Dash and Dingo (12 page)

They hopped on board another tram, this time their destination was the beachside suburb of St Kilda. “Worst bloody football team in the league,”

Dingo sneered, and Henry pretended that he understood what he was talking about.

St Kilda Beach was a bit of a disappointment after all Henry had read about Australian beaches. The sand felt like crushed egg shells and was more grit than sand. Too much like an English beach. Dingo told him that the best beaches were found further down south and on the west coast nineteen hundred miles across the border. Despite the heat of the day, neither decided to go for a dip, and instead they bought ice cream from a local store in order to cool down.

Henry was surprised by how much he felt
alive
in Melbourne. He loved London, but there was something to the character of this strange city—how foreign, and yet how familiar, it seemed! He felt comfortable here, although that could have had a lot to do with the man walking by his side. Dingo seemed to have the ability to put him at ease like no other person ever had.

Although they were really only at the beginning of their adventure, Henry didn’t even want to think about what would happen once he had to return to England. He was already feeling that he couldn’t go back to that cloistered, sheltered life he had been resigned to back home, not when a new world had been opened up for him.

Dingo suddenly took him by the arm, and Henry protested when the creamy remains of his chocolate ice went flying into the sand.

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“Down here,” Dingo instructed, steering him toward an underground pedestrian walkway that led from the beach to the main road.

“What are you doing?” Henry asked.

“I swear I just saw Hodges following us,” Dingo said shortly.

“That man from the airport?”

“One and the same.”

“But what is he doing here?”

“Are you not listening to me, Dash? As I said, he’s
following
us.”

“But why?”

“Just keeping dibs on us, probably trying to figure out when we’re setting off for Tassie.”

Henry felt that if they were being followed, seeking refuge in a small tunnel with only one possible exit was probably not the wisest thing. But he felt it prudent not to bring this up with Dingo and at least trust that the man had some alternative course of action.

“When I say so,” Dingo muttered, still gripping Henry’s elbow, “run.”

Henry didn’t like the sound of that but readied himself.

Dingo looked back behind them. Henry did so as well but couldn’t make anything out. There were a few other people using the tunnel from both directions, but they were little more than silhouettes due to the fact that the sunlight behind them rendered them so.

“Run!” Dingo commanded.

Henry took off without a second thought; there was really only one direction he could go. He could hear and sense Dingo behind him, their footfalls echoing heavily in the confined space. Henry collided with someone walking in the opposite direction and called out his apologies but felt Dingo shove him in the back to keep him moving.

They burst out back into the light, and Henry felt dizzy at the sudden sensory overload. Dingo grabbed him once more by the elbow, and Henry ran blindly. His eyes gradually adjusted again, and he became aware that they were racing for a tram that was just closing its doors.

Dingo banged upon the door, and the driver opened up for him. Both men jumped on, and the doors immediately closed behind them. The tram shuddered and accelerated away from the stop just as Hodges banged upon

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the doors to try and get on. This time, the driver ignored it as they were already in motion.

“That was close,” Henry said as they showed their tickets to the inspector.

“It’s not over yet,” Dingo said, pointing out the window to where Hodges was trotting resolutely a short distance behind the tram. “He’ll catch up at the next stop.”

Henry didn’t even understand why they were running from Hodges; it hadn’t seemed like Dingo had been scared of him before. Then he realized that Dingo was enjoying this and was treating it like a game. All to get the better of the other man and keep him four steps behind whatever Dingo’s plan was.

There was a huge grin playing upon Dingo’s lips as he looked up at the tram tracks ahead. “Come on.”

Henry followed him up the aisle to where the second set of doors sat in the middle of the tram. As was the nature of trams, there were doors on both sides with one set disabled, depending upon which side of the tracks the passengers would enter and exit.

“What are you doing?” Henry asked, already knowing he wasn’t going to like the answer.

“We’re getting off.”

Henry assumed that he didn’t mean the traditional way. That would be far too tame for Dingo. The tram was beginning to slow as it reached the next stop, and Hodges was going to make it. As the tram rattled to a stop, Henry pushed the doors open and peered down the track.

“When I tell you to, jump. Grab the left handle, and I’ll grab the right,”

Dingo instructed.

Henry saw a tram coming toward them from the opposite direction and realized what Dingo wanted them to do. “You have to be joking!”

“Nope,” Dingo said maddeningly.

“This is stupid!” Henry cried. “He knows where we’re going to end up at the end of the day! At your parents’ house! Why bother?”

Dingo shrugged. “Because it’ll piss him off.”

Henry knew this was mad, but Dingo was determined to do it. And even though he didn’t feel threatened by Hodges one bit as nobody else seemed to

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take him that seriously, Henry still didn’t want to remain on the tram and have to talk to him or even acknowledge his presence.

“Ready?” Dingo asked.

“No!”

“I thought you said you trusted me?”

“I didn’t know it would involve stupid stunts like this!”

“Live a little, Dash! One…. two….”

Hodges, panting, clambered up the steps to the doors at the opposite end of the tram and immediately began searching for them. Henry could see the glint in his eyes as Hodges spotted his quarry in the middle of the vehicle.

“Three!” Dingo bellowed.

As the tram shuddered past them, the two men leaped through the air in the incredibly narrow space between the two vehicles. Henry immediately grabbed the door handle on the left, which was the only thing keeping him balanced on the small inch of foot space available on the closed door. Dingo, however, was not so lucky. His feet skidded out from under him, and he was left hanging on the right side handle. He kicked his feet up so they would stay off the rapidly moving ground below them and scrambled up to find his footing. Henry reached out with his right hand and steadied him as he found sure ground to support himself. Dingo threw him an appreciative look and then whooped with delight as he turned back to see Hodges’s irate face pressed against the window on the other tram, disappearing in the distance.

“What now?” Henry yelled above the sound of the wind and the

machinery.

“We go home,” Dingo said, using his left hand to pry open the door.

The two men fell into the tram, landing awkwardly against the stairs. They lay there for a moment, stunned, and then began to laugh at the fact that they had actually survived the crazy thing they had just done.

“I told you to trust me,” Dingo panted, patting Henry’s shoulder.

“I must be crazier than you are,” Henry replied.

Dingo’s hand rested upon his shoulder, and the man was staring at him intensely. Henry didn’t know what to say, but the tram began slowing, and the jerk caused them both to fall back against the stairs again. Dingo’s hand fell away as he reached for the rail to support himself.

A conductor was racing down the aisle toward them at the same time the driver’s door banged open, and the furious-looking driver came barreling

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down the aisle from the other direction. “What the hell are you two pork chops playing at?”

“You could have been killed!” yelled the conductor. “Bloody idiots!”

Mortified at this public spectacle, Henry staggered to his feet and stood behind Dingo.

However, the driver’s face changed at the sight of Henry’s companion.

“Dingo!” He turned to the conductor. “It’s okay, I know them. Well, this fool at least.”

“Rick, mate, how are you?” Dingo leaned in and pumped the other man’s hand furiously as the conductor made his way back to his stool and continued glowering at them.

“Do you know everybody in this bloody city?” Henry asked irritably, not liking the level of familiarity between the two men.

“We’re old friends,” Dingo said smoothly. “Good thing we landed on your tram, huh, Ricky?”

Ricky jerked his head and winked, grinning broadly. “I’m sure you have friends wherever you land, right, Dingo?”

The two men continued to talk to each other as Dingo accompanied the driver back to his squab, and Henry moved away to take a seat, retrieve his handkerchief from his pocket, and mop his brow. The adrenaline that had been pumping through his veins had rapidly subsided, and he was now left with a strange feeling akin to jealousy.

Henry knew he had to stop feeling this way, but he couldn’t help it. He stared out the window and longed for their quick return to Carlton.

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The roar emanating from the front yard alerted Henry to the fact that Dingo’s brothers had converged on the old family manse, although he would have thought that two men and their wives weren’t capable of making such a din. Of course, Dingo
was
down there to greet them, along with his dad.

“Dash! Get yer bloomin’ arse down here!” Dingo bawled from the foot of the stairs. “We’ll be out back!”

Henry grinned as he tossed his book aside, speculating that the quiet was finished for the night. He didn’t realize how right he was as he made his way down the stairs.

Helen greeted him in the kitchen, where she was piling great slabs of raw meat onto a tray. “Dash, dear, go right on out there. And please bring this out to Henry.” She smiled at him as she hefted the tray and thrust it into his hands.

He gasped, almost dropping it in surprise at the weight. Helen handled it as if it were a featherweight, whereas it must have been at least twenty pounds.

“Off with you then, Dash. The children will be getting hungry,” Helen said with a doting smile.

Somehow Henry knew the smile was for her grandchildren and not for him. While Helen turned back to her preparations, Henry nudged the screened door open with his hip, wincing at the cacophony that struck his ears.

Shrieks of gleeful joy echoed from where Dingo was walking, albeit with great difficulty as he had a little carbon copy of himself clinging to each leg. Henry marveled at how much the boys bore the family resemblance, as if they had sprung from one of the brother’s loins fully formed, with no assistance from a woman.

Dingo was growling, Baz was howling with laughter at something his father had said, and another man, his face bearing the inimitable Chambers

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stamp, was shouting something at the boys who held Dingo captive. Henry deduced that he must be Johnno. Two young women were conversing excitedly, their voices shrill to be heard over the noise.

To Henry, used to the quiet decorum of his own family gatherings, it felt as if the yard were crowded with people, all of them yelling and laughing at once. For a man used to reserved politeness, it was mayhem, and yet Henry felt more at home than he’d ever been with his own parents and brother.

Dutifully he made his way to the older Henry and yelled into his ear,

“Helen sent this out for you!”

“Righto then, Dash. Set ’er down round about there,” Hank answered, pointing vaguely at the rock ring that now encircled a briskly snapping fire.

“Coals aren’t ready yet. Women know nothing about roasting meat outdoors.

Lost without a stove, they are.”

“You must be Dash. Johnno here. Pleased to meet you.” Johnno waited for Henry to set his burden down and pumped his hand vigorously. “My boys, Jack and Baz,” he said, waving a hand toward Dingo and his riders.

“Isn’t it confusing to name them after your brothers?” Henry asked.

“Why, who
else
would I name them after?” Johnno roared with laughter. “Besides, Dingo never answers to Jack unless dad is reading him the riot act, and we don’t live near enough Baz for it to matter three days out of seven. Watch this.” He turned his head, put his hands to his mouth, and yelled, “Baz, on the double!”

Henry snickered as Johnno’s son and brother both blithely ignored his summons.

“See? Don’t make any difference,” Johnno said proudly. “They’re all a proper bunch of varmints. Won’t get tamed down ’til some woman catches hold of them.”

Henry winced slightly at the thought, even while noticing the two young women eyeing him with interest. “I should go and introduce myself—”

“Lori Lou! Margot! This here’s Dingo’s mate, Dash!”