Read an Excerpt
Excerpt
When he was with him, when he could see him, talk to him and be with him, it was fine. It was as if everything was normal and was right. It was another thing again when he was at home with his parents or alone—hardest at night before sleep came, when thought niggles, gnaws, corrodes and the cancer sets up a dull and empty ache.
Hard, too, to keep he surface normal with the ripples on the pond shelling out as they should. How not to phone, eager or too often. How to ignore it at school. How to look, but make it look that the eyes looked elsewhere. How to pretend.
The red car drew to a stop beside him. 'Get in kid. I'll give you a lift. Reminds me. You hear the one about the one-eyed, one-legged, one-armed hitch-hiker? What'd the guy say who stopped for him?'
'Heard it,' said David, tossing his stuff in the back seat and getting in beside Theo. 'Eye eye eye. Hop in. You look 'armless enough. And it's not one-eyed. It's three-eyed.'
'Bugger you,' said Theo. 'Wish I hadn't stopped.'
'What d'you need to play rugby?'
'Tell me,' said Theo.
'Leather balls,' said David.
'Okay. Let's get onto the real dirty ones,' said Theo. 'You start.'
It was a week since David had visited the Meyer house. Most days, at school, he had seen Theo, but there had been no contact.
'I thought you might have been out to see me...us,' said Theo. 'I did say.'
'I didn't like to just call in,' said David. How could he say that this was the one thing, the only thing that he had wanted to do?
'It's up to you kid. Let's go for a hoon. We'll drive up into those hills over there.' He nodded ahead of him.
No cruising. Theoheaded the car, fast, on the road out of town. Very fast. 'Gonna tell your grandmother?' asked David.
'Tell her what?'
'Where you're going. Where we're going.'
'Why?' Theo laughed.
'Well...nothing. I just thought...'
'You live your life your way, kid. I'll do the same with mine. Geddit?'
David relaxed. They didn't speak for several minutes. The hum of the motor of the near-new RX-7, the competence of the driving and, above all the close company of the driver were enough. They had travelled some distance when David said, 'That's where we shoot ducks,' and pointed.
Theo pulled the car, tyres screeching, to a halt. 'Must se this. Where? Can't see no ducks.'
'Over that fence. Over the rise. Down in a dam. They'll be there.'
'Can we go'n see?'
'Sure.'
'Who's place is it? Yours?'
'Hell no,' said David. 'Belongs to my uncle. Mum's brother. His daughter is Julie. The one in our class.'
'Yeah, yeah. Got it. The one who shivers when you stand by her.'
'Crap. Come on. Just walk up to the top of the hill. We won't go down. No sense in disturbing them,' said David.
'Sure gonna get disturbed real soon.' said Theo. 'Like big time disturbed.'
They sat on the hill-top under an old pine, and looked down on the dam below. 'What you reckon?' asked David.
'Holy cow,' Theo shook his head. 'Look at 'em all. Thousands. Bet I could get a dozen with one blast.'
'How come?' David asked, and smiled to himself.
'They're so bloody close. Wouldn't stand a chance.'
'Oh, I see. You gonna shoot them on the water eh?'
'Why not?'
'You're not allowed to,' sai toward the ducks. 'And they won't be telling.'
'It's a sport, mate. Not outright murder,' said David.
Theo nodded again. 'What difference is it to the ducks? Poor suckers. They know it's a sport? Bloody stupid if you ask me. You mean you gotta wait till they fly up in the air?'
'Yep.'
'Dumb,' said Theo. 'You couldn't hit 'em in the air.'
'Of course you can. Not easy. Guess that's why it's more er...fun. I don't wanna hit no ducks on the water. Mind you,' he laughed, 'seen Dad do it once or twice when he hasn't been getting any.'
'That's my sort of guy,' said Theo. 'How about you stay home and I'll go with him?' A flight of birds passed close over their heads. The beat of wings and the drawn-out, stretched 'Waaa-rk Waaa-rk' call of those on the water sounded into the air. 'Make the most of it ducks,' said Theo. Not long now, and I'll be eating you.'
'You should be so luck.' said David. 'End up eating one in fifty of what you can see and you'd be doing okay. Even then a frozen chook from the supermarket tastes better! Come on. Let's go.'
The road narrowed as it climbed into the range of hills, The farms became rougher, the houses more widely separated. 'Where the hell does it go?' asked Theo.
'Nowhere,' said David. 'If you'd bothered to ask, or if you'd read the signposts, you'd know that. Pine forest up the end. Dad and me come up here hunting in the summer.'
'Not for ducks?'
'No, smartarse. Not for ducks. Rabbit, hares. Heaps of goats,' said David.
'Jesus, you're a killer.'
'If you say so,' said David, and then decided to rub it in. 'Got me a young deer up here. You know Bambi? Seen the move, eaten the meat.' Then he laughed. 'I'm only joking.'
'Reckon I'll have a go at calling you killer and not kid,' said Theo.
'Yeah. Slow down. This road soon stops even pretending to be one.'
'Yeah. You're right, killer.' Theo did not slow. The first dimness of dusk and falling shadow made the track difficult to see and harder to navigate. The car jolted and tossed across potholes and corrugations and slewed in and out of the ruts of rain run-off. Trees, scrub and scruffy pine, pressed in closer. 'Great!' Theo gunned, over revved the engine. 'Wish I'd spotted this was here before now. You can keep your killing, killer. Me? I'm gonna be a rally driver.' He roared into a sharp, bridged curve and up a damp and shaded incline. Faster. 'Just pray nothing's coming the other way.'
The track broadened as he crested the hill and Theo accelerated the car into a wider curve. A sudden jolt. An explosion; sharp, clear, loud. The car spun. Theo braked. Spun further, faster out of control. 'For Christ sake!' yelled David. Once around, twice. Into a third spin. 'Jesus...'
Into a ditch. Into a bank. Full stop.
Neither boy spoke for a moment. They breathed deeply, gasping. Then came the relief. Theo started to laugh. A high pitched, nervous, almost hysterical giggle. 'Shit!' he gasped. 'Shit, shit, shit,' he turned to David. 'You...you okay?' 'Sure,' said David, and then he too started to laugh.
The two of them laughed in one gigantic roaring of relief and defiance of danger. David braced himself against the dash and Theo, laughing more rationally now, reached out and covered David's hand with his. 'Sure you're all right, kid?' he asked.
The feel of the touch sobered both. They looked at each other, made no further move, looked away. David did not take his hand away and Theo edged his fingers into David's palm. They sat for a few moments, just holding hands. 'You're sure you're all right?' Theo asked again.
'Sure. Sure. You?' asked David. Slowly, very slowly he relaxed his hand, held for another few seconds and then withdrew it to himself.
'What am I doing in this place?' was all Theo said.
Excerpted from The Blue Lawn by William Taylor. Copyright © 1999 by William Taylor. Excerpted by permission. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
