by Nova Weetman
It takes her a while to find the light switch. She knows that Mack and Thommo are both behind her, waiting to see what she’ll do. The problem is she has no idea how to fix up a bike, or even what needs to be fixed. She pushes the tyres, senses they need a bit of air and starts looking around for a pump. Joely must have followed them in too because she hears her friend ask, ‘Do you guys want to fix our bikes while we go and have breakfast?’
‘Sure. I’ll do Frankie’s.’ Mack launches himself towards her.
‘Nah. It’s okay. I want to do it,’ says Frankie, finding something that looks like a bike pump.
‘But you won’t do it right,’ says Mack, like he’s the authority on everything.
Frankie stands up and gives him a look. ‘It’s my bike. I’ll do it my way.’
‘But—’ starts Mack, not able to take no for an answer.
‘You can fix mine, Mack. Here,’ says Joely, handing her cousin a spanner. ‘I’m hungry.’ And she walks out of the shed.
Frankie doesn’t want saving. Sometimes she just wants the chance to do things the wrong way. She goes back to trying to pump her tyre, attaching the pump to the valve, knowing that Thommo is still watching her. She can hear Mack swearing and banging, but knows that he’ll probably make Joely’s bike pretty good, while all she’ll manage to do is pump up tyres badly. Now she’s wishing she wasn’t so stubborn and she’d let Mack fix hers too.
The end of the pump pops off and air whooshes out. Frankie tries to find the cover, but it’s somewhere on the floor and there is stuff everywhere. She can feel her face flushing.
Thommo hands the plastic cover to her and lets her screw it back on without saying anything. She stands up and checks both her tyres. They now seem hard and she figures they’ll be fine for riding. They’ll have to be because she isn’t going to keep pumping them any longer.
‘Um … I um … reckon it’d go faster if it was painted,’ says Thommo quietly.
Frankie smiles at him, getting the joke. ‘Green? Red?’
‘Pink’d be the fastest.’ He smiles back.
‘Don’t suppose you have any pink paint?’
Thommo shakes his head. ‘Nah, sorry.’
Frankie can’t help herself. She laughs, making Thommo blush and turn away.
‘Right. Now I just have to learn how to ride,’ says Frankie. ‘Can you teach me?’
‘Me?’ says Thommo.
‘Yeah.’
‘You really can’t ride?’ calls Mack.
Frankie ignores him. ‘Please, Thommo.’
‘You can’t just learn to ride a bike like that,’ says Mack, like he’s trying to wrench the attention away from his little brother.
‘Why not?’ says Frankie.
‘Because it’s not that easy.’
‘I can skateboard. I reckon I can ride. Come on, Thommo.’
Thommo looks over at Mack so Frankie pulls at his sleeve as she wheels the bike out of the shed. He trails out behind her. Mack swears angrily and throws down the spanner, and the sound makes her happy.
Frankie sits on the seat with her toes stretched out to try to balance.
‘So you just have to pedal,’ says Thommo.
‘Righto.’ Frankie raises her feet to the pedals and the bike starts tipping. She tries to pedal but can’t balance and nearly crashes into the tractor.
‘Hang on, Frankie,’ Thommo says, running after her. ‘I’ll hold the bike and you start pedalling. The faster you pedal, the easier it is to ride straight.’
Frankie’s surprised that Thommo hasn’t made fun of her. It doesn’t bother her that she can’t ride, but she expected Joely’s cousins to think it was pathetic. She feels Thommo’s hands steady the bike so it’s upright. She trusts him. As she starts to pedal, he runs behind her, stopping the bike from falling. It’s only when she has a rhythm going that she feels him let go. This must be how a father teaches his child to ride. She’s grinning as her feet turn the pedals. She can hear Thommo yelling something encouraging as she rides towards the house. She has no idea how to stop or turn as she sees the wire door swing open and Jill walk out with a bucket of food scraps.
‘Turn the handlebar!’ Thommo yells. So she does. Sharp and fast. So fast that the whole bike overturns. Frankie flies off and lands in the herb garden. Both Jill and Thommo rush over, but by the time they get to her she’s lying on her back smelling mint and laughing.
‘You okay?’ says Thommo.
‘I can ride!’ says Frankie, still laughing.
‘Well, sort of. Probably wouldn’t take to the roads just yet!’ Jill reaches to pull her up. ‘And next time aim for the rosemary bush. It needs cutting back.’
Frankie smiles at Jill.
‘How have you managed to make it to fifteen without being able to ride a bike? I thought everyone in the city rode,’ says Jill.
Frankie shrugs. ‘Nobody ever taught me.’
‘Well a bush paddock is as good a place as any to learn. At least if you fall off you’ll just land on dirt.’
‘Or poo,’ says Thommo.
‘Great. I’ll try to avoid that.’
‘Not hard now. There’s hardly any cows left,’ says Thommo. ‘I’ll take you to the paddock.’
Jill shoots him a look. ‘No you won’t. You’ve got chores.’ Jill turns to Frankie and says, ‘And you need some breakfast if you plan on riding anywhere else today.’
Wondering if Jill is trying to separate them, Frankie lets herself be led inside where Joely is already halfway through breakfast. A plate of fried bacon sits waiting for her, congealing in the heat.
Chapter 16
After breakfast, Joely spends ages in the bathroom. She’s pretty sure she looks older this morning. Even Jill told her she looked beautiful. She’s sure it’s because of the kiss. That’s what love does. It makes you glow.
She wants to tell Frankie about it, but she doesn’t know what to say. What if Frankie gets jealous, or worse, what if she’s hurt and thinks that Joely won’t hang out with her on their holiday? Besides, she doesn’t want to admit that she was out checking that the kangaroo was dead.
At least now Joely’s happy about going to the pool. She can even leave Frankie swimming while she searches for Rory. Perhaps if she sees him today and things go well, then Frankie can hang out with them too. Actually it would be perfect if Frankie hooked up with Mack and then they could all double date.
Joely opens Jill’s powder that she keeps in the drawer. Joely hasn’t used makeup before, but she’s pretty sure it will hide some of the extra freckles that have popped up across her nose. She unclips the top, takes out the puff and starts wiping it across her face. It doesn’t smell very nice, a bit like an op shop, but now she can hardly see any freckles at all. She wipes some more around her eyes and across her cheeks and pretty soon her face is almost the colour of Frankie’s. Hopefully when she sees Rory again, he still won’t have any idea how many freckles she has.
When Joely walks into their room, Frankie’s nearly nude. Joely doesn’t want to barge in, but she doesn’t want to seem embarrassed either. So she stands in the doorway, staring at her best friend’s smooth, freckle-less back.
Frankie turns around slowly, adjusting the straps of her bikini top as she does. When she sees Joely she gives her one of those smiles that makes Joely want to sigh.
‘What’s with your face?’ Frankie says, making Joely snap out of love.
‘What? Nothing.’
Frankie steps closer and Joely’s aware of her friend’s bare body. She touches Joely’s skin with one finger. ‘Did you use makeup or something?’
Joely’s tempted to lie, but she knows Frankie would know and that would be worse than admitting it.
‘Yes. I borrowed some of Jill’s.’
Frankie frowns. ‘Why?’
Of course Frankie doesn’t understand. Her s
kin’s like poetry. Joely’s is like a dot-to-dot picture in an activity book.
‘I wanted to hide my freckles,’ says Joely, turning to look in the mirror to see if it was really that bad.
Joely stares, shocked. It’s so much worse. Somehow she looked beautiful in the bathroom, but now, in the harsh light of their room, she looks like her head belongs to someone else. There’s even a sharp yellowy brown line under her chin where the colour stops and the rest of her is freckly and pale. She feels stupid. As if freckles could be hidden with a few wipes of borrowed powder.
Blinking fast, she feels Frankie slide her arms around her and gather her close. Frankie’s warm and soft and, in that second, Joely loves her more than she’s ever loved anyone.
‘If you want to hide your freckles I’ll help you do it so you can’t tell,’ says Frankie.
‘Really?’
‘Yeah. But you have to use the right colour for your skin. Otherwise you look weird.’
Frankie’s bluntness makes Joely laugh. ‘Okay.’
‘We can buy something when we go into town.’ Frankie kisses Joely on the cheek and screws up her face. ‘Something that doesn’t smell like it was made last century!’
Without knocking, Thommo bursts into their room. He sees that Frankie’s not quite dressed, spins around and starts apologising. Joely’s relieved he can’t see her face because she wants to take off the stuff before her cousin sees.
‘Um … Dad’s let us off the paddock cos it’s too hot, so we’re going to the dam,’ Thommo says, facing the door.
‘Not me. It’s too hot,’ says Joely hating the idea and wanting to get started on the de-freckling program.
‘Yeah, der, it’s hot,’ he says, turning a bit to watch Frankie dab antiseptic onto her nose piercing.
Joely smiles at the expression. Nobody says der in the city. Nobody says der full stop. Just her cousin and he’s been saying it since he was five.
‘Can’t be bothered, Thommo.’
‘Come on, Joely. That’s pathetic. It’s not getting any cooler, so you may as well get used to it. Else you’ll spend your whole holiday inside!’
Frankie nudges her. ‘Yeah, come on. I want to see the dam. But we’ll meet you there, Thommo. I’m going to ride my new bike and show Ged!’
‘Really? I might stay here,’ says Joely, dreading the idea of riding the BMX across the paddocks in the sun.
‘Nah. Come on, it’ll be fun. Get out, Thommo. Joely’s got to get dressed!’
Thommo shuts the door. Joely doesn’t want to go to the dam. She wants to go in to town to see if she can find Rory, not ride around a paddock in the heat. It’s about a hundred degrees outside.
‘Doesn’t it bother you wearing second-hand bathers?’ asks Joely.
Frankie knows what Joely’s doing. It’s what always happens when they have a sort-of fight. Frankie has learnt that the best way to deal with it is to ignore Joely and eventually she snaps out of it. Besides Joely doesn’t really bother her. But she does wish that Joely would just say what she wanted rather than being all grumpy and sulky.
Frankie shrugs and looks down at the spots on her bikini top. ‘I like it. It means they’ve had a life before the one I’m giving them. At least this way I get to wear things that have done something cool. Even if my life sucks and is super boring, my clothes are adventurous.’
‘So your bathers might have been worn by some crazy model on a fashion shoot in Milan,’ says Joely.
‘Yeah. Or they could have swum the Atlantic.’
‘Has anyone ever swum the Atlantic?’
‘I dunno. But if anything could, it would be my red bikini.’
‘So if they’ve swum the Atlantic, they’re obviously going to swim in the dam, too.’
‘I will if you will,’ says Frankie cheekily.
‘It’s really muddy. And the bottom’s all squelchy. And there’s yabbies. And maybe an eel.’
‘And?’ says Frankie daring her.
Joely sighs. ‘Okay. We’ll go together.’
‘Eels don’t hurt do they?’
Joely widens her eyes. ‘Oh yes, they bite. They have these sharp little teeth. I think Thommo has still got the scars.’
Frankie spins round. ‘Liar.’
But even though Joely smiles, Frankie isn’t totally sure that Joely is lying. Maybe eels really do bite. She’ll have to make sure she never stops moving her feet while she’s in the water, just in case. Surely it would be much harder to bite something that was moving.
‘Come on, let’s go,’ says Frankie, feeling impatient as she watches Joely pull on a rashie.
‘I was waiting for you. Aren’t you getting dressed?’
‘Nah. I was just going to wear this,’ says Frankie.
‘You can’t ride across paddocks in a bikini.’
‘Why not?’
‘People wear clothes here.’
Frankie starts laughing. ‘You sound a hundred.’
‘No I don’t. You just can’t ride bikes with my cousins in that.’
‘Why? Do I look bad?’
‘Can you just put on a t-shirt at least,’ says Joely.
Frankie shrugs and pulls out a skimpy singlet dress. It doesn’t cover much more than her bathers did, but at least it will shut Joely up.
Chapter 17
Riding isn’t as much fun as Frankie expected. In fact, it’s really hard sitting on the plastic seat and bumping across the bone-dry paddock. It’s okay for Joely because she stands up to ride. Each time Frankie tries that she wobbles and stacks, so she stays sitting down even though her bum aches and her legs are too long for the bike. At least Ged got to see her, so even if she never rides it again after today, hopefully he’ll feel like he did something nice, and that matters.
‘Are we almost there?’ she yells to Joely who is ages in front.
‘Yes. Next paddock,’ calls back her friend.
Joely has been saying next paddock for about twenty minutes and Frankie is beginning to wonder if her shortcut across the paddocks has made them lost. There is nothing pretty about where they are riding. It’s just one long stretch of brown grass with a few cows dotted around. The sun is scorching and for once Frankie wishes she’d worn something other than a dress. It’s not just the sun. The flies are so thick it’s like she’s wearing a coat of them.
‘It’s over there,’ calls Joely, turning to the left.
Frankie sighs and tries to turn the handlebars just a little bit like Joely showed her. But the wheel starts to wobble so she straightens up again.
‘Where are you going?’ yells Joely.
‘The long way,’ Frankie calls back.
Determined, Frankie tries again and this time manages to bend a corner and ride over to where Joely has dumped her bike.
‘Argh!’ yells Frankie as she hits the fence.
‘You do have brakes, you know,’ says Joely, pulling the bike off her.
‘Yep. I know.’
Joely smiles and holds out a hand. ‘Actually, you did pretty well for someone who can’t really ride.’
Frankie smiles back. She loves that about Joely. Just when she thinks Joely is being hard she sees something that nobody else notices, and says something to make Frankie feel better.
Joely stands on the bottom rung of the barbed wire fence and lifts the top rung up by carefully holding the small section between two barbs. Frankie’s impressed that her friend knows how to do country things.
‘Climb through, just watch your head.’
Frankie manoeuvres herself through the small hole and then holds the wire the way Joely did. As Joely clambers through, Frankie lets go too early and the wire catches the back of Joely’s head, tangling her hair.
‘Ow, Frankie,’ screeches Joely.
Frankie grabs the wire again and pulls it back, but Joely’s hair
comes with it. ‘Sorry,’ says Frankie, picking through strands of her friend’s hair trying to get it away from the metal.
Joely gives Frankie a look that says more than words could ever say and yanks her hair free, leaving a clot of it on the wire fence. She trudges off towards the dam saying, ‘Now that we’ve ridden the bikes, and shown Ged we like them, can we please not ever ride them again.’
‘I was just trying—’ starts Frankie.
‘I know. And that was really nice of you, but they are way too small. And I don’t want anyone seeing me ride it in town!’
Frankie laughs. ‘Since when do you care about that sort of thing? Especially here?’
‘I just do.’
Frankie can’t push it any further because a barking dog is rushing straight at them. Frankie considers making a run for it, but Joely crouches down and lets the dog leap at her and lick her face. Frankie steps away. She doesn’t like dogs. She never has, and it shocks her to see Joely so at ease. Last week, if someone had asked, Frankie would have described Joely as timid, frightened even, but being here, Frankie realises how wrong she was. There’s this whole part of her friend she has never noticed before.
‘This is Clover,’ says Joely still having her face licked. ‘She lives on the farm next door.’
‘Right.’ Frankie’s grossed out by the dog spit being sprayed across her friend’s face.
‘She’s friendly. You can pat her,’ says Joely laughing.
‘Nah. It’s alright.’
‘Took your time,’ yells Mack as Frankie carries her bag over to where they’re sitting.
‘Hardly full of water, is it?’ Frankie can’t believe what a sad-looking swamp it is. She was expecting ‘the dam’ to be this incredible place where everyone hung out and mucked around. She was actually hoping Rory might be here, but it was just the four of them, the dog, and a couple of spindly gum trees.
‘It’s deep enough to swim,’ says Thommo. ‘Only just, but it’s better than going to the pool which is always packed. This is where the party’ll be.’
Frankie’s heart races at the thought of the party. It will be so dark out here. She can find Rory and, as long as they stay in the shadows, nobody will see them.
