Dirt Bomb

by Beale, Fleur

  I grunted. I hoped she’d talked about paying me. But no — didn’t mention it. What she wanted was for me to do the same thing all over again in the afternoon.

  ‘No,’ I said.

  Gramps pushed the phone at me. ‘There’s her number. You ring her and tell her you’re too miserable to help out in a crisis.’

  ‘Tell her yourself,’ I said. ‘And lay off the emotional blackmail.’

  He shook his head. ‘I’m not telling her. If you don’t want to do it, you tell her.’

  ‘Go to hell,’ I said, just as the phone rang.

  Gramps left it sitting on the table. ‘Could be Buzz. Or Robbie,’ he said.

  We both knew it wouldn’t be. I answered it. ‘Yeah?’

  It was Louise, sounding a lot better than earlier. ‘Jake? Thank you a thousand times …’ and off she went into a rave about how I’d saved her life.

  ‘Is he okay? Your husband, I mean,’ I asked. Anything to shut her up.

  She said he was very sick but the doctors thought he’d pull through, and that led her straight into why she was calling, which was to bend my arm to make me milk again that afternoon.

  ‘Look,’ I said. ‘I’m really not up to it. I didn’t even know where to put the cows this morning.’

  She brushed that aside. If I’d just milk tonight, they had somebody who could take over tomorrow. ‘Please, Jake, I know it’s a lot to ask.’

  She still hadn’t said a thing about paying me. ‘See if you can get somebody else,’ I said.

  She started crying again. ‘I can’t. I can’t think, not with Bill lying here looking so awful.’

  Great. ‘All right. I’ll do it.’

  She went into raptures again.

  I hung up and chucked the phone on the table.

  ‘You’d better take me, because if I have to bike out there I’m not going.’

  Gramps said, ‘Course I’ll take you, son. Anything to help a neighbour in trouble.’

  I left. I was late and the others would have hit the paddock without me.

  ‘WHO SLEPT IN then?’ Buzz jeered when I arrived.

  ‘Bro, you need an alarm on your phone,’ Robbie said, busting a gut laughing.

  I stared at Buzz. ‘So it’s not your fault I’m late?’

  ‘Huh?’ he said.

  I’d been sure it was him who’d given Louise my name. I told them about the morning’s drama.

  Buzz whistled. ‘Wasn’t me, bro.’ Then light dawned. ‘I bet it was Dad.’

  That figured. Frank would have been falling over himself to make me work.

  I drove flat out all day until we ran out of gas midafternoon. We’d run out of money too.

  ‘I’ve got six bucks left,’ I said.

  ‘You’ll get paid for this morning,’ Buzz said.

  I shrugged. ‘She didn’t say anything about paying me. Crying too hard.’

  They shook their heads. ‘Bad,’ Robbie said. ‘Very bad.’

  We left the car where it had died in the middle of the paddock. Robbie rode off to hang with Jayna, but hadn’t gone far when he turned around and raced back.

  ‘Forgot to ask you. Jayna says do you want to hang out at hers tonight? The ancient guardians will be out. She’s going to order pizza and get some DVDs. No alcohol though. She’s gone off it, she says.’

  ‘Nah. Thanks,’ I said. I didn’t want to watch Robbie getting cosy with his girl.

  ‘She’s invited some chicks,’ he said.

  Buzz and I looked at each other. ‘Might as well,’ Buzz said.

  So all I had to do between now and then was milk a thousand or so cows all by myself.

  I hoped there’d be an envelope waiting for me when I got home, and that in it would be a huge stack of dollars to pay me for rescuing the Longs. No such luck. Gramps wasn’t there either, and I hoped he wouldn’t turn up. But of course he did.

  I didn’t chat to him on the way, just like I hadn’t chatted to Mum when she took me. They could twist my arm and make me do this, but I didn’t have to like it.

  The dog and I brought the cows up from the paddock. I started the machines, remembering in the nick of time to check to see if the vat needed washing. It did.

  This milking went much better than the morning’s, though. Smoother. I didn’t hassle the cows and they didn’t hassle me. I did the entire milking with fourteen a side.

  Gramps poked his head in just as I was finishing up. ‘Louise rang. She said to put the cows in the nearest paddock to the shed on the right.’

  Bloody brilliant. Now I’d have to trudge half a kilometre to get them back from where they’d been. Just as well the dog was keen for a run. I gave him an extra helping of biscuits when we’d got the old girls safely parked in their new paddock.

  I washed the shed down, rinsed off the boots and got in the car. Gramps had an old towel on the seat and newspaper on the floor.

  ‘By the way,’ he said. ‘I gave Louise your number.’

  ‘She doesn’t bloody need my number,’ I growled. ‘She found it quick enough this morning.’

  ‘Your bank account number,’ Gramps said, his face straight.

  I let that sink in. ‘She’s going to pay me?’

  ‘Don’t you think you’ve earned it?’ he asked.

  I don’t answer dumb questions.

  ‘You’d better start putting some of it away, lad. The IRD will be after you for tax. Best to save it as you go.’

  I slumped down in the seat. The rat-race was grabbing me by the throat and slowly choking the life out of me.

  Chapter Twenty-one

  GIRLS

  I GOT SHOT of odour of cow, had a bite to eat just in case Jayna’s idea of enough food was one pizza to share between ten people, and took myself off to her house for an evening of alcohol-free fun. I had a game plan, though — when it got too boring, I would leave and say I wasn’t used to getting up before daylight.

  Buzz was already there and so was Robbie, sitting with his arm around his girl.

  ‘Hi,’ I said.

  ‘Hi,’ Jayna said. ‘Good to see you, Jake. It’s nice that you could come.’

  I found a spot on the deck that just happened to be between the other two girls.

  ‘Meet Mary Lou,’ Jayna said, pointing to the chick on my right. ‘And Erina.’

  We all smiled and said hi. Buzz was eyeing up Mary Lou, so I talked to Erina.

  ‘You live around here?’ I asked.

  She smiled. She had a nice smile, so I smiled back and hoped mine was nice too. ‘I’m staying with my aunty. I live in Stratford.’

  Jayna ordered the pizza — and everybody put money on the table. Except me. I hadn’t given it a thought. She said she’d order pizza, but I hadn’t connected the dots that said we’d all chip in for it.

  ‘Uh,’ I said, and I could feel my face getting hot. ‘I haven’t been paid. No money.’ Except for six bucks which was at home lying on my desk.

  Buzz said, ‘No sweat. I’ll put in for you. Pay me back when you get paid.’ He threw a twenty on the table. ‘She’s going to pay you, is she?’

  ‘Yeah. Putting the money in my bank account. Don’t know when, though.’ I took a breath. ‘Thanks, bro. I’ll pay you back.’

  He gave me a look that said That’ll be a change, but he didn’t say it out loud and just because of that I would definitely pay him back.

  It turned out to be a good evening. Erina was easy to talk to and she didn’t freak me out the way Melanie had done. Buzz was going okay with Mary Lou too.

  The talk turned to school, though. Erina and Mary Lou were both going into Year 13, same as us, and the year after that Erina was going to go on to uni.

  ‘What for?’ I asked. ‘I mean, what course?’

  She took another bite of her pizza — it was only her second slice. No wonder she looked so streamlined. ‘Physics.’

  I gaped at her. ‘Physics?’

  She laughed. ‘Yeah. It’s interesting.’

  She had to be one seriously
smart chick.

  ‘What about you?’ she asked. ‘What are you going to do when you leave school?’

  I shrugged. ‘Not milk cows.’

  ‘I’m going into the army,’ Mary Lou said.

  That made me gape at her too, and I noticed Buzz was doing the same. ‘The army?’ he asked, his voice almost squeaking.

  Now she laughed. ‘Don’t I look tough enough?’

  To be truthful, she didn’t. Too short and too skinny.

  ‘I want to be an electrician,’ she said, ‘and the army pays you while you train.’

  Robbie chipped in with, ‘Jayna’s going to do web design.’

  Then all three of them wanted to know what we were all going to do. ‘Not milking cows gives you a lot of choice still,’ Erina said, laughing at me.

  Yeah. I had other things I could add to the list of what not to do, and top of it would be don’t turn out like my old man. I tuned into what Buzz was saying and I had to work hard to keep my mouth shut. He’d never said any of this stuff before — but then, it wasn’t something we talked about either. ‘I’m going to get my pilot’s licence.’

  ‘Cool,’ Mary Lou said. ‘You might be flying the plane next time Jayna comes to En Zed.’

  Buzz shook his head. ‘Not me. I want to fly small planes and helicopters. I want to be a rescue pilot or fly one for the police.’

  I was still digesting that when Robbie put in his two cents’ worth. ‘I want to go to art school.’ That wasn’t such a surprise. He was good, really good.

  So that just left me. I lay back on the deck. ‘Plenty of time to decide. School hasn’t started yet.’

  ‘But we’ll have to confirm our subjects any day now,’ Buzz said. ‘I’m dropping Bio and picking up Engineering instead.’

  ‘Hey, it’s still the holidays,’ I said. ‘What DVDs did you get?’

  We stopped talking about the weighty stuff and went inside to watch a DVD. I sat beside Erina.

  Jayna’s guardian dragons came home at 10.30. That broke the party up. They’d been out dancing. Life was full of surprises.

  Jayna came with us out to the road. I said, ‘How about we all go to a movie? Wednesday?’ But I was looking at Erina.

  She smiled her awesome smile and said, ‘Sounds fun. Let’s do it.’

  So the others all said yes, a good idea. Which it was, so long as Louise had the cash in my account before then.

  I checked next morning. ‘Yee ha!’

  Mum came in clutching a long spoon. ‘What’s the matter?’ She looked worried.

  I jabbed at the screen. ‘Nothing’s the matter! Louise has paid me one hundred and fifty bucks.’ First thing Monday, I would book my learner’s test.

  Mum gave me a one-armed hug. ‘You’re a man of means, Jake.’

  I left home early enough to go to the ATM. Man, it felt good to get those notes in my fist. Weirdly, it even felt good to hand over the fifty we’d each decided to put into the kitty for petrol. And I gave Buzz the tenner he’d put in for me.

  He grinned at me. ‘Thanks, bro.’

  It felt different, blatting the car round the paddock, knowing that it was my hard-earned cash it was chewing through. I couldn’t decide if I liked the feeling or if I resented it. A bit of both, probably. Then I decided it would be okay if I knew I’d be getting more work, but Buzz hadn’t said anything about milking that night. I asked him.

  ‘Solo job again,’ he said.

  But when I got home, Gramps had left a note on the table for me: Louise wants to know if you would milk for them till Sat. Guy they got in was a useless prick.

  He’d left her number. I sat down and looked at it for about five minutes, tossing up the pluses and minuses. But both were so obvious they didn’t need a lot of thinking about. I picked up the phone. ‘Yeah, I’ll do it,’ I told her.

  I waited while she raved about how wonderful I was and how her husband would relax now he knew his herd was in good hands.

  So I did the decent thing and asked, ‘How is he?’

  She actually laughed. ‘He’s getting better. Thanks, I have to say, largely to you.’

  That might be piling it on too thick, but hey, if it made her happy.

  I raided the pantry. A working man needed to keep his strength up.

  Mum did the honours in driving me out to the Longs’. I thought she might go on about how pleased she was with how I was turning out, but she just chatted away about nothing much and she seemed suspiciously happy.

  ‘Have you met a guy?’ I asked. She was an okay looker, it wouldn’t surprise me.

  She looked startled. ‘No! Whatever makes you think that?’

  ‘You just seem happier than usual. Excited.’

  She laughed. ‘I wasn’t going to say anything till it’s certain. But I’ve probably got a new job.’

  ‘Wow, Mum. That’s spectacular!’ I patted her shoulder. ‘What doing?’

  ‘Manager of a plant shop,’ she said. ‘I’ll know for definite on Monday, but it’s all looking good.’

  ‘Brilliant.’ She’d be good at it too.

  Then she stunned me by saying, ‘It’s really thanks to you, darling.’ She took her eyes off the road to smile at me. ‘You dived in and did something you didn’t want to do. And it’s worked out. So I thought if you could be brave, then so could I, and I applied for this job.’

  Well, well. I sat chuckling to myself the rest of the way.

  I BOOKED MY learner’s on Monday and hoped I’d be awake enough not to make dumb mistakes. I fronted up, carrying the proof that I was me and not a Martian. Got my sight checked and did the test. Aced it.

  I biked home. Excellent. Gramps was there.

  ‘I can drive to work,’ I yelled, waving the licence at him.

  He clapped me on the back. ‘A double celebration then,’ he said. ‘Your mum got the job.’

  ‘That’s great,’ I said round a mouthful of the chocolate cake he’d made.

  It was a bummer that Gramps had to come with me while I drove, but at last I was on my way. When I pulled up at the farm, making sure I didn’t stand on the brakes when I stopped, he said, ‘You’re doing okay. For a learner.’

  The other event of that week, in between milkings, was the movie evening with the girls. I kept trying to imagine Mary Lou in army fatigues, but I just couldn’t see it.

  Erina asked for my mobile number. ‘You haven’t got one?’ She couldn’t get her head around it.

  ‘You could get one,’ Robbie said.

  ‘I might,’ I said. I turned to Erina. ‘Give me your number and I’ll text you if I do.’

  She didn’t write the number on my arm the way Jayna had done for Robbie. Erina had class. She whipped out a little notebook and wrote on a page of that.

  I wondered whether to hold her hand in the movie. I thought about that instead of concentrating on the screen. About halfway through, I decided to go for it. She’d be going back home in a week anyway. What was there to lose?

  When I took her hand, she squeezed mine and snuggled in closer. I watched death and destruction on the screen with a big smile on my face.

  We went to Maccas afterwards, but lucky for me we didn’t discuss the movie. When we left, I asked Erina, ‘Where are you staying? Want me to walk you home?’ Then I held my breath — what if she was staying a zillion miles away?

  She said, ‘I’d like that.’ She gave me the address. Not too far — phew.

  We started walking and we found stuff to talk about all the way. She asked what I’d thought of the movie, so I said, ‘Didn’t take much notice. Too busy thinking about you.’

  She didn’t seem at all upset by that. We got to her house really quickly and just as I was wondering if I could kiss her, she leaned in and kissed me. ‘It’s been a lovely evening, Jake.’

  And it hadn’t finished. I put my arms around her and kissed her back again. She didn’t get upset about that either.

  I walked home, smiling all the way. Not even depressed at the thought of milking agai
n in the morning.

  That was a long week, though. I would never get used to the early mornings and then repeating the whole process again in the evenings.

  Chapter Twenty-two

  LADY DRIVERS

  THE WEEK RACED past, even though it should have dragged because of the milking. I was getting better at managing the sixteen-a-side thing and by the middle of the week I didn’t need to turn it into a fourteen. Mum was usually the one who rolled out of bed to take me, and she was okay with me doing the driving.

  Each day I went to the paddock with Buzz and Robbie, but we’d give it away around lunchtime to head for the beach. Erina and Mary Lou weren’t lifeguards but they mostly hung out there. Robbie looked pissed off that we could chat away to our girls but he couldn’t talk to his till she was having a break.

  On Thursday afternoon, during one of her breaks, Jayna said, ‘I’ve got tomorrow off. Us girls want to drive the basher.’

  ‘We do?’ Erina said. First she’d heard of it, I’d say.

  ‘Yep. We do,’ Mary Lou said, even though you could tell it was news to her too.

  ‘Okay,’ Robbie said.

  We told them where and when to meet us. That was something to look forward to while I dodged streams of cow shit that evening. It wasn’t so bad, though, the milking. Buzz was right — the cows were okay. The dog was a good ’un too.

  While I was waiting for Gramps to collect me, the thought crossed my mind that a mobile could be useful. I really didn’t want one, even though most people seemed not to be able to survive without one. Mobiles chewed through the cash. Cars chewed through the cash as well. I’d have to have a real job to stop the whole lot crashing and burning if I got a rally car …Yeah right. Dreams.

  Gramps arrived at last. ‘You’re finished early. Getting the hang of it, are you?’

  That wasn’t worth replying to, so I didn’t.

  The girls were on time next morning. The three of them were jumping around, all happy and excited.

  ‘I’ve never driven before,’ Jayna said. ‘Can’t wait to give it a try.’