Danny Allen Was Here (14 page)

Sam slowly pulled the old gate, spinning and swaying, up into the branches. The pulley squeaked and Danny was reminded of images he’d seen on TV of huge cranes hauling girders to the top of city buildings under construction.

Sam peered down to see Danny and Vicki standing directly beneath the swinging gate.

‘Hey! You idiots!’ he yelled. ‘Stand back in case it falls.’ All good building sites should consider the safety of their workers.

‘We tied lots of good knots,’ Vicki called back.

‘I don’t care!’ Sam snapped. ‘Stand back because if it falls it’ll kill you.’

The thought of dying under a killer gate dropped from the sky made Vicki walk away very quickly. She ended up standing all the way back near the house.

Danny watched Sam struggle. The gate wasn’t heavy, but it was awkward. Sam couldn’t pull it into the tree by himself. He nearly fell out trying.

‘Come up and help me, Danny.’

Danny was happy to climb up and help.

Together, the boys quickly pulled it into position. They laid it across the forked branches and then tied it on with wire, small pieces of thin rope and a lot of nylon string. Sam checked all of Danny’s knots and once it was secure they sat on it for the first time.

‘This is brilliant!’ Danny said, looking in all directions.

The boys could see into the shed below where the old tractor sat silent. They looked through the leaves past the house to the panoramic view of dusty Mundowie and beyond.

Danny was looking north to the gentle roll of endless hills and the patchwork of crooked fences. Sam
was looking south to the big creek and the huge trees, their branches spattered with flocks of restless cockatoos.

Below them Vicki had moved to stand on a long piece of wood that Danny had placed on the top of the small pile of building materials. She was making it teeter like a seesaw.
Tra, la, la, la, dee, dah
.

Billy was chasing chickens and creating panic. Danny thought of Tippy and felt sad for only an instant because funny memories of Tippy pushed any sadness away. Danny smiled and fondly compared the chicken- chasing styles of the two dogs.

Tippy’s style had been more aggressive. He loved to bare his teeth, act tough and strut to show the chickens he was boss. And when he was finished he would run to Danny to have his ears ruffled and get his approving pat. ‘You little bully.’

Billy on the other hand was just silly. He didn’t look as though he wanted to take charge and didn’t seem interested in their food scraps either. Maybe that would come later as he grew, but for now he just liked to chase them. To him, chasing chickens was a game and he could play by himself, he didn’t need anyone else – the chickens had no choice but to join in.

Danny watched the little dog run at them again. The chickens huddled together in panic.

Pertakeeeerk. Cluuuuuck. Cluck, cluck, cluck.

Yap! Yap! Yap!
What a great game.

When Billy stopped yapping, Sam suddenly clutched Danny’s arm. ‘Look,’ he said, pointing toward the sound of a car roaring along the dusty road that dipped into the creek. Danny saw only swirling dust at first. Then he saw the car growl up out of the creek and into the town. The boys knew who it was and suddenly understood why their dad had been wildly angry. It was the man from the bank. Danny’s dad didn’t seem to like him very much.

The boys tracked the car all the way to the front fence.

Vicki stopped singing. Billy left the chickens and ran to greet the visitor.

The car pulled up and the dust it created drifted across the house. Through the haze the boys saw a leg in dark trousers and black shiny shoes appear at the bottom of the car door as it opened. The man stood up and stiffened his shoulders, then took a bag from the back of his car and walked up the pathway toward the house.

His name was Adolf, or at least that’s what Danny’s dad called him. Danny couldn’t understand why his dad didn’t like Adolf.

It was true, his black hair
was
a bit greasy and he didn’t like getting dust on his shoes, always giving his toes a little polish on the leg of his trousers just before he walked to the front door, but he seemed like a nice
man. He’d visited a lot in recent weeks and had given Danny, Sam and Vicki each a great moneybox. They were metal and modelled on the bank building in the city. Danny had hidden his under his bed behind his sleeping bag, basketball and boogie board. He was saving and already had seventeen dollars and fifty-five cents.

Adolf walked through the front yard. He shook a leg at Billy, who barked at his heels. The boys lost sight of him when he walked up the front steps and under the verandah.

‘I hope he doesn’t keep Dad talking all day,’ said Danny. ‘He’ll be even grumpier if he does.’

‘Forget all that,’ said Sam. ‘Let’s keep working.’

‘What do you want to do next?’ asked Danny.

Sam’s eyes lit up. ‘Let’s start the rope bridge.’

‘Yeah!’ Danny exclaimed. He leant over and peered down at Vicki. ‘We need a rope, Vicki.’

Vicki didn’t stop swaying on her little seesaw. ‘Why don’t you come and get one yourself.’

‘You won’t get first choice of the houses if you don’t help.’

Vicki stopped immediately. She looked up at Danny’s face peering down at her through the leaves and adjusted her giant gloves. ‘Yes I will!’ she said as she marched off to hunt for a rope. ‘Sam said.’

The boys climbed out of the tree and Sam set about
designing his bridge. He knew how the rope bridge should look, but just to be sure he had it clear in his mind, he drew a picture on a piece of white wood with one of his dad’s carpenter’s pencils.

Danny and Vicki watched over his shoulder.

‘I wish I could draw like that,’ said Danny, thinking aloud.

‘Can we build it now?’ asked Vicki, picking up a piece of timber.

‘Put that down,’ said Sam. ‘I’ll do it.’

‘But I have to help.’ Vicki pouted. ‘Or you won’t let me choose the best house.’

‘Will you shut up about the best house,’ said Sam, sorting through the timber. ‘You can have it, all right?’

Sam set to work. The pieces of wood he chose were the perfect size. Most of them were from a crate they broke apart with mad hammering. He laid them out on the ground so they looked just like a bridge. He wanted to be sure he had enough slats so that the gaps between them weren’t too wide. They all walked across it to test it.

Danny and Vicki held the wood while Sam drilled. He was the only one allowed to use the drill. Their dad had showed him how and had even stuck a little ‘L’ for ‘Learner’ on the top.

Sam made two holes at the end of each slat through which rope could be threaded and tied.

Vicki didn’t understand rope bridge construction. ‘Why are we drilling holes?’ she asked.

‘So we can thread rope through them, like threading beads,’ Sam answered.

‘Why?’

‘Because the slats . . .’

‘Slats? What are they?’

‘The pieces of wood you will walk on when you cross the bridge.’

‘Oh, them.’

‘Yes, they have to be all linked together otherwise when we hang it between the two trees it will all fall apart.’

Vicki still didn’t really understand, but she didn’t think she should ask another question. Sam was sounding grumpy.

‘Oh right,’ she nodded unconvincingly.

Sam made four holes in each slat, two at each end. There was a lot of drilling, but despite the noise their parents didn’t come outside. Occasionally, Danny spied his mum at the kitchen window. Vicki waved every time she saw her.

Once the holes were drilled Vicki was put in charge of threading rope through them. She was good at threading beads, so she thought she would be good at threading rope. She had a lot of trouble with the splinters and pushing the fat rope through the holes
though. The boys knew she was never going to finish it alone, but that didn’t matter. It kept her busy and out of their way while they finished constructing both tree houses.

Neither of the cubbies they built had walls. Both were basically just a platform in a tree. They didn’t really need walls. The leaves of the trees were thick enough curtains to hide them away. They hung hessian bags as a roof on the second house.

Vicki chose that one. She liked the roof. It was also the lower of the two and Sam convinced her that it was better not to be too high off the ground. He told her about falling and splitting her head open. Vicki had an image of her head exploding like a watermelon dropped from a great height – that’s how Sam had described the impact.

‘Oooh.’ She crinkled her nose in repulsion. ‘I could lose my brain.’

It was exciting to sit up in the cubbies. But by far the best part of the construction was the rope bridge. It was the middle of the afternoon when Sam finally finished the threading Vicki had started and secured the wooden slats with the knots he’d learnt in Scouts.

‘Now all we have to do,’ said Sam, scratching his head, ‘is to get it up into the tree.’

‘We can use the pulley to tug one end up, tie it on
and then do the same with the other end, can’t we?’ said Danny.

Sam patted him on the back. ‘Yeah.’ He grinned. ‘I suppose we can.’

And that’s what they did.

Hanging the bridge was awkward. Vicki stayed on the ground shouting useless instructions. ‘Up a bit . . . no over a bit . . . too far . . . it’s hanging too low, pull it up!’

The rope bridge, swinging with each tug of the pulley rope, was a wonderful sight as it rose slowly into the treetops. At first, when Sam had only secured one end, it hung like a huge rope ladder.

Danny helped pull the second side into place and had to use all his strength to stop it from falling while Sam tied it to the tree.

At first it looked crooked and unsafe.

Vicki didn’t like it. ‘I’m not walking across that,’ she said.

‘It’s not finished yet!’ snapped Sam. ‘It’s not tied on properly and I have to get the tension right.’

‘Tension? What’s tension?’

Sam shook his head, mumbled something and turned away without answering. He began adjusting ropes and knots.

He spent a long time securing both sides. He checked and double-checked his knots. The ropes he added for
holding on and keeping balance ran either side of the bridge at about hip height and looked a bit floppy, but overall it looked just as Danny had imagined it would.

Standing in the tree and looking across the bridge for the first time was exciting. Danny caught hold and made it sway a little.

The bridge wasn’t very long. There were only nine steps and each of them was evenly spaced. Sam had used his foot to measure the spaces.

When Sam finally tied the last rope to a branch using four fat knots in a bunch like a fist everyone was ready to walk across.

Vicki sat in her house and looked across at her brothers. She took hold of the rope bridge and swung it gently. She glanced down to the ground and felt dizzy. ‘Who’s going first?’ she called.

Billy was sitting beneath them looking up and tilting his head curiously.

Yap! Yap!

Vicki lay on her stomach and waved down to him. ‘Hey Billy boy,’ she sang.

Billy wagged his tail and then sat waiting.

So did Danny. ‘You should go first, Sam,’ he said. ‘You built it.’

Sam nodded. ‘Yeah, all right.’

He grasped the rope and tugged at it. ‘Feels good I reckon.’

He took his first tentative step. The bridge swayed.

‘Jeez! Careful!’ said Danny, grabbing at the bridge. ‘Try to keep it still.’

Sam bent his knees. ‘I am trying! Now will you shut up?’

Vicki watched with wide eyes. So did Danny and Billy.

Sam was concentrating. It was hard to keep the bridge steady. Everything swayed, no matter how hard Sam tried to keep it still.

He was on the fourth step when Billy barked and startled him. Sam jumped. The bridge swayed. Sam clung to the floppy side ropes, but they swung away from him. His arms were stretched wide apart. Despite his best attempts not to slip, using a lot of hip gyration and foot shuffling, he lost his balance. One leg was suddenly hanging below the bridge while the other was hooked around one of the steps. He was still clinging to the side rope. But only just.

‘Hang on, Sam!’ Vicki cried. ‘Don’t fall. Don’t fall. Your head will open up and you’ll lose your brain!’

‘Shut up!’

Danny took a step onto the bridge, which made it swing more. Sam yelled at him. ‘Get off! You’re making it worse.’

‘I was coming to help.’

‘Well don’t! I’m all right.’