‘What?’ he asked.
‘Pay attention,’ she snapped. ‘Me mate came through with permission from Crawford’s. They’re sending a digital copy of the mini-series next week. So we is all set to rock ’n’ roll.’
Josh gazed up at Ratchet. Rock ’n’ roll? He nodded.
‘You and your friends – youse need to come over some time so we can discuss dates for the screening.’ Josh noticed that Ratchet looked a little different from before. Her eyes seemed … not as manic. The corners of her mouth were twitching a bit higher. Could it be … she was excited?
‘Cool,’ said Josh.
‘Way cool,’ answered Ratchet, as she strode off down the street. ‘C’est fantastique.’
Josh didn’t have the heart to tell her that nothing had been settled yet at school. Today was the day that fundraising ideas would be discussed.
What if no one likes my plan? he worried.
‘I hope you all had a good think about fundraising ideas over the course of the week,’ said Ms Wright. ‘Who would like to go first?’
Josh’s hand shot up in the air.
‘I have a written proposal,’ announced Marceline, jumping to her feet and waving about a plastic folder full of papers.
‘Oh my,’ said Ms Wright. ‘That’s impressive, Marceline. Why don’t you come up and tell us all about it.’
Marceline walked to the front of the class, giving Josh a smug look as she went. ‘My friends and I have been meeting every day after school to brainstorm ideas. And we did some online research. I’ve put together all the statistics into this.’ She smiled sweetly at Ms Wright. ‘Based on what schools across Australia and other countries have done to raise money, car washes are the most successful. But we can’t do that because it’s really dry here and we have water restrictions. Markets and trash and treasure sales were also high on the list. So I think that we should be running a Trash and Treasure Market that includes local souvenirs. We should be targeting the tourist dollar.’
Tourist dollar? Targeting? Josh shook his head. She sounds like some sort of marketing brochure.
Marceline handed the folder to Ms Wright. ‘It’s all in here.’ Then she returned to her seat, giving Josh another smug smirk.
‘This is very impressive,’ mumbled Ms Wright, as she flipped through the pages. ‘I think we may have found our class fundraiser. It’s certainly something we could all be involved in.’
Josh’s arm, still in the air, sagged.
‘Excuse me, Ms Wright,’ said Sally. ‘We held an after-school meeting, too.’ She pointed to Pete and Josh. ‘We didn’t write things down, but we have a pretty good idea.’
‘Oh?’ said the teacher. ‘Well, let’s hear it, Sally.’
Sally gave Josh a little shove from behind. His hand was still half-heartedly in the air.
‘Um,’ started Josh. ‘Well, we thought that –’
‘Out the front please, Josh, Sally, Peter,’ said Ms Wright.
Josh lowered his hand and pushed his chair back. It made a scraping noise along the wooden floor. He moved hesitantly to the front of the room, followed by his two friends. Josh turned to face the class, making a point of not looking at Marceline. Sally stood by his side, while Pete hung back trying to hide behind the other two.
‘We thought we could show The Flying Doctors at the drive-in.’
Marceline made a little noise, like a cross between a giggle and a snort.
‘That’s a nice idea, Josh,’ said Ms Wright. ‘But that might be a bit difficult to organise. A market would be easier.’
‘Actually, it won’t be that hard,’ piped up Sally. ‘We’ve sort of made a start already.’ She looked encouragingly at Josh. He took a deep breath and continued.
‘Yes. We already spoke to Ratch … I mean, the owner of the drive-in. The RFDS saved her life when she was a kid, so she’s keen to help. She said we could use her drive-in. And she’s already organised permission to show The Flying Doctors. That’s the old mini-series from TV. All we have to do is get people to come. And … and … we could target the tourist dollar. It’s set in the outback, so people who’ve come sightseeing here would probably be interested.’
‘And it wouldn’t just be a one-night fundraiser,’ said Sally, again looking to Josh.
‘Yep.’ He nodded, feeling his enthusiasm rise. ‘It’s a mini-series. So we can show it over three nights. Which means more ticket sales. Which means more money for the RFDS.’
‘Wow,’ said Ms Wright, sounding impressed. ‘The three of you did all that?’
Marceline’s face fell.
The teacher rolled up the marketing proposal in her hands and tapped her chin with it. ‘Yours and Marceline’s ideas are good,’ she said thoughtfully. ‘Perhaps we can do both?’ She smiled at the class. ‘Yes. I’ll contact the RFDS and let them know what our plans are. I think they will be thrilled that we’re doing two different fundraisers.’
Marceline glared at Josh.
‘Hey Dad,’ said Josh as his father dropped onto a kitchen chair. ‘Got some news.’
Dad stretched, yawned and leaned back, closing his eyes. Josh was making dinner for them tonight. He was sick of baked beans, so he had offered to cook. Bacon and eggs on toast was usually more of a breakfast thing, but it was something he knew how to make, and something he really liked.
‘Dad?’ said Josh, when his father hadn’t responded.
Dad opened his eyes with a sigh. ‘Yeah, what is it?’
‘We talked about the fundraising ideas at school today,’ said Josh, as he pushed the bacon to one side of the pan and cracked the eggs into the sizzling fat. ‘And we’re gonna do my idea.’
‘That’s great, son.’ Dad stifled another yawn.
The toast sprung out of the toaster with a little metallic clang.
‘We’re showing The Flying Doctors mini-series at the drive-in,’ continued Josh, when he realised his dad wasn’t going to ask him about it. ‘We’ll be making posters and flyers. Not just for the locals. We’re also going to … target the tourist dollar.’
‘I hope you know what you’re getting yourself into,’ said Dad. ‘Sounds like an awful lot of work. Don’t forget you’ve got chores here too. I don’t want them falling off.’
‘Don’t worry. I’ll do my chores.’ Josh tried to sound responsible. ‘I’ve already done this month’s muck out of the chook shed. The poddy calves are doing well. I took the trail bike out and checked the north fence today. All good. And I’ll check the south fence tomorrow. I’m keeping the kitchen clean while Mum is away. And dinner is ready.’
Josh buttered the toast and served up the bacon and eggs. He hung back for a while, the mention of Mum reminding him how much he missed her and how worried he still was. He bit at his lip and tried to push his anxiety away before sitting down at the table with Dad. He took a deep breath. ‘Will you come to the show?’
‘I don’t know, son,’ said Dad, shovelling food into his mouth. He continued to talk. ‘I’ve got a lot on my plate. And your mother’s not here. Not even sure when she’ll be getting home with your brother.’
Josh looked down at his own plate. He’d lost his appetite. He had planned to quiz Dad about how Nate was doing, hoping to get some more details … but now decided it wasn’t worth the effort.
After Dad finished eating, he went to bed, leaving Josh to wash up.
The next week was a blur of activity. Josh tried to focus as much as he could on the fundraiser. It kept his mind occupied with something positive, and while it didn’t stop him worrying about Mum and Nate, it did push the anxiety into the background.
Not just the Grade 6 class was involved. The whole school got behind the fundraising projects. But Marceline seemed determined to turn it into a competition and to come out the winner.
Josh and his friends worked hard. They drew posters. They created a flyer, which the school photocopied so they could hand it out to people.
Marceline did that too. Her posters were larger and more colou
rful. Her flyers were professionally designed because her dad was a graphic artist.
Josh got one of the kids in the class to make a page to put on the school’s website. Marceline got her dad to register a domain name and create a whole website.
Marceline set the date of the market for Friday in two weeks. Ratchet suggested having the screening on Friday, Saturday and Sunday of next week – a week prior to the market. She even suggested advertising the market at the screening. Josh announced this to the class. The next day Marceline changed the date of the market to the Friday of the screening.
‘No one wants to watch some old television show at the drive-in,’ she told Josh when he confronted her about the change of date. ‘We’re going to make more money with the market.’
‘It’s not a competition,’ said Josh.
‘Says you,’ huffed Marceline, turning her back on him and stalking off.
‘What is her problem?’ asked Pete.
Josh shrugged.
‘You know, if this was a movie, we’d come up with some sort of plan to sabotage her market so that no one will go to it.’
‘That’s horrible.’ Sally stared accusingly at Pete. ‘We don’t want the market to fail. That would mean less money for the RFDS. We want both events to be successful.’
‘Well, it’s going to be hard.’ Josh sighed. ‘Changing the dates was dumb. Now both things are going to get less people.’
‘Not necessarily,’ said Sally. ‘I think Marceline’s date change is a good thing.’
‘Huh?’ Josh and Pete stared at Sally.
Sally grinned. ‘I’ve got an idea.’
‘I have a written proposal,’ said Josh, holding above his head a couple of pages stapled together in the corner.
‘Oh?’ said Ms Wright. ‘What about?’
Josh got to his feet and came out to the front of the class. ‘Our two fundraisers have turned into some sort of competition.’ He looked at Marceline. She glared back. ‘And I think that’s … counter-productive.’ He smiled to himself for remembering the word Sally had suggested. ‘I reckon it makes more sense to work together.’ He glanced at Ms Wright. ‘Cooperation.’ He pointed to the ‘Class Principles’ sign stuck up on the wall of the classroom, which included the word cooperation.
‘Instead of running two separate fundraisers,’ he continued. ‘We should be working together.’
‘I’m not giving up my market,’ Marceline blurted out.
‘Your market?’ Her best friend Wendy was frowning. ‘Who drew the pictures for the poster?’
‘Yeah,’ added Mai-Ling. ‘And what about all the opal chips I got my parents to donate to sell?’
‘That’s not what I meant,’ flustered Marceline.
‘What did you mean?’ demanded Wendy.
Suddenly everyone was talking and arguing. Voices rose and tempers flared.
‘Class!’ called out Ms Wright. ‘Settle down, please. This is not a zoo. Settle down, right now.’
The voices subsided.
‘We shouldn’t be arguing!’ cried Josh. ‘We shouldn’t be competing. We should be working together.’ He looked out at the sea of student faces, which ranged from angry to bemused. ‘Cooperating.’
Ms Wright nodded.
‘We were talking about it yesterday,’ he indicated Pete and Sally. ‘We were thinking that rather than running two separate things, we should combine them.’
‘How?’ demanded Marceline.
‘Hold them on the same day in the same place,’ revealed Josh. ‘If we set up the market at the drive-in, people can shop while they wait for The Flying Doctors to start.’ He smiled at the class. ‘And if we run the market all afternoon, we can tell everyone who comes to return for the screening later. We could combine our advertising. We could all work together. And I’ll bet that we’ll make more money if we do things that way.’
‘That is a great idea, Josh,’ said Ms Wright.
‘Sally came up with it,’ said Josh.
‘Well, Sally,’ said Ms Wright, ‘it was a very mature and sensible suggestion.’
Sally blushed then smiled, relieved that the heat she felt in her cheeks wouldn’t show on her dark skin.
‘What does the rest of the class think?’ asked the teacher.
The kids all burst into cheers. Even Marceline reluctantly nodded.
‘We can also make some more money,’ Josh went on, ‘if we bring food to sell. Any ideas on what we can do?’
‘My parents own the milk bar,’ piped up Jason. ‘I’ll ask them to donate some lollies.’
‘I’ll get some pizza,’ said Lee. Her parents ran the new Italian takeaway.
‘The rest of us could bake some biscuits and cakes and things,’ suggested Ramone.
The class was alive with suggestions and enthusiasm.
‘It’s Hawaiian,’ said Josh, opening up the pizza box.
‘Oh,’ said Dad, sitting himself down in front of it. ‘I guess I can pick off the pineapple.’
Josh put a plate down on the table in front of Dad and got a slice for himself. He wondered if he should try to tell him about what happened at school – about how he got everyone to cooperate.
‘It’s cold,’ said Dad as he took a piece.
‘Sorry,’ said Josh. ‘Pete’s brother was late picking us up. And it’s a bit of a drive anyway. You could microwave it.’
Dad grunted and ate his slice cold.
‘Um …’ ventured Josh. ‘Could we ring Mum tonight?’
‘She already rang earlier,’ he said through a mouthful of pizza.
‘What did she say?’ asked Josh hopefully.
Dad shrugged. ‘Nuthin’ new.’ He took another mouthful. He didn’t pick off any of the pineapple.
Why don’t you tell me what’s going on? Josh screamed in his mind. Why don’t you talk to me? Can’t you see I’m worried? Can’t you tell I’m scared? Can’t you see I miss my mum?
Josh bit into his pizza angrily, tore a piece off, and chewed until his teeth ground against each other. For a few minutes he was a tense ball of rage, wanting desperately to tell Dad how he felt. But each time he opened his mouth to shout, he took a bit of pizza instead to stifle his anger.
They finished in silence.
Dad got up to leave the table and Josh looked up into his face. He noticed the dark circles under his eyes and the weary expression. As Dad turned to go, Josh saw the way his shoulders slumped and the tired shuffle of his walk.
Josh’s anger drained away.
Things went smoothly at school now that everyone was working together. Marceline was a little resistant at first, still trying to boss the others around, but even she began to get the hang of this cooperation stuff.
Posters were amended and hung up all over the town, especially around the hotels. Flyers were photocopied and a mail drop was organised, kids putting them into mailboxes each day after school. Marceline even convinced the hotel managers to place flyers into all the welcome packs in each room. The underground rooms were really popular with tourists, so having the flyers there was a good way to get attention.
There seemed to be a general buzz around town about it. Everyone was rallying behind the school and its students.
While Ratchet was still scaring people left, right and centre, Josh noticed that she appeared to be mellowing. And participating more than she originally said she would. She put posters up at the drive-in and handed out flyers to people at all the sessions in the days leading up to the charity screening. She even made announcements prior to the start of each film over the speakers.
Josh went to the drive-in on Tuesday after school to discuss food for the screening and where they could set up. Ratchet looked at him in a weird sort of way, then said, ‘I may set up the popcorn machine.’
‘That’s great,’ responded Josh. ‘People love popcorn while watching movies.’
‘May!’ Ratchet barked. ‘I said may. Haven’t completely made up my mind yet.’
‘Okay,’ said Josh slowly, wo
ndering how to respond without upsetting her more. ‘Well, thanks for thinking about it.’
‘Sure. No worries,’ Ratchet replied. Then after a short silence she added in an uncharacteristically quiet voice. ‘I probably will, though.’
Josh smiled.
On the Wednesday before the event, Marceline arranged for their class to go to the drive-in before school and start setting up. She and Josh got there first.
‘Youse can set up the market here,’ growled Ratchet, pointing to the back corner of the drive-in. ‘I got some trestle tables in storage. You can use ’em. Needs a bit of a clean up. Skip’s over there.’ She pointed to a rusty old skip at the back wall of the building.
‘What do you reckon?’ asked Josh.
‘Yeah,’ said Marceline, nodding. ‘I think we can use this.’
‘Great!’ barked Ratchet. ‘Glad you can think.’ She turned around and lumbered off muttering something in French.
Marceline stared after her. ‘She’s a bit … terrifying.’
‘She’s okay when you get used to her,’ said Josh. ‘Her bark is worse than her bite. Something Dad used to say about my grandpa. I think it works for Ratchet as well.’
‘And what’s with the name?’ asked Marceline. ‘Isn’t her name actually Rach–’
‘Shhhh,’ hissed Josh, glancing over his shoulder to make sure Ratchet had gone. ‘Don’t ever call her that. She doesn’t like it. And no Ms, Miss or Mrs. It’s just Ratchet.’
‘Oh,’ Marceline seemed a bit taken aback. ‘Okay.’ She kicked at a bit of scrunched-up newspaper on the ground. ‘Um. Sorry about everything.’ She didn’t look at Josh. ‘You know. The fundraising and stuff. I just wanted to make a difference.’
‘You are,’ said Josh. ‘The market idea is great. Lots of people are donating things. It’ll be huge. And now it’ll be even better.’
Marceline smiled.
‘Hey!’
They turned to see Pete and Sally walking towards them from the gate, followed by the rest of the class.
‘This is the spot,’ announced Marceline, waving her arms about and taking charge. ‘We just need to clean it up. So, if everyone gets started straightaway it shouldn’t take too long. I’ve talked to Ms Wright and we’re allowed to be a little bit late for class. But only a little bit.’
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