Medical Mission (3 page)

Tuesdays were different from other school days. Instead of catching the bus, Josh got to stay in town after class and get a lift with Pete's older brother. Every Tuesday afternoon, he got to hang out with Sally and Pete – his best friends. He had met the two of them on his first day at school in Coober Pedy. Pete was also coming there for the
first time, after having done School of the Air. And Sally had just moved to town. The three of them were new kids. And the three of them had stuck together ever since.

This Tuesday they walked up the main street of Coober Pedy towards the supermarket, intending to buy ice-creams.

Hutchinson Street came off the Stuart Highway, ran down the middle of the town and out the other side. Most of the shops in Coober Pedy were positioned along it. It was pretty busy for an outback town, with tourists looking for food and souvenirs, or simply on their way to search for opals. That's what the town was famous for and the main reason tourists came – gemstones. In fact, the town was known as the opal capital of the world.

Josh looked over at the large opal store on the other side of the road. In the car park next to it was a spaceship. Not a real one, of course. Some old movie prop, according to Pete. Josh didn't really care. He wasn't interested in opals or spaceships. He looked down at his feet.

‘Any ideas?' asked Josh, kicking a stray stone off the footpath.

‘'Bout what?' responded Pete.

‘Duh!' Josh rolled his eyes. ‘What do you think? The fundraiser, of course.'

‘Oh yeah, the RFDS.' Pete looked thoughtful for a few seconds, then shook his head. ‘No idea.'

‘How about a car wash?' suggested Sally.

‘In this heat?' grumbled Pete. ‘No way.'

‘It is getting close to summer,' said Josh. ‘It's just going to get hotter.'

‘And no one around here washes their cars anyway,' said Pete.

‘The tourists?' suggested Sally. ‘They come in off the dirt roads in their filthy four-wheel drives. They might want a wash.'

‘Nah,' said Pete. ‘They don't stay long and then it's back to the dirt roads. They'll get their fancy cars washed when they get home.'

‘What then?' said Josh in frustration. ‘A cake stall?'

‘Well,' said Pete, ‘your mum does make great cakes.'

‘Mum's still in Adelaide with Nate,' said Josh. A pang of sadness caught in his chest.

‘And it's not going to raise a huge amount of money,' said Sally. ‘We need something bigger.'

‘Oh!' Pete started jumping up and down. ‘I've got it! I've got it! There's this bunch of old black-and-white films.'

‘So what?' said Sally.

‘They're all about people needing to raise money to save something or other,' continued Pete. ‘But the thing is, what they always do is put on a show!'

‘A show?' Sally came to a stop outside the supermarket, putting her hands on her hips. ‘You
are
joking. Right?'

Pete seemed to visibly shrink. ‘Well, it works in the movies.'

‘You and your films,' said Josh, walking into the supermarket and going for the ice-cream chest. ‘Films aren't the answer to everything.'

‘What?' said Pete, following. ‘There's plenty of good advice in films.'

‘Like what?' mocked Sally.

‘Well, like, never split up if you're going into a haunted house, 'cause if you do, you're all gonna die, one by one, in really horrible ways, with lots and lots of blood and –'

‘Haunted houses aren't real,' Sally interrupted. ‘What about proper advice?'

The three of them arrived at the freezer and picked their ice-creams.

‘Well,' said Pete, digging through the different choices. ‘There is this 1960s film called
Born Free
and it shows you how to raise orphaned lion cubs.'

‘Yeah,' laughed Sally. ‘'Cause that happens all the time.'

‘You watch too many movies,' said Josh, heading off to the cashier.

‘There is no such thing as watching too
many movies. And besides, I don't just watch films,' said Pete, ‘I also watch television.'

‘That makes it all okay, then,' said Sally with a giggle.

The three of them bought their ice-creams and walked down the street. They had a couple of hours to kill before Pete's brother would pick them up. There was a lull in conversation as they ate. Josh powered through his choc paddle pop as he pondered the fundraising question.

Finishing his ice-cream, he looked around at the familiar sights. There were fewer shops now. They passed a couple of opal places, a few vacant lots and then his eyes came to rest on the drive-in cinema, which reared up above the buildings.

He'd never gone there, although he'd
seen it often. His parents were always too busy or too tired every time he'd asked to go.

As they came up to it, he stopped along the high wire fence, leaned against it, fingers curling into the spaces, and peered in at the screen.

That's it
, he thought.
That's what we could do.

‘Hey Josh, what ya lookin' at?' asked Pete.

‘The screen,' said Josh dreamily. ‘The drive-in screen.' Then he whirled around to face his friends, a big grin plastered over his face. ‘I've got it!'

‘Got what?' asked Sally, finishing off her ice-cream.

‘Our fundraiser.' Josh looked pretty pleased with himself. ‘We are going to put
on a show. Just not the sort that are in Pete's movies. The sort of show we're going to put on … is a movie.' He pointed at the drive-in. ‘In there.'

‘Hmm,' mused Sally. ‘That could work. Especially with the tourists. It's not as if there's much else to do here in the evenings.'

‘Yeah,' said Pete, nodding. ‘I like it.'

‘Glad you do,' said Josh, putting a hand on his shoulder, ‘'cause it's going to depend on you.'

‘Huh?' Peter looked confused. ‘How come?'

‘You go there all the time, don't you?' asked Josh.

Pete looked down at his feet. ‘Well … yeah.'

‘And you kinda know the guy who runs it?'

‘Yeah, I guess,' said Pete slowly. ‘Only,
it's not a guy. And … she's a bit weird. She calls herself Ratchet.'

‘Ratchet?' Sally pulled a face.

‘Her name's actually Rachel,' explained Pete. ‘But she doesn't like it. Don't ever call her Rachel … she'll go ballistic.'

‘So why Ratchet?' asked Sally.

‘Well, it's kinda like Rachel, isn't it?' said Pete. ‘And she's always wearing this massive belt with tools hanging off it. And a ratchet is a tool.'

‘Sounds like you know her pretty well,' said Josh thoughtfully. ‘Well enough to ask her to donate the use of the drive-in?'

‘I dunno,' said Pete hesitantly. ‘She's pretty scary.'

‘Look!' Josh suddenly called out, pointing through the wire.

‘What?' Peter and Sally stared in the direction he was pointing.

‘I saw someone by that building over there,' said Josh. ‘It must have been Rach–I mean, Ratchet. Let's go talk to her right now.' Josh gave Pete a little shove. ‘You can introduce us.'

‘Um …' Pete hesitated. ‘I don't think that's a good –'

‘Chiii-cken,' called Sally.

‘What?' Pete looked horrified at the accusation. ‘Am not! It's just that –'

‘Chiii-cken,' repeated Sally, even louder. Then she started flapping her arms about and making clucking sounds. A woman walking past on the other side of the road glared at them.

‘But …' Pete tried to protest.

Josh joined in with Sally, flapping and clucking and laughing.

‘Oh, okay,' Pete finally relented, heading off towards the gate in a huff.

Sally leaned over to Josh and spoke in a quiet voice. ‘I can get him to do anything.' Then, with a knowing look, she followed Pete.

Josh made a mental note to always stay friends with Sally, no matter what, and went after them.

There was a chain and padlock around the gate.

‘Oh well,' said Pete, turning around, ‘too bad.'

‘Not so fast, Chicken Boy,' said Sally, stopping him with a hand on his shoulder.

‘Hello!' Josh shouted through the wire. ‘Hello! Anyone there?'

There was no answer. Nothing stirred within the drive-in.

‘See? No-one home,' said Pete, an edge of desperation in his voice.

‘Hello!' Josh shouted again. ‘Hello! Can we talk to you?' Then he turned to Pete and Sally. ‘I saw someone again. But they didn't hear me.'

‘Or she was ignoring you,' said Pete. Then under his breath he added, ‘I know I would.'

‘Oh well, at least we tried,' said Josh.

‘Gosh, you guys give up easy.' With a huge grin, Sally reached over and pulled on the gate. The chain stretched out taut, leaving a kid-sized gap. Sally slipped through.

‘Oh … that's not a good idea,' said Pete.

‘Cluck, cluck,' replied Sally.

‘I'm with him on this one,' said Josh. ‘I don't think we should go in.'

Sally shrugged and walked off across the drive-in grounds towards the building.

‘Now what do we do?' asked Pete.

‘Nothing else we can do,' said Josh, as he slipped through the gate.

‘I've got a bad feeling about this,' grumbled Pete, but he squeezed through and followed.

The three friends walked slowly towards the old blond brick building that housed the amenities, candy counter and the room from which the films were projected. Josh felt nervous about having entered through a locked gate.
We really shouldn't be here
, he thought.
What if Ratchet gets angry at us? It'll blow any chance of using the drive-in.

‘Hey,' said Josh, ‘isn't Ratchet the name of the bad guy in that
Robots
movie?'

‘Yep,' confirmed Pete. ‘Sure is.'

‘Maybe we should go back,' said Josh, wiping sweaty hands on his school shirt.

‘Oh, come on, guys,' huffed Sally. ‘The drive-in owner isn't plotting to take over the world. This isn't a film.'

A gust of hot wind blew dust across the deserted grounds, making a weird howling sound through the scraggly trees along the fence. It swirled orange dust into their faces. Their shoes made crunching sounds on the gravelly ground with every step. The old speaker posts stood like eerie grave-markers, and the gigantic screen held up by a rusty metal framework towered over them like some kind of otherworldly creature.

‘Feels kinda like a horror film, actually,' said Pete, walking on tiptoes in an effort to quieten his footsteps. ‘You know the sort. Serial killer hides out in a remote location. Then a bunch of people get kidnapped and chopped up into little pieces before being buried in the desert, where tumbleweeds roll over the unmarked graves and –'

‘Would you please shut up,' demanded Sally, glaring at him.

‘This place
is
a bit spooky,' admitted Josh, eyes darting from side to side.

‘Oh you two are unbelievable,' snorted Sally. ‘There is nothing spooky –'

BANG!

The sound reverberated around the empty drive-in. The three kids froze.

‘Gunshot?' suggested Pete.

‘More like a slamming door,' said Sally, trying hard to sound casual. ‘Come on.' She continued walking.

‘That was a really loud door,' said Josh, smiling nervously.

‘I once saw this film about a haunted drive-in,' began Pete.

‘Stop it!' blurted out Sally as they reached the building. ‘Hello,' she called out. ‘Anyone around?'

She was answered by a screeching metallic sound that grated across their eardrums.

They froze again. Pete whimpered.

‘Sounded like something being scraped across something,' said Josh, his voice shaky.

‘There was this film,' whispered Pete, ‘about a dead guy with metal claws who hacked people up. He'd scrape his claws
across walls and pipes and things. And it'd make a noise kinda like that.'

‘You're not helping,' hissed Josh, his eyes wide and his hands sweating again.

BANG!

The door in front of them burst open.

The two boys screamed and grabbed onto Sally.

‘Whaddaya want?'

The owner of the gravelly voice stood in the doorway. She was enormous. Tall and broad and muscled. Tree-trunk legs extended from khaki shorts and ended in huge battered boots.
Stomping boots
, thought Josh. Biceps bulged from a matching khaki singlet. A belt, which was slung over one shoulder and crossed her chest like a bandoleer, was loaded with tools hanging from loops and clips.

The figure lifted an arm clutching a large, rusty ratchet. She scraped it down along the brickwork by the door. The sound made Josh's teeth ache.

‘I said, whaddaya want?'

No prizes for guessing who this is
, thought Josh.

Pete took a step back. Even Sally looked worried.

Josh cleared his throat.

‘S-S-Sorry to bother you, Ms Ratchet,' stuttered Josh. ‘W-We just wanted to talk to you.'

Ratchet snorted. Josh thought it made her seem a bit like a bull.

‘So talk!'

‘W-W-Well, Ms Ratch –'

‘It's just Ratchet,' she cried, eyes wide
and wild like some ravenous animal ready to pounce. ‘No Ms. No Miss. No Mrs. No Madame. No Mademoiselle. No nuthin' like that. It's just plain Ratchet. Got that?'

Josh nodded. His mouth was as dry as when he'd read out his essay in class. He could feel the sweat gathering on his brow and under his arms. He wanted to run away.

But he took a deep breath, tried to calm his furiously beating heart, and blurted out an explanation.

‘We're really sorry to bother you. And we're sorry that we came through the locked gate. And I'm really sorry I called you Ms. And I promise never to call you Rachel. But we're here for a really good reason. We need your help to do some fundraising for the RFDS. The RFDS are really important and they
saved my mum and my new brother, and our school is trying to raise money and we were hoping you'd let us use your drive-in, and … and … and that's it, I guess.'

They all stood in silence for a few moments as Ratchet continued to glare at them.

‘R. F. D. S.' She barked out each letter, pausing in between. ‘Why din't ya say so? Them aerial medicos saved me once too.' She scowled at the kids and the edges of her mouth twitched.

Is she trying to smile?
wondered Josh.
If she is, she's not very good at it.

‘We can have a chat in the bio box.' She turned around and stomped into the building. When she realised they weren't following her, she looked back over her shoulder. ‘Allons-y!'

The three kids stared blankly at her.

‘Allons-y,' she repeated with greater force. ‘Don't ya kids study French in school no more?'

Josh, Pete and Sally shook their heads in unison.

‘Well, you should. It's a pretty language. I used to learn it.' She sighed, long, deep and loud. ‘Many moons ago. Allons-y! It means
let's go
.' She headed off past the candy counter to a door at the far end of the room.

‘You were right,' Josh whispered to Pete. ‘She is scary.'

Pete nodded.

‘And she talks funny,' hissed Sally.

‘Allons-y!' bellowed Ratchet. ‘NOW!'

Josh, Pete and Sally quickly followed.