Super Jack

by Susanne Gervay

  ‘Where are you, Jack?’ Samantha runs outside looking for me.

  ‘Here, here.’ I slide the words out of the side of my mouth.

  Samantha sees me. ‘Wow.’

  ‘Shush … camera.’

  Samantha is smart. She tiptoes towards my camera, so as not to frighten the birds away. Click, click, click. They will be great photos.

  As she clicks I whisper, ‘Tell everyone to come out, with cookies.’

  The next thing I know Mum is standing beside me with a rosella pecking cookies from her hands. One swoops at Rob’s spiky head. Probably thinks there are seeds there! Another one lands on Leo’s shoulder, hopping towards the cookies. There is a bright red and green rosella on Anna’s silver wing. Samantha is still clicking. Nanna watches from the lounge room window. She waves at us. She’s happy that they like her cookies.

  Cookies are finished and the birds hop back into their tree. That was fantastic. Oh no, I look at Rob’s head. There is a big sticky white plop there. Ha, ha. Samantha runs in to get a tissue for Rob’s head.

  ‘Plop-head, Plop-head,’ I shout. Rob chases me around the frangipani tree and tackles me onto the lawn until we’re both puffing and laughing. Leo chases after us. Rob has me in a pretend head lock. ‘Sorry Rob … sorry …’ I gasp. ‘You’re not a plop-head.’ I can’t stop laughing.

  Rob lets go, then suddenly Leo tackles me. We wrestle for a bit. He tries to kick me in the stomach but misses. I am too quick and grab his leg. When I get him down, I jump away. Rob thinks it’s a game. I’m not so sure.

  As Leo struggles up, something falls out of his shorts. ‘Hey. What’s that?’

  ‘Nothing.’ He stuffs an old silver lighter into his pocket as he scrambles next to Rob.

  I’ll check that lighter out some time, but not now. We’re going to see dolphins today and I’m not interested in Leo and the stupid things he does. We race to get our swimming gear and lunches. I put some new film into my camera. Nanna tries to leave her walking stick behind, but we all shout at her, ‘Walking stick, Nanna.’

  ‘I hear you, I hear you.’ Nanna is cunning like that.

  Samantha picks pink frangipanis from the frangipani tree. They smell like honey. Mum and the girls put a flower behind their ear. Nanna doesn’t because of her hard head. Samantha puts one behind Rob’s ear just as the mobile phone rings. Rob leans against his four-wheel drive with a frangipani on his head and a phone next to his ear. Wonder what his boss would say. He’d never live it down. Rob and a flower. Ha, ha. I’ll save that for future blackmail purposes.

  ‘Special problem. Ummm … Leaks oil … 1980 Toyota Corona … Modification … Drive transmission … He’ll need to take it to the workshop.’ Rob gives excellent technical advice. He’s promised that he’ll take me to his work one day. I can’t wait to go. He finishes the call. ‘Let’s move out. Get into the back today, Leo,’ he says.

  ‘But Dad …’

  I’m getting half-used to hearing Leo call Rob ‘Dad’. But somehow, I don’t like it that much.

  Rob shakes his head. ‘The back seat, Leo.’

  At last, a bit of fairness.

  We drive along the Gold Coast Highway. There are beaches, motels, more beaches, more motels, neon signs, more beaches, more motels. The airport. I point out a Cessna four-seater plane. ‘I’m going to fly one of them one day.’ Anna is impressed. ‘I’ll fly everyone to the Gold Coast.’

  ‘Not me,’ Rob calls out. ‘Jack in the air sounds dangerous.’

  ‘Dangerous? Sure. You’re just scared. Scared Rob.’

  ‘He’s not.’ Samantha sticks her tongue out at me. ‘Rob isn’t scared. DAD isn’t scared of anything.’

  Dad, Dad, Dad. Everyone calls Rob Dad, except me.

  ‘That’s my girl.’ Rob laughs. ‘My little Samantha.’

  Samantha is HIS little girl. His girl. I tweak Samantha’s pigtail. This all feels wrong.

  Suddenly Mum turns around to look at me. ‘And Jack is your boy, Rob, isn’t he?’

  Rob calls out. ‘He sure is. My big, noisy boy.’

  Mum adds, ‘And Leo too.’

  ‘Leo isn’t as noisy as Jack, but you’re all my kids.’

  I stare at the back of Rob’s head for a second. He has never said that before. Never.

  Rob rubs his golf ball head. ‘I’ll have to wear a crash helmet when Jack is a pilot.’

  Oh, he’s joking. I shake my head. I call out, ‘Mr Never-Scared crash-helmet rider, I’ve got a limerick.

  Row row row your boat

  Gently down the stream

  Let’s chuck Rob overboard

  And listen to him scream.’

  Everyone laughs, even Rob. Mum giggles. ‘Come on kids, we’d have to pull him out of the stream. If he was thrown overboard, who’d drive us to the dolphins?’

  ‘I will.’ Samantha tickles the top of Rob’s hair.

  ‘Hey, don’t touch.’ Rob is very protective about his hair, especially when he’s driving.

  Tropical weather definitely makes plants grow — big green palms and lime green ferns, pink hibiscuses, bright red banksias, orange birds of paradise. Mum is in flower-power heaven. She is not very impressed with the bowling alley and the cinemas, shops and restaurants and even MORE motels. The motels are getting taller as we drive along — one storey, two storeys, five storeys, ten storeys, big skyscrapers, bigger skyscrapers. We hit Surfers Paradise.

  ‘Look at that.’ Samantha bends her head back so far it sounds like it’s cracking. A giant bungee jump. I’d love to go on that. Wow.

  I start laughing. There has definitely been an invasion of Hawaiian shirts into Surfers Paradise. They are everywhere. Eating breakfast in outdoor cafés, buying souvenirs in shops, walking around licking ice cream cones. There is music blaring from a beer garden even though it is still only the morning. Surfers Paradise is a party town. Two unconscious guys are sprawled out under a coconut palm tree. There are a few coconuts lying next to them, but we’re not sure which ones are the nuts. Ha, ha.

  Anna digs her elbow into me. ‘Looks like they’re a bit sick.’

  ‘They remind me of Hector when I dyed him green.’ I turn around to get a better view. ‘No, my rat looked better.’ Hope Christopher is looking after Hector properly. ‘Can we visit Surfers Paradise?’ I hit Rob’s head. Oops, it was a bit hard. I’m just about to say sorry when the car zooms forward in a mighty jump.

  ‘You idiot, Jack.’ Rob shouts at me right in front of Anna, Leo and everyone. ‘Not while I’m driving.’ It is a mean shout, a really mean one. He didn’t have to be mean and call me a name. Rob slows down.

  ‘It was an accident, Rob,’ I say.

  Leo smirks. ‘Yes. It was an accident, Dad.’ What’s Leo playing at? Oh I know. He wants to look good.

  Rob is rubbing his head. ‘Okay, Leo. You’re right.’

  Leo, right? What is that about? I already told Rob that it was an accident. Oh, but that’s not good enough. It’s what Leo says that matters. Rob is Leo’s dad, not mine. Rob doesn’t care what I say. He calls us all his kids, but it doesn’t look like it. My head is throbbing. I am not talking to Rob any more.

  Mum reaches out for my hand. ‘Don’t worry, Jack.’ That’s why Mum is MY mum and Rob is not my dad. ‘You shouldn’t have shouted at Jack,’ she says to Rob.

  ‘Look, that was dangerous. I could have had an accident.’ Rob puts on this serious voice.

  ‘It wasn’t on purpose, Rob.’

  I love Mum. She is right. I was just telling Rob something. That was all. It WAS an accident.

  ‘Jack can do no wrong, is that the way it is?’

  That is so untrue. Rob doesn’t know what he’s talking about. Mum is always defending Rob, not me.

  ‘I don’t defend just Jack. I defend everyone in the family. You know that.’ Mum and Rob stop talking.

  Signs to the dolphins start appearing and the skyscrapers start disappearing. There are gardens and parks and Samantha insists on pointing out EVERY frangipani tree. I a
m not interested. I don’t like Rob. He’s not my dad. We drive beside a wide sandy bay dotted with boats at one end and surf beaches at the other end.

  Mum turns around to me. ‘Rob didn’t mean to shout at you, Jack.’ Mum is red. ‘But you have to be more careful when someone is driving.’

  I say nothing.

  ‘Come on, Jack, we’re going to have a good time.’ Mum turns to Rob. ‘Jack is sorry, Rob.’

  Mum is always the peacemaker, even when everything is wrong. Sorry? I’m not sorry any more.

  Samantha’s wiggly hand is zooming around like a bee. I grab it and squeeze hard. ‘Ouch.’ Samantha throws a slap at me, which misses. Anna is sympathetic to Samantha’s sore hand. As if it is really sore. Leo is sympathetic to Anna. This is all working out BADLY.

  Rob parks. ‘Dolphins,’ he announces and walks around to my side of the car. Mum is helping Nanna out of the back seat. As I get out of the car, Rob slouches over to me. I refuse to look at him. He speaks quietly. ‘Jack.’

  I still don’t look.

  ‘You shouldn’t have hit my head while I was driving, Jack. But, well …’ Rob stutters, ‘I admit that I overreacted. When the car jumped, I got angry for a second.’ He waits. ‘People get angry, Jack.’

  I squint at Rob. I’m not sure.

  ‘Can we forget it? I was wrong.’

  I nod.

  He puts his arm on my shoulder. ‘And I think you’ll make a great pilot one day.’

  Nanna is out of the car. That is the signal to head towards the entrance of the dolphin park. She has her stick raised ready to plant on the ground, when suddenly a gust of wind blows up her skirt. ‘Oops.’ She stumbles, landing on her hands with her bum in the air. ‘Not hurt, not hurt,’ she burbles.

  We all stare for a second. She must have dozens of them. It is amazing. Big, purple, sparkling in the sun. Nanna’s underpants shoot beams of light in all directions. We automatically duck. ‘It’s like a secret weapon.’ I elbow Samantha. I don’t want to, but a gurgle forces its way up my throat. There is a gurgle from Samantha too. Then Anna. We are all gurgling. Mum and Rob are holding hands laughing.

  Poor Nanna.

  Chapter 10

  Anna’s Silver Wings

  Rob buys the entrance tickets and we race through the gates. Immediately Samantha spots a smiley-faced dolphin standing on his tail. Next thing, she is cuddling him, even though he is concrete. Nanna spots the concrete dolphin next and excitedly waddles towards it. She gives the smiley-faced dolphin a cuddle too. A Samantha–Nanna–dolphin group huddle is too good an opportunity to miss. I snap a photo.

  ‘Fairy penguins,’ Anna calls out, running towards them. I follow. Oh no. They waddle like Nanna. Ha, ha. These waddling midget penguins flap and somersault in and out of the water. ‘They’re so cute.’ Anna hides her dimples behind her hands. She is the cute one. I snap a photo.

  Suddenly a big fairy penguin is shuffling towards us. It is wearing a red hat and dinner suit. Samantha is shy and gives it a little wave. It waves back. ‘Go on, give the penguin a hug.’ Mum pushes Samantha towards him. Samantha just looks down at the ground, but Anna is brave. She laughs and hugs the big fairy penguin. Samantha shuffles towards them with Mum whispering in her ear. I snap another photo. Then I see the fairy penguin’s flippers give them both a big squash, a really big squash. I get suspicious.

  ‘Hey, who’s in there?’ I sneak a look through its permanent plastic smile. A tongue pokes out at me. I twist the penguin’s red hat, until the penguin squeaks, ‘Let go.’

  ‘Did the penguin say something?’ Anna asks.

  ‘Yeah, goodbye.’ We’re getting out of here.

  ‘Goodbye big fairy penguin.’ Samantha gives him an extra cuddle.

  I drag her away. ‘That’s one fishy penguin.’

  ‘That’s a very unfunny joke,’ Samantha complains.

  I don’t answer, because the FISH word just popped out. Hope no one noticed. ‘Monorail, this way.’ I point. Everyone thinks that is a great idea except for the gigantic flight of stairs all the way up to it. Nanna. What is the point of her being here if she can’t go on anything?

  ‘I’ll be right.’ Nanna gets her walking stick into action, with Mum hovering behind her in case she topples backwards.

  I am at the top already. I hang over the railing, calling out, ‘Come on, come on. We’ll miss it. We’ll miss it.’

  ‘Stop it, Jack.’ Mum’s hair frizzles. ‘We’ve got all day.’

  That’s right — we have only one day. Nanna arrives at last. ‘All aboard. Monorail. All aboard.’ We get a cabin to ourselves. Excellent. We get a great view from the monorail. ‘Oh, look at that.’ The corkscrew rollercoaster zooms into loops. People are screaming. ‘I’m going on it for sure. Triple loops.’ It’s fast. I nudge Anna. ‘I reckon it’s got to be 100 kilometres per hour.’

  ‘Sure,’ Leo snickers.

  ‘What would you know? It IS fast.’

  ‘I like fast rides.’ Anna’s angel wings quiver.

  ‘Me too.’ Samantha’s nose is squished against the window pane. ‘Dolphins,’ she squeaks. ‘Oh, look down there. In the lagoon.’ Samantha touches her dolphin necklace. She wore it especially today. Anna and Samantha laugh and point at the dolphins diving into the water. Nanna tries to laugh too, but her teeth jerk forward. Oh, gross. She’s taking them out. I wish she wouldn’t do that, especially in front of Anna and Leo. Her face caves in and those pink plastic gums and false teeth look like Dracula has ripped them out. I groan. It’s bad enough at night, when she leaves them in a glass of water. Once, when she was staying at our place, I nearly drank them. Phew, she’s put them back in.

  We do two circuits on the monorail before getting off. Mum helps Nanna to a seat at the dolphin lagoon under a shady viewing area. ‘There’ll be a show soon.’

  ‘We’ll sit here and look after your lunches, children. Go and have a good time.’

  Yessssss. Good one, Nanna. ‘Mum, Rob, can we go?’ We charge off. ‘To the Pirate Ship.’

  We watch the Pirate Ship swinging in a huge arc for a while. ‘Seventy-five degrees at least,’ I announce. I give Leo a savvy look. ‘It’s a FACT.’ He better not argue, because I really do know. There are advantages to being a scientist. I can estimate distance, height, speed with near-exact precision. Also, I read the brochure, but I am not telling anyone that.

  ‘I’m not riding on it,’ Samantha announces. ‘It’ll make me sick.’ She holds her stomach. Anna is thinking about it.

  ‘Come on. Don’t be useless,’ I argue with them. No, the girls won’t go on it until I try it first. ‘Leo, are you coming?’

  He shakes his head.

  ‘You’re too scared.’

  ‘I’m not.’

  ‘Well come on, then.’

  Anna interrupts. ‘Jack, don’t force him. It’s only a ride.’

  What a wimp. I’m not wasting any more time. I board the ship alone. I belt up and wait for it to start. The Pirate Ship begins moving. It’s huge, whooshing left, then right, then left. Zoom. Hey, this is terrific. I don’t grab on to the safety railing. I raise my hands high as the ship rockets into an enormous swing. I shout out to the girls every time I fly past.

  Ride over. Too soon. That was fun. I run through the exit. ‘You’ve got to have a go.’

  Anna laughs, twirling her licorice curls at me.

  ‘I’ll sit between Samantha and you. You’ll be fine. It’s fantastic.’ I snort at Leo, ‘Leo, you can just stay here and watch. It’ll be nice and safe.’

  Leo follows us on board. He doesn’t have much choice. Watching would be too embarrassing. The ride starts. Anna screams so much that I have to put my arm around her. I feel one of her silver wings on her back. A tingle runs along my arm. Leo is stuck between Samantha and a huge, tattooed bikie. Ha, ha.

  We have three rides. Even Leo likes it. It is getting hot. We run back to the lagoon. ‘Nanna, Nanna,’ I puff, ‘drinks.’ She forages in her bag and produces four cans of lemonade. We fini
sh them, then have to go again. Oh yes, ‘Nanna are you having a good time?’ She starts talking about dolphins. ‘Sounds great. Let’s go, go,’ I shout. ‘Log ride.’ People are coming out of the boats drenched. ‘Looks great.’

  Nearly our turn. It is cold inside the tunnel as the boat splashes through the dark. It starts to move faster, faster. We race around loops and twirls. Faster, faster. ‘Ahhhhhh …’ Samantha’s screams nearly split my eardrums.

  We rocket down the chute and crash into a pool of water. We are dripping wet and Anna’s angel wings can’t flap. She looks so funny. ‘What’s the difference between a wet Anna and a dry angel?’

  Anna isn’t sure if she is happy about this and puts her hands on her hips. ‘What is it?’

  ‘Nothing, except water.’

  Anna blushes. Samantha gets soppy. ‘That’s really nice, Jack.’ I have no alternative but to rub Samantha’s nose in my wet T-shirt, then run. ‘I’ll get you,’ she shouts after me, but I run faster than Samantha and she is laughing by the time she catches up to me.

  We dry off as we eat our sandwiches back at the lagoon. Nanna asks us twenty-three times, ‘Are you cold? Shouldn’t you change your clothes? Here are some dry T-shirts.’ I am going to kill Nanna.

  Then it comes to me in a flash. This is the right moment. I drag out the left-over bag of jelly snakes. I hid them at the bottom of the lunch bag. ‘Does anyone want a snake?’ I sneak a look at Leo. He’s shuffling his feet.

  Nanna isn’t interested in our wet clothes any more. Pneumonia isn’t important when there are jelly snakes around. I hand her a red one. Nanna’s favourite.