Read Online Sydney Bridge Upside Down by David Ballantyne - Free Book Online Page A

Caroline?’ I asked when they were still a few yards from me. ‘Looking at his house,’ Cal said, sounding annoyed. ‘What house?’ I asked, knowing that Sam Phelps lived in a shack in a clearing not far from the wharf woolshed, and nobody could call it a house. ‘Looking at his shack,’ said Dibs. ‘He’s got nothing to show her, that shack’s not worth looking at,’ I said. ‘That’s what we thought,’ Dibs said. And they told me how Caroline had suggested that they come back to play with me because she wanted to accept Sam Phelps’ invitation and she said she knew they would rather play than look at a house. ‘She’d have let me go with her, it was Dibs being there that made it no good,’ Cal said.‘Yes, boy,’ I told Dibs, ‘you’ve got a cheek chasing her. She’s our cousin.’ ‘I wasn’t chasing her, I only went for the ride,’ Dibs said. ‘Get your own cousin,’ I told him, and I aimed a punch, but he dodged and ran off and I couldn’t be bothered following him. Cal said: ‘Mr Phelps said he’d make her a cup of tea. That’s why she went with him. How about we go to the works, Harry?’ I said: ‘You didn’t care about the works a while ago, not when you went off with her like you did.’ And I wouldn’t play with him, he had lost his chance. I waited for Caroline. I had to wait an hour. She came back in the freight wagon, and she waved to me from the seat beside Sam Phelps as soon as she saw me. She would have seen me sooner if she hadn’t been listening to what Sam Phelps was saying, and it was strange to see Sam Phelps talking like that. When the wagon stopped I kept a fair way off, and I didn’t speak to Caroline until she quit listening to Sam Phelps. ‘What a skinny horse, eh?’ I said, watching Sydney Bridge Upside Down move off. ‘He’s a dear,’ Caroline said, and I couldn’t be sure whether she meant Sam Phelps or his horse, I had a feeling she hadn’t heard what I said. That was when I could have asked her what she meant by saying Sam Phelps was handsome, but I clean forgot she’d said it, and I didn’t remember till this morning. And now that I had asked her, I was no better off. I would not ask her again, I thought, looking at her, listening to her breathing. I would not bother her, I would let her sleep.
    I went to my room and got dressed. Then I made the bed. Cal must have gone outside. He was a funny kid, he hadn’t minded playing the running game with me, butnow that Caroline joined in (after looking into our room and surprising us on her first morning) he seemed to think it was a rude game and I wouldn’t be astounded if he said tomorrow that he would rather not play. This was all right with me, except that he might tell Dad, and I was certain Dad would not like us seeing so much of Caroline’s body. I would warn Cal, I would tell him I would think up a revenge if he spoiled our fun.
    I looked into Caroline’s room on my way to the kitchen. She was still asleep.
    Out in the kitchen, I stacked the breakfast dishes and ran the water into the sink. Here I am again on my own, I thought; no help from Caroline. Not, of course, that I expected her to do the dishes; it was just that, before she arrived, I’d figured I would have a rest from doing the dishes. I did not mind doing them, I would not complain about doing them. If she did offer to do them, or to sweep up or anything like that, I would refuse to let her, I would tell her she was on holiday and we wanted her to enjoy herself, we did not expect her to do any damned housekeeping. If she insisted, it would probably be polite to let her do something. So far she hadn’t insisted.
    No, I didn’t mind Caroline not helping. But this didn’t mean Cal could stop wiping up.
    I went to the back porch to yell to him. I could not see him. The one I did see was Susan Prosser. She was looking over the fence. I waited, expecting her to bob down out of sight. But she kept looking.
    ‘Have you seen my brother?’