New day. Crack of dawn. Is it morning? The sun isn’t up yet. Oh, what a night. Great dreams. The beach. Anna. I close my eyes again. Who is shaking me? ‘Stop,’ I turn onto my stomach. More shaking. I blearily open my eyes. ‘Mum?’ Oh yes, we’re leaving. ‘Too early.’
‘Come on, Jack.’ Mum’s fuzzy blonde hair tickles the tip of my nose.
‘Yeah, yeah.’ Moan. I clump down the bunk ladder. Everyone is up. I don’t know how it happened but it is five-thirty in the morning and we are all ready to go.
Rob hangs his thermometer at the back of the car. ‘Checking the temperature.’ Rob advises us that the temperature was perfect on the Gold Coast. ‘Between thirty-two and thirty-six degrees every day.’ There are a few thermometer jokes about how Rob is hot except for his brain, which is still defrosting. Rob ignores them.
We clamber into the car. I am sitting next to Anna and holding Wally. Samantha is hugging Floppy. Nanna is belted in the back seat next to Leo. I want to say a joke, but it’s dark and I’m half-asleep and my mind isn’t into gear yet. I keep thinking about Rob’s weather report. The ignition clicks and the engine starts. Mum’s music quietly hums and zzzzzz … We are all sleeping.
‘Breakfast,’ Mum’s voice tinkles. I open my eyes, yawn, blink. There is daylight and I’m hungry. We are all hungry. Hmmm. Breakfast. I have the works. Two fried eggs, bacon, tomato and sausages with toast.
‘Jack, you’d better eat that up super fast.’ Rob flashes a look at Anna.
‘Jack has a super appetite.’ Anna hides her dimples behind a smile.
What is everyone going on about?
‘Except he likes to eat “super” backwards.’ Mum twirls a curl. ‘Super duper Jack.’
Oh right. I get it, someone has blabbed. ‘Was it you, Leo?’
He laughs. ‘No way.’
‘So who told? Who told?’
Samantha sticks Floppy in my face. ‘None of your business.’
‘We might just have a look at that SuperJack boulder when we drop Leo home.’ Rob makes a right handed fist.
‘Great.’ I groan.
‘Jack, limerick,’ Mum calls out as we get back into the car. ‘A super one, darling.’
I groan again. ‘Okay, limericks.’ Samantha is yapping away. (Dog joke.) ‘Keep quiet. We’re doing the one where everyone says a line.’
‘Don’t know what you mean.’ Samantha is unhelpful.
Rob is already zooming along the highway. There are a few SuperJacks yelled out. I shout, ‘Topic is Nanna.’ Nanna beams of course. She loves being the topic. Everyone shuts up because no one wants to hurt Nanna’s feelings. I start.
‘There was an old Nanna from Surfers (me)
Who loved swimming like a porpoise’ (I wanted to say dolphins, but it doesn’t rhyme)
‘She slid down the path’ (Leo adds)
‘And fractured her arm’ (Rob)
‘So Nanna swam crooked instead.’ (Samantha)
Samantha’s line doesn’t quite rhyme, but it’s a good start. I nudge Leo. ‘You choose the topic for the next limerick.’
‘Pig.’
Phew. Glad it wasn’t SuperJack.
‘That’s terrific, Leo.’ Mum cups her hands next to her head pretending they are pig’s ears. She thinks she is funny. She is NOT.
‘Meet Miss Piggy Piggle’ (Mum)
‘Watch her give a wiggle’ (Nanna)
‘Her husband is Rob’ (Samantha)
‘What a dumb knob’ (Me, ha, ha)
‘And both of them make you giggle.’ (Anna — that’s so cute)
We are all laughing when Mum asks right out of nowhere, ‘Do you think you’d like to live in a house?’ She turns around to look at us.
‘House. Is that the next limerick, Mum?’ Samantha squeals.
‘No.’ Mum reaches her hand across to her. ‘Would you like to live in a house, with a garden?’
‘A garden,’ Samantha repeats.
‘A house,’ I echo. We are all a bit staggered. What does Mum mean? ‘We live in a unit.’
‘Yes, but Rob and I want to buy a house.’ Mum takes a breath. ‘There will be a room for Nanna.’ Mum looks at Leo. ‘And Leo when he visits. Leo, you can sleep in your own room, too.’
Nanna nods and her teeth wobble forward a bit. She obviously knows all about this. Her green eyes have tears in them.
Samantha has been quiet, which is very un-Samantha-like. Suddenly she bursts out, ‘A garden? Oh a garden, Mum. There’ll be room for a puppy. A real puppy. Can I have a puppy?’
I tickle Floppy. ‘But he’ll be jealous.’
Samantha hugs Floppy really hard. ‘Please Mum. Please Rob.’
Mum and Rob smile at each other. ‘Yes.’
Samantha is speechless for the first time in her life. She just keeps hugging Floppy.
This is all too amazing. I need time to think. I stare out of the window watching the gum trees swoosh by. A house, Rob and Mum, Nanna living with us.
‘We’ll find a house not too far away from where we live now.’ Mum smiles. ‘Not far from the best fruitologist in Sydney.’
Anna’s laugh sings through the car.
I stammer, ‘Rob, do you think we can have our own workshop?’
‘We’ll have one, Jack. For sure,’ he calls out. ‘And Leo can use it too.’
I shake my head. Leo won’t use it. It’ll be Rob’s and mine. But Leo can have his own things there. It’s fair. There has to be a Leo computer bench for sure. I stare at Rob’s golf ball head and Mum’s blonde fuzz. Imagine the wedding. They are going to look so funny. I start to laugh.
Suddenly Nanna sees a big fishing poster.
Fish.
Nanna’s eyes light up. Oh no. She turns to Leo. ‘Do you know when Jack was a baby, he swallowed a …’
