Patrick was really going
commando and had stollen four twigs full of leaves from the
previous bush. He was now pretending he was an Australian
Whitebark Tree. Cartman was a small Churra-Churra bush.
Superturtle was acting as an inconspicuous turtle.
"I've never been for a moonlit walk before." They heard
Jess say. "It's..." She struggled to think of a good
word. "...Nice."
Steve laughed.
Patrick scowled at the
sound.
"Nice?! Well... thank you... what a compliment."
There
was a silence.
"Are silences good or bad?" asked Patrick.
Cartman
shrugged. "Depends whether it's an awkward silence or a passionate
one," Cartman replied.
Patrick considered this. Awkward was
good. Awkward was great; in fact. But passionate was bad. VERY
bad.
"Do I look or not?"
"Up to you, dude, I couldn't care less."
Patrick slowly
began to peer around the tree. He immediately saw a furious Jess
staring back at him from the other side.
Ben switched off the engine
and undid his seatbelt. Hannah got out of the car. He had driven
her back to Daniel's where Chris and Jimmy were also staying the
night.
Hannah shut the front passenger door behind her. "Well, are you gonna knock or not?"
"Not," said Ben quietly.
"That's not an option," said Hannah.
Ben got out of the
car and walked up to the front door, knocking twice then ringing
the doorbell.
After a minute, a window swang open. "P*ss off, Gillies," Daniel called.
"Just let us in, please, Dan," Ben pleaded, tired. When
Daniel opened the door they went in. Ben walked over to the sofa,
threw himself down feeling upset and rejected, and turned on the
TV. "You going upstairs then?" he said
unenthusiastically.
"Why?"
"Chris and Daniel are up there." He pouted.
Hannah
sighed.
"Well?" Ben said impatiently, wishing she was
gone so he could sulk, though he was doing so now anyway.
"Nah."
Ben looked up shocked.
"Chris has got a
girlfriend apparently and Daniel's got his b*tch."
Ben
giggled as Hannah jumped onto the sofa and snuggled up to him.
"Look, I don't believe for one minute
that you were hunting for wombats, Patrick, so what the hell were
you doing?!" Jess shouted.
"I told you...Cartman and I -"
"There are no wombats in this goddamn park!" Jess
erupted.
"That's why I was hunting for them..." Patrick began
weakly.
Jess was mad. Really mad. "Just keep away from me!" she yelled, standing up and
running in the opposite direction.
Steve followed her.
"Oh... sh*t!" Cartman exclaimed.
"There has to be
something interesting on," said Hannah.
"Well, would you blame them if there wasn't?" Ben
asked. "It is four in the morning."
Hannah laughed,
then sat up suddenly.
"What?" Ben asked worried all of a sudden that she had
changed her mind about his mates.
"My God! Rage! Let's watch Rage!"
Ben turned over and
they sat and watched the music show from number 39 all the way to
number one.
The sun had risen, birds were singing and surfers were out in
Newcastle by the time Ben switched off the TV. There came a knock
at the door at eleven-thirty. Hannah opened it and there stood
Jess.
"Let me in then leave me alone." Jess muttered, pushing
past Hannah and stomping inside.
Steve came in after her.
"What's going on?" asked Hannah.
"Don't ask." Steve went into the living room.
Hannah
was about to shut the door when Patrick came running up, with
twigs and branches all over him and commando war paint. "What in God's name happened to you?!" Hannah asked,
openeing the door again.
Patrick barged past her. "Birdwatching." He replied.
Hannah banged her head
against the wall.
"I wanna go
home," said Jess stubbornly.
Daniel walked in with some tea.
"I could buy us some plane tickets to go," Steve
suggested.
Patrick practically had steam coming out of his ears.
"I'm not going on a plane ever again," Jess said with a
wavering voice.
"I'll second that," said Jimmy.
Everyone stared at him.
"But you fly the damn things!" exclaimed Hannah.
"So?"
Everyone had sorted through
their luggage. They all had a carrier bag each now apart from
Superturtle, and they were all ready to go.
"So how are we travelling?"
"By donkey," said Daniel, his sarcastic humour running
wild.
"In the dinghy," corrected Jimmy, clutching it under
his right arm.
"The DINGHY?!" repeated Jess. "You are
kidding."
Jimmy shook his head. "I kid you not. How else do we get back to England?"
Jess shrugged and realised there was no other way. "Sh*te."
"Erm...excuse me... I don't live in England." Patrick
said.
"You used to," Steve said, looking tearful.
"Steve, don't do this. I didn't want to go, I had
to..."
Everyone else in the room looked confused as slushy
violin music came from nowhere.
Jimmy interrupted. "Well...come on then."
Everyone had been forced to
dump most of their luggage after realisation kicked in that there
were too many people for a dinghy. They all trundled down a huge
hill on their way to the beach. They finally got to the bottom.
Hannah pointed, and there, in front of them, was the sea.
<< back to Book 1.3
� Jess and Hannah 2001