The others’ voices again, closer now, at the end of the pipe. Gary had an arm up, he was wiping himself and she scrambled out from under him down towards the other end, away from him, on hands and knees. Once more he caught her and she was half out and half in this time. She screwed her head around to the side. Beyond the weight of him on her back she saw the moon rising and while most of it was still below the horizon there was a thumb’s worth that showed a hazy burnt orange.
Then Peter was there and it must have been him who grabbed Gary by the hair and pulled him clear off her and there was nothing where he’d been but a curl of breeze at the place where her thighs joined her shorts. She tasted salt as she blew air from her lungs and tried to slow her mind. Turning onto her back she lifted her hands and touched the rim of the pipe. It was still warm.
Then the sound of cars starting, of voices calling, and they were leaving and Peter was there asking if she was okay. She came out on her hands and knees. Archie was at the edge of the shed, watching, not coming close, his face white and suspended in the night. Sebastian was there now too, helping her up.
They walked to the front of the shed to watch the red tail-lights disappearing. Archie was holding the lantern and Sebastian was shaking.
‘Why didn’t you do anything?’ Peter was asking Sebastian.
‘They’re real dickheads,’ said Archie.
They went back into the hut. Peter and Sebastian got the kangaroo head out, pushing it with their shoes. They moved it over near the rail tracks while Olive watched from the doorway. She saw their bouncing torches, heard their voices as they returned. They were very far away from her now, had left her or rather she them. They wedged the door shut once more and put the cardboard back into the broken window and sat, all of them lined up on the bed, staying awake until dawn started to show in the small hut. They didn’t want to pack and get their bikes and ride home until the sun was all the way up, so they waited for it to be time. Peter had taken his watch off and kept holding it up to his ear and shaking it.
‘I think it’s busted.’
Archie leaned sideways onto Olive’s shoulder as she held herself upright, not allowing herself to relax onto Peter. The others fell asleep as sun washed inside making everything glow. Olive lifted her hands and saw that they were golden too.
THEY GOT READY to leave. Squeezed the air out of the lilos. The bread was finished and Archie tried to cheer everyone up by tapping sauce into his mouth straight from the bottle. He told Olive about some scratches on his arm and back that were hurting him but she told him it was nothing, it probably happened during the fight. He tried to tell her that he wasn’t even in the fight and that they were really sore and had been stinging all night but she told him to stop complaining. He wandered off as she tried to stuff her sleeping bag into its case.
A car was coming down the road. Maybe it would go past and not stop, but the instinct was to hide so they ran behind the building nearby, away from the hut. The car pulled into the loading area. Peeking out, Olive saw Archie was on the rails, walking along with a stick, hitting the wooden slats. She pulled back.
‘It’s Jethro Sands,’ she said.
‘Where’s Archie?’
‘Over there.’
‘Fruit,’ said Sebastian. A figure stepped into their sightline and Archie got up and came running toward them, shouting something about another dead snake. Behind him came the slow walking, sunglasses-wearing Jethro Sands, swinging car keys around his fingers.
‘You kids still here?’ he said. Olive had never been this close to him before. He was a man and she could see he could grow a beard if he wanted to. He spoke politely, probably a trick to make people trust him.
‘So, my brothers—’ Jethro pointed back at his car. They were there, faces at the windows. ‘They said they had a problem with you last night. My brother’s arm is cut up pretty badly. And there was some sort of problem at the pool?’
‘Yeah, well if Luke told you I pushed him in that’s true but he definitely deserved it. And Gary attacked us—he tried to get into our hut last night. We were here first. He should pick on someone his own size, they’re bigger than us.’
‘Jeez, you’ve got guts. You’re right, he probably does deserve it.’
Olive continued.
‘Luke was going to push me in so I just did it first.’
Jethro smiled.
‘What?’ Olive said. Her palms were wet.
‘I suppose you don’t know anything about flirting.’
‘It’s not.’ She was horrified.
‘Well, it’s dangerous here. You’re too little to be playing here.’
‘We don’t care,’ said Archie. He picked up a stick and swung it in the air.
‘You don’t remember me, do you?’ Jethro asked Olive.
She didn’t know what he meant. Of course she knew him, but so did everyone. Jethro Sands, in the distance, crossing the street from pub to car, cruising in his car, the flash of his sunglasses as he motored past, window open, elbow resting on the sill, fingers tapping on the door.
‘How’d you get that scar?’ Sebastian said.
Jethro touched his eyebrow.
‘It was a dog in truthful actuality. Your bloody dog.’
‘Shaggy?’
‘I don’t know what its name is.’
Archie started to say something.
‘Shut up,’ said Sebastian. ‘He’s not interested.’
‘How did our dog bite you?’ Olive asked. ‘He never goes into town. Nobody takes him off the chain, not since he bit Archie.’
‘Doesn’t matter how,’ Jethro said. ‘The thing bit me, bam. Twelve stitches.’
Archie opened his mouth again.
‘I said shut up.’ Sebastian pushed his brother on the shoulder.
‘So, my brother’s arm has glass in it, I reckon,’ Jethro said. ‘My mum has to take him to the doctor once it’s open, which’ll cost money. Bit over the line I reckon, Olive Lovelock.’
‘But he attacked us first, we weren’t doing anything.’
Jethro studied her.
‘We were just asleep,’ she said.
‘What have you heard about me?’
‘Some bad stuff.’
He acted as though he was thinking about that.
‘You shouldn’t believe the talk.’ His scar was purplish at the hairline. ‘Wanna smoke?’ He held out the pack to Peter and Sebastian, who both said no.
‘I’ll have one.’ Olive reached out a hand. Her mind was empty of thought other than how to light the cigarette. She took one from the pack and put it in her mouth. Jethro held out the lighter and Olive shook her head and held out her hand. He passed it to her and she took a few goes to make it work. Her fingers were jittery, shaking as she gave the lighter back. She coughed on the smoke, took one more drag, her heart thumping like a fist behind her breastbone.
Over at the car, one of the windows was wound down. Gary yelled across, ‘What’s taking so long? It’s getting hot in here and my arm’s hurting.’
Jethro held up a hand but Gary got out of the car and walked over.
‘What’s she saying?’ He pushed his way into the group, looking at Olive. ‘Want to know what’s wrong with you, what people say?’
‘Yes,’ Olive said, but Sebastian said, ‘No, Ol.’
Jethro told his brother to shut up.
‘But, Jeth—’
‘I said shut it.’
But Gary swung on Olive and started ranting. ‘Everyone knows you’re freaks. All of you. You’re chi-chi-chicken,’ he pointed at Sebastian, ‘and you,’ he swung around to Archie. ‘You’ve got a tail, and you—’ now he was pointing at Peter ‘—you’re just a freak, you’re Lurch, but you—’ now it was Olive ‘—you’re the worst.’ He said something but she started talking over him.
‘No, you’re the worst.’ Her voice surprised her. ‘Everyone knows you’re the ones killing all the kangaroos and snakes, everyone’s saying it, so you’re the killer.’
Sebastian walked away with his hands on his head. Things started to tip and become fuzzy. Olive sat on the ground, watery with dizziness. The look Peter had on his face, she’d never seen it there before.
‘You okay, Ol?’ he asked.
Gary was holding up his half-finger and it was pointed at her.
‘My mother knows,’ Gary said.
Jethro was standing with his hands on his hips, head bowed, slowly shaking it from side to side. He kept telling his brother to shut up but Gary was too far gone.
Olive sat on the ground trying not to be sick. They’d planned it like this, Jethro and Gary. It was like one of the cop shows on television where they take turns.
‘Your mother too.’ Gary was pointing the terrible finger at Peter. ‘Everyone does. They all talk about it, at the supermarket, in the chemist, in the street. But the one who talks about it most is your mother.’ He was pointing the finger now at Sebastian. ‘At our house, in our driveway. You might just be a skinny kid with a weird family…’ Gary turned to Olive ‘But—’
Jethro hawked and spat into the dust. He stepped forwards and grabbed his brother by his sore arm and it made Gary stop. ‘I said shut up.’
‘She spat in my face.’ Gary wiped his eyes.
‘I didn’t,’ Olive said, still on the ground. ‘Not properly.’
‘Gary’s crying.’ It was Archie. He’d been watching the scene. He didn’t have a tail, Gary Sands was a liar about that, and now he was starting to cry. ‘Look,’ he said to Sebastian. ‘What a crybaby.’ His head tipped back in glee. Sebastian stepped back from his brother just as Olive got to her feet and moved in between Gary and her younger cousin.
‘Don’t hurt him,’ she said to Gary Sands. ‘He’s just a little kid.’
‘You can talk,’ Gary said softly, sniffling.
There was a noise behind them, car doors slamming. The others were coming over.
‘I told you to stay in the car,’ Jethro said.
‘What’s taking so long?’ Luke called to Jethro. ‘I gotta go to the dunny. Are you retarded?’ he said to Olive. ‘Don’t you know he’s been to jail?’
Olive stood, thinking. What could she say that would distract them? She’d seen the sisters do it, Rue and Thistle turning on each other in an instant, a spark of emotion flaring up from something seemingly small. Standing there, Olive conceived it and spoke it in the same moment.
‘Luke kissed Cindy,’ she said, watching Gary.
‘What did you just say?’ Gary said.
‘I saw him. With these.’ She held up her binoculars. ‘He pashed her.’
Jethro brought his face right in close to hers. His eyes were a kind of bluey green, a pretty colour, not at all how she’d imagined.
‘I heard him say she tastes like Coke and her boobs are as good as Penny Martin’s.’ Peter was pulling her away. ‘He said it,’ she finished. Penny was the waitress at the petrol station who wore tank tops with no bra.
Luke retreated to the car, his hands in the air. He was denying, calling back to them that he’d never done anything and that Olive Lovelock was a liar.
Jethro shook his head at her. ‘What are you doing?’
Gary’s face was screwed with rage and Jethro reached out and held the back of his brother’s neck.
Olive opened her mouth to speak, not really knowing what she was going to say, but she would have thought of something because here was an opportunity, but then there was the movement of wings in air as Grace flew into the circle and alighted on one of Gary’s runners. White laces in the morning sun. The new game. Grace put her beak to the end of a lace and pulled. Gary looked down.
‘Gaz,’ said Jethro. ‘Gaz.’ He took his hand away from his brother’s neck and Gary shook the bird off his shoe and Grace was thrown to the dirt where he broke her, using one foot and then the other. He stomped her and the only thing Olive could think in that moment was how noiseless it was. Jethro got his brother’s sleeve in his fist and pulled him away from the mess, the bent feathers and broken body on the ground.
‘You!’ Gary screamed at Olive. ‘Don’t even look at me again or I’ll put you on the track and hold you down until a train cuts you in half. Same with you.’ He pointed at Archie, who nodded so hard his chin hit his chest.
‘You killed her,’ Olive said. Her whole body was shaking.
Gary emitted his wild, chortling sound. ‘It was just a crow.’
When she saw how Grace’s beautiful body had got destroyed she vomited a cascade of liquid onto the dirt. Jethro walked Gary and the others to the car. Olive picked Grace up but she was gone. There wasn’t much blood but she was definitely dead.
A cloud came across the world then and everything went dark and it was the coming of a sudden babel. In the air, glottal clicks as a heavy mass of grasshoppers passed through, ricocheting among them as they stopped moving in the clearing. They stood with heads bowed, lips and eyes closed, hands up to ears. Frozen in place, all anybody could do was wait. Olive felt the insects on her bare legs and arms, they knocked against her chest and the back of her neck and her cheeks. They flicked against her knees and her forehead. She wanted to scream but she couldn’t open her mouth. Her hands were full of Grace so she couldn’t lift them to her eyes. She stood there, stuck, while all around her, scraping and whirring filled the air. The mass thickened and she squatted and ducked, her face hidden, her hair swinging with the grasshoppers.
No voices, no calling. Just a feeling of aloneness.
The insects left. Everyone began to move. The Sands brothers went back to the car. Olive and the others went to their bikes, got all of their things ready and started to ride, Peter to his house and the two other boys and Olive to Serpentine. Grace was in her front basket and Olive kept looking at her as she pedalled. She couldn’t see the road properly. It was as if a screen had come down on the outside of her eyes. She felt the insects dropping off her hair and clothes as she rode. After a few minutes she heard a car coming and it slowed as it passed. Gary was in the passenger seat, hands flapping like wings, his tongue out and eyes crossed. Next to him was Jethro, his face hard and cruel. At the back window as the car pulled away in front, two-thirds of the triplets, middle fingers raised. Olive kept wiping her eyes but the tears wouldn’t stop.
She’d worried Grace would leave them. For almost three months she’d worried about it, that she’d grow up and go away—and in the end she had gone but not on a breeze up in the sky. Olive had thought it was the worst thing she had feared, that Grace would fly away, but now she knew there was an even worse story for Grace. The bird had gone, had been taken from her on the ground, a place where no bird should end.
They rode to the farm and it seemed to take a very long time because everything had slowed. Sebastian said something and she didn’t hear. Archie also tried to talk to her, his lips making the shape of Are you alright?, but she shook her head. She kept pedalling, knowing nothing and everything. Something new had started for her the moment that Grace had been extinguished.
She’d stopped crying by the time they got up the driveway. She lifted Grace out of the basket. Lying on her back, her little claw-feet were raised to her middle and her head was wobbly under Olive’s palm. Her cousins surrounded her and it made her feel even worse, their silent pity. She told them she knew what Peter’s middle name was and that it was Dewey.
‘No it’s not,’ said Sebastian. ‘No one has that for a middle name, it’s only in the comics.’
‘Ask him yourself. It’s the truth.’
She walked down the hallway, unsteady in the crushing space. It took forever to get to the back of the house and all the way, the only thing she could think was: Where had all her breath gone? She’d seen no one inside who could help her so went and found William working out the back. He was doing something with wire. She asked him if he could please help her. That Grace was dead and she needed a hole but didn’t think she was able to make one herself. It needed to be a deep grave so nobody could ever dig her up. So even the big
gest rainstorm and flood wouldn’t wash her bones to the surface.
William said he would help her and went and got the spade.
She hadn’t wanted to ask him because he hated Grace but he was kind about it. He told her to choose a place she liked, away from the house, and she did. She pointed to a spot behind the shed in the shade of an old apple tree. He dug the hole for her and each time he stopped and looked back she shook her head and he kept digging. They put Grace in the bottom and William gave Olive his hanky for a covering.
Once they’d finished and the grave was filled in he held her hand and told her not to cry, but she couldn’t help it. He asked if she wanted to say a prayer but she said no. It didn’t matter. Grace was in the ground. She was safe. She was hidden. No one could find her and hurt her any more.
JETHRO PULLED INTO the driveway. From the back, Luke started to speak, leaning forward, saying he hadn’t done anything, that Olive Lovelock was the biggest liar he’d ever seen and that was saying something. Gary reached back and twisted Luke’s hair. Jethro slapped them apart.
‘Stop it,’ he said. ‘She’s playing with you, alright?’
‘Of course you’re going to say you didn’t do it,’ Gary said.
‘But I didn’t,’ Luke said. ‘As if. Cin wouldn’t, not ever.’
‘Cin?’ Gary swung around again.
‘Sorry, Gaz. I promise.’
‘Of course you’d want to, anyone would.’ Gary scratched his head.
‘Leave it,’ said Jethro. ‘He didn’t do anything, it’s her. She’s the one making trouble. She always has been, she’s—’ He opened the door.
‘What?’ Gary got out too. ‘She’s what?’
Jethro kept walking to the back door. Once there, he stopped on the step, near the gully trap.
Little Gods Page 17