Coasts of Cape York (23 page)

Peter asked, “So the police came and took Graham and Stephen away?”

“Yes,” Betty replied.

“At about nine o'clock,” her little sister added.

“What about their gear?” Peter asked.

“They took it with them,” Betty answered.

At that moment a red-faced, middle-aged man in shorts and singlet stepped out of the shop doorway and then yelled loudly, “You girls get back inside, and stop talking to strangers.”

“That's our dad,” Betty explained. She and her sister turned and hurried home, obviously afraid of their father.

They left the group shocked and upset. All thought of going to any shop had been driven from their mind and they walked back to the park discussing the bad news. As they arrived back Marjorie called, “What's wrong? Where is Graham?”

“In trouble,” Willy answered. “The police have arrested him for bashing some guy.”

“Oh no!” Marjorie cried.

Stick asked, “What about Stephen?”

“Him too,” Willy added.

“Good!” Marjorie snapped. That really hurt Willy. Earlier in the year Stephen had taken Marjorie out and he had always been jealous and suspected that Stephen had done something Marjorie hadn't liked. The comment seemed to confirm that but also added to his jealousy.

He could also see that Tina was really upset and that this was bothering Andrew. Then he remembered that Tina had gone on several dates with Graham a few months before. ‘She must still like him,' he thought, again noting Andrew's anxiety.

The news set the whole group in a depressed mood. Willy found he just did not believe that Graham could have done it. The others all agreed. Tina said, “Well, the truth will come out when this Declin fellow gives his side of the story.”

“If he doesn't die,” Peter said, his voice bitter and laden with anxiety.

That was a shocking prospect. Willy shook his head in dismay, ‘Graham could go to jail, or to one of those juvenile detention places,' he thought sadly. ‘I might never see him again!' From that followed the thought that neither Graham nor Stephen might be available for any of the expeditions to recover plane wrecks. It was a depressing and very sobering thought.

The friends sat in the shade and discussed the situation, the failure of their own little expedition quite forgotten. It was a very subdued group who were collected by parents at 3:00pm for transport back to Cairns.

During the trip home Willy described the events of the weekend to his mother and father. His father then asked if he planned to have another go at finding the crashed plane.

Willy shook his head and looked at Marjorie and Stick. “I don't think so. I'm not sure that the story is true anyway.”

“And this terrible business about Graham and Stephen,” Willy's mother said. “I thought they were spending the weekend with you, searching for the plane crash.”

“So did I,” Willy agreed.

“I hope they haven't been deceiving their parents,” Willy's mother added.

That was an unpleasant thought. It gnawed at Willy until he was home. Once he had unpacked and had a shower he went to the phone and dialed Graham's number. Graham's mother answered the phone and from the tone of her voice Willy could tell that she was not happy. “This is Willy Williams Mrs Kirk. Is Graham there?” he asked.

“I'm sorry Willy, Graham can't talk to you right now,” Mrs Kirk replied.

Willy had half expected that but it also worried him. ‘I hope Graham isn't really in trouble,' he thought. For something to say he said, “Thank you Mrs Kirk. Please tell him we didn't find the plane.”

After hanging up he considered phoning Stephen but in the end did not. He did not like Stephen that much and still hadn't forgiven him for whatever it was he had done to Marjorie.

Worn out by the exertion of searching the jungle, the poor sleep the previous night, and worry about his friends, Willy went to bed early and slept soundly. On Monday he hurried to school, hoping to get the details on what had happened to Graham and Stephen. In this he was disappointed. Neither came to school.

Nor was Marjorie there. “She says she is sick,” Stick explained. “She's just fat and unfit really.”

“She's not fat!” Willy snapped, feeling his own ego to be under attack by his choice of girlfriend.

Then it was time for classes. There were still three weeks of school to go for the Year 9s and Willy was not looking forward to them at all. ‘Complete waste of time!' he thought. ‘We have done our exams and all the teachers will do is go over all our mistakes in the tests and carry on about how we need to do better next year.'

In this he was not wrong, the situation made worse by the fact that the Year 12s would finish at the end of that week and the Year 10s ands 11s at the end of the following. That would leave only the Year 8s and 9s at school during the last week, unless they were part of some school trip. One of the approved school trips covered the army cadets attending the annual promotion courses.

With exams over the school reverted to its normal timetable of 6 periods each day. During the day Willy was informed of his exam results in English and, as he had predicted, the class then began to laboriously dissect the test questions, plus do similar questions to ensure they now got the message and understood.

The main fly in the ointment though wasn't the schoolwork but not knowing what had happened to Graham and Stephen. Salt was rubbed in Willy's jealous wounds by Barbara who asked him what had happened. Willy had to admit he did not know. Nor did Roger, who said that Graham was at home but not allowed to speak to anyone.

“Graham's dad gets back tomorrow afternoon,” Roger added. “I reckon skin and hair will fly then.”

“I hope that it doesn't mean Captain Kirk won't support our expedition,” Willy said.

Peter, who had been listening, shook his head. “I doubt it. Captain Kirk made the arrangement with Mr Beck and I can't see him breaking that contract. Besides, Graham wasn't going on your first trip anyway. He is going to promo with us.”

“Will he still be allowed to go?” Willy asked.

Peter shrugged. “Don't know. Hope so.”

Stick asked, “You are going aren't you Pete?”

“Yes. I am doing the sergeants course.”

“And I'm doing the corporals course,” Roger added proudly.

“So am I,” Willy said, not wanting to be upstaged.

The conversation drifted onto the differences between the promotion courses run by the army cadets and air cadets, each group convinced theirs was the better system. The bell for classes ended the debate, which was, as usual, unresolved.

Tuesday followed a similar pattern except that both Graham and Stephen were at school. “What happened? Tell us the story,” Peter demanded as soon as they arrived.

Graham looked miserable and shook his head. “Sorry. We are not allowed to talk about it to anyone. Please don't ask.”

“Who said?” Stick asked.

“The police. Drop the subject please,” Graham replied.

To change the subject Peter described the search for the aircraft wreck, with the others adding details. This included a lot of moaning about the rain, the leeches, the wait-a-while and so on.

“Are you going to go up there and have another look?” Graham asked.

Peter looked doubtful and shook his head. When Graham looked at Willy he gave an emphatic shake of the head. “No thanks. I've had enough jungle to last me for quite a while.”

That at least caused some laughing and the mood slowly improved. The conversation shifted to rumours about what the Year 12s were planning to do on their last day at school. Over the last few years a tradition had grown up of the ‘Seniors' doing something unusual on their last day. This time the rumour was that they would be setting electric wires to all the urinals so that when boys went to do a pee they would get an electric shock. Peter dismissed the story as not being technically feasible.

Willy knew that Peter usually got top marks in subjects like Science but he still wasn't convinced it could not be done. Stick thought it was a great rumour and went off to spread it by telling some of the Year 8s.

During the day Willy learned that he had achieved a Very High in Maths A. That pleased him but he had been reasonably sure he would get a good result so wasn't surprised.  ‘I need V.Hs in all my subjects right through school to be sure of being accepted by the Air Force as a pilot,' he reminded himself. He knew that many hundreds applied to be pilots but that only a select dozen or so were chosen.

Marjorie was very proud of him and gave him a little hug and kiss on the cheek when he told her, despite the presence of two teachers. They just told her to stop doing that but in such a mild tone it made Willy sure that all the staff thought of him and Marjorie as an old married couple and therefore not worth worrying about. ‘I hope Barbara doesn't think that,' he thought.

Marjorie had only achieved ‘Sound' levels in most of her results, whereas Barbara's results were either Very High or High. ‘Barbara is just so talented,' Willy thought, a feeling of wistful adoration and regret surging through him.

Wednesday was similar. The only new things were Graham telling them that his father had returned and was still planning to take Mr Beck's expedition to Cape York; and the bad news that Declin was still in a coma in hospital and was on ‘Life Support'.

This bothered Willy a lot. On Thursday morning he sought out Graham and asked if there was any change to Declin's condition. Graham shook his head and muttered ‘no', before turning and walking away. Willy was sure that was to hide the tears that he had seen spring to the corners of Graham's eyes. Graham's appearance worried him too. He looked exhausted and had dark rings under his eyes.

‘The strain must be wearing him down,' Willy mused. He found Peter and Roger and asked if they had any news. Peter shook his head and said, “No. I'm really worrying about Graham. If he doesn't get to go on the warrant officers course in two weeks time I am scared he might… might do something.”

The implication struck a chilling cord in Willy. This was turned to deep apprehension when Andrew, who had been listening, added, “So am I. He is having a real fit of the dejections. I am worried he might try to commit suicide.”

That really shocked Willy and the others listening. “He wouldn't would he?” he asked.

Andrew looked grim and bit his lip, then said, “He might. Two years ago, when he learned that he could never be a naval officer because of his eyesight he tried to.”

“Did he really? What did he do?” Stick asked.

“We were diving at Green Island and he told me he didn't want to live anymore and that he was going to end it all. He was just going to swim out and let himself drown. I talked him out of it. Then we were in that plane crash on the way home and we ended up in the sea for eighteen hours.”

Willy nodded. “I remember that. It was a float plane wasn't it?”

“Yes it was,” Andrew answered. “Anyway we had to keep the pilot afloat, and also Graham's paraplegic friend Ken. Several times Graham said he wanted to give up and didn't see what it mattered but then he changed his mind and decided he had to stay alive to save his friend. So he did.”

“Is it possible that he might miss out on the warrant officers course?” Willy asked.

“If he is in trouble with the police, probably,” Peter answered.

Another worrying thought then came to Willy. “I suppose this isn't doing Graham's romance with Carol much good,” he said.

Carmen, who had been listening in, answered, “You can say that again. She won't even speak to him. I think that romance is dead.”

That word ‘dead' sent another chill through Willy. ‘What can I do to help?' he wondered. But no particular strategy came to mind. It was all very worrying information and Willy felt upset and frustrated at not knowing what to do. It quite spoiled the news of learning that he had achieved V.Hs in both Maths B and Physics.

Later in the day, during the break between two periods when classes were moving from one room to another, Willy saw direct confirmation of Carmen's words. He was walking with his class across the pathway beside the quadrangle. Graham's class was ahead of them, straggling as was usual. From the other direction came a Year 10 class- Carol's. Willy saw Carol hurrying towards them, a bundle of books clutched tightly across her front. Suddenly she saw Graham. Her face appeared to freeze and she turned abruptly and almost scurried back the way she had come. Within seconds she vanished through the ground floor doorway.

Willy got only a glimpse of Graham's face, enough to know that Graham had seen Carol, and long enough to allow the concept of bleak despair to form. ‘Graham is certainly upset over it all,' he thought. But still no plan of how to help came to Willy's mind.

Friday brought no change. The only good news for Willy was that he had achieved a V.H. in Geography. Captain Conkey commented that his assignment on coastal landforms on the coast of Cape York Peninsula was excellent work. For Graham the situation seemed worse and his physical appearance showed he was under great strain.

When Willy saw him during the lunch break he shook his head. ‘I hope he doesn't snap and do something,' he thought.

But Graham's possible suicide was not Willy's only worry. After school he spent two hours scouring the shops looking for inspiration to buy Christmas presents. Given the seriousness of Graham's predicament it seemed somehow wrong but also brought home to Willy just how confusing life could be. ‘So what do I buy my dad?' he wondered. His mother was a bit easier and big brother Lloyd could have some new golf balls, and some music and video CDs.

While he was at the Newsagents Willy also collected the latest edition of his aircraft magazine. He quickly flicked through it and was interested to note that there was an article on the wreck of a Japanese ‘Zero' fighter which had been shot down in New Guinea in 1943 and only found a few months previously. There was also one on Dutch Navy ‘Dornier' flying boats in the East Indies and Australia during World War 2.