Dog Gone (14 page)

He came back with a glass of orange juice and sat down. ‘Few more minutes. Just waiting for the toast.'

I took a deep breath. ‘Dad, why can't I live with you in Sydney?'

‘Ish, I've already told you, mate. For lots of reasons.'

‘Name some.'

‘For a start, you'd miss all your friends and you'd be pretty lonely. Sometimes I don't get home from work until around ten o'clock at night. And if something goes wrong with the machines, I don't get home at all.'

‘I can look after myself, Dad. I'm not little anymore.'

‘I know, son. You're growing up so fast. But still, mate, you'd get pretty bored after a while. And you couldn't have Lucky. The apartment that the hospital's provided has a no-pets policy.'

‘I mightn't have Lucky, anyway, if we don't find him.'

‘He'll turn up, Ish. How about we visit the pound then go and have another chat with the police after you've visited your mate in the hospital?'

‘Yeah, all right. But couldn't I at least come and live with you for a while? Like a few months?'

‘It's only a one-bedroom apartment. It's not big enough for two. If you want, you could live with me for a while when I come back down to Melbourne.'

‘But, Dad, that's ages away. I want to live with you now.'

‘I've already told you, mate, it just wouldn't work with the job I've got at the moment. Besides, you'd miss your Mum and Molly too much.'

‘Well, what about if I miss you too much?'

Dad went quiet and swirled the last mouthful of orange juice around his glass. When he looked up his eyes were full of sadness. ‘It's just the way it is, Ish. You know I love you. I miss you, too.' He stood up. ‘That toast will be cooked by now.'

‘
It's just the way it is, Ish
,' I muttered under my breath. ‘Well, it's not the way
I
want it.'

As he walked away from the table I glared at his back.

At least he hadn't mentioned Miss Beech. The subject briefly came up at the dinner table last night, but Dad and Gran hadn't asked too many questions. I think me falling down the well, Molly refusing to talk to Dad, and us getting another phone call from Sylvia, about Mum, took the spotlight off me. Phew!

Mum, we found out, had fallen off a camel on the first day she'd arrived in Mongolia. She'd broken some bones and had concussion. Although she'd improved, they still didn't know when she'd be well enough to fly home. Poor Mum.

Dad came back with the biggest plate of bacon and eggs with sausages I've ever seen.

‘There – that'll make a man out of you,' he said, sliding it in front of me. ‘And it should make up for last night's tucker.'

‘How am I going to get through all this?'

I noticed his own plate was piled even higher. ‘You'll manage,' he said, ‘and it'll give you plenty of energy for a hike along the river and a bit of a fish when we've checked out the police and the pound. Come on, eat up and I'll take you to the hospital to visit that new friend of yours. You can sign his leg plaster.'

Dad dropped me off at the nurses' station and said he'd be back in an hour or so. He had a few phone calls to make and some things to get at the shops.

I thought about Lucky. At least Dad was here, now, to help me find him.

A nurse told me where to find Brody, and I gave Dad a wave as he headed back to the entrance. As I walked in the direction of Brody's room, a boy about my age came towards me, wheeling a stand with a drip attached to it. He had a bandage around his head. A woman, probably his mum, was holding his arm to help him walk. It made me think of Mum. I wished I could visit her.

I glanced in the rooms I passed, trying not to be too much of a stickybeak. I wondered if this was the sort of hospital Mum was in. I wondered if she was in a room by herself or if she had to share with other patients. I wondered if she'd learned to speak any Mongolian and how she managed to ask for things. I wondered if she could walk or whether she could only lie down in bed.

I felt nervous as I walked down the corridor towards Brody's room. I tried to think of what I'd talk to him about. Would he be chatty if he wasn't in as much pain? I'd forgotten to bring the joke book in all the excitement of having breakfast with Dad.

I rounded the corner and saw the room number the nurse had given me. I could hear voices coming from inside. As I got closer, I could see two beds in the room. One was empty and the other one had two visitors, who stood with their backs to me on either side of it. I could see two legs lying on the bed, one of them in plaster. Laughter spilled out of the room.

I took another step then stopped dead in my tracks. I recognised the voices. It was the boys who had ambushed me at the river. I could only see the backs of their heads, but I knew it was them.

I started to back-track, but it was too late. One of the boys turned around and saw me.

‘Well, look who we have here, Brody. You've got a visitor.'

The other boy turned around and stepped to the side. All three gaped at me. I stepped into the room and half smiled at Brody.

‘What are you doing here, fish boy?' said the other one, his gape turning into a glare.

I waited for Brody to come to my rescue.

‘You gotta nerve comin' here,' said the first one, ‘after what you've done.'

‘What do you mean?' I looked at him, then at Brody, waiting for him to speak up.

‘If it wasn't for you, Brody wouldn't be in this prison with a broken leg, would he?' the first boy continued.

‘I don't understa –'

‘If you've come to apologise, I wouldn't waste your breath,' interrupted Brody. He gave me such a hateful look, I took a step back.

‘Apologise for what?'

‘You're unbelievable,' said the first boy. He took a step towards me, bringing his fists up in front of his chest. ‘I'd say pushing someone down a well was a good enough reason, don't you think, Jacko?' He looked across at the other boy, who also stepped forward.

‘Yeah, I'd say so,' agreed Jacko.

‘What are they talking about, Brody? Tell them the truth.' I noticed Brody had looked away.

‘There's nothing much to tell,' Brody said, his eyes flicking from me to the window.

I wanted to run out of the room and find Dad, but I turned my back and walked out as casually as I could. I wasn't going to let Brody or his sicko mates think they'd upset me. I couldn't believe Brody would be so mean. And I'd believed him when he'd promised to help look for Lucky.

I headed back to the front entrance of the hospital. How could Brody speak to me like that after all we'd been through in the well? After trusting me enough to tell me all that stuff about his Mum? After being so scared together at the bottom of that dark hole in the ground?

I kicked open the door and stepped out onto the street, then headed up past the shops to look for Dad.

It was as if
someone had turned the light off in my world.

‘Ish, I'm sorry – there's nothing I can do about it. I don't have a choice, son.'

‘But, Dad, you said you'd stay until the weekend. You promised! You can't go back to Sydney yet. You can't!'

‘Ish, I never promised anything. My boss wants me back today. They have to get this job done by the end of the day.'

‘But, Dad, you've got to help me get Lucky back! And what about all the things we were going to do? We were going fishing. You promised me when we had breakfast at the hotel. You can't go back! We've got to find Lucky first. Please, Dad. Please!'

‘I've already told you, mate. The boss rang when you were in the hospital seeing your friend. This is an urgent job. No one expected it.'

‘Can't someone else fix the machine?'

‘We're talking about a very sophisticated piece of machinery that's needed for open-heart surgery, Ish. I know that machine inside out. I have to go back. Lives depend on it.'

‘What about my life? No one cares about my life – especially you!'

‘Ish, I know you're disappointed, and so am I, but I haven't got time to stand here and argue about it. Come on, give me a big hug before I have to leave.'

‘No!'

Dad tried to put his arms around me, but I pushed him away.

I couldn't believe I was watching Dad drive out of my life again, instead of helping me get Lucky back. I've got to go, he kept saying. I've got to go. I felt like putting my hands over my ears.

It wasn't fair. Nothing was fair.

As if it wasn't bad enough that Brody had turned nasty on me again, and no one had seen any sign of Lucky. Now, my last bit of hope had just driven away in a taxi.

‘See what he's like?' Molly gave me a sympathetic look as she pulled on her school bag. She'd come home for lunch. ‘See you later, Gran. Thanks for the sandwiches. Sure you don't want to come, Ish? It'd be better than moping around here all day.'

‘No thanks,' I said, desperately trying to keep a bucketful of tears from pouring out.

‘Bye, love,' said Gran, giving her a peck on the cheek. Molly headed off down the street towards school.

Gran put her arm around my shoulder. We walked back up the front path to the house, and my bucket overflowed.

This morning the river looked dark and brown and unfriendly. There was no sign of the sun. Black clouds hung in the sky like miserable thoughts. Gran sat on her fold-up stool, a book open on her lap, Grandpa's fishing rod in one hand, a thermos cup in the other.

I sat on my log.

Gran suggested she come fishing with me. She'd let me stay home again because I told her I had a stomach ache from Dad leaving. She wasn't much of a replacement for Dad, she'd said, but she'd love to go to the river with me. We needed it. Needed the morning river smell to fill our lungs and lighten our hearts.

Only it wasn't lightening my heart.

Yesterday, after Dad left, I'd tried to ask Gran if she could take me to the pound and the police station. But every time I got started, the doorbell rang. In the end she rushed off to mind some little kids because their mum's new baby had come early. And Molly had been in a snoot about having to stay home with me instead of going around to a new friend's house to watch a movie. I bet
the
boy would have been there.

Nothing, not even fishing with Gran, could make me feel better – Mum was in hospital in a country thousands of miles away; Dad was back in Sydney; Lucky was missing, possibly dead; I still had to face Miss Beech about the maths tests; and I had no friends up here to talk to.

I pulled my jacket around my chest as I watched the water flow past underneath me. It seemed to be flowing fast today. I watched twigs and bits of leaves go by, and imagined myself in a little boat, floating in the current, being taken all the way downstream, past submerged logs, around rocks and eventually to the mouth of the river – where I'd be emptied out into the sea. Then I'd bob about on the ocean until a giant sea bird spotted me for dinner or until I grew into an old man. That's what my life was like.

I didn't have any control over what happened to me. Everything was so unfair. I didn't have my journal with me, so I wrote Lucky's poem in my head. Life wasn't fair for him, either.

A Dog's Life

Lucky

do you think it's unfair

you don't get to

go to the movies

eat chocolate

(except when you stole

Molly's Easter egg

with the smarties inside)

drive a car

sit up at the table

sleep under a doona

tell people what to do

visit Mr Ironclad anytime

play computer games

read books

be in a footy team

go for a walk whenever you like

give humans treats if they're good?

Life must suck

for a dog

It was no good. I couldn't keep it to myself anymore. ‘Gran?'

‘Yes, love.'

I told her everything – going to the river without asking permission, being ambushed by Brody and his mates, Brody blackmailing me over Grandpa's fishing rod, breaking into Miss Beech's office, Brody and me in the well, Brody being mean to me again at the hospital.

But not the ghost. Gran might get her hopes up to see Grandpa. What if he never appeared again? Or she'd think I was crazy. ‘And I don't have any friends, either,' I went on.

‘Ish, it's up to you to make friends.' Till now, Gran had listened quietly to everything I said, but her voice suddenly sounded stern.

‘How can I make friends if everyone thinks I'm an idiot?' I protested.