I sleep like a log. Sun blares through the curtains, which were left half-open last night. It’s morning, bright and early. I jump out of bed. Leo is asleep. I head for the girls’ room. ‘Hey Samantha, get up.’
Grumble. ‘Get lost, Jack.’ She squeals when I pull off her blanket, but I’ll torture her later. Don’t want to wake up Anna.
There is a bowl of frangipanis on the lounge room table. Mum must be up already. Yep, I’m right. Sandwiches are laid out and drinks are lined up on the kitchen bench. Mum dances into the room wearing her sunflower blouse and matching sunflower skirt. ‘We’re going to have a great day, Jack.’ She finishes packing the sandwiches.
I check out Rob’s thermometer in the kitchen. Thirty-three degrees already. It’s going to be a hot one.
‘Hi, Nanna.’ She is eating her breakfast of porridge. She has made a special effort to get up early so that we won’t be late for the dolphins. I check out the beach through the full-size lounge room window. Surfers are waxing their boards on the beach. Lifesavers are watching from their tower for undertows and swimmers caught in rips. I gulp. I was caught once in a rip.
‘Nanna, do you want some orange juice?’ She nods and I squeeze. I’ll make some for everyone.
I hate remembering that rip. Tried to swim across it. That’s like swimming against cement. In the end I let the rip take me. Looked like I was heading for Antarctica, except the lifesaver didn’t let me get to Antarctica. My life flashed in front of my eyes. How would Mum cope without me? Samantha too. The lifesaver reminded me of Rob. ‘Are you all right, son?’ the lifesaver had asked. I felt like crying when he called me that. I didn’t cry, of course. I’ve never told Mum about it.
I drink juice and eat porridge with Nanna. I blink twice when Anna enters the room. She is wearing hot pink board shorts and a white T-shirt with ‘Angel’ written on it in silver. She does a pirouette like a ballerina. There are silver wings on the back. ‘How do I look?’
‘Gorgeous,’ Samantha yawns, straggling after her. She is so right. Rob sticks his thumb up at me.
Anna sits next to me and I start teasing her about her wings. ‘You’re really a bird now. A chirpy bird.’
‘Hilarious, Jack.’
Leo rumbles in, scratching his neck. Then he stops. He just stands there like a stuffed emu staring at Anna.
‘Hey, haven’t you seen wings before, Leo?’
‘Not ones like those. You look terrific, Anna.’
She blushes. ‘Thank you, Leo.’
Oh, I meant to say that. Now I can’t. Anna does look terrific.
‘Dolphins, dolphins,’ Mum hums around the table.
‘I love them,’ Samantha cheeps. She holds up her dolphin necklace for Rob to see. Firstly, everyone knows she loves dolphins and secondly, Rob bought her that dolphin necklace. ‘I love this. I really do.’ She hugs Rob. She’ll do anything for attention.
I have to get out of here before my orange juice regurgitates. I grab my camera and scramble through the front door. ‘Just going to take a few pictures.’ Outside. Fresh air. Good. What is that tweeting? I look around. There’s a lot of noise. Well, squawking. What is it? I see them. Oh wow. There have to be at least twenty in that eucalyptus tree. I leave my camera on the front step and walk carefully towards them. Hey, they’re not scared. A couple look up at me. These rosellas are used to visitors for sure. I dig into my pocket. I am in luck. A half-eaten left-over cookie is still there. It’s a bit crunched up and crumbly, but they like it that way. I hold out my hand. Two bright red and green rosellas land, pecking at the crumbs. Their parrot beaks tickle, but I don’t move. Oh no, one has landed on my head.
‘Where are you, Jack?’ Samantha runs outside looking for me.
‘Here, here.’ I slide the words out of the side of my mouth.
Samantha sees me. ‘Wow.’
‘Shush … camera.’
Samantha is smart. She tiptoes towards my camera, so as not to frighten the birds away. Click, click, click. They will be great photos.
As she clicks I whisper, ‘Tell everyone to come out, with cookies.’
The next thing I know Mum is standing beside me with a rosella pecking cookies from her hands. One swoops at Rob’s spiky head. Probably thinks there are seeds there! Another one lands on Leo’s shoulder, hopping towards the cookies. There is a bright red and green rosella on Anna’s silver wing. Samantha is still clicking. Nanna watches from the lounge room window. She waves at us. She’s happy that they like her cookies.
Cookies are finished and the birds hop back into their tree. That was fantastic. Oh no, I look at Rob’s head. There is a big sticky white plop there. Ha, ha. Samantha runs in to get a tissue for Rob’s head.
‘Plop-head, Plop-head,’ I shout. Rob chases me around the frangipani tree and tackles me onto the lawn until we’re both puffing and laughing. Leo chases after us. Rob has me in a pretend head lock. ‘Sorry Rob … sorry …’ I gasp. ‘You’re not a plop-head.’ I can’t stop laughing.
Rob lets go, then suddenly Leo tackles me. We wrestle for a bit. He tries to kick me in the stomach but misses. I am too quick and grab his leg. When I get him down, I jump away. Rob thinks it’s a game. I’m not so sure.
As Leo struggles up, something falls out of his shorts. ‘Hey. What’s that?’
‘Nothing.’ He stuffs an old silver lighter into his pocket as he scrambles next to Rob.
I’ll check that lighter out some time, but not now. We’re going to see dolphins today and I’m not interested in Leo and the stupid things he does. We race to get our swimming gear and lunches. I put some new film into my camera. Nanna tries to leave her walking stick behind, but we all shout at her, ‘Walking stick, Nanna.’
‘I hear you, I hear you.’ Nanna is cunning like that.
Samantha picks pink frangipanis from the frangipani tree. They smell like honey. Mum and the girls put a flower behind their ear. Nanna doesn’t because of her hard head. Samantha puts one behind Rob’s ear just as the mobile phone rings. Rob leans against his four-wheel drive with a frangipani on his head and a phone next to his ear. Wonder what his boss would say. He’d never live it down. Rob and a flower. Ha, ha. I’ll save that for future blackmail purposes.
‘Special problem. Ummm … Leaks oil … 1980 Toyota Corona … Modification … Drive transmission … He’ll need to take it to the workshop.’ Rob gives excellent technical advice. He’s promised that he’ll take me to his work one day. I can’t wait to go. He finishes the call. ‘Let’s move out. Get into the back today, Leo,’ he says.
‘But Dad …’
I’m getting half-used to hearing Leo call Rob ‘Dad’. But somehow, I don’t like it that much.
Rob shakes his head. ‘The back seat, Leo.’
At last, a bit of fairness.
We drive along the Gold Coast Highway. There are beaches, motels, more beaches, more motels, neon signs, more beaches, more motels. The airport. I point out a Cessna four-seater plane. ‘I’m going to fly one of them one day.’ Anna is impressed. ‘I’ll fly everyone to the Gold Coast.’
‘Not me,’ Rob calls out. ‘Jack in the air sounds dangerous.’
‘Dangerous? Sure. You’re just scared. Scared Rob.’
‘He’s not.’ Samantha sticks her tongue out at me. ‘Rob isn’t scared. DAD isn’t scared of anything.’
Dad, Dad, Dad. Everyone calls Rob Dad, except me.
‘That’s my girl.’ Rob laughs. ‘My little Samantha.’
Samantha is HIS little girl. His girl. I tweak Samantha’s pigtail. This all feels wrong.
Suddenly Mum turns around to look at me. ‘And Jack is your boy, Rob, isn’t he?’
Rob calls out. ‘He sure is. My big, noisy boy.’
Mum adds, ‘And Leo too.’
‘Leo isn’t as noisy as Jack, but you’re all my kids.’
I stare at the back of Rob’s head for a second. He has never said that before. Never.
Rob rubs his golf ball head. ‘I’ll have to wear a crash helmet when Jack is a pilot.’
Oh, he’s joking. I shake my head. I call out, ‘Mr Never-Scared crash-helmet rider, I’ve got a limerick.
Row row row your boat
Gently down the stream
Let’s chuck Rob overboard
And listen to him scream.’
Everyone laughs, even Rob. Mum giggles. ‘Come on kids, we’d have to pull him out of the stream. If he was thrown overboard, who’d drive us to the dolphins?’
‘I will.’ Samantha tickles the top of Rob’s hair.
‘Hey, don’t touch.’ Rob is very protective about his hair, especially when he’s driving.
Tropical weather definitely makes plants grow — big green palms and lime green ferns, pink hibiscuses, bright red banksias, orange birds of paradise. Mum is in flower-power heaven. She is not very impressed with the bowling alley and the cinemas, shops and restaurants and even MORE motels. The motels are getting taller as we drive along — one storey, two storeys, five storeys, ten storeys, big skyscrapers, bigger skyscrapers. We hit Surfers Paradise.
‘Look at that.’ Samantha bends her head back so far it sounds like it’s cracking. A giant bungee jump. I’d love to go on that. Wow.
I start laughing. There has definitely been an invasion of Hawaiian shirts into Surfers Paradise. They are everywhere. Eating breakfast in outdoor cafés, buying souvenirs in shops, walking around licking ice cream cones. There is music blaring from a beer garden even though it is still only the morning. Surfers Paradise is a party town. Two unconscious guys are sprawled out under a coconut palm tree. There are a few coconuts lying next to them, but we’re not sure which ones are the nuts. Ha, ha.
Anna digs her elbow into me. ‘Looks like they’re a bit sick.’
‘They remind me of Hector when I dyed him green.’ I turn around to get a better view. ‘No, my rat looked better.’ Hope Christopher is looking after Hector properly. ‘Can we visit Surfers Paradise?’ I hit Rob’s head. Oops, it was a bit hard. I’m just about to say sorry when the car zooms forward in a mighty jump.
‘You idiot, Jack.’ Rob shouts at me right in front of Anna, Leo and everyone. ‘Not while I’m driving.’ It is a mean shout, a really mean one. He didn’t have to be mean and call me a name. Rob slows down.
‘It was an accident, Rob,’ I say.
Leo smirks. ‘Yes. It was an accident, Dad.’ What’s Leo playing at? Oh I know. He wants to look good.
Rob is rubbing his head. ‘Okay, Leo. You’re right.’
Leo, right? What is that about? I already told Rob that it was an accident. Oh, but that’s not good enough. It’s what Leo says that matters. Rob is Leo’s dad, not mine. Rob doesn’t care what I say. He calls us all his kids, but it doesn’t look like it. My head is throbbing. I am not talking to Rob any more.
Mum reaches out for my hand. ‘Don’t worry, Jack.’ That’s why Mum is MY mum and Rob is not my dad. ‘You shouldn’t have shouted at Jack,’ she says to Rob.
‘Look, that was dangerous. I could have had an accident.’ Rob puts on this serious voice.
‘It wasn’t on purpose, Rob.’
I love Mum. She is right. I was just telling Rob something. That was all. It WAS an accident.
‘Jack can do no wrong, is that the way it is?’
That is so untrue. Rob doesn’t know what he’s talking about. Mum is always defending Rob, not me.
‘I don’t defend just Jack. I defend everyone in the family. You know that.’ Mum and Rob stop talking.
Signs to the dolphins start appearing and the skyscrapers start disappearing. There are gardens and parks and Samantha insists on pointing out EVERY frangipani tree. I am not interested. I don’t like Rob. He’s not my dad. We drive beside a wide sandy bay dotted with boats at one end and surf beaches at the other end.
Mum turns around to me. ‘Rob didn’t mean to shout at you, Jack.’ Mum is red. ‘But you have to be more careful when someone is driving.’
I say nothing.
‘Come on, Jack, we’re going to have a good time.’ Mum turns to Rob. ‘Jack is sorry, Rob.’
Mum is always the peacemaker, even when everything is wrong. Sorry? I’m not sorry any more.
Samantha’s wiggly hand is zooming around like a bee. I grab it and squeeze hard. ‘Ouch.’ Samantha throws a slap at me, which misses. Anna is sympathetic to Samantha’s sore hand. As if it is really sore. Leo is sympathetic to Anna. This is all working out BADLY.
Rob parks. ‘Dolphins,’ he announces and walks around to my side of the car. Mum is helping Nanna out of the back seat. As I get out of the car, Rob slouches over to me. I refuse to look at him. He speaks quietly. ‘Jack.’
I still don’t look.
‘You shouldn’t have hit my head while I was driving, Jack. But, well …’ Rob stutters, ‘I admit that I overreacted. When the car jumped, I got angry for a second.’ He waits. ‘People get angry, Jack.’
I squint at Rob. I’m not sure.
‘Can we forget it? I was wrong.’
I nod.
He puts his arm on my shoulder. ‘And I think you’ll make a great pilot one day.’
Nanna is out of the car. That is the signal to head towards the entrance of the dolphin park. She has her stick raised ready to plant on the ground, when suddenly a gust of wind blows up her skirt. ‘Oops.’ She stumbles, landing on her hands with her bum in the air. ‘Not hurt, not hurt,’ she burbles.
We all stare for a second. She must have dozens of them. It is amazing. Big, purple, sparkling in the sun. Nanna’s underpants shoot beams of light in all directions. We automatically duck. ‘It’s like a secret weapon.’ I elbow Samantha. I don’t want to, but a gurgle forces its way up my throat. There is a gurgle from Samantha too. Then Anna. We are all gurgling. Mum and Rob are holding hands laughing.
Poor Nanna.