Bookmark Days (13 page)

‘Why can’t we come too?’ Chooka wailed.

‘They’re trying to get
away
from you guys, Chooka,’ Mum growled. ‘Can’t you take a hint?’

Chooka pretended to cry. ‘Nobody loves us, Nam. Let’s get out of here.’

Naomi crossed her arms and looked down her nose at us. They both huffed and strutted back inside.

‘Watch out for Joe Blakes,’ Mum said. ‘And no fighting each other.’

Katie laughed. ‘We won’t.’

‘Which direction are you going?’ Mum asked.

‘Oh, probably out towards the creek,’ I said.

I kept a smile on my face as we headed for the gate but I was glad no one could hear me breathing. I sounded as though I’d sprinted ten kilometres. My heart was galloping along. I wasn’t strictly lying but I wasn’t telling Mum everything, either. We
were
getting away from the little kids. We
were
taking advantage of the good weather to get out in the country and lie down under the stars. The only detail we’d omitted was that there were two guys out there somewhere, waiting for us.

‘Who is Joe Blakes? Did you tell your mum what was really going on tonight?’ Katie asked.

‘Not exactly,’ I said. ‘Joe Blake is rhyming slang for snake.’

She chuckled. ‘That makes sense. I thought maybe he was a child sex offender or something and your mum was making sure we stayed away from the paddock where he lives.’

‘Your head works in mysterious ways, girl.’

‘Tell me about it,’ she groaned.

The sun had set but the sky was still bright when we made it to the boundary. We took the bridles and saddles off the horses and let them graze. We piled all our gear beside an old rivergum and silently followed the creek to the Carringtons’ fence.

‘Where are they?’ Katie whispered, her breath all sweet and chocolatey.

‘Where’s mine?’ I demanded, and held out my hand.

She grudgingly broke me a line of chocolate and I stuffed the whole thing in my gob at once.

She snickered. ‘Go easy. There’s a limited supply, remember.’

My mouth gummed up and I chomped and slurped aloud.

Katie frowned. ‘I didn’t realise your place had such a problem with feral pigs!’

I swallowed hard. ‘There’s only one.’

I heard an engine. Katie – eyes agog – grabbed my sleeve and did a little dance then dragged me behind a gum.

‘Are you ready for this?’ she whispered.

‘I’m dying here!’

We peered around the tree and watched the four-wheeler pick its way down the bank to a grassy flat beside the creek on the other side of the fence. There only appeared to be one person on the bike but when it stopped I heard voices.

I realised I hadn’t packed toilet paper. I realised I’d had my hat on all day and would certainly have hat hair. I realised that without Katie, I would have been running by now – running for the horse and galloping wee-wee-wee-wee all the way home.

Katie stepped out from behind the tree. ‘Hi!’ she bellowed.

‘Katie!’ I whispered, but it was too late.

‘Hello, neighbour!’ Nathaniel replied.

I jogged to catch up and we all met at the fence. I hid behind Katie but she moved to the side and left me stranded, hanging there in full view of the boys on the other side of the wire.

We stood there awkward and speechless for three of the longest seconds of my life, checking each other out. Jacob was certainly as handsome as Nathaniel – but he was pint-sized like a jockey. The top of his head came up to Nathaniel’s armpit. He looked as though he’d been built with the same attention to detail that Nathaniel had but he was the extra-small to Nathaniel’s large.

‘Oh, sorry,’ Nathaniel said. ‘Katie, Avril, this is my mate Jacob. Jake meet Avril and Katie.’

Jacob had a killer smile. Even with my attention so wrapped around the guy next to him, I could still sense his smile. He reached through the fence and Katie shook his hand. I followed suit. It was a warm, full-handed country shake. His cuff button got caught on the wire and the twang it made as he pulled free made us laugh.

‘Where’s your stuff?’ Nathaniel asked. ‘Are you staying?’

‘Yeah!’ Katie said.

Not
Well, we might
, or even
If it’s okay with you guys
, just
Yeah!
I’d forgotten the toilet paper and I’d also forgotten to tape Katie’s mouth shut. Nathaniel and Jacob laughed.

‘Cool,’ Jacob said. ‘Where we setting up camp?’

And then the silence got really awkward as we all realised we were about to discuss sleeping arrangements. It was very early in the evening to be considering such things for the first time in my life.

‘There’s already a firepit here,’ Nathaniel said. ‘Plenty of room to roll out the swags on the grass. Have you guys got a tent or what?’

‘Swags,’ I said. My voice squeaked and I coughed to cover it.

‘Reckon you could still sleep if they were on this side of the fence?’ Nathaniel asked.

‘Fine by me,’ I said.

‘Yeah!’ Katie said again.

‘Cool,’ Jacob said, and wandered off to get their gear from the bike.

‘We’ll call that a plan then, hey?’

‘Yeah!’ Katie said, once more, and she took me by the sleeve and dragged me back towards the creek. When we were out of view and earshot, she did a little dance.

‘God, he’s soooo CUTE!’

‘Shhhh!’

She covered her mouth then spoke into her fingers. ‘He’s so little! He’s got the cutest smile and that curly hair and those eyes. My god, did you see his eyes?’

‘Calm down, Katie! You’re drooling.’

She wiped her chin. ‘Sorry, sorry.’

We dropped our gear on the other side of the fence and I scrambled over, using a post as my ladder. Katie tried to climb the fence but got wobbly and bailed out still on our side. Rather than try again she went hunting for a spot to get under. She walked way down towards the creek and got onto all fours. I carried all I could to the place where the boys had dumped their gear and when I turned around again Katie was still lying on the grass.

‘Help!’ came her muffled voice. ‘I’m stuck. Can somebody help me?’

‘I’ll go,’ Jacob said.

He practically
sprinted
to her rescue.

Nathaniel looked over at me and shook his head. ‘My hero,’ he said.

Jacob offered his hand when Katie was free from the wire. She took it and held on a little longer than she should have.

There was plenty of firewood beneath the trees along the creek; big old rivergum limbs that I knew would burn well into the night. We collected a pile almost as tall as Jacob and the busyness eased my nervous blood pressure. One by one we flopped onto our rolled swags in a semi-circle around Nathaniel and his packet of matches. Soon, a bright, fragrant fire was popping and spitting in the shallow pit. I surrendered to its hypnotic flicker. It was quiet for a few minutes – I could hear the creek and the motorbike engine ticking as it cooled – and I realised when I dragged my eyes from the fire that the others were also lost in its glow. The air was perfectly still and the smoke rose in a lazy column, straight up to a sky that had exploded with stars since I last looked.

‘Whoah,’ Katie said. She was looking at the heavens now, too. ‘This is what I miss most when I go home.’

‘Pretty amazing, hey?’ Nathaniel said.

‘Where’s home?’ Jacob asked.

‘We live in Pentland. Suburb of Melbourne.’

‘Oh yeah. I know Pentland,’ said Jacob.

‘You do?’

‘Yes. I lived with my Dad for a while in Candon.’

Katie laughed. ‘Seriously? Where?’

Jacob began to explain, but then I was distracted by movement beside me.

Nathaniel was sliding his rolled swag closer to mine. I dragged mine across so they touched and we sat next to each other with the barest air gap between us.

‘They seem to have hit it off,’ he whispered.

‘Yes, a little too well if you ask me.’

‘Too well?’

‘He doesn’t know what she’s capable of.’

‘You don’t need to worry about that,’ he breathed.

I huffed a laugh. ‘
You
don’t know what she’s capable of.’

He looked me right in the eyes. ‘You don’t need to worry about that,’ he mumbled. ‘Trust me.’

I didn’t really have a choice in the matter, anyway. My heart wasn’t banging away in my chest at the thought of Katie with Jacob. If my thought energy had colour, it would only be a trickle of orange snaking away to those guys. It would be a trail of yellow curling into the night sky where my eyes were resting and a raging inferno of gold and silver and purple and red hooked out and around Nathaniel. I could smell him – all warm and salty over my own perfume of horse and sweat and canvas. I wanted to dive into his sweet scent and swim around in there and never come up for any other air.

I looked over and he was smiling at me. ‘What?’ I asked.

‘Thanks,’ he said.

‘For what?’

‘For ignoring my family and their stupid ideas. For being you. For coming out here.’

I shrugged. ‘I should be the one thanking you. Same.’

He nodded. ‘Yes, you Stantons are certainly a weird mob. Not quite as weird as my grandad would have me think but . . .’

‘You haven’t seen anything yet,’ I said. ‘Wait till the moon comes up.’

‘Riiight,’ he chuckled, sliding away from me on his swag.

‘Actually, I’ve changed my mind,’ he said. ‘I’ll take my chances.’ He slid back hard and bumped me sideways. He grabbed my sleeve and sat me up. ‘Though I have to admit I’ll be running if your grandad turns up.’

I remembered how Hoppy had treated him when we’d met at the broken fence. It seemed like years before. As if Nathaniel was a different person. As if
I
was a different person. The only person who hadn’t changed was Hoppy. It suddenly dawned on me that except for the grandads, and maybe Nathaniel’s mum, the feud had burned itself out. Even Les Junior seemed to have come around.

‘Did you know that my grandmother and your grandmother are best friends?’

He scoffed. ‘No way. What gives you that idea?’

I leaned close. ‘It’s a secret and they’ll kill me if they find out I told you, but I caught them
sitting together
at the Show.’

‘
Sitting? Together?
What’s the world coming to when a Carrington can sit next to a Stanton and there is no bloodshed?’

‘I know! How crazy is that?’

He looked down his nose at me. ‘Are you serious?’

I nodded. ‘Your grandmother was there when my father was born.’

‘I’m shocked. Shocked and stunned. I thought they hated each other.’

I shook my head. ‘Big lie to keep the blokes off their backs.’

‘Nah. I can’t believe that. Not for a minute.’

I looked to the sky. ‘Believe what you want. I’m just telling you what I saw with my own eyes. What I felt with my own arms. I hugged her, you know.’

‘Who?’

‘The devil . . . I mean Marilyn. She’s lovely.’

‘That explains why she didn’t shoot you when you turned up in her kitchen the other day. I wondered about that. I thought maybe she’d had a change of heart when I told her that you’d saved my dad’s life.’

In the glow from the fire, his eyes looked serious.

‘I didn’t save anybody.’

He looked to the sky. ‘Believe what you want. I’m just telling you what I saw with my own eyes. What I felt with my own arms.’

I punched his thigh. It wasn’t hard but he made a scene.

‘Settle down over there,’ Katie said. ‘Some of us are trying to have a decent conversation.’

I told her to shut up.

She levelled a finger at me. ‘You watch your lip, young lady, or you’ll feel the heat of my hand again. Okay?’

‘Again?’ Nathaniel said.

‘We had a bit of a scrap the other day,’ I said.

‘A fight?’

‘Yep,’ Katie said. ‘Beat the crap out of her, I did.’

‘Who beat the crap out of who?’ I sneered.

She got to her feet. ‘Who bled all over the place?’

‘Really?’ Nathaniel squeaked.

‘Oh, bleeding is nothing,’ I said, standing. ‘Who was crying like a little baby?’

Jacob started a slow clap. ‘Fight . . . fight . . . fight . . .’

She was playing, I was almost sure of it, but then the shadowy glow on her face made me doubt it for a moment.

‘Nathaniel!’ a voice said. It was barely more than a growl from beyond the firelight. We’d all heard it, clear as anything. The hair prickled on my neck. The boys got to their feet.

‘Grandad?’ Nathaniel said. He squinted into the shadows and a form appeared.

It was Les Senior. He stood there with his fists on his hips and I couldn’t have felt more frightened if he was a zombie from hell come to suck my brains out.

‘Party’s over,’ he said. ‘Get on the bike. You’re coming home.’

‘But . . .’ Nathaniel said.

‘NOW!’

We jumped. Les Carrington Senior knew how to shatter silence. Nathaniel and Jacob began collecting their gear.

‘As for you two harlots, get back to your side of the fence and stay there. You’re trespassing. Get!’

Katie grabbed her swag. She ran and stumbled towards the fence.

‘Sorry,’ Nathaniel whispered. ‘I’m so sorry, Avril. I really am.’

A switch flicked. One minute I was so scared I wanted to run with Katie and never come back, the next I could see the old man as the bully he was. All of a sudden my fear turned to rage. A bright, hot fire fuelled by the tinder-dry piles of unfairness and cruelty I’d collected. I turned, but I didn’t run. I strode right up to the man and shouted in his face.

‘Why don’t you get over it! Whatever your problem is, it has nothing to do with us. Nothing! Should lock you and Hoppy in a room. Make you sort it out once and for all.’

‘You have no idea what you’re talking about,’ Les snarled.

‘You got that right. Nobody does. It’s such a big secret. Why don’t you tell us? Come on; tell us now what this stupid fight is all about. Right now!’

My head exploded. I was on my knees before I realised he’d slapped me. Open hand, right across the cheek. For a moment I was deaf and blind with the shock of it. It hurt, but not as much as being hit by Katie. My skin burned. I got to my feet, holding my face. The old man was huffing, eyes wide and teeth bared. He didn’t seem scary at all then. He seemed pathetic.