In Too Deep

by D C Grant

Chapter Two

  The wind moving over his body chilled him and took the burn off his anger. His heart was thudding in his chest but he wasn’t sure if it was because of the argument or from his flight on the skateboard. Part of him felt like crying. The rest of him felt like tearing apart everything in sight.

  He reached the reserve and glided along the path. In the distance he could hear the skaters at the skate park. He knew that his friends would be there but he didn’t want to face them tonight. He slowed down, stopped and snapped up the skateboard, catching the nose in his hand. He walked to a nearby bench and sat down with his skateboard beside him. He leant forward, elbows on his knees and waited for his breathing to return to normal. His cheeks became wet with tears. He cuffed them dry.

  The setting sun had spread a light red on the clouds. It reminded him of the sunsets he watched from the beach at Piha, when the sun slowly sunk towards the horizon and gave a final flash before it disappeared completely. He loved that moment, the death of the old day and the promise of the birth of the next new day. The sun’s rays would shine up into the sky long after the sun had gone and the light made the evenings at Piha last that much longer. After the sunset there was the walk in the cool evening air back to the bach, then the welcome warmth of the house where he’d fall into bed and a sleep so deep he had no dreams remaining in the morning.

  They had owned the bach for as long as he could remember. His grandfather had built it, back in the days when Piha was accessible only by a metal road that became treacherous when it rained. His father had told Josh and Cyndi of travelling in the car with his brother, Peter, and the trailer full of building materials behind them. When the car slid on the road the brothers thought the trailer would smash into the rear of the car. It never did. Josh’s father had told him that helping his own father build the bach had encouraged him to become a builder himself.

  When Josh’s grandparents died, the bach had been left to both his father and Uncle Peter. Uncle Peter had moved to Brisbane some years ago and had only used the bach on the few occasions he was in the country, so the old bach was virtually theirs.

  But for how long? Josh’s anger surged. How could his father let this happen?

  He stood up, restless and needing to move on. He shivered. He didn’t have a jumper, just the long-sleeved shirt he’d put on after school. He needed something to do, somewhere to go.

  It was quiet and dark now and he could no longer hear the crack of the skateboards in the park. It wasn’t safe to go there after dark. There were guys who would push him off his board and steal it, but tonight he’d take a chance. His father had taken everything away, what did it matter if someone took his board? He threw his skateboard onto the ground, jumped on and took off down the path.