Outback Hero (3 page)

But only four cars meant there were only a
few people on the trail. That meant I was more likely to be eaten
if there was a hungry croc lurking in the bush. But if Dad and Mom
were in front, the croc would eat one of them. Yeah, that was a
good plan, unless the croc came from behind. But that'd be okay if
Charlie was walking behind me.

We made our way to the beginning of the
trail. My plan worked for about three and a half minutes. Mom and
Dad went ahead and Charlie was right behind me. Dad was in the
middle of the trail, which wasn't good. If a croc were in the bush,
it'd get Mom. That was bad. Dad might be better to play cricket
with, but he couldn't cook. If Mom died, Charlie and me would
starve to death. We'd have to move in with Nanna.

The problem was that Mom and Dad liked to
read signs. We got to the first one and for ten seconds I pretended
to be interested. It was about plants - plants were plants; who
cared? Of course, I didn't really read it. Nothing could be that
interesting when you're out in the middle of nowhere.

Charlie didn't even pretend to read it. He
jabbed me in the ribs and said, "Come on."

What could I say?
Charlie, this is really interesting; you should read it
too.
I had no choice. My life was in the hands of fate.
I picked up a big stick - just in case. I'd take out the croc's
eyes first. If it couldn't see me, I might have a chance.

Charlie spoke first. "This is boring; I wish
we'd gone to the Gold Coast. We could've gone to all the theme
parks."

I couldn't help reminding him,
"
You said
you wanted to see
Kak-my-du before global warming wrecked it."

He shrugged. "It's about as exciting as
watching Dad's bald patch grow." He picked up a stone from the
path. "Bet you I can throw further."

I hated the way Charlie always thought up
games he'd win. He was two and a half years older than me and if he
couldn't throw a stone further than me there was something wrong.
But I couldn't say,
Yeah, of course you can
throw further. You're so good at everything, Charlie. I want to be
just like you when I grow up
. If I got just the right
stone, nice and round, and he got one that was too flat or too
light or too heavy, I might be able to throw further than him.

He beat me the first time, but then I beat
him twice after that. He just picked up any old stone from the
ground, whereas I searched for just the right one. The only problem
was I had to do that without him realizing what I was doing. The
next go, I threw my stone so far I couldn't see where it went.

"Where did it go?" I asked Charlie.

"In the river, I think."

"River!" Through the trees, I saw a brown
ribbon with a fishing boat and two guys in it. Real casual, I said,
"Do you think we're safe ... I mean ... wouldn't crocs live in that
river?"

"Nah, they wouldn't let us walk here if it
wasn't safe. And if there were crocs in that river, those two guys
wouldn't be stupid enough to fish in such a small boat."

"Yeah, I guess." Now, Charlie was smart, I
knew that. And he was always logical. Too logical, really. He drove
me up the wall with his logic. But still, I felt better. I found
another stone and bet him that I could hit the log up ahead.

He threw first. His stone didn't make it.
Then I threw. "Got it," I yelled. My stone had hit right in the
middle.

"Did not," yelled Charlie.

"Did so." I dropped my big stick and ran
toward the log. Charlie was behind me. Then time slowed down. It
was weird. First, I realized that the log didn't look exactly like
a log. Then I saw a yellow eye open. Even then I didn't stop
running toward it. My mind yelled to turn round and run back, but
my legs just kept going forward. Then the croc's head jerked up. I
screamed.

"MAAAX!" Charlie yelled from behind me.
"RUN!"

That did it. I turned round and ran faster
than I'd ever run in my life. I could hear the man-eating monster
behind me. I caught up to Charlie. We ran side by side. I knew that
I couldn't fall behind because the croc mightn't care that Charlie
had more meat on him. It might be quite happy with just an
afternoon snack.

But just as I was thinking how good I was to
keep up with Charlie, I tripped in a hole. I screamed as I fell
flat on my face. I WAS DEAD.

Then I felt Charlie pull me up by the arm.
"Quick!" he screamed.

I jumped up and ran.

Charlie and me were side by side. We passed
Mom and Dad.

"RUN!" Charlie yelled at them. "THERE'S A
CROC!"

I didn't yell; I didn't have enough energy
to do anything but run.

We reached the parking lot, ran to the
LandCruiser, jumped onto the hood and up onto the roof. We sat in
the middle holding our knees. Far out! Where were Mom and Dad?
Charlie and me might be orphans any minute.

W
hen Mom and Dad appeared
they just walked casually toward us. I could tell they were trying
not to smile; they mustn't have seen the croc. Dad clicked his key
to unlock the car. I let Charlie climb down from the roof first. We
both got into the car real fast.

I thought Mom and Dad would cry and carry on
because they came so close to losing their sons to a man-eating
monster, but no ... I was wrong.

Once they were in the car, Dad laughed and
then Mom laughed.

Dad turned round to us and said, "I wish I'd
recorded that. I've never seen you two run so fast."

What a psycho! I couldn't believe my ears.
"I could've been eaten!" I screamed. "That croc should be
shot."

Dad laughed again. "Even if there was a croc
... it couldn't chase you very far on land."

Charlie and me got real angry. We told him
that it did chase us, but he still thought it was funny and Mom was
already reading her book because obviously it was more exciting
than the fact her favorite son had just been chased by a killer
monster.

My parents were insane. I could've been
eaten but Dad was carrying on like it was nothing but a bit of
excitement and Mom wasn't even interested.

***

The next morning, I clenched my fists, stared Mom
right in the eyes and screamed, "I'm not going!"

"Max," whispered Mom, "get off the bed and
put your shoes on."

"You want me to die, don't you?" I thrust my
finger out at her. "I know what you said when I went on camp. You
told Chook's mom that your life was so easy when I was away."

"Every mother says that when her son goes on
camp."

"I bet you don't when Charlie goes on
camp."

Charlie, who was standing in the doorway,
sniggered.

"Max, get your shoes on now and come with
us, or else ..."

"Or else what?"

"Or else, from now on when we go on
holidays, you'll be staying with your Aunt Avril."

My mouth opened to say something, but
nothing came out. Instead I jumped down off the bed, grabbed my
trainers and wriggled my feet into them. I said very quietly, "If I
do die, you'll regret it, you know."

"Look, you can ask the people who run the
East Alligator Cruise if anyone has died while they've been on the
cruise. If they have, then you don't have to come."

"Okay, I will," I said as we headed out the
door to where Dad was waiting in the LandCruiser. "But if I die
anyway, I want to be buried on the hill next to Pop and Uncle
Jack."

Mom opened the car door and said, "Write
that down for me, please. You know how bad my memory is."

I wrote it on a road map right over
Kak-my-du National Park. But if a croc ate me, what would go in my
coffin? I guessed that was Mom and Dad's problem.

When we got out of Jabiru, I turned round to
Charlie and said real casual, "Bet you I know more states of the
USA than you do."

For a second he looked worried. Then he said
real forceful, "Bet you don't."

"You go first."

He did. I counted them on my fingers. He
named thirty-three. I couldn't believe it. It had taken me ages to
learn thirty-three. Of course he forgot the little ones, like Rhode
Island and Delaware and even some big ones, like New Mexico and
Montana.

Then I named all fifty.

"You cheat," he said, "you've memorized
them."

"Did not." I shouldn't have listed them in
alphabetical order. That was mega-dumb.

He said, "Bet you I can name more Canadian
states than you."

Charlie was smart, but he was also
predictable.

"They're called provinces, not states," I
replied in my posh voice. "British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan,
Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince
Edward Island, and Newfoundland and Labrador."

Charlie's mouth opened, but nothing came
out.

I laughed, but then I quickly stopped just
in case he wanted to list countries in South America or Africa. I'd
be lucky to name one. But he didn't. He leaned back and looked
smug. I had a bad feeling. Just like when I'd taken off the
handbrake of Dad's car to see what would happen. The car had rolled
forward, that's what. It rolled into the wheelbarrow that was in
front of the garage door. The car, the wheelbarrow and the garage
door were all wrecked. It was that sort of bad feeling.

He said, "If the boat sinks and a croc
attacks me I'm going to stick my head right down its mouth. What're
you going to do?"

I didn't like the idea of being headless.
But it would probably be worse having my arms and legs chomped off
and being an armless and legless body floating just waiting to be
finished off. "I don't know."

"You don't want to do the death roll," he
said. "The croc drowns you by rolling you under the water and you
see your whole life go by in your head, just like it's a movie." He
shook his head. "That'd be the worst."

"How do you know your whole life goes
by?"

"That's what survivors of the death roll
say. Some people have escaped after the croc has given them the
death roll."

"That means you have a chance to escape if
you get the death roll. But if your head is chomped off, you're
definitely dead."

"Yeah, but we wouldn't be strong enough to
fight off the croc. So I reckon getting it over with quick is
best."

"Yeah, maybe." My insides wobbled like
jelly. I wished Charlie would be quiet. How could I even pretend to
be brave when he was putting all this blood and guts stuff - my
blood and guts - in my head?

"We're here," Dad said as he parked the
LandCruiser on the side of the road.

There was no way I was getting on another
boat that was in a river full of crocs. I'd run away if they tried
to make me.

A few minutes later, I asked a man in a
khaki uniform, "Has anyone died while they've been on this cruise?"
I glanced at the boat tied up to the jetty; it was small and it
looked old, like it might have a few holes in it.

The man laughed. "Not while I've been taking
these cruises."

"Oh," I said, trying not to sound
disappointed. "That's good."

"Wait a minute," he said, holding up the
palm of his hand. "No, I'm wrong."

"Yes?"

"The year before I began here, a man died of
a heart attack. Don't know what happened, exactly."

"Great!" I said before I could stop myself.
"Thanks." I leapt off the jetty and ran back through the crowd
waiting to get on the boat. I felt like shouting,
Yippee, I don't have to see any more crocs.
I'm going to live till I'm old.

I saw Mom and Dad. They were talking to a
very tall man who wore his shorts up real high, and a woman.
Charlie, Alyson, Tyson and Harry were near the river skimming
stones. Were they following us? I went over to Mom and Dad. I'd
have to whisper to Mom that a man did die. I'd tell her the man had
a heart attack when he saw a couple of crocs swimming toward him.
Then there'd be no way she'd make me go on that boat.

"Max," she said, "I'd like you to meet Mr.
and Mrs. Jackson. They're Alyson, Tyson and Harrison's
parents."

I nearly choked as I realized that all their
names rhymed - even their surname. "Hi," I mumbled, trying not to
look at Mr. High-Pants Jackson's very high shorts.

"They're traveling on the same route as us.
You and Charlie might get to play with Alyson and her brothers
along the way."

"Great," I replied, trying very hard not to
sound sarcastic.

"Nice to meet you, Max." Mr. High-Pants
Jackson stuck his hand out, so I had no choice but to shake it. He
practically squeezed the blood out of my hand as he shook.

Mrs. Jackson smiled at me and I smiled back.
Suddenly I felt stupid. If I didn't go on the boat, then I'd be
left on the bank by myself. And if a croc decided to get me, I
wouldn't have a chance. But if I was on the boat and it sank, at
least I'd have a chance because the crocs would have so much choice
of who to eat. And why would they want me because, except for
Harry, I'd be the skinniest.

I went over to the river near Charlie and
the others and found a nice flat stone. I lined it up and skimmed
it across the water. It jumped five times! That was my personal
best.

"Wow!" shouted Harry. He ran over to me.
"Can you show me how to do that?"

I pointed to the people getting on the boat.
"Later. We better get on the boat, so we get a seat." That stone
jumping five times was a good sign. I just knew it. Even if the
boat did sink, I'd be okay.

H
arry and I headed to the
boat. This river was narrower than the river with the jumping
crocs. The water was very brown, but for some reason it wasn't as
scary. Big trees lined the banks, which made everything seem
peaceful. Just then Tyson ran past and rammed his shoulder into
Harry's back. Harry stumbled and fell. I called out, "Bully!" to
Tyson and helped Harry to get up.