Danny Allen Was Here Read online

  ‘You can’t come,’ said Danny sharply. ‘We’re going to the dam to get tadpoles.’

  Sam nudged him with his elbow. ‘Danny! What did you tell her that for?’

  ‘It just came out.’

  Vicki’s face lit up. ‘I want to come! Can I? Can I?’

  Sam shook his head. ‘No, you can’t.’

  Vicki looked at Sam smugly. She folded her arms. ‘Then I’ll tell Mum.’

  There was silence. Sam flipped his cap off, ruffled his hair, sighed, and then put it back on again. ‘Okay then, we’ll be quick,’ he said as he moved to look Vicki in the eye. He clasped her shoulders just as he had done with Danny under the pepper tree. ‘Now listen, you have to do what I say though, exactly what I say.’

  Vicki smiled and nodded. ‘I will, I will do what you say,’ she said.

  ‘You’d better,’ Sam warned.

  Vicki was happy. It showed in the way she skipped and danced across the road. She chatted and sang all the way.

  Tippy was happy as well. His tail didn’t stop wagging and he sniffed every post he passed. They walked past the church and out of the town.

  A tall forest of wild yellow weeds lined the dirt track to the dam. The fence they had to climb through was made of barbed wire and was old and rusty with rotten posts. Some had fallen and were half-buried in small dunes of red sand.

  Danny held the wire up for Vicki, but she still managed to tear her dress a little. She sat in the sand and looked at the hole. Her finger poked through. ‘You did that, Danny!’ she said crossly.

  Danny decided to distract her. ‘Quick! Get up!’ he cried. ‘There are ants down there.’

  Vicki jumped to her feet and snatched at Danny’s shirt-tails, brushing her behind madly. ‘I don’t like ants.’ The hole in her dress was forgotten.

  Sam led them quickly up the slope that was the bank of the dam. Danny felt like an explorer as they reached the top and looked out over the water. There wasn’t a ripple. The water was like a giant mirror; he could see the reflection of the darkening sky.

  To their left was the small creek that flowed into the dam when the rain came. The last time Danny had stood in its dry bed the creek’s sides only came up to his head. It was narrow and cut a twisted course down a gentle slope to the dam. A few scratchy bushes lined its banks. The thick forest of reeds at the mouth of the creek was where pools formed. Sam suddenly grabbed Danny’s arm and pointed to them. He spied sunlight glinting off water. ‘That’s where the tadpoles will be!’ he cried. ‘Let’s go!’

  Down the slope they ran. Sam led the way, his arms flailing, trying to keep balance. ‘Whoa! I’m going to fall!’ he laughed.

  Danny was right behind him. ‘Look out! I’m coming through.’

  Vicki couldn’t keep up. ‘Wait for me! Waaaiiiit!’

  Tippy left them and went to the edge of the dam to drink.

  They reached the reeds and ran up and down the bank of the dam searching for the best spots. From where Danny was standing it looked like a miniature canyon.

  Vicki slipped and trod in mud. Some splattered onto her dress. ‘Yuck!’

  Sam knelt at the side of a weedy pool. He put the tin by his side. Beneath his wide-eyed reflection he spied movement. He pushed his giant hand into the watery world and began hunting. ‘There are heaps in here!’ he said.

  Danny crouched beside him. The small pool of water was wild with tadpoles. Danny couldn’t believe his eyes. ‘Look at them!’

  ‘Don’t just look at them, catch them!’ said Sam.

  There was splashing, laughing and shrill cries of delight. Sam scooped up water with his hands. He was a good tadpole catcher.

  Danny caught a couple, but Vicki only caught blobs of mud so she gave up. She squatted by the tin and guarded the writhing prisoners. She stuck her hands in and let the tadpoles tickle her palms. Before long the tin was nearly full of water. When Danny looked in and saw the frenzy of trapped tadpoles stirring the water he thought they must have at least a million! But that was just a rough guess.

  The hunt was suddenly interrupted by a tremendous crack of thunder. Everyone jumped. They all stopped and lifted their heads. The sky had darkened suddenly. Wind pushed into their backs. The reeds swayed and crackled, then a flash of brilliant lightning forked in jagged streaks across the sky.

  Crack! Vicki cringed as the thunder rumbled away in booming echoes. She walked over to stand with Sam. ‘I want to go home,’ she whimpered.

  ‘Hang on,’ said Sam. ‘I’ll just get a couple more.’

  He stared at the water: hovering, waiting, hunting.

  Vicki hung on to his shoulder, her eyes rolling to the sky. Beyond the reflection of his little sister’s worried face Sam could see the tadpoles dodging and weaving through reed stalks and green slime. He placed his hands in the water and waited for a tadpole to swim into his trap. He was about to pounce when a huge drop of rain fell into the water and distracted him. Ploop.

  More fat raindrops fell, splashing cool on Sam’s back. His reflection crinkled as the pool of water he was peering into was rippled with rings.

  Danny had moved to stand halfway up the bank. He watched as the first drops bombed the dam and a million circles appeared. The splash of cool water on his neck and shoulders made him giggle.

  He spread his arms like wings and watched the huge droplets explode on his skin. Then he tilted his head back and looked up. Lines of rain came spearing down at him. Heavy droplets, cool and fresh, landed in his eyes. So he closed them and felt the weight of the rain on his eyelids. Cool water splashed on his cheeks. The best feeling was when he stuck his tongue out and tasted the rain.

  Then, another rumble of thunder, louder than the first, saw the rain come pounding down, drumming loud and hard. Tippy barked at the sky as little rivers began running around Danny’s feet.

  ‘Okay!’ Sam said. ‘Let’s go!’

  Danny looked at the creek.

  Through a curtain of wild rain and beads of water hanging from his furrowed brow, Danny saw Vicki reach for the tin. ‘I’ll save the tadpoles,’ she cried. With two hands wrapped around the wire handle Vicki bent her knees slightly to lift the tin. She wobbled and teetered, then skidded and slipped. She was like a newborn lamb trying to stand.

  Sam moved to help. ‘Put the tin down!’ he called. ‘It’s too heavy for you! You’re going to dr . . .’

  Too late. Down she tumbled. The tin fell from her hands and rolled bumping and rattling down the bank toward the dam. The water flowed from the tin in a flood and emptied the tadpoles into the dam.

  The tadpoles were gone and Sam was furious.

  Vicki squinted through the rain and sat in the mud sad and silent.

  Sam ground his teeth angrily. ‘You just don’t listen, do you?’ he yelled as he marched to stand over Vicki. ‘I told you to leave it! I said when we came that you had to do what I said!’

  Sam turned his back and climbed up the bank. ‘You can get the tin. I’m not!’ He marched up and hit Danny on the arm as he passed. ‘Let’s go!’

  Danny looked back at Vicki. She was wet and muddy and her hair hung like cooked spaghetti. The tin was lying at the edge of the water.

  ‘Bring the tin,’ said Danny, turning his back on her. ‘We have to go home.’ He trotted off to catch Sam.

  Along the track the boys ran, bombing big puddles with their pounding feet. They laughed. Tippy dodged their explosions.

  They ran across the road, down the driveway and into the back shed. The sound of the rain on the tin roof was loud as they shook themselves like dogs. The doors were open and water streamed over the gutter. Danny felt as though he were behind a waterfall in a cave.

  With flat hands Sam suddenly chopped at the waterfall and splashed Danny. ‘Ha, ha, ha. I got you in the face!’ he said.

  Danny retaliated, but Sam jumped back. ‘Ha, ha, you missed, Danny! You missed!’ The game was on.

  Tippy barked at the frenzy of the water war. The boys laughed hard and played wildly. I
n some places the water made thin panes like glass. The boys loved shattering them.

  The rain was easing when they heard their mother open the back door. ‘Children, come inside and dry yourselves,’ she called. ‘Hurry up.’

  Pushing and bumping, dripping and skidding, the boys stumbled into the kitchen. It was warm and smelt of biscuits.

  Tippy shook himself and so did the boys. They were giggling.

  Their mother turned and smiled. Specks of flour dotted her cheeks. With a funny puff from her bottom lip she tried to blow an annoying strand of hair from her eyes. ‘Haven’t I told you not to stay out in the open when there’s lightning about?’ She paused and looked toward the back door. ‘And where’s Vicki?’ she asked, matter-of-factly.

  Danny stopped giggling.

  Drips fell from his nose. His breathing quickened. His eyelashes fluttered wildly and his heart pounded up to his throat.

  Vicki!

  He looked sharply at Sam.

  The dam!

  He could feel his mother staring at him. ‘Was Vicki out there with you?’ she asked.

  Silence. Danny’s eyes darted to Sam then back to his mother. Suddenly Danny felt icy cold and began to shake. He felt his jaw drop as his mother looked into his shifting eyes. It was as if she could see behind them into Danny’s mind. Her happy face changed, just like the sky at the dam, to dark and gloomy.

  She knew there was something wrong. She turned to Sam and frantically wiped her hands with her apron.

  ‘Where is she, Sam?’

  Danny’s eyes were bulging when he looked to his older brother. Please tell her, he thought, please. The dam! The water is so cold and the sides so slippery.

  Sam took short sharp breaths. His nose was twitching and his dark eyebrows folded and unfolded. ‘I’m . . . I’m sorry, Mum, we . . . we didn’t . . .’

  His mother shook him. She didn’t mean to do it hard but she did. ‘Where is Vicki?’ she cried.

  Sam looked as though he might be sick when he finally said, ‘We left her at the dam, Mum.’

  The kitchen wasn’t warm any more and the boys stood like statues as their mother flung her apron onto the mountain of delicately balanced dishes on the sink.

  Into the throat of the passage she ran, her desperate feet thumping the floorboards. The boys followed. There was a loud creaking thud as the front door was thrown open.

  From the verandah they leapt wildly into the rain and Danny saw his mum kick off her shoes as they crossed the road. They were her best shoes – the shiny black ones with the ribbons at the front.

  Running barefoot in mud was usually good fun, but this time it wasn’t. His mother was swift. Danny pumped his arms and legs as fast as they would go. I’m sorry, Vicki! I’m sorry, Vicki! he kept saying inside his head.

  Along the track they ran. They scrambled through the tangle of the old fence.

  Danny slipped and struggled up the hill. He was the last one to run up the bank of the dam. With every step he took all he could think of was that he was going to see his little sister floating on top of the water like an angel flying.

  He stood at the top of the bank, puffing hard and searching desperately. The dam was riddled with never-ending circles. Danny swallowed. The tadpole tin had gone and so had Vicki.

  Sam was standing, saying nothing, just staring at the water. Danny looked at his mother running along the edge of the dam, searching and yelling.

  ‘Vicki! Vicki!’

  Her head was flicking back and forth, back and forth.

  ‘Vicki! Vickiiiiii!’

  Danny wanted to call but couldn’t find his voice. If only he could call her name she might hear him. She might come and be all right. Inside his head his voice was loud, screeching. Vicki! Vicki! But he couldn’t say it out loud. He tried and he tried. His jaw quivered, he made soft squealing noises, but he had no voice.

  He felt hot and sweaty then cold and shivery. A pain came to his chest. He found it hard to breathe. The louder his mother screamed the more Danny felt like crying. Images of Vicki spinning around the verandah post flashed rapidly in front of him. Time and time again they danced behind his eyes like instant replays. All he wanted was to see Vicki. All he wanted was to hear her annoying singing. All he wanted was to say sorry.

  The world suddenly changed as the clouds began to break apart. The rain eased and Danny shivered all over. Still his mother screamed. Light came peeking through and sunbeams spot lit the world. Danny looked across the dam through glistening threads of silver rain. He hung his head, then licked his lips and tasted the salt of tears.

  Sam suddenly hollered, ‘Mum! Look!’

  Danny spun to see Sam pointing toward the reeds of the small creek.

  Tippy was at the reeds before any of them. He was jumping and bounding, his tail spinning like a helicopter blade. He danced on his hind legs and the reeds moved.

  A hand appeared and pulled the reeds apart. Vicki pushed her face through the reeds as if peeking out from behind a curtain. Then up out of the creek she scrambled, covered in mud from head to toe.

  Vicki’s white dress was clinging to her skin and thick mud gelled her hair into rat-tail strands. She was very surprised to see everyone there to meet her, especially her mum.

  Her muddy face lit up and her white teeth shone brilliantly. ‘Hey Mum!’ She grinned cheerily. ‘Hey boys!’

  Their mother ran, fell to her knees and cuddled Vicki, but Vicki pushed her away. ‘Don’t, Mum,’ she frowned. ‘You’ll spill them again!’

  Her mother sniffed away tears. ‘Spill what?’

  ‘The surprise,’ Vicki smiled proudly.

  The mud all over Vicki’s face made her blue eyes sparkle more than ever before.

  ‘Tah dah!’ she cried, as she pulled the big tin from the reeds and walked toward her brothers.

  ‘Look in there, boys,’ she said as she placed the tin carefully in front of Danny and Sam. ‘Go on. Look.’ She wanted to twirl, but the mud was slippery and she didn’t want to fall into the dam – the sides so slippery and the water so cold. And anyway, her dress wouldn’t fan out, it was too heavy with mud.

  The boys peered into the tin. There was a shallow pool of murky water. Swimming about happily in the water were three tadpoles.

  ‘I couldn’t get any more,’ said Vicki. ‘They were all too slimy.’

  She pushed her muddy face between the shoulders of her two brothers. ‘But that’s enough,’ cause it means we can have one each.’

  Their mother took hold of Vicki’s hand. ‘Thank goodness you’re okay,’ she said.

  ‘Yep,’ said Vicki. ‘I’m fine.’ Then she looked up at her mum. ‘Are you okay, Mum?’

  Their mother nodded.

  Everything was quiet for a while. Then Danny pointed and said, ‘Can I have that fat one?’

  Vicki shook her head. ‘No, that’s mine! I got’ em so I get to choose.’

  Sam glanced down at Vicki’s thin muddy legs. He saw blood.

  ‘Your knee is bleeding,’ he said.

  Vicki looked at the small trickle of blood. She hadn’t noticed it until Sam pointed it out. Her face suddenly buckled. ‘It really hurts,’ she whined.

  Their mother knelt to look. ‘Don’t worry about that,’ she said, dabbing gently at the blood with a wet handkerchief. ‘I’ll fix it when we get home.’

  ‘You let Danny carry the tin and I’ll give you a piggyback,’ said Sam.

  ‘Will you carry me all the way home?’

  Sam nodded. ‘Hmm, yeah, all right, all the way. I might have to stop for a rest though.’

  Sam dropped to his knees and Vicki climbed onto his back. The rain stopped as quickly as it had started.

  And so off they went, Danny with the treasure in the tin, Tippy at his heels as usual, Sam with a wild rider whipping his back and their mother trailing close behind. She would wait to get them safely home before she gave them the growling talk. They strode back along the track and past the church.

  When the cockatoos fl
ew squawking from the gum trees near the Mundowie Institute Hall they circled overhead and Vicki tossed her head back, laughing and squawking just like them.

  Danny looked up to the cockatoos and then to the clouds beyond. They were breaking up and floating in dark islands across an ocean of blue sky.

  The sun came out. Beads of water had collected on the rusty barbed-wire fences. Danny looked at his pepper tree as he crossed the road and headed for home. The world around was sparkling, like it always did after rain. Then, crack!

  The thunder made them jump.

  ‘Run Sam! Run!’ Vicki cried, hitting her brother hard.

  ‘You just hang on,’ said Sam, galloping along. ‘If you fall off it will hurt!’

  ‘I know that,’ Vicki replied.

  She turned to Danny. ‘Don’t drop the tadpoles, Danny! Or else!’

  Danny stuck his tongue out at his sister. When she had turned away and yelled at Sam again, Danny slowed his run and peered into the tin. The tadpoles looked happy.

  Danny felt happy too. ‘One, two, three,’ he counted. ‘Yep, that’s one each.’

  Then he lifted his eyes to the sound of his mother’s voice.

  ‘Slow down please, Sam,’ she called as she picked up her shoes from the side of the road.

  ‘No, don’t,’ Vicki laughed. ‘Faster! Faster!’

  Danny smiled.

  2

  Surfing the Dune

  The big creek was a wild place.

  ‘Come on, Danny!’ Sam called, his voice echoing around the treetops. ‘Hurry up if you’re coming!’ Sam was running along the edge of the big creek where the red-earth cliffs were highest. Danny was trying to keep up but he didn’t want to fall; it was a long way down to the rocky creek bed. Danny guessed it would be further than falling from the roof of the house. He’d been up on the roof to get a ball the day before and ended up sitting on the very top, near the chimney, to watch the sunset. Yesterday’s sunset seemed such a long time ago.

  Danny bounded determinedly through the tall grass, dodging large rocks and leaping over fallen branches. Tippy wasn’t with him. The little traitor had stayed with Vicki because she was making cakes. Danny had left him begging pathetically in the kitchen.