A Shot at Freedom (9 page)

Chapter
Fifteen

David

The marina was an artists’ playground. David’s fingers twitched, eager to play with the images on paper, charcoal maybe, or ink, and sometime later maybe oils. A gathering of yachts and dinghies marked all walks of life, the rich, the poor and the in between. Some boats were so neglected they rotted before your eyes. Others were so loved they glowed, bobbing and swaying glinting in the sun. David blasted the under belly of the yacht with a high pressure hose. With its smooth sleek lines, it was a beauty. 

He heard Gloria squeal before he saw her, giving him time to slip in between the bulk
y hulls. Flanked by two guys each side, she skipped along the jetty. David adjusted his hat, turned the gurney off and squatted to watch. They were all about his age or maybe a year or two older. It was hard to tell. Gloria tossed her head back and laughed. She stepped aboard her father’s yacht with grace, settling everyone in, throwing cushions and towels to the guys who were unloading an Esky.

David didn’t recognise any of the
m, but he knew they had to be the ones who’d left him by the side of the road. The guy he thought was her boyfriend groped her. She pushed him away but not without laughing and checking over her shoulder to see if the others saw. They did. They egged the guy on. David saw her through their eyes. She was their piece of meat. Her boyfriend stepped up to the wheel and started the motor. The others worked at the rigging, pulling up anchor.

As the yacht motored out of the marina, David grew game. He stepped up to the
edge of the jetty. Gloria stood and stretched, her hands supporting her lower back. Looking his way, she paused, turned to check on the guy at the helm, before waving to David secretively.

They were all free.
Out on the open sea, they could do anything they wanted. They were people with money and age on their side. He flicked the gurney switch and turned his back on them.

***

That night, exhausted after working in the heat, David found an empty boat with a hammock. It cupped him, and swayed in rhythm with the sea. Thoughts popped into his head, meaningless mind chatter, until images of Brooke splashed through them. The knocking of the boats against the boardwalk kept him grounded. It was a reminder that she was far away and that this was a world she had never seen.

Allowing his thoughts to settle on her was a luxury. He grew tired of fighting her off and
imagined her beside him. The way he would sweat in the tropical heat and her skin would remain smooth and dry. He could almost feel her pressed against him in the hammock, kidding himself that when the hammock rocked a little more than usual it was because she had moved. All he would do was hold her hand. He could never take it further. Not with Brooke. She was worth protecting. It used to be just enough for him to lie close enough to touch her. He told himself as long as he didn’t mess things up, he’d be able to do it always. But as life would have it, he’d lost her anyway. It made him wonder why he held back, now he was unlikely to touch her again.

David reached down and
picked up the tall beer bottle by its neck, taking long cool mouthfuls. The liquid bubbled in his mouth and throat, giving him a calming buzz. Again he heard Gloria before he saw her. It was the way she whistled and skipped along the board walk before leaping onto the boat. Coming up behind him, she ran her fingers through his hair, bent over him and smiled.

“I could have been anyone, coming back to my boat, ready to get the shits because you, the lowly boat boy
, had taken liberty with my pride and joy.”

“I knew it was you.”

“Such confidence.” Gloria presented him with a paper bag. “I brought you a heap more sandwiches for tomorrow.”

“Thanks. They’re keeping me alive.”

“She placed them on top of his bag and stretched out the excess netting of the hammock. “Shove over a bit.”

David
’s chest hurt as his fantasies about Brooke dissipated. He clawed at the rope while Gloria rolled into the hammock. It swung against the rhythm of the water. The starry sky above them seemed to roll.

Their
bodies pressed together, and their eyes met.

“Well hello,” she said.

“Aren’t you all bubbly and cute,” he replied, raising his eyes back to the sky.

“Why wouldn’t I be?”

“That’s right why wouldn’t you be.” He took another mouthful of beer, resting the bottle on his stomach. “I saw you with your boyfriend.”

“Here?”

“You saw me. You waved.”

She smirked.
“We went for a sail.”

“Great day for it.”

“It was.”

“Do you always hang out with
the boys?”

He noticed her
silence.

“It’s just that I’ve only ever seen you with them
,” he explained.

“
That’s the way my boyfriend likes it.”

“Do you always do what he likes?”

“Most of the time.”

“Why?”

“Boys throw tantrums when they don’t get their own way.”

“I never get my own way and I just get used to it
,” he quipped.

“
Surely someone in your life panders to your every whim.”

He
considered it. “Panders to my
whim
? Sounds rather dirty.”

“
Boys are so easy to work out.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, you give them everything they want, you know, make them comfortable, pamper them, tell them how good they are, how much you need them, and they like to have you around.”

“You let them use you?”

She shoved him. The hammock swung. “I don’t let them use me.”

“What happens if you
can’t give them what they want or you don’t want to? Or, hell, maybe you might want something back from them for a change?

“They pout, throw a tantrum,
get angry. You know they give obvious signs they’re shitty. And you just make it all better for them. They’re easy to appease.”

David felt his insides crawl. He thought of Brooke
. “Do all girls do this?”

She shrugged. “
Don’t care. It works for me.”

“
Well, I hope it’s not a thing all girls do,” he replied.

Gloria rolled onto her side and stroked his face.

He pulled back.

She
touched his chest.

He let her.

She moved her hand in slow circles. In a strange way he felt a warmth enter his chest and heart. It was hard to look at her, but it felt good to be touched.

“So girls aren’t
as easy to understand?” he asked.

“Are you kidding? They love you one minute, the next you’re dumped beca
use someone better comes along. If you don’t have the right tights to go with that stupid skirt, God help you. I can’t keep up.”

“I know a girl that’s not like that.
I mean, she dresses nice, but she doesn’t drag other girls down.”

“Does she hang out with
them?

“
Nup.” David snorted, and closed his eyes to the stars, trying to imagine Brooke’s face but was stuck with the image of her in the rear vision mirror, watching him abandon her.

“See that’s my point.
If she had the pressure of hanging out with girls, she’d have the pressure of trying to look amazing every second of the day.”

“She looks amazing every second of the day whether she’s just been out riding or whether she’s been stuck in the rain and her hair gets all wavy.”

“Hey, listen to you. Who is this girl? Someone special? You’re making me jealous.”

“You have a boyfriend.”

“Who, Chas?”

“Is that his name?”

“Well, what’s your girlfriend’s name?”

He
exhaled, a long slow breath. “I don’t have a girlfriend.”
              “You sure, now?” She stopped rubbing his chest. He felt the pitter-patter of her fingers against his stomach. “It sure sounds like you do.”

David s
kolled the rest of his beer, trying to forget what he’d done to Brooke, trying to believe that she wouldn’t feel let down by him, lost, pissed off that he’d left her to deal with the crap that he’d chosen to run free from. He was so stuck in his thoughts, it took a while to realise that Gloria was still babbling beside him. 

“
…you should go sleep in Daddy’s boat. I can make sure there’s no sign of you there.”

“I have the key for that big mother yacht over there
,” he said.

She lifted herself up and looked
. “No way.”

“Yep.
Tomorrow it needs a clean. I’m the one who is supposed to have the keys. Once a week I get to clean it. Once a week I’ll bunk down in it. It’ll give me a taste of what it’s like to be rich.”

“The woman that owns it
is such a bitch. It’s not good to be rich.”

“Anyone with a boat in this marina’s rich.”

She laughed. “What in a spiritual way or something. Because I can tell you my dad has to work hard every day and he has a boat.”

“
I’m talking food on the table, roof over your head. Rich.”

She
grunted. “Whatever you reckon.” She leant down and slipped the keys into the pocket of his bag. “Still I think you should have a copy of Daddy’s keys. Just in case.”

David
decided it wouldn’t be a bad idea to keep the keys handy.

***

Later that night, the crash woke David. He sat up clutching the crisp white sheet to his chest. Two people tumbled through the doorway, arms and legs entwined, hair pulling, lips pressed to bare skin. The rich bitch and her boyfriend. They hadn’t seen him.

He tumbled over the side of the bed, flattening himself on the carpet. Commando style he headed for the gold thread curtains that lined the walls. The couple fell onto the bed, right where he was lying fast asleep only moments ago.

He flattened himself lengthways against the wall, sucking in his stomach like it made a difference. The sucking, slurping groans made him cringe.

His bag was stowed safely up on deck. The bed was so comfortable, he
’d forgotten himself and slept too deeply. A hazard when you’re sleeping somewhere you shouldn’t.

He squeezed his eyes tight and wished he could sing out loud to block out the noises.
Free porn and he couldn’t stand it.

He edged the curtain back, peering through a slit
, and surveyed the room set aglow only by moonlight through small round windows.  Shadows cast across the faces of the couple, more bare skin than he needed to see. But their eyes were locked on each other.

He slid under the curtain, aware of the sway in the upper folds. Rolling onto his stomach, he
wriggled towards the open doorway. Behind him he left the couple, disguising any noises he made with their rhythmic, puff, puff, pant. He rose up off the floor and took the steps to the upper deck.

Wearing only his boxers, he retrieved his bag and swaggered along the boardwalk, in search of Gloria’s Dadd
y’s boat.

***

A crash on the upper deck woke him followed by laughter and grunting. Déjà vu. Only this time when he tried to hide he was held back by his sleeping bag. Hot and sticky with sweat, he must have tossed around in his sleep and wrapped himself up in it. As he struggled free, two bodies stumbled down into the cabin. Gloria and Chas stopped and stood in front of him holding hands, blinking.

“Sorry, I
- ” he muttered, squeezing his way out past the hood. “I’m tangled.”

Placing her hands on her hips, Gloria swayed on her feet and threw her head back laugh
ing, “And who’s been sleeping in my bed?”

Her boyfriend swiped her across the cheek with the back of his hand. Her head flung towards David, and she stumbled.

“Hon, it was a joke. I was joking.” She touched her cheek bone. Blood dribbled from her cut lip.

David
squirmed down the bed in his sleeping bag like a caterpillar on speed. The wrestle to escape the clasp of his sleeping bag became secondary to the wrestling punching maniac boyfriend who’d jumped on him.

“Fuck
. Let me out. I don’t want to get involved, mate. Get ooorfff.”

“Fight,
ya bastard.”

David bucked under
Chas’ weight, protecting his head with his only free arm. The sleeping bag buffered his body. Gloria had jumped in. “Stop. Stop it. He’s just staying here. He’s the guy from the back of the ute remember, Chas? You did a good thing picking him up. Remember?”

David was only aware that he was free when he could breath
e. He lay panting on the floor at their feet.

“Remember?” Gloria asked again.