and the Blacks, pinched one of my kids once" "Pinched one of your kids! What happened?" "They gave him back after a couple of days, young Frank was OK, they said he had plenty of lizards and birds eggs to eat. Look can you reap wheat?" I told him that I had never reaped wheat and thought that maybe I should move on. One last question I thought "Do you have a good life?" I was expecting a rebuff but instead Thomas pulled his pipe from his pocket and lit it up. Puffing on his pipe he told me that when he was a young bloke he was working and living in the bush just over the river, a girl that he had seen only occasionally came and gave him some lunch. "I married Sarah on her twentieth birthday and together we have 13 kids, would have been 14 but for young Henry not making it. I've got a house over there with six bedrooms and a kitchen big enough for us to hold a dance in. If only James would sell me this land rather than making me pay rent. Did you say you can sew wheat bags?"

I thought it time to move on as Thomas had smoked his pipe and was obviously looking at how much more he had to do before supper. My journey continued, Scott's Flat, another of those strange feelings that passed quickly, then Singleton and another sense of pull. I am wondering where to now, I just seem to be wandering around but still on the Hunter River, then my FYA indicates that I should follow a tributary rather than the Hunter River itself, I am now following Wollombi Brook, I pass Walkworth, a place called Cockfighter Creek Tavern passes on the right then Fordwich, just a tinge of recognition but nothing significant.

The digital display shows a place called Broke and I think, yes something is surely Broke. Never mind, myself says to myself, soon this journey must reveal its meaning to me. A lot of meandering, the mountains are closing in and the creek is becoming a series of dry, what were once, waterholes. The FYA shows what appears to be a town, Payne's Crossing, but there is little by way anything to be seen, not even a small village. Wollombi appears on the screen, the name of the creek changed, I didn't notice why but I am now on Congewai Creek and the mountains have really closed in. FYA is guiding me but there is no indication of where I am going. I am aware of the steepness of the terrain, heavily timbered and it is just a dry creek bed that I am following. Eventually the steep mountainous valley gives way to more undulating hills and I see a man tending pigs in what appears to be a paling enclosure and corn ready for harvest in a small clearing. I am compelled to engage him in conversation although after my encounter with Thomas I am a little wary.

"Hello" I venture. "Where did you come from?" was his surprised response. "I am on a journey guided by my FYA machine here." He looks at me like as if I am some sort of alien and as if he does not even see my FYA. "Do you think my pigs will bring a good price at next week's market?" "I don't know much about pigs" I confess. "Well what about my corn, you want to earn some supper by pulling a bag or two of ears? Or are you one of those prospectors who thinks there's coal under these hills?" I assured him that I was not a prospector and that I really did not need any supper, but I would like to know about him and his family and how good of life he had here in the hills.

The old man's demeanour changed a little and he apologised, said his name was George and that although his wife had died several years ago he was well enough looked after by his daughters, each took a turn as he had five daughters. The older boys had left chasing a living from wheat and coal, he still had a couple of young one at home who at least could help around the place, one son had even selected land and had a bullock team. Timber was in demand by those pits that were springing up around. "Where are you going?" asked George. I told him that I had been guided here by my FYA and that I had followed the river and creeks upstream from Newcastle.

George gave me a blank look, he obviously did not understand my reference to my FYA and said "You had best turn around if you want to follow creeks because there is no upstream from here." George went on to say that if I wanted to get back to Newcastle that I could go over the next hill and down in an easterly direction, once I got off the mountain it was pretty easy going to Maitland. He sounded like he was quite familiar with the route he described. I thanked George, concluding that his life despite the difficulties was pretty good.

The decent was rather rapid, I had abandoned reference to my FYA and was following George's instructions. I was soon on some pretty easy going. I even found what resembled a road, I had passed some vineyards and there was some indications of a town coming up. A man was approaching driving a horse and cart, as he drew up to me he stopped as if to chat. I looked at him in amazement, he was all covered in black dust, his face was blackened, his clothes were more or less rags. I was a bit wary but somehow felt the need to engage him in conversation.

He beat me to it, "Goin far mate" I was a bit surprised with his gentle voice and my response was "Looks like you do it pretty tough, what is your name", "Oh don't be alarmed, I am just on my way home from work. The pit is no place to go dressed in your good clothes. The money is pretty good though, better than those poor beggars turning soil. My name is John and you must have just walked by my house back up there on the rise, jump up and come back with me, you can have some tea and damper after I get cleaned up a bit."

While my journey had been no effort at all I was inclined to accept John's offer and sat up beside him for the short trip back to his house. I was sitting on a tree stump beside an underground tank with a hand pump on it while John stripped off to the waist and was washing himself over a galvanised tub.

My mind drifted back to my FYA and the journey that it had led me on. I had just opened it up and not even read the little instruction booklet. I started browsing the book now, inside it had FYA Find You Ancestors, and an explanation that it was a time shift device. My mind raced, my eyes scanned the pages. I soon found some explanation for what had happened when I first turned it on. Under DNA sampling it explained how when you turn on the FYA it takes a pinprick sample of your blood and cross references it with the data base through the FYA satellite of World Ancestry and that you are automatically signed up to this by the purchase of your FYA. Depending on your selection of the reference year it would guide you to visit your ancestors.

I had just meet Reuben, Thomas, George and John, my 4 Great Grandfathers in a time shift to 100 years ago.