Danny shook his leg. ‘Get off, you little beast!’ Billy let go and immediately skirted playfully around in preparation for another attack.
Before he could latch on again, Danny reached down and picked him up. ‘Come on,’ he said to Vicki and Sam. ‘Let’s take him over to show Mark.’
They headed off across the road with Billy’s tail spinning in a blur.
Vicki danced to make her dress twirl and made up a song. ‘Silly Billy, I love you. La, dee, da, dee, da, dee, dum. Silly Billy.’
Danny and Sam looked at Vicki, then each other, smirked and suddenly burst into a run.
‘Hey!’ Vicki cried, forgetting her song and flying from a skip to a run. ‘Wait up!’
6
The Rope Bridge
Danny and Sam were pushing and pulling each other playfully in the passageway. Their stomping feet rumbled on the wooden floorboards. They weren’t fighting; they were just being silly. Every time Danny came near, Sam pushed, bumped or swung Danny away. Of course, Danny always came back for more. It was great fun.
Spinning and bumping, tugging and swinging, he bounced from the walls of the passage like a silver ball in a pinball machine. He was laughing hard and couldn’t stop. His body felt floppy and weak. He liked the feeling.
‘Bump me again,’ Danny chuckled. ‘But not too hard.’
‘No, I’ll spin you this time,’ Sam replied.
‘Okay,’ said Danny. ‘Grab my shirt and spin me fast. Make me dizzy.’
Sam was keen. ‘Right, you asked for it. Hang on.’
Sam took the tail of Danny’s shirt in his hands and whizzed him around and around. Danny’s outstretched arms thumped the walls. The boys laughed raucously.
Weak and floppy with laughter, Danny lost his balance and dropped to his knees with a dull thud.
Sam took hold of his brother’s arm and dragged him along. ‘Come on,’ he said. ‘Up you get. I’ll spin you again.’
‘Okay,’ Danny laughed. ‘Just wait until I get up.’
Sam pulled harder. Danny staggered to his feet.
The boys bumped into each other again and cried out happily, ‘Whoa, ho, ho, ho.’
They were loud, but not as loud as their father when he suddenly stormed into the dull light at the end of the passageway. ‘That’s enough!’ he roared viciously. He’d been in the kitchen sorting through folders and papers. ‘Now get outside!’
Stunned, the boys stopped. Sam’s eyes were sparkling. He smiled brightly up at his father. ‘What did we do, Dad?’ he asked innocently.
His dad took a step forward. He loomed in the darkest part of the passageway. His unshaven face was shadowed. ‘Don’t answer me back!’ he snarled.
Sam’s smile quickly faded.
Then pointing sharply to the back door, his dad yelled, ‘I said get outside!’
Danny stared at his dad as he edged past and thought he looked different. Maybe it was just that he hadn’t had a shave and wasn’t wearing his hat and he looked tired. Or maybe it was the dull light of the passageway. He just didn’t look right.
Danny was distracted from his thoughts by the sound of his mum’s footsteps. She walked, soft and calm, into the passageway and put her hands gently on the boys’ shoulders. ‘Off you go,’ she said quietly. ‘Your dad’s trying to think.’
Clutching at his forehead, Danny’s dad slunk back into the kitchen. The boys walked behind him as quietly as a snake slithers through spring grass. Their dad slumped into a chair at the kitchen table. He had his back to them. Envelopes and papers surrounded his elbows. There were folders stacked at his feet in leaning towers. Danny’s mum walked the boys to the back door and pushed it open. ‘Vicki’s down the back. She’s dragging things out of the shed to make a cubby house in the old pepper trees. She won’t be able to do it alone. Why don’t you go and help her?’
The boys walked out the back door and headed toward the shed.
Halfway down Danny broke the silence. ‘What’s wrong with Dad?’ he asked.
Sam glanced back to the house and shrugged his shoulders. He hung his head and kicked up dust. ‘I don’t know,’ he said distantly. ‘Probably just a headache.’
He playfully nudged Danny to unbalance him. ‘We were pretty rowdy,’ he chuckled.
‘Yeah,’ giggled Danny. ‘No one could think above that racket.’
Sam grabbed Danny’s shirt, swung him mischievously and took off. Danny laughed and stumbled dizzily after him.
Down at the shed, Vicki emerged from the shadows. She had her arms wrapped around a long piece of wood and was dragging it along. Her flowery dress was filthy. She had a dark grubby mark across her cheek and her hair clips were loose. Her long fine hair, gently curled at the temples, fell across her face. She was singing as usual. Tra, la, la, la, dee, dah.
Danny shook his head. She always seemed to be singing the same song. His mum was the same. Once she had a song in her head she’d sing it over and over again for days. Then she’d go and buy the song and play it over and over again for weeks.
Vicki stopped when she saw the boys. She blew away the annoying strand of hair that hung over her eyes with a strong puff of air from her bottom lip.
Her face filled with delight. ‘Hey boys,’ she sparked. ‘Do you want to help me?’ Vicki dropped the piece of wood and skipped over to them. Her hair flapped at her shoulders. ‘I’ve got this really good idea.’
She stood next to Danny and looked up into the branches of the big pepper trees. Her face was scrunched because the sun was in her eyes. Vicki pointed to the trees. ‘I want to build a house up there with the birds.’
With a hand shielding his eyes, Danny gazed up into the sparks of sunlight flickering through the leaves of the tree. He squinted. ‘Yeah, I think we can do that.’
He had no idea how, so he looked to his big brother. ‘Can’t we, Sam?’
Sam nodded. ‘Yeah, we can do that.’
Vicki bounced on the spot and clapped loudly. ‘Yaaayyy! I’ll get more stuff from the shed.’
They all set to work.
Sam took charge. He was a good builder. His Lego constructions were incredible. There was a whole city on their bedroom floor once, with streets, houses, offices, institute halls and a freeway that went under his bed that he called the bed-tunnel freeway. When he finished constructing it he took some model aeroplanes he’d built and he and Danny flew about in dogfights above the Lego city. They dropped bombs made of marbles and cheered at the cracking sound of exploding Lego until the city lay in ruins. Then they rebuilt it and started again. It was wicked!
But some of the best things Sam created were made with junk – like the huge cardboard-box castle that sat under the window and the two tin-can tractors. These were made of a tin can with wheels, a little wooden seat and an engine drawn in feltpen on the side, and they sat on his bedside cupboard. They had a rubber band that ran through the centre of the can and somehow made them zoom along when it was wound up. Danny didn’t understand how.
Two kites with bamboo frames and clear plastic coverings hung on one wall. Sam had cut small round holes into the bamboo so that the kites would whistle like flutes when they flew. He’d read a book that said such kites were used in ancient wars and flown over armies at night to make ghostly sounds to scare the enemy. Sam loved the idea and put it into practice by terrifying Mark Thompson one windy night.
Danny loved it when Sam was inventing or building. It usually meant an exciting adventure would follow. Danny was amazed at the way Sam’s mind worked and how he made little dreams come true. He was convinced that one day Sam would become someone very important – like an inventor, or scientist, or space explorer, or someone else who would be of enormous help to the world.
With great anticipation, Danny watched as Sam surveyed the site. He wandered thoughtfully, plans taking shape in his mind. Danny followed as Sam walked around the trees examining their trunks and branches. Then he strode into the tractor shed to check out what he could use in construction.
Sam climbed the tree to look for the best building spot. Where the leaves were thickest he stood on a chunky branch that ran parallel with the ground. The branch forked off at a perfect point and spread like a giant hand holding a small jewel in its palm. ‘We’ll build the floor here,’ Sam called, pointing to his feet. ‘Across these two branches.’ He stood astride the two thick prongs of the fork. ‘It’ll be perfect.’ He looked across to the other pepper tree, which wasn’t far away. ‘We can build two houses,’ he said. ‘One in each tree and then . . . link them with a rope bridge.’
Vicki bounced up and down clapping her hands for the second time in only a few minutes. ‘Yay! Yaaaaaay!’
Danny was excited, but resisted the urge to bounce. He could imagine two perfect tree houses with a rope bridge just like those that stretched across dangerous canyons in places like Argentina and Brazil. And it was going to be right here in his backyard. Brilliant! This was going to be a good day.
Vicki stopped bouncing and stood in front of Danny. She suddenly looked very serious. ‘I get to choose the best house,’ she declared loudly, with hands on hips. ‘It was my idea. I get to choose.’
Danny put his hands on her shoulders. ‘All right, all right. You get to choose.’
Danny and Vicki watched Sam climb down. ‘Let’s get started,’ he said as he marched toward the tractor shed. Intensely curious, Danny and Vicki followed like sheep.
‘How are we going to get everything up there, Sam?’ Danny asked.
Sam waved a dismissive hand. ‘Don’t worry, I’ve got that all figured out,’ he said.
Vicki quickened her step and skipped up beside Sam. ‘Remember, I get to choose the best house,’ she repeated.
‘You’ll have a hard choice,’ Sam replied. ‘They’re both going to be pretty good.’
Vicki frowned thoughtfully. ‘Will you help me choose then?’
‘Of course,’ Sam grinned shiftily. ‘I’ll choose for you if you like.’
Vicki was happy.
The patch of ground beneath the trees soon looked like a building site. There were old pieces of wood dumped in a small pile, bags, ropes, tins and wooden boxes. Sam clipped on a tool belt that held a hammer, some pliers and a pouch containing an assortment of nails. Vicki and Danny were in the shed pulling out more wood. Vicki was wearing huge leather gloves so that she didn’t get splinters or spiders on her hands. Danny had found them for her after taking a tiny splinter from her thumb that was as fine as a strand of hair and hardly visible; it had sent her into a screaming frenzy.
Using strands of wire twisted and tied securely, Sam hung a pulley in the tree. He threaded a rope through it and let one end drop to the ground. It dangled like a snake. His idea was to tie anything heavy he might need to the rope at ground level, then haul it up into the tree – just like a crane on a skyscraper. Danny was in awe of his brother; he would never have thought of such a thing.
The first item they hoisted into the tree was an old wooden picket gate that their dad had made once. There were ten splintery pickets with small gaps. It looked rough, but it was strong. They had all tested its strength by bouncing on it in the shed; Vicki gave it a particularly long bouncing test. ‘I’ll use this for the floor,’ Sam had suggested. ‘It will look like the decking that some of those fancy houses have around their swimming pools.’
Sam waited in the tree as Danny and Vicki took the dangling rope and tied the gate with lots of ugly knots.
‘Make sure you tie it on properly,’ Sam called.
‘Don’t worry,’ replied Danny, looking down at the intestine of knots they’d created. ‘It’s tied on all right.’
Sam slowly pulled the old gate, spinning and swaying, up into the branches. The pulley squeaked and Danny was reminded of images he’d seen on TV of huge cranes hauling girders to the top of city buildings under construction.
Sam peered down to see Danny and Vicki standing directly beneath the swinging gate.
‘Hey! You idiots!’ he yelled. ‘Stand back in case it falls.’ All good building sites should consider the safety of their workers.
‘We tied lots of good knots,’ Vicki called back.
‘I don’t care!’ Sam snapped. ‘Stand back because if it falls it’ll kill you.’
The thought of dying under a killer gate dropped from the sky made Vicki walk away very quickly. She ended up standing all the way back near the house.
Danny watched Sam struggle. The gate wasn’t heavy, but it was awkward. Sam couldn’t pull it into the tree by himself. He nearly fell out trying.
‘Come up and help me, Danny.’
Danny was happy to climb up and help.
Together, the boys quickly pulled it into position. They laid it across the forked branches and then tied it on with wire, small pieces of thin rope and a lot of nylon string. Sam checked all of Danny’s knots and once it was secure they sat on it for the first time.
‘This is brilliant!’ Danny said, looking in all directions.
The boys could see into the shed below where the old tractor sat silent. They looked through the leaves past the house to the panoramic view of dusty Mundowie and beyond.
Danny was looking north to the gentle roll of endless hills and the patchwork of crooked fences. Sam was looking south to the big creek and the huge trees, their branches spattered with flocks of restless cockatoos.
Below them Vicki had moved to stand on a long piece of wood that Danny had placed on the top of the small pile of building materials. She was making it teeter like a seesaw. Tra, la, la, la, dee, dah.
Billy was chasing chickens and creating panic. Danny thought of Tippy and felt sad for only an instant because funny memories of Tippy pushed any sadness away. Danny smiled and fondly compared the chicken- chasing styles of the two dogs.
Tippy’s style had been more aggressive. He loved to bare his teeth, act tough and strut to show the chickens he was boss. And when he was finished he would run to Danny to have his ears ruffled and get his approving pat. ‘You little bully.’
Billy on the other hand was just silly. He didn’t look as though he wanted to take charge and didn’t seem interested in their food scraps either. Maybe that would come later as he grew, but for now he just liked to chase them. To him, chasing chickens was a game and he could play by himself, he didn’t need anyone else – the chickens had no choice but to join in.
Danny watched the little dog run at them again. The chickens huddled together in panic.
Pertakeeeerk. Cluuuuuck. Cluck, cluck, cluck.
Yap! Yap! Yap! What a great game.
When Billy stopped yapping, Sam suddenly clutched Danny’s arm. ‘Look,’ he said, pointing toward the sound of a car roaring along the dusty road that dipped into the creek. Danny saw only swirling dust at first. Then he saw the car growl up out of the creek and into the town. The boys knew who it was and suddenly understood why their dad had been wildly angry. It was the man from the bank. Danny’s dad didn’t seem to like him very much.
The boys tracked the car all the way to the front fence.
Vicki stopped singing. Billy left the chickens and ran to greet the visitor.
The car pulled up and the dust it created drifted across the house. Through the haze the boys saw a leg in dark trousers and black shiny shoes appear at the bottom of the car door as it opened. The man stood up and stiffened his shoulders, then took a bag from the back of his car and walked up the pathway toward the house.
His name was Adolf, or at least that’s what Danny’s dad called him. Danny couldn’t understand why his dad didn’t like Adolf.
It was true, his black hair was a bit greasy and he didn’t like getting dust on his shoes, al
ways giving his toes a little polish on the leg of his trousers just before he walked to the front door, but he seemed like a nice man. He’d visited a lot in recent weeks and had given Danny, Sam and Vicki each a great moneybox. They were metal and modelled on the bank building in the city. Danny had hidden his under his bed behind his sleeping bag, basketball and boogie board. He was saving and already had seventeen dollars and fifty-five cents.
Adolf walked through the front yard. He shook a leg at Billy, who barked at his heels. The boys lost sight of him when he walked up the front steps and under the verandah.
‘I hope he doesn’t keep Dad talking all day,’ said Danny. ‘He’ll be even grumpier if he does.’
‘Forget all that,’ said Sam. ‘Let’s keep working.’
‘What do you want to do next?’ asked Danny.
Sam’s eyes lit up. ‘Let’s start the rope bridge.’
‘Yeah!’ Danny exclaimed. He leant over and peered down at Vicki. ‘We need a rope, Vicki.’
Vicki didn’t stop swaying on her little seesaw. ‘Why don’t you come and get one yourself.’
‘You won’t get first choice of the houses if you don’t help.’
Vicki stopped immediately. She looked up at Danny’s face peering down at her through the leaves and adjusted her giant gloves. ‘Yes I will!’ she said as she marched off to hunt for a rope. ‘Sam said.’
The boys climbed out of the tree and Sam set about designing his bridge. He knew how the rope bridge should look, but just to be sure he had it clear in his mind, he drew a picture on a piece of white wood with one of his dad’s carpenter’s pencils.
Danny and Vicki watched over his shoulder.
‘I wish I could draw like that,’ said Danny, thinking aloud.
‘Can we build it now?’ asked Vicki, picking up a piece of timber.
‘Put that down,’ said Sam. ‘I’ll do it.’
‘But I have to help.’ Vicki pouted. ‘Or you won’t let me choose the best house.’
‘Will you shut up about the best house,’ said Sam, sorting through the timber. ‘You can have it, all right?’
Danny Allen Was Here Page 11