I wanted to scare him enough to make him want to leave and not come back.
‘Bullshit,’ Ian said, kicking at a rat skeleton that was near his foot. Its insides were hollowed out, an empty shell. ‘This is so fucking cool.’
Ian was gone by the time Dad got home from work. Wheel of Fortune had just started. Cassie and I were on the couch, Wally sprawled on the carpet. I could hear the sound of Dad pissing into the toilet bowl, and a minute later he came into the lounge. He stood next to the couch, gave me a scratch on the head.
After a second he leaned over Cassie and grabbed his neck, so quick it made all of us jump.
‘What the hell is this?’ Dad said, yanking at the key around his neck. Cassie tried to pull away but Dad grabbed him by the scruff of his shirt. He pulled the thread up over Cassie’s head and shook the key in front of his face. ‘What the hell are you doing with this?’
‘Nothing,’ Cassie said.
‘Nothing, my arse.’
‘Ian wanted to see it. We were only there for a minute.’
‘See what exactly?’
‘See where Granddad lived,’ Cassie said.
‘Christ’s sake, Cassie.’ He let go of his shirt. ‘You can’t just break into someone’s house.’
‘I wasn’t breaking in,’ Cassie said. ‘We used the key.’
‘Jesus fucking Christ.’
‘It’s not that big a deal.’
‘I knew that little shit was sniffing around like a dog,’ Dad said. ‘He finds this sort of thing amusing, does he? What did he think he was going to find, hey?’
‘I asked him if he wanted to go see it. He probably only said yes ’cause I asked him.’
‘Sometimes I wonder if you have air for brains,’ said Dad, whacking Cassie on the side of the head. ‘Absolutely hopeless.’
‘It was dumb,’ Cassie said, sinking into the couch. ‘Sorry.’
‘More than dumb.’ Dad put his hands on his hips and looked at the TV. His nose was dotted with sweat. Cassie stared down, his shoulders hunched around his ears. ‘I don’t want to see that’s shit’s face around here again, alright?’ Dad said finally.
He looked over to Wally and me. At some point I’d slid to the floor but didn’t remember doing it. ‘So you’ve had a yarn to this one, I suppose.’ Dad jerked his thumb towards me.
‘Yarn about what?’ Cassie said.
Dad struck Cassie on the side of the face again. ‘Don’t treat me like an imbecile,’ Dad said. ‘You bloody well know what.’
‘She already knew,’ Cassie said. I could see tears prickling in his eyes but he held them back. ‘Some kid at school was hassling them.’ Cassie gulped his spit down. ‘It’s not like it’s a big secret. Everyone knows. Everyone at school knows.’
Dad walked into the kitchen and took a beer out of the fridge. The top clattered as he pinged it into the sink. He came back into the lounge. ‘Get out of my sight,’ he said, grabbing the remote from between the couch pillows.
Cassie stood up and went into the kitchen.
‘Bloody all of you,’ Dad said.
I crawled off the carpet and followed Cassie. I felt a twisting in my guts. Dad changed the channel to the races, turned the volume up as high as it went.
Later, when Wally and me were in bed, Dad came and stood in our doorway. We’d been in there for ages, but he must have seen our open eyes glowing in the dark and known we were awake.
‘You’re not to talk to your cousin about your grandfather,’ Dad said. ‘Either of you.’ He spoke quietly, and then paused. ‘It’s not the sort of thing you’re supposed to talk about.’ His shadow moved away from the door and his heavy steps trudged down the hallway. I leaned up on my elbow towards Wally, but he’d rolled away and was facing the wall, pretending to be asleep.
After Dad told Cassie that Ian couldn’t come over anymore I thought he would disappear. But he started coming over more and more, except they didn’t stay on the verandah or go into Cassie’s room. Every afternoon they disappeared into the paddock, snuck out there when Dad wasn’t home. He had no idea Ian was still hanging around. They hid their bikes in the paddock grass out of sight and I just knew they were going to the knackery.
‘I wonder what they do out there,’ I said to Wally, watching Cassie and Ian stamp out into the paddock. The grass was so tall that only their shoulders and heads poked out of the stalks.
Wally didn’t look up from the TV screen.
The next afternoon Tilly came over, said she wanted a swim but she didn’t want to go alone. Since I found out about what Les had done in the paddock, I thought I’d never go out there ever again. But if I said no to Tilly she might stop coming over, so I said yes, pretended to be happy about it. I tried my best to act normal for the whole swim. Tried not to touch the bottom in case there was anything gross down there that the cops hadn’t found.
When we got back from the dam Ian and Cassie were on the verandah. Dad wasn’t home, and they had a can of beer each, the stuff that Dad drank and kept in cartons under the house.
‘You shouldn’t be drinking that,’ I said as we came up the stairs.
‘Piss off,’ Cassie said.
‘What’s wrong with your face?’ Wally said to Ian. ‘Did someone hit you?’ The top of Ian’s left cheek was bruised purple.
Ian put his hand to his face, taking it down just as quick. He took a swig of beer, ignored Wally’s question.
‘You’re not supposed to be here,’ I said to Ian.
‘Who made you the Ian police?’ he said.
I made a move to go inside but then Ian turned to Tilly, looked her up and down. ‘Who’s this then?’ he asked.
‘This is Tilly,’ Cassie said. ‘She lives next door.’
‘Next door, hey?’ Ian said. ‘She your little girlfriend, mate?’ He sucked on his cigarette and blew the smoke towards Wally.
‘No,’ Wally said, putting his fingers into his mouth and pretending to spew. ‘That’s gross.’
‘She’s our cousin,’ I said.
‘Ah,’ Ian said. ‘Is that right?’ He looked from me to Cassie and then back to Tilly. ‘Cassie mentioned you. Said you were pretty.’
Cassie stood up. ‘I’m going to piss.’
After the toilet door slammed shut, Ian turned back to Tilly. ‘Why don’t you come sit on my lap, sweetheart,’ he said.
Tilly blushed and looked down at the ground. She crossed her arms over her chest.
Ian turned his head towards Wally, but kept his eyes on Tilly. ‘Doesn’t she speak?’ he said.
‘Yeah,’ said Wally.
‘You a mute, are you?’ he asked Tilly.
‘No,’ Tilly said quietly.
‘What was that, love?’ Ian cupped his hand behind his ear.
‘No,’ Tilly said louder, raising her head.
When Cassie came back he handed Ian another beer, pulled up his fly before sitting down. He almost missed the chair when he went to sit, steadying himself on Ian’s shoulder.
‘What are you talking about?’ Cassie said.
‘Just getting to know the newest member of the clan.’ Ian turned back to Tilly. ‘How old are you?’ he said.
‘I’m nearly twelve.’
‘And you live at Les’s then?’
‘What?’
‘Next door,’ Ian said. ‘In your granddad’s house.’
Tilly nodded.
‘How’d you like that?’
‘It’s alright.’
‘Doesn’t creep you out?’ Ian glanced next door. ‘Don’t get a bit scared at night? Need to sleep in Mummy’s bed?’
Tilly looked at Cassie. ‘No,’ she said. ‘Why would I?’
‘No reason,’ Ian said. He took a sip of beer. ‘Can I come over?’