‘We’ve been held up for a bit,’ Fi said. ‘Ellie wanted to climb a tree. We’ll get under way again in about five minutes. We’re three blocks away. Over.’
There was a snort from the receiver, not of static either, before she signed off.
We waited nearly ten minutes, to be safe, then I turned the key, and heard the shrill beep of the brake warning before the engine rumbled into life again. We made two more blocks; when Fi signalled me from the last corner I switched the engine off and tried coasting silently downhill towards her. This was a big mistake. The brake warning began beeping and flashing redly at me again and I realised I wouldn’t have any brakes. A moment later the steering wheel gave a shudder and locked itself into position, so I didn’t have any steering either. I tried for a gear, to clutch start it, but missed the one I wanted and got only a crunching sound that set my teeth on edge. The truck lurched over the gutter and began to veer further and further left, aiming for a row of fences. I remembered Fi’s warning: ‘That’s petrol in the back, not water’, and felt very sick. I grabbed at the ignition key, turned it, and got nothing, turned it again and, with the fences now just metres away, got the beautiful sound of the beautiful engine. I swung the wheel. ‘Not too hard, you’ll jack-knife.’ That was my voice. The trailer sideswiped something, a row of somethings, fences or small trees or both, nearly sideswiped Fi, then juddered to a halt just a metre from the corner. I switched off the ignition, then pulled on the handbrake, wondering what would have happened if I’d thought of doing that before. I leaned back in the seat panting, my mouth open to get air into my tight aching throat.
Fi jumped into the cabin. ‘Gosh, what happened?’ she asked.
I shook my head. ‘I think I just failed my driving test.’
Our plan had been to park further across, behind some trees in the picnic area I didn’t know whether to do that, which meant taking the noisy risk of starting the engine again, or to stay where we were, out on the open side of the street. Finally we decided to move. Fi slipped across to where she had a view of the bridge and watched until all the sentries were at the far end. It was twenty minutes before that happened. Then she signalled to me and I moved the truck into the dark shadows of the trees.
We contacted the boys by radio, and made our preparations. We climbed the ladder to the top of the tanker again and loosened the lids of the four tanks. Then we fed the rope into one tank until it was submerged, all but the end of it, which we tied to a safety handle beside the lid. We climbed down again.
Now there was nothing to do but to wait.
Chapter Twenty-one
Oh, how we waited. We talked softly for a little while. We were well away from the truck, for safety’s sake, sitting up among the trees looking out over the gas barbecues. It was very quiet. We talked about the boys mostly. I wanted to hear as much about Homer as I could, and I certainly wanted to talk about Lee. Fi had become totally infatuated with Homer. It amazed me how she felt. If anyone had told me a year ago, or even a month ago, that this would happen, I would have asked for their Medicare card. They would have been headed for a long stay in a private ward. But here she was, elegant, Vogue, designer label, big house on the hill Fi, completely in love with rough as guts, King Gee, one of the boys, graffiti king Homer. On the surface it looked impossible. Except that it was no secret now that there was more to both of them than I’d ever realised. Fi seemed delicate and timid, and she even claimed herself that she was, but she had a determination I hadn’t recognised before. There was a spirit to her, a fire burning inside her somewhere. One of those Avgas fires maybe, that burn invisibly. And Homer, well, Homer was the surprise of my life. He even seemed better looking these days, probably because his head was up and he walked more confidently and carried himself differently. He had such imagination and sense that I could hardly believe it. If we ever did get back to school I’d nominate him for School Captain – then hand out smelling salts to the teachers.
‘He’s like two people,’ Fi said. ‘He’s shy with me but confident when he’s in a group. But he kissed me on Monday and I think that broke the ice a bit. I thought he’d never do it.’
Right, sure, I thought. I was embarrassed at how far Lee and I had progressed beyond our first kiss already.
‘You know,’ Fi continued, ‘he told me he had a crush on me in Year 8. And I never knew. Maybe it’s better I didn’t though. I thought he was such a reptile then. And those kids he used to hang round with!’
‘He still does,’ I said. ‘Or at least he did before all this happened.’
‘Yes,’ said Fi, ‘but I don’t think he wants to have much to do with them any more. He’s changed so much, don’t you think?’
‘God yeah.’
‘I want to learn all I can about farming,’ Fi said, ‘so when we’re married I can help him heaps and heaps.’
Oh my God! I thought. You know they’re beyond help when they talk like that. Not that I hadn’t had nice little fantasies of Lee and me travelling the world together, the perfect married couple.
But it occurred to me as I listened to Fi, that the real reason I felt attracted to Homer lately, attracted in powerful and puzzling ways, was that I was jealous of losing him. He was my brother. As I didn’t have a brother and he didn’t have a sister, we’d sort of adopted each other. We’d grown up together. I could say things to Homer that no one else could get away with. There had been times, when he was acting really crazily, that I’d been the only person he would listen to. I didn’t want to lose that relationship, especially now, when we’d temporarily or permanently lost so many other relationships in our lives. My parents seemed so far away; the further away they got, the closer I wanted to bind Homer to me. I was quite shocked to have such an insight to my feelings, as though there was an Ellie lurking inside me that I didn’t have much knowledge or awareness of. Just like there’d been Homer’s and Fiona’s lurking away inside them. I wondered what other surprises the secret Ellie might have for me, and resolved then and there to try to keep better track of her in future.
Fi asked me about Lee then and I said simply ‘I love him’. She didn’t comment, and I found myself going on. ‘He’s so different to anyone I’ve ever known. It’s like he’s coming out of my dreams sometimes. He seems so much more mature than most of those guys at school. I don’t know how he stands them. I guess that’s why he keeps to himself so much. But you know, I get the feeling that he’ll do something great in life; I don’t know what, be famous or be Prime Minister or something. I can’t see him staying in Wirrawee all his life. I just think there’s so much to him.’
‘The way he took that bullet wound was incredible,’ Fi said. ‘He was so calm about it. If that had happened to me I’d still be in shock. But you know, Ellie, I’d never have picked you and Lee as a likely couple. I think it’s amazing. But you go so well together.’
‘Well how about you and Homer!’
We both laughed and settled down to watch the bridge. The hours ground slowly on. Fi even slept for twenty minutes or so. I could hardly believe it, although when I challenged her she denied furiously that she’d even closed her eyes. For me the tension grew as the time passed. I just wanted to get it over with, this mad reckless thing that we’d talked ourselves into doing.
The trouble was that there was no convoy. Homer and Lee had wanted to come in behind a convoy to guarantee themselves a period of grace before the next lot of traffic came along. But as the time got close to 4 am the road stayed frustratingly empty.
Then suddenly there was a change in the pattern of activity on the bridge. The sentries were all down the Cobbler’s Bay end but even from our distance I could see them become more alert, more awake. They gathered in the centre of the bridge and stood looking down the road, in the opposite direction to us. I nudged Fi.