CHAPTER 3
A BOAT RIDE
‘First thing we need is the key,’ Lachlan says as we clamber onto his father's fishing boat.
He shines the torch into a locker and rummages for the key. Life jackets, nets and a few old chip packets fly into the air. Lachlan is desperate to find the ignition key.
‘Do you think your father will mind us taking his boat?’ I ask.
I've seen Lachlan drive it before. But never at night.
‘Jack, you're about as much fun as a sea cucumber,’ Lachlan says. ‘The boat's got a six-horsepower motor. And I'm twelve. Of course I'm allowed to drive it. Anyway, who's going to find out? We'll only be gone for five minutes.’
He's right there. No one will miss us and surely we can't get into trouble in just five minutes.
Or can we?
‘Over here,’ Ben calls. ‘I found something.’
Lachlan turns the torchlight on Ben. He's holding up the ring pull from a can of soft drink.
‘I can't start the engine with that,’ Lachlan says. ‘I'm not driving a can of Coke. It's a boat. We need to find the key if we're going to get to Pelican Island tonight.’
‘Pelican Island! Pelican Island!’ Ben gets a chant going. He does a little bum wiggle to go with it.
Pelican Island isn't really an island at all. It's a sandbank in the middle of Hazard River. At low tide, sandbanks stretch almost from one side of the river to the other. Then, one by one, they disappear under water as the tide comes in.
‘I've got it!’ Lachlan calls. He curls his hand around the key and punches the air, like he's just won the Rugby World Cup final.
The excitement spreads like margarine on a hot day. We all start behaving like sporting heroes. Ben pulls a glow-in-the-dark sword out of his trousers. He waves it around. I bounce up and down with my T-shirt over my head and my arms in the air.
‘We've got it! We've got it!’ I call through my T-shirt. But I discover football fields are a good place to prance around blindfolded. Boats aren't. I stumble around the deck, tripping on a rope. My feet find the edge of the boat. I swing my arms in circles, trying to get my balance. But I'm as stable as a tower of eggs. I sway. I feel myself falling.
Bouncing banana muffins! I'm going in with the sharks.
‘Jack! You loser!’ Lachlan shouts. He grabs a fistful of my shorts, just in time to save me.
‘Are you trying to ruin everything? Sit down and don't move.’
I do as I'm told. Lachlan unties the rope that attaches us to the jetty. He turns his attention back to the key.
‘Okay,’ Lachlan says, turning on the engine. ‘You two look out for beacons.’
‘No thanks. I'm not hungry,’ Ben says. ‘I prefer bacon at breakfast time.’
‘Not bacon. Beacons!’ Lachlan shouts. ‘They're the coloured markers. They're like street signs in the river. They tell you which way to go. Don't you know anything?
‘We're going out of the river so we keep the green beacons on our left and the red ones on our right. When we come back we keep the greens on our right and the reds on our left. Got it?’
Ben and I nod. We've got it all right. But I'm just not sure what we've got – a brain ache from being confused or a tummy ache from thinking about bacon. I haven't got any idea about beacons. All I can see is a stream of moonlight and a few lights on the riverbank.
‘Can I drive?’ I ask Lachlan.
‘Okay, but don't do anything stupid,’ he says.
I take the steering wheel. For a moment I'm Luke Skywalker flying between the galaxies. The lights on the bank of the river are like stars twinkling on the edge of a faraway universe. The moon seems to be getting closer. I look behind to check if any Storm Troopers are on my tail. I give the steering wheel a little pull to the right to lose my imaginary attackers.
‘Hey, give me back the wheel,’ Lachlan says, bringing me back down from space. He elbows me out of the way.
A spindly branch on Pelican Island comes into view. The motor starts to make a choking sound as it hits the sand. Lachlan turns it off. We glide a little further. The boat comes to rest on the beach.
Hazard River is a busy place during the day. It's full of boats and people and birds. But tonight we are all alone. The fishermen have gone home. The tourists are nowhere to be seen. Even the birds have found somewhere to sleep. Pelican Island is glowing in the moonlight like some silver pancake dropped from a giant's table.
‘Do you think whatever killed the shark is around here somewhere?’ I ask, looking nervously across the line of sandbanks.
I doubt there are pirates out there. But giant squid and giant sharks could be.
‘Only one way to find out,’ Lachlan says, jumping from the front of the boat. ‘Follow me.’
Lachlan lands on the sand and bounds across Pelican Island.
‘Come on, Ben,’ I say, jumping off the boat. ‘Let's go.’
But Ben's not going anywhere.
‘If I can't take a giant squid to school, I'm not going,’ he says.
Ben folds his arms. A grumpy look takes over his face. He's staying right where he is.
‘Come on, Ben,’ I plead. ‘We're going to find what killed the shark.’
Ben doesn't move.
‘I'm not going,’ he repeats.
‘Wait!’ I call to Lachlan. ‘We can't leave Ben behind.’
But Lachlan doesn't hear me. He is on the far side of the island, shining the torch into the night. I hesitate for a moment, then head off in the direction of the torchlight.
In the boat, Ben is making arcs in the darkness with his glow-in-the-dark sword. He doesn't seem worried that I'm leaving him alone. But he should be.