Benworden (14 page)

That night I could see Bungles was really down. Normally he would be chatting away at dinner time but he sat there with his head in one hand and his fork in the other just poking at his food as if he was looking for something underneath it. Even Roo tried but couldn't get a smile out of him.

After dinner Bungles did what had been requested of him by Mr Gowdy and went straight to his room. What made things worse was that we were all feeling guilty. We had been allowed to stay up later due to the student-free day the following morning. I had never seen Bungles like this before and later that evening I went upstairs to check on him. I made a detour to my room before I went to his though because I wanted to get
something to cheer him up.

Once I got to his room I knocked gently and received a faint reply of “Come in.”

I didn't go all the way into his room; I stood in the doorway with one hand at head height leaning against the entry and the other hand just slightly behind my back so that I could keep my surprise out of view. “Hi Bungles,” I said. “How are you holding up, mate?”

Bungles was sitting on his bed with his head down looking at a mechanical magazine. I could see he wasn't really reading it. He answered, “Yeah, I'm ok I guess. Just sick of being laughed at and getting in trouble for being a clumsy fool.”

I looked at him with a frown and replied, “Mate, no one has ever taken you for a fool. Yes, you're clumsy at times and that's the Bungles we know and like, but hey, your marks at school are better than most of the kids in your class and you were picked for our club because no one else has your mechanical skills. The funny thing is, whenever you pick up a spanner or tool to work on something, I've never seen you hurt yourself or anyone else.

“Come to think of it, I've never seen you bungle anything when you're working on a mechanical project.”

Bungles lifted his head, screwed up the corner of his mouth which half closed his left eye, and said, “Hey, that's true, isn't it? I've never even given that a thought.”

I could see that this had perked him up a bit so I continued, “Well, isn't that the trouble with most of us, mate?”

“What's that, Dylan?” he replied.

Knowing I had now captured his curiosity, I continued. “We
all go looking for the negatives in life but we can find positives too if we look for them. When I came to your room and asked you how you were, your first answer was a negative one. Now let's ask the question again and you tell me something good about your day. How are you feeling, mate?”

Bungles looked at me if to say, “Are you for real?” But he gave it a go anyway and in a dull tone said, “Ok. Miss James praised me for getting my assignment in early and I couldn't believe it when Miss Fickle hugged me.”

I asked Bungles to tell me how it felt when he got praised by Miss James and he began by saying he felt lucky and how good it was. He was now on a roll and in the end I had to interrupt him as I had study I needed to do, but I could now see the old Bungles was on the road to recovery.

I interrupted by saying, “Anyway, seeing it's a pupil-free day tomorrow and I have study I need to catch up on, I was going to ask you to do me a favour.”

He had no hesitation in replying with, “Mate, you have really helped me tonight. What can I do for you?”

I explained that no one would be in the club rooms the next morning and that I had a new computer game I wanted to try out. I told him I hadn't had a chance to play it myself because I had been so busy with the club and assignments for school, so I was looking for someone to play through it for me and find the short cuts. I knew Bungles loved his games and a chance to try out a new one on the big screen in our leisure room was rare because it was always being used, so he was quick to reply, “You're not messing with me, right?”

“No. Why would I do that?” I said.

Bungles threw his magazine to the end of the bed and
jumped up and said, “So you're not messing with me?”

“No!” I said firmly.

“Ok, ok, just checking. That'd be great. No, better than great. That'd be great, great, great!” he said with a huge smile plastered across his face.

I took the surprise from behind my back and said, “Here. Catch,” and threw it to him.

Bungles caught it and his eyes lit up even more than I could've imagined. “You're kidding me!” he said. “Mars Bandits! I don't believe it! No one I know has played this yet!”

I took off up the hallway towards my room and all I could here in the distance was, “Unreal, cool, unbelievable, incredible.”

I smiled to myself knowing I had helped him out of his doldrums.

It was now 8.30pm and I had already caught up on some of my homework in the communal study room downstairs. It was compulsory for year 11 and 12 boarders to attend tutoring between the hours of seven and eight each evening after dinner. The school's committee was clever enough to write into the teacher's contracts that they would each need to spend a minimal amount of time at the boarding house helping students with their homework. The teachers were paid extra for their services and the money was covered by the fees that parents pay for boarding. Not one parent had ever complained about the additional fees as they knew the academic record of students who attend the boarding house speaks for itself. In fact, for the past seven years, the dux of the school had been a boarder at Benworden.

There were two other study rooms, one upstairs in the
middle of the boys' dormitory and one directly below it in the girls' dorm. During year 11 and my final year I found our study room invaluable and even though I love the outdoors, much of my time was spent either at the club house or in the study. The room itself was amazing, as the length and width of it could easily swallow two large lounge rooms. Its white ceiling with its crystal chandelier falling from a beautiful rose plaster mould sat on nine feet high walls that were painted dark green with a patterned wallpaper band of red and gold running through their centre.

Two of the walls had several original oil paintings on each of them and the furthest wall from the door had windows that started at the floor and stopped approximately three feet from the ceiling. At each side of them were crimson velvet curtains that were tied back with golden tassels, and these were chosen to complement the room's plush crimson carpet with its golden pattern running throughout.

As you entered there were six oxblood-coloured leather armchairs strategically placed around the walls for those who would just like to sit and read. In the centre of the room was a large oak oval table surrounded by ten smaller armchairs which were identical in character to the larger ones. Even their smaller buttons replicated those on the bigger chairs. A large glass plate had been cut to fit on the oak tabletop to prevent damage from pen marks or any other sharp objects being used or placed on it.

Sometimes on rainy days when I was missing home and feeling a little melancholy, I would come to this room when no one was around and just gaze out the window to the park, chapel and oval below. I'd shut my mind off to the problems of the day, then snuggle into one of the chairs and read. I think
some old habits don't die so easily and although I loved my newfound social life, I still enjoyed some solitary moments without the hassles of responsibility.

16

T
HE
C
AVE
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A
fter I left Bungles, I grabbed my books and went straight to the boys' study room. Although I had cleared my way through a reasonable amount of study I began to find it harder and harder to concentrate on my homework as I was still focusing on Mr Gowdy's plans for drilling in a week's time.

We had discussed sending Roo in to mess with the machinery but this would only be a temporary solution, so we decided to use that as a last resort. What we really needed was a permanent solution, so Geraldine and I asked all other members to see what ideas they could come up with and we would call a meeting and discuss these when possible. It was a difficult time for all of us and the worst thing was that Geraldine and I had two very big year 12 assignments to complete. This left us with just two days to put a plan into action. What we didn't know then was that Mr Gowdy had been constantly harassing the drilling company to get the job started and they had decided to get him off their backs by postponing another job and commencing the work at Benworden much earlier than scheduled.

Bungles was up bright and early that morning and had signed himself out of the boarding house for the day then headed out the door. Once the coast was clear he snuck back in and headed upstairs to my room.

“You're early,” I said, while opening my eyes to a mere squint.

“Yeah, sorry mate. I've been up nearly all night. Couldn't
sleep. I was just so keen to test the game out.”

I stood there rubbing my eyes with my fists and then sluggishly worked my way over to open the elevator for him. Bungles was so close behind me that when I stopped he slammed into the back of me, almost shoving me into it.

“Sorry, sorry!” he said apologetically as he worked his way past me and hopped in.

“That's all right, mate. Have a good day. But I honestly think you should get some sleep – you're looking very tired at the moment.”

It was about now that I needed that elevator door to close as a comment like that from the person who just woke you really doesn't sit well. I knew that sleep was out of the question now: back on the farm once you were up your day had begun and it wasn't until the evening that you could even contemplate going back to the warmth and comfort of your bed. It's very hard to get out of that routine.

The elevator door closed in the nick of time and I headed straight for the shower. Once I was dressed I went downstairs to get breakfast and I noticed Roo was sitting on his own with a concerned look on his face, so I grabbed my cereal and joined him.

“Morning Roo. What are you looking so stressed about?” I asked.

“Did you look out your window this morning, Dylan?” he replied.

“No mate. I could barely open my eyes so I wasn't going to open the drapes and completely blind myself. Why?” I asked.

Roo was now getting animated but kept his voice to a
whisper and said, “The drill, mate! The drill is out there and set up ready to go! What are we going to do? We need to act now!”

I thought about what he had said and remembered Geraldine making the comment a long time ago about how contracts are binding so I tried to put Roo's mind at ease by saying, “We've all seen the papers mate and it says late next week, not this week. They're probably setting up early to get Mr Gowdy off their back, that's all.”

Roo shook his head in disagreement and said, “No! I can tell you now, once a drill gets set up on site it's not long before drilling commences.”

I ended up convincing Roo that this was no ordinary bore drill that he was used to on the farm and that once documents were signed and an agreement was reached it was almost impossible to retract. What I didn't know was that Mr Gowdy had spoken to the contractor and the board about the project starting early and all parties had agreed. I had so many other things happening that I hadn't thought this situation through thoroughly. Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but the more I look at life the more I begin to understand that some things are meant to be and it's not in our power to prevent them.

Meanwhile, Bungles was in the club's recreation room and had set up his game and was headed for the kitchen area to make himself a hot chocolate. On his return he placed his chocolate on the coffee table next to the recliner, sat back, and triggered the footrest. Before he began to play, he sat there thinking how low he had felt the day before and about the things I had said to him.

Bungles began to understand just how good his life was and no matter what the future held for him he was going to take the
positives from it. Now that he had those deeper thoughts out of the way he was ready to commence his game and slipped on his ear phones and 3D glasses.

He was right into the game and having a great time when he fired his laser at a marauding Martian battleship and noticed small pieces of ceiling fall down in front of the big screen.

“WOW, these special effects are amazing!” he said.

Because of the game being in 3D he had no idea that bits of ceiling were actually breaking away until a piece hit him in the head.

“WOW!” he said, “That's incredible. I actually felt that!” He paused. “Hang on a minute, you can't feel 3D!” he said and whipped his glasses off and turned the TV to mute.

He could hear a faint rumbling sound and dust kept floating down from the ceiling. “OH CRAP. AN EARTHQUAKE!” he yelled, and in his haste to get out of the recliner he threw his feet forward as hard as he could to close the footrest. It didn't clip into place, however, and he found himself and the chair hurtling backwards. He ended up like an astronaut belted in for take-off and staring at the ceiling.