Black Water Read Online Free PDF Page B

anyone getting decapitated, that is.’
    For long seconds Robbie said nothing as the Jane-Eliza moved off down the estuary, Farren content to sail on in silence.
    ‘Jeez, Farry.’ Robbie flipped his collar up. ‘I know it’s time to go home, but bloody hell, I wish we didn’t have to. It’s good out here, ain’t it?’
    Farren saw that the dusk was slipping out between the blue hills to silently surround the inlet. It was good out on the water, but it was also getting cold, and he’d been hungry for hours.
    ‘Why don’t yer come over to my place for somethin’ to eat?’ he suggested. ‘Maggie gave me some apple pie. We could ’ave it with a cuppa tea when I get the stove goin’. Me dad’ll be down the wharf but he wouldn’t mind anyway.’
    Robbie sucked air back through his teeth.
    ‘Well, I know I shouldn’t. But… as long as I’m not that latehome, who cares?’
    ‘Nah, you’ll be right.’ Farren searched for the Price’s mooring and spotted it, a white buoy wrapped in weed-green cord. ‘It don’t take too long to cook a cold fruit pie.’
    Robbie finished his mug of tea. Farren had been a bit shocked by the amount of sugar Robbie used, because sugar was dear, but Farren didn’t really care. It was just good to have Robbie around.
    ‘Guess I’d better go.’ Robbie raised his mug. ‘Thanks, ’Roon, for the tucker and the tea.’
    Farren was suddenly worried about Mrs Price. Maybe Robbie shouldn’t have stayed so long. It was dark now, properly night-time.
    ‘I’ll come with yer across the bridge.’ Farren stood. ‘Yeah, perhaps we’d better get goin’. You know. Just to be on the safe side.’
    ‘Yep.’ Robbie’s shadow unfolded itself on the wall. ‘But you can stay here. I won’t fall in.’
    ‘No, it’s all right.’ Farren slipped into the cold embrace of his heavy coat. ‘I’ll go’n see me dad at the wharf. I like it outside at night.’
    Farren and Robbie crossed the bridge, looking down at the wharf where lamps burned and a few men loaded boxes of couta for the morning train. Below the boys the water was silver-slicked, as if the reflection of every star had melted there and the sound of voices, boots, and sliding boxes was distant and desolate.
    ‘I’ll walk up the hill with yer,’ Farren said. ‘And go’n see me dad on the way back.’ Farren watched the fishermen, the lanterns emphasising the darkness, and he thought of Danny, wondering ifever, somehow, the sights and sounds of the War might travel to him, perhaps on a storm or in a cloud – although in dreams they already had; dreams where men died choking and he woke gasping but utterly relieved to find himself in familiar darkness, the close wooden walls of his small room like the answer to a prayer.
    ‘Would you join the army, F’roon?’ Robbie asked. ‘Like, when you’re old enough? Like, if it was like it is now?’
    Farren had answered this question a hundred times in his head.
    ‘Yep. Yer have to, don’t yer? You?’
    ‘Yeah.’ Robbie flashed a smile as they went slowly on up through town, the smell of smoke drifting from the pubs and houses. ‘Well, I wouldn’t, actually. I’d join the flying corps. You know, the blokes who fly the aeroplanes. They’re just down the road at Point Cook. I’d like to fly. Better than being a rabbit in a bloody rabbit hole. And being shot at like one.’
    ‘People shoot ducks, too.’ Farren was somewhat insulted by Robbie’s view of the army, where Danny was. ‘And if the bullets don’t kill ya, the bloody fall will. Still, I reckon you’d be good at it. Flying.’ He didn’t want to start anything with Robbie. ‘Those air ’planes are ripper.’
    Farren had only seen pictures of aeroplanes. They were flimsy things, like dragonflies, and only a few existed, so the airmen would have to be specially chosen; but he guessed that Robbie would have a good chance of being picked. He was even smarter than he let on.
    ‘Hey, I’ll see ya, Farry.’