Detina Chapter 1: New Kid in Town September 13, 1983: <<JOSH, WAIT UP!>> The boy on the swift red BMX bike relaxed his pace, allowing his slower companion to catch up. David White pulled up on the uneven edge of Parkes Street, and asked <<So, where is this cubby of yours?>> <<Not far ahead>> was Joshua's curt reply. He was an average sized boy of 10, with short dark hair and cobalt eyes. David was a year older, a little taller, and with brownish hair. They were riding through the late afternoon sun towards Yarrabandai Creek and the stretch of land they called "the scrub", on the outskirts of Trundle, some 400km west of Sydney. Home to 300 odd souls, it was famous for having the widest main street in Australia, while the town's mudwalled hotel boasted the longest wooden verandah in the state. Some 50km to the east could be found the 64-meter Murriyang radio telescope, which helped to track the Apollo 11 mission to the moon. Everything was big out here, apart from the population of course, and everything was larger than life. There were enormous sheep and wheat farms, biblical mice plagues, and catastrophic duststorms/flocks of rampaging pink galahs that roared out of nowhere and sometimes clouded out the entire sky. The main street of Trundle was apparently so wide that you could drive two herds of livestock down it in opposite directions and they would never come to blows. These days, however, the bullock trains were gone, and most sheep or cattle were transported by truck. Although David was too young to realize, in many ways Trundle was a ghost town and a faded version of its former glory. There was a train station which never got used by passengers (the line was still in use, but it was just for hauling grain from the silos to the city.) While there were not exactly tumbleweeds rolling through the wide and barren streets, they would not look out of place either. There was tussocky grass and reddish soil, dust devils and tough shearers who wore blue singlets and drank at the Trundle Hotel, or gambled at the races, and occasionally got into a fight. Grim fare indeed for cultivated adults who liked to go to the opera or buy designer clothes, but what did kids care about culture and the high life? In fact, all that empty space was a blessing, the freedom to ride your BMX as far as you could in any direction, with only the occasional bully or grumpy farmer to give you no grief for it. Back at his bank home they a video player and VHS videos of Grease, Battlestar Galactica, Star Wars, and Flash Gordon, and a Texas Instruments computer crammed with 16KB of memory. He also possessed a Donkey Kong Junior handheld console, made by Nintendo in Japan, and a Rubik's cube. What more could you want? David had been living in Trundle for 18 months now, which was practically a lifetime in kid years. Over the duration of that time two things in particular had developed: his friendship with a certain Joshua Clark (JC), and his love of the bushland that now surrounded him. They had spent countless afternoons exploring the arid grasslands, prospecting for precious minerals, busting into abandoned shacks and sheds, and making hidden cubby houses in all manner of locations: rotting logs, hollows on the ground covered with sheets of tin, and even on the limbs of trees. They needed to be hidden, because there were bullies like Wayne Tauntaun or Darren Howard in town who liked nothing better than seizing some kid's bush cabin and razing it to the ground. Only a week previously their latest project, a daring venture to build a house of intertwined pine branches and trunks near the racecourse, had meet with disaster. Several days later, Josh had announced another potential cubby house site, along the very road they were riding upon. Him and Dave were on their way there right now to give it a proper inspection. <<Here we are>> Joshua finally announced, bringing his bike to a halt of what had now degenerated into a lonely dirt road. David stopped too and dragged his bike behind Josh across the dry, rugged terrain that bordered the trail. It was fairly open bush here, mostly brown grass with the occasional low shrub, stout young pine tree, no taller than a person, and of course the ubiquitous eucalyptus, the true emblem of Australia, with their shedding bark and strong, sturdy branches. Pellets of kangaroo droppings were everywhere, as were mean looking ants. The boys occasionally encountered spent bullet cartridges scattered through the scrub, but there none here today. Across the parched scrub they walked their bikes, eventually stopping behind the curtain of a low ridge. Thus concealed from the road, Joshua halted in front of a massive fallen eucalyptus, its exposed roots rising above a heap of disturbed soil. David leapt on top of the horizontal trunk, and tried to tiptoe like a trapeze artist from one end to the other. After six steps he lost his balance and tumbled to the ground, laughing. JC stepped over him and proceeded to a place where two boughs left the tree in a Y-pattern, then met again a little further ahead crushed under the impact of the fall. Between these woody lips a horizontal mouth was thus created, perhaps a meter in width and three in length. Joshua lowered himself into the trench and relaxed on a thick branch which had been pressed flat against the soil by the immense weight of the tree. <<This is perfect!>> David said, awestruck. He sat with his legs dangling into the trench, amazement filling his eyes. <<We could build a good cubby here>> Joshua said in agreement. He gestured the branches beneath him and said: <<We could use these as shelves to hold things. And we could even make a cover with leaves and twigs. We've done that before.>> <<So when do we start?>> David asked, as he peeled a crumbly piece of bark from the tree. <<We could come back tomorrow with Nathan>> his good buddy proposed. <<But the two of us could make a start of things right now. We've got plenty of time.>> <<Righto>> David replied, jumping to his feet. <<Do you think we should disguise it though, after what happened to our last cubby?>> Joshua was struck by that painful memory and resolved not to let it recur. <<I think we better>> he said at length. <<But we don't have to worry about it now. There's nothing to wreck just yet.>> The two labored for the next hour, filling the cavity with rocks, sticks and leaves gathered from the surrounding undergrowth, and commencing the assembly of the roof. For this task the two decided on a mat of woven branches, but they didn't have the time to make a satisfactory start. The sun was by this stage nearing the flat western horizon, though broken and filtered through the grass and trees; the land was bathed in the golden light of a late afternoon in spring. The two boys, somewhat exhausted but happy with their work, sat back against the wooden wall of their new creation, and watched the world around them for a while. <<Someone's moved into the Adison's house at the end of the street>> Joshua said, his eyes focused on a magpie stalking some bugs in the leaf litter. <<I saw a removalist truck outside when I got home from school. They came from Forbes, I think.>> David appeared interested. It was only last year when he himself arrived in Trundle in such a fashion; Joshua one year before that, and Nathan two years earlier. He found it strange that most of his friends here were comparatively new arrivals, and were destined to leave within several years. He wondered then why that should the the case. Personally, he found the town totally enthralling, a place of constant delights and discovery. He could live in Trundle for a thousand years with never a moment of boredom, with always some new experience yet to be encountered, and absorbed. He did not relish the thought of leaving here. <<I saw a few kids in the house>> Joshua continued. <<I think there was a boy our age amongst them.>> <<We'll find out tomorrow then>> David brooded, his thoughts dwelling on school. Finally he rose and motioned the sunset. <<We'd better go>> he said. <<It'll be dark soon.>> DESPITE HIS OBVIOUSLY ANGLO-SAXON name, Nathan Taylor bore a slightly swarthy appearance. His skin was somewhat olive hued, his hair lanky and black, which was the same color as his penetrating eyes. Compared to Joshua, David found Nathan more difficult to contend with, let alone to connect with. He was often volatile or moody. Earlier that year, Nathan had made some strange remarks claiming that he might die of AIDS one day. It was a new disease striking down gay men in America, according to TV reports. David didn't know what the term "gay" meant, and he didn't have much of an interest to find out. While his relationship with David and Joshua was mostly benign, there was something about the boy's personality was that not entirely trustworthy. A trace of schizophrenia lurked behind his face. FIRST CONTACT (c)opyright Rob Sullivan 1988-2023. Contact the author for all your criticisms and feedbacks.