Outback Hero (8 page)

Harry screwed up his face in pain. I wished
it'd been me who fell and broke my leg. He was so little. He closed
his eyes and slept for ages.

It was so boring just sitting and waiting
and trying not to think about bad stuff - like maybe we wouldn't
get rescued and we'd be on the top of this great big rock all
night, just us and the evil spirits. The sun belted down on my back
and I just knew I'd be red and sore tomorrow. I listened out for
the sound of people, but all I could hear was the wind. And my
stomach rumbling. I remembered I hadn't eaten lunch and suddenly I
felt starved again.

Harry just kept sleeping, and when the sun
got low in the sky he got goose bumps, so I covered him with my
surf jacket. For a while I thought about leaving him and climbing
down to get help. But there was no way I could leave him and,
anyway, it was too late because it was getting dark real quick.

Where were they? What were Mom and Dad
thinking?
It's so nice and quiet without Max!
If he hasn't turned up by the morning, we better look for
him.
I tried to list the fifty US states in my head, but
it seemed like a stupid thing to do now.

Harry opened his eyes again. He hadn't
seemed to realize that he'd been asleep for hours. "Max," he
whispered, "do you believe in God?"

I knew I was older and I was meant to give a
real smart answer, but it was a hard question. "Sometimes," I
replied.

I know you're thinking,
Geez, Max, that's a dumb answer
, but it isn't
really. It means sometimes I do and sometimes I don't. So, my mind
is open. It's like having an each-way bet on the Melbourne Cup.
That's smart.

"I believe in God," Harry said. "Tyson says
everything's random. A big accident. I don't believe him. God made
this rock and everything. God made the stars. See," he said,
pointing to the sky, "you just have to look at those stars and you
know there's a God."

"Yeah, I guess. Maybe God made the stars so
we can see when it's dark." It didn't seem like a good time to say
that meant God also made crocs and they sure aren't pretty like
stars. And it definitely wasn't a good time to say I really liked
Charlie's idea about aliens giving Earth people stuff. Like Uluru.
And if aliens gave us Uluru, they might have stuck sparklers in the
sky just to make the view from Earth look good. Who really knew?
Only God, I guess. And that's only if there really was a God.

"Look!" Harry pointed to the sky again.

A shooting star sailed across the sky.
"Wow!"

"See?" he said. "That's God telling us we'll
be okay."

"Yep," I said to be agreeable. I would've
preferred the ranger to turn up, but that was the next best thing.
I rubbed my arms; I was beginning to go numb.

We didn't say anything for a while. I don't
know what Harry was thinking, but I knew what I was thinking.
God, if we're going to be okay, please don't
drag it out. Harry is in lots of pain, even though he's not
complaining. It's freezing. I want to go home.

But no one came. The quietness was weird. It
was so quiet I could hear Harry breathing.

Eventually, Harry said, "Max, do you have a
super power?"

I laughed. "I'd like to. Dad reckons I've
got a super power for getting into trouble. I guess that isn't
really a super power. It'd be great to make myself invisible when
I'm about to get into trouble."

"But then Charlie would get the blame."

That sounded good to me. I laughed as I
thought of all the jokes I could play at school if I could make
myself invisible. When Mr. Connor filled up the board with writing
and expected us to copy it down, I could rub out the writing as he
went. I could kick goals in soccer and no one would ever see me
coming. I could change the total point score in House competitions,
so Yarra House could win the House Shield every year. I had this
feeling that Harry would think I wanted to use my super power for
evil, so I decided not to share this with him.

Instead, I asked, "Have you got a super
power?"

He thought about it for a while before he
replied, "Yeah, I've got the best super power."

"Really?" Already I knew it wasn't going to
be that great. If he could make himself invisible or fly, or if his
body could heal itself, I would've already known about it.

"I always find special people. Like my best
friend, Luke. I know what he's thinking and he knows what I'm
thinking. We don't even need to talk."

That didn't sound like a super power to me,
but I didn't say so. "And who else is special?"

"There's my teacher, Miss Johnson; the girl
who lives up the road, Amy; my swimming teacher, Clare; and David,
he looks after us. They're all special. My mom says I have a magic
touch for finding special people."

"You're lucky," I said. "I wish I had that
many special people."

Harry's voice sounded sad again. "I wish my
mom was here."

I reached over and squeezed his hand.

"Max," he said, "I found you too. Except for
Luke, you're the most special."

"Thanks, Harry." I didn't want to get all
mushy, but I just had to say, "I think you find special people
because you're so special yourself."

Just then I realized that there was a loud
noise and it was getting louder. I looked around, but couldn't see
anything. A chill shot through my body. Evil spirits? Did spirits
make that kind of noise?

Just then a gigantic monster rose up above
the edge of Uluru. Bright lights shone down onto us. An alien
spaceship! Every hair on my skin shot up. I screamed. Then Harry
screamed.

First I noticed the blades spinning and then
I noticed the shape.

"A chopper!" I shouted. Of course, Harry
couldn't hear me because the noise drowned out my voice.

But Harry must've figured it out, because he
raised his head and smiled at me. The wind nearly blew us off
Uluru, but I didn't care.

The chopper landed and a minute later, two
rescuers ran over to us with a stretcher. They both checked Harry
and his leg.

"Are you okay?" a lady in uniform said to me
as the man with her looked after Harry.

"Am now," I replied. I didn't say,
What took you so long?
But she gave
me the answer.

"Your parents," she said to Harry and me,
"have spent the last three hours on a wild goose chase."

"What?" I imagined them searching all over
Uluru, but being too dumb to find us.

"Two different lots of people said they saw
the two of you coming down. It turned out there were two other
boys. They looked nothing like you two, except the older boy was
wearing a Manchester United shirt."

"So they did miss us?"

She laughed. "After we realized you were
probably up here we had to get permission from the Aboriginal
owners to land the chopper on Uluru at night. They think
the mamu
, the evil spirits, come out
at night. But because you were kids, they let us. They didn't want
you all alone with
the mamu
."

Far out! There really were evil spirits.
"Lucky for us," I replied.

She returned my bloodied shirt. "You did a
brilliant job, you know. You stopped the bleeding and elevated his
leg. That splint isn't too bad, either. He's going to be fine." She
patted me on the back. "You're a hero."

I smiled my real humble smile. This time I
was the hero.

"Ever been in a chopper?" she asked.

I shook my head.

I walked next to Harry as he was taken on
the stretcher over to the chopper.

"Told you everything was going to be okay,"
he said to me.

"You were right."

I got to sit next to the pilot. A few
minutes later, we rose straight up into the air. Through the
chopper windows I could see Uluru below and the stars all around
us. There were millions of them. It was magic.

Wow. Now I was a hero like Charlie and I'd
done two things that he hadn't done. I'd climbed to the top of
Uluru and I'd flown in a chopper. And, of course, I'd escaped death
four times.

D
ad cut the engine, jerked
on the handbrake and turned round. "These are the rules," he said,
looking from me to Charlie and back to me. "You're both to be
quiet, still and polite." His voice deepened. "At
all
times."

"Yes, Dad," we answered like a pair of
robots.

"This is Sophie and Dan's special day—"

"Daniel," I interrupted, "Sophie wants
everyone to call him Daniel."

Dad glared at me. "He's my brother and I'll
call him what I want."

Another point to me. Charlie and me were
having a competition to see how many times we could annoy Dad
without getting into serious trouble. So far I was winning three to
one.

"I don't want either of you ruining their
special day because you have the attention span of two year olds."
He stared at us as though that would make his message sink in.
"Okay, Charlie?"

"Yes, Dad."

"And Max, absolutely no trouble today!"

"Yes, Dad." I tugged my collar. The tie was
choking me and I felt stupid. I could see myself in the rear-vision
mirror; I looked like a shrunken version of Dad going to work. "It
would be easier to be quiet and still if I didn't have to wear this
tie."

"The tie stays on," Mom said, without
looking up from the murder mystery she was reading.

After she'd read to the end of the page, we
were allowed to get out of the car and hang out at the front of the
stone church with everyone else. There were heaps of people. People
I'd never seen before. All the guys wore suits, which made me feel
less stupid. And there were heaps of gorgeous girls with long shiny
hair and suntans. Dan and Sophie had lived in London for years and
years, so how did they know all these people?

The four of us stood in a circle looking at
each other because we didn't seem to know anyone else. Mom smiled.
"The sunshine is lovely," she said.

"Beautiful," replied Dad, returning her
smile.

My parents were weird. Actually, weddings
were weird. For months everyone had carried on like Dan was a
prince and Sophie was a princess just because they were getting
married. But they'd been living together in a little flat in London
for ages, so it was like they were married anyway. How did dressing
up and going to church change anything?

And Mom and Nanna couldn't wait until Sophie
had a baby. Once Mom told me babies are hard work. She said, when I
was a baby I never slept and I cried all the time. So why did Mom
and Nanna want Sophie to have a baby so much? Maybe they didn't
really like her.

I shrugged. Who knew? I just hoped this day
and night would go real fast. Now that I wasn't the pageboy I might
die of boredom.

A woman wearing a large hat with feathers on
it came up to us. She said to Mom and Dad, "I'm Sophie's mother."
Mom introduced Charlie and me. Sophie's mother patted me on the
head and whispered, "You would've made a very handsome
pageboy."

I smiled, but inside I was mad because I'd
wanted to be the pageboy. I wanted to be standing near Dan when the
minister said,
Now you may kiss the
bride
. I wanted my face in a wedding photo on their
mantelpiece. I wanted the guests to tell me how handsome I was.

And I wanted to do something that Charlie
hadn't done. He'd never been a pageboy. And now he was too old, so
he never would be. Charlie had always been the chosen one. He was
captain of his soccer team again. When he was in grade six he was
captain of Yarra house. And last week the girls in his class voted
him as the boy they'd most like to kiss. It sucked.

Dan had called me from London to ask,
Would you do me the honor of being my
pageboy?
I pretended to think about it for a minute,
before I said,
Yep.
I even went to
get my suit fitted. But three weeks before the wedding, Dan came
over to our place and said,
Sorry sport, Sophie
has changed her mind. You'll find women do that.

I decided I didn't like Sophie and I didn't
want Dan to marry her. Even though I'd seen her photo and she had
beautiful green eyes and smooth skin. Then a week later I met her
when we had a barbeque at Nanna's place. As soon as Sophie saw me,
her hand went over her glossy pink lips and she said,
Oh, you're so cute and just the right
age
.
You would've looked perfect
with Lucy.
She seemed really upset that she'd made a
mistake, so, being the kind, generous person I am, I forgave
her.