Chapter 10: On A Mission

Yoshi stubbed the butt of his cigarette into the underside of the banister. He stood slowly, stretched and broke his silence. “Right. I think I’ll leave you kids to it. Cheers for the party and all that.”

“You could crash here if you want,” said Zach.

“Nah, tsawright. Don’t really feel like sleeping yet. I’ll get a taxi to the Cas’ for a spot of hard-core gambling.”

“Huh. Really?”

“Yeah. It’s either that or a titty-bar, and I can’t be fucked tormenting myself like that right now.”

“Well, don’t blow all your pay. You gotta eat something next week,” Marshall advised.

“’tsOK. I’ve a stockpile of mee goreng in case of emergency. Should see me through,” he grinned and fluttered a casual wave around the circle. “Be good,” he pointed at Marshall and walked down the stairs to the street.

They all yelled their goodbyes after Yoshi’s silhouette until it could no longer be distinguished from the Box trees lining the road.

“Good fella,” Alby said contentedly.

Donna uncurled from Zach’s lap and stood stretching. She offered her hand to help Zach to his feet and wrapped her arms around him. “Well, we’ll leave you kids to it, too. I’m calling it a night and taking my boy with me.”

“Alright. Nighty night.”

“’night guys.”

 “So, how about you guys? You all ready for bed?” asked Alby.

“Not really. I kinda feel like waiting for the sun to rise. I haven’t watched a sunrise for ages,” said Hazel.

“Hmmmm. Me too,” said Pilar.

They all stared wistfully into the perforated blackness of the sky, lost in their own thoughts and sentiments. They sighed as one.

“Well, what should we do in the meantime?”

“I’m kinda enjoying this,” Hazel indicated to the shroud above them. “Just staring out into infinity and getting drunk and getting sentimental and nostalgic.”

“Wanker,” Pilar coughed into her fist.

Marshall smiled. “The fragile scent of the moon bathes the world in such delicate sentiment.”

Laughter exploded from Alby with such force as to make him fall off the sofa. Pilar pretended to vomit over the edge of the chair.

“Niiiice,” Hazel applauded, appreciating Marshall’s efforts.

“Thanks. I’m proud of that one.”

They paused once more to bask in the reverie of silence. After the madness of the night it was good to just sit, relax and readjust to the pace of reality. They each chased their own internal monologues and dove down tangents safe in the company of friends. A yawn rolled around the circle.

Alby jolted upright, struck by a thought lingering at an intersection of his neuronal highways. “Why don’t we go to the beach? It can be our mission!”

“As long as we can get snacks on the way” Hazel said.

“Yes. Yes we CAN!” he exclaimed. “We must! It is our duty to have snacks.” Alby was on his feet now, wringing his hands and pacing, restored to hyperactivity, organising a course of action and plotting the ascent of man. They went inside and added another couple of layers of clothing and grabbed towels in case they were struck by the impulse to go for a swim. They were in love, but with what they couldn’t say.

Alby tried to rouse Zach from his room, but Donna was having none of it. She had plans of her own and wasn’t going to let Alby spoil them. She leant a chair under the knob of the bedroom door, and yelled at him when he tried to hip-and-shoulder it open. They traded barbs through the keyhole. Donna told him that if Zach went he would only distract him from his chemistry with Pilar; that they had danced around each other long enough, and that they should just do it already. Alby tried to fob Donna’s comments off with a laugh, but his embarrassment showed through the façade. If she could have seen, he would have blushed.

As Donna was blocking progress, Alby turned his attention to Zach. He pleaded with him, taunted him for being pussy-whipped and warned him of the fun he’d be missing out on, but Zach stayed quiet. He knew how dangerous it would be to side with Alby. There would be recriminations if he were to follow.

Pilar sashayed around the bedroom, picking up odd pieces of costuming strewn across the floor and commenting on their practicalities and uses. Alby poked his head around the corner and walked in, his normally demeanour now somehow stiff and stilted. Under normal circumstances he was perfectly capable of innocent flirting, but the threat of physical manifestation made him apprehensive. Suddenly, wherever he looked there were all these real or imagined signals. He flitted about the room, giggling nervously at everything Pilar said and reading subtext into every flippant comment.

Hazel and Marshall distracted themselves by hunting for snacks amongst the ruins of the kitchen. They compiled a picnic hamper of sorts, filling a canvas bag with the remnants of half-eaten packets of chips and lollies. Leftover punch was siphoned into a portable cooler together with handfuls of ice from the washing machine and wild mint from the backyard, and the dregs of assorted spirits were poured in for good measure. Glances were half-missed across the table.

As Marshall was draining the last drops from a cask into the cooler a face, eyes wild and bloodshot, popped up at the window before him. Marshall jumped back. The bulging eyes stared, the face tenses, straining into a look of frightful disapproval as nostrils flared above a dishevelled moustache and dark stubble. Marshall strangled a scream. A tongue flicked out between teeth.

Hazel followed his line of sight. The face turned towards her. He hissed behind bared teeth and ducked out of sight. She tiptoed around the table to the window and peered through the glass towards the ground. She caught the flapping of a coat turning around the corner of the house. Turning to Marshall she put her index finger to her lips and crept along the wall following the direction taken by the coat. She crept to the back door and pressed her back against the wall. Marshall screwed his brow at her, concerned. Hazel slowly reached for the doorknob. She closed her eyes for a brief second, then all at once grabbed and turned the knob and jerked the door open. She flung herself into the cavity and screamed. A startled and panicked shout responded from the darkness. Hazel burst into laughter. The voice outside sounded again, this time with as much relief as fear. A man staggered into the house clutching at his chest. Hazel made way and laughed at him. Marshall finally recognised the face of the almighty megaphone man, albeit a more dishevelled version thereof.

“Fucking hell, Haze. You scared the shit outta me.” He sighed deeply, and moaned as if rearranging his startled organs. At last his composure returned. He smoothed his moustache back into some sort of shape, looked over at Marshall and arched an eyebrow at Hazel.

“Marshall. A friend of Alby’s brother.”

“Ah. Mattias.” He extended a hand. Marshall accepted it.

Mattias turned back to Hazel. “I’d better be going before you finish me off. Have you seen my phone?” He wandered through the lounge and picked up a phone from atop the speaker. “Don’t worry. Found it.” He looked suspiciously from Hazel to Marshall and back again, a sinister smile dancing on his lips. “I’ll be off then.” He saluted with his phone and stumbled off down the hall and out the front door. The flyscreen slammed shut behind him.

With the hamper packed and clothes and towels gathered, they piled into the Gemini; Alby and Pilar in the front, Hazel and Marshall in the back. A bad 90’s mix-tape was pushed into the tape deck and Alby steered out onto the road. Uninhibited laughs and excited voices bounced off the windows. The elephant sat heavily and looked quizzically at each of them in turn as they exchanged secret glances, coy flicks of hair and light touches on arms.

The traffic lights along Vincent St were optimistic as those in the car sang along and earnestly acted out the lyrics to ‘Total Eclipse of the Heart’. Alby beat his fists against the steering wheel, Pilar dived into interpretive dance, while in the back Hazel sang towards Marshall, who laughed nervously, excited to not only bear witness, but to also actively participate.

“Once upon a time I was falling in love, but now I’m only falling apart. There’s nothing I can say; a total eclipse of the heart.”

Hazel concluded, a parody of an emotional wreck, her head against Marshall’s chest, her hands covering her face.

“Turn around bright eyes,” Marshall intoned with the fading strains, placing a hand under her chin and lifting her face towards his. They looked deep into each other’s eyes, holding the pose for a little longer than absolutely necessary. Alby glanced in the mirror and smiled, eyes twinkling fast. Marshall summoned all of his courage and drew Hazel’s enraptured face towards his, their lips were a feather from touching, but as the last of the strings subsided both pulled their faces away fast, shielding their faces with their palms in mockery of a love lost.

Alby and Pilar laughed their appreciation. The opening bars of ‘Summer of ‘69’ crackled through the tinny speakers. Alby clapped with delight. “How are you going to re-enact this?”

Hazel sat back up and straightened her cardigan as Marshall removed his hand from her back and repositioned it on her knee, maintaining contact with memory. He held his breath and his heart tore at his chest. She didn’t flinch.

They kept singing their way through Floreat and over the paved dunes to the invisible panorama of the ocean. The lighthouse on Rottnest Island winked in time. Marshall could feel Hazel’s warmth against his palm. She leaned on his shoulder and ran a surreptitious hand up his leg to leave it lingering on his thigh, a promise. Tingles ran through his body and his heart jumped a beat. He was thrilled at the night and the position he found himself in. His mind retracted his steps to this moment. It had been a night of extreme joy, and now he found himself surrounded by the brightest lights in the city. This was how he imagined life.

The car park was deserted. Marshall and Hazel separated. Pilar grabbed the hamper from at her feet and Alby sprinted across the grass, trailing towels behind him like flags and singing the national anthem at the top of his voice. He jumped from the rock wall down onto the yellow beach, misjudging the distance and losing his balance, sprawling face first into the sand. He got up, flung the towels aside and proceeded to perform cartwheels in the sand. Pilar ambled after him alone in her own grinning world.

Marshall and Hazel lagged behind, bumping each other and taking it in turns to be piggybacked. Hazel sat on a swing and pulled Marshall towards her. He stood in front of her with his feet buried in the soft cool sand. He looked over her head at the slumbering ocean. The sea half-heartedly collapsed onto the sand as if turning in its sleep and lapped at the tide-line as if licking its lips. He lowered his head towards Hazel’s and closed his eyes as their lips formed a kiss. They both wondered whether the other could hear their heart over the rustle of the ocean. Their mouths moved in synchrony- lips opening and closing in harmony, tongues dancing in time. The mist of passion clouded their minds and the rest of the world ceased to exist.

He had grown up with the belief that girls were somehow above the sweaty palmed excitement of sex, or even the suggestion thereof; that the topic of sex never crossed their minds. He had believed that the base pleasures boys and girls enjoyed eyed each other off from the opposite sides of the spectrum. To his mind boys were depraved while girls were virtuous. That was just how he had been brought up. The purity of girl-kind kept them floating above the squalid murkiness of innuendo and perversion that swamp the male mind. It had never really occurred to him that girls might indulge in these activities too- that they too could get caught up in such pleasures. But in the position he now found himself in, the light ignited in his head and he was illuminated by the knowledge that girls are just as depraved as boys. He laughed at himself as she placed her hands on him.

Their focus was broken into a semi-dazed reality by the sound of a wolf-whistle from the beach. In the half moon light they could see Pilar sitting on a square of towels and Alby further away standing shin-deep in the water and waving at them. Marshall raised his arms in surrender, and Pilar joined in the heckling. Hazel adjusted her clothing and blushed.

“I guess we should join them.”

He begrudgingly nodded his agreement. They realised that they couldn’t abandon a mission just because something shiny caught their eye.

Marshall helped Hazel to her feet and they ambled hand in hand down to the beach. Pilar was getting stuck into the goodie-bag, ignoring the shouts and incantations of the maniac in the surf.

“Alby! You forgot the drinks. The esky’s still in the car. Can you go get it?” It was more of a demand that a question.

“Put on me jandals and jersey and git sex choice fush and chups from tha chully-ben, bro.”

“Good one dickhead.” Hazel rolled her eyes at him.

Ceasing the opportunity to show off his athleticism he sprinted up the soft sand and leapt up the 5-foot rock wall in a single stride. He turned to his audience, flexing and peacocking, before doubling over in laughter at his own brilliance.

“Yes. Very good, dear,” Pilar shouted as if placating a child.

            “Any luck?” Hazel nodded towards the silhouette on the rise.

            “Ha. Not likely.”

            “Well come on then. Make your move. We all know he won’t.”

            “Yeah… I don’t know.” She looked uncertain.

            “You should. You know it won’t happen otherwise.”

            “I dunno…”

            “Oh come on.”

            Pilar ran her fingers through the sand. She was in a fix. If she went ahead and put the hard word on Alby she knew she would have to face up to the gossip in the morning. She knew that Hazel and Donna would sit her down and not let her so much as blink until she had told them everything- the quality, the timing, the positions, and most importantly the dimensions. It was a ritual akin to interrogation. She had been an interrogator alongside both Hazel and Donna before, so knew just how brutal they could be. She at least found some consolation that she could deflect attention away from herself and back onto Hazel should the occasion arrive.

            “What do you have to lose?” Hazel pleaded. She didn’t want to see her friend pass up this opportunity. Pilar and Alby had been running around the matter for months, but they never seemed to be able to get over that first hurdle, that first sincere touch. It was a source of frustration not only for themselves, but for those close to them as well.

            “I don’t know if it’s the best idea.”

            “Don’t give me that. You’ve both wanted this for months. Get on it, already.” Hazel flapped her arms around in exasperation.

            Pilar collapsed into a state of quiet panic. She was feeling the pressure. She wanted to get together with Alby, but she was also scared of the consequences. She didn’t want to start something that could tear their friendship and even the whole group apart.

            Alby ran back and collapsed onto all fours in the sand next to them, panting. Between gasps he spoke, “Sorry I’m late. I ran here as fast as I could. Those hills over there are steeper than they look, and I was attacked by a bear on the way. See? It mauled the legs of my jeans. It’s a good thing it was only this big and his body was over-stuffed. That was the only reason I got away.” He started filling plastic cups with ambiguous fluid from the cooler. “So who’s thirsty?”

            They took their drinks and stared out to sea, summing up their options. Even Alby calmed down. Without the momentum of his stream of conscience ramblings they all stretched out and gazed westward over the white chop to the invisible horizon beyond. Hazel rested her head on Marshall’s chest and he wrapped an arm around her.

It was a perfect cloudless night. The sky above them morphed from a near-perfect black out to sea, to a dull and hazy dark blue glow above the city. While out to sea the slow arc of even the dullest galaxy could be traced, the city lights behind them illuminated the ceiling and masked the presence of all but the very brightest of stars. Occasional comets drowned themselves in the horizon. They lay there at the intersection of the universe. The world tilted over itself.

“Right. Who wants a swim?" Alby’s inevitable return to consciousness jolted them all back to reality.

Hazel was first to her feet, offering her hands to help Marshall up. “We are. Why don’t you stay here and keep Pilar company?”

Alby was a little taken aback and the prospect of what was meant by ‘keep company’ weighed heavily on his mind. He was daunted by the prospect of lowering his defences to let another person in, and of having them do the same in return. He looked at Hazel sideways and waggled his finger. “Heeeey. I know what you’re up to.”

“Yep. I think we all do. Use your time wisely. We intend to do the same.”

Marshall’s eyes widened at Hazel’s forthrightness. Alby and Pilar laughed, but their veneer was thin. Hazel slipped her cardigan from her shoulders and untied her bodice, her nipples rose to meet the cool air through her shirt. She removed her skirt and Marshall blushed involuntarily and tried not the stare open mouthed at the lithe body standing practically naked in front of him. Anxiously, Marshall whipped his shirt off and nearly fell over his jeans as he tried to step out of them. His arousal was painfully evident behind his underwear.

“Hoo-weee! You’re onto a winner there!” said Alby.

Marshall blushed deeper. Hazel started walking towards the edge of the earth, a sly grin on her lips as Marshall trotting along behind. The juvenile catcalls continued from the towels. “Make sure you use all of it!” “Are you sure it’ll fit?” “Is it hot in here, or just in his pants?”

Hazel strutted brazenly along the hardened sand unbuttoning her shirt before casually tossing the limp material onto the sand. Marshall watched the arc of its fall. As his gaze rose he took in the view. Her Achilles stood out fiercely from the back of her ankle to create twin, elongated hollows on either side. The tendons rose to strong, shapely calves that pulsated with each stride, creating a dichotomy between beauty and ugliness. He took in her taut hamstrings, her rounded bottom and slender angle into her waist and out again as it rose to her chest, her broad shoulders, the flow of shimmering red from her crown. A feeling of intense lust and awe washed over him as he followed her into the wash.

She glowed luminescent in the starlight. She seemed almost transparent amongst the inky wash of the sea and the impenetrable darkness of the sky above. Galaxies blinked on, gazing witnesses to their first tentative steps. Marshall gave a shiver of thrill.

She tied her hair into an impromptu bun atop her head as she strode out beyond the sandbank. He followed her with his body, with his eyes, by the sound of the wash against her skin, by her sweet citrus scent. He wanted to reach out and touch, to caress her tender curves with his own hands, to run his fingers over her body.

She stopped and turned; her hands cupped her breasts. Beyond her self-assuredness she felt the need to control complete access to her body until the time was right. He approached her and she stretched her arms out to meet him, the water swelling around her chest. He gazed in breathless wonder, trying not to stare, but secretly wishing for a trough in the swell to expose her. He fell into her open arms.

They kissed and groped there in the ocean, all pretence of romance and restraint cast back into the restless shore. From the wanderings of their hands and mouths they came to know each other better than if they had spent their time talking. A squeeze became a question, a sigh a response, and exploring finger a philosophy for better living.

On the shore Alby and Pilar watched in fascination and fear for a while, before succumbing to embarrassment at their own potential. They distracted themselves with nursery rhymes and forgotten childhood songs while casting veiled glances out to the water. When the sea started to froth and foam and erupt they forfeited to discretion. They strolled away along the high water line. They laughed at the folly of lust, secretly wishing for the fulfilment of their own.