Archimede Fusillo Dead Dog in the Still of the Ni

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.‘Maybe we can load that piece of crap into the hearse and take it for a last ride down to the tip.’‘Bullshit, Prims,’ Tone replied.‘I’ll take it off your hands and sell it down at the Thomo T and T.It’s got to be worth a few dollars to some loser, yeah?’‘Be my guest,’ Primo said with a grin, making an exaggerated gesture in the direction of the old bicycle.Adrian had been given it as a Christmas present when he was four or five.It had been Primo’s from the day Adrian went to secondary school.He helped Tone lug the old bike into the rear of the hearse.Tone drove with the fingers of one hand resting almost reverentially on the steering wheel.His other hand held a lit cigarette, smoke streaming from it out the open driver’s window.‘So, is she?’ he asked through pursed lips.‘Is who what?’‘Is Maddie talking to you yet or what?’Primo stared out at the passing suburb, his suburb, where he’d spent all his life, where his parents had bought their family home a few months after getting married at the Catholic church just down the road, in front of a grand crowd of seven people, including the priest.There was a spree of the lightest purple in the twilight sky.It made Primo melancholic.‘It’s that time of the month,’ he answered flippantly.‘She isn’t talking to anyone.’‘Yeah, happens to my mum.She goes all silent and moody about once a month.’‘Maddie’s pissed because I can’t afford the OS thing just yet.How many shifts does she think I get at the freight yard? I’ve got school and stuff, too.’‘Yeah, there’s all that too, I guess,’ Tone said casually.‘And the fact that you went a little psycho over the car.’ He gave Primo a quick glance.‘She said we need a break,’ Primo said defensively, ‘so I’m giving her a break, okay?’‘You’re just pissed because she called your bluff and now she’s off OS without you.’ Tone didn’t even look at Primo as he chastised him.‘I told you ages ago you were out of your league with Maddie, Prims.Her dad’s posh, her mum’s posh.She even has a posh name: Ma-de-line.Me and you, we need to stick to what we know.Maria.Tracey.Maybe a Samantha at a stretch.’Tone nudged him playfully, but Primo was having none of it.‘If she hadn’t been so righteous about the trip and looked at me like I was some sort of spook, I wouldn’t of been so pissed.I wouldn’t of decided to just take off for OS on my own like that.’‘You haven’t called her or texted, have you?’ Tone went on.‘Bet you’ve checked her Facebook status, eh? Still “In a relationship”, is she?’Tone laughed, closing his eyes and tossing back his head, steering blind for several seconds.The hearse held its line, heavy and cumbersome but steady.In the rear compartment the bicycle clattered noisily.‘Why don’t you come clean with your mum and tell her you had an accident?’ Tone asked finally.‘Your old lady must have a bit put away for an emergency, right? Get the car fixed, make up with Maddie, let her take this OS trip and all’s good with the world.’No, all’s not good, Primo wanted to shout.All’s pretty stuffed up actually.Beginning with my old man and finishing with Maddie.What he said instead was, ‘You know I’m not supposed to even touch the car, except to keep the motor turning over and tyres inflated.I’ll figure out a way to get it repaired before anyone else knows about it.’The hearse groaned to a stop outside an old wisteria-covered yellow brick house with drooping gutters and a bright green tiled roof.His sister’s clapped-out Holden Gemini sat in the driveway, its once rich paintwork faded to the palest blue.‘Thanks for the ride,’ Primo said.‘You want me to wait, Prims?’Primo thought for a moment.He’d rather just be on his own.‘All good,’ he said, getting out of the hearse.He shouldered the tote bag and stepped back, watching as Tone did a screeching U-turn and took off, horn blaring, right arm out the window giving him the bird.Primo turned back to the narrow house with its overgrown weeds poking through the wrought iron fence, and the uncollected junk mail spewing out onto the footpath.He hadn’t dropped in on Kath in a while, he realised as he stood there, and even then it had been on Maddie’s insistence.She’d wanted to take Kath up on the offer to drop in whenever it suited.Remembering how well his sister and Maddie had got on made Primo cautious about being there by himself.Maddie’s presence had somehow muted Primo’s unease about his sister moving out of home on what seemed a whim to him.The moment Kathleen opened the door to his knocking Primo held the two tins out in her direction, saying, ‘Your turn to make sure the old man gets his fix.And Mum reckons don’t be late this time.’Kathleen stood in the doorway, a tin in each hand, studying her younger brother.She was slightly plump, with green eyes and striking red hair that cascaded around her oval face.She was their mother, down to the Irish name, unlike the rest of them.‘You want to come in for a few minutes?’ she asked finally.‘We’ve just got in from work and the kettle’s on.’ She smiled and stepped aside.A woman in her early thirties appeared beside Kathleen.She had her head mostly hidden in a towel, and was wrapped in a loose floral robe [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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