Read Online The Smoke Jumper by Nicholas Evans - Free Book Online Page B

contain her anger. It was so humiliating. You couldn’t even take a piss without them being on top of you. That stuck-up little missy-prissy Julia, the so-called ‘senior staff,’ the one yelling at her right now, was the worst of all. She was always so goddamn nice. Skye had been trying hard to get a rise out of her, to make her lose her cool for a moment, but so far no luck. You’d think, being a woman, the bitch would understand how tough it was for her. There were ten kids on this fucking chain gang and Skye was the only girl.
    ‘Okay, sorry, Skye, but I’m coming in there!’
    ‘Fuck you,’ Skye muttered. ‘Seven!’ she shouted.
    ‘Thanks, Skye. Keep it going.’
    Skye angrily hauled up her pants and fastened them.
    ‘Keep calling it, Skye.’
    ‘Seven! Seven! Seven! Seven!’
    She stomped out from behind the bushes and kept shouting her number all the way back to the others, until she was standing right in front of Julia and shouting it a foot away from her nose.
    ‘Seven! Seven! Seven! Okay? Is that okay now?’
    ‘Yes, Skye. That’s fine. Thank you.’
    Mitch, the self-appointed bigmouth of the group, made some smart remark about how pissed Skye was and she wheeled around and told him to shut the fuck up or she’d kick his fucking face in.
    ‘Okay, okay, everybody,’ Julia said, raising her hands. ‘Let’s circle up, right now.’
    There were groans, but the other staff - Scott, Katie and Laura - started marshaling everyone and soon, for the umpteenth time that day, they were all standing in a circle looking at each other in silence. Skye just stared at the ground.
    ‘Okay,’ Julia said calmly. ‘We all know by now what happens when someone uses abusive or inappropriate language. So, Skye, when you’re ready, we’d like to hear twenty alternatives to what you just said.’
    ‘What? I just said my number. What do you want? Six? Five? What?’
    ‘No, you said the F word twice to Mitch and threatened him with violence.’
    ‘Like, oh my, I was so scared,’ Mitch said.
    ‘And we’ll have twenty alternatives from Mitch when Skye’s done.’
    Mitch gawped with offended innocence and there was a ripple of laughter. At seventeen he was the oldest in the group. He was tall and dark and muscular and knew exactly how smart and good-looking he was. Skye couldn’t stand him. They all fell silent again. Everyone was staring at Skye and she was still staring at the ground. They waited a long time and as far as she was concerned they could wait for ever.
    ‘Well, Skye,’ Julia said. ‘You know, there are no deadlines here. We haven’t got a plane to catch or anything. We’ve got all the time in the world, so all we’re going to be late for is getting supper.’
    Skye sighed and threw her head back. She didn’t want to make eye contact with anyone. That goddamn eagle was still flying around up there, squawking away like an idiot.
    ‘Okay,’ she said at last. ‘Like, I could have said: “Oh please, dear Mitch, please don’t make jokes about poor little me”’
    ‘Good. That’s one. Let’s try and steer clear of sarcasm, though.’
    ‘Or. I could have said, you know, it’s kind of hard if you’re the only female on this gig, taking a leak in front of all these . . . boys. It’s, like, totally embarrassing, okay?’
    ‘Yes, I think we all understand that. Good, that’s two.’
    It took another half hour for her to come up with the other eighteen. And then almost as long again for Mitch to do his twenty. And at last, after they’d all taken a drink from their water bottles and several more had been into the bushes to pee, hollering their allotted numbers like a stuck stereo, they shouldered their packs and set off again up the trail.
    When the judge had told her he was going to send her on this program Skye hadn’t had any idea what it might involve. All she knew was that it sure sounded better than being sent to jail like that maniac Sean. And for the first month it had been a