I rolled off Ben. The grass was hot. Wet, but burning hot. I rolled and rolled, away from the heat, away from the danger.
There was a warm, wet sensation on my face, and it took me a moment to realise it was Gumbo, slopping and slobbering all over me.
‘I’m all right, Gumbo, I’m all right,’ I said, and looked around for Ben. He was a few metres away and obviously in a lot of pain. His arm was broken. The skin was torn and a jagged white edge of a bone poked out through it.
He had done that trying to break my fall.
Ben Holly. My mate.
‘Ben!’ I said, in that weird dream-like world of shock where crazy things make perfect sense. ‘Ben, you’re not a robot after all.’
And Ben, despite the pain, began to laugh.
THIRTY-SIX
THE BIG GAME
The next weekend, for reasons I didn’t fully understand, I invited Blocker around to watch the grand final of the NRL with Ben and me.
His mother didn’t think it was such a great idea, but his counsellor thought it would do him some good. So Blocker was with us when we watched Daniel score the winning try, with just seconds to go, against the Warrior’s old foes: The Blacktown Machetes.
The three of us leapt to our feet screaming as he dived over the line, lost the ball, recovered it, and slammed it down for the try.
Gumbo went wild, running round and round in tight circles and knocking over Mum’s precious antique clock on the side table, which we didn’t even notice until the next day.
Mrs Blüchner came around in a big old BMW to pick Blocker up after the game. He was on very tight reigns.
And, while we were waiting for his mother, Blocker told me about the lightning tower.
‘I really couldn’t hear anything you were saying,’ he said slowly, staring at the floor. ‘But, after all the crap I put you through, you still climbed the tower and risked your life to save me. I couldn’t understand why you’d do that.’
He lifted his gaze, looked me dead in the eye and said, ‘That was why I let go.’
On the Monday following, Dad got offered a job. It turned out that, for some time, Crime Time had been looking for a new presenter. PC Plod just wasn’t up to it. Dad wasn’t a cop, but he looked like one. One thing led to another, and he got invited to audition.
He won the role. Long-term. On-going. Well paid. We celebrated with a dinner out in a real flash restaurant.
I had known all along he would get the job, though. There was never any doubt in my mind.
I had been sitting next to the producer at the audition.
EPILOGUE
Gumbo died the other day. But I don’t want you to feel sad about that. He was just old. He’d had a long life and a good one. It’s OK for me to feel sad, he was my dog. I’d known him my entire life. My lovable, big, old floppy, sloppy dog. But I don’t want you to feel bad.
Two years have now passed, almost to the day, since that frightening night on the power pylon and many other things have changed as well.
Erica and I went out together for more than a year before we decided to break it off. I think she’s quite keen on Tupai White nowadays but Erica, being Erica, is too shy to say anything. I think he might like her too, but I’m not sure.
Ben and I are still real good mates, and a few months ago I persuaded him to run for the Youth Parliament. That’s when teenagers are invited to run a mock Government for a few days during Parliamentary recess. It was like the student council thing all over again. He got in, and I wasn’t at all surprised when he got elected the Youth Prime Minister.
I ran into Markus Blüchner the other day. His mother took him out of Glenfield and sent him to an expensive private school after the whole affair. He said hello quite warmly, if with a certain amount of embarrassment. He wasn’t the same kid I had lived in fear of for so long. He seemed to have learned you don’t have to intimidate people to get them to like you.
As for my special power, well I’m taking that under advisement. I’ve kind of gone off the whole supervillain idea. Maybe I’ll become a superhero. Who knows? Or maybe, like Old Sea Salt, I’ll decide to do nothing with my power at all. I have plenty of time to decide. I’m still a teenager.
One thing I am more and more sure of though is this: life really is like a book, and when I’m old and wrinkly and creaking away in a wooden rocking chair on the porch of some old-folks’ home, reminiscing about my life, I want to have written a book I’m proud of, not one I’m ashamed of.
But whatever I do, I’ll need a new nickname.
Nobody calls me Freak any more.
APPENDIX:
WISE AND WONDERFUL WORDS
Agenda
What grown-ups do when they have meetings because otherwise they’d forget what they’re talking about and just argue about silly stuff the whole time. It’s a list of the topics to discuss in the meeting.
Advisement
Under advisement is just a fancy way of saying that you will go and get advice from others on this. Business people talk in language like this all the time.
Anonymous
When nobody knows who is responsible.
Arduous
Something that is difficult to achieve, like the top level on Halo 2.
Brusquely
Look it up in the dictionary. It’ll be good practice.
Circumspect
This means to be cautious, but it’s a bit stronger than that, it’s like you’ve taken every possibility into account before doing anything.
Clinical
This is the best word I could think of to describe my great mate Ben. I used it in the sense of precise, exact and unemotional.
Conspicuously
The word means clearly visible or attracting notice.
Derision
Another word would be ridicule.
Disembowel
To have all your innards and guts and stuff ripped out, like in those cool stories about knights and ancient warriors.
Emphatically
To use great emphasis in the way you speak, or move, or the words you say.
Enormity
Enormity has lots of meanings. I used it to mean something that was totally outrageous.
Ensconce
For example to tuck away somewhere, nice and safe and snug.
Excruciation
Great torment, or in other words, not a lot of fun!
Futile
Totally useless. Like my sister April.
Humility
The dictionary says humbleness. I used this word to show that Ben did not seek fame or fortune for doing something that he thought was simply the right thing to do.
Impervious
Sort of tough, and not affected by stuff around it. I wish I was impervious.
Inconceivable.
Something so far beyond reason and understanding that your mind cannot even grasp it. Like the infinite size of the universe. Or the size of an atom.
Indomitable
What a great word. Strong, unyielding, stubbornly persistent. I wish I was that, too.
Malevolent
This is a wonderful word to say out loud, just feel the way your mouth moves when you say it, mal-ev-o-lent. It means really, really evil, and wanting to do bad stuff.
Malignant
Why are all the evil words so much fun to say? Mal-ig-nant. Try it. Slowly. If you’re talking about a disease it means something that spreads quickly or is infectious. But I used it to mean nasty, or harmful.
Minutiae
All the fine details, ins and outs, ups and downs etc.
Noisome
I used this word deliberately, knowing that Blocker wouldn’t understand what it meant. It means harmful, noxious, evil-smelling, objectionable or offensive. Use this word as often as you can!
Pedantic
Just to be a little fusspot about stuff and insist on everything being perfect. You know people like that. Teachers mainly.
Persecution
To
ill-treat. I guess Old Sea Salt didn’t really persecute kids, but it felt like it to me sometimes.
Perversely
Different from what is reasonable. I really mean that I liked Frau Blüchner as a teacher, when nobody in their right minds would. But I already explained my reasons for that.
Profile
When you’re talking about actors, their profile is their livelihood. It means how well known they are. Wearing a mask did not help Dad’s profile one bit. Even the producer of the show hardly recognised him later!
Succinct
Pronounce this one as suck-sinked. Short and to the point.
Testament
When someone said good stuff about you it was a testament to you that …
Tirade
Fancy word for someone going on and on at you about stuff.
Uncommonly
Means remarkably. Just a different way of saying it so it doesn’t get boring.
Viable
Spanish word for the devil. No just kidding, that’s Diablo. Viable means doable. It’s kind of the opposite of impossible.
AUTHOR’S NOTES
Once again the names of a number of schoolchildren appear in this book. These children won competitions I run as part of my talks to schools. Congratulations to: Matthew Clay (Wadestown School), Chelsie Burnett (Waikanae School), Stacey Anderson (Limehills School) and Minet Brits (Paraparaumu Beach School) along with the winners from the 2004 Storylines Festival: Tom Prebble, Jordan Hoffman-Herbert and Nicholas Priddey.
Thanks to Laura Falkner for the haiku in chapter 29.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Brian Falkner was born and raised in Auckland. He is the award-winning, best-selling author of several novels for children and young adults, including The Flea Thing, The Real Thing and The Super Freak. His action adventure sci-fi novels The Tomorrow Code and Brainjack were both short-listed for the New Zealand Post Book Awards for Children & Young Adults and the Esther Glen Award at the LIANZA Awards, with Brainjack winning the New Zealand Post Book Awards, Children’s Choice Award (Young Adult Fiction category). Brainjack also won the 2010 Sir Julius Vogel Award, Best Young Adult Novel. The Project has also been short-listed on the 2011 Storylines Notable Books List.
For more information please visit Brian’s website:
www.brianfalkner.com
First print edition published in 2005 by Mallinson Rendel Publishers Limited.
Published in 2007
by Walker Books Australia Pty Ltd
Locked Bag 22, Newtown
NSW 2042 Australia
www.walkerbooks.com.au
This ebook edition published in 2013
The moral right of the author has been asserted.
Text © 2005 Brian Falkner
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means – electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise – without the prior written permission of the publisher.
National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry:
Falkner, Brian.
The super freak.
For primary school age.
Subjects: Psychic ability – Juvenile fiction.
Bullying – Juvenile fiction.
NZ823.3
ISBN: 978-1-921977-41-1 (.ePub)
ISBN: 978-1-921977-40-4 (e-PDF)
ISBN: 978-1-922244-50-5 (.PRC)
For Kevin E and Michael M
The boys who ran into the storm
YOUNG ADULT FICTION
BY BRIAN FALKNER
The Tomorrow Code
Brainjack
The Project
Recon Team Angel series:
Assault
Task Force
Ice War
The Super Freak Page 14
