The Keeper (9 page)

Mei

Is the place ever in an uproar. It's Gala Day and that's what it would look like to all the tourists and visitors but underneath the town's like a hot compost heap. Police cars are crawling everywhere. I thought we only had one. They've already been here, asking questions about Dev Eagle. The picture of Dev and Joel in the Sunday Mail has been blown up and it's posted everywhere, even on the rubbish bins. I don't feel like going down the street even though I can hear the band from here.

Dev's gone and so has Joel. It's like the end of the world. It seems Dev was a bad egg after all. Mrs Billings is so upset at being taken in. Apparently Dev's got a criminal record or something and the police think he's in with Joel's father who's only been out of jail for a week! I never knew those rumours about Joel's dad were true. I thought it was just Shawn and Prescott taking the mickey out of Joel.

It's been on the news every hour that Dev's wanted for questioning and has anyone seen a twelve-year-old boy answering to Joel's description.

It's just too bad. Joel's never had this much trouble before. And he liked Dev so much too.

22

Zoe's laughing. ‘Did you see that kid's face when he saw Scott?' We're in my secret place behind the boobialla shrubs. Rogue's Point. If we keep quiet no one will know. At least Mei's the only one I've ever shown it to. Zoe's stopped laughing as though nothing had been funny at all. ‘His face was priceless, though.'

I hadn't seen Shawn's face. Now I know Skinhead is Scott. Scott.
You're in with Scott,
Zoe had shouted at Dev that night.
One happy family
, Scott had said. My head feels like it's a ten-pin bowling ball.

I have to ask but knowing me it won't come out right. ‘Why didn't you say? Are you really my mother?'

Zoe gives this huge sigh. It even shudders on the way out. ‘I'm sorry, Joel? I wanted to tell you . . .'

‘But – you're too young . . .' That's what I said to Dev first too. I wish I could explain what I mean.

‘You're right there, matey. Imagine how old I was twelve years ago? I was only three years older than you.'

Jumping dolphins. That
is
young. For having kids. ‘So Gran took me?'

‘I tried for a while – until you were three.' She sighs again. ‘Until Scott took you away, trying to get money out of Mum and Dad.'

‘Gran and Grandad?'

She nods. ‘When you're on drugs you do things you wouldn't do otherwise, and Scott – well, he could get hot and angry even without drugs. On the stuff he went crazy . . .'

‘Why didn't you say?' All of a sudden it's like an anchor coming up, too fast, hitting me between the eyes. Here is my mother at last, a scenario I've never thought about – funny, I've only ever thought about having a dad. Maybe that's because of Gran. And as I sit here looking at Zoe, I realise something. I realise I don't feel a thing. Not the things you'd think you would. Nothing to show me that Zoe is my mum. Guess I raced to help her, but I would've done that for Mei. Even Shawn had worked with me against a common enemy. Common enemy – that's another thing – can't think about that yet. But shouldn't you feel something for your real dad too? This is making me edgy. I have to be careful – the noise will come – my head's buzzing already, but I can't let it drop. I ask again.

‘Why?'

‘I was waiting for a better time? We didn't always get along, you and me . . .'

‘That's because I didn't know. You should've said.'

‘Yeah. That's what Dev Eagle said.'

‘Dev?' And suddenly I understand. Some of it anyway.
I'm in the way
, Dev said. I can hear the dreaded galloping in the distance. Not here, I can't lose it in here. But I can never help it . . . ‘Dev knew, didn't he?' The galloping is getting louder.
Leave it, Joel, think of something else
. But I can't let it drop. I want to know. The herd's starting to thump like a black metal band. Please, not now.

‘Is that why he went?'

Zoe's voice comes thinly through the dust and noise. ‘I'm sorry, Joel. But I couldn't compete with him. He was all you thought of. He was like an obsession . . .'

‘But it's different—' I raise my voice above the galloping. Am I shouting? Zoe's staring. I'll be heard from outside but I can't stop. ‘You should've said!'

Zoe doesn't touch me. Not like Ms Colby at school whenever I lose it, grabbing my arm and making me worse so that I'll hear all those swears come out of my mouth, turning everything upside down. No, Zoe's not like Ms Colby. Zoe whispers.

‘Gran said so too. I'm sorry, Joel. I made a botch of it all – coming back to see you . . .'

Weird, wouldn't have thought I'd hear a whisper above the clamour in my head but I do. Zoe sounds so sorry, it's like a delicate tool defusing a bomb about to explode. If she'd shouted, demanded respect, I would have known what to do, could've fought back, but this calmness gets me every time. I start taking deep breaths, slow ones.
It's all up here
, Dev would've said.
You can choose your feelings . . . change the tide. Think something different, Joel
.

‘Gran's my mum, you know.' It just bursts out all of a sudden; it sounds cruel. I don't really mean it to.

Zoe barely nods. If she's expecting something else she doesn't say. ‘That's cool.' Now she's smiling. ‘And I've got a uni course to do, to help keep kids off drugs and . . .‘ here she hesitates, ‘to help kids like you.'

That starts me bristling again. ‘What d'ya mean? Like
me
?'

Her words come back, soothing but with little question marks all the same. ‘You know? Easily distracted, fly off the handle? Have trouble learning? It must be difficult. All that stuff going on at once in your head? They can fix it now.' Zoe's still smiling. The horses are almost gone. Is this what she's talking about? The horses? How does she know?

‘It has its good points but.'

‘Like what?'

‘I saw you and Scott. Mei wouldn't have. Her head's always swept clean; she's never expecting anything coming.'

Zoe grins. ‘In cavemen days you would've been the clan protector. You'd be alert at the slightest noise. You'd stay alive—'

‘Shht!' I wave my hands at her to stop.

‘Just like Scott – he could hear every—' Then she hears it too: a rustle, a stone rolling outside on the rocks. Close by I hear the roar of a bike engine. It's one like Dev's but it won't be his. He'll be in Adelaide by now. The bike stops. So does the rustle in the shrubs. Just like always I can hear every detail. It's all in my head, even the sea leaping at the rocks, the seabirds crying, too many of them, flapping up and away. Is that important? Which sound should I listen to? It's always too hard to tell. Then Mei. Is that really
Me
i
? It's got to be all in my head. The horses are, aren't they? What if everything is?

That's when I hear Dev calling. I groan. Now I know it isn't true. Am I crazy? Is this what Zoe means about kids like me? But Mei's calling too now; Dev's saying it's okay.
Dev?
I crouch up as high as I can in the confines of the cave. Maybe I should go out there and check, but Zoe's holding my arm.

‘No! Joel, he might still be in with Scott? We don't know for sure.' I can't stand people hanging onto me when I want to do something. I'm inching to the mouth of the cave. But Zoe hangs on. She's not calm any more. She's hissing like a tyre going down after it's punctured.

‘Joel! Calm down! Listen! When Scott was talking about taking a boat down the coast, he'd have to have someone there. Don't you see? How would he arrange transport when we beached? He has to have someone in with him? Joel, don't go!'

I keep quiet and I feel Zoe's grip loosen. She's wrong. I know she is. Dev isn't what she thinks but what can I do? Dev's walking into a trap. Scott's out there somewhere, coming this way, if that's what the rustling is. I understand now what Scott wants me for, Zoe's made that painfully plain, but Dev's come back! You know what that means? It proves Zoe's wrong – about it all. Dev
does
want me. Now it's up to me to warn him.

I fling myself away from Zoe and burst out through the boobialla shrubs onto the rocks – right into the back of Scott.

Mei

Dev Eagle actually came back! And here, to me! Kept asking where Joel might have gone – the island, the ruins, any caves. He'd already been to the boatshed. Don't know why I never thought of it when the police came but when Dev mentioned caves I remembered the space we'd played in last holidays down at Rogue's Point. Not a real cave or everyone would know about it but we called it a cave. Behind those spiky bushes with the white flowers. Dev got a really weird look on his face when I mentioned Rogue's Point, like he was remembering something personal.

Dev said he'd had nothing to do with Joel disappearing – that he heard it over the air in the deli at Port Wakefield. He came straight back. But he can't go to the police yet. He reckons they'd just keep him for questioning and he wants to find Joel.

Then he was telling me if I didn't hear anything for two hours, to go to the police and tell them I saw him. I suddenly thought what Joel would do. I mean, good old Mei always sits close to home, doesn't do much that's exciting. I've had jack of it. And I told him I'd come too. He wasn't pleased, not until I said with no passenger he'd stick out like a red chilli in the middle of a dish of rice. With me he'd look just like the other bikers giving tourists rides.

He just fiddled with his goatee a moment, staring at me, and then he tipped his head at his bike and I knew it was on!

23

‘What the—?' When Scott swings round, the dangerous smile of before is replaced with something much more frightening. ‘You friggin' little brat. Where's Zoe? I knew you were somewhere.' Blood's already drying on his forehead and he reaches out to grab me. Oww! That hurts but I don't dare cause any trouble, not here on the rocks. At least Scott hasn't worked out where I came from exactly and even if he puts the heavy on me to tell him, I should be able to play for a bit of time. As long as Zoe stays put. I twist a bit, trying to see if Mei is really there. Scott's watching the road along the cliff, above my head, so he must have heard them too. Suddenly his tone changes, sort of wheedling. It's almost worse than his tiger smile. ‘I just came back so we could be a family again. I missed you while I was inside.'

I wipe off the sneer that's forming on my face. Maybe I would have fallen for crap like that a month ago, but not now, not since Dev. And then I see him. Dev, moving between rocks, behind Scott. How he manages it in those black boots I can't think, and maybe my eyes flicker my concern, for Scott suddenly narrows his gaze. He sure is sharp. He swings round as though he's had radar fitted. Dev's close then. I'm forgotten; Scott faces his adversary. Scott would see Dev as a worthwhile opponent. I mean, Dev looks truly mean, but I know I'll have to help. Dev's bigger but it's obvious who the better fighter's going to be and, when the crunch comes, would Dev even fight? And you know what else? I have no thought of ‘hey, Scott's my dad'. Scott's just a Skinhead, a threat to my world that needs taking care of . . .

Then all at once the whole world becomes as noisy as it gets inside my head sometimes. Mei's flying down the cliff, screeching.
Mei screeching?
I check again just to be sure. Zoe bursts out from the cave like spores from a powder puff, the joy-ride helicopter hovers low, scattering water onto the rocks, over my sneakers, blowing Scott back from Dev. The Gala Day loudspeaker is in the hands of the police: ‘Police. Do not move. I repeat . . .'

A police van I've never seen before arrives on top of the cliff, squealing rubber, with its siren blaring, and there's Mr Houser and Shawn looking very important, gesturing at Rogue's Point as policemen clamber down to the rocks.

Dev actually has Scott with his hands behind his back by the time I turn back to them. I never saw how he did it. Zoe's looking totally impressed and Dev grins at me.

‘So, mate. You all right?' That sounds so good, I can only nod. All that noise and stuff going on, it's even too much for me.

I don't get to say anything to Dev; the police take him with them. It's not until much later, round Gran's table, that we all get to talk. Dev had to be checked out.

‘I was clean, of course.' This with a wink at me.

Zoe manages to look embarrassed. Apparently Scott had jumped his parole and wasn't even supposed to leave Adelaide. ‘We won't be seeing him for a while,' Zoe informs us, sounding like someone who's rescued the Holy Grail from hellfire. It must be the absence of fear that makes her more relaxed than I've ever seen her. Not so many question marks.

Gran hasn't lost all the shadows behind her eyes though. I know her. She'll be thinking about the next time. But I'll be bigger then. No problem. I'll tell her later not to worry.

Zoe's talking to Dev, all apologetic. ‘You weren't in with Scott? You weren't a cop either?' Dev's shaking his head, smiling. ‘When I saw you front up to Scott I wondered, you know . . .'

I pricked up my ears. So did I wonder, actually. Would Dev have fought if he had to?

‘Would've you though? If you had to. Fight?' I've said it out loud.

Dev puts his coffee down. ‘When I was in Port Wakefield and I heard the news, mate, there was something I remembered about eagles.'

‘What's that?'

‘They don't turn tail and run. They fly into the storm. And revel in it. Once in a blue moon, I reckon, something's worth standing up for.' Yeah, I guess, in his own way, Dev has fought for me. And just maybe if that helicopter hadn't come . . .

‘I never knew Scott. Never even heard of your family before.' Dev looks straight at me as he says the next bit. He says it real slow. ‘I came here for purely personal reasons.'

He doesn't spell it out and I know it won't ever be spelt out but I feel it in the air between us like I can hold it, a warm and forever kind of tingle. Zoe and Gran do too, because they don't say another thing for a long time and all I can hear is the thump in my chest and the ticking of Grandad's clock.