Camping

It’s amazing how life rushes on past, not stopping for you. You’ve just got to hang on and take your opportunities when they present themselves. Sometimes you lose your grip and fall down and that’s okay for a time, but eventually you just have to stick your head up again and grab on.

I had been working for a local construction firm on the site of a new housing conversion – the old brewery was being turned into 300 apartments. The way of the world. Work was good, I’d been unemployed for so long. I got the job through a good high school mate, Adam Boys. Not what you know, but who you know, of course.

Adam, Joel Brady and Tim Wade and I were all mates at school. The four of us grew up together and graduated from high school in the early nineties. After high school, Joel, Tim and I went off to uni, but Adam went to work for his dad in the construction business. We lost touch, as even the most well intentioned friends do. Life moves on in unexpected ways. Whoosh and it’s turned upside down.

After uni, I didn't know what to do with myself. Suddenly school was over and uni was over. Whoosh! What fucken happened? I opened a café and when that went cunt-up, I had a shot at a cleaning business. It went the way of the café and I disappeared into a bong haze for a while with like-minded housemates, after that, ashamed at being a failure.

The black sheep accepts his crown.

Joel passed the CPA exam on the first try and got a job with a major accounting firm. He seemed set. I envied him. On course. Then he discovered drugs and the party scene, I may have introduced him to them. I needed a mate to party with, as Tim had headed overseas to get away from precisely that. Joel grew tired of work and quit.

I felt guilty about it, for the longest time.

Some how we lost five years, in a haze of mediocrity and sedation. Joel, and I, were living on welfare, getting pox job after pox job just to keep our government hand out coming in.

Joel dealt party drugs, to supplement his dole and to get our drugs cheaper, for nix if you were hard-arsed about it like Joel.

What happened to all that promise?

One night Joel ran into Adam, at a club. He was doing well in his father’s company. His firm‘s market share was expanding, profits were up. Adam offered Joel a job. It was a menial job, Adam made that clear, but it still paid more than the dole.

I signed up to do some temp work, three months worth, while some account manager was on long service leave and found myself working in the Adam’s company too.

Tim returned from OS and the four of us started to hang out together on Friday’s right after work. None of us ever had girlfriends to speak of, so we were glad of the company. We’d usually head to a bar close to the construction site, to down a few beers before we headed for home. It was slow, Adam being boss man and all, but over many beers as Friday night dusk fell we became friends all over again.

We planned a camping trip for a late January weekend. We decided to leave for the campsite immediately after work on that Friday. What was the point of heading home? Joel volunteered to pick up Adam, Tim and me so we’d only have one car at work that day. Then we could head on to the camping site together. Of course, Adam wanted to take his brand new Peugeot GTI, but Joel won out. Joel and Adam have always been competitive with each other, just always been.

Joel drove a GTHO Falcon. When he turned eighteen his dad gave him the car as a birthday present. His dad had stopped driving the car as a daily driver and the car had been sitting in the garage, under a tarp, so it only seemed fitting. Joel loved that car even if he didn’t always have the money to take care of it.

It was hot. It had rained in the afternoon, which only made the hot day sticky. There were puddles all over the muddy construction site at the end of the day, simmering. There was a hazy quality to the late afternoon sun; steam seemed to be rising from the pools in ground. Hazy. Shimmer.

The four of us met at a local bar for a few of knock-off beers before we headed for the car together. The ceiling tried its hardest to cool us down. The bottoms of our work boots were covered in mud, as we approached the classic Falcon. Joel told us not to worry. He shrugged. The floor at the back was covered with clumps of dried mud, thanks to working construction. Joel shrugged again when he saw me looking at it. “Can’t be helped,” said Joel. He took off his hard hat and got into driver’s seat. Adam got in on the passenger side and Tim and I got in the back seat.

Joel slipped the key in the ignition and started to crank the engine. He pumped the accelerator with his mud-covered Blundstone. He pressed it down about half way. The engine turned over but didn’t spark.

“The Berryman deal has to finalise in a week,” said Adam.

“I know,” I said. “I’ve been onto the warehouse, but so far nothing.”

Tim waved his hands at us. “A whole weekend,” said Tim, grinning. “Nothing but wide open spaces to worry about.”

The engine didn't fire. Joel pushed back in the seat, sat up straight and sighed. He started to mutter to himself, "Come on, come on."

“Here’s to the weekend,” said Tim, twisting the top off a stubby.

Joel gave the pedal more pumps.

“If we get there,” said Adam, looking over at Joel.

Joel looked at Adam, snorted out through his nose and then looked away.

The engine cranked. It caught then chugged again. Joel pumped the pedal. "Come on buddy," Joel whispered.

Cough. Nothing. The ignition lights glowed red on the dashboard.

“I bet with this heat and humidity the thing has vapour locked,” said Adam. “Why don’t you pump it a little more while your cranking and see if that will get more petrol to the carb.”

Joel looked in Adam’s direction and started cranking the engine again. The car was trying to start, but just couldn’t.

We all sat in silence.

Tim pulled a cigarette packet from his top pocket, out of which he produced a neatly rolled joint. “Something for our nerves, gentlemen,” he said. The rich smell filled the car. I felt butterflies in my stomach, at the thought. I hadn’t smoked at all since I’d started work, since I resurrected my life.

Adam put his hand on Joel’s shoulder. “Get out and pop the bonnet.” Adam pushed Joel gently. Joel recoiled with a twitch of his shoulder, clearly unhappy.

He got out of the car while Adam slid over to the drivers seat. He sat with his muddy right boot on driver’s side doorsill and his left boot on the floor of the car.

I puffed on the joint, after Tim.

Joel lifted the bonnet and took off the lid to the air cleaner and looked into the carb. He reached into his pocket and pulled something out and inserted it.

Tim stretched out and rested his head on the back of the seat and closed his eyes. “Tell me when it’s over,” he whispered to me. He touched me on the shoulder.

“The carb had flooded,” said Joel. “Try it now.”

Adam placed his right foot on the muddy ground outside the driver’s door and planted his well worn and muddy left work boot firmly on the pedal and pushed it down to the floor. He grabbed the key and turned it to "start" and kept it there. The engine cranked and cranked and cranked.

I sat back and puffed some more on the joint. Tim declined it when I offered it back to him. “Nah mate,” he whispered, with a flick of his head. “I’ll be humping your leg if I have any more.”

Somehow, I had a joint in one hand and a stubby in the other, from which I was alternating. My head spun.

“Hang on,” said Joel. He made some adjustment. “Okay Adam, try it again.”

Adam pushed his huge boot to the floor and turned the key. “Come on you piece of shit!”

Chug, chug, the engine sputtered to life. Black smoke billowed from the exhaust pipe. Adam gunned the accelerator. Broom! Broom!

“Don’t cane it, it’s still cold,” said Joel.

“I’ll fucken cane you,” said Adam.

“Hoo, hoo, hoo,” said Tim without opening his eyes.

"Like to see you try," said Joel.

The rich smell of unburned petrol filled the passenger compartment. I looked at Tim. He pinched his nostrils with his fingers.

Adam got out and walked up to the front of the car. “You need a new car, mate.”

Joel pushed Adam in the chest, kind of playfully, but not really. “Get in.”

Adam pushed Joel back, then walked to the passenger side of the car and got in. Joel took out the wonder implement, put the cover back on the air cleaner and lowered the hood with a whomp. He got back in the car.

The car rocked gently as it idled.

“Piece of shit,” said Adam grinning.

“You’re asking for it,” said Joel. "Fucken asking for it!"

He pushed the gear-stick into first. The rear wheels spun in the gravel, in the mud, I could hear the spray of gravel behind. We got on the highway and headed for the camping site. We downed the stubbies as we downed the kilometres.

“So how long is it going to take us to get there tonight?” asks Adam.

It was late and getting dark by the time we got there. Adam built a fire, with wood scavenged from not far away. Joel got the tents out. I found the billy, coffee and milk. Life's essentials. I got water from the geri-can. Tim produced another joint and he and I were wasted in no time.

"Can you help me with my boots," asked Tim, holding a leg in my direction. I took his foot in my hand and slowly undid the laces.

"Thank you Alfred," said Tim.

Then I took his other foot and did the same. "You're a natural," said Tim. He stroked his neck with his hand.

Late, after much drinking, Joel grabbed Adam by the shirt and pushed him backwards, up against a tree, on the edge of the camp site. I didn't really know why. Adam held his hands out in the air, as if to say he wasn’t going to fight. They gazed at each other like that for a few seconds, both breathing hard. Still. Silent.

Then Joel did an unexpected thing, when he thought Tim and I had looked away. He stepped towards Adam and kissed him hard on the mouth.

Adam kissed him back... as he rapped his arms around Joel.

Really late, when we were maggoted, Joel and I got to confession time. Tim and Adam had long since gone to bed.

“I pinched some money from work to pay for my lifestyle, back then,” said Joel. “I got out before they realised. Too embarrassed to chase me, I presume.” Then he just smiled at me, waiting for my response. “That’s why I left my job.”

I didn't know what to say.

It wasn’t my fault, then?

Joel shrugged when all he got was the glow of the hot embers in my eyes.

I heard some muffled moaning from Adam and Joel's tent, after we'd all finally gone to bed.

Tim put his arm around me, after I turned out the light. He hugged me as we drifted off to sleep. As Tim snored softly into my ear, just as my body started to melt into the ground, falling into sleep, I heard Adam yell out, moan.

Then all I could hear was frogs.