Outback Hero (4 page)

"What'd he do that for?" I asked.

Harry shrugged. "He only does it when Mom
and Dad aren't watching."

"Why?"

He shrugged again. "I dunno. It doesn't
matter."

My blood heated up inside me. I felt like
pushing Tyson the Terrible over. Charlie mightn't be the best
brother in the world, but he never hit me just because he felt like
it. "We'll sit far away from him."

"Yep." He jumped up in the air and gave me a
big smile.

He didn't deserve a brother like Tyson the
Terrible.

Tyson sat down next to Alyson and Charlie up
the front of the boat. There was room for us, but we went down the
back. The boat was small and the back had nearly filled up. I
squeezed in next to an old lady and Harry followed.

He whispered to me, "I don't want to be near
the water."

I couldn't tell him I didn't want to be near
it either. I turned to the old lady. "Would you like to sit at the
end? You'll get a better view."

"Oh, no," she replied, "I'm scared of crocs.
I can hardly bear looking at them. My daughter made me come."

I nodded. Great - for all I knew the boat
might be full of people who were secretly terrified of crocs. I
swallowed hard and swapped seats with Harry. It didn't matter
because I had a plan. I wouldn't listen to the guide and I wouldn't
look at the crocs. In my head I'd sing all the songs I could
remember from
Oliver
so I couldn't
hear the guide.

Once everyone had found a seat, the guide
told us we'd be going up the river and getting off on the other
side of the bank, which was Arnhem Land. There he'd tell us about
how the Aboriginal people lived on the land. Then he gave us a
safety talk. I listened ... just in case. He went on a bit, but
basically he said, if the boat sank, most of us would get eaten.
Everyone laughed. Yeah, hilarious.

The boat began to move and suddenly I had a
real bad feeling. Was it too late to take a running jump off the
boat? Already there was a lot of water between the boat and the
shore - I guessed it was too late. And, anyway, I couldn't leave
Harry by himself. I sucked in my breath and decided to be
brave.

Harry pulled Batman out of his pocket and
began to play with it. In the front row, Charlie and Alyson were
laughing and carrying on like they were best friends. Tyson was
sitting near them, but they were ignoring him. Mom and Dad were
next to Harry's parents in the row behind Charlie.

The guide began talking so I sang "Consider
Yourself" in my head. The problem was I kept forgetting the words.
I was meant to know them off by heart by now, because I was in the
chorus of the musical at school. I gave up because I didn't want to
mix up the words and memorize the wrong ones. So I couldn't help
listening to the guide.

And anyway, he was pretty interesting. He
said he was Aboriginal. His people lived on the other side of the
river, so he knew lots of stuff. What was good to eat, how to avoid
getting eaten by a croc, how to make a weapon from a bit of wood
and how to kill animals to eat. He told us about how the women
gathered food and the men hunted. It was pretty interesting really.
For a minute I forgot to be scared of the crocs.

And then, on the bank, I saw one - a
humungous one. It slid into the water, so all I could see was the
very top of its ugly head. I shivered. It was disgusting. Why would
God make something so ugly?

By the time the boat landed on the other
side of the river, I'd seen heaps of crocs. I tried to look up into
the gum trees, but my eyes kept searching the river - I couldn't
control them.

Everyone had to get off the boat and climb
up some rocks. Harry and me found a ledge and we wedged ourselves
into it. The guide talked more about Aboriginal stuff and then he
got a long stick and showed us how to throw it. The stick went way
up in the air and nearly reached the other side of the river.

Everyone gasped in amazement.

Tyson jumped up and said to the guide, "Can
I have a go?"

The guide laughed. He got Tyson another
stick and showed him how to throw it. Tyson did a good throw, but
the stick got caught in a tree.

Everyone laughed and Tyson turned round and
gave us all an evil look.

"He's mad," Harry whispered to me.

We all got back on the boat. I thought
that'd be my chance to sit in the middle of the boat, but everyone
else sat in exactly the same place as they had before. I supposed
it didn't matter. The cruise was more than half over; we only had
to go back up the river. The boat had made it this far without
leaking.

Next to me, I heard Harry. "Give it back,"
he demanded.

I turned round to see that Tyson the
Terrible had squashed himself between Harry and the old woman. And
now he had Harry's Batman. Tyson got bored easily; I could tell.
There was an annoying boy in my class just like him. He did stuff
just to make you mad - like steal everything in your pencil case
except the pencil shavings - just because he felt like it.

"Tyson," I said, real polite, "do you want
to play paper, scissors, rock?"

He did and it worked because he put down
Batman, and Harry, who was sitting between us, picked it up. We
played seven rounds; he won the first two but then I won the next
five. He wasn't happy. Actually he was getting pretty mad; his face
looked all hot and he kept huffing and puffing. If I could've let
him win I would've, but how can you let someone win paper,
scissors, rock?

In a real nasty voice, he said, "That's a
stupid game. Let's play a different game." He grabbed Harry's
Batman again.

Straight away I could see he was going to
chuck it. I jumped up onto my seat. Then he chucked it way over my
head, so I had to leap up. Then everything happened in slow motion.
I caught it, but then I lost my balance. One foot hit the edge of
the boat ... I tried to find the seat with my other foot but I
couldn't. I fell back through the air. The whole way down I was
thinking, THERE ARE CROCS IN THIS RIVER! Then I hit the water.

My back hurt as it hit the water. Then I
went under. Yuk! It was cold, muddy and disgusting. I came up to
hear people screaming their heads off. I saw the old woman's
terrified face and Harry bawling. I WAS CROC MEAT!

I
couldn't move ... well, I
guess I was treading water, but that was automatic. I had to do
something. The boat had already drifted away from me. I had to swim
to it or swim to the shore. And I had to decide quick. There was so
much screaming going on in the boat I couldn't think.

Then people in the boat began to point
behind me. Far out! I knew what that meant. I put my head down and
swam flat out toward the boat. I didn't take a breath like I was
doing laps; I just went flat out. The screaming coming from the
boat made me go at supersonic speed. But it was weird because I
thought about stuff ... like how afraid I'd been but now, when I
might be living my last moments, I was so calm. I knew what I had
to do and I was just doing it.

I lifted my head up when I thought I must've
been close to the boat. But I wasn't; I still had a few metres to
go. I noticed Charlie leaning over the side at the front of the
boat throwing life jackets into the water. Was he stupid? I
couldn't reach them. Why wasn't he throwing them to me?

Then, about fifteen metres away, I saw a
croc gliding toward the life jackets and I remembered; crocs were
attracted to the fluorescent colors. Charlie was trying to distract
them so I could get to the boat. Just then, a blinding flash of
truth lit up in my head; Charlie really did love me. He might tease
me, be sarcastic and make out he didn't care, but really he
did.

BANG! I felt something hit the right side of
my body; I was flung off to the side. The whole right side of my
body felt like a truck had hit it. When I came up for air I saw
what had hit me. Oh my God! A croc's tail - it was a monster, and
it was heading for the fluorescent jackets. At exactly the same
time, both crocs went ballistic. They tore apart the jackets in a
huge frenzy. There were bits of life jackets flying everywhere.,
That could be me!

People from the boat were yelling at me. I
ignored the pain, put my head down and swam the last few metres to
the boat. I touched the boat and looked across to where the crocs
were. But they weren't there any more; they were coming at me. Fast
- real fast.

I was DEAD. My life flashed before me - like
in a movie. The time I got lost in a shopping center and I thought
I'd never see Mom, Dad or Charlie again and how scared I'd been.
Riding my first bike up and down the street wearing my Batman cape.
Emma Morton, the prettiest girl in the world, coming to my fourth
birthday party and me being too shy to talk to her. Charlie and me
having berry fights with our next-door neighbors. Thomo's first day
of school and how we just knew straight away that we'd be best
friends. And all the pranks me, Thomo and Chook played at school.
When we won the soccer grand final in the last thirty seconds of
the game. Trashing Aunt Evil's car with Lucy at Uncle Dan's
wedding. Forcing myself to eat dog food stew. Being chased by a
croc. And now ... about to be eaten by two humungous crocs.

"MAX!" yelled a familiar voice.

I looked up to see that a big, strong arm
had reached down. I grabbed the guide's hand and he pulled me up.
He must've been strong.

Just as my stomach leant over the rail, I
looked down and saw both crocs jump out of the water. People
screamed so loud there was no point me screaming too. I shut my
eyes and waited for the CHOMP. I imagined my legs bitten off at the
knees with blood and guts hanging out.

But then I was dragged over the rail. And I
could still feel my legs. I opened my eyes and saw Charlie and then
I turned to see the crocs below. I realized Charlie had chucked
stuff at them to distract them from my legs. There was a backpack
and a handbag floating in the water. Wow! He was so smart.

Someone wrapped a towel round me and the
crowd moved back and there was just Charlie, Mom and Dad. Mom and
Dad were so white they looked like they'd seen a ghost. Charlie was
okay.

"Thanks, Charlie," I said in a shaky voice.
"I owe you."

"Nah." He sat down beside me.

Mom kneeled down in front of me. She began
to cry and couldn't stop.

"I'm okay, Mom," was the only thing I could
think of to say. Dad had his head in his hands.

Harry came up and hugged me.

I let out a big breath. Wow! I'd swum with
crocs and lived. I couldn't wait to get home to tell Thomo and
Chook.

Then the guide came alongside me, rested his
hand on my shoulder and said in his deep, wise voice, "You've faced
death and lived. You'll never feel fear like that again. You are
very brave. From this time on in your life, you have nothing to
fear.

I grinned, feeling totally fearless.
Nothing to fear!

1. THE GOOD DIE
YOUNG

"
O
nly the good die young
," said Charlie from the back
seat of the LandCruiser.

"You mustn't be good then." I looked up from
my game and out the window to see red earth going on and on
forever. Charlie was so full of himself; I couldn't believe the
rubbish he came out with.

We'd been hot air ballooning and Charlie was
in the first balloon with Mom. Dad and me were in the second
balloon. At the end of the ride, Charlie's balloon landed in a
tree. It was stuck for ages. But no one was going to die. Charlie
was a drama queen. He wanted to think he escaped death. Before we
went up in the balloons, he'd been carrying on about all the people
who had died in hot air ballooning accidents. Once, thirteen people
died when two hot air balloons crashed into each other. I reckoned
he was jealous because two crocs nearly ate me and not him.

"Well," said Charlie, "I'm more good than
you."

"Are not. You're a
try-hard
. That's what
you
are." I didn't look at him because I was about
to win the race with my Ferrari in my game. "
Good
means being a good person, not being good at
winning races or being the teacher's pet."

He didn't answer, so I thought I better use
it to my advantage. "I might discover a cure for kids with cancer
when I grow up and that would mean I was
good
."

"Yeah, well I'm going to end world poverty
and discover how to reverse global warming. That makes me
better."

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Mom raise
her head from her murder mystery. She said, "That's enough, you
two. I'll be happy when you earn a living."

"Yeah," said Charlie, "Max can be a dog-food
taster and I'll be an investment banker."

I ignored the dog-food-taster comment
because I didn't want Mom to ask questions. "What do investment
bankers do?"

"They earn lots of money. Some of them get
million-dollar bonuses every year. I read in the newspaper that a
bunch of them walked into a Ferrari shop and ordered one Ferrari
each."

"But what do they do?"

"Who knows? Who cares? I just want a Ferrari
- a red one."

Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Mom
glance at Dad and roll her eyes. She didn't like Charlie carrying
on about expensive cars, the latest iPhone and all that sort of
stuff.

"Well, I'm going to be the first person to
walk on Mars." I knew that would impress her.

She turned round to look at me. "Is that
right, Max? Since when have you wanted to be an astronaut?"

"I don't. I want to be the first person to
walk on Mars."

Charlie sniggered.