Crown Park (7 page)

Again there were cries from the
moho.

“It’s all right,” said Lucy.
“Have no fear when the Luce Crew’s near. We have everything:
brains, wisdom, an eye in the sky, and a nose. No adzebill can ever
match that.”

Jack was back on the lounger in
Fluoro’s home. How he got there, he couldn’t say. One moment Lucy
was raving on about how wonderful her crew was, and the next he was
back in real time.

Fluoro was also there, lying
back on the recliner. Chainsaw was on the ground licking himself
dry. That’s when Jack realized that he too was wet. He turned to
Fluoro. “How do you explain this?” he asked, wringing some water
out of his hoodie.

Instead of answering, Fluoro got
up and moved to the back of the shelter. He returned carrying a
kerosene lamp that glowed with a flickering flame. He held it near
the ground. “We’ve had a heavy shower,” he said.

Jack looked. Yes, there were
signs that rain had come in.

“But you’re dry,” said Jack.

Fluoro grinned. “That’s because
I placed my chair in a sensible place. The rain didn’t get in
here.”

Jack let it go. Maybe the man
was right and the water did come from the sky.

“The important thing,” continued
Fluoro, “is that you get home quickly and get changed, or your
health will suffer.”

“Can I come and see you
tomorrow?”

Fluoro was slow to answer,
causing Jack to think he was going to turn him down.

“I suppose so,” Fluoro said
eventually. “I swim in the AC baths every morning. You can join me
there if you wish. Anytime between ten and eleven is suitable.”

“I’ll be there,” said Jack. He
leant over and patted Chainsaw’s head. “See you tomorrow, Chainsaw.
And stay out of trouble overnight. I don’t want to have to rescue
you again in the morning.”

The only answer the cat gave was
a slurp as he added more saliva to the fur on his belly.

Jack had changed and put his clothes in
the washing machine before his mum arrived home. She was exhausted
to the stage of falling asleep on her feet. She sat at the kitchen
table with her head in her hands.

“Do you want me to make dinner?”
Jack asked.

She gave the faintest of
nods.

Jack chose the easiest dish he
knew: baked beans on toast. It was also one of his favourites.

Five minutes later the meal was
on the table. He gave his mother a shake. “C’mon, Mum, dinner’s
ready.”

For a while they ate in
silence.

“Dave rang,” said Anna. “He
asked after you.”

“When’s he coming home?” asked
Jack.

“He’s got a compulsory break in
three days time. He’ll be here for a couple of days then.”

“When will he have enough money
for his own truck?”

Anna gave a tired sigh. “I don’t
know, Jack. Maybe a year. Maybe two.” Another sigh. “The trouble
is, the more we save, the more expensive they get. Sometimes it
seems like we’ll never get there.”

Jack wanted to discuss it
further, but knew this was not the time. Instead he went back to
eating.

Before long Anna dozed off
again. Jack woke her and helped her into bed. After cleaning up the
dishes he too went to bed where he was soon deep in a dreamless
sleep.

Sunday morning. Jack arrived at
the AC baths shortly after ten. He didn’t have his togs with him
because his ears were playing up. The internal buzzing was so bad
that at times he couldn’t hear anything from outside.

Fluoro was swimming up and down
the big pool. After a couple of laps, he paused on the turn to scan
the surrounds. He spotted Jack and using hand signals invited him
into the water. Jack shook his head and pointed to his ears. Fluoro
gave a nod and returned to his swimming.

Four laps later, he hauled
himself from the pool and walked over to Jack.

“Your ears playing up?”

Jack nodded.

“Have you ever had them
checked?”

Jack shook his head.

“Well, I think you should.”

“Yes, Dr Fluoro, anything you
say.”

Fluoro looked at him sideways.
“I’m serious, Jack. The way you mix up words means there’s
something wrong in there. When you get to school on Tuesday, go and
see the nurse.”

Jack didn’t answer.

Fluoro stood. “Think about it
while I have a shower. I’ll meet you out front in quarter of an
hour.”

Walking the streets with Fluoro was an
unusual experience. Never before had Jack been the centre of so
much attention. And lots of it unfriendly. People in cars blasted
the horn and either shouted abuse or made rude signals with their
hands. Pedestrians crossed the road or walked in the gutter to
avoid being close.

Yet, it didn’t seem to upset the
man. All he said was that you learnt a lot about people living
rough, and much of it was not nice.

Chainsaw was waiting for them at
the edge of Crown Park. He meowed loudly at them as if something
was wrong. They soon found out what it was. Fluoro’s home had been
ransacked. All the storage holes dug into the cliff had been
emptied onto the floor. Both the mattress and La-Z-Boy had been cut
open and now had springs sticking out in all direction. The lounger
had been dismantled so that the insides of the pipes could be
checked.

“The Bennett brothers,” said
Fluoro as they studied the damage. “They were looking for my
treasure.”

“Too right, Freakhead,” said a
voice from behind.

Jack turned and saw Brian and
Liam Bennett appearing from behind a bush.

“And did you find it?” asked
Fluoro in his crazy man mumble.

“No! But you’re going to tell us
where it is,” said Brian.

Fluoro lowered his head to look
at the ground. “Yeah, all right,” he said

Brian and Liam’s eyes went wide.
Clearly they hadn’t expected it to be so easy.

Liam was the first to recover.
“So where is it?”

“It’s not here,” replied
Fluoro.

“We know that, Freakhead,”
snarled Brian. He took a step forward. “Tell us where.”

“It’s not like that,” mumbled
Fluoro. “I’m going to have to do some things.”

“When will that happen?”

Fluoro looked uncertain. “It
might take a while.”

“No, it won’t,” said Brian.
“You’ll have it done by tomorrow.”

“All right,” said Fluoro
studying the ground again. “Three o”clock tomorrow and I’ll have it
sorted.”

“You’d better,” said Brian, “or
nasty things will happen to you.”

They left.

Jack and Fluoro watched them go
in silence. When Jack was sure they were out of hearing he said,
“You’re not really going to give them stuff, are you?”

“Oh yes I am,” said Fluoro with
a smile. “I’m going to give them the greatest treasure I know. I’m
going to give them knowledge.”

“I don’t think they’ll be happy
with that.”

“Oh yes, they will. At least
they will be at first.”

Jack smiled with anticipation.
“What are you going to do to them?”

“That, young Jack, will be
revealed tomorrow,” said Fluoro with a chuckle. “Right now, we need
to clean up this mess and have some lunch. Then, if you feel like
it, we’ll go back and see how the Loose Screws are getting on.”

Fluoro and Jack landed on a moa track
leading up the side of a hill. The trees alongside were not as tall
as those closer to the lake, and the songs of the birds were
quieter. The loudest noise was the doof-honk-whistle-squeak from
further up the path.

“Spot on,” said Jack. “Sounds
like we almost landed amongst them.

“Did you ever doubt my
navigation?” said Fluoro.

“Yes!” replied Jack.

“Well, you shouldn’t have. I
could have got even closer except I didn’t want Chainsaw landing in
the middle of the moho and scaring them.”

Chainsaw was already running up
the track, impatient to catch up with Lucy’s crew. Jack and Fluoro
followed.

Godfrey was acting as tail-end
Charlie. Between him and Lucy at the front were the moho. While the
Luce Crew were marching in perfect time with the beat, the moho
were finding it difficult. Not one of them could get it right. A
couple were marching to the rhythm, but not with the right feet.
Others just couldn’t get the hang of it and kept bumping into the
bird in front.

Overhead, Emily was flitting
around making sure that none of them wandered off into the bushes.
When she spotted Jack and Fluoro, she glided down to land on Jack’s
shoulder.

“Good to see you, humans,” she
said. “And you too, Chainsaw. I could do with some help.”

“What’s the problem?” asked
Fluoro.

Before she could answer the
ground lurched sideways. It only lasted a moment, but it was enough
to have the moho screaming and running off into the scrub.

“That’s the problem,” said
Emily, rolling her eyes. She gave a mighty sigh, before taking to
the sky to round up the frightened birds. Chainsaw ran off after
her to help.

“They’re really quite stupid
animals,” said Godfrey. “If it weren’t for Luce’s obsession with
purple, I for one certainly wouldn’t be here helping them.”

“What would you be doing
instead?” asked Fluoro.

Godfrey gave a sad little sigh.
“That’s the thing, Mr Fluoro,” he said. “Nowadays there is nothing
else to do. That’s why I came along. But I’m really not up to it
anymore. Not in mind, nor in body. I would have been quite happy
staying back at the lake with The Source. I’m still giving some
thought to going back.”

“Not a good idea,” said Fluoro.
“These earthquakes mean that a major eruption is close. We need be
further away, not closer.”

“We’ll see, Mr Fluoro,” said
Godfrey. “We’ll see.”

While they’d been talking, Emily
and Chainsaw had got the moho back on the track.

“OK,” boomed Lucy from the
front. “Are we all set to—” She’d spotted Fluoro and Jack. “Oh,
hello, humans. Good to have you back.” She thought for a moment.
“Godfrey, now that they’re here, you can come forward and help me.
Jack and Fluoro can take the rear. And, um, Chainsaw can help Em
with the moho.”

Then another voice squeaked up.
It was Pat sticking his head out of Lucy’s feathers. “And he can
help me with guard duties at night.”

“What a good idea,” said Lucy.
“We’ll need the extra security, now that we’re deep into adzebill
country.” She looked around, checking that everyone was ready.
“Right then, if Godfrey will come here we’ll be off.”

“I’d better do as she says, I
suppose,” said Godfrey. He let out a sad sigh before moving
forward. Shortly afterwards they were on their way again.

The track climbed through the forest up
the side of a hill. From the top they got glimpses of the lake
between the trees. There was no doubting that the activity had
increased since the day before. As Godfrey put it: The Source was
hotting up nicely.

From the top they moved down to
tramp along the side of a valley. Here the land was different, with
the forest replaced by rocky outcrops.

“Limestone country,” said
Fluoro. “That means we’re certainly heading in the right
direction.”

“How far do we have to go?”
asked Jack.

Fluoro looked around for some
landmarks. “I don’t really know. This land is nothing like it is in
our time. The eruption will cover all this with new rock.” He
pointed to some hills in the distance. “I know that formation,
though. If we make it there, we should be safe.”

To Jack the hills seemed a long
way away. At the rate they were going it would take days to get
there. Tramping great distances was not what he had in mind when
he’d urged Fluoro to come back. He wanted adventure, excitement,
even more earthquakes. Not boring marching. Doof, honk, doof, honk…
it went on and on. Doof, honk, doof, honk, doof—

CRACK!

The noise was so close that Jack
thought it was in his ear. It wasn’t. It was a rock alongside the
track splitting in half. He stopped to gape at it.
Why did that
happen?

He soon found out why. The
earthquake he’d wished for had come. But this one was more than an
adventure. It was plain scary. He wanted to run the way the moho
were.

The shaking became so violent
that Jack had trouble standing. Then the earth gave way, right
where the moho were running around like headless chickens.
Everything disappeared with a whoosh.

One moment Jack was looking at
the moho. The next he was dangling over the edge of a hole
supported by only a few tufts of grass. Most of the moho had
vanished.

“Hold on, Jack,” screamed
Fluoro. “I’m here.”

Jack felt hands gripping his
arms.

“Try and stay still,” said
Fluoro. “I’ll pull you up.”

Bit by bit, Fluoro adjusted his
position until he could exert enough force to haul Jack out of the
hole. As soon as Jack felt something solid beneath his body, he
scrambled clear of the edge. He found a rock and sat with his back
against it, trying to calm the thumping in his chest.

By then the rumbling had stopped
and the earth was quiet again. But not so the moho trapped in the
bottom of the hole. Cries of panic sounded from below.

“At least some of them are still
alive,” said Fluoro.

“Looks like all of them are,”
said Emily, who was now hovering above the hole. “Though some are
partly buried.”

“Any chance of getting them
out?” asked Jack.

“I doubt it,” replied Emily. “Us
animals won’t be able to. I don’t know what you humans can do.”

Fluoro turned to Jack. “Did you
see what’s down there?”

“No! I was trying to stay
alive.”

“If I hold your feet, you could
slide forward and take a look.”

Jack wasn’t so sure that he
wanted to dangle over the edge again. Reluctantly he moved forward
and lay on the ground. When he was certain that Fluoro had a decent
grip of his legs, he edged forward until his head was over the
edge.