Shooting Stars

by Brian Falkiner

  January 9th

  Big day today. Big, big day. I don’t have time to write about it so I’ll do that tomorrow.

  Okay, now it’s tomorrow (I mean January 10th), but I am writing about yesterday. In my diary!!!

  Yesterday I made a Get Well Soon card for June’s husband. I saw some in a shop, but had no money to buy one, so I took one of my blank pieces of paper and drew a happy picture on it and wrote Get Well Soon at the top.

  I went down to DOC and got another shake of the head, but I just walked up past the queue and put the card on June’s counter and walked away.

  I was walking back to the forest when Jack started going crazy. He was sniffing at something. I let him follow the scent trail and we went along all kinds of streets. I tried to remember which way we turned so we wouldn’t get lost, but I wasn’t too worried. There is a big tower in the middle of the city that you can see from just about everywhere. I can use that as a landmark to find a small park that I know, and it’s not far from there to the little forest where I sleep.

  Anyway, Jack was following the scent trail along a busy road, and then up ahead I saw the girl. The short, pretty one who I think may be ‘easy’. I thought if I followed her she might lead me to where she lived and I might find my stuff.

  I gave Jack the ‘shut up’ sign and tried not to get too close in case she turned around and saw us.

  We turned a lot more corners and sometimes I couldn’t see the tall tower, but I knew that I would be able to find it somewhere. A lot of the buildings here were made of brick, and looked quite old. Some were very dilapidated and unused.

  The girl crossed the road, but I stayed on the other side. There weren’t any crossing lights (the little green men) here, and anyway I thought she was less likely to see me there.

  Three boys were sitting in a corner of an empty lot. It looked as though there had been a building there, but it had been pulled down, leaving just the bones.

  The boys were a bit older than me. They were passing around a large glass bottle of something. I presume it was some kind of alcohol, but was too far away to see.

  When the girl crossed in front of the section, one of them jumped up.

  “Hey, Reggie,” he said, walking towards her, holding the bottle.

  “Four Cough,” she said. That was obviously his name.

  I don’t know the names of the other boys, but one of them was quite skinny so I will call him Slim (a character in ‘Of Mice and Men’). The other one had his hair cut so short he looked bald. I’ll call him Curly, who was another character in the book.

  “Hey, Reggie, want some voddy?” Four Cough asked, holding up the bottle.

  “Naah,” Reggie said.

  “Give you some voddy for a squeeze,” Four Cough said.

  “We over, you dumb-arse,” Reggie said. “You go arks your new skank for a squeeze.”

  I am writing these conversations exactly as I remember them. I didn’t and still don’t understand most of what they were saying. I think these kids use their own kind of English.

  “Aw, me and her broke up, eh,” Four Cough said. “She gone back to the world.”

  “Go squeeze yourself then,” Reggie said. “You getting no squeeze from me.”

  She kept walking while she was talking and was now past the empty lot, which Four Cough seemed reluctant to leave.

  “I’ll give you some weed,” Four Cough said.

  “You ain’t got no weed,” Reggie said.

  “Yeah I do,” Four Cough said. “I can get some.”

  “Don’t want your weed no way,” Reggie said. “Got my own weed.”

  She was well past the lot now, leaving Four Cough standing on the corner.

  “No you don’t,” he said. “You can’t afford weed.”

  Reggie just kept walking.

  “You a skanky ho,” Four Cough said. He waved goodbye in a way that I haven’t seen before.

  Reggie looked back and waved goodbye using the same finger.

  She turned into a side street and I had to cross the road to follow her. There was no crossing light, but there were no cars on the road either, so it was easy to get across.

  But when I turned the corner after her, she was gone.

  Here the buildings were even older and the glass windows were broken. Some were covered with wood, but others just sat empty and black, like staring eyes.

  I wasn’t worried that I couldn’t see her. I knew Jack would find her. He led me down past a couple of derelict buildings to one that had a large door made of corrugated metal. I think it went up and down, instead of opening sideways like other doors.

  It was shut, but looked loose and Reggie’s scent trail led straight to it.

  I hesitated a moment, unsure what to do. Was this where she lived? It didn’t look like a house to me. I needed her to lead me back to where she lived, so I could find my stuff.

  But then I heard a shout, like a kind of scream, come from inside the building, so I pushed on the door. One side pushed open, enough to slip through.

  Reggie’s trail led up a concrete ramp and through a doorway.

  To my surprise, there in a room were Curly, Slim and Four Cough. They must have known a back way to get to this building. They had surrounded Reggie, trapping her against a brick wall which was covered in paint. Strange pictures and rude words.

  Four Cough was pressing his body against Reggie, pinning her to the wall. He kept undoing the zipper on her jeans, but she kept pulling it back up.

  They didn’t hear me at first and I saw Curly grab her arm to stop her fighting him. Slim held the other arm.

  “Give it up you skanky ho,” Four Cough said.

  “I’ll kill youse,” Reggie shouted. “Four Qs!”

  “Shoulda said yes before, then I woulda given you some voddy,” Four Cough said. “Now you can give us all a turn, for free.”

  It was clear that they were trying to hurt her. Rule #8: Do not look the other way.

  I was about to say something when Jack said it for me. He growled … and it was his nasty growl.

  All of them looked around and saw us by the doorway.

  “Gidday,” I said.

  Slim, the largest of the three boys, let go of Reggie and stepped forward, watching Jack warily. I held the lead tightly in case Jack went for him.

  “What you want, bro?” he asked.

  “I think you should leave her alone,” I said.

  “This not your business,” he said.

  “Yeah, go find your own business,” Curly said. He was looking a little nervously at Jack.

  “It’s wrong to hurt people,” I said. “And I can’t look the other way.”

  The three of them looked at each other and laughed. Reggie looked even more frightened than she was before.

  “It’s wrong to hurt people,” Curly said, mimicking me.

  “And I can’t look the other way,” Slim laughed.

  I sensed that these boys did not live by a code.

  “You watch out, fellas,” Reggie said. “That’s the dude that tried to stick Junior, but Junior was too quick and got away.”

  “You a pretty big man when you got a knife and a animal to protect you,” Four Cough said.

  There was a metal bolt sticking out of the wall by the doorway. I tied Jack’s lead to it. Then I took out my knife and put it on the floor right in front of him. Jack growled and snarled and jumped at his lead, but the bolt, although old and rusted, was strong.

  I don’t know what he meant by a ‘big man’. I’m not that big. The reason I tied Jack up was because I didn’t want him to bite them. And the reason I took my knife out was that I was scared of what happened last time I had it. I put it in front of Jack because I didn’t want them to get it either.

  Then I turned back to the three boys.

  Four Coug
h stayed where he was, holding Reggie. She didn’t try to break away. I think she was a little freaked out. Or maybe she was just scared of me.

  It was Curly who was the most dangerous one, I thought. The same way you know whether a pig will run or fight, he was ready to fight.

  There was a glazed look to his eyes as well. I think it was something to do with the stuff they were drinking. I think they were also taking drugs. Drugs are bad. It’s not part of the code, but Moma told me never to take drugs.

  Slim came up on Curly’s left.

  “Let her go, Four Cough,” I said.

  “You Four Cough,” Curly said. That didn’t make sense. I wasn’t Four Cough.

  “Let her go,” I said again.

  “Or what?” Curly said. “You going to beat up all three of us?”

  “We’ll kick your arse, man,” Slim said.

  “Yeah, four Q zup,” Four Cough said. (What is this language they speak?)

  “I’m not allowed to hurt you,” I said.

  “You’re not allowed to hurt me?” Curly laughed.

  “Yeah nah,” I said.

  Without any warning he stepped forward and punched me in the stomach, as hard as he could.

  I considered that. I was allowed to fight back if someone was hurting me, but his punch hadn’t hurt. Not really. Not compared to falling out of a tree or getting gored by a tusker.

  “Still not allowed to hurt me?” Curly asked, and now all three of them were laughing.

  I shook my head.

  “Hit him again, hit him again,” Reggie was chanting from over by the wall. She seemed to be on their side. I don’t know why.

  Slim stepped forward a bit then. I think he liked this game. He was left-handed. He swung a big roundhouse punch that I could easily have dodged, but I took it. It knocked my jaw sideways and cut my lip. It didn’t really hurt though.

  “Can you hurt me now?” Curly asked

  I shook my head.

  Curly tried again with a punch right to my nose. Blood flooded into my mouth and I saw black spots in front of my eyes. It hurt like wasp stings.

  “How about now?” Curly laughed.

  “Yeah mate,” I said. “Now I can hurt you.”

  I took out Curly first. I still thought he was the most dangerous, and you can’t really fight three people at once. I grabbed him around the neck before he could do anything about it, and twisted him around in front of me so the other boys couldn’t get to me. Then I kicked him in the back of the knees, which made him fall down, and as he was falling I pushed him into Slim. They both tumbled backwards and I spun around to Four Cough, who had let go of Reggie and was moving towards me.

  I didn’t wait for him to come to me. I rushed at him and wrapped my arms around his, pinning his arms to his sides, then I smashed him in the face with my forehead. Now it was his nose that was bleeding all over the place.

  Reggie started screaming.

  I let Four Cough go and he fell down, sitting on his backside with blood streaming through his fingers. He didn’t look like he wanted to get up.

  I had thought that Curly was the most dangerous. I was wrong. It was Slim.

  While I was head-butting Four Cough, he had untangled himself from Curly, who was holding his knee and screaming. He came at me with a piece of wood with a rusty nail in it. It had been sitting against the wall but I hadn’t thought much of it.

  I have never had a pig come at me swinging a length of wood before, but they’ve come at me with their tusks, and it was much the same thing.

  I waited until he swung the wood, so I could see where it was going, then ducked out of the way. He swung past me with all his strength in the swing so I punched him hard in the armpit. I’ve been hit there before, and it hurts like anything.

  He dropped the wood and came at me again, scratching and clawing like a feral cat. I took a quick step backwards and kicked him in the stomach to keep him back a bit, but I must have kicked him harder than I thought because he went down in a heap, gasping for air.

  “Stop making me hurt you,” I said.

  Then I noticed that the screaming had stopped. Reggie had gone. I saw her legs disappearing out through the door.

  I forgot about the boys. I picked up my knife, untied Jack and we ran after her.

  She was disappearing out of the metal door as we ran down the ramp.

  We caught up with her on the other side of the road.

  There were red and blue flashing lights at the end of the street and I could hear a loud siren. Someone must have heard all the screaming.

  I grabbed her by the arm. “Where’s my stuff?” I asked.

  “Don’t hurt me,” she screamed.

  “I’m not going to hurt you,” I said. “It’s wrong to hurt people. I just saved you from those other boys.”

  “You don’t understand nuthin’, do you,” she said.

  “Just give me my stuff back,” I said.

  “Come with me,” she said, twisting out of my grip.

  I grabbed her arm again.

  The flashing lights were getting closer.

  “Come with me,” she said, “Or the pigs’ll get us and then you’ll never see your stuff.”

  Pigs?

  Moma’s Code #8

  Do not allow other people to get hurt.

  Do not look the other way.

  All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing.

  Do not let evil triumph. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.

  Do this, whatever it costs you.

  I think she borrowed this from someone else.

  January 9th ... continued

  They weren’t really pigs. That’s a word that Regina and her friends use to talk about police officers. Which was good, because I had visions of carloads of Captain Cookers!

  By the way, her name is Regina, pronounced Re-gee-nah, but everybody calls her Reggie. She doesn’t like Regina, because lots of people pronounce it wrong and then it sounds a bit rude.

  We ran away from the police for a long time.

  Eventually Jack and I followed Reggie alongside a big concrete wall. Up on top of the wall was the really fast road which I think is called a freeway. Then she came to a bridge. She looked around to make sure that nobody was watching her, then quickly turned and went under the bridge, which was where one freeway crossed another.

  There was a wedge-shaped gap underneath that, and we went in there.

  “Shit!” was the first thing I heard.

  The floor was dirt and covered with cardboard boxes. There were tufts of weeds growing up through them here and there. In the corners were piles of bottles. I think they were mostly beer bottles. Others had labels saying Vodka or Gin.

  There was a strange smell, which seemed to be coming from a plastic bag filled with a gooey substance. The people under the freeway were passing it around and breathing in and out of the bag.

  The big boy that Reggie had called Junior was the one who said, “Shit.”

  There were two others. Apache, and the boy who stole my crossbow.

  My rucksack was in a corner, open, and my belongings were scattered on the ground around it. My crossbow was out of its case. It looked like they had tried to put it together, but couldn’t work out how to do it.

  Jack was snarling at them.

  “What you bring him here for?” Junior asked.

  “I want my stuff back,” I said. “You stole it from me.”

  “It’s ours now,” he said. “What you gonna do, steal it back?”

  That stopped me in my tracks for a moment. Was it stealing if I took it from them? But it was mine in the first place. I said so.

  “It’s not stealing if it was mine in the first place,” I said. “Give it back to me.”

  “Four Qs,” he said
. (I must try to find out what this means.)

  “He cool,” Reggie said suddenly.

  “No way,” Apache said.

  “He cool,” Reggie said again. “Tonto and his numb-nut mates just tried to get the squeeze, but this egg jumped in and stopped them.”

  Junior looked at me and clearly didn’t believe her.

  “That’s bullshit,” he said.

  “Nah bro, you shoulda seen it. He’s like Batman or something,” Reggie said. “Man they gonna be sore till next week. And he didn’t even use his knife neither.”

  The three boys looked at me for a few moments, then Apache held up the plastic bag he was holding. “You wanna sniff?”

  I shook my head. I was pretty sure that was drugs.

  Even so, it seemed like I had just become part of their little gang.

  Junior went and got my stuff and gave it to me. I checked the money. There was about a hundred dollars missing, but I decided not to ask about it. If it was gone, it was gone. It wasn’t coming back.

  “Anybody else tries to take that off you, we’ll put the hurt on them,” Apache said. “Big time.”

  Apache’s real name was Mohawk. The little boy who stole my crossbow was Allan.

  “Where you staying?” Reggie asked.

  “I got a place,” I said. I didn’t want to tell them about my secret hideaway in the bushes in the forest.

  “You can stay here with us, if you want,” Reggie said.

  “That’s okay,” I said. “I’m quite happy where I am.”

  “You talk like a pooftah,” Allan said.

  “You shuddup, you,” Reggie said. “He ain’t no pooftah. You shoulda seen him go all ninja and shit on Tonto and his bum buddies.”

  “I didn’t mean nuthin’,” Allan said.

  “I have to go,” I said. Now I had my money (or most of it), I could get a map and a bus ticket. Finally, I could get on with finding Moma.

  “See ya round,” Reggie said. “You cool. And thanks for saving my arse.” She leaned forward and kissed me on the cheek.

  Thought for the day:

  There is so much in this world that I don’t understand.