The Fortunate Swaggie

The Fortunate Swaggie 
By Paul McCann

Jackie Slacker was a back packer who never had a home of his own he lived rough and ready , slept out under the stars and wandered  anywhere his  feet would roam.

He begged and he busked in the big towns and he hitch hiked and jumped trains to get back to the outback .

He was a modern day swagman and looked like a relic from the past with his long straggly  beard and his long tangly hair .
His clothes were well worn and his old boots needed new heels  .
His heart was in the outback there where no one lived except the lizards and snakes .
He knew most every bark hut and miners shack there was in the territory .
He had been on walk about since his mother died . With no one else but him in the family he went wandering from place to place to place . 
Jackie never knew many people and had always lived an isolated life . He never bothered people and no one bothered him until the day he was picked up on a lonely track by a crowd of drunken youths who felt the urge to give Jackie some grief .
After they put him in the back of their  pickup they took him to an unknown destination where they started to make fun of Jackie , punching and kicking him .
With only two teeth left in his mouth he was gasping for breath but before he blacked out he saw the cruel gang  stop , all of a sudden they were surrounded by a pack of wild dingos who started growling and snarling , before  attacking the drunken gang .
Jackie blacked out and when he opened his eyes the hangers gone but there was blood everywhere and on the ground he saw the keys to the pickup .
An awful stench was everywhere that stank  like a pig . 
Lucky for him he also stank like a pig which might have kept him from being attacked .
Jackie hadn’t had  a shower or a bath for a long time and he never 
washed his clothes either . 
There he stood in the middle of nowhere feeling thirsty and in pain . He got into the pickup and drove away . 
Not knowing where he was he just kept driving and suddenly he came to an abandoned  gold mine near a river , it was just  by chance he found this place .
He cleaned his wounds in the river  and found someone’s abandoned clothes inside an old miners shack nearby . Some of the wooden floorboards had rotted and broke underneath Jackie’s feet , he fell into a pit under the floor where some wooden chests sat . When he opened the chests he discovered they were full of gold nuggets . He just sat there in a trance looking at them . After a while when he realised itv wasn’t a dream he put all the boxes into the pickup and drove away .
What a  unique thing had happened to him .
When he told everyone in the city the story of his lucky strike prospecting , he opened a bank account and now Jackie was living the high life .
No longer was he strange for  his life had changed overnight . With money in the bank he bought himself a new house , a new car and a caravan and now Jackie Slacker 
was a smart looking tracker driving on the outback roads to the place he called home .
The van had a kitchen and shower , generated power  and lots of comfort for his new adventure on his journey off the beaten track .
The fortunate swaggie wore designer jeans that were loose and baggy .
Jackie’s the man and he cruised 
around in his van like he owned all the land before him .
He had shaved his beard that was matted and had a haircut that was neat and to tell you the truth Jackie’s turn of luck had made him a legend as the traveling   bushman outback land .

The End