going to ash island
TRANSCRIPT
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James felt hungry. He could eat a dog. He’d been on the computer all afternoon playing
Maple Story. He was on a great quest and had finally entered the Prendergast Mansion.
He looked up to see that it was dark. He logged off, stood up stretched and rubbed his
tummy. He walked down the long corridor that connected his bedroom and his computer
room to the rest of the house. It was very quiet. He went down the stairs and through the
wide foyer and into the kitchen. The lights sensed him and came on. Where was
everyone? A note caught his eye attached to the refrigerator with a magnet he had made
in preschool. Surely Mum could throw it away now. So dumb! ‘Mum at the gym, Dad at
a meeting and Marley at violin’. Another night on my own sighed James. He opened the
freezer and stared in. Neat rows of quick meals, no cooking needed. Three minutes in the
microwave and he could have a tasty Rogan Josh or a pizza.
‘I’m starving,’ he said. ‘I think I’ll have both.’
He ripped off the cardboard boxes and stood over the two bins under the sink. Was
cardboard rubbish or could it be recycled? Whatever he thought as he dropped them in
the nearest one. While he waited for the ‘ding’ he clicked the remote for the large plasma
screen on the wall in the dining room. The Biggest Loser boomed out. He looked at the
huge bodies. He would go on that show when he was old enough. He was sick of kids
calling him ‘fatty’ and making pig noises at him. His Mum said he ate too much fast food
but it tasted so good. He pressed stop and opened the door sniffing a mix of curry, cheese
and tomato. Yum!
He licked the plate clean and placed it in the dishwasher. He inspected the freezer for
dessert. A Magnum or a Cornetto? He closed his eyes and reached in. He pealed off the
wrapping and sunk his teeth into the double chocolate. The sticky mess of paper fell to
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the floor. He would get it later. He clicked to Foxtel. Girls wriggling their hips danced
across the screen. Dad watched this sometimes; he thought James was too young. Mum
doesn’t like these sorts of shows. He looked for a while and yawned loudly. He
remembered he hadn’t done his homework. Too bad. Boring. He walked back up the
stairs and along the dim hallway and into his bathroom. He had chosen the tiles himself.
Black and shiny everything, it looked like a place from a ‘galaxy far far away’. He’d
picked gold taps too. He waved his hand under to get the water to come on. As he
brushed his teeth he watched the spit slide from the bowl into a hidden drain that took it
away. Max, his best mate, thought it was so cool when he came for a sleepover and
wanted to play with it for hours. At his place he only had one bathroom and it was so old
fashioned. You turned the lights and the taps on with your hand. His family were poor,
‘povos’.
They became friends when they were both sitting on the seats at lunchtime with no one
to play with. They were not interested in sport and so got left out of most games. Max
looked really funny when he ran around, his face turning into a big red beetroot and he
puffed like an old steam train. They joined the computer club instead. Max liked to eat
too. James had plenty of money and bought Max burgers and fries on the way home after
school. James yawned again and fell into bed with his school pants still on. Mum would
never know if he pulled the covers up really high. He was too tired to change.
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He awoke with a start. It was still night. What was that noise? He could hear the rumble
of voices in the corridor. Whispering and shushing from Mum, something was wrong.
‘It’s worse than I thought,’ said Dad. ‘Millions of dollars have just disappeared from the
bank. I don’t know what has gone wrong.’
‘Surely that is only in America. It can’t happen here in Australia. Can it?’ said Mum.
‘It has love. We could lose everything,’ Dad said trying to keep his voice down.
‘Not my house, you don’t mean that do you?’ said Mum sounding like she was going to
cry.
‘It hasn’t come to that yet but you have seen the houses in this street surrounded in
barbed wire and security guards coming and going making sure no one goes in?’ said
Dad softly.
James got out of bed and stood behind the door to listen better. He’d seen Robbie Anton
move out of his house. He thought they had moved to bigger one. The house on the
corner was all boarded up and the grass was growing up to the windows. Max scared him
by saying dead people were in there.
‘I’ll do my best to save it,’ said Dad hopefully. ‘Though if I lose my job and we can’t
pay, just because I work for the bank won’t help.’
‘You’ll get another job,’ said Mum.
‘I don’t think so,’ he said sounding very upset.
Mum started to cry.
‘What happens to people if they lose their house? Where did the Antons go? I tried to
ring Cheryl. Her mobile is disconnected,’ said Mum.
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‘Come on love let’s go to bed. We will have to wait and see. We won’t say anything to
the kids yet,’ said Dad.
James heard on the news that a lot of money was going missing. He wondered if some
alien had come to earth and stolen it all. He listened to the Prime Minister Kevin Rudd
say it was an ‘s-word-storm’. He’d been shocked to hear him swear but it was cool. He
could swear more often now even at school. If he got into trouble he could say the prime
minister does it!
He didn’t understand how a storm could make money disappear. On the way to school
tomorrow he would look more closely at the empty houses, maybe there were some clues.
This would be a quest. The houses in his street were like huge mansions!
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James opened his eyes as his computer screen blinked. In coming mail, Max would meet
him on the corner in ten minutes. He was nearly dressed. His school pants were a bit
crushed. He’d only need a new shirt and clean socks. He raced into the kitchen grabbed a
box of ‘Breakfast on the Go’.
Mum and Dad were gone already and Marley was sitting at the table eating a carton of
low fat yoghurt one slow mouthful after another. She stopped eating a few weeks ago and
only agreed to start again if Mum bought her that yoghurt. Sisters were so stupid!
‘I want to go the long way today,’ James informed Max as they both munched their
breakfast. ‘I want to count how many houses are empty.’
‘Why do you want to do that?’ asked Max. ‘Sounds pretty dumb to me!’
‘Dad was whispering to Mum last night about money disappearing and people moving
out of their homes. Nobody knows where the people move. I want to look for clues.’
James said.
‘Why don’t you ask your Dad?’ said Max.
‘I can’t,’ said James, ‘he doesn’t want me to know. I was eavesdropping behind the
door.’
‘I told you why they were empty. You can’t live with dead people. They smell.’ Max
made a ghostly sound and widened his eyes in front of James’s face.
‘No, that’s not the reason,’ said James. ‘It is something to do with a storm of poo and it
came from America.’
‘I don’t understand how that could be right,’ said Max giving James a strange look.
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They wandered up into the next street. They counted four houses with no sign that
anyone lived in them. The windows were dusty and the flowers and lawn dead and
brown. Large signs hung off the rolls of sharp wire that blocked the front gate.
‘ Keep out. Repossessed by the Commonwealth Bank. Trespassers will be prosecuted,’
James read stumbling over some of the words.
‘At least we know which bank!’ he laughed as he peered at number thirty two. It looked
spooky. Something moved at the top windows.
‘What does ‘repossessed’ mean?’ said Max.
“I don’t know,’ said James. ‘ We could do a ‘google search’ at lunch time.’
‘Boring,’ said Max. ‘I’ve just got to Ossyria. I want to stay ahead of you now. You’ll
never beat me.’ James didn’t want to upset Max by telling him he was already way past
there.
They wandered down the next street and counted six empty houses and seven in the cul-
de-sac behind their school. This was getting worse. The banks now had notices on most
of the houses in each street. Why didn’t they let people move in and look after them then
they wouldn’t look so creepy? James thought.
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James was in trouble in Mr Smythe’s class. He hadn’t done his homework again. A note
would be sent home. Ryan Hobbs yelled out ‘He’s fingers are too fat to hold a pen sir.’
Everyone laughed. Max gave James a sad look. Ryan Hobbs played football and had a
big thick neck and didn’t even know how to read; he didn’t get teased about that! It just
wasn’t fair.
The principal Mrs Dutton knocked on the door. Chairs scrapped along the floor as the
class stood to say ‘good morning’.
‘Sit down, thank you children,’ she said. ‘After today you will be together with all the
other Year fives, we have cut back on teachers. Tighes Hill and Islington Schools have
closed and all the children will now come here. The Education Department has lost a lot
of money. Our school has some left so we can stay open. I have to ask that you all be on
your best behaviour with so many classes in one room and lots of new children arriving.
Thank you I know I can count on you.’
James put up his hand.
‘Is this because of the ‘s---storm’?’ he asked. The class exploded with shocked giggling.
‘James is swearing Miss,’ said Ryan Hobbs.
‘James see me at lunchtime in my office,’ said Mrs Dutton as she turned and walked out
the door.
‘Settle down everyone and open your book at page three,’ said Mr Smythe.
Max passed James a note. ‘Maybe this school will close too. Yes.’
James gulped down his two pies and a sausage roll at lunchtime, spilling sauce on his
shirt. He tried to rub it off but only smeared it more. He’d probably get into trouble for
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that too. He dragged his feet along the hall to Mrs Dutton’s office. She was waiting for
him.
‘Come in James and sit down,’ she said. ‘That’s not like you to swear, what’s going on?’
‘It’s not swearing Miss. The Prime Minister said it. Something strange is going on and
that rude word storm has caused it. There are empty houses everywhere and my Dad
doesn’t want me to know about it,’ he rushed to let it all out.
‘It’s not something for you to worry about. Some people in the banks have taken more
money that they should and given too much money to other people to buy houses. When
they can’t pay, the bank takes back their home. Ask your father, he works in a bank,’ she
said. ‘So no more bad language. Now run along.’
James was worried. Banks losing money, schools not having enough and closing, empty
haunted houses it was very confusing. He burst into the computer room and sat down at
his terminal. He had to find out what that word ‘repossessed’ meant. It was as Mrs Dutton
said. ‘The bank took back a house when the people didn’t pay’.
There were lots of different sites to look at but most of the words were too hard to
understand. He remembered another time that Dad was worried. It had been about petrol.
It was costing a lot of money to fill up their two SUV’s. Dad said they might have to get
smaller cars. James felt embarrassed to think he would have to drive around in an Echo or
a Getz, how ‘povo’!
The government did something on the net. Dad looked at it every morning and now
petrol was cheap again. Grown ups seemed to like to worry. Maybe this storm was just
another thing they liked to talk about and get upset over. James thought he’d like to stay a
child for a bit longer.
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Max was whooping and shouting.
‘I am beating you James, you won’t catch me now,’ he said jumping around in his seat
and looking really pleased with himself.
James logged in and set off on a new quest. He wanted to get to Crimsonwood Keep. It
had no storms in it he hoped.
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James pressed the numbers into the security pad on the front door and pushed his way in.
He dropped his school bag on the kitchen bench. Mum was sitting at the dining room
table crying. Not again. It’s a wonder she has any tears left. A letter was in her hand.
‘What’s wrong Mum? What’s there to eat?’ said James.
‘Grandad is going to come and live with us for a little while,’ she said sniffing and
wiping her cheeks.
James’s grandfather had gone doolally, lost a horse from the top paddock and was found
wandering around in his pyjamas at the mall. James didn’t understand the first two things
but he knew you couldn’t go shopping in your pyjamas. How gay.
Grandad got taken to a home with lots of other old people. The doors were always kept
locked. Grandad wore a plastic thing on his wrist. When he tried to escape it set the alarm
off. The nurses came running and dragged him back inside. He was always in his
pyjamas now so he shouldn’t be walking down the street.
James didn’t like going to visit him. There were a lot of weird people. Some of them
were scary. One lady tried to get into the lift with him and started screaming when she
was stopped. Lots of people lay in beds on wheels and looked like they were dead with
dribble coming out of their mouths. They tried to reach out and touch him with their old
hands. They looked like claws. He sometimes had nightmares about them coming to get
him. Granddad didn’t like it either. He always asked if he could come home with James.
He said they hadn’t given him a bed and he had nowhere to sleep. He even said they tried
to poison him with little white tablets. Mum told Grandad crossly that they were only his
heart pills and he had to take them so he would get better.
‘Why does he have to come and live with us?’ asked James.
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‘The government hasn’t got any more money for old people’s homes,’ she said. ‘They
are closing them down. I don’t know how we will cope with him.’
‘Well,’ said James. ‘We have good security here. We will have to lock him in and not
tell him the codes.’
‘Yes,’ said Mum. ‘I suppose you are right.’
Money seemed to be causing a lot of headaches. James really liked money. It bought
things that he loved like games. He was saving for a Wii, he only needed another fifty
dollars. Whoever invented money in the first place will have to come back now and
invent something else. Though inventing probably took a long time. James quickly
thought of an even better idea.
‘Why can’t the factory that makes the money just make more and give it to people for
their houses and for Granddad’s home?’ asked James hoping he had solved this problem.
‘I don’t think they can do that,’ said Mum. ‘Dad will know why.’
Dad came into the kitchen. He was home early too. This was strange but nice. James
hardly ever saw his Dad.
‘What will I know?’ he asked.
‘Why can’t they make lots and lots of money so the storm can take as much as it likes
and everything will be all right again,’ James looked hopefully at his dad.
‘It’s a really good idea pal, but that would cause inflation,’ Dad replied.
James would need to get back onto ‘google’. The only inflation he knew about was when
he blew up his bike tyres at the garage and the warning on the pump said ‘do not over
inflate’. Dad said that meant they would have too much air in them and blow up. James
did want to try it one day. He could imagine them getter bigger and bigger and maybe the
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bike would float up into the sky like a balloon. He could ride around up there and scare
people flying along in an aeroplane. Keep peddling right through a black hole into space
and meet the real Luke Skywalker. Max would be so jealous. He couldn’t think how this
had anything to do with money. Another mystery!
Mum asked James to go to his room. She began to cry again. He started up the hall and
then crept back and hid behind the door. He balanced in between the light sensors to keep
them from coming on and giving him away.
‘What’s wrong love?’ said Dad.
Mum explained, in between loud crying, the news about Grandad.
‘It will be okay. Things are bad and going to get much worse. We will have to stick
together as a family,’ he said. ‘There are others worse off than us. I found out where the
Anton’s have gone. They are living in a caravan park, up by the beach. The council have
let people put tents and vans near the showers and toilets. There are about fifty families
living there.’
‘I can’t imagine Cheryl living like that. What would she do without a dishwasher and a
pool?’ sobbed Mum. ‘I don’t think I could do it.’
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The next weekend they went to pick up Grandad and all his stuff. The home was chaotic
with people rushing around packing cars and trying to stop their grandparents wandering
off. Grandad was waiting by the front door with a big smile on his face. He looked really
happy. He was dressed in trousers and a shirt. He was wearing his slippers. His big toe
pocked through a hole in one of them. His teeth were in one hand and his hearing aid in
the other. Grandad ruined lots of hearing aids. He put them in the glass of water with his
teeth when he went to bed. They never worked after that.
Grandad climbed into the car and did up his seat belt.
‘So you have found me a bed at your house?’ he said. ‘I’ll be glad to see the back of this
place. They tried to drown me last night. They put me in this room with water pouring all
over me. They took all my clothes off.’
‘Now you know what it is like for your hearing aids,’ laughed Dad.
‘They gave you a shower,’ Mum smiled. ‘They wanted you nice and clean to come home
with us today.’
‘Oh,’ said Grandad and closed his eyes and was soon snoring loudly.
Marley groaned.
‘I won’t be able to bring my friends home any more with an old person roaming around
in his pyjamas. It is just so not cool,’ she said.
‘Well my friends cope seeing my sister the stick insect,’ said James pulling a face at her.
‘They think I have my own skeleton from the horror museum.’
‘Well it’s better than being fat. You are so gross,’ she sneered at him.
‘That’s enough,’ said Mum. ‘We will all have to try and be a bit more tolerant. We are
better off than a lot of families. Granddad will be sleeping in the guest room. He’ll have
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everything he needs in there so you probably won’t see much of him. Though I hope both
of you will go and visit and keep him company.’
James and Marley both mouthed ‘Not’ in unison.
‘Can we stop at Macca’s?’ said James as he saw the yellow arches up ahead. ‘I’m
starving.’
Dad flicked the indicator and turned into the car park.
‘I could do with a large coffee too,’ said Mum. ‘What a morning we have had!’
James shook Grandad awake.
‘Where am I?’ he said looking anxious. ‘I need to get back. It will be morning tea. Today
they have my favourite pink finger buns. I like to lick the top off and give the rest to
Margie who only likes plain ones.’
‘I’m going to be sick,’ said Marley. ‘Don’t let him near my food.’
‘That won’t be hard,’ said James. ‘We’d need a microscope to find what you eat.’
Marley pulled a fat face at him puffing her cheeks out.
‘Cut it out you two,’ said Dad. ‘Now what would everyone like?’
‘I’ll have an extra skinny decaff cap with only one teaspoon of milk,’ said Marley.
James glared at her.
‘Why don’t you have an empty mug, you can drink air.’ He poked out his tongue.
‘I’ll have two egg and bacon muffins, three hash browns, a large coke and a super size
fries,’ said James.
‘I’ll have the same,’ said Grandad.
They sat at a table with a view of the children’s playground. They waited and waited. It
usually didn’t take this long. It was supposed to be fast food! Grandad encouraged James
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and Marley to go and have a play with the other little children. They both raised their
eyes and sighed. Grandad then struggled to put his teeth in. They were covered with blue
bits of fluff from his pocket where he had them stored. He got them in and when he
opened his mouth they shot across the table and landed at Dad’s feet as he came with the
trays of food.
‘Sorry it took so long. They have cut back on staff. They are losing money. Families are
staying home to eat. Several stores have already closed,’ said Dad looking worried.
James felt sick. If Macca’s closed what would he do? He only liked their burgers. The
other brands just didn’t taste the same.
Grandad ate all his food without his teeth. He asked could he still have a finger bun.
Mum looked at him nervously as she wiped his mouth with a serviette.
‘I hope all that doesn’t upset his tummy. We had better go straight home and get him
settled.’
Mum had hidden giant nappies under a towel when she thought no one was looking.
They had Granddad’s name written on them in black texta. James thought it was funny.
He imagined Grandad turning back into a baby. He wondered if he had a dummy too. He
thought Mum might have to take him into the nappy change. He dragged Max in there
one day to have a look. The table folded up into the wall. James turned the catch that held
it up. Whoomp! It fell out nearly hitting Max on the head. There were special bins and
soap dispensers. James couldn’t work out how you used them. Dad might have to help lift
Grandad up. He’d have to remember to tell Max. Max loved things that were so weird.
On the way to school on Monday James and Max took a longer route. James wanted to
see how many other streets had been taken over by the banks. They’d stop by their local
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Macca’s. James skipped breakfast. He was hungry. Nothing could have prepared him for
the sight. A huge barricade of razor wire encircled his regular eating-place. The
playground was deserted. There were no queues of cars in the drive through grabbing
‘brekkie to go’. Vehicles slammed on their brakes as they went to go in and couldn’t.
Horns blared and James heard lots of words he couldn’t repeat. Really bad words! There
was no delicious smell of hot fat wafting to greet him. The place was all closed up. He
wouldn’t be getting any fries today. A guard stood at the front entrance with a real gun on
his hip. Big ‘Keep Out’ signs were plastered across the arches. Hysterical kids sat in the
gutters.
‘But I want a hash brown,’ cried one small kid hurling himself on the ground and waving
his arms and legs in the air. ‘And I want it now.’
James needed answers. This was really serious. Houses were one thing but his favourite
food store; this was not on. He bravely put his hands in the air to show he didn’t have any
weapons. He walked slowly towards the guard and in his most polite voice asked,
‘What happened, did a very disgusting word storm hit?’ He didn’t think he had better
swear in front of a dude with a gun.
‘It’s the global financial crisis sonny. No one is eating here anymore. They have lost
money and can’t pay their staff,’ he said. ‘Most of the other stores will close too.’
James gasped. This is a food crisis who cares about money? Max looked like he was
about to cry. James’s tummy rumbled. They would have to be brave. They’d be forced to
eat at the school canteen’s Breakfast Club, porridge and bananas with all the ‘povos’.
The line was long and lots of kids they didn’t know were jostling and pushing as they
waited. He hadn’t realised just how many ‘povos’ there were. James listened to the
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chatter all around him but listened hard when one of the boys said he was living up near
the beach in a caravan. The bank had taken his house. He said sadly that he had no
television and no computer. He slept in the same room as his sister. James imagined that
and felt really sorry for him.
‘That’s nothing,’ said James in a really loud voice. ‘All the Macca’s are closing.’
The whole canteen went silent and all the kids stood like statues.
‘A global financial crisis has hit and a smelly storm has taken all the money. We can’t
have any more burgers. A man with a gun will shoot you if you try to go and order
anything.’
‘You’re a fat liar,’ said Ryan Hobbs. ‘You’re probably only saying that because your
mother has put you on a diet.’ No one laughed.
Max said James was telling the truth. If they all went now they could see for themselves
and still be back in time for the first bell. James took the lead and a long line of children
followed him.
‘Where are you all off to?’ bellowed Mr Smythe.
‘No where,’ said Max.
‘What do you think you are all doing?’
‘Nothing,’ said James.
‘He’s on about that storm again Sir,’ said Ryan Hobbs. ‘He reckons it has hit Macca’s
now. What an idiot!’
James held up his hand to halt the crowd as they reached the sad scene. He pointed out
all the evidence. A few children started to cry.
‘What’s a global financial crisis?’ asked Chloe Forbes.
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‘I don’t know,’ said James, ‘But if you come to club at lunchtime we can ‘google’ it.
They turned and trudged back the way they’d come. Chloe Forbes pointed to an empty
house in Parkway Avenue.
‘I used to live there,’ she said. ‘Now I live in a caravan next door to Samantha Anton.
My mother cries all the time. She misses her microwave and her gym has closed down.’
The ‘google’ search brought up hundreds of hits. James tried hard to make some sense of
what he was reading. Banks seemed to be the ‘bad guys’. It was really hard to
understand.
In America the empty houses got bulldozed so no one could live in them. Maybe Max
was right. At least that would bury all the bodies and make the smell go away. Then you
could build a new house for someone to live in. He couldn’t see anything like that
happening around here. He clicked, another image showing long lines of people waiting
to be given boxes of food. It went for kilometres around and around the town stopping
the traffic making everyone cross and shake their fists at each other. It was like the
canteen this morning. Why couldn’t their mothers go to the supermarket and buy what
they needed? Surely the stinko storm hadn’t hit them too.
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James felt glad to be home again. Maybe he could forget about what was happening for a
while. He went around the back and climbed over the security fence. He didn’t want to
wrestle with Grandad like he did yesterday. Grandad had been waiting behind the door
ready to run out the minute he opened it. He only had his undies on. He was muttering
that he needed to go and see a man about a horse. Maybe that was the horse he lost.
James looked around the back garden. He wouldn’t be able to keep it here. There was no
grass for it to eat and if it tried to gallop it would fall in the pool.
Grandad could be really silly. James never knew what he was going to do next. He
sometimes took all his clothes off and went swimming. James cracked up as his mother
chased him around and around trying to pull something on to his funny body.
Marley got hysterical covered her eyes and raced off to her room slamming the door
hard. James found him one afternoon sitting in front of the computer, tapping the keys
and making clicking noises with his mouth. He was laughing to himself even though it
wasn’t turned on. James switched it on and he ran away looking really scared. Poor
Grandad there are so many things he doesn’t know about. He is frightened of the
microwave too and won’t eat anything that comes out of it. He said the food is still
cooking and bubbles in your tummy until it turns into lava and rushes out like a volcano.
James lay in bed that night going over all of the things that had happened. Round and
round the thoughts went in his head until he had a headache. No more Macca’s, how
could that be possible? Doesn’t Kevin Rudd know what that will do to kids? What will
they eat? He hardly slept at all. He had a bad dream that all he could find to snack on was
a carrot. Only a rabbit would be excited about that!
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James’s mobile vibrated on his bedside table. It was Max. He had really awesome news.
We need to go straight to school, no more looking at stupid houses full of putrid bodies.
James dragged himself out of bed. He felt tired. This had better be good. He could do
with something to make him smile again.
It took him a long time to get out of the house. He’d be late. Every time he went to open
the door Grandad tried to race out. He had his pants on back to front and he was wearing
one of Marley’s hats. She would be furious. James had to outwit him. He pretended to be
going out the back door calling out a goodbye as he went. He then ducked around and
raced for the garage. He double clicked the remote for the door so it would only open a
little way. He quickly slid out. He made it, dusted off his pants and raced to the corner to
meet Max.
‘Tell me what’s happened, tell me,’ James said as he jumped up and down.
Max grinned until James could see right into his mouth. He was sucking something red
and all his teeth had turned pink. It must be something really good. Max’s face was
glowing.
They started running stopping for a few minutes to catch their breath and then going as
fast as they could. They saw their school. Lots of people were standing on the pavement;
teachers were wiping their eyes with tissues. More dangerous looking wire and more
signs and more tough men with shiny pistols stopping anyone from going in. The gates
had big padlocks hanging off them. Teachers looked sorry and hugged each other; the
school was completely closed up. Most of the children were running around in circles
shouting and screaming, ‘No more school, no more school, no more school forever’.
Only a couple of the nerdy types put on a sad face.
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Mrs Dutton stood up on the back of Mr Smthye’s Ute.
‘Children, children can I have your attention for a moment. Now I know you will all be
very upset that our school has been forced to close,’ she yelled over the noise. It got
louder and no one could hear anything except a happy buzz. Max started to run around in
circles.
‘Not,’ cheered Max. ‘I think it’s great!’ He grabbed James’s arm and dragged him off.
‘Come on let’s not stay and listen. We’ve heard all we need to know. I told you it was
the best news. We can go to your place and play on the computer all day. We can spy on
your Grandad. I like him; he’s a crazy man. Maybe he’ll take his clothes off and run
around.’ James blushed. Maybe he shouldn’t have told Max about that. It was probably a
family secret.
They hurried back the way they’d come. They gave one last sad look as they passed
Macca’s but imagine never having to go to school again. This was the best information
James had heard for weeks. Forget about homework, science projects and sport, no one
teasing him and calling him names. He felt tingly inside. They could spend every day
playing computer games only stopping to eat or have a swim. Closed schools rule! The
swear word storm had done something good for a change. He punched the air and let out
a loud whoop.
James and Max rounded the corner onto the patio. He heard his father’s raised voice.
Mum was crying again. James was famished. The events of the day stopped him eating
and he was looking forward to opening the refrigerator. His mouth filled with saliva.
Dad didn’t sound happy. He was never home in daylight. It must be something bad.
James put his hand on Max’s arm to stop him so they could listen.
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‘I’m sorry love we are going to have to move. I have hung on as long as I can. My job
has gone now and most of our money is lost. The bank has given us a week to get out,’ he
said as he paced up and down.
‘Where will we go?’ said Mum breaking into a new bout of crying. ‘I’m not going to the
caravan park. How humiliating to have Cheryl see me living like that!’
‘She lives like that,’ said Dad. ‘I’m sure she’ll understand. However, we are not going
there. We have been allocated a place on Ash Island.’
‘What sort of place?’ asked Mum brightening. ‘And where is Ash Island? Is it like the
Fiji Islands where we went for a lovely holiday last year?’
‘Not quite like that. It is about twenty kilometres north of here.’ said Dad. ‘There are
these places everywhere now. So many people have lost their jobs and their houses.
There’s Braye Park and Hollywood out at Jesmond. You get allocated one shed per
family.’
‘A shed,’ screeched Mum. ‘I’m not living in a shed.’
‘Well it is a bit better than a shed, it’s a container,’ Dad replied, patting Mum’s hand
trying to keep her calm. ‘What one of those steel boxes they have on ships?’ Mum
quizzed him. ‘They have no windows and great big doors that shut with a massive
handle. You need a crane to lift them. They are very heavy,’
‘Yes love one of those,’ Dad confirmed. ‘The ships have stopped taking stuff to China so
the council has got them for people to live in. We are lucky to get it. Some people have
missed out and are sleeping in cardboard boxes.’
James’s stomach felt like it had sunk to the floor. It would be terrific to not have to go to
school but to live in a metal box. This must be one of his nightmares again. He would
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wake up soon and find it wasn’t true. Then how come Max was standing beside him and
there was Grandad trying to escape out the gate they had come through and left open?
As they came into the room Mum and Dad stopped talking. Mum sniffed and gave James
a weak smile.
‘Hello James. Hello Max. Did you have a nice day at school?’ she asked.
‘The best day of my life,’ blurted Max. ‘It’s closed down. We can’t ever go there again.
You get your head blown off by a man with a real gun and all your clothes get ripped to
pieces by pointy wire if you try to go in. They never want us to learn anything forever.’
‘That can’t be right,’ said Dad. ‘You boys are imagining things. I think you have been
playing too many computer games.’
‘No it is true,’ said James.
‘We will discuss it at dinner,’ Dad went on. ‘There is something your mother and I have
to talk to you about. Run along now. I’ll order pizza and call you when it comes.’
Max thought he had better go home. This wasn’t sounding like fun.
‘I’ll see you in the morning,’ he said to James. ‘I’ll bring my laptop. We can form a
guild. I can’t wait. See ya!’
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James sat at the dining room table and waited for the food to be delivered. He asked for a
cheese crust Hawaiian. He heard his Dad on the telephone trying to put the order through.
There seemed to be a problem. Dad came back into the room.
‘A recorded message says ‘we are closed until further notice. Sorry for any
inconvenience.’
‘You’ll have to help me buddy. Go to the freezer and see what is in there. Then show me
how to use this microwave. We won’t tell your mother, she has enough to worry about,’
he said. My Dad is a really clever man but he doesn’t know anything about cooking.
James felt a bit churned up. He hoped he could eat. Maybe food might help take the
funny feeling in his belly away. What was going to happen?
They sat around the table. Mum dragged Marley to sit down. She slumped in her seat
and snarled. She wasn’t eating a disgusting thing with cheese on it. Dad sat at the top of
the table looking very serious. James thought it was quite nice to be eating together. They
only did it for birthdays or Christmas. He got lonely sometimes eating in his room or by
himself in front of telly.
‘We are going on a long holiday. Camping at a place called Ash Island,’ said Dad. ‘I am
not going to work for a while so it will be good to spend time together, fishing,
swimming and getting back to nature.’
‘We always go to five star hotels. I have a massage and get a full body tan,’ Marley said
crossly. ‘I don’t like nature, all those bugs. I’m not coming.’
‘You have to,’ Dad said. ‘The bank wants the house. We won’t be allowed to live here
anymore. If we don’t go by ourselves the police come and help us.’ He tried to smile as
he added.
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‘I need you to pack one suitcase each. There is no electricity so nothing with a power
cord.’
Marley started to scream.
‘I need my hairdryer, my GHD, my television and my laptop.’
The food was getting cold. James and Grandad were the only ones eating.
‘I love camping,’ said Grandad. ‘When I was a boy we had the best adventures in the
bush, tracking animals, sleeping in caves, lighting fires and telling ghost stories around
them at night. Sometimes we really sacred each other.’
It was beginning to sound like it might be fun. Mum and Marley didn’t look like they
thought so but James loved ghost stories. Playing with matches had been banned after he
set fire to one of Mum’s magazines behind the sofa. Maybe now he’d be allowed to light
fires so they could sit by them and cook things.
‘One suitcase’ James looked worried, how could he possibly fit all he needed into it?
Most of what he tried to pack had to be plugged in to work so he’d taken them back out
and left them on the floor. He could hear Marley and Mum arguing. Marley said she was
going to tie herself to her bed. She wasn’t going anywhere that didn’t have a gym and a
mall.
The back of his closet was a lost universe he hadn’t visited for years. He found some
card games. He used to enjoy them especially when he won. He packed those. He found
his soccer ball. Maybe there would be other boys his age. They could play together. He
filled up the rest of the space with clothes. So he wouldn’t feel so sad leaving his
computer he played until bedtime trying to get to the end of Maple Story. Max came over
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every day. He wanted to move to the island too. He was hoping his Dad would lose his
job.
‘I’m going to miss you James,’ he said going bright red in the face. ‘Maybe I’ll run
away. Where is it you are going?’
They found the island on ‘Google Earth’ and printed off a map so Max would know
where to run.
On the last day James watched Max walk down the street until he was a little speck. He
wondered would he ever see him again. Until the credit ran out on his mobile he could
call him up. Then he’d have to think of some other way to talk to him.
The car was packed. They were only taking one, as there was no money for petrol and
the ‘servos’ had all closed down. Dad siphoned some from Mum’s car. He hoped it was
enough to get them to the jetty where they’d get a boat to take them across to the island.
Marley sulked in the back seat with her ipod attached to her ears. Lucky for her it ran on
batteries. James said goodbye to his computer and tried hard not to cry.
They turned onto the highway. Mum wiped her eyes with a tissue. She was trying to be
brave. Grandad planned all the things they could do. He didn’t seem to care where he
lived. He’d even forgotten about finger buns.
They drove up and out of their street. Most of the houses were now abandoned and
fenced off. Security vans crawled up and down the roads with the lights on the roof
flashing. They drove through the shopping centre and past the bank where Dad used to
work. It was silent and deserted, the windows covered with sheets of wood. James
thought that was a good idea. It was too scary to look in. Marley let out a big howl when
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they passed the gym. A truck was pulling up loaded with rolls of wire. The doors were
shut and there were no sounds of blaring ‘step music’.
The car started to cough and do kangaroo jumps and then came to a stop. Dad jiggled the
key. The engine coughed but refused to start. It had run out of petrol.
‘We will have to walk. Get out and load up with whatever you can carry,’ said Dad. He
locked the car and led the way over the road through a paddock and down to the water.
Pots and pans tied to Mum’s back clanked as they walked. She gulped back sobs as she
said she didn’t know how she was going to cook with them. There was no stove there.
A rowboat bobbed from its rope at the jetty. Marley started to whine.
‘I’m not getting into that stupid boat. Where is the engine? I don’t know how to row,’
she said crossly folding her arms over her chest.
‘Rowing is one of the first things we will all have to learn to do. From now on anywhere
we want to go will be in this boat. The island has no roads or bridges,’ Dad said firmly.
‘I’ll teach you,’ said Grandad. ‘Come on I’m sure I can remember how it’s done.’
The boat tipped as all the cases and boxes were piled in. Dad got in first and stood in the
middle. He grabbed onto hands and guided them to sit down. Grandad pushed James
along the seat. He showed him how to grip the oar and he took the other one.
‘Untie the rope,’ he called to Dad. ‘One, two, three pull James.’
The boat wobbled a bit more and went around in circles.
‘James pull with me,’ said Grandad. ‘Try again one, two, that’s it good boy. We are off.’
The river was very quiet. Birds flew up out of the bushes and ducks paddled along beside
them.
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‘I’ll have to teach you how to catch one of them,’ laughed Grandad. ‘They are good to
eat.’
James didn’t think he could eat one. They looked so cute swimming around diving in
and sticking their bottoms up in the air.
‘I’m never eating anything so disgusting. There’ll be a shop?’ said Marley. ‘I have to
have my yoghurt.’
‘No shops,’ said Mum. ‘We have a book, one each with coupons that entitle us to basic
food like sugar, flour and tea. We’ll be eating home cooked meals.’
‘I’ll show you, I used to make a lovely spotted dick’ said Grandad pulling hard on the
oars. James nearly choked. Did Grandad really say that and what did it have to do with
food?
‘I remember eating that years ago with cold icecream melting over the top mmmmm!’
said Dad.
His face was burning and sweat poured down James’s back. His arms were starting to
ache.
‘Come on Marley, your turn,’ said Grandad.
‘Never,’ she kicked her foot at him. The boat rocked. Mum screamed and hung on
tightly.
‘You will be stuck on the island, you won’t be able to go anywhere if you don’t learn,’
Grandad said. ‘It’s fun isn’t it James?’
He went on. ‘This is only the beginning. You need to know about wind direction and the
tides to safely get about in the water. I learnt all that when I used to go fishing.’ He licked
his finger and stuck it up into the air. ‘Yes a nor’ easter, that’ll help keep us cool,’ he
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said. They all looked at him. Sometimes he talked sense and other times well who knew
what he was talking about. Wind as far as James was concerned was part of storms.
James had quite enough of them for a while.
This was an adventure. James couldn’t imagine what their new life was going to be like.
No shops, no electricity, probably no fast food, no cars. This must be a night terror this
time, much worse than a bad dream. He’d surely wake up soon.
Dad stood up forgetting that he was in a boat. He swayed and nearly fell over the side.
‘Look we are nearly there. I can see the camp. Move over James it is time I learnt to use
an oar,’ he said pointing ahead.
The sun glinted off the roofs of several large rectangular buildings. Washing flapped
about on long rows of lines. Dogs and children shouting and waving ran around. Some
were diving into the water and squealing excitedly. It reminded James of the circus he
had been to in the local park when he was younger. It looked a bright and happy place.
Maybe he could wake up now. It was going to be all right.
People came running down to the jetty. Hands reached out to help pull the boat in and
unload all their belongings. Women rushed over and hugged Mum. She started crying
again. Grandad hobbled up the bank and sat down. He was tired after all his hard work.
‘Welcome to Ash Island,’ said Dave.
A group of boys rushed over to James and told him to follow. They would show him
around. None of them had shoes on and their faces and hands were dirty. Their clothes
were old and ripped. James felt a bit uncomfortable in his Nike shoes and his Ripcurl
shorts and shirt. He didn’t think he could remember all their names. They stopped at a big
mountain of rubbish. James could see old tyres, rolls of wire, sheets of tin, ropes and all
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sorts of junk. Xavier told James that everything that got thrown away in their other life
was now useful.
‘Anytime you go walking and you find something you bring it back and put it here,’ he
said. ‘We make things out of all this stuff. We especially like old prams or things with
wheels. You get points for what you collect. A pram gets twenty points. At the end of
each month the points are added up and you get a treat if you have the most.’ James
mouth watered maybe he could get enough for a chocolate bar.
Liam tugged on James’s arm and raced him off with the others following.
‘This is the place we come to eat,’ he said showing James inside one of the containers.
“When it is time they hit that piece of steel and it clangs really loud. You can hear it all
over the island.’ Rows of tables and chairs were set up and along the outside walls fires
smoked with big pots bubbling over the flames.
‘Lunch is in those pots,’ said Liam. ‘All the parents take turns to cook. Boys our age
have to keep the firewood chopped.’ He pointed to a big pile of neatly stacked wood.
James didn’t think the lunch smelt very good but he looked forward to using a real axe.
He had better keep that a secret. Mum would be scared he would chop himself.
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‘Come on,’ shouted Xavier. ‘We need to show him the ‘big drop’. The other kids started
to laugh. They ran along a track through some bush. A horrible smell got stronger and
stronger. Liam told James he might like to hold his nose or pick a leaf off a gum tree and
sniff the eucalyptus.
James looked to see a wooden hut with a door that had a gap top and bottom. It was like
the toilets at school and the smell was almost the same.
‘This is the ‘big drop’,’ smiled Liam. ‘Go on Marksey show him how it works.’
Marksey took a big lung full of air and held his nose. He struggled with his other hand to
pull his shorts down. He raced for the door flung it back and let it slam shut.
‘Silence everyone,’ yelled Xavier. All the boys put their hands to their ears and leant
toward the shed. It took a moment and then James heard the sound of something falling
and then a loud splash as it hit the bottom.
A noisy cheer went up as Marksey ran out gasping for air.
‘Marksey can always be relied on to produce a big one to show new kids,’ shouted
Xavier. ‘Three cheers for Marksey.’
‘When it fills up,’ explained Liam. ‘The dad’s have to dig another deep hole and move
the shed. We take all the dirt and build mud hills to slide down. We drag buckets of water
up from the river and make it really wet. You can go faster and faster. It’s the best fun.’
James head was spinning. He didn’t like getting dirty but maybe he could try it once.
Robbie shouted,
‘Let me show him the chooks. They are my favourites. The best time James is when
they have their babies. You come to see them one morning and all these heads pop out of
the mother’s feathers. You can take one and make it a pet if you want. I’ve got them
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trained too. At night they line up one behind the other and wait for me to lift them up on
the perch. When it gets dark they go into a trance like someone hypnotised them. You can
help if you like?’
James had never seen a real chook. He thought they looked a bit scary with their pecking
beaks and claws. He could remember when Dad told him where eggs came from. He
hadn’t wanted to ever eat one again. Yuck!’
As they ran into the chook yard birds flew up into the air squawking and sending
feathers and dust everywhere. James coughed and wished he knew the spell to put them
into a trance! It smelt and he could see piles of poo everywhere. He gave up trying to stop
it sticking to his shoes. At least it was a bit better than the ‘drop’! He didn’t know how he
was ever going to go back there and use it. He felt sad as he thought of his lovely ‘Star
Wars’ bathroom at home. He’d have to share one toilet with so many people.
‘The best is when the chooks get their heads chopped off. They run around with blood
coming out,’ Liam grinned at James. ‘We don’t tell Robbie he gets too sad.’
‘Why do they do that? Isn’t that a bit cruel?’ asked James.
‘We eat them,’ said Liam. ‘In our other life we used to go to Henny Penny now we come
here. You’ll get used to it. Look out for the rooster. Here he comes!’
‘At least Henny Penny isn’t cruel to the chooks. They keep them in cages out the back
and wait for them to get really old and dead. Then they cook them,’ said James turning to
look to where Liam was pointing. A large bird was strutting toward them. He was nearly
as tall as James. He had a big red floppy thing on his head and large angry eyes. He had
monster claws and a long pointed beak. The hens all followed him. They didn’t seem
worried. Liam grabbed James’s hand and pulled him away just as the rooster leapt in the
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air, spread his huge wings out and pecked the spot where they had been standing. A roar
went up from the other boys.
‘That was lucky. He nearly got you,’ laughed Robbie.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
‘Come on it’s lunchtime,’ said Robbie. ‘I’m starving!’
The boys raced through the alleyways in between the containers ducking under flapping
washing. They lined up in front of a big bowl of soapy water and took turns to wash their
hands. Liam showed James where to sit and how to wipe his hands on the back of his
shorts. James looked up and saw his family sitting at a far table. He waved and sat down.
All the grown ups sat at one table and the girls at another.
Bowls of food and a plate of chunky looking bread were passed along the table. Liam
warned him that anyone not eating had to go straight to bed. Food was never wasted now.
James looked down at the bowl of grey looking water. Lumps of fat floated on the top
and he could see lots of green things bobbing around. He thought ‘I might as well just go
straight to bed.’ Liam shovelled the food in and reached for more bread. James held his
nose and closed his eyes. He tasted a spoonful. If he imagined a Big Mac he could
probably swallow it.
‘You had better hurry up and eat that,’ said Robbie, ‘or someone else will.’
James scrapped the last of his lunch into his mouth. His teeth ached from chewing the
bread with all the bits of seeds in it. He only ever ate soft white bread cut into thin slices.
He saw his Dad coming over. He must have managed to eat his lunch.
‘Come on pal, you can go with your friends later. You need to come to our new home,
get unpacked and make your bed,’ he said.
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‘See ya!’ said Xavier. ‘We’ll wait for you back here, there’s still heaps of things to show
you.’
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Dad led the way. The doors of the container were wide open. Mum was busy, pulling
things out of bags and boxes, placing sheets and pillows on each bed. She had nearly
stopped crying. Marley lay curled up on a bed muttering about never eating again and she
wouldn’t be leaving this spot until they went back to their real home. Grandad was
snoozing and patting his tummy.
‘Your bed is right at the back James,’ said Mum.
James looked around. It was one long room with five beds pushed up against each wall.
There was a table and chairs in the middle and beside the front door a large fireplace. A
pile of wood was stacked up ready by the sidewall. A cat sat on the top of it licking her
paws and washing her face. James reached out to pat her.
‘Is this cat ours?’ he asked. ‘I have always wanted a pet. Someone will be home all day
and we aren’t going to be too busy.’
‘I think she belongs to everyone,’ said Dad. ‘But I’m sure you can feed her and carry her
around.’
‘You’ll have to help me keep the fire going at night. We need the smoke to stop the
mosquitoes. ‘Hexham Blues’, so big you can put a dog lead on them and take them for a
walk. Dave told me they can suck all the blood out of you in one night.’ Dad’s eyes got
as big as saucers and he looked nervous. James thought he might like one of those for a
pet too. He’d have to think of a way to stay awake and trap one.
It was very late before James had time to think about Max. So much had happened and
he was dying to tell him. His new friends dragged him all over the island showing him
the things they did each day. His name was added to the work roster. He’d join the boys
each morning to do chores. Some of them sounded so disgusting like collecting cow poo
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and putting it on the vegetable garden. Washing dishes, sweeping and watching the
babies, so boring, once all the jobs were done they were free to do what they liked.
Everyone had been really nice and no one teased him.
He keyed in Max’s number. The lights flickered and the screen went blank. No signal.
‘How will I ever talk to Max again?’ wailed James shaking the phone.
‘You’ll have to get a homing pigeon,’ said Grandad.
Everyone looked at him.
‘He’s one pigeon short of a pie,’ Mum whispered.
‘What do you mean Grandad?’ asked James.
‘When I was in the war we used pigeons to carry messages for us. There were no
telephones. They can fly for miles and all they need is some wheat and a drink of water,’
he said proudly.
‘Where could I get one?’ said James.
‘They have nits and mess everywhere,’ said Mum. ‘You can’t keep one in the house.’
Grandad flapped his arms and cooed loudly. Mum gave a big sigh.
‘They build their nests under the jetty where the boat is tied up. You wait until the babies
have feathers and then you take one. Keep it close to you for two weeks and then it
always knows where home is. Max can get one too so you can talk to each other,’ said
Grandad. ‘You carry it with you everyday and if you are in trouble put a message on its
foot and let it go. It will fly back here and we can come and get you.’
‘I saw boxes and wire on the junk pile. Maybe you could help me build it a house?’
James looked at Grandad hopefully.
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Grandad nodded and puffed up his chest. He knew how to build lots of things. He got a
bit tired sometimes but he could still give the instructions and hold onto things while they
got hammered. He looked forward to seeing the junk pile. He missed using tools and
tinkering with bits and pieces. At the home all they wanted him to do was watch
television all day.
‘Right, bedtime,’ said Mum. ‘I’m exhausted.’
James put his head on the pillow, snuggled the cat under the blanket and the next thing
he knew it was morning. He dreamt about a pigeon with a little leather helmet and a small
pair of goggles on its head bravely flying to Max’s house with an important message.
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James pulled on the same shorts and shirt as he’d worn yesterday. He thought he would
leave his shoes off today, be like the other boys. There was no mention of a bath or
cleaning his teeth and he hadn’t seen anything that looked like a bathroom. He managed
to balance a lemon smelling leaf under his nose to use the toilet. Phew!
At breakfast he told the boys he was going to be busy today getting himself a pigeon.
‘Are you going to eat it?’ asked Liam licking his lips.
‘No,’ whispered James. ‘I’m going to train it so it can carry messages. Like in the war.
My mobile doesn’t work and I have to contact my friend Max.’
‘Wow!’ said Xavier his eyes lighting up. ‘Who told you about that?’
‘My Grandad, he is the expert,’ James said proudly.
‘We want one too,’ chanted the boys. Marksey yawned loudly.
‘I don’t need some pongy bird I’m going to build a plane and fly myself.’
‘Yeah sure,’ said Robbie. ‘He’s always got some mad idea. Last week he was going to
build a machine to wash the dishes. He broke three plates when it jiggled around so much
it fell over.’
‘It was a good try Marksey. All the mums were hoping it would work,’ said Xavier
kindly. ‘I’ll help you. I would like to fly too. When I was a little kid I used to put my
Superman cape on and jump off the garage roof. I broke my arm. I did fly a little way.’
James hurried around the paddock scooping up lumps of brown sticky stuff into a large
bucket. It smelt a bit like old grass. This was the first chore he had ever done in his life.
Trust it to be the foulest one. When the bucket was full he dragged it across to where his
Dad dug and pulled out weeds. Dad never went in the garden! The man in the green truck
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came to James’s old house and mowed the lawn. Dad stood up and rubbed his back. His
face was all wet and muddy.
‘Bring it over here James. Dave has shown me how to spread it around the vegetables to
make them grow,’ he said. ‘They grow everything that we need to eat right here. It is
quite amazing!’
James looked. He didn’t recognise anything that looked like food. Dad reached over and
pulled a bunch of leaves off a tall plant. He opened it up. Inside was a golden yellow
thing.
‘This is what we are having for lunch today, corn,’ he said. ‘Here taste it.’
James took a small bite. A sweet juicy flavour filled his mouth. It was really yummy. He
had eaten disgusting lumpy porridge for breakfast. At least now he could look forward to
lunch.
James tipped the bucket out and his Dad helped him spread it around. He made several
trips until he could find no more. He liked looking at the cows. They had big brown eyes
and stood watching him as they chewed some hay licking their lips with a pink tongue.
They let him walk around and touch them. They weren’t scared of him. He liked the baby
ones. They looked funny when they put their faces under their mother and butted into her
wagging their tails as they drank the milk. He learnt quickly to stand well behind the big
cows. Sometimes they lifted their tails and brown stuff came spurting out. It went
everywhere!
‘I really like it here Dad,’ said James. ‘I was frightened when you first told us but there
was nothing to be afraid of.’
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‘You are a good boy James and I think I will like it too once I get used to working
outside,’ he said. ‘You need to be gentle with Mum. She is finding it really hard. She’s
used to living in a nice house with all the mod cons. This is a bit rough for her.’
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James finished his chore and raced back to find Grandad. They were going to build cages
to keep the pigeons in. The boys were already sorting through the pile throwing out
things that could be useful. After a lot of hammering and sawing they each had a box
with wire across the front and a perch for the bird to sit on. James hammered more
fingers than the nails. It hurt.
Grandad showed them how to bend the wire back to make a door and use a plastic bottle
with a hole in the lid to drip water for the bird to drink. James looked around. He wanted
to paint his and write his name on it so they wouldn’t get muddled up. He dug in the pile
until he found a half full tin of red paint. The others chose different colours and put the
cages in the sun to dry. It was the first thing he had ever built.
Clang! Clang! Lunchtime. James helped Grandad stand and walked slowly with him to
wash up. He didn’t seem to want to run away any more or do silly things. Maybe he liked
it here. James had paint all over his hands and clothes and everyone looked the same.
Dirty!
Grandad wanted to come on the pigeon hunt. The jetty was too far for him to walk.
Xavier raced off and returned with a large pram. Grandad looked a bit embarrassed but
sat down in it. He didn’t want to miss out on this trip. He’d tell the boys which birds to
take and how to handle them properly. The boys needed him.
James looked at the long platform stretching far into the water. It was low tide and a long
way to fall. He’d seen some older boys swinging under and then jumping into the waves
below. It looked like fun.
They parked Grandad in the middle beside the ladder that went over the side. James
climbed down and gazed up at all the nests hidden beneath. He could see the babies
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opening their beaks and squeaking. Larger birds flew in and out putting food in the
gaping mouths. James tried not to look down. A nest was close by. He reached out and
grabbed a warm body. He tucked it into his shirt. His hand slipped. He screamed as he
waved it around trying to grab onto something. His other hand couldn’t hold and down he
went into the icy river. He trod water as fast as he could, keeping his chest above the
waves. He didn’t think his baby bird could swim. Xavier swam up beside him and pushed
him toward the ladder.
‘I got one Grandad,’ he said as he opened his wet shirt for him to peek in.
‘Well done James you were very brave,’ said Grandad. ‘It was touch and go there when I
heard you fall. Your mother would have my guts for garters if anything had happened to
you.’
The others came rushing to show off their new pets. The boxes would be dry by now.
James hung his red pigeon house on a hook high up above his bed. The cat showed a lot
of interest in what was inside and tried to squeeze her paw through the wire. The bird
flapped around nervously. James couldn’t believe he now had two pets and Mum hadn’t
said anything.
Every morning James cleaned out the box when the cat fell asleep in the sun. He refilled
the bottle with fresh water from a large tank that collected the rain. He picked the seed
tops of tall grasses that grew all along the bush tracks and watched as the bird pecked
them up. Grandad told him they did the same in the war. He wished he could go to the pet
shop and buy him those packets of proper bird food.
The boys spent a lot of time talking about names. Grandad said the ones in the war had
names like ‘Suzie the Magnificent’ and ‘Madeline the Mighty’. James wasn’t going to
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call his after a girl! He finally decided on ‘Astro Andy’. He remembered how fast and
brave Astro Boy was and Andy is his chatroom name. A seriously cool name!
He found an old plastic lolly container. It would be just right to tie to Andy’s foot and
place a note inside.
The two weeks passed quickly. He was starting to forget about Maple Story. He was
busy learning so many new things He had got better at rowing. He and Liam had the job
of going up the river and collecting lumps of coal for the fire. They tested the wind just
like Grandad and watched the tide to keep safe. He had learnt how to set a crab trap with
a piece of chicken bone. He haul them up full of snapping creatures. He could pick the
crabs up from the back so the claws didn’t nip him. He carried them home in a bucket
and put them in the kerosene tin full of boiling water to cook. He watched amazed, as
they turned from muddy brown to red. They were so sweet and juicy to eat. He was
beginning to not even miss fries!
His feet become tough and hard so he never wore shoes and he had got used to washing
in the river after he had swung in on the big rope and let go above the deepest hole. He
only went home now to sleep and see Andy. He could never have believed being outside
was so much fun.
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At last the day came for Andy’s big test. He had grown massive and was covered in grey
and brown shiny feathers and ‘Cooed’ very loudly. He stretched his wings and jumped
off his perch gliding down to the floor. He was big and strong.
At breakfast the boys jumped around with excitement. They ate their breakfast in record
time. Their birds were ready too. James chopped the wood as fast as he could. He loved
to see the axe slice neatly through the logs and split down the middle. He stacked it along
the wall of the kitchen, placed the axe back in its place in the toolshed and raced home to
get Andy. They decided to take the birds to the furthest end of the island. Grandad was to
stay at home with some seed and watch the sky for incoming birds. James put a note on
Andy’s foot saying ‘You are the best Grandad’.
James saw lots of things for the pile along the way. He’d come back later and get his
points up. He saw a shopping trolley and an old car lying covered in vines. They should
be worth something. He’d found out that the prize was a day off chores!
Xavier called out for them to stop. This was far enough.
‘Boxes on the ground, doors open and release,’ he called out.
James reached in and grasped Andy. He kissed him on his head, just for good luck, held
him up to the breeze and let go. Would he ever see him again?
‘Run,’ yelled Liam. ‘See if we can beat them back.’
James ran and ran. Grandad sat out near the fireplace with a handful of seed. James
collapsed panting next to him and looked up into the sky. A sparrow flew into a nearby
tree. A black bird dived into the river with a splash. A speck came closer and closer
leading a lot of other spots.
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‘Come on Andy,’ cheered James. ‘You can do it.’
A flutter of wings, a puff of dust and Andy landed at James feet. He picked him up and
felt his heart pounding in his tiny chest.
‘It worked Grandad. It worked. Who needs a stupid mobile phone? Andy you are the
greatest pigeon ever.’ James was thrilled. He could hear the other boys all around the
camp shouting as their birds came in.
James handed Andy to Grandad.
‘Read the message, go on,’ he smiled.
Grandad untied the container and slowly studied it. A huge grin spread across his face.
‘I’m not just a silly old man after all,’ he said looking like he might cry. ‘Now you have
to get one for Max.’
The boys arrived with their birds safely back in their cages and patted Grandad on the
back.
‘How do they find their way home?’ asked Robbie.
‘I don’t really know,’ said Grandad. ‘It’s something to do with the magnetics of the
earth. We don’t need to know why. They have been finding their way around the world
for hundreds of years. You boys will be safe wherever you are. You know you can
always send them for help.’
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James knew exactly what to do. He painted Max’s cage blue and wrote his name in big
letters. He climbed up under the jetty without falling and chose a brown and white bird.
He left two babies in the nest so the mother wouldn’t miss it. He now had to get the bird
to him. That would mean going back. James felt strange thinking about how the city
might look now all the people had left.
At dinner, as he struggled to chew vegetables and swallow warm milk fresh from the
cow, he asked Xavier to help him. Grandad couldn’t make it and if he told his Mum and
Dad they might try to stop him. It would have to be a secret. Xavier decided the best time
to go was at night. They’d have to blacken their faces, wear dark clothes and wait until
everyone was asleep. Robbie and Liam wanted to come too.
‘I want to see the city but I am a bit scared. We might get shot or put in gaol,’ he
whispered his eyes getting bigger and bigger.
‘We’ll go tomorrow night if the tides and the winds are right,’ said Xavier. ‘Get into bed
as normal and wait until everyone’s snoring. Meet at the jetty. Keep a cover on the bird
so he doesn’t ‘coo’ and give us away.’
‘After dinner we’ll go to the recycled clothes bin for the right gear,’ he added.
James was nervous but he really wanted to see Max. His Dad must still have his job.
James hoped so or how would he find him? He knew where the beach camp was but had
no idea about the other places.
The day dragged as he got through his chores. His turn to mind the babies had come.
Some of them smelt awful and had shiny stuff coming out of their noses. They put their
midget arms up for him to pick them up. He didn’t want any of that snot on his clothes.
He tried to remember some songs that Mum sang him when he was a baby. Something
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about the wheels on a bus, they stopped and looked at him and jigged up and down. He
went on singing. He hoped nobody heard him. When the mums came to get them for
sleep time he breathed a sigh of relief. This was a girl’s job though he couldn’t imagine
Marley doing it. She had finally made some friends and left her bed. She now dressed in
black rags and sat out in the fields smoking and listening to one of the boys play his
guitar. How could he ever be related to her?
Grandad made a handle for Max’s cage.
‘It will make it easier to carry a long way,’ he said. ‘I wish I could come but I’m too old
now for such a dangerous mission.’
They met at the jetty and waited for Liam. It was hard to see each other. James went
back to the car in the bush and found some grease. He had got five points for it. He was
up to twelve. He needed eight more. They had smeared the goo all over their faces and
hands. The rest of their bodies were camouflaged in dark clothes.
Xavier watched the weather during the day and gave a final check on the wind. There
was a slight breeze blowing but it would be behind them helping to push them along.
They loaded the boat. James placed the bird under a blanket and slid it below the seat. He
would row first with Liam until they got tired. His heart raced. This was a really big quest
and he couldn’t wait to see Max.
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They gently dipped the oars not wanting to make any noise. As they saw the camp
disappear they rowed faster and soon reached the jetty at Mayfield. They’d walk all the
way to the city. Robbie tied up the boat and James retrieved the cage. Grandad was right,
the handle made things so much easier.
It was completely dark, some clouds covered the moon and only a few stars were
twinkling. There were no streetlights and any houses closed up and blacked out. The rolls
of wire that now went for miles glinted. Landmarks and buildings helped them to find
their way. The old BHP site was like a graveyard as they walked past. Robbie pointed to
the bridge going into Maryville. It was very creepy as they walked up and over the other
side. Something could be waiting underneath to grab them.
No cars were on the streets and it was totally silent, like a ghost town. James hoped none
of them were floating around anywhere. They kept close together. Suddenly a headlight
flashed and came speeding toward them. They ducked down flat on the ground and hid
their faces. James peeped up to see a security van whiz past.
‘That was close,’ Xavier said as he stood up and checked it had gone.
‘Stick close to me and be ready to hit the dirt. They must still be patrolling.’
‘Move on boys.’
James put his ear close to the cage but couldn’t hear anything. The bird must have slept
through it. They took the path around the harbour, far from any roads. The water looked
like thick ink and all the boats had gone. It used to be filled with fishing launches and
rich people’s yachts and cruisers. The greedy storm must have past here too.
‘My Dad had a sailing boat. We had to sell it when he finished at his work,’ said Robbie.
‘He was really cut up.’
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‘I don’t think I ever want to come back here to live. Ash Island rules,’ said Xavier. ‘The
best thing I like is no school.’
‘The best for me,’ said James, ‘is never being lonely. Everyday we do fun things
together and at last I’ve got cool pets.’
‘I like milking the cow,’ said Liam. ‘She always turns around and licks all the sweat of
my face. It feels nice but I wish we could make the milk cold it is a bit yuck. And
icecream would be so yum.’
‘My favourite,’ said Robbie.
‘Don’t tell us ‘chook boy’ we know. It’s a wonder you haven’t grown feathers and claws
you spend so much time with them,’ teased Xavier. Robbie laughed.
‘Yeah I really love them,’ he sighed. ‘I am collecting feathers and when I have enough
I’m going to make a cape and fly off the toolshed roof.’
‘One day we won’t be able to find you and Marksey, you’ll both be up there flying
around,’ chuckled James. It was good to have dreams. Some of his had come true since
they moved.
‘There’s Wickham Station so if we head up that street Max’s house will be close by,’ said
James. ‘What’s that smell?’
‘It’s smoke,’ said Xavier. ‘It’s coming from that empty shop there. Shhh. Let’s creep
closer and have a look.’
A small hole in the wall of the old building gave them a peephole.
‘I think it used to be the surf shop,’ said Liam softly.
They were shocked to see people in rags sitting around a fire. They were very skinny
and dirty. A baby was crying.
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‘What have we here?’ A loud voice boomed behind the boys. James jumped nearly
dropping the cage.
They turned to see a man dressed like a homeless person and he smelt awful. His hand
shot out trying to grab the cage.
‘What’s in there? I’m after something to eat,’ he grumbled.
‘It’s nothing,’ said James trying to back away. The bird woke up and gave a loud ‘Coo
Coo’.
‘A plump juicy bird, I’ll be having that son.’
‘Run,’ screamed Xavier.
The boys took off at top speed not stopping until they could hear no more footsteps
behind them.
‘This is so hair raising,’ said Xavier. ‘Come on we need to do this and get home. I don’t
want to run into anymore creeps.’
‘I should have brought the rooster,’ said Robbie bravely. ‘That hobo wouldn’t have stood
a chance.’
‘It must be horrible to be hungry. I don’t like the food on the island much all those
vegetables but at least we have plenty to eat,’ James said.
James put Liam on his shoulders so he could read the next street sign. They must be
getting close. Liam began to sound it out.
‘N A T I O,’ he said slowly.
‘Let me look,’ said Xavier. ‘We’ll be here all night.’
‘I only started reading when my school closed and I’m starting to forget what the words
say. It’s not my fault,’ he whined.
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‘It’s ok we just need to hurry before someone else scares us,’ said Xavier.
The sign read National Park Street. Max lived in a block of flats half way up. His flat
was on the second floor. James collected some pebbles to throw up at the window.
The building was in total darkness. James hoped he had the right one as he launched the
first pebble. Tink! Nothing. He threw another couple. Tink! Tink! The curtains pulled
back and a sleepy face looked out. The window flew open and Max’s leant out.
‘James is that you?’ he shouted.
‘Shhh, yes it’s me. Can you come down without waking up the whole street?’ James
hissed softly.
The sound of a door creaking open and then Max was beside them.
‘What have you got in the box and how did you get here?’ he asked.
James explained after introducing everyone. He held the box up so Max could see what a
beauty he had brought him. He gave Max quick instructions. Xavier was anxious to be
heading back.
‘I’m coming with you. There are no kids left around here. I have prayed that my dad
would get the sack and we’d move where you are. I’m so lonely. Gaming is no fun when
I have no one to beat,’ he said.
‘I’ll pack a bag and leave them a note. Wait for me.’ He tiptoed back up the stairs and
came back with his backpack over his shoulder. He had a packet of biscuits and a slab of
Coke. James swooned as Max shared them around. The first bite and the first sip, so
delicious! Max was the best!
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James noticed lots of good stuff lying everywhere as they made their way back. He
gathered up as much as he could carry and put the rest into two old prams. Xavier wanted
the pump up tyres. They made carts that practically flew. Robbie and Marksey wouldn’t
be the only ones up in space.
‘You need to think of a name for your bird,’ said James. ‘Mine’s called ‘Astro Andy’.’
‘Mmm,’ said Max thinking hard. ‘I might call him ‘Supersonic Shane’ after Sonic and
Shane Warne.’
‘That’s a great name. I think it suits him. We haven’t tried him out yet but I’m sure he
will fly fast,’ said James.
Xavier stopped and sounded very serious.
‘We will have to hide Max. If the grown ups see him they will send him straight back
and we will be in lots of trouble.’
‘How will we do that?’ asked James. ‘The island is only small and people are around all
the time. I thought we could say he had come for a holiday.’
‘I don’t think they’d believe you. How would he have got there all on his own?’ said
Xavier.
‘My parents won’t miss me. My mother is sick of me around the house moaning about
being bored. They won’t bother coming to get me,’ said Max. ‘The only cool thing has
been rats. Now that all the people have gone they have moved in. Hundreds of them. My
Dad and I built these crossbows out of bits of pipe. We shoot real arrows and get heaps.
My Dad says I am a good hunter.’
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‘Can you show me how to build a crossbow?’ asked Liam. ‘We could go hunting. I’m
sure I have heard a rat scuttling on the roof at night.’
‘That would be a possum and you are not allowed to shoot them,’ said Robbie.
‘We’ll have to ask your Grandad he’ll know what to do with Max,’ said Xavier.
‘Yes, you can trust him with a secret because you tell him something one day and by the
next he has forgotten,’ said James. ‘My Dad says he is one sandwich short of a picnic.’
They all stared at James. What did a picnic have to do with forgetting things?
They trudged along the deserted streets. James wanted to go and have a look at his old
house. Xavier said he’d be going alone they needed to return and get Max hidden. It
would be morning soon.
James suggested they take Max to the old car. It was well hidden and still had all its seats
in it. He could sleep in the boot and no one would find him. They reached the jetty and
loaded all the junk they had collected. They had some great stuff. The boat was very full
and sat low in the water. Xavier gave Liam a bucket to start bailing if any came in over
the side.
‘I didn’t know you could row James,’ said Max as James sat down and held onto an oar.
‘There’s lots of things I can do now,’ said James putting out his chest.
‘At our old school some losers used to tease him about being fat,’ said Max. James
punched him on the arm.
‘There’s no way they would now. I hardly recognised you.’
‘I have to warn you, the island is great but the food is all healthy. You don’t really want
to eat any of it but we have to,’ said James looking down to notice how flat his stomach
was.
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The boat started to jump around. Xavier stood up and tested the wind. A strong gust
caught the side and pushed it off course. They had been warned over and over about the
dangers of the weather suddenly changing.
‘Two of you get on each oar and try to straighten her up,’ yelled Xavier. The wind
whipped his words away and they could hear the howl as it flung the treetops back and
forwards. The bottom of the boat was filling with water. Max screamed,
‘Sonic’s cage is getting wet, he’ll drown.’
‘Get the bucket,’ hollered Robbie.
‘We’ll have to get rid of the junk. Try to go close to the bank and we will throw it off.
We can come back for it later,’ said Xavier.
They struggled to control the oars. All of them pulled together and got near enough to
toss the junk off. The boat bobbed up higher and stopped filling up. The wind turned
lifted it up out of the water tossing the boys into the freezing brine. One of the oars broke
free and floated off. They clung to the capsized craft and held on tight. Xavier dived
down and came back up with a rope.
‘I’ll swim to shore and try to pull you all in,’ he gasped.
Max held the blue box up in the air desperate to keep it dry. The bird flapped about
inside ‘cooing’. Xavier’s head disappeared and then popped up again. He clambered up
the slippery bank and secured the rope to a tree. One by one they worked their way along
to safety. They looked back to see the boat thrashing around. Hopefully the rope would
hold it until morning.
They began the long walk home, wet and tired. Max couldn’t stop talking and jumping
around.
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‘That was the most scary fun I’ve ever had. I nearly drowned. When the boat flipped it
was like one of those rides at the show. You know James like the big Ferris wheel. We
got thrown out. I’ve always wanted that to happen. Sonic has had his first adventure.
Xavier saved our lives. He’s a hero. Can I be one of your friends too?’
‘Shhh, Max,’ hissed Xavier. ‘We are nearly there someone will hear us. We need to get
to bed and then be up early and bring the boat back and find the missing oar before
anyone notices.’
James and Liam helped Max to his hiding place and crept back into their beds. James
couldn’t go to sleep. There was so much to think about.
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In the morning as soon as Mum and Dad had gone to their chores and Marley had gone to
sit in a paddock James had a chance to talk to Grandad.
‘In the war Grandad if you wanted to hide what would you have done?’ he asked.
‘Let me think. It was a long time ago,’ Grandad rubbed his chin. ‘We dug underground
trenches but when I was a boy we built secret cubbies much harder to find. You dig a big
hole and then cover it with sheets of tin and put the dirt back over the top.’
‘I can always count on you Grandad,’ James said as he ran off to find the other boys.
They had work to do.
Xavier was beaming. A secret place underground, he could just imagine it.
‘Your Grandad is the best.’
They took turns at digging. Xavier made several trips back to the toolshed to get a
crowbar and a mattock. Some of the soil was hard and came away in big lumps. It took
three of them to lift the load.
‘Shh,’ said Xavier, ‘some one’s coming.’
They could hear rustling and the patter of feet.
‘It’s only Grandad,’ said James as he saw him sitting in a pram pushing himself along
with his feet.
‘I have looked everywhere for you. I wanted to see how the trench was coming along,’
he said.
Grandad peered in the hole.
‘You need some planks of wood to lay the tin on otherwise it might fall in and suffocate
you,’ he said.
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‘Ahhhhhh, Ahhhhhh,’ Max gave out a blood curdling scream and ran off into the bush.
He came back and ran around and around holding his finger. Blood spurted out of the top
of it.
‘I’ve chopped the tip of my finger off. Heeelp! It seriously hurts,’ he cried out. Real
blood was all over the ground.
‘Put it in your mouth and bite it hard,’ said Grandad.
Max bit down hard and blood dripped out of the corners of his mouth. He looked like a
vampire.
‘It’s stopping,’ he mumbled and pulled his finger out to show everyone. It looked like a
dead ‘granny’ finger but the blood had stopped.
‘There’s broken glass in the dirt,’ said Liam. ‘The cavemen who used to live here must
have got drunk and smashed some bottles.’
‘Sure Liam, they didn’t even have glass in the olden days,’ said Robbie.
The lunch bell clanged. They laid some sheets over the hole and told Max to sit inside
promising to bring him something to eat. He looked a bit pale and shaky.
‘I’ll have a works burger, a scallop and a large fries,’ he said. ‘That sloppy stuff you
gave me for breakfast was gross.’
‘In your dreams,’ laughed the boys as they ran off.
The hiding place was finished as the sun started to set. Max wasn’t looking forward to
sleeping by himself again. There were lots of spinechilling noises in the bush and you
couldn’t see what was making them. At least he had ‘Supersonic Shane’. He asked James
could he leave his bird and if a monster came to get him he’d send Andy for help.
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The seats from the car and an old door put up on bricks for a bed made Max’s hideout
comfy. Armfuls of grass made a soft place to lie in. The seed heads were eaten up by the
pigeons, they needed to eat a lot now they were so big. Some of them so tame they sat on
their shoulders as they walked about. Grandad showed them how to make a fire with a
proper chimney out of an oil drum and a piece of downpipe. Max didn’t want all his
blood sucked out by monster mossies, he had lost enough from his finger.
They covered the roof with branches and piles of dead leaves. When they stood back you
would never know it was there. If only they were really hiding from something
dangerous!
‘We could be a guild,’ said James, ‘and fight monsters together. We could run away and
hide and they would never find us.’
‘I haven’t seen any monsters James. I know what we can do,’ said Liam. ‘What do those
dopey teenagers love more than anything?’
‘Their dumb guitars and their cigarettes, they aren’t even real fags. They roll up bits of
leaves and grass. They are such noobs.’ James shouted out.
‘That’s what we’ll do,’ said Xavier. ‘Josh that one with the long coat he is a real psycho.
We’ll steal something from him. Then we’ll run off into the bush and hide out he’ll never
catch us.’
Max ran around in circles.
‘Can I do it first? I’ll be brave,’ he said.
After breakfast they searched the island until the twang of a guitar could be heard. They
crept into the bushes and looked across the field to where Marley and her friends were
sitting in a circle puffing on their phoney fags.
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James and Max stood up and wandered over.
‘What are you little cretins doing around here?’ said Josh snarling at them. ‘Go on get
lost before I do something. I just feel like beating a small child. It is so boring on this
island.’ He stood up. His coat was on the grass where he had been sitting.
‘Nothing,’ replied Max his voice sounding a bit freaked.
James ducked around grabbed the coat and started running. Max took off, his knees
shaking under him. Josh looked shocked and then started yelling and calling to the others
to follow.
‘I’ll rip his head off,’ he screamed.
James ran as hard as he could. Josh was tearing off branches as he ran behind. James
went off in the wrong direction and then circled back to the hideout. He was amazed how
fast he could run. He slid a piece of the roof off and fell in. Reaching out he slid it back in
place and held his breath. Footsteps pounded along the track and then stopped.
‘He’s disappeared. Where did he go?’ James could hear Josh calling to the others.
‘He’s just gone, Poof! No sign of the loser.’
He waited for the roof to be flung off and for Josh’s big hands to grab him.
Nothing happened. Josh cursed and then began to walk away.
The roof slowly opened and the faces of his mates looked in. They climbed down
laughing and looking very pleased.
‘You should have seen it James,’ said Liam. ‘He stood right on top of you looking all
around. He couldn’t believe that you had completely gone no trace.’
Tormenting Josh and his friends was more terrifying than any monster. Josh was furious
that they seemed to vanish into thin air, one day with his precious guitar and another with
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his fags. One minute he could hear them running through the bush and the next they were
nowhere to be seen. He told Marley to tell her retard brother that when he caught him he
would be dead meat.
The booty was slowly returned to the middle of the field. It had been a hoot but Josh was
really scary and Max was worried he might find him alone one night and goodness knows
what he’d do. Marley told James that Dougie, one of Josh’s mates, had a slingshot. He
threatened if James didn’t give himself up he would shoot Andy out of the air next time
he saw him flying past. James’s nightmares returned. They would have to pretend
something else was coming to get them. It probably wasn’t as much fun.
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Large sheets of paper covered the dinner table as the boys sat down. Marksey was bent
over scribbling and drawing flying machines.
‘I’ve got it,’ he said. ‘I’m going to visit Smithy’s Kingdom. He is this unreal dude who
has an airport with lots of old planes lying around. He has his own government and
makes his own rules. My Dad used to work for the council. He showed me the place one
day. They were always trying to close him down and take his land back. Dad said he was
a ‘public nuisance’ I’m going to ask him if he could spare some real wings.’
‘Where is this place and how will you get there?’ asked Xavier. He didn’t think this
could be true. The government made all the rules. They sent all these families to this
island and were probably living in all the best houses themselves and their children
playing with the good toys left behind.
‘It’s not far from here, across the river on the other side of the island. I’ll need your
help,’ said Marksey. ‘Can I have one of those prams you brought back from the city? I
need to make a swing to get across the water and reach the Kingdom. It is too far to take
the boat and someone would probably want to know what we are doing and ground us.
This has gotta be kept quiet. It is really dangerous and someone could die.’ He pulled all
their heads into a ‘cone of silence’.
He only needed the seat of the pram; someone else could have the wheels. He attached
long lengths of rubber as ropes. It would have to be hauled up a tall tree and tied tight he
explained. He consulted his drawings and yelled orders to the others as to how it was to
be built. It had to have good bounce and launch them far enough to make it over the river.
They found some old bike helmets to put on their heads. James took the seat belt out of
the old car and attached it to the swing.
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Josh and Dougie wandered passed just as they were putting the last ties on the ropes.
Josh glared at them. ‘Who’s this kid?’ He pointed at Max who stood his ground staring
back.
‘He’s a new kid. He came this morning by himself. His parents don’t want him
anymore,’ said James.
‘I can understand their feelings, another brat,’ sneered Josh.
‘What are you babies doing anyway?’ said Dougie
‘We’re not telling,’ said Liam bravely.
Josh grabbed Marksey and held him up off the ground.
‘I’m……. b…building something that flies,’ he stuttered.
Josh dropped him and sniggered.
‘Well that’s good because you’ll probably kill yourselves and save me the bother, come
on we’ll help and then we can watch you die,’ he said as he winked at Dougie.
They set off to the western side of the island through the dense grasses and shrubs. James
took Andy. Max had wanted to try out ‘Sonic Shane’ but he would fly back to the
hideout. That would be no use in an emergency.
It was lucky the older boys had come. The launcher was heavy and they’d need help
carrying the wings back. They’d have to swim them across the river holding on to them
for floatees. Marksey wasn’t sure how heavy they might be. Maybe they could use a long
stick and stand up like on a surfboard and push them. They must reach the other side in
one piece before he had to worry about getting back.
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A tall tree with its roots right down into the river was chosen. It leant over toward the
other side. It had several branches up the trunk making it easy to climb. Josh volunteered
to go up high and tie the ropes.
‘The sooner I shoot one of you into space the better,’ he chuckled. Josh and Dougie must
be really bored or they were going to get their revenge now! James thought.
‘I’ll go first,’ said Marksey. He climbed aboard, snapped the clip on his helmet and
clicked his seat belt. The launcher was pulled back as far as the ropes would stretch.
‘Do a proper countdown,’ said Marksey. His voice shook a bit.
Ten, nine, eight, seven and they let go. They couldn’t hold it any longer it would pull
their arms off! Marksey shot up into the air, the seat tipped, righted itself and the ropes
came undone flinging him across the river and he disappeared.
‘Marksey are you all right?’ shouted James.
‘One gone,’ laughed Josh giving Dougie a ‘high five’.
Marksey’s helmet appeared at the top of a bush.
‘I made it,’ he yelled back. ‘Go and get a rope to pull the seat back so you can come on
over.’
Liam took off and returned with a long piece of rope. Marksey dragged the seat to the
edge of the river and attached the rope to it.
Josh wanted to have the next turn and then Dougie. Dougie screamed as the seat went
around and around and turned him upside down high up in the air. He spewed and the
mess flew into the water making a yellow slick that drifted away. He jumped off just
before the seat got caught on the top of a tree and stuck firm. They ran off leaving the
other boys behind.
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‘Ohhhhh,’ groaned Max. ‘Wait for us.’
‘I’m going to swim it,’ said Liam. ‘I can hang onto the rope if we tie it to a tree. I want to
see the Kingdom. There might be knights and ‘quiddick’ games.’
James, Robbie and Max waited until he was on the far shore and plunged into the current
clinging tightly to the rope. They were getting good at doing this! Liam tied it to a tree on
the other side. The current pulled them but they hung on tightly.
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One by one they dragged themselves up the slippery bank on the other side. They hurried
to catch up with the others or they’d miss all the fun. They could see them ahead over the
railway line climbing a tall wire fence. The tracks were all rusted and bent. The trains
must have stopped running too. They looked both ways just in case.
A big sign on the gate read ‘Private Air Strip. Enter at your own risk. By order King
Smithy’.
James checked Andy was safe. He sat happily on James’s head. They may need to send
him for help. Over the fence they went and crept to the nearest building ducking down
behind it. Not far away the others could be heard whispering.
James put his head up. A tall man dressed in a blue uniform with a row of medals across
his chest sat at a table under a pole. The pole had an aerial attached to it. He had
headphones on and was talking in a loud voice into a microphone.
‘Roger, Charlie over and out,’ he said.
Marksey had come out of hiding and was walking toward him.
‘Please sir, would you have a couple of wings from one of your planes that I could have
to build a flying machine?’ he said very politely. He pulled his plans out of his pocket
and went to spread them out on the table. He was one daredevil.
Liam raced over to join him, ‘And please sir are there any knights here to protect your
Kingdom?’
The man looked shocked.
‘How many of you are there?’ he said angrily. ‘Come on out all of you. Show your
faces.’
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They stood up and slowly moved toward him. He didn’t look like he had any weapons.
James whispered to Andy.
‘Get ready for take off.’
‘Where the dickens have you all come from? I thought everyone had moved away and I
could have the place to myself at last,’ he said calming down.
‘We have come from Ash Island,’ said Josh. He was the biggest so probably wasn’t even
one bit scared. ‘We just want some wings and we’ll be on our way. Please.’
‘Who was that you were talking to?’ asked Dougie. ‘We didn’t think any telephones or
radios worked anymore.’
‘If you stick with the old things sonny they always work. It’s a crystal radio like they
used in the war,’ he said. ‘You build them out of scraps of this and that and they go
forever.’
James held out Andy.
‘Just like a homing pigeon,’ he said feeling very important. ‘My Grandad used them in
the war and taught us how to train one each and if you hurt us I’ll let him go to get help.’
‘Your Grandad is right on the ticket sonny,’ he smiled. ‘Those birds helped win the war.
Brave as any man. I won’t hurt you. I just got a bit of a surprise. Thought you might be
someone trying to take my land from me or a spy from the council.’
‘But aren’t you the boss of this Kingdom?’ said Robbie.
‘I am,’ said Smithey standing up tall and putting out his chest. ‘Fall in men, airport duty
coming up. Quick march, left, right, left, right.’
The boys giggled as they marched down a road swinging their arms and lifting their
knees. Ahead they could see a wind socket fluttering in the breeze and beyond that a
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paddock full of aeroplanes. They were all old and dusty and had bits missing. Wings
drooped down to the ground making them look sad. Their flying days were over.
Marksey was running about like a mad person. So many wings surely he could have two
and get them to fly again.
‘Have a look around and see which two you would like son?’ said Smithey. ‘As you can
see I won’t be flying these again. But I still have one that I sit in and have a bit of a flap
about. Come on I’ll show you.’
They followed him up a hill made out of old car tyres. A plane sat on the top.
‘You boys can give me a push for take off,’ he said as he climbed in, put a leather flying
helmet on and pulled his goggles over his eyes.
‘Ready,’ he called out. ‘Echo. Charlie. Bravo.’
The boys moved to the back of the plane and gave it a big heave. It slid forward caught a
breeze under the wings and flew across the paddock landing in a pile of sand with a loud
whomp.
Marksey’s eyes nearly fell out of his head. He had to have one. Even to fly that far
would be enough. If he could have wild wind like the other night he’d go for miles. The
boat had nearly taken off.
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Smithy pulled himself out of the plane and dusted himself off.
‘Come on we’ll see about these wings you want,’ he said letting them follow him
without having to march!
‘I used to do tricks in this one. I could take her up and do a loop-de-loop and fly upside
down.’ He stood in front of a plane with two sets of wings on top of each other.
‘You boys ever heard of a Tiger Moth?’
‘Dougie looped around getting over here and spewed everywhere. Did that ever happen
to you?’ asked Max.
‘Yes a few times, it was a bit messy if the wind was blowing the wrong way,’ he
chuckled.
James felt a bit sick. He hadn’t vomited since he was four and didn’t want to break his
record now.
‘We had better be getting back. We won’t hear the lunch bell from here,’ said Liam
rubbing his belly. ‘It’s not really a Kingdom is it? Just a big junkyard with some unreal
stuff. I don’t mean to be rude.’
‘That’s okay son, come and visit me again,’ said Smithey. ‘I’ll show you how to build
one of those radios.’
‘No thank you sir, we have pigeons. We wouldn’t want to hurt their feelings,’ James said
very softly, putting his hand over Andy’s ears.
Smithey helped them get the wings over the fence. They carried them carefully down to
the river; all held on with one hand on the rope and floated them across. Marksey had to
wave the plans in the air so they didn’t get wet. Andy fluttered on top of James’s head.
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Dad stood in the middle of the track looking from side to side. He ran toward them. Max
ducked into the nearest bush to hide.
‘Where have you been? You’ve missed lunch. We were starting to worry,’ he said.
Liam groaned. He loved food even fruit!
‘We went to the Kingdom of Smithey and got some wings. Marksey is going to fly with
them,’ said James.
‘Isn’t that a bit dangerous?’ asked Dad.
‘Not really,’ said Marksey. ‘Smithey does it all the time even upside down until he
chucks.’
‘Well come on we kept you some food. I’m glad Josh and Dougie were with you they
would keep you out of trouble,’ he said heading off toward the dining hall.
Josh blushed and Dougie coughed loudly.
‘Remember when you couldn’t find us in the bush? We have an underground hideout.
I’ll show you if you like?’ said James.
Josh and Dougie had been a big help and everyone managed to come back alive. They
didn’t seem disappointed about that. Maybe they could be friends.
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Marksey laid the plans out once more and called out what needed to be done.
‘Bring me the wheels from the pram, that old boogey board, another seat belt, lots of wire
and the wings,’ he said frowning over his drawings. ‘I think I’ll lie down to fly. That’s
how birds do it and they should know.’
They attached the board to the wheels pulling the wire tight and securing it around the
pram frame. The wings were more difficult. They kept flopping to the ground.
‘Go and get your Grandad James,’ said Marksey. ‘He’ll know what to do.’
James pushed Grandad along the track to where the plane laid waiting. Grandad rubbed
his chin and looked worried.
‘You need some of those rubber strips that were lying around,’ he finally said.
‘Oh no,’ said Marksey. ‘We used them on the launcher. There aren’t any more.’
‘We could go and get it out of the tree,’ Max piped up.
‘Is that you Max?’ said Grandad.
‘No it’s just a boy who looks like Max,’ said James quickly.
‘My names Scott,’ said Max. ‘I came here by myself, my parents sent me away. They
said I cost too much to feed. Kevin Rudd said it was all right for me to be here.’
Grandad looked puzzled.
‘I’m sure Max had a face like yours and the same colour hair,’ he said. ‘I forget most
things now so maybe I can’t really remember.’
‘Flying machines Grandad remember, one plane short of two wings,’ said James.
‘Come on we’ll go and get the rubber,’ said Marksey.
They looked up at the seat stuck in the tree. How would they ever get it out? Max
climbed up and jiggled the ropes about. The seat moved but stayed stuck.
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‘All come up and if we pull the ropes tight and then let go it might spring back. Climb
up,’ said Max.
They balanced on the high branch and pulled and pulled until the ropes stretched as far
as they could.
‘On the count of three let go,’ Max sung out.
The seat shot forward and then catapulted up to the sky and began to fall to earth. The
boys stood still and watched with terror as it headed their way. None of them moved. The
seat gave a final shuddering sprong and landed behind them pulling the tree in the same
direction. The boys hung on.
‘How about that?’ said Max. ‘Seriously it looked like it was coming straight at us. This
island is dangerous. I’ve nearly died two times already!’
‘Run down and move the seat slowly toward the tree.’
Max held on tight as the tree jerked back to stand up again. He undid the ties and
climbed down.
‘I think,’ said Grandad. ‘If you attach a lever to the ropes one end and the other to the
wings and then when you move it up and down that will make the wings flap. You’ll
have to sit so you are high up. Isn’t that right Max?’
Max smiled at him.
The plane was ready. They carried it to the top of the slide mountain. The dad’s had just
dug a new ‘drop’ hole so it was way up in the sky. They pushed and tugged. Josh and
Dougie wandered along in time for lift off.
‘Someone will surely die this time,’ Josh nudged Dougie. ‘Only kidding guys.’
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Marksey climbed aboard. A bit of a wind was behind him. One mighty push and up it
went. Marksey pumped furiously on the lever, the wings flapped up and down and he
glided down to the tops of the trees and out over the river. They couldn’t believe it. He
was flying. The plane seemed to stop and hover and then dropped like a stone into the
water. They ran like mad to the bank in time to see Marksey floating along and pumping
the air with his fist.
‘I did it,’ he whooped. ‘Who wants the next turn?’
A rope was thrown out and the plane pulled in. Josh had the next turn. He flew right
across the river and landed in the tall grass. His strong arms could work the lever faster
and faster. The pump up wheels gave a nice soft landing.
As James soared into the air he knew what it was like to be Andy. He looked down and
saw everyone below. He only had time for a quick look before the plane dropped into the
water.
They were pulling the plane into shore when Dad and Max’s father appeared out of the
bush.
‘James, James where are you? I need to ask you something important.’
Max froze on the spot.
‘Max is that you?’ said his dad.
‘There’s no Max here,’ piped up Grandad. ‘It’s a look alike called….. I forget.’
‘Oh Max, we have been so worried about you,’ he said as he hugged him. ‘Thank
goodness you are all right. What were you thinking?’
‘I just missed James too much. This is the best place. Can’t we come and live here?
Can’t you do something bad at your work so they will sack you?’ he spluttered.
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‘We’ll talk about it later,’ he laughed. ‘I’m just so glad you are all right.’
‘Grown ups always say that and then the answer is no,’ sighed Max looking at James for
help.
‘Max’s father has brought some good news,’ said Dad. ‘Come and have your dinner and
we will tell everyone.’
‘We are going to live here forever, Macca’s is opening a store on the island and all the
money has been found hidden in a treasure chest on an alien planet and the stinko storm
had been captured by the Fantastic Four and all its powers have been taken away. That’s
it isn’t it?’ said James racing around his Dad.
‘Not quite pal,’ said Dad shaking his head. ‘No computer games for months and he can
still come up with a story like that. It’s amazing. They really are brainwashed. All this
fresh air hasn’t cured them.’
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When everyone was seated and quiet James’s dad stood up and announced that it was all
over. The global financial crisis had come to an end. The government had got lots of
money to help people move back to their houses and to make jobs. The banks were going
to let everyone have a holiday from giving them money. They would be going home.
James’s mum started to cry. She mustn’t want to leave here either. The children were
silent. This was not welcome news. Schools would probably open again. Grown ups sure
had some funny ideas about holidays.
The boys looked at their plates and slowly started to eat.
‘We have two weeks to pack up and get back,’ said Dad. ‘I’m sure I speak for all of us,
this is the best news.’
‘Not,’ muttered Max.
‘Not,’ said Grandad wiping his eyes. ‘I’ll have to go back to that home again and be put
in front of a television all day.’
‘Max’s dad will go home tomorrow but he has agreed that Max can stay and come back
with us,’ said Dad.
Two weeks was a long time. They still had so much to do. They needed to go back and
see King Smithey. He wouldn’t be happy with the news either. They had canoes they
were going to build to get there. Marksey had the plans nearly finished. A list was made
so they wouldn’t forget to do anything. Everyone got a turn to put something on it.
They decided they would all sleep in the hideout and keep Max company. Max wanted
Marksey to teach him how to get a giant splash in the ‘drop’. It was such a cool trick.
He’d never be able to do it when he went home. It was now or never.
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The hideout was fitted out with extra beds. Some nights they cooked their own dinner on
the fire. They raided the fish traps and pulled in some beauties. They gutted them and
threw the stinking mess at each other. They looked like real ghouls. It would be the best
look to go trick or treating.
They invited Josh and Dougie to come over. They brought some girls with them. They
sat on the beds and put their arms around them and looked like zombies. One of the girls
wanted to sit next to Xavier. He went all sloppy too. Marksey tried to talk about his latest
invention. They didn’t show any interest. Xavier didn’t even get excited. Girls spoiled
everything. It was better just boys. The girls didn’t think Andy was at all interesting.
They said he smelt.
James slept in his own bed that night. He wanted some thinking time. Maybe it would be
good to get home. It wasn’t going to be fun if girls were going to be hanging around. He
wondered why some boys changed from hating them to going all ‘oooh aaah’ over them.
It was quite gross. It was never going to happen to him.
James needed to build another cage to take the cat home. He couldn’t leave her here.
She would get lonely. It took him a few days to complete and he thought he would paint
it at home. Maybe he could go to a shop and chose a colour that would be good for a cat.
The boys had one last turn of the plane, one last sleep in the hideout and one last visit to
Smithey. They built the canoes out of old bits of tin. The holes were filled with melted
rubber from old thongs. It smelt really bad when it got hot but sealed up the holes tight.
They had one each and raced across the river. Liam won. James wanted to take his home,
he could paddle it in the pool.
‘Much better invention than the launcher Marksey!’ Robbie teased him.
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Robbie was a bit sad. He was only allowed to take one chook home and he was having
trouble choosing. He would never have enough feathers to make a cape now. Marksey
was so lucky his dream had come true.
Smithey gave them each instructions for building a radio and they promised to keep in
touch. James tried to tell him about a mobile phone.
‘Those things rot your brain sonny; I’ll stick with my radio. Thanks anyway,’ he said.
Max offered to visit if the trains started running again.
‘Over and out men. Stand easy and dismissed,’ said Smithey as he saluted them and
waved goodbye. He placed his goggles and helmet onto Marksey’s head.
‘It’s been good to meet you. You are one ace pilot.’
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Large motorboats arrived early one morning. Everyone would be going home together.
James only had his two cages to put on board. Andy would have to be caged for two
weeks to learn where his new home was. James’s clothes were old and dirty and he didn’t
know where his shoes had gone. He left them behind. He would have no use for them.
Grandad was very sad even though Mum had promised he could come and live with
them. He said,
‘It was the best camping holiday I have ever had.’
There was lots of girls hugging and kissing and promising to keep in touch. The boys
looked sadly at each other and climbed aboard.
‘Where’s Marksey?’ someone called out.
James went to look for him. He found him at the junk pile trying to carry as much stuff
as he could.
‘I just can’t leave all these great things. I need them for my next invention,’ he grumbled.
His dad told him to forget it; they could go to Bunnings, the store that has everything for
the handyman.
‘But this is all for free,’ he stamped his foot and walked down to the boat dragging the
lever and the rubber ropes from his plane.
The boys sat together at the back of the boat and watched as Ash Island got further and
further away. Some clouds drifted down and the mist rose off the river giving the island a
magical look like in a fantasy.
‘It is an unreal place,’ said James. ‘We could never have imagined it in our best dreams.’
‘Bye bye Ash Island’ they all said softly.
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Buses met the boat and drove people home. James yelled out and pointed as they passed
his dad’s car. It had no wheels and all the windows were smashed.
Workmen were busy removing all the rolls of wire and people were cleaning up their
homes. They passed a Macca’s the lights were on and the golden arches sparkled.
‘I’m only going to Macca’s sometimes,’ said James. ‘I can run really fast now without
even getting puffed. I never want to be called ‘fat’ again.’
Mum patted him on the leg.
‘We are so proud of you. Not once did you complain. You got in, made the most of our
new home and I think you really enjoyed yourself,’ said Dad. ‘I did too. I’m never going
to work like I did before. I want to be home with my family more often.’
‘So boring,’ groaned Marley. ‘Don’t think I’m going to join in happy families. I’ve seen
enough of you to last me the rest of my life.’
They all laughed.
‘What’s so funny?’ she glared at them.
James gazed out the window of the bus. They passed his school. It would probably be
open again soon. The bus stopped outside Max’s house. He jumped off with Sonic’s cage
under his arm and waved at James.
‘See ya tomorrow,’ he said, turned and walked into his building.
As soon as the birds settled into their new homes they could swap them over and send
messages back and forth. It would be so cool. When Andy needed a holiday James
thought he might call on the mobile or send an email. He wondered if he’d remember
how.
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