Page 13 of Nothing Without You

‘Hello, Mrs Romano,’ Rose said. ‘We’re going along the track to look for koalas and possums. Can Evie come with us? We’ll look after her.’

Evie’s eyes must have lit up, and she sat up straight, once again relieved that her father wasn’t here to insist he chaperone.

‘Would you like to go?’ her mother asked.

She was already standing up, her empty plate in hand, ready to put in the sink. ‘Yes. I’d love to.’

‘Off you go then. Thanks girls. Evie’s lucky to have you around for company.’

She thought her mother would remind her to put shoes on, but she must have noticed that none of the others wore any. Thank goodness. Evie didn’t want them to think she was a baby and needed to be told what to do. What a night! A new bra, and walking at night with Chris and his sisters.

Lily handed her a spare torch and Evie strode alongside her, feeling like she was much older than thirteen. The girls were fun and included her, as if she was their friend. They had not gone far down the track when they spotted some possums; three sets of eyes high in a tree. The two girls walked ahead, and Evie was left behind with Chris, who was looking more closely into the trees and trying to find a koala. Eventually, he pointed far up into the fork of a tall gum tree. ‘There’s one,’ he whispered, the light from his torch showing a large koala tucked between the branches. ‘It’s a long way up. You can’t really get a good look at it,’ he said, shining his torch around the tops of the other trees nearby.

‘Where did Lily and Rose go?’ she asked, peering ahead at the track as it widened out onto the beach.

‘Going spotlighting for animals is just an excuse for them to have a smoke. They’ll be around the corner of the bush there. You can’t tell anyone though. I’m sworn to secrecy.’

‘Wow. I didn’t know they smoked. Do you?’

‘No way. I wouldn’t be any good at football or running if I smoked. It’s bad for you. Dad’d kill the girls if he knew.’

‘What about your mum?’

‘She’s just cranky all the time, so it’d be nothing new. Half the time I think they do it just to spite her. Neither of them get on with her.’ He stopped talking and started walking, almost as if he’d said too much and wanted to change the subject. ‘Let’s go to the beach. The moon’s up and it’ll look good over the water.’

They stood with their feet in the water, the small waves lapping gently on the shore. Chris kicked his foot up, splashing the water high in the air. ‘Look at the sea sparkle. It’s like green lights in the waves.’

He kicked a cascade of water high in the air, creating a dazzling display of slow-falling, sparkling water drops. Before them, the water shimmered with the glow of innumerable tiny lights, their radiance vivid against the backdrop of the ocean. Evie joined in, kicking up more water, and they laughed as more tiny sparkles cavorted in front of them. ‘What is it?’ she asked, captivated by the glittering neon patterns that danced in the moonlight.

‘It’s got something to do with the moon, or plankton. I can’t remember, but it’s like magic.’ Time slipped away as they splashed and laughed, the moon high above them casting a radiant beam across the expansive ocean.

Captivated by the hundreds of tiny lights resembling glow-worms, flickering amid the splashes, she exclaimed, ‘Wow! This truly is magical.’

He stared at her, his teeth white, his blue eyes bright and excited. ‘It’s Stradbroke Island magic. The Magic Island.’

‘My dad calls it Saltwater Place.’

He kept looking at her. ‘I like that. Saltwater Place.’

She smiled back at him, thinking how this was the best night ever. Suddenly something touched her foot under the water and she squealed, nearly falling over as she jumped backwards. Chris bent down and held up a piece of seaweed. ‘Magic seaweed. Saltwater seaweed.’

They laughed again, as they turned and walked back up the beach. On the tree line she could see the glow of two cigarettes, the faint smell of the smoke drifting across the beach. By the time they reached the girls and sat down next to them, there was no sign they had been doing anything they weren’t supposed to.

Lily held her hand out. ‘Evie, we want to make you part of our club. It means you have to swear not to repeat anything you hear us talk about, or dob on us for things we’re not supposed to do. If you see us talking to the boys who are camped up further, you aren’t to tell. Are you in on it?’

The girls and Chris held their hands in the air, and she put hers up, a warm feeling of being accepted overcoming her as all their hands joined together.

‘You can trust me,’ she said. ‘I can keep a secret.’

Thankfully, she didn’t see too much happening that needed to be kept secret. The girls always walked ahead of her and Chris, then snuck into the bushes to have their smokes. The boys who were camped up further were Lily’s friends from school, who had left a couple of years ago and now worked as carpenters. They were on holiday also, so Lily and Rose spent a lot of time with them, well out of the view of Chris, Evie and their parents.

Most of Evie’s day was spent on the beach. Occasionally, her mother came down and watched her fish for a while, or sat on a towel with her as they watched Chris and his father surf beyond the small breakers that pounded onto the shoreline.

‘Don’t they worry about sharks?’ her mother asked.

‘They go out there every day. Chris said sometimes they see a shark. When they do, they come in. The other day they said they got a fright because there were dolphins. At first, they thought they were sharks.’

She glanced sideways at her mother who wore a short floral shift, her legs tanned from sitting in the sun. A paisley bandanna held her hair back and her face carried a golden glow, with no makeup to be seen. She looked younger than when she was at home. If only they could stay on holiday forever, Evie thought. Her dad could come back from work, catch the ferry over, and have some time with them. She could show him where the deep gullies were in the ocean; where the best fish lay waiting. Every day she caught fish, and it was now routine for Chris to take the fish home so his father could fillet them for Evie and her mother.

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