Outback Hero

by Sally Gould

  "Max," she said, "I'd like you to meet Mr. and Mrs. Jackson. They're Alyson, Tyson and Harrison's parents."

  I nearly choked as I realized that all their names rhymed - even their surname. "Hi," I mumbled, trying not to look at Mr. High-Pants Jackson's very high shorts.

  "They're traveling on the same route as us. You and Charlie might get to play with Alyson and her brothers along the way."

  "Great," I replied, trying very hard not to sound sarcastic.

  "Nice to meet you, Max." Mr. High-Pants Jackson stuck his hand out, so I had no choice but to shake it. He practically squeezed the blood out of my hand as he shook.

  Mrs. Jackson smiled at me and I smiled back. Suddenly I felt stupid. If I didn't go on the boat, then I'd be left on the bank by myself. And if a croc decided to get me, I wouldn't have a chance. But if I was on the boat and it sank, at least I'd have a chance because the crocs would have so much choice of who to eat. And why would they want me because, except for Harry, I'd be the skinniest.

  I went over to the river near Charlie and the others and found a nice flat stone. I lined it up and skimmed it across the water. It jumped five times! That was my personal best.

  "Wow!" shouted Harry. He ran over to me. "Can you show me how to do that?"

  I pointed to the people getting on the boat. "Later. We better get on the boat, so we get a seat." That stone jumping five times was a good sign. I just knew it. Even if the boat did sink, I'd be okay.

  7. CROC MEAT

  Harry and I headed to the boat. This river was narrower than the river with the jumping crocs. The water was very brown, but for some reason it wasn't as scary. Big trees lined the banks, which made everything seem peaceful. Just then Tyson ran past and rammed his shoulder into Harry's back. Harry stumbled and fell. I called out, "Bully!" to Tyson and helped Harry to get up.

  "What'd he do that for?" I asked.

  Harry shrugged. "He only does it when Mom and Dad aren't watching."

  "Why?"

  He shrugged again. "I dunno. It doesn't matter."

  My blood heated up inside me. I felt like pushing Tyson the Terrible over. Charlie mightn't be the best brother in the world, but he never hit me just because he felt like it. "We'll sit far away from him."

  "Yep." He jumped up in the air and gave me a big smile.

  He didn't deserve a brother like Tyson the Terrible.

  Tyson sat down next to Alyson and Charlie up the front of the boat. There was room for us, but we went down the back. The boat was small and the back had nearly filled up. I squeezed in next to an old lady and Harry followed.

  He whispered to me, "I don't want to be near the water."

  I couldn't tell him I didn't want to be near it either. I turned to the old lady. "Would you like to sit at the end? You'll get a better view."

  "Oh, no," she replied, "I'm scared of crocs. I can hardly bear looking at them. My daughter made me come."

  I nodded. Great - for all I knew the boat might be full of people who were secretly terrified of crocs. I swallowed hard and swapped seats with Harry. It didn't matter because I had a plan. I wouldn't listen to the guide and I wouldn't look at the crocs. In my head I'd sing all the songs I could remember from Oliver so I couldn't hear the guide.

  Once everyone had found a seat, the guide told us we'd be going up the river and getting off on the other side of the bank, which was Arnhem Land. There he'd tell us about how the Aboriginal people lived on the land. Then he gave us a safety talk. I listened ... just in case. He went on a bit, but basically he said, if the boat sank, most of us would get eaten. Everyone laughed. Yeah, hilarious.

  The boat began to move and suddenly I had a real bad feeling. Was it too late to take a running jump off the boat? Already there was a lot of water between the boat and the shore - I guessed it was too late. And, anyway, I couldn't leave Harry by himself. I sucked in my breath and decided to be brave.

  Harry pulled Batman out of his pocket and began to play with it. In the front row, Charlie and Alyson were laughing and carrying on like they were best friends. Tyson was sitting near them, but they were ignoring him. Mom and Dad were next to Harry's parents in the row behind Charlie.

  The guide began talking so I sang "Consider Yourself" in my head. The problem was I kept forgetting the words. I was meant to know them off by heart by now, because I was in the chorus of the musical at school. I gave up because I didn't want to mix up the words and memorize the wrong ones. So I couldn't help listening to the guide.

  And anyway, he was pretty interesting. He said he was Aboriginal. His people lived on the other side of the river, so he knew lots of stuff. What was good to eat, how to avoid getting eaten by a croc, how to make a weapon from a bit of wood and how to kill animals to eat. He told us about how the women gathered food and the men hunted. It was pretty interesting really. For a minute I forgot to be scared of the crocs.

  And then, on the bank, I saw one - a humungous one. It slid into the water, so all I could see was the very top of its ugly head. I shivered. It was disgusting. Why would God make something so ugly?

  By the time the boat landed on the other side of the river, I'd seen heaps of crocs. I tried to look up into the gum trees, but my eyes kept searching the river - I couldn't control them.

  Everyone had to get off the boat and climb up some rocks. Harry and me found a ledge and we wedged ourselves into it. The guide talked more about Aboriginal stuff and then he got a long stick and showed us how to throw it. The stick went way up in the air and nearly reached the other side of the river.

  Everyone gasped in amazement.

  Tyson jumped up and said to the guide, "Can I have a go?"

  The guide laughed. He got Tyson another stick and showed him how to throw it. Tyson did a good throw, but the stick got caught in a tree.

  Everyone laughed and Tyson turned round and gave us all an evil look.

  "He's mad," Harry whispered to me.

  We all got back on the boat. I thought that'd be my chance to sit in the middle of the boat, but everyone else sat in exactly the same place as they had before. I supposed it didn't matter. The cruise was more than half over; we only had to go back up the river. The boat had made it this far without leaking.

  Next to me, I heard Harry. "Give it back," he demanded.

  I turned round to see that Tyson the Terrible had squashed himself between Harry and the old woman. And now he had Harry's Batman. Tyson got bored easily; I could tell. There was an annoying boy in my class just like him. He did stuff just to make you mad - like steal everything in your pencil case except the pencil shavings - just because he felt like it.

  "Tyson," I said, real polite, "do you want to play paper, scissors, rock?"

  He did and it worked because he put down Batman, and Harry, who was sitting between us, picked it up. We played seven rounds; he won the first two but then I won the next five. He wasn't happy. Actually he was getting pretty mad; his face looked all hot and he kept huffing and puffing. If I could've let him win I would've, but how can you let someone win paper, scissors, rock?

  In a real nasty voice, he said, "That's a stupid game. Let's play a different game." He grabbed Harry's Batman again.

  Straight away I could see he was going to chuck it. I jumped up onto my seat. Then he chucked it way over my head, so I had to leap up. Then everything happened in slow motion. I caught it, but then I lost my balance. One foot hit the edge of the boat ... I tried to find the seat with my other foot but I couldn't. I fell back through the air. The whole way down I was thinking, THERE ARE CROCS IN THIS RIVER! Then I hit the water.

  My back hurt as it hit the water. Then I went under. Yuk! It was cold, muddy and disgusting. I came up to hear people screaming their heads off. I saw the old woman's terrified face and Harry bawling. I WAS CROC MEAT!

  8. HUMUNGOUS CROCS

  I couldn't move ... well, I guess I was treading water, but that was automatic. I had to do something. The boat had already drifted away from me. I had to swim to it or swim
to the shore. And I had to decide quick. There was so much screaming going on in the boat I couldn't think.

  Then people in the boat began to point behind me. Far out! I knew what that meant. I put my head down and swam flat out toward the boat. I didn't take a breath like I was doing laps; I just went flat out. The screaming coming from the boat made me go at supersonic speed. But it was weird because I thought about stuff ... like how afraid I'd been but now, when I might be living my last moments, I was so calm. I knew what I had to do and I was just doing it.

  I lifted my head up when I thought I must've been close to the boat. But I wasn't; I still had a few metres to go. I noticed Charlie leaning over the side at the front of the boat throwing life jackets into the water. Was he stupid? I couldn't reach them. Why wasn't he throwing them to me?

  Then, about fifteen metres away, I saw a croc gliding toward the life jackets and I remembered; crocs were attracted to the fluorescent colors. Charlie was trying to distract them so I could get to the boat. Just then, a blinding flash of truth lit up in my head; Charlie really did love me. He might tease me, be sarcastic and make out he didn't care, but really he did.

  BANG! I felt something hit the right side of my body; I was flung off to the side. The whole right side of my body felt like a truck had hit it. When I came up for air I saw what had hit me. Oh my God! A croc's tail - it was a monster, and it was heading for the fluorescent jackets. At exactly the same time, both crocs went ballistic. They tore apart the jackets in a huge frenzy. There were bits of life jackets flying everywhere., That could be me!

  People from the boat were yelling at me. I ignored the pain, put my head down and swam the last few metres to the boat. I touched the boat and looked across to where the crocs were. But they weren't there any more; they were coming at me. Fast - real fast.

  I was DEAD. My life flashed before me - like in a movie. The time I got lost in a shopping center and I thought I'd never see Mom, Dad or Charlie again and how scared I'd been. Riding my first bike up and down the street wearing my Batman cape. Emma Morton, the prettiest girl in the world, coming to my fourth birthday party and me being too shy to talk to her. Charlie and me having berry fights with our next-door neighbors. Thomo's first day of school and how we just knew straight away that we'd be best friends. And all the pranks me, Thomo and Chook played at school. When we won the soccer grand final in the last thirty seconds of the game. Trashing Aunt Evil's car with Lucy at Uncle Dan's wedding. Forcing myself to eat dog food stew. Being chased by a croc. And now ... about to be eaten by two humungous crocs.

  "MAX!" yelled a familiar voice.

  I looked up to see that a big, strong arm had reached down. I grabbed the guide's hand and he pulled me up. He must've been strong.

  Just as my stomach leant over the rail, I looked down and saw both crocs jump out of the water. People screamed so loud there was no point me screaming too. I shut my eyes and waited for the CHOMP. I imagined my legs bitten off at the knees with blood and guts hanging out.

  But then I was dragged over the rail. And I could still feel my legs. I opened my eyes and saw Charlie and then I turned to see the crocs below. I realized Charlie had chucked stuff at them to distract them from my legs. There was a backpack and a handbag floating in the water. Wow! He was so smart.

  Someone wrapped a towel round me and the crowd moved back and there was just Charlie, Mom and Dad. Mom and Dad were so white they looked like they'd seen a ghost. Charlie was okay.

  "Thanks, Charlie," I said in a shaky voice. "I owe you."

  "Nah." He sat down beside me.

  Mom kneeled down in front of me. She began to cry and couldn't stop.

  "I'm okay, Mom," was the only thing I could think of to say. Dad had his head in his hands.

  Harry came up and hugged me.

  I let out a big breath. Wow! I'd swum with crocs and lived. I couldn't wait to get home to tell Thomo and Chook.

  Then the guide came alongside me, rested his hand on my shoulder and said in his deep, wise voice, "You've faced death and lived. You'll never feel fear like that again. You are very brave. From this time on in your life, you have nothing to fear.

  I grinned, feeling totally fearless. Nothing to fear!

  Outback Hero

  1. THE GOOD DIE YOUNG

  "Only the good die young," said Charlie from the back seat of the LandCruiser.

  "You mustn't be good then." I looked up from my game and out the window to see red earth going on and on forever. Charlie was so full of himself; I couldn't believe the rubbish he came out with.

  We'd been hot air ballooning and Charlie was in the first balloon with Mom. Dad and me were in the second balloon. At the end of the ride, Charlie's balloon landed in a tree. It was stuck for ages. But no one was going to die. Charlie was a drama queen. He wanted to think he escaped death. Before we went up in the balloons, he'd been carrying on about all the people who had died in hot air ballooning accidents. Once, thirteen people died when two hot air balloons crashed into each other. I reckoned he was jealous because two crocs nearly ate me and not him.

  "Well," said Charlie, "I'm more good than you."

  "Are not. You're a try-hard. That's what you are." I didn't look at him because I was about to win the race with my Ferrari in my game. "Good means being a good person, not being good at winning races or being the teacher's pet."

  He didn't answer, so I thought I better use it to my advantage. "I might discover a cure for kids with cancer when I grow up and that would mean I was good."

  "Yeah, well I'm going to end world poverty and discover how to reverse global warming. That makes me better."

  Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Mom raise her head from her murder mystery. She said, "That's enough, you two. I'll be happy when you earn a living."

  "Yeah," said Charlie, "Max can be a dog-food taster and I'll be an investment banker."

  I ignored the dog-food-taster comment because I didn't want Mom to ask questions. "What do investment bankers do?"

  "They earn lots of money. Some of them get million-dollar bonuses every year. I read in the newspaper that a bunch of them walked into a Ferrari shop and ordered one Ferrari each."

  "But what do they do?"

  "Who knows? Who cares? I just want a Ferrari - a red one."

  Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Mom glance at Dad and roll her eyes. She didn't like Charlie carrying on about expensive cars, the latest iPhone and all that sort of stuff.

  "Well, I'm going to be the first person to walk on Mars." I knew that would impress her.

  She turned round to look at me. "Is that right, Max? Since when have you wanted to be an astronaut?"

  "I don't. I want to be the first person to walk on Mars."

  Charlie sniggered.

  "Oh," replied Mom before she turned back to her book.

  Then I realized I'd been mega-dumb. I should've pretended to want to be an astronaut. Astronauts were smart and special. That would've made me look interesting and good and Charlie look greedy and bad.

  "How much longer to Uluru?" Charlie asked Dad.

  "That's tomorrow," he said. "We're walking around Kings Canyon today."

  "How much longer?" Charlie whined.

  "About an hour."

  Charlie and me looked at each other. We both knew that meant two hours. However long Dad reckoned driving somewhere would take, it always took twice as long.

  "So," I said, "we're just walking around the canyon. Nothing else? Nothing dangerous?"

  Mom sighed. "No, Max, it's just an easy walk with great views of the canyon."

  "What about dangerous animals? Vicious dingoes? Poisonous snakes? Killer spiders?"

  "I'm sure there'll be snakes and spiders, but they'll be hiding from all the people walking around the canyon."

  "A killer spider might drop down from a tree and bite me."

  Charlie and Dad laughed out loud even though I wasn't joking.

  Mom said, "Charlie can throw a stone at the killer spider before
it bites you."

  I groaned inside. Now Charlie was the family hero. That wasn't fair - I wanted to be the hero.

  2. THE COMPETITION

  When we finally arrived at Kings Canyon, we dumped our bags at the hotel, ate hamburgers for lunch (except for Dad, who had to have a kangaroo burger) and headed outside. We could walk around the bottom of the gorge, but we were going on the longer walk around the rim of the canyon. There were lots of people on the trail, which was sort of good. There definitely wouldn't be any crocs because we were too far inland. Lucky crocs couldn't live in the desert. But snakes and spiders could. I picked up a big stick, just in case.

  As usual, Mom and Dad stopped to read every word of the humungous sign at the beginning of the walk. They loved dragging everything out like they had all the time in the world.

  "We'll wait for you at the end of the trail," Charlie said to them.

  Then we ran off along the red dirt track before they had time to disagree. Although the first bit was really steep we ran and ran, so they couldn't catch up. A few times, I glanced down into the canyon. It was a long, long way down. You wouldn't want to fall. You'd end up dead - very dead.

  We passed lots of people on the track. They looked us up and down, like we were crazy. I knew what they were thinking. It's not a race, you silly boys. Take your time and look at the views.

  But we weren't crazy. We just didn't like doing walks with Mom and Dad. I knew they'd stop and look at every view of the canyon from every possible place they could. Dad would've gone on and on about how the canyon was made millions and millions of years ago by water carving out a big chunk of the ground. Like we cared. We were on holidays, not at school.

  There was a rock shaped like a wave not far from the trail. We sat inside it and got our breath. I picked up a red stone and drew a croc on the orange wall. I made the lines real simple like it was an Aboriginal rock painting. Charlie copied me. He drew a snake.