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GOD ONLY KNEW WHAT they were thinking! Hastily he tried to explain. He tried and tried. “But it’s seaweed!” he kept saying, “It really is! And they’re paying us ten dollars a kilo for it, honest! It’s totally legit!”
His father kept hold of the money, and his face remained hard. “Well prove it then.” he finally said, “Prove it.”
“Okay, sure, not a problem!” Randy twisted around in his seat, looking across the road towards The Bountiful Earth. Phew! It was still open. “Come in and ask them yourselves.” He got out of the car. They all crossed the road. Randy walked boldly in and asked the shop assistant, “May I have a word with Cedar and Cypress please?”
“Oh I’m sorry, they’re meditating. Not to be disturbed.”
“Ah, ah, okay, ah, not a problem. You’ve seen me in here before, haven’t you?”
“Y-yes.”
“Well could you just tell my parents what it’s all about then?”
The health-food shop assistant frowned and glanced up at Randy’s stern-faced parents. Then she said, “Well, ah.., no, actually.”
“Huh??!!” gasped Randy.
“I’ve been instructed not to tell anyone,” she explained, looking terribly uncomfortable about it, “so, like: I’m sorry.”
“But you know! You’ve seen us doing it!”
“I’m sorry,” she said again, “I really mustn’t say anything. I could lose my job.”
Randy huffed and sighed but she would say no more. Finally he gave up and went to the shelves instead. He showed his parents the little jars of ‘Sea-Life Jelly’ and read out the name of the seaweed, and then he had a stroke of genius, “Hey! Beau’s mural! It’s the same stuff that’s on the mural! That proves I must have found it here!” At the sound of this the shop assistant seemed to prick up her ears.
Randy pointed to her, “And anyway she knows; - you can tell she knows! Tomorrow you can check it out with the others. I’m not joshing you!!”
His parents still looked slightly suspicious, but they said, “Yes, alright, let’s just leave it till the morning then, shall we?” They went back out into the street. But it was not over, and Randy did not get his money back. “I’m keeping it until we know what’s really going on,” said his father.
“But you can’t! Half it’s Piho’s! How am I gonna pay him back!”
“It’s safe.” said his father calmly, “You’ll get it back once we get to the bottom of this whole thing. Now...”
“Oh look!” said Randy, pointing down the street towards the Council Offices, “It’s Tammy’s rally!” (Anything to change the subject!) Indeed it was the rally, and rather pathetic it looked. There were perhaps fifteen people gathered on the footpath, a few protest signs, and the TV news people that Randy had encountered the other day. He could hear Tammy’s voice as if through a loud-hailer, “...Come out and talk to us, Councillor Boyd. Answer our questions!...”
“Geez,” said Randy to his parents with a pathetic sigh of defeat as if he was about to be marched off to life imprisonment, “and I was really hoping to be in on that!...”
“Well too bad,” responded his parents heartlessly, “As of now, you’re grounded.”
“Awww-uh! But what about Beau? She’s gonna need me!”
“Oh, don’t you worry about that!” growled his father, marching him on past the rally, “You’re going to be on duty at that mural until she’s done.
At this point Tammy’s amplified voice began to drown out their conversation, “One, Two Three, Four, What Are We Asking For?” she was calling, “Five, Six, Seven, Eight, What Would We Appreciate?! ACTION!” Then, “Randy!” boomed the loud-hailer, “Come and join in!”
He hesitated. He glanced at his parents. They were hesitating too. Excellent! Before they could speak he hurried over and joined Tammy. She was delighted. She even hugged him, right in front of the TV camera. It was embarrassing, but also really touching. At least Tammy cared for him. At least she trusted him!
Anyway he was standing there like a dope, smelling of seaweed and gazing at her moronically in front of fifteen people and a television camera, when he suddenly realised that she had more or less inviting him up in front to make a speech!
She passed him the loud-hailer. He took it, and nearly dropped it because it was heavier than he had expected, and she caught it and helped him hold it up to his lips. But he was struck dumb. He hated speechy stuff.
“Say something about this beautiful place,” she said, seeing his hesitation, “Tell them how you feel about this terrible threat to our environment.”
With a nervous glance towards the blank windows of the Council Office he lifted the blunderbuss-shaped thing so the sound went directly down the street towards the Bountiful Earth, and began, “Er.., well, see.., like: water’s really important, eh? Like: we’ve always had really clean water here and it’s really important, like, to keep it that way? So, ah, it’s good that you’re all here and that you care, like. And.., and there really should be something done about it! Like, if there is a problem, the Council really should do something about it. I mean, I’m sure the water’s okay. Gee, I’d even eat the seaweed off the beach I’m sure it’s so pure. The seaweed is really pure, I’m sure! And the water too! Or it should be. Er.., like.., yeah!” And he quickly handed the loudspeaker back.
Inside the nearest window he saw a curtain twitch, then a moment later Councillor Barry Boyd himself came out the doors, smiling, nodding, looking completely calm and in control. There was a bit of yelling from the crowd and the TV camera-dude went swooping towards him. He took the megaphone from Randy (and for a moment looked oddly at him, as if he couldn’t quite remember where they’d last met) then he spoke.
“I think the lad here is quite right. When all this fuss is over I’m sure we’ll discover that the water in Haulaway Bay is as good as it always was. Towards that effect I would like to announce that the Council will be doing something about it. I promise you all that an independent water quality survey will be undertaken in the near future, and if anybody is identified as the source of any pollution then the Council will prosecute with the full weight of the law!”
“Will you be considering the evidence already to hand?!” asked the TV reporter.
“I have no further comment.” answered Boyd with a smile.
“But accredited scientists already have tests that seem to prove...”
“I have made my statement,” said Boyd, interrupting her, “and I believe you have it on camera. Now if you’ll excuse me...” and he walked away from her and slipped back through the doors into the Council Offices.
And that was that. The people milled about and muttered, and the TV people started interviewing other people for their reactions, but Randy didn’t hang around.
“I’ll catch up with you,” he quickly said to Tammy, then he slipped away through the crowd and surrendered himself back to his parents. 'There ya go, see!' he felt like saying, 'And you think I’m just a teenage crim!'
#
BEFORE LONG THEY WERE back on the beach where Beau was still labouring away on her masterpiece. Randy was amazed. It seemed to be nearly finished. The beach scene background was done, and so was the draped seaweed. There was just the double-sized image of Piho to complete.
“Beau,” said Mother softly, as if she were talking to some sort of wild animal, “Beau? It’s time to stop now.” Beau kept going.
Father tried, “Beau, you’ve got to rest.” Still Beau’s brush skittered away.
“Beau?” said Randy, “Egg burger or cheese?”
“Cheese,” she grunted, “Egg too messy.”
Randy turned to his parents, “See? You’ve just gotta understand the teenage mind.”
Mother scowled, “But it’s tea-time, Beau, you need to stop! You need to eat!”
“I am gonna stop, Mum,” snapped Beau, “I am gonna eat!” and still the brush did not stop, “It’s only seven o’clock. Sun doesn’t set till after eight.”
“Yes but.., well you need to.., you’ve been working all day!”
“Yuh.” grunted Beau, and she went silent again as her brush speed increased.
“Cheeseburger,” Randy reminded everyone, and he held out his hand for the money, “I’ll get it.”
“Oh no you won’t!” snapped Father, “You stay right here!” And he went trudging off back towards the shops. Randy was about to call after him, to say what he wanted in the way of a burger, but though the better of it and kept quiet.
Beau kept painting, fussing over the fold lines in Piho’s shorts, and Mother sat down tiredly on a ten-litre plastic paint pot and kept watch on Randy. Randy looked around at the mess. There were paint-pots dotted everywhere, brushes soaking in buckets, and piles of sodden rags. He made a few gestures towards tidying up but Beau growled at him, so he just kind of paced up and down, not going too far from his mother’s suspicious watch. Geez! Didn’t anybody trust him these days?
Then a yellow car went by on the nearby road, slowed, stopped, backed up and parked. Out hopped Tammy and hurried over to him, her eyes sparkling. “Where’d you get to?!” she demanded, “You were so good!”
“Uh, like: it was nothing really.” He mumbled, glancing down to avoid her gaze.
“Oh, Randy!” she huffed, “You’re just altogether too modest! At least we finally got some action out of the Council!”
“Yuh. Ah, I guess that’s good then.”
“Yeah, but we’re not finished yet! We’re sure someone’s dumping off the coast somewhere, and we’re going to track them down! ... Wow!” Tammy had just noticed Beau’s mural for the first time, “That’s amazing!” She stepped closer, peering at the seaweed in the picture. “Isn’t that...?”
“Yeah,” said Randy, “it’s the seaweed. But don’t disturb her! She’s, like: really focused.” At which point Beau stopped painting and turned around.
“Hi, Tammy!” she said, sounding totally normal, “How’s it going?”
“Everything’s really super!” replied Tammy, “Gosh, Beau, that is so cool!!”
“Yeah,” said Beau, smiling tiredly, “thanks.” Then she whirled about and began dabbing at it again.
“Tammy!” called her aunt from the car, “You just said a minute!”
“Coming! See you latter, Randy...”
“Wait!” He followed her, trying to pluck up the courage to say something special, after that hug in front of the cameras and all. But all he managed was, “Say, does your campaign still need money? I was going to give you some but my folks have just confiscated all my cash...”
“What!?”
“Just a misunderstanding. I’ll get it cleared up. I just thought...”
She smiled at him, “It’s alright. You don’t have to; really.”
He looked up into her eyes. She was smiling. He smiled too. This was nice. But then her aunt called out once again, “Tammy!”
“See you again soon,” she whispered to him, wrinkling her nose in that adorable way she had. “Good luck, Beau!” she called over her shoulder as she went bounding away like a day-old foal, all legs and bounce. Her door slammed and the car drove away.
Randy went back to his paint-pot and sat down, suddenly feeling very tired and hungry, and suddenly terribly aware of just how much he stank of seaweed.