Bleakboy and Hunter Stand Out in the Rain (9 page)

21

HUNTER

Hunter sits beside the fountain at Elkhorn Park after school. The woman and her personal trainer do circuits of the park, stopping every lap to shadow-box for a few minutes. The trainer calls out, ‘Left, right, left,' encouraging the woman. The woman responds with tired punches and exaggerated breathing.

Hunter wonders where the old man is today. He picks up his backpack and walks across the park, following the path beside the creek. His phone beeps with a text message. Mum wants to meet him at Berliner Cafe for a milkshake. Hunter smiles. Anything is better than doing his personal assessment task.

He scrambles down the embankment and hops from rock to rock across the creek before hauling himself up the other side. He wonders if his mum has already ordered a vanilla thickshake with a double scoop of chocolate ice-cream on top. She knows what he likes.

There's a line of bicycles parked outside the cafe. At a table on the verandah, four men sit drinking coffee. They're all dressed in lycra and cycling jerseys. One of them wears a yellow bandana around his head. He looks like an overweight bandit. Hunter tries not to laugh when the waitress brings the man a lemon meringue pie the same colour as his bandana.

Hunter enters through the back door and sees his mum. He decides to surprise her. She stirs her coffee which sits next to a tall thickshake. Hunter smiles. Before he can walk to the table, a middle-aged man wearing a tweed jacket and carrying a single rose approaches his mum.

‘Hello, sorry I'm late,' says the man. Hunter hides behind the magazine stand. The man has a jovial round face with pale cheeks and a slightly red nose. His hair is unruly but has been hastily flattened down with water. He smiles easily. ‘I missed the bus,' he says.

Hunter's mum looks behind her, as if she thinks the man is talking to someone else.

The man sits down at the table in Hunter's seat and gestures to the waiter for a coffee. The waiter nods and looks at Mrs Riley, questioningly. She shakes her head.

‘I'm always missing buses,' the man says. ‘A bad habit I've had since I was a child. Of course, being late for school had its advantages.' He laughs. ‘It's nice of you to meet me.' He looks around again, toward the waiter. ‘I'm not familiar with this part of town. Do you work near here? Is this your local?' He drums his fingers on the table. ‘I … I've never done this sort of thing before,' he says. ‘I guess that's obvious.'

Hunter feels blood rush to his face when the man offers his mum the rose. At first, Mrs Riley shakes her head as if to say no, but the man insists and she accepts. His mum lifts her hand to her cheek as if to cover her embarrassment. The man says, ‘My name's Donald. But, you already know that.'

The waiter brings the coffee and slides it across the table. Donald offers him a five dollar note and says, ‘Keep the change'. The waiter smiles and walks away.

Donald notices Hunter's thickshake beside his coffee. He slides the full glass toward Mrs Riley. ‘Do you always drink coffee and a thickshake?' he asks.

‘It's for my son,' Mrs Riley says, looking out the window.

‘Your son?' Donald looks confused. He follows Mrs Riley's gaze. ‘Your profile didn't say you had children,' he says.

‘My what?'

‘Your profile. On Dating Hearts.'

Mrs Riley shakes her head. ‘I'm sorry, I don't know what—'

‘You're Diane? Aren't you?' Donald blushes.

‘My name is Helen.'

He sighs. ‘I knew I should have asked for a photo. She said she'd be wearing a blue frock and …' They both look at Mrs Riley's dress: blue.

‘Oh dear,' he says.

Mrs Riley holds the rose in her hand. She lifts it up to her nose and closes her eyes, as if enjoying the delicate perfume. At the noise of a chair scraping back she opens her eyes. Donald is about to stand.

Hunter looks around the cafe for a woman wearing a blue dress. There is no-one but his mum.

The man smiles. ‘Please, keep the rose.'

Hunter watches his mum smile at the man. Her eyes twinkle.

‘What's Dating Hearts?' she asks.

‘A place for,' the man smiles inwardly, ‘fools like me, I guess.' He finishes the coffee. ‘My wife left me five years ago,' he says. ‘It's only now I'm getting up the courage to …' He places the cup back on the saucer.

His mum holds up the rose again. ‘It's a lovely thought,' she says, simply.

‘I don't know if I'll have the courage to try again,' he says. Donald looks up and sees Hunter staring at them.

Hunter blushes and steps from behind the stand. He walks to the table. ‘Hi, Mum,' he says.

Donald stands and clears his throat. Mrs Riley blushes and puts the rose on the table.

‘I'll be going,' he says. ‘Thanks for,' he looks at Mrs Riley, ‘understanding.' He smiles at Hunter and strides out of the restaurant. Mrs Riley watches him walk past the cyclists.

‘I wonder if he'll look back,' she says, in a quiet voice.

Hunter watches his mum look after the man. She's sitting up straight in the chair and biting her lip, as if everything depends upon what the man does next.

Donald turns around and offers a timid wave. Mrs Riley smiles.

Hunter sits down at the table.

‘Vanilla thickshake with chocolate ice-cream, dear, your favourite.'

‘Who was that, Mum?' Hunter asks.

‘He mistook me for somebody else.' Mrs Riley laughs, looking at her son. ‘Do I look like a Diane to you, Hunter?' she asks.

Hunter takes a noisy slurp of his thickshake and says, ‘You look like my mum, Mum.'

22

jesse

In class the next day, Kate raises her hand as soon as Sarah walks into the room. Sarah pretends not to notice and shuffles some papers on her desk.

‘Good morning,' she says.

‘Good morning, Sarah,' we answer. Kate waves her hand to get attention.

‘I don't suppose you want to go to Walter, Kate?' Sarah asks.

‘No, Sarah,' Kate says. ‘Jesse and I have an idea for an excursion.'

Sarah glances at me and I try to look hopeful, without giving too much away.

‘Yes?' she asks.

‘The Japanese Embassy, Sarah,' announces Kate. I look at Kate's hands. She's crossed her fingers, for luck. I do the same.

‘Not this again!' says Skye. ‘Can't we go to the beach instead?'

Sarah places the papers in a neat pile on her desk. ‘And what would we do at the embassy, Kate?' she asks.

‘We'd hold up banners made in art class and ask the Japanese not to kill any more whales,' says Kate, looking around the class for support. Lance stifles a yawn while Anastasia stares out the window.

Hunter raises his hand.

‘No, Hunter, we are not going to threaten the Japanese Embassy staff.'

‘I didn't say anything, Sarah,' says Hunter, looking hurt. ‘I was going to suggest shouting would be better than being polite.' Hunter raises his voice, ‘I'm good at SHOUTING, Sarah.'

Sarah winces. ‘Yes, I'm aware of that, thank you, Hunter.' She takes a deep breath and looks at Kate. ‘I'm sorry, Kate, but I don't think your parents would like me to—'

Kate raises her hand and shakes it around. Sarah nods.

‘I've already got a note from my parents saying it's okay,' says Kate, smiling.

Skye raises her hand. ‘I haven't, Sarah. My parents would be very upset if I got a criminal record.'

‘There's no crime in standing on a footpath, Skye,' answers Sarah.

‘And no fun either!' responds Skye.

‘I can practise my Japanese language skills,' says Eoin.

Everyone looks at Eoin. Sarah asks, ‘And what can you say in Japanese, Eoin?'

‘Hello, goodbye, happy birthday,' Eoin bites his lip, thinking, ‘and how far is it to Tokyo?'

Sarah smiles.

Anastasia raises her hand. ‘Justin Bieber is very popular in Japan,' she says.

‘What does that have to do with Kate's idea?' asks Sarah.

Anastasia shrugs. ‘We could write to Justin to ask him not to go to Japan until they free the whales.'

‘The whales aren't captured,' says Kate. ‘They're killed in the ocean.'

‘
Tanjoubi omedetou
!' says Eoin, in a loud voice.

‘Is that happy birthday in Japanese, Eoin?' asks Sarah.

Eoin nods and looks like he's about to start singing.

I quickly interject, ‘We can hand out leaflets letting the public know about the whales getting eaten.'

‘Yeah. With lots of pictures of whales cut up and blood and guts hanging out everywhere,' adds Hunter. ‘I vote we go to the embassy, Sarah.'

Sarah looks very nervous at the mention of the word vote.

‘Good idea, Hunter,' I say. ‘Let's have a vote, Sarah.'

Sarah sinks back into her chair.

‘I vote for the embassy!' says Hunter. He raises his hand in the air. Everyone follows, except Skye, who crosses her arms and stamps her feet under the desk.

Eoin says, ‘
Hai
', in a loud voice. We all look at him. He grins, ‘It means
yes
in Japanese.'

Sarah sighs.

‘Jesse and I will write the leaflet, Sarah,' says Kate.

‘I'll look for pictures, Sarah,' adds Hunter.

‘I'll write to Justin,' says Anastasia.

Sarah raises her hand. ‘Okay. I'll suggest it to Larry.'

Kate grins. Skye groans.

‘But we will only hand out leaflets,' Sarah continues, ‘without gruesome pictures. Just the facts.'

‘The facts are whales get their guts cut open,' says Hunter. ‘Why can't we show the truth?'

‘We'll tell the truth, not show. That's final.' Sarah looks at Kate. ‘Kate, you and Jesse are in charge of gathering all the information we need.' She sighs. ‘The rest of the class can design the leaflet and—'

‘Practise shouting!' suggests Hunter.

‘—workshop a way to approach people in the street that is courteous and friendly,' says Sarah.

Skye raises her hand.

‘Yes, Skye.'

‘I object.'

‘To what? Saving the whales?' interrupts Kate.

‘To spending valuable class time standing on a street corner, littering,' says Skye.

‘It's not littering,' answers Kate.

‘Yes, it is. People throw that stuff on the ground after pretending to read it.'

‘I'm happy to make everyone read it, Sarah,' suggests Hunter.

‘That's not necessary. We'll hand out the leaflets and hope that's enough. It is a democracy, after all,' says Sarah.

‘Not for the whales,' whispers Kate.

‘I'll pick up all the leaflets that get tossed away, Sarah. So we can recycle,' I offer.

‘Eeeewwww!' says Skye.

‘Enough!' says Sarah. ‘I'll ask Larry what the school policy is on—'

‘Picking rubbish off the ground,' interrupts Skye.

‘—on such excursions,' says Sarah.

At lunchtime, I'm sitting under the wattle tree watching the kindy children play hide-and-seek. Paisley Newbould hides behind a pole and closes her eyes. She thinks if she can't see anyone, they can't see her. She's caught immediately by Rain Barker, who dances around Paisley and giggles saying, ‘Gotcha, gotcha'. Paisley keeps her eyes shut and ignores Rain. Rain stops dancing and stares at Paisley.

For a minute, all is silent.

Then Rain carefully presses a finger into Paisley's eye and lifts her eyelid.

‘Gotcha,' she shouts.

Paisley slaps her hand away. Rain's bottom lip starts to quiver. Paisley yells, ‘You poked me!'

‘Did not!' says Rain.

‘Did too!' shouts Paisley.

I know where this is heading, so I pick up my lunch box and walk away. I should help the kids settle their problem, but the last time I tried to help I ended up on detention for smoking. I walk behind Edith, out of sight of the kindy kids, and sit on the bench seat against the mudbrick wall. Kate sees me and walks across to sit down.

‘We did it, Jesse,' she smiles. ‘Larry came up to me a minute ago and said the teachers had approved our excursion.'

‘No gory pictures,' I say.

‘Hunter will be disappointed,' she says. ‘Do you want to come over tonight, to help me get the information Sarah wants?'

‘Sure,' I say. ‘If I'm allowed.'

‘It's for a good cause,' says Kate.

‘My family has had enough good causes lately,' I say, thinking of Kelifa and our new family budget.

23

HUNTER

‘Smoking stinks,' says Hunter.

Les leans back on his scooter, his eyes wide and smiling.

‘Don't tell me you tried.' He laughs.

‘I couldn't find a pipe,' Hunter says, ‘so I borrowed a cigarette from a senior boy.' Hunter stares across the park to the creek, remembering Jesse discovering him. How he tried to make it look cool, worried that Jesse would see him coughing.

‘Why would you want to be like me?' Les says. He reaches for his pipe, then thinks better of lighting up, grumbling to himself as he stuffs it back into his pocket.

Hunter leans down for his schoolbag and stands, ready to leave.

‘Wait on, young man.' Les grips the handlebars of his scooter. ‘I wanted to apologise,' he says, ‘for the other day, trying to get you to say …'

Hunter shrugs. ‘It's what adults do.'

The old man smiles. ‘You're smarter than you seem, young man.'

‘Ha!'

‘What?' asks Les.

Hunter looks at his shoelaces, not sure how to express what he's thinking.

‘The easiest way is to start at the beginning,' says Les, his voice unusually quiet.

‘At school, they think I'm stupid,' Hunter says. ‘But today, I managed to arrange that everyone misses out on a whole day of schoolwork.' Hunter laughs, thinking back to how the whole class, except Skye, raised their hand when he led them. A day away from lessons, just hanging out in the city. Too easy.

Hunter and Les watch as the woman and her trainer jog into the park. The woman has a new haircut that bounces as she runs. Hunter notices she's also wearing lipstick. For exercise? She watches the trainer closely and smiles whenever he looks at her. They do a circuit of the park before stopping for a drink at the fountain. The trainer turns on the tap for the woman.

Les steers his scooter closer to Hunter. He holds out his hand. ‘Help me out of this thing, will you.'

Hunter steps forward and lets Les grip him by the arm, taking the old man's weight as he pulls himself from the scooter.

‘To the bench seat, if you can,' Les says.

Hunter shuffles beside Les. He notices the veins on the old man's hands. Les's breath sounds hollow, like wind whistling through a metal drain. When they get to the seat, Les steadies himself before sitting. ‘I should buy a walking stick,' he says.

Hunter sits down beside the old man and waits, wondering why he bothered moving from the padded seat of the scooter. The old man leans away from Hunter and pokes him in the ribs.

‘No sitting for you,' Les says, tilting his head toward the scooter.

‘What?' asks Hunter.

‘Can you ride my scooter?' Les asks. ‘I want to see how foolish I look trundling around the suburb.'

Hunter smiles. Secretly, he's wondered how fast the scooter would go. He walks toward the scooter and slides easily behind the seat, resting his feet on the platform. He looks down at the handlebars. A key dangles in the ignition. One turn and he's away.

‘The accelerator is on the right handle grip. Twist it toward yourself. The brake is near your right foot.'

Hunter turns the key. The electric motor starts, barely making a noise. He grips the handlebar and feels the hard rubber of the accelerator. Carefully, he rotates his hand and the scooter springs to life, faster than he expected. Hunter grips tighter with his left hand and releases the accelerator with his right.
The scooter slows immediately. He looks down at the
platform, eyeing the brake. He presses his foot on the pedal and the scooter stops. A tin of dog food rattles in the basket.

‘Go on,' calls Les. ‘I'll time you. One lap of the park. And no cutting corners.'

Hunter looks at the old man and grins. Les holds up his right arm, looking at his wristwatch. ‘On the count of three. One, two …' Hunter grips the handlebars and leans forward. ‘Three!' He pulls quickly on the accelerator and feels himself being pushed back in the seat. He concentrates on steering along the concrete path, on the lookout for mothers with prams and wandering dogs. He releases the accelerator when he reaches the far corner, smiling to himself. It's like riding a bike, only without the effort. The tin of dog food bounces in the basket when he veers off the path to pass a woman power walking.

He can hear the old man laughing from across the grass. Fifty metres to the finish line. He pulls back as far as he can on the accelerator, wishing the machine had a speedo. He leans down behind the handlebars and the grass is a blur beside the path. As he crosses the imaginary line, the old man whoops and Hunter holds up one hand in triumph. He puts his foot on the brake pedal and slows, steering toward Les on the bench seat.

Hunter turns the scooter off and looks at the old man. Both of them are grinning. He reluctantly slides out from the padded seat.

‘It's—'

‘More fun than you expected,' Les says.

Hunter nods.

The old man grips the edge of the bench seat and pulls himself upright. Hunter reaches toward him. The old man shakes his head. ‘No thanks, Hunter. I can make it this far,' says Les as he takes the few steps to the scooter and slowly pulls himself aboard.

‘You weren't worried about how you looked,' says Hunter. ‘You just wanted to give me a ride, didn't you?'

The old man turns the ignition key and settles back in the seat. He winks.

‘Better get the food home for Deefer. Don't want him to starve.'

Hunter sits on the bench seat and watches the old man trundle away. The fingers of his right hand twitch, as if they're still gripping the accelerator.