White Ute Dreaming Read Online Free PDF

but the part of my brain that has been damaged by too much dope kicked in. I shrugged and said, ‘Nothing.’
    â€˜Bullshit,’ Den said, and began to tell Kez what he’d heard about the letters. Hendo arrived halfway through and added his fifty cents worth by making lots of humping actions and licking his lips. Kez took it well. She walked off. She went home on the bus that night. Yep, she took it well.
    Mum spent two hours getting ready. It made me sick in the guts to see her fussing with her hair and checking herself in the mirror. I was lying on my bed when she poked her head in the doorway and asked me how she looked. I whistled but I thought she looked old. Sometimes she tries too hard. Richo would be impressed though. He’s nearly fifty and not married. You’d reckon you’d give up after a while. Not Richo. I couldn’t help thinking that my life would have been massively different if they had worked out as a couple.
    Richo brought her flowers. Huge bunch that Mum had to split into two vases. He just looked like my school principal—boring suit, numb-nuts tie and shiny shiny shoes. Still, his suit pants had both knees in them, he was clean-shaven and he stank like stale cologne, which has to be animprovement on my old man. When Mum slipped into the passenger seat of his BMW and Richo quietly closed the door, I felt like she’d let me down. Let me and Dad down. Mum and Dad busted up eight years ago and since then neither of them have had an obvious relationship. I mean, Dad hangs out with Auntie Pat and that but if they’re bouncing the bedsprings it sure is well hidden. Mum just went on a date. Couldn’t really call it a hot date but it was a date just the same.
    I did a runner. I figured that I had a couple of hours at least before Mum got home. I grabbed Ernie’s lead off the clothesline and got him running along next to my bike up to the Humes’ place. We were both puffing and huffing when we got there, only Ernie had his tongue hanging out the side of his mouth and he dribbled on the front doormat. Kerry answered the door.
    â€˜Sorry, Kez,’ I said and she bent down to scruff Ernie’s ears and give him a hug. She fussed at him for a full half-minute while I held his lead and listened to someone shouting next door. When she stood up she looked across at the neighbours’ kitchen window. There were two people arguing—a man and a woman—and they were going right off. Something smashed. One of them appeared in the kitchen window and ripped the blind closed. Kez and I looked at each other and raised our eyebrows at exactly the same time. She laughed.
    â€˜Sorry, Kez,’ I said again. This time she shrugged and asked if I wanted to come in.
    â€˜What about Ernie?’
    She shrugged again and shouted, ‘Mum, it’s Ernie and what’s-his-name. Should I let them in?’
    Footsteps from the kitchen. Gracie’s face lit up. Shelooked at Kez. ‘I dunno. Do you think they’re house-trained?’
    â€˜I don’t know about the big one but the cute one is. I helped train him,’ Kez said.
    â€˜All right then. Put newspaper down just in case.’
    Ha, ha. They let us in and Ernie went scratching across the wooden floor. Gracie asked me how I was going and I told her things were cruising.
    Den poked his head around the doorway to the kitchen and nodded. ‘I thought you were grounded,’ he shouted and went back to clanking dishes.
    â€˜Yeah. I am.’
    Gracie frowned. ‘What are you doing here then?’
    I shrugged. ‘Mum went out for tea. It was a bit quiet at the flat.’
    â€˜Ah, I see. Better make it a quick visit,’ she said, and I felt like bolting back out the door.
    Kez stood in the hall watching Ernie pull at his rope and sniff the furniture. ‘You coming?’
    I shrugged and followed her to her room. Jesus the cat sat in the hallway licking his paw. At the sight of