Super Jack

by Susanne Gervay

  Samantha runs ahead with Leo and Anna. I walk behind. I’m not going on any more water slides and grab my camera. I need time to calm down. Suddenly Samantha starts yelping, jumping up and down like an elastic band. I run over straightaway. ‘Are you all right? Are you, Samantha? Stop screaming. What?’ Samantha is pointing excitedly at a pink hibiscus bush. Then I see it bouncing under the bush. I pull Samantha’s pigtail. ‘You’re a great sister. Shushhhh.’ It stops dead still trying to blend into the twigs.

  ‘What is it?’ Anna whispers. We slowly move towards it. Anna gasps.

  It’s warty and brown with cream speckles and was huge horizontal eyes. Got to be twenty centimetres long. ‘Big one,’ I whisper. ‘A kilo at least.’ I’ve never seen one alive. ‘Cane toad. Eats bugs, especially in sugar cane plantations.’ Quietly I pull out my camera. Click. Oh no. It’s moving. Click. It’s on the go, fast, faster, racing for the undergrowth.

  ‘Yuck,’ the girls say together, speeding in the opposite direction. Leo chases after them.

  I stay behind, quietly hoping the cane toad will come back. It doesn’t.

  Chapter 12

  The Hero

  Nanna is wobbly as she hobbles towards the exit in her snapdragon swimmers. She has her towel still around her shoulders and is shuffling forward in rubber sandals. Nanna’s toes twinkle when she isn’t wearing her orthopaedic lace-up shoes and her hands dance without her stick.

  I glance at Anna. I get this buzzing feeling inside. Her hair is amazing when it’s wet. It tangles into springy curls.

  I am just about to open the car door for her when suddenly there is a huge bang, then this long moan. I turn around. It’s Nanna. She is on the ground with her snapdragon swimmers stretched into a horrible grin. Her face is crinkled into this desperate gasp for air. As I rush over I see her green eyes flicker, then close.

  ‘It’s all right, it’s all right,’ Mum stammers, but it’s not all right. It is different from the fall in the dolphin car park. There is blood dribbling from the back of her head. Vomit trickles out of the corner of her mouth.

  ‘Nanna, Nanna.’ Samantha is crying.

  Nanna’s lips tremble, then spasm. ‘She’s not breathing,’ Mum shouts. ‘Call emergency. Emergency.’ Rob is already on his mobile.

  ‘Nanna’s stopped breathing.’ Samantha sobs.

  Rob keeps repeating on the phone. ‘Urgent, urgent. Not breathing. Urgent.’

  Everything is happening so fast. My heart is thudding. I push Mum out of the way and roll Nanna onto her side. My fingers are in her mouth, grabbing her teeth, pulling her tongue forward, clearing the vomit.

  Mum is hitting Nanna’s back. ‘Breathe, breathe,’ she whispers.

  I gulp down my panic. Nanna needs me. I know how to do this. I’ve done first aid at school. I have to do it for my nanna. I roll her flat, push my hand under her neck, tilt her head back. Okay Jack, okay. I have to be calm. I push her chin down and take a deep mouthful of air. I puff breath into Nanna’s mouth, wait, puff, wait, puff, when suddenly she starts coughing, then moving. ‘Nanna,’ I whisper. ‘Nanna.’ Her eyes blink open, then shut, but she is breathing.

  The ambulance sirens scream to a halt. I am pushed out of the way, shaking. Samantha runs to hug me. Anna presses her head against my back. Mum is talking to the ambulance paramedics with Rob standing beside her. Nanna is whimpering as they lift her onto the stretcher. Mum comes over to me, hugs me, whispering in my ear. ‘Thank you, Jack. Thank you, darling.’ She gives a quick wave as she climbs into the back of the ambulance.

  Rob tells me to get into the front seat of the car. ‘Leo, you get into the back.’

  ‘But Dad …’

  ‘Get into the car.’ Rob nearly shouts.

  Leo slams the car door. I squint at him. I don’t care about Leo. Nanna could have died.

  We follow the ambulance, charging to the hospital. It screeches into Emergency. Rob swerves into the car park. I am starting to get out when Rob orders everyone to stay in the car. ‘But Rob …’

  He doesn’t let me finish. ‘There are too many of us for the Emergency Room. Can you all stay here? Jack, could you take charge?’

  I want to go inside. It was me who saved Nanna. Me. I want to argue, but Rob has already sprinted away. He turns around, raises his thumb, then disappears into the hospital. Then we wait, wait, wait. I bite my lip until I feel it cutting into my mouth. I see Nanna’s white face and the rickle of blood. My nanna, my nanna.

  Anna whispers, ‘You’re a hero, Jack.’

  I whisper, ‘I’m not.’

  ‘You are, Jack.’ Samantha rests her head against my shoulder.

  Leo mumbles, ‘It was good, Jack.’

  I glance at Leo. I start to shake. I want to cry, but I know I can’t. Not here. I blow out quick puffs of air. Swallow hard. Calm down, calm down.

  It is ages before Rob comes back. ‘Nanna is going to be fine.’ He gets into the driver’s seat. ‘Mum will stay here until the doctors sort out what to do. It’ll take a while.’ He turns on the ignition. ‘I’ll drop you kids at the apartment, then get back here.’

  Nanna and Mum need me. ‘I’m going to the hospital with you, Rob.’ I shift in my seat.

  Rob turns to look at me. ‘What you did for your Nanna, I couldn’t have done it.’ He coughs. ‘No, more than that. I didn’t do it. You did.’ He turns out of the car park. ‘Jack, please can you stay with Samantha and Anna and Leo? It’ll make your mum and me feel better.’

  I have to. ‘All right.’

  As soon as Rob gets back to the apartment, he rummages through Nanna’s clothes and finds a jacket to take her. He gets a jumper for Mum. ‘I’ll phone you from the hospital. There’s dinner. Pizza in the fridge.’ He hands me his mobile phone. ‘Call the hospital if there’s anything you want.’ Rob programs the hospital number into the phone. Samantha runs up to him. He brushes her cheek. ‘I’ll phone you as soon as I know what’s happening.’

  No one is hungry. Anna keeps talking about the fall, Nanna’s white face, the vomit sliding from the edge of her mouth. ‘Wasn’t it terrible to give her mouth-to-mouth?’

  I nod. I didn’t taste the vomit then, but afterwards I did. I had to concentrate on blowing air into Nanna’s lungs. ‘I just wanted to save her.’

  ‘You did, Jack. You did.’ Anna hugs Samantha.

  Leo says nothing.

  We get a bit hungry later and eat the pizza. We watch TV, play dominoes and Leo’s computer games. He lets us have a go for the first time. I keep looking at the kitchen clock. Why is it taking so long? Is Nanna really all right? We look out of the lounge room window, watch more TV.

  It has been nearly three hours when the phone rings. I grab it first. Anna and Samantha squash next to me trying to hear.

  ‘Nanna has a fracture in her wrist. No, she doesn’t need surgery … Yes, it has to have a plaster … No, not a full plaster, only a half one … Yes, she’s cut the back of her head. She’s had some stitches … Yes, she has to stay in hospital for a few days. We’ll be home soon.’

  ‘Yes,’ I shout. ‘Nanna is all right.’ Samantha and Anna dance around the room. I’m laughing at them. ‘Are you rubber balls?’ That’s the sign for them to jump on me. ‘You’re squashing me,’ I yell out, but they keep squashing until I shout, ‘Give in, give in.’

  Suddenly headlights beam through the lounge room window. Samantha is still jumping. Leo calls out, ‘They’re here.’

  Mum looks exhausted, with her blonde hair frazzled and her daisy skirt crushed. Rob forces her to sit in Nanna’s lounge chair. She smiles at us. ‘Nanna is all right. Don’t worry.’

  ‘What really happened, Rob?’

  ‘Nanna was shivering and tired at the pool. When she got to the car she was weak and started coughing. She coughed up the cookie she’d been eating. The pieces got caught in her throat and stopped her breathing.’

  Rob brings Mum a cup of coffee and some left-over pizza. She doesn’t eat the pizza. Mum says that she will stay with Nanna tom
orrow.

  ‘I’ll go in with you to the hospital.’ Samantha sits on the floor next to her.

  We all want to visit.

  ‘We’ll see. You are such special kids. I’m so proud of you all, especially Jack.’ Mum reaches for my hand. ‘Nanna stopped breathing. Nanna … Jack, you saved her life.’ A shiver runs through me. ‘She’s going to be fine because of you.’

  It has been a long day. The girls are in the bathroom. I hear the blow dryer buzzing away. I head towards the kitchen. Mum and Rob are sitting at the bench talking. Mum is rubbing her lips. ‘We have to do something about Nanna.’ Mum makes a sobbing sound. ‘She’s always been there for us.’ The honey scent of the frangipanis on the bench is so strong. I rub my nose. ‘She just can’t live by herself any more. She can’t.’ Mum has tears in her eyes. They don’t see me, so I quietly back away.

  Anna talks to her parents on the phone, telling them every detail about Nanna. The Napolis love Nanna, so I hear lots of bellissimas and grande Nanna expressions bellowing down the line. Then Leo phones his mother. He always has these strange conversations with his mum about what Rob is supposed to be doing. It’s like she wants us to be unhappy. Maybe it’s because she is unhappy. I don’t know. My head is aching. I have to go to bed. I feel under the bunk bed and drag out my fungus. The growths take up nearly the whole jar now. They look like alien flowers. Have I created a new life form? I’d really like to do that. Suddenly I think of Nanna with her snapdragon swimming costume. She could have died. I slide my fungus back under the bunk, then climb the bunk ladder. I lie on my back looking at the ceiling.

  Anna and Samantha stick their heads into my room. ‘Goodnight Jack.’

  Leo must have finished his phone call. He is probably playing his computer games in the lounge room.

  Mum tiptoes into my bedroom. ‘How are you feeling?’ Her daisy smile appears over the bunk railing.

  ‘I don’t know.’ I gulp.

  ‘Everything is going to be fine now.’ She kisses me.

  ‘Mum?’

  ‘Yes, Jack?’

  ‘You won’t send Nanna away, will you?’

  Mum hesitates. ‘I don’t want to, Jack, but …’ Mum kisses me again.

  Rob’s voice booms through the apartment. ‘Goodnight Anna.’

  ‘Goodnight Rob.’

  ‘Goodnight Samantha. Sleep tight and don’t let the bed bugs bite.’

  There are Samantha giggles. ‘’Night, Dad.’

  Dad? I bury my face in my pillow. I want Rob to be my dad. I just do.

  ‘Goodnight Jack.’

  I want to call him Dad. ‘Goodnight Rob.’ I am so tired.

  I hear Rob talking to Leo. ‘Computer games … winning … that man out …’

  Zzzzzzzzzzzz.

  Chapter 13

  Tower of Terror

  Next morning Mum insists that we are still going out, even if Nanna is in hospital. ‘You can’t help her anyway.’ Mum is packing lunch for us. ‘I’ll stay with Nanna today.’ She tilts her head to the side. ‘Rob’s happy to take you kids out. He loves rollercoaster rides, don’t you?’

  ‘Right.’ Rob rubs Mum’s cheek.

  We run through the hospital corridors looking for Nanna. Anna is wearing her silver wings again and looks like she’s flying. There is a nervous knot in my stomach as we get near Nanna’s ward. She was so pale when she collapsed. I feel scared inside for her.

  ‘Here, here,’ Samantha squeals as she turns into a ward. There are six hospital beds with five other ladies and Nanna. She is lying flat except for two pillows under her head. The back of her head is bandaged and her puffed hair has a hole in it. Luckily Nanna can’t see it. Her left wrist is in plaster. When she notices us, her face breaks into a crinkly smile. She looks much better. My stomach unknots and it’s easier to breathe. There is careful kissing because Nanna says she is sore. There are bruises down her leg. Poor Nanna.

  Nanna strokes Anna’s silver wings with her good hand. ‘Pretty,’ she grins. I am so glad Mum didn’t wash Anna’s T-shirt.

  Nanna yawns and Mum tells us that we better leave. ‘But we just got here, Mum.’

  ‘I love theme parks.’ Nanna’s green eyes twinkle. ‘You have to have a good time for me there.’ I’m not sure about this. Samantha snuggles beside me. Then Nanna stretches her good hand out to both of us. ‘Please go. It’d make me happy.’ She holds up her broken wrist. ‘And I need to rest today.’

  I hug Nanna, then Samantha and Anna do. Nanna smiles. ‘Leo, come on. Give me a hug too.’

  Leo presses his cheek against Nanna’s. It’s like watching a stick cuddling cotton wool. Nanna is the cotton wool. Rob puts his arm on Leo’s shoulder and smiles.

  This is getting crazy. Can’t Rob see that Leo doesn’t want us? Leo doesn’t want Nanna to hug him.

  Suddenly Nanna notices Rob’s socks. ‘Those socks,’ she grins. They are the poo ones. We all start laughing, except for Mum.

  ‘These socks are comfortable. I never liked white socks anyway.’ Rob winks at me.

  Mum shakes her head. ‘That was a terrible wash. At least I didn’t shrink you kids or Rob.’ Mum bends down and pats Rob’s socks. ‘Go. Go. I don’t want to see those socks here any more.’

  Rob laughs. ‘All right. All right. The socks are leaving.’ Rob piggy-backs Samantha all the way to the car. ‘Nanna is going to be fine.’

  I know that is true, even though Nanna’s head is bandaged and her hair wrecked. ‘Hey, do you remember when I did Hector’s hair?’

  ‘Poor Hector. Not even a rat deserves that.’ Anna twiddles her licorice curls.

  ‘He didn’t mind. I gave him extra cheese.’

  Samantha asks Rob to put on a tape — rock. There aren’t any moans. We are relieved Mum isn’t in control of the music for once.

  It’s late morning already as we drive towards the theme park. Suddenly we see it, standing out on the horizon like a castle. ‘Looks fantastic.’ Samantha sticks her tongue out of the side of her mouth, concentrating. I try to grab it, but she is fast. Her tongue is back in her mouth quicker than a blink.

  We park, load Mum’s sandwiches and drinks into my backpack, put on our hats and sun cream. Samantha grabs Rob’s hand and I grab my camera. A big fat two-metre-tall koala gives a furry wave. We are definitely in the right place.

  Map open. That must be the signal for everyone to shove their heads over my shoulder. It is very annoying. Problems. Anna points to the paddle wheeler. ‘I’d love to go on that.’ Then Samantha’s stubby finger discovers the lagoon, but I have been hanging out for the Tower of Terror. The fastest, tallest ride in the world. Leo wants the dodgem cars. We are arguing when Samantha interrupts. ‘Got to go.’

  ‘Why didn’t you go BEFORE we left the hospital?’

  Samantha just turns up her nose at me. ‘I have to wee, so there.’ She begs Anna to go with her. I don’t think girls can go to the bathroom alone.

  While Rob, Leo and I stand around doing nothing, I notice Bengal Tigers on the map. ‘There are only about 400 white tigers left in the whole world,’ I read from the information leaflet. As Samantha and Anna run towards us, I shout, ‘Tigers, tigers.’ There is giggly excitement. Yes, they want to see them. We all do. Agreed.

  ‘Look, look,’ Samantha squeaks when we get there. Two striped tigers are lolling around under the trees. Two white ones are rumbling with their keepers in a clearing.

  Anna leans over the railing. ‘The tigers are beautiful.’ She flashes her dimples and quivers her wings. Meltdown. I flash my gappy smile at her.

  ‘I wish the tigers were free.’ Anna presses her lips together.

  ‘They’re endangered.’ Rob rests on the railing overlooking the moat that separates the tigers from us. ‘The breeding program helps them survive.’ Samantha stands close to Rob, of course. ‘But it would be great if they were free.’ The tigers wrestle each other and the big one gets flattened. ‘Now, one of those tigers reminds me of Jack.’ Rob pushes his hands together. ‘The squashed one,�
� he jokes.

  I swing a few air punches at him. He blocks my attack. Samantha squeals, ‘Don’t hurt Rob!’ which makes Rob call out, ‘My little girl.’

  Little girl? What a crawler. I take another swipe at Rob. He laughs and we tussle with each other, then Leo joins in. There are a few more defensive moves and attacks when Samantha grabs Rob’s hand. ‘Rides, Rob. Rides.’ He is being dragged away when Leo takes a swipe that nearly gets me.

  ‘Hey, what are you doing? You could have hit me.’

  ‘Well, I didn’t.’

  I squint at him. I’m not sure about that.

  We all end up on the swinging aerial chair rides, flying to nowhere. I rock my swing so that I nearly zap Samantha. She squiggles. ‘Don’t, don’t, Jack.’ So I do it again. Zap. Squeal. Zap. Squeal. This is fun.

  The ride is over and Rob and I make a pact. We are going to stand up against the opposition. That is Anna and Samantha. ‘The Tower of Terror next.’

  They start to argue. ‘What about the …’

  ‘Tower of Terror time is now. If you don’t want to ride the best thriller out, then you’ll have to just watch.’ I poke Samantha’s arm. ‘Don’t break your neck looking up. It’s only thirty-eight storeys high.’

  As we all march towards the tower, Samantha blurts out, ‘As if you’d go on that. Look at it.’

  It’s hard to miss the eleven-metre-high, crimson-eyed, metallic skull over the entrance. I squint at Rob. ‘It’s nothing.’ I stick my thumb up at the girls. ‘We’re going to ride.’

  ‘Leo, are you coming?’ Rob asks.

  He shuffles a bit.

  ‘He doesn’t have to, if he doesn’t want to.’ Anna stands next to him with her wings flapping. Leo stays with the girls and I’m relieved. This is Rob’s and my ride.

  Rob and I walk inside this maze of concrete and steel. There are huge crevasses and killing steel traps. One slip and we’ve had it. The launch pad at last. We line up to get inside the escape pod, a six-tonne steel case. We slide into the seats and buckle up. Warnings come over the intercom. Okay, okay. It’s making me nervous now. I’ll never admit it, though. Come on. Locked in. Start. Whoosh. We’re blasted like jet-propelled cannons upwards fast, very fast. Over 160 kilometres per hour in seven seconds. The screams are deafening. My stomach. Where is it? We hit the top. Phew. Oh no, what’s happening? We’re falling, freefalling backwards like we’re airborne, weightless spacemen. More screaming. My stomach. Landed stomach first, Jack second.