Inside the office, Shaun explained his suspicions. “Dan said he was nineteen but I don’t think he’s as old as that.”
“Dan?! He’s registered as Mark… Mark Wheeton. At least that was what it said on the ID he showed me.”
Shaun explained that Dan/Mark had told him he came from a place he called Rocky.
“Rocky? Rockhampton? Doubt it. He’s a city boy – Brisbane. The address on the ID said Indooroopilly.”
“That’ll explain why he knows so much about Brisbane and all he could tell me about Rocky was that it was on the coast. He supports a football team called the Diehards which he says is a Brisbane club.”
“Yeah. Used to be the Valleys.”
“He has a problem with his family. He doesn’t get on with his father,” said Shaun. “Something about him being a wine drinker and always in a foul temper but never quite drunk. And he hates school. He’s not the academic type.”
“School? At nineteen?”
“That’s what I thought,” concurred Shaun. “I would be surprised if he were nineteen… I think his father has impossible ambitions for him. Something about higher education… And he hasn’t been camping before but he’s picking it up fast. Says he likes the wide open spaces – seeing the stars at night and everything. He’s not worried by your flies. Dan… Mark… is… was… travelling very light. And he hasn’t got much money either.”
“Sounds like he’s a runaway.”
“That’s what I thought,” agreed Shaun. “That’s probably why he stole your vehicle. He could have been spooked by the police car – thought they were after him.”
“That’s probably it… and I doubt he’s called Mark either,” said Bruce. “You’ve never been particular on ID, Greg.”
“You can’t be. Lose too much trade if I was.”
“Your trade? I’ve lost my ute…”
“Come on, Bruce, he won’t get far. Look, here comes the law.”
The police car drove back up to the office. The policeman got out and strode across. “They got him… Killarney.”
“Killarney! Already. He must have been going some lick,” said Greg.
“Apparently he drove into the town like he was being pursued by a pack of dingos. Wasn’t difficult to spot… They stopped him at the border. Your truck’s safe. No damage. It’s in the Killarney police station yard.”
“And the young man?”
“In custody there. He’s not talking to them. Look, Greg, would you be able to get down there and talk to the Killarney police?”
“Yeah. Sure. This young man knows more about him than I do.” He indicated Shaun. “You OK to come along?”
“Yeah, fine. If I can help.”
“I reckon you’ll be able to pick up your ute. Check it over and file for damages,” said the officer.
“I’ll want life imprisonment if he’s done anything to it. I only got it last Thursday.”
The three of them set off for Killarney in Greg’s battered old Holden.
28
As they pulled into Killarney police station yard, Bruce was delighted to see his beautiful red Toyota looking a little dusty but otherwise unscathed. He walked round it – no scratches. It was locked.
Inside the station he was reunited with his keys but the police officers plied him with questions. What did he know about the young man who had taken it? Apparently, Dan/Mark was refusing to talk. He wouldn’t say who he was, where he was from or why he had taken the truck. Bruce deferred to Shaun. Shaun told them what he knew.
“So he’s talked to you. Perhaps you can get something more out of him,” said one of the officers.
“I’ll have a go,” Shaun agreed. “I can’t guarantee it’ll be the truth, though… Does it have to be here, in a cell?”
The officer laughed. “You mean the interview room.” The officers conferred. “Running away won’t get him far here. We’ll run you down to the Gorgeous Coffee Lounge.”
Inside the coffee shop, Shaun and Dan/Mark sat opposite one another. Dan/Mark didn’t want coffee – but he readily agreed to a berry smoothie. The policeman went back outside and sat in his vehicle.
“OK,” began Shaun, “I’m not from these parts but one thing I do know that is true anywhere in the universe is that if you don’t say anything, you’ll get into a pack of trouble. Believe me, this place is a dream compared to some of the places I’ve been to. Places where the police take you to a café can’t be that many. If they’re bribing you with stuff, it’s because they want to help you. I and they can see you’re not a hardened criminal, so what is all this about?”
Dan/Mark sucked hungrily at his smoothie. “If I tell them anything, they will send me back.”
“Back to your parents? You’re not nineteen, are you?”
The boy stared at him.
“Why don’t you want to go back?”
Dan/Mark said nothing but lowered his eyes to his glass.
“Do you want something to eat? You’re half-starved, aren’t you? Hello,” called Shaun to the waitress. “Can we have two breakfasts?”
“The works?” she asked.
Shaun examined his dollars. He had enough. “Yeah. Please… OK. Suppose they don’t send you back. If it’s that bad, they might not—”
“They will.”
“How old are you? Let me guess; fifteen?” Shaun deliberately guessed younger than he really thought.
“Sixteen! Seventeen in October.”
“So how old do you have to be before you can have your own place in this country?”
“Don’t know. But I don’t know anybody my age who lives without adults… You have to be in school until you are at least seventeen.”
“So you could leave next October?”
“December. I would have to finish the school year. I could get a job then but my father would never hear of it. He wants me to go on to uni.”
“And do you?”
“I ain’t got the brains… and I don’t want to spend my life cooped up in some office either.”
“In the city? You do live in the city, don’t you?”
“How’d you guess?”
“The folk around here are different from you. You have city ways about you… but you do like the open spaces.”
“You know a lot about me. How’d you know so much?”
“From what you said and from the way you look… Your father drinks too much but likes smart city things. He wants you to be in a well-paid professional job where you have to wear a suit. But you don’t mind getting your hands dirty and you like the wide open air. You like the night sky – you haven’t been able to see it very well in the city – what do they call it, Brisbane? Your football team comes from there.”
“You going to tell the cops all this?”
“I have. But they don’t know who you are… or who your parents are. Guys do not run away for no reason either. If you tell them the truth and that you don’t want to be returned to your father, they might listen. In any case, that’s what will inevitably happen if you don’t say anything. The police will be putting two and two together right now – maybe they already have.”
The breakfasts arrived. “There you go,” said the young waitress. “Enjoy.”
“Thanks,” said Shaun. “Eat this,” he instructed Dan, “and then tell them everything. Tell them you don’t want to go back to the city. Tell them about your dad.”
“They’ll make me finish school.”
“It doesn’t have to be the same school, though.”
“Guess not. I hadn’t thought of that.”
***
Shaun and a full and much happier Dan/Mark sat together in the interview room at the police station. The officer seemed to have already solved the puzzle.
“A sixteen-year-old called Rhys Wethers meeting your description disappeared from Indooroopilly two weeks ago. His father reported him missing two days after he was first missed. Is that you?”
The boy hung his head.
“Right, Dan,
Mark, Rhys, what’s the deal?”
“Tell them everything,” said Shaun.
“Yeah. I’m Rhys… But I’m not going back to Indooroopilly. You don’t know what my father is like. He’s a bully. He’s always drinking.”
“He hits you?”
“No. It’d be easier if he did. If he tried that I’d hit him back. He’s not bigger than me… But he’s devious. I hate it at home. It’s the ‘family name this’ and the ‘Wethers have always been that’. And I’ve tried but I just can’t do it. I’ve never come up to expectations. Whatever I do, it’s not good enough… Then last week, the teacher lost it with me. He said it was like banging his head against a brick wall. Told me I was a numbskull… I might not be good with writing and stuff but that don’t make me dumb,” he said defiantly.
“Next day, I bunked off – all day. I knew what would happen. My dad would be mad… So I stole this bloke’s wallet from the counter in a shop while he wasn’t looking. I never, like, done anything like that before. I took this membership card so I could pretend to be him – it didn’t have a picture. I went back into the shop with the wallet… said I’d found it outside. He thanked me and gave me fifty dollars as a reward. So I hitch-hiked to Warwick. I knew about the rodeo and figured they might take me on… But it’s not until next week.”
“Where’s the Dan name come in?” asked Shaun.
“Nowhere. Just made it up.”
“We’ll have to inform your father,” said the officer. “And there’s the business of the ute. Theft and driving without a licence…” He called a second officer. “Is the owner of the red ute still around?”
“Yes. He’s hanging on for this Shaun fella.”
“Call him in, will ya?”
Bruce and Greg came into the room.
“You want to press charges against this young man? There’ll be a bit of paperwork, I’m afraid.”
“What did you do it for, son?” he asked Rhys.
The lad didn’t reply.
Shaun said, “He has been running away from his oppressive father – thought he was going to be caught.”
“Oppressive father? Why, what has he done?”
“I don’t want to talk about him,” sobbed Rhys. “I’m fed up of it all. Put me in jail. Send me to Norfolk Island if you want but don’t make me go back to him. If he don’t do my head in first, I’ll end up doing him in… You don’t know how great it was, like, there on that camping ground – all that space, all that sky – no-one to hound you every five minutes… No wine smell all the time. No-one getting on to you about putting your commas in the right place or telling you to recite poetry that don’t mean nothing. Stupid maths with letters instead of numbers. You don’t know how great it was to forget the ruddy end-of-year exams… You don’t know how lucky you are living out here.”
“I wish my son wanted to live out here. All he wants is uni and the city like his brother,” said Bruce.
“Well, he can have it. I don’t want it. Let him go and live with my old man.”
It was then that it occurred to Bruce. “So, maybe you would like living on a farm, then? We got plenty of open spaces, and flies and dust. There’s no wine, I’ll grant you – just the intoxicating smell of the stock on heat,” he chuckled.
“You serious? Are you saying I could come and live on your farm? That’d be cool.”
“Look, lad, on our farm you’re either eating dust or drowning in mud. You have to mend fences no matter what the weather’s doing – the roos don’t just knock them down on nice days. Some mornings you have to knock the ice off the tank to get to it to work – and in the summer it can get up to well over forty in the shade – that’s assuming there is any. And you can go a week before you see another human being – but we have plenty of snakes and red-backs—”
“Hey, Bruce. Don’t go getting poetical. You’ll put the lad off.” Greg was seeing the funny side of all this. He saw Rhys’s face glow at his brother’s attempt to tell him the worst. This had turned into quite an adventure now the truck and the lad were safe.
“And we don’t have many books beyond bibles and hymn books, for that matter,” continued Bruce.
“Are you really saying I could come and work on your property? A proper job on a… station?” said Rhys, his eyes all ablaze.
“Station? It’s hardly a station, lad. But it is my property – been in the family for generations.”
“Hold on a minute,” said the officer. “We’re not running an adoption agency here. The boy is only sixteen and has a father who must be told he’s been found. And he can’t take on any full-time work until he’s finished his schooling, anyway.”
“Can I make a suggestion?” put in Shaun, gently. “Send for Dan’s… Rhys’s father. Tell him where he is. Get him to come here and let him talk to Bruce… If he agrees, Rhys could go to school out here… if you’re serious about what you said,” he added to Bruce.
“I can give him a trial for nothing. If he proves he’s up to it, then he has a job with me as long as he wants it.”
“OK,” said the policeman. “Take him back to Warwick. I’ll get onto Indooroopilly… Make sure you don’t lose him.”
***
A day later, a puzzled police officer drew up at Oasis Caravan Park.
“I don’t get this,” he said to Greg. “The lad’s father has been made aware of where his boy is but doesn’t want to drive over and fetch him. Says we should take him home.”
“That’s not right. If I’d lost my boy and found out where he was, I’d be there like a shot. How long does it take to drive from Indooroopilly anyway? He could have his breakfast and be here for coffee time.”
They called Rhys and Shaun.
“He don’t care. Probably too pissed to drive anyway. Might think that his car would get dirty,” said Rhys as an explanation.
“He must love you.”
“Nah. He’s never loved anyone but himself… He drove my mum to drink herself to death.”
“I’m sorry your mum’s dead. I didn’t want to ask. When—?” began Shaun.
“Years ago. When I was seven. I’ve been boarded out most of the time since then.”
“If his father wants him, let him come!” said Shaun angrily. “He knows where he is.”
“I agree,” said the policeman. “That is, if you don’t mind keeping him here… Oh and, by the way, Mark Wheeton is pleased to get his golf membership card back, and he wants to forget it. You’re lucky. But driving without a licence and insurance is on your record, sonny. So I have to give you an official warning – but that is all. Your provisional licence is revoked for a year. Just don’t do it again, right? Or else you’ll be for the high jump.”
“No, sir. I won’t drive. I promise.”
“So wait here until your father comes.”
“Yes, sir.”
After the police car had gone, Greg smiled at Rhys. “He means no driving on the highway. That doesn’t apply on Bruce’s farm… If your dad isn’t here by Thursday, you can go there. It’s best you aren’t around when the rodeo kicks off.”
***
On Tuesday, Shaun suggested they walk into the town. If Rhys’s dad turned up, he would have to wait for them to get back.
It didn’t seem as far the second time. Maybe because Shaun knew where he was headed: the café to try out their smoothies. They explored some of the shops and wandered across a park beyond which stood the high school. It was lunchtime and young people Rhys’s age were spreading across the area.
“There you are. They have a school here.”
Rhys shuddered.
“Look, it’s only until December. You can manage that. And besides, some of these young people are country sorts – destined for a life on farms – so if you went to school here—”
“Dad wouldn’t let me.”
“I think you’ve already stood up for yourself, Rhys. You can’t get away with running away from him but you can assert yourself a bit. You might not be old enough to leave school h
ere in Australia but you are old enough to have ideas about where you want to be in your life and where you’re going. If you get things worked out a bit, then, when you meet your father you can make a deal.”
“Yeah. You’re right… When he comes, will you be there – help me say what I want to?”
“Sure. If you want.”
“You’re so wise. I wish I were like you; you really have got your life together. You know what you want to do and where you’re going.”
They retraced their steps down Palmerin Street. They passed a newsagent’s and bookshop. Shaun was attracted by a colourful book and immediately thought of his nan. A book from Planet Earth would be a treat. He picked it up. It was an illustrated novel with a single word for a title.
“What does this say?” Shaun asked Rhys.
“Emma. It’s called Emma. It’s a girl’s name. It’s by a woman called Jane. Jane Aust…en.”
“She local?”
“Nah. It’s old. I mean it was written a long time ago – in England, I think. Most of them were. I don’t know much about it. Don’t ask me about books.”
“Don’t worry, I won’t. I reckon my nan would like this.” Shaun bought it. “Come on, let’s have a look at the trinkets in the coffee shop. I’ll have to buy something for Yeka if I get something for Nan.”
In the café with blue parasols Shaun picked up a child’s sun hat with a pretty colourful pattern on it. Perfect. Then Shaun saw a little charm bracelet with a heart, a kangaroo, a koala and an emu. Rhys explained they were native Australian things. Wennai would like that. It wasn’t cheap. It took nearly all of the rest of Shaun’s money. But then, he thought, he expected to be able to leave the next day. And if there wasn’t a white gate, he could always bring it back if he kept the receipt.
Looking up Grafton Street, Shaun thought about Daisy. He had kind of promised to be in church at the ten o’clock service and he hadn’t made it. Back on Joh, he would have texted if things didn’t work out but here he hadn’t a phone, and even if he had, he didn’t know Daisy’s number. She would be unlikely to be in the church that day but he could leave her a note.
The Spark (White Gates Adventures Book 4) Page 30
