Ishmael and the Hoops of Steel (34 page)

Phone call No 1:

Theme to
Mission Impossible
plays. I snatch up my mobile without taking my eyes off my book.

‘About time. Where ya been?'

‘Sorry. I had no idea you were so demanding.'

‘What? Kelly? Is that you?'

‘Afraid so. Hope you're not too disappointed.'

‘No, no, I thought you were Razz.'

‘Do you often have trouble telling us apart?'

‘Well, only in a certain light, you know, like pitch black. Oh, and sometimes when Razz tries on his Uncle Georgiou's hand-me-downs.'

Kelly laughed. ‘Too much information. But look, what I rang for was to see if you wanted to do something Saturday week? That'd be the twentieth.'

‘Sure. Great. Love to.'

‘Terrific. I'll put your name down for the Lourdes working bee. They're cleaning the toilets.'

I was trying to figure out how to sound excited when Kelly saved me.

‘Gotcha. But you might want to actually hear what it is first. It's not that exciting. It's just that our dorm supervisor is taking the Year Twelve boarders to see a local production of
Hamlet
. We're doing it in English this semester. Anyway, Ms Entwhistle has generously allowed us to invite one guest if we want. I just thought you might like to come along.'

‘Yeah, that'd be great. We did it last year.'

‘Are you sure? Don't say yes just to be nice.'

‘No, I'd love to come. Thanks.'

‘OK. But if you change your mind or you're too busy or you get a better offer just let me know, all right? That'd be no problem at all. I'm going anyway.'

We spoke for a bit longer and sorted out all the details for the night. Kelly said to ring next weekend and let her know if I was definitely coming. I got off the phone feeling great. I'd only just settled back on the bed and found where I was up to in my book when my mobile went off again.

Phone call No 2:

Theme to
Mission Impossible
plays. I snatch up the phone without taking my eyes off my book.

‘Hey, Razz, you'll never guess what happened.'

‘Ooooo, sounds exciting! What?'

It wasn't Razz. It was a girl's voice. I couldn't place it but it seemed familiar.

‘Sorry I … I thought you were someone else.'

‘Yes, I guessed that. The Razzman, right? Remember him well from your Year Eleven Formal. Pretty smooth debater too – and a wild drummer. I saw you guys play at the Battle of the Bands. So cool. Didn't know you had all these hidden talents, Ishmael.'

‘Raychell?'

‘Got it in one.'

I had no idea why Raychell Taylor would be ringing me.

‘Hope you don't think I'm stalking you or anything. You know, debating final, Battle of the Bands and now this. I'm not. I've given that sort of thing away. Found it too time-consuming. All that hiding behind bushes, phone-tapping, setting up the telescope on your bedroom every night – it just became too much.'

‘Yeah, good idea to cut back, what with exams coming up and everything,' I said with a bit of a laugh. ‘I saw you at the Battle of the Bands with Gary Horsham.'

‘Ugh! Don't talk to me about that creep. As of two weeks ago, as far as I'm concerned, he is totally like a non-person.'

‘Sorry about that.'

‘Not a problem. Glad to get rid of him. And anyway, it's sort of why I'm ringing you. I was
won
dering if you wanted to come along to a bit of a party at my place.'

Two invitations in five minutes! It had to be a dream. I looked carefully around the room. Any second I expected a runaway freight train like the one in that
Inception
movie to come ploughing through my bedroom wall. I guess I must have been taking a bit too long to reply, because Raychell went on.

‘Look, I realise this is a bit out of the blue and I know we didn't get to spend that much time together at your Formal, which was my fault entirely, but if you come to the party maybe I can make it up to you. It's not going to be a big thing. Just me and some friends from school and a few guys they know. There'll be plenty of supplies too. And we'll have the whole house to ourselves because my parents are going interstate for a few days. It's a big house. Lots of quiet, private spots and plenty of opportunity for you and me to get to know each other better. So … are you interested?'

All sorts of things were racing through my mind.

‘I … um … Yeah … Sounds good … When is it?'

‘The Saturday night after this one.'

‘Not the twentieth?'

‘Ah, let me just see … Yep, the twentieth. Is that a problem?'

‘It
could
be … I
might
have something on … some … aaah …
family
thing … I can probably get out of it … just not sure at the moment. I'll have to check. Can I ring you back and let you know?'

‘Well, I suppose so, but don't keep me waiting too long, Ishmael. I can guarantee you'll have a lot more fun at my place than at your “family thing”. I'll make it my
personal
mission.'

After I took down Raychell's address and mobile number and promised I'd ring her back sometime before the end of the week, I flopped back on my bed. My head was spinning with possibilities. A minute ago everything had been simple and straightforward. I'd been so happy to go to the play with Kelly. But now …

My mobile rang a third time.

Phone call No 3:

Theme to
Mission Impossible
plays. I snatch up the phone. This time I check for a name first. Unknown number.

‘Hello. Leseur residence. Ishmael speaking.'

‘HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
! What're you doing, man? Trying out for the job as butler or something? You crack me up, dude!'

‘Very funny. How come you came up as an
Unknown Number?
'

‘Using Mum's phone. Took mine to the beach and forgot I had it in the back pocket of my boardies when I went for a surf. Totally stuffed. Mum's not too happy. Also not happy about the hubcaps I scraped practising my reverse park.'

Then I heard all about Uncle Sasha's place. Razz reckoned it was ‘totally awesome', although apparently Mrs Zorzotto rated it ‘
just
fit for near-human habitation'. It sounded perfect.
When Razz finished his usual raving on I told him all about Kelly's and Raychell's phone calls.

‘Man, it's raining chicks!'

That was his first comment. Then I was expecting him to say something like:

‘So what's the problemo, man? You got a choice between sitting in a crappy theatre watching the Chocoholic Dane with Kelly “Let's-just-be-friends” Faulkner or spending a wild night alone with Raychell “You-and-me-and-a-big-empty-house” Taylor. What's wrong with you? It's a no-brainer, dude!'

But Razz didn't say that. What he actually said was, ‘Man, that's a tough one. I guess you'd be mad not to pick Raychell. But then I keep thinking, what if it was
me
doing the picking and what if that other chick I left sitting alone in that theatre ended up being someone like Sally and I never knew? Wouldn't that be a bummer?'

I'd been sort of hoping that Razz would come to my rescue and just tell me what I should do. But it looked as if the Lifesaver of Love was having some down time. It was all up to me. I had a decision to make. A big one.

To party with Raychell or to
Hamlet
with Kelly?

That was the question.

‘Emergency Operation Tarango meeting? What are you on about, Prindabel?'

The rest of us were wondering the same thing. As well as our first and second placings in the Battle of the Bands, we'd also had good success in the inter-house soccer comp as Razz predicted and we'd picked up points in a few of the smaller Arts Week competitions.

‘We've been going great. What are you calling an emergency meeting for, dude? We must be getting pretty close to Creswell by now.'

‘I've just factored in all the outstanding points and we are officially nine points behind them,' Ignatius replied calmly.

‘Only nine points behind! Well, geez, P-bud, if
that's
your idea of an emergency, never volunteer for Cyclone Watch, dude.'

‘The problem is, Orazio, we have only one event left in which to get those nine points and that's the Talent Quest. ‘

The annual house Talent Quest was for acts of one or two people only. It was always held on the Friday afternoon of the very last day of classes for the Year Twelves. Anyone could enter, but there was a limit of two acts from each house. At the end of it the rest of the school formed a guard of honour and the Seniors were cheered from the college before the pressure of two weeks of final exams began.

‘Well, that's OK, isn't it? We usually do pretty good in that and I'm doing my drum solo again. Last year I came second and I've ramped it up a lot and added some new stuff.'

‘That's good to hear, Orazio. Because if we don't win the Talent Quest, we don't win the College Cup.'

Razz eyed Ignatius suspiciously.

‘You're not jiggling the figures, are you, Prindabuddy, just to get an exciting finish?'

‘See for yourself. At the moment we're nine points behind Creswell. In the Talent Quest they give
thirty
points for first place,
fifteen
for the runner-up and
five
for third. So to make up the points needed we have to either win the Talent Quest outright or come second behind either Franklin or Radley. Whatever happens, if Creswell wins, we're sunk. And therein lies the real emergency. Because Creswell's entrant in the Talent Quest is going to be … Slobo Bugslag.'

There were blank expressions all around the tight circle of faces as our hopes commenced shutdown procedures. It was like making it right to the brink of Mount Doom only to hear someone say, ‘I thought
you
had the Ring.'

‘Slobo Bugslag,' Razz repeated like a death knell.

Way back, Slobo Bugslag and I were at Moorfield Primary together. He was a grade below me. He was the most popular kid in school, which just goes to show that some people at least do rise above their names. After primary, Slobo went to another school but he'd turned up at St Daniel's this year. True to form, he was already one of the most popular kids in school and a strong tip for the next school captain. Some people were saying that Slobo was the new Scobie.

Our problem was that Slobo had one thing Scobie definitely didn't have – musical talent. Lots of it. He sang, he played the piano, he wrote his own stuff and he had a personality the size of a supertanker. Last year he made the finals of that
Search for a Star
show on TV. So if Slobo Bugslag
entered our piddly little Talent Quest, he wasn't just going to win it, he was going to chew it up and spit it out.

It had now gone pretty quiet for an emergency situation. It felt like the emergency had passed because the patient had died and we were all attending the funeral.

‘Well,' Razz said, trying to prod our enthusiasm back to life, ‘we've still got a couple of weeks. I can work more on my drum solo, I guess, and try to find something else to add.'

‘And we've still got the house auditions to do,' Scobie added in support. ‘Who knows what that's going to turn up? All is not lost.'

No, not lost. Maybe misplaced – like a contact lens left on a sand dune in the middle of the Gobi Desert.

That night in my room I tried to come up with a solution to our Talent Quest problem. I failed. So I decided to man up and at least do something about Kelly and Raychell. I'd made my decision and now it was time to make two phone calls – an easy one and a hard one. One to say ‘Yes' and one to say ‘No'.

My mum reckons that whenever you're faced with a number of things you have to do, always do the hardest one first while you're fresh, to get it out of the way. I held my mobile in my hand.

I scrolled down to Kelly's name and pushed
Call
.

It was Saturday the twentieth. I got off a bus to walk the short distance to 72 Norwood Road. That was the address written on a slip of paper in my pocket. She was waiting for me at the front of the house. My heart jumped like it had suddenly remembered why it was beating. Those ice-blue eyes did it to me every time.

My mum's pretty smart, but I didn't always agree with her. Personally, I think it's better sometimes to do the
easy
things first, you know, to sort of help you build up some momentum for the hard ones.

Watching
Hamlet
with Kelly was great. Razz always complained about it being too long, but for me the night just rocketed by. Before I knew it, the lights were going up and everyone was filing from the theatre and spilling out into the courtyard area just off the street. Ms Entwhistle told all the Lourdes girls to wait beside the road while she went and brought the minibus around.

‘Make sure you're all ready to go,' she warned them. ‘I don't want to be chasing anyone up'.

Kelly and I moved a little away from the main group and found a quiet place to ourselves.

‘You survive the night all right then?' Kelly said.

‘I thought it was great. I had a great night.'

Stick around – I promise I'll come up with another word besides ‘great' shortly.

‘Really? Me too.'

‘Great.'

Maybe not.

Then Kelly glanced at me a few times like she was trying to make her mind up about something.

‘So … you don't wish … that you'd gone to the party at Raychell Taylor's house instead?'

For a moment my brain struggled to work out exactly why those words didn't seem right. Then it knew.

‘But … how did … Who …'

I didn't take long to figure it out.