Primo rubbed his palms together. ‘Mum won’t sell any of it,’ he said.
‘Fine, but I’m going, Primo,’ Maddie snarled, her eyes narrowed, her chin poked out defiantly. ‘And whatever happens after that.’ Maddie shrugged, stepping back and pouting. ‘You’re so full of shit sometimes, Primo! You just keep promising but you mean nothing! I don’t know what I ever saw in you!’
Primo lunged as though he would grab Maddie, but she side-stepped and pointed a finger at him accusingly. ‘You’re never going to grow up are you, Primo? It’s always going to be “poor Primo”, isn’t it? Well, I don’t need that crap!’
Maddie stomped away a short distance.
‘Hey,’ he tried in a whisper, willing her to turn away from the view and look at him.
But Maddie didn’t turn around. Primo stood there, dumbfounded.
‘I took Bambino out for you,’ Primo hedged, trying a different tack. He brushed a hand over the bonnet. ‘I’m not supposed to, but for you.’
Maddie turned and stormed toward him.
‘For me? You’ve got to be kidding! What do I care about your precious retro car. Are you serious?’
Primo felt anger ignite deep inside him. Retro car!
‘Get in the car,’ he said flatly.
Maddie gave him the finger.
‘I’m not joking, Maddie. Get in the car and I’ll take you home,’ Primo pressed. He was standing by the passenger side door now, his hand on the handle. ‘Stop being a drama queen and get in the car.’
‘I’d sooner walk.’
Primo opened the car door slowly, stepping back and waving to usher Maddie inside the confined canopy. ‘Get in,’ he repeated.
Maddie snorted.
‘Last chance,’ Primo said, his chest tensing, his fingers tight on the handle.
Maddie didn’t move and reluctantly Primo slapped the door shut, walked round and opened the driver’s side door. He stood for a moment, resting his elbow on the door’s rim.
‘I don’t want this, Primo,’ Maddie said. ‘I don’t want to fight like this, but you’ve let me down.’
Primo’s certainty collapsed. He climbed in and turned the ignition. The engine started with a spurt, and the tiny car hopped forward. Primo engaged reverse and gunned the accelerator. Too hard. The engine stalled.
‘Get in, Maddie!’ he yelled and turned the ignition again. He punched the dashboard with his left hand, willing the car to fire.
Primo looked up and saw Maddie take several steps back to the edge of the road, her face betraying her surprise at hearing the growl of the car’s engine so close.
He felt the car rev and engaged first gear. The screech of gravel under the tyres cut the sound of the baying engine in half, and the car leapt forward. In a moment the tail swung around to the left, the car’s rear hiccupping round and sweeping so close to Maddie that Primo heard her draw a panicked breath.
‘You’re a prick, Primo!’ she yelped.
Primo gritted his teeth. Drama queen, he thought. He was nowhere close enough to hurt her. He swung the car to the right, bringing the driver’s door within arm’s reach of where Maddie stood, seemingly mesmerised.
When he laughed, the sound filled the car, echoing and pounding at his ears above the noise of the engine, groaning in protest as Primo pushed it fractionally further than he ought to without changing gear.
‘Get in the car!’ he shouted, reaching across to push the passenger side door open. It swung back and kicked against the rear panel.
Maddie slammed the door shut and thumped the canvas roof with a closed fist.
Fury flashed in Primo’s eyes at the sound of Maddie’s fist pounding on the roof. He gave her a piercing stare and accelerated wildly, spinning the steering wheel to full lock to the left and dropping the clutch. The tiny red car kicked and bucked out its rear end, narrowly missing Maddie, who jumped back in sudden fright.
‘You’re crazy!’ Maddie yelled.
Primo didn’t hear her; he was focused on getting the car back under control. The rear tyres were slipping on the gravel, the passenger side door waved back and forth and finally bent back against its hinges, creaking under the strain as it hyperextended.
Too tense to regain a straight line, Primo’s instinct was to overcorrect. He lost what little control he still had over the car, sending it sliding sideways over a low gutter, the passenger door slamming shut just as the car sideswiped a concrete bollard. Bouncing off the post, Primo’s hands jerked off the steering wheel, leaving him with no other option than to apply the brakes and handbrake simultaneously.
It took a few moments, but the car came to a halt. Primo sat forward in the driver’s seat as though he were about to leap through the windscreen head first.
And then there was silence, deep and angry and torn at the edges by the searing echo in Primo’s head of the car careering sideways into the concrete bollard.
‘Primo!’
Maddie’s voice pierced his ears as he sat clutching the steering wheel, staring wide-eyed directly ahead.
‘Primo!’
Primo looked at Maddie but didn’t see her. Bewildered, he opened his mouth in mute dismay.
‘You are crazy!’ Maddie snapped. ‘You could have run me over. You could have killed me even.’
The sound of his own voice saying ‘I didn’t mean to’ was a heavy thing that wrapped itself slowly around Primo and forced him from the car to stand beside Maddie, but he was unable to embrace her.
Instead, he went around to the passenger side. The bollard had smacked the door inward, and the paint work had peeled off like a huge knife gash had torn flesh from bone.
There was a noise, like an animal struggling against a snare, raw and guttural.
‘Primo?’ Maddie’s voice was brittle, and for some reason it set Primo off.
‘I’m dead!’ he sobbed, his hands patting the damaged flank of the car. ‘I’m dead!’ Primo turned in a tight circle, hands over both ears as if to erase what had just happened.
‘I could have been that concrete post!’ Maddie said forcefully. ‘It could have been me you ran into.’ She approached him, her arms out, palms up. ‘Look at me, I’m shaking.’
Primo turned and gave her a brutal shove that almost toppled her.
‘It’s your fault!’ he yelled. ‘I took the car out for you! To celebrate getting my licence.’
As though it might undo the damage, Primo started rubbing the dented metal, stroking and patting and cajoling.
‘Are you serious?’ Maddie screamed. ‘Are you right in the head?’ She picked up a small rock at her feet and tossed it at Primo. He didn’t flinch when it rebounded off his back. ‘I don’t believe this!’
Primo closed his eyes and batted his fists against his forehead.
‘This is an original Bambino,’ he whispered. ‘This car is a 1962 Fiat 500D. It’s been sitting in our garage since before I was born.’ Primo looked at Maddie as though that might explain everything about the significance of the little car in his family’s life.
‘It’s a car. Your dad’s car, sure, but a car,’ she said, making no effort to hide her disgust. ‘You could have run me over with that thing.’
‘Thing?’ he cried indignantly. ‘Didn’t you hear what I just told you? It’s a classic. My dad probably saved months, years, to get it.’ He shook his head and stepped back to better look at the damage. ‘I’m dead.’
‘It’s just a dent, Primo. Dents can be taken out. Even I know that.’ Her smile not quite right, Maddie looked down the length of the car. ‘You can barely see it from here. I bet if you tried you could pop the dent out.’ Maddie reached down as though she might try herself, but Primo grabbed her roughly by the wrist and turned her aside.
‘It’s not just a dent,’ he said. ‘This car has never even had a scratch. Ever. Not even a dry piece of bird shit on the windscreen.’
Maddie wrenched her hand free.
‘It’s a car, Primo. A car,’ she said with a shrug. ‘It’s not li
ke it’s alive or anything. Get a grip, please.’ She walked off, shaking her head dismissively.
‘You’ve got no idea,’ Primo shouted at her back.
‘What?’ she countered, looking back at him defiantly.
‘You have no idea about what this car means to my old man, especially now that he’s ... Especially now.’
‘And what? You do?’ Maddie shot back. ‘And that’s why you took it out behind his back?’ She smirked knowingly. ‘You’ve never been allowed to touch the car and the first day you have your licence you show up with it. I’m supposed to believe what you said about your mum giving you permission? Bullshit!’
Primo swallowed hard once, twice, then shook his head and turned back to the tiny red car.
‘Get in. I’ll drive you home,’ he hissed.
‘I’ll walk,’ Maddie replied.
‘Last offer,’ he said shortly.
‘Said I’ll walk.’ Maddie folded her arms across her chest.
‘Fine. Suit yourself.’ Primo climbed back into the driver’s seat, started the engine and, without a backward glance, drove off.
Stupid girl, he thought. Stupid, stupid girl.
But wildly intoxicating too, he couldn’t help thinking. Maddie was like a cold dip on a hot, hot day. She could take his breath away.
Moments later he’d put Maddie out of his mind, more concerned with the damage to his father’s car.
With few choices, Primo called Tone. Minutes later, he was parked beside the hearse in the laneway behind the pizzeria.
Tone whistled when he saw the damage and shook both hands as though trying to rid himself of something that clung unpleasantly to them.
‘That’s a whole lot of first-rate stuff-up right there, Prim,’ he said. ‘Tell me again, how the hell did you manage it?’
Primo sighed heavily and didn’t meet Tone’s gaze.
‘And you just drove off and left Maddie?’ Tone prompted. ‘Yeah, that’s a good, positive option to take, I guess.’ He smirked. ‘You take a hit to the head to come up with that gem, Prim?’
‘Hey, it’s not like I left her stranded in the outback, Tone, okay?’ Primo snapped. ‘You reckon Alfie can fix Bambino?’
Tone frowned and rubbed his chin meditatively. ‘Won’t be cheap,’ he said. ‘Even if he does work out of his backyard, this isn’t just your average Holden or Ford, Prims. This is like a collectible.’
‘But you can talk to him for me, right?’ Primo pressed. ‘I can’t leave it like this. Not for long, anyway.’ He leaned against the little car and sighed. ‘It’s not even insured anymore. Mum stopped payments when Dad got too sick to drive it. Not that Dad knows.’
Tone motioned Primo aside and, using his mobile’s camera, took some shots of the damaged door and panel.
‘Be better to get the car to him so he can have a proper look,’ Tone said when Primo climbed back into the driver’s seat and turned the ignition. He waited for Primo to wind down the window and leaned on the sill. ‘I keep telling you, Prims, this car is shit hot. Two cyclinder, vertical in-line, air-cooled. Top speed about ninety-five k’s, right?’
Primo engaged reverse gear clumsily. ‘Something like that,’ he said flatly. ‘I need to get it fixed ASAP, mate. I can’t risk my mum seeing it like this. Or worse, my old man suddenly deciding he wants to have a look at it.’
‘I’m on it, Prims, chill,’ Tone replied. He stood to his full height and whistled appreciatively. ‘You know I can get you a good price for it, Prims. It just sits in your garage after all, mate.’
‘Just see what your cousin says about the damage.’ Primo released the clutch and carefully started easing the car back onto the main road.
Tone walked alongside for a moment then leaned into the driver’s side, forcing Primo to brake to a shuddering halt.
‘You can’t go leaving Maddie like that,’ he said slowly. ‘You were the one dicking around, you said so yourself, mate. And you took the car out, not Maddie. Give her a call, see that she’s okay, yeah?’
Primo didn’t answer. He didn’t look directly at his friend. Instead he wound up the window and reversed.
If she didn’t hate him before, even with all the crap about the trip, Maddie would surely hate him now, he thought darkly. And he couldn’t say he would blame her.
When he got home, Primo carefully replaced the dust tarp over the Fiat, only now he tied it down at each corner, fastening the stays securely with double knots. Anyone who wanted to look at Bambino would have to make an effort, and that might buy him some time.
What he needed, Primo told himself, was to let Maddie simmer, to let her see reason. She hadn’t been injured, after all. Frightened a little, sure, but not injured, like Bambino had been. Surely Maddie could see that much.
It was several days before Tone drove up in the hearse and delivered his news to Primo.
‘Alfie says he’ll need to see the car,’ he announced, helping himself to a beer out of the refrigerator in the garage. ‘He reckons he has to do a colour match. Seems these classic cars had real particular colour charts and stuff.’ He shrugged.
‘When can he drop round?’ Primo asked.
Tone leaned back against the wooden bench that ran the full length of one wall and teased the stubbie between three fingers like he might drop it.
‘He’ll expect to be paid for his call out, Prims.’
‘What?’ Primo said. ‘He works out of his backyard, Tone.’
Tone smirked. ‘Hey, my cousin reckons his time is money.’ He took a long swill and wiped his mouth on his sleeve.
‘Okay. Okay. You find out when he can come, or I’ll get it to him somehow,’ Primo conceded. ‘But it has to be soon. I can’t risk having the car sitting here all bent out of shape for too long.’
‘Bent out of shape? Are you hearing yourself, Prims? The dent in the door is pretty deep, yeah, but the car isn’t bent out of shape.’ Tone paused and pointed with the stubbie. ‘You’re the one bent out of shape with all this. You and Maddie both.’ He tapped Primo on the shoulder lightly, adding, ‘She talking to you yet or what?’
Primo didn’t answer. He left the garage, knowing his mate would follow. Once inside the house, Primo rummaged in the cupboard, pulled out two tins of powdered energy supplements and tossed them in the small tote bag he used when he went to the gym.
‘Give me a lift to Kath’s?’ he asked.
‘What, not taking Adrian’s super-sprint two-wheeler free-spirit racing machine?’ Tone teased, nodding at the bike sitting upside down outside the kitchen window.
‘Maybe we can load that piece of crap into the hearse and take it for a last ride down to the tip.’
‘Bullshit, Prims,’ Tone replied. ‘I’ll take it off your hands and sell it down at the Thomo T and T. It’s got to be worth a few dollars to some loser, yeah?’
‘Be my guest,’ Primo said with a grin, making an exaggerated gesture in the direction of the old bicycle. Adrian had been given it as a Christmas present when he was four or five. It had been Primo’s from the day Adrian went to secondary school. He helped Tone lug the old bike into the rear of the hearse.
Tone drove with the fingers of one hand resting almost reverentially on the steering wheel. His other hand held a lit cigarette, smoke streaming from it out the open driver’s window.
‘So, is she?’ he asked through pursed lips.
‘Is who what?’
‘Is Maddie talking to you yet or what?’
Primo stared out at the passing suburb, his suburb, where he’d spent all his life, where his parents had bought their family home a few months after getting married at the Catholic church just down the road, in front of a grand crowd of seven people, including the priest.
There was a spree of the lightest purple in the twilight sky. It made Primo melancholic.
‘It’s that time of the month,’ he answered flippantly. ‘She isn’t talking to anyone.’
‘Yeah, happens to my mum. She goes all silent and moody about once a month.�
��
‘Maddie’s pissed because I can’t afford the OS thing just yet. How many shifts does she think I get at the freight yard? I’ve got school and stuff, too.’
‘Yeah, there’s all that too, I guess,’ Tone said casually. ‘And the fact that you went a little psycho over the car.’ He gave Primo a quick glance.
‘She said we need a break,’ Primo said defensively, ‘so I’m giving her a break, okay?’
‘You’re just pissed because she called your bluff and now she’s off OS without you.’ Tone didn’t even look at Primo as he chastised him. ‘I told you ages ago you were out of your league with Maddie, Prims. Her dad’s posh, her mum’s posh. She even has a posh name: Ma-de-line. Me and you, we need to stick to what we know. Maria. Tracey. Maybe a Samantha at a stretch.’
Tone nudged him playfully, but Primo was having none of it.
‘If she hadn’t been so righteous about the trip and looked at me like I was some sort of spook, I wouldn’t of been so pissed. I wouldn’t of decided to just take off for OS on my own like that.’
‘You haven’t called her or texted, have you?’ Tone went on. ‘Bet you’ve checked her Facebook status, eh? Still “In a relationship”, is she?’
Tone laughed, closing his eyes and tossing back his head, steering blind for several seconds. The hearse held its line, heavy and cumbersome but steady. In the rear compartment the bicycle clattered noisily.
‘Why don’t you come clean with your mum and tell her you had an accident?’ Tone asked finally. ‘Your old lady must have a bit put away for an emergency, right? Get the car fixed, make up with Maddie, let her take this OS trip and all’s good with the world.’
No, all’s not good, Primo wanted to shout. All’s pretty stuffed up actually. Beginning with my old man and finishing with Maddie.
What he said instead was, ‘You know I’m not supposed to even touch the car, except to keep the motor turning over and tyres inflated. I’ll figure out a way to get it repaired before anyone else knows about it.’
Dead Dog in the Still of the Night Page 3