They Told Me I Had to Write This (7 page)

And then it was time I started thinking of something different and so I just left it. Just like that I stopped thinking about it. I didn’t know I could do that. I think that was because Violet makes me think differently.

And then something really strange happened. I got this buzz inside and said, ‘Let’s go and do something that I’m thinking of.’ And she said, ‘What is it?’ And I said, A surprise.’ And we went back into the plaza to this store that sells chains with beads and little feathers and I spent my movie money on a bracelet with little glass beads in all different purpley colours. She said it was really sweet and when she said ‘sweet’ I got this buzz inside all over again as well as going off to Mars and getting red but I could still talk this time and I said I was glad she liked it and I called it the Ultra Violet Bracelet coz of the purple.

Gram, that is the smartest thing I said all day and it was the best Saturday. I can’t remember much because I keep thinking of the bracelet and how Violet said she liked it.

Got home and Dad was already there and so we cooked some tea together. Mostly he makes such a mess. I guess having to do that stuff at school camps has taught me something. Another triumph for Mrs H.

So that was my Saturday, Gram. I told Violet I would call her when my week slowed up coz I had bike racing on Sunday and then live-in for the two-day group camp.

We did the washing up together this time instead of me doing it all. Dad’s OK sometimes.

Ultra Clem signing out.

SUNDAY, JUNE 28
THE BIKE IS NOT MY FRIEND

Dear Gram

The race day was not good. I spilled coming down the gully and lost the final. Well, came in third and I was in front until then. The worst thing is that this really dangerous kid named Nick won the final. Nick is like Kryptonite and radioactive and if he is around I know things are not going to turn out good.

I even put on speed down the gully because of him, but there’s this tree root asleep across the track. Nick was behind me but still on my mind and the bike didn’t hop over the tree root like it normally does. So I went skittering down among the rocks.

‘You’re not my friend,’ I said to the bike.

Well that didn’t get me very far. And there was no help coming from the tree root. Or the gully. It’s just me against everything. Me against the track. Me against Nick and all the others. Even me against my own bike. When you’re on your own, you’re on your own.

Who put this stupid world together anyway? I could have won that race easy.

Clem.

WEDNESDAY, JULY 1
RAP-RUNNING

Dear Gram

Two-day group camp is over. Just the five of us with Mr Sykes. What a blast. It’s called the Ridgy Didge camp coz we went abseiling off the Ridgy Didge which is the biggest cliff around here. Group camp means no ferals like Bundy or Nick who can set me off, and not only me but everybody. Brian can be a feral sometimes, but at least he’s our own feral, ha ha. And I sure got him with that dog food tin. That was fun-city that was. Brian’s not all bad, but. It’s just that he works so hard at showing his worst side. Trouble is, his worst side is bigger than any other side of him, ha ha. I’m on a roll here.

Anyway, back to the camp. It’s Hamish and Pete and Jacko and me and Brian. We started the walk-in even before the sun was up and still Mrs H had us up getting a proper breakfast. Mrs H is like nobody else I tell you, doesn’t she ever sleep? We got up to the Ridgy Didge about lunch time and set up camp. Then we abseiled for the rest of the afternoon.

The Ridgy Didge is all tree roots and saplings at the top and is running wet from a continual soak. You can see nearly forever from the rocks up behind the cliff top, but we are there for the long look down, and for the ropes. It’s the hottest abseil site we’ve been to and everybody was a bit nervous that first afternoon. It sure had us steamed up looking down through those saplings. It takes a full seventy-five metre rope to get down, so we started out careful and took things slow and steady.

Between the saplings and the wet rock-face and the boggy mud at the bottom it sure made us concentrate. I suppose that’s why we finished that first day so worn out. And being worn out can make some people vulnerable, like what happened to Hamish.

We got a fire going and put the billy on and started to change our wet socks. Everyone was talking about the buzz of the abseiling and Hamish made this funny grunting noise that stopped us straight up. We looked around and he’s gone all white and staring into the ground. Actually, staring at his foot. His sock is bright red. A whole lot of it. And the blood is starting to flow up over his boot which he’s got half undone.

We all sat there staring and Mr Sykes said, ‘Let’s look at what you’ve got there.’ Hamish was starting to sag a bit. Mr Sykes slowly pulled off the boot. The sock was red with blood from top to toe. Mr Sykes tipped that boot up and more blood just ran from it. There must have been half a coke can of blood in there. Hamish started to fall forward and we had to hold him up. ‘Get him a cup of tea, somebody,’ said Mr Sykes. ‘Hamish, put your head down between your knees. You’ll be OK in a minute.’

Pete got him some tea and Hamish sat up again. Mr Sykes said, ‘OK, my little beauty, where are you?’ and he slowly peeled Hamish’s sock off his foot. Sitting inside that sock was the biggest leech I have ever seen. It was fat as the abseil rope and must have been sucking Hamish’s blood for half the afternoon.

‘You must have picked him up in the boggy stuff at the bottom of the cliff,’ said Mr Sykes. ‘He’s had a good feed and you’ve been bleeding into that sock for a long while. Clean your foot up and we’ll see where he got stuck into you.’ So Hamish got cleaned up and patched and Mr Sykes chucked the leech into the bushes and the rest of us were very careful about pulling our boots off I can tell you.

Hamish was still pretty white, but at least all that blood had an answer that didn’t require stitches. We stirred Hamish up a bit about nearly fainting, but he wasn’t up to it and just gave us the evil eye.

Then Mr Sykes said, ‘You know the difference between a leech and a lawyer?’ Quick as anything Jacko says, ‘A leech stops sucking you dry after you’re dead.’ We all look at him and he says, ‘My dad’s favourite joke after the divorce.’ Mostly he has this quiet smile when he does this, but this time it was a different story. So now we had two people under their own little cloud and that hot abseiling talk was fading fast.

We cooked up our tea and then it was time to get the campfire going. I had the dog food tin in my backpack, waiting for the right moment. Just enough light, just enough dark, just enough Brian. I couldn’t believe it when he took the dare, but it was another story when he realised what I was eating. So then we had three people under their own little cloud, and I was wondering what was really happening out there. Sleep didn’t come easy after all that.

The next day we were to abseil for the morning and walk back after lunch. We got to the cliff and things were different. I reckon it was partly the dog food, and partly the leech, and partly the lawyer joke.

We did normal abseiling the day before, but this time Mr Sykes said he was going to get us rap-running. Rap-running means face-forward down that cliff and we’ve done it on smaller drops. The Ridgy Didge has got lots of reasons for not rap-running, like those saplings and the water running down the rock.

We got set up and first to go was Hamish. He was off down that cliff like nobody’s business and we just watched him go for it. Jacko was belaying and he was cheering him down the cliff like crazy and trying to keep up with the belay rope. Hamish unclipped at the bottom and then Pete charged off. Nowhere near as reckless. Brian clipped on and he was out to break something, either a record or his neck. He made it quick to the bottom and Hamish and Pete were cheering him on. I set off and was madaz nervous but this was a test of dog food and I was not about to lose. And all the way they cheered me down, even Brian. Jacko had started out belaying and he went to the top and clipped on. Watching him come racing through those saplings was amazing and suddenly he was standing beside us amongst the noise.

Mr Sykes was checking our set-up at the top and we were taking turns belaying from the bottom. That rap-running was the adrenalin rush of the decade and we kept up the speed for most of the morning. We were like the SAS on secret training out there in the bush. The worst part was running back to the top coz that track up around the cliff was getting longer each time. We spent two hours rap-running that cliff and by the time we finished up we’d cheered equal to a footy final.

We packed up at lunchtime and the walk down out of the mountains was a bit quicker coz we were still so hyped up. So it proves that all you need is one boot full of blood, an old lawyer joke, and a can of dog food and you can do anything you set your mind to do. They never taught me that in my old school.

Loving it here,

Clem.

FRIDAY, JULY 3
SUDDEN DEATH

Dear Gram

I can’t believe it. The Rev’s bike has gone. The Aprilia. The 1000R. Gone. Up in smoke. We watched it. All of us. We just stood there and watched it burn away.

My mind keeps going back to the camp and the rap-running and there’s a teacher up the front going on about something and suddenly there’s all this happening.

We were in maths or English or something. Just before lunchtime. There was a noise and somebody yelling and it got pretty frantic real quick. We rushed out and could smell the fire and there in the car park was the 1000R. Burning like mad with smoke rising black and twisted.

The Rev already had the fire extinguisher and he was hot to trot with that thing, but it did no good. That bike was fibreglass and plastic and petrol and it was too late to save it. We all stood watching and then it really went up.

That petrol tank must’ve got so it couldn’t take any more coz there was a loud rush and serious flames started shooting everywhere. The bike turned itself into something very angry and everyone ran for cover.

The hissing and roaring of it was awesome. It was like it was never going to stop and we could feel the heat through our clothes from the edge of the car park. The office wall is all blistered paint, and my face will be scorched for days, I reckon.

Some of the kids were saying things like, ‘Burn, baby, burn,’ and, ‘You could do some hot laps now, Rev.’ But they got shut up by the rest of us. Even Bundy. I’ve never seen Bundy get shut up before. But this time he took it. Outnumbered.

When the fire truck arrived there was not much for them to do except hose down the wreckage. The whole school smells of smoke and the car park looks like a war zone.

That Aprilia has got me thinking some serious stuff this year and I don’t know what I’ll do without it sitting out there in the car park.

Clem.

SATURDAY, JULY 4
TWO-UPPED

Dear Gram

I was out riding and this strange thing happened. There was this noise and when I looked around there were two people following me. I didn’t recognise them but they were bigger than me and were trailing me by fifty metres.

I was fully nervous when I realised what was going on. Sometimes on weekends there are other riders in the national park, but this was just in the bush away from the race track and there are hardly ever other people in that part. I started to speed up to get away from them but they kept the same distance on my tail and I was starting to worry about whether they were trying to give me a bit of a scare or something.

Some people are like that and we get kids who come into the tracks to find someone from the school and pick a fight for no reason. That sucks but it is how some knuckle-draggers do it.

Then I thought that I could ride to where the track gets worse or even ride down the gully and shake them off. Trouble is I didn’t know if they could ride me out or not.

Then I did a really strange thing. I just stopped and let them catch up to me. I guess I figured that if they were going to do something then I probably couldn’t get away anyway. So I just stood there as they kept coming closer. And they both watched me and they slowed down a bit but they kept on riding past.

So I don’t know if I spooked them or what was going on. Anyway, I watched them ride on a bit and one of them turned around to look behind and I got on the bike and raced through the bush until I got closer to school.

I still haven’t got around to speaking with Dad about a new bike. Hydraulic disc brakes would be good, and lock-out shocks. And what about XTR shifters? I can’t figure out what’s hardest, asking Dad about another bike, or watching the Rev’s Aprilia burn, or those guys shadowing me today.

Your loving grandson,

Clem the Undecided.

SUNDAY, JULY 5
FOLLOWING ME IN HIS MIND

Dear Gram

Those guys following me yesterday still have me spooked. And you know what I think about whenever I see those two in my memory? I think about that teacher in primary school again.

I reckon that man used to follow me in his mind and I could feel it. He used to say, ‘Show me your muscles,’ and then he flunked me and I had to repeat that year. I didn’t even have muscles, and he followed me in his mind and did things to me that I can’t tell you about and that even Dad wouldn’t believe. Two years running he followed me in his mind.