Frankie and Joely (8 page)

Chapter 14

Joely can't relax tonight. Even at dinner she sensed something
was off. Mack was looking at Frankie, Jill was watching Mack and Thommo hardly spoke. Only Ged was normal. Plus Joely keeps seeing Rory and Frankie together on the road. What if her friend wasn't telling the truth about where she was? And now Frankie was reading on her bed with her back to Joely in her old singlet and shorts, with a tatty second-hand scarf around her neck. There's nothing to do and nobody to talk to.

‘I spoke to mum today.' Joely hears the hum of a mosquito somewhere in their room.

Frankie doesn't answer and Joely wonders if her friend has fallen asleep.

‘Frank? Did you hear?' says Joely again. This time Frankie holds up her hand and Joely feels her face heat up and redden. She tries to wish it away, not wanting Frankie to see how put out she feels.

After a second, Frankie rolls over and puts down her book. ‘Sorry, it was the good bit. What did you say?'

Hurt that she has to wait for a page to be read, Joely frowns, tempted not to say anything. But she can't help it. ‘Mum rang today.'

Frankie groans and it makes Joely smile. ‘Yep, you got it,' says Joely, loving that her friend just knows.

‘What did she want?'

‘To remind me to eat salad,' says Joely, wanting to be funny. Frankie rewards her with a smile but then picks up her book again. Joely panics, trying to think of something to say to keep Frankie interested. All she can come up with is, ‘It's too hot in here tonight.'

Frankie shrugs. ‘It's okay if you lie still. You just need a book. Something that will distract you.' Frankie turns a page.

‘I think I'll go for a walk and see what it's like outside,' says Joely, hoping that she won't have to go alone, but not wanting to ask for company either.

‘Okay. I might be asleep,' says Frankie, rolling back over.

It takes Joely's brain a few seconds to register that Frankie isn't interested in coming with her. But now she's announced her plan, she has no choice but to go with it. She stands up and makes as much noise as she can looking for her thongs. Hopefully if she interrupts her, Frankie will realise she wants to come for a walk after all. But after picking up and dropping her thongs three times, it's clear that Frankie's in a reading bubble and nothing Joely can do will drag her out. She hopes the mosquito bites Frankie and not her tonight.

Outside it still feels like forty degrees. There are stars everywhere. Joely can hear her cousins in the shed, laughing, and she likes their happiness. Maybe they get along better when there's no one else around.

As she passes Jill's herb garden, she leans down and breaks off a couple of flowers, careful to take one from each plant and not six from the one. Her thongs flap loudly against the gravel path and she slips them off as she creeps along the side of the house, hiding behind the trees so her aunt won't spy her through the window. Her foot lands in something wet and soft. She almost yells, but stops herself and ducks into the darkness, hoping they won't hear her beating heart. She starts walking again, wiping away the wetness on the path.

As Joely heads towards the dusty road, her knee stings as the bandaids pull across her skin. She sees the paddock where Bluey used to live. If he were still here, she could lean against the fence and stroke him. Joely wonders why her mum didn't tell her about Bluey. She knew what he meant to Joely. She was even there when Joely saw Bluey being born. Bluey's mum had died during the birth, and the only way to keep him alive was if someone fed him every few hours. Joely took on the job, staying up most nights, and even named him after seeing his blue oxygen-starved skin. It was the first word that popped into her head. Nobody thought he'd live. But he did and Joely believed she'd saved him. Now he was dead, just like the kangaroo.

The moon is full tonight so the tyre tracks of Thommo's motorbike are marked in the light like a beacon. She walks along them, enjoying the heat of the ground under her bare feet, flinching only when small stones dig into her skin. Once, when she was young, she spent three months on the farm and her feet toughened each day. By the time she went home she hadn't worn shoes for weeks and could stand on the small prickles in her parents' garden. But now it hurts where her thongs have rubbed between her toes, and her knee has started to throb again. She should have brought her old thongs with her, not these new ones with their hard rubber.

She isn't sure how far she has to go. She looks back at the farmhouse and it seems small now, just a series of lights. A car toots and revs as it drives down one of the roads nearby, and she hopes it's not headed near her. She can even hear a song blaring from its radio. A cow moos somewhere in the paddock and she imagines it's Bluey. For a second she feels cold, but she shakes it off and keeps walking.

Suddenly, Joely can see the bark of the tree branch she pulled over the kangaroo. It shines silvery in the moonlight. She climbs down into the ditch and starts trying to pull away the branch. She knew it was heavy, but now it seems to be stuck tight. She yanks hard and it shifts to one side, but it must be snagged on something because it won't come away. She tries pushing it the other way and it starts to give, but then it springs back and swipes her bare thigh.

‘Shit,' she swears. It echoes away like a cicada's song. There's no way she can get closer, so she takes the flowers out of her pocket and lays them across the branch.

Now she's here, she doesn't want to be alone in the dark with a dead kangaroo. But she has to stay long enough to make Frankie wonder where she is and wish that she'd come too instead of reading her stupid book.

She tries to focus on the shape of the kangaroo, but it's hidden beneath the tree branch. All she can see are its paws tucked neatly together, like it was praying, and a little of its head behind them.

Something moves in the ditch and Joely leaps back, her heart racing, her skin tingling. She turns towards the farmhouse and starts to run.

There's a laugh behind her and she freezes. She can taste potato salad in her mouth and her brain is racing. She tries to fix on a thought. Maybe it's just her cousins. They've probably followed her.

‘Thommo?' she calls into the night.

A tiny orange glow flashes.

‘Mack? You're scaring me.'

A shape steps near.

Joely screams.

A hand touches her bare arm. ‘You came,' says a voice.

Terrified, Joely swats the person with her thongs. There's
another laugh and then the orange glow drops and hits
the ground. The person steps sideways, into the light of the moon, and Joely sees his face clearly at the same time he sees hers. It's the boy from the bus. Rory.

‘You?' he says.

‘Yes?' she says, confused.

Then he smiles and nods, like he expected her all along. ‘I've never been hit by a thong before.'

Joely can't speak. She doesn't know if she wants to be here, out in the dark with him. But she thinks that it's something Frankie would probably do, so she smiles at him, trying to force the fear back down her throat.

‘You were on the bus today, weren't you? You're Frankie's friend.'

‘Yes. I'm Joely,' says Joely, annoyed that he knows Frankie's name but not hers.

‘Did she send you?' he says.

Joely frowns. ‘What? Send me? What for?'

He looks closely at her like he's trying to read something in her face. Then he grins and laughs, but he doesn't answer her question.

‘Frankie. And Joely. What's with all the boys' names?'

‘They aren't,' she says, sounding more defensive than she means to, but irritated at the order he said their names.

‘Round here they are.'

‘We don't live round here.'

‘Yeah, I know. You're from the city.' He says the last word like it's a taste that's gone bad in his mouth.

Maybe it's the darkness or maybe it's being cross that Frankie was more interested in reading than in talking to her, but Joely doesn't feel scared anymore. She could never usually argue with a boy she didn't know, but tonight she wants to.

‘What's your name?' Joely asks, even though she knows what it is. She wants to pretend she didn't even notice Frankie was talking to him at the bus stop.

‘It's Rory. Didn't Frankie tell you? Thought you were best friends.'

‘We don't talk about people we've just met,' she says, proud of the sentence, thinking it makes her sound older and more confident than she feels. Even if she is lying about not knowing his name.

‘What are you doing out here on your own?'

‘Just walking.'

‘Why are you trying to pull the branch? You checking that the roo is dead?'

Joely's surprised he's guessed what she's up to. She looks at Rory again, impressed, and wonders what he saw today. ‘Did you see Thommo kill it with a rock?'

Rory shrugs just like Frankie and then says, ‘You have to kill 'em. Can't leave 'em to die. It's worse if they have joeys. The joeys stay in the pouch trying to keep warm and slowly the mother just cools, and it dies too.'

Joely shudders. ‘How do you know it's not a mother?'

‘I don't.'

She wants to rush to it then, push her hands into the coarse fur and feel for a baby in its pouch. But her hands are shaking and she knows she can't touch something dead.

He steps closer, close enough that she can see his eyes. She wants to stare, touch his face with both her hands and fall against him. Instead, she turns away towards the house, as if placing herself in its orbit somehow gives her protection from all that she's feeling.

‘Does Frankie know you're out here?'

‘Not here, no.'

‘What about Mack?'

‘No.'

‘You just walked off? Like a little girl lost?'

Joely takes a deep breath to try to settle the strangeness in her body. She isn't sure if he's trying to be threatening, but somehow it doesn't bother her.

‘Aren't you scared of the dark?'

‘No.' She looks at the farmhouse. The lights seem to be dimming. She wonders what the time is and whether her aunt has gone to bed. Then she feels Rory's fingers curl around her wrist and turn her, slowly, like a dancer leading his partner into the light. He takes her other wrist too, but it's awkward. They are too close, so his shoulders hunch to make room for their joined arms. He looks at her, and she seeks the darkness so he can't see the expression on her face.

‘Scared now?'

‘No.'

He leans down close. ‘Now?'

She can smell the cigarette smoke and summer heat on his skin.

He whispers into her ear, ‘What about now?'

Joely doesn't answer. She knows what's coming next. She knows but she can't do anything about it. And then his mouth touches hers and she doesn't know what to do. Does she press back? Push against him? His tongue is forcing its way into her mouth and it's strange and nice and yucky all at the same time. She wonders what her mouth tastes like. His is a cigarette bath, but she doesn't mind. Then his teeth nibble her lip and it hurts and she almost steps away, but he is still gripping her wrists and she just wants to see what will happen. How it will end. Then he pulls away and the kiss is over.

‘Sweet dreams, Joely. Might see you here again sometime, watching over the dead.' He leaves, disappearing into the dark.

Joely looks for him, but he's gone, like a strange night spirit. She licks her lip. It tastes funny. She doesn't know what to do, doesn't want to go back to her room and see Frankie in case her friend notices something has changed. But she doesn't want to stay on the road with the dead kangaroo lying nearby either, wondering if Rory's watching, wondering where he is.

She kicks at the ground, forgetting she is shoeless. Her toes get skinned on the gravel, but she enjoys the hurt. It drags her back into the place where she is. Already the kiss has gone from her mouth, vanished into the air like the smell of his cigarette.

She drops her thongs onto the road and feels around for them with her grazed toes. Then she turns, like the arrow on a compass, and heads for home.

Frankie wishes she were asleep, so she couldn't hear Joely sneaking along the floorboards. But every time she closes her eyes, she feels the boy's hands on her skin, his lips on her neck, his smoky breath near her mouth. She doesn't want to share it with her friend. It's all hers. If she tells, she might not see him again. And she wants to. He's going to be her week. She thought he'd text her tonight. Make a plan, start a secret. But he hasn't. Her mum didn't answer when she rang and Rory didn't text. Nobody ever does what Frankie hopes they will.

She hears the tap go on and imagines Joely brushing her teeth, spitting foamy white into the cracked green sink. She imagines Joely checking her smile in the mirror and noticing the extra freckles that climbed onboard since yesterday. She knows how much Joely hates those brown spots, but she's always liked looking at them to see if she can remember where they fall.

The toilet flushes, and metal pipes groan through the house. Frankie closes her eyes, relieved that her friend is creeping the last few steps to their room. She knows Joely thinks she said yes to this holiday to escape her mum, but it's not that. It's not that at all.

Chapter 15

Frankie's outdone herself this morning. She's finally beaten the world out of bed. Even the sun is struggling to wake up as she quietly opens the wire door and steps outside. The wooden boards are still warm under her feet. The air isn't stinging yet but, it will be, once the sun rises. There are birds singing everywhere. Frankie has no idea what types they are, but she can hear their different voices. The louder, chirpier ones who seek an audience and the quieter, sweeter ones that sing just for themselves.

Sitting on the step she waits for Jasper to come. She knows he will. Not because Frankie's a girl like Jill said, but because he's desperate for company and nobody else is up. Or maybe he recognises Frankie as a fellow restless hunter.

She doesn't have to wait long. Jasper springs up and wriggles under her legs just as scarlet light floods the sky. She pulls her phone out of her pocket, to take a photo for her mum.

U ok? F

As she presses send, Frankie panics. But she knows there's no point ringing now because even on a good day her mum won't be up until after ten. Frankie's never been away this long before. She even skips school camps. People assume her mum can't afford to send her, but actually it's because Frankie worries. If she's away, even for a couple of nights, there's nobody to make sure her mum eats, or sleeps, or isn't hooking up with some guy who will rip her off.

It wasn't always this bad. When Frankie was ten, they lived in one place for over a year. Her mum had a job working reception at the vet's near the school. Frankie was so proud as she walked past each day, looking in the window and seeing her mum sitting at the desk, a phone to her ear and lipstick on. Frankie hoped that year. And each week the hope grew. She even made plans. But that all ended when her mum went to the Christmas party and drank so much she did something that got her sacked. Even now Frankie doesn't know what it was. Just that they packed up fast and moved on before Frankie even said goodbye to her teacher.

The old water pipes shudder inside the house and she holds her breath, hoping whoever it is doesn't come out here. Then she sees Mack's hammock hanging between the trees and realises it's the perfect place to hide without being rude, especially as Mack is obviously already up and gone. She scoops up Jasper, holds him against her body and sprints to where the hammock hangs like an empty cocoon.

She's never been in a hammock before. She doesn't know if she should put her bum in first, or her legs, or just dive in headfirst. She can't get in with Jasper in her arms so she drops him and tries to swivel her bum on, but she's too close to the edge of the net, and there's no way she can move her foot from the ground without falling out. As she tries to move across, the hammock swings from under her and she hears a laugh.

‘Joely!' she says as she sees the freckled hand of her friend.

‘Morning.' Joely pops up and helps Frankie into the hammock, while making it just that bit harder at the same time.

‘You're up,' says Frankie, trying to hide her disappointment.

Joely nods pointing at the house. ‘I think everyone is. I could smell bacon and Ged woke Thommo because he wants the boys to work before it gets too hot. Apparently today is going to be a scorcher.'

The word makes Frankie laugh. Not the word itself, but the way her friend says it, like she's an authority on weather all of a sudden. ‘A scorcher, hey?'

Joely laughs at Frankie. ‘Move over, will you,' she says.

Frankie wiggles across and Joely leaps in, making it look really easy.

They're wedged in tight, arms pressed together, shoulders
locked, and legs bent so their knees touch. Frankie likes it. Feeling this close. She can smell the vanilla cream that Joely
always puts on her skin to stop it from drying out. She
reaches out her hand and squeezes Joely's fingers, holding her freckles tightly so they can't escape.

Thommo's sitting on the step, picking his way through eggs and bacon while watching the hammock, hoping that Mack or his dad don't come along and ruin it. He knows the girls are there because he heard them talking earlier. Jasper circles, meowing, and Thommo slides the plate down for him to finish it.

He walks past the hammock pretending he's on his way to the shed. But then he realises they're both asleep, holding hands.

Embarrassed, he hides behind the tree. He can just see Frankie, her face turned towards Joely, her singlet strap hanging off one shoulder. He knows he shouldn't be here. It feels wrong. But he can't walk away, not until he watches her, imagining. He steps closer, moving around to Frankie's side
of the hammock. If he reaches out he could trace the curve of
her mouth.

‘Thommo!' yells his dad from the back porch. ‘Time to do the paddock!'

Thommo doesn't move. If his dad finds him he'll tease him forever. The wire door slams shut and he risks looking to see if his dad is still on the porch. Instead of his dad, he sees his brother and he knows he's in trouble. Hopefully Mack hasn't worked out the girls are in the hammock and he just thinks Thommo's trying to avoid doing jobs. If he walks up to the house before Mack can get to him maybe he'll never know. But as he starts to walk away, Frankie opens her eyes and sees him.

‘Morning,' she says, rubbing her eyes.

‘Um, hi.' He hopes she doesn't ask him why he was watching her. Then his brother slams into him and he knows he's been caught.

‘Dad's looking for you,' says Mack, glancing from Frankie to Thommo. ‘Shoulda told him you were down here perving.'

Frankie laughs. ‘Perving? Hardly. Thommo was telling me about the New Year's Eve party. Apparently you get pissed every year,' she says, staring straight at Mack.

Thommo can't believe she's covering for him.

‘Yeah well, that's what New Year's is for,' says Mack, whacking his brother on the back.

Thommo barely feels it because he's too busy trying not to watch Frankie slip her finger under her singlet strap and drag it up onto her shoulder.

Joely groans and opens her eyes, blinking in the sun and taking in her cousins. ‘What's with the audience?'

Frankie laughs. Thommo could listen to that sound all day.

‘There you all are,' booms Ged's voice.

Thommo looks around to see his dad walking over, carrying two kids' BMX bikes.

‘Morning, Ged,' says Joely.

‘Morning. I bought you girls a present,' he says as he drops the bikes on the ground. ‘Thought this way you could get yourselves around. Go to the pool or the dam. Whatever you like.'

‘Good one,' says Mack on the verge of laughing. ‘Where'd you get them?'

‘Tip shop. They were five bucks each,' says Ged, sounding defensive.

Mack laughs loudly and turns around, looking at Frankie as if he wants her to join in. ‘You got ripped off, Dad.'

Thommo just wants to die. The bikes are shit and too small and all rusty. He can't believe his dad would think a girl like Frankie would ever want a bike like that.

‘You're kidding, Dad, right?' says Mack.

Thommo hopes his dad has the sense to join in on the joke and make it look like he was just mucking around.

‘They aren't little kids!' says Mack, kicking the wheel on one of the bikes.

Thommo wishes Mack would stop going on about it. Normally he would dive in and save his dad, but today, in front of Frankie, he doesn't know how.

‘Well, the girls aren't as big as you blokes,' says Ged, shifting around uncomfortably.

Frankie swings her legs out of the hammock and stands up. Nobody says anything. They all wait for her to weigh in. Even his dad looks like he's getting ready to be laughed at more. She leans down to inspect the bikes and then looks up at Ged.

‘This is perfect!'

‘Really?' says Ged.

‘Yeah,' she says. ‘I can't ride a bike so this looks like the perfect size to learn on. Thanks, Ged.' Frankie grins up at him making Thommo love her more than he knew possible.

‘It's a pleasure, Frankie. The boys can fix them up and get rid of the rust. Then they can come and help me clear the top paddock. 'Bout time you boys did some bloody work.'

Frankie straightens up and starts wheeling a bike away. ‘Can I have this one, Joel?'

‘Whatever,' Joely says, still sounding sleepy in the hammock.

Frankie has never actually ridden a proper two-wheeler. This one is probably too small for her and a crappy old boys' BMX, but she doesn't care. Nobody's ever thought to buy her a real bike before, certainly not someone she's only just met. Even if it is too small to ride, she'd still try because she would never want Ged to stop doing kind things. Besides, now she can hang out in the shed and use some of the tools.

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.'