We sat together outside the bowling alley where we used to beg strangers for loose change so we could play the arcade games. I thought watching all the kids go in to play games might cheer him up and get him in the mood to go and play Time Crisis 2, but I was totally wrong on that one.
“Should we go home?” I said in defeat.
“Nah,” he said without seeming like he cared either way.
“I bet you’re looking for any excuse not to wind up talking to that looney Liam, aye mate?” I don’t know why I said that; he didn’t exactly find the joke funny. I don’t know what the hell I was doing! I never knew anyone who died before. My grandparents all died before I was born, and Mum and Dad both did Pilates and played Wii Fit so they’re going to live forever. An hour or so ago, I was telling Mum and Dad they were stupid and that I hated them for not letting me see Benjamin, but now I wish I hadn’t done that. It was really hard to know what to say to him. At first I tried to distract him by telling him a funny story about the time Scott McElroy set up his tent at school camp next to an ants nest and left the door flapping all night, but for some reason that only made him tear up even more. God knows what I was meant to do. He didn’t wanna watch any YouTube videos on my phone, or sneak into the cinema to watch the fast and furious movie, even though all the way home the other day he was going on about how he was dying to go back as soon as he could.
“I guess you’ll be giving the athletics carnival a miss? Dodged a bullet there I reckon!”
“Yeah probably not. Shame, I was getting the surprise ready too!”
So much had been going on that I’d forgotten he was preparing this little mystery surprise.
“Shouldn’t you two boys be doing your homework for Mr Symonds?”
We both turned around suddenly and saw Miss Walker and another woman with her. She was chubbier and shorter and had shaved side of her head like she was in one of those rock bands my dad liked back in the olden days.
“Miss Walker? What are you doing here?” I was glad she was here; she was the only person that could cheer Benjamin up.
“Aisha and I got married yesterday in Wellington. Just a small thing, but now we’re back. Aisha manages this place so thought I’d hit her up for a few games.”
After satisfying my question she turned to Benjamin
“We all heard about your mother at Church, Benjamin. I’m terribly sorry for your loss. But the entire church and your friends are here to support you, okay?”
“Yeah, thanks. I dunno really.”
The other woman who I guess was called Aisha nodded with concern, which is probably better than any of the rubbish I had come up with all evening. If I knew all Benjamin needed was a simple nod, I wouldn’t have carried on with all these lame jokes.
“Look guys. It wouldn’t be appropriate for me to just leave you guys out here on your own all night.”
Her partner interrupted, “If you guys like I could give you guys some tokens and you could play on the machines while we bowl?”
Ben and I immediately turned our heads to each other as if we’d just won a golden ticket to the chocolate factory.
“Yes!” we replied in unison
“Great idea, Aish. Although I will need to call your parents to let them know where you are. Or maybe after one game.”
We all walked inside the bowling alley and suddenly Benjamin’s mood changed a bit, as I noticed he was staring at his white shoes shining under the fluorescent lights and smiling like a bloody lunatic, but it was awesome to see!
Aisha gave us each a cup of Fanta and 10 tokens each. We played a couple of shoot ’em up games and then wore each other out playing air hockey. I was more of a strategy player as opposed to Benjamin, who whacked the puck as hard as he could without caring where the thing ended up, half the time on the other side of the room.
After we ran out of tokens, we both sat on top of the bowling-ball racks and watched Aisha and Miss Walker play. They cheered Benjamin up. I’m not sure if it was because he had the hots for Miss Walker still, or if he liked seeing them happy. I wondered if he was smiling because she reminded him of his mum.
He then turned to me and said something that made me feel really relieved.
“Oh and by the way, you’ve been wondering all night if you said or did the right thing. And you did.”
I felt like a load was taken off my shoulders.
“I did? What did I do?” I asked curiously.
“Something. It’s all anyone had to do. And you did it.”
I let out a smile and my eyes watered a bit. Even without the skirt I was still able to ball my eyes out like a girl, but was still able to control myself.
As we looked back at Miss Walker I thought I’d take his mind off his mum for a second. “You know, people around the school are saying things about me and Miss Walker. They think we’re trying to brainwash ’em all into worshipping gay people.”
“I know. Jeez you’d think Mr Symonds would be warning us all about this instead of climate change if it was anything dangerous.”
I was shocked. I’d had the same thought myself. And also I was impressed he had stopped calling it the green lighthouse effect.
Miss Walker and Aisha came running up to us arm in arm behaving almost like the girls in our own grade.
“Hope you had fun guys, but we should probably take you home!” Because they gave us Fanta and air hockey tokens we did what they said.
Aisha then turned to me on the way out of the bowling alley.
“Oh, and I heard about what you’ve been doing at school. Respect, man!”
It was amazing that even during a time of grieving and a time of sadness for my friend Benjamin, people were still carrying on about this bloody skirt business. Dad was right; maybe I am changing the world, or at least getting a hell of a lot of attention from it!