extraordinary if Iwan Krol is waiting outside in a car listening to The Carpenters softly on the radio as he sharpens his Bowie knife.
Ring, ring. Fuck it. Sometimes when Saturn calls, you just gotta answer.
‘Hello,’ I say.
‘Hello, Eli,’ says the voice down the phone line.
That same voice from last time. The voice of a man. A real man type man. Deep and raspy, weary maybe.
‘It’s you, isn’t it?’ I ask. ‘The one I spoke to when Lyle said I wasn’t speaking to no one but I was.’
‘That’s me, I guess,’ the man says.
‘How’d you know I was down here?’
‘I didn’t,’ he says.
‘Then it’s a hell of a fluke you got me as I was passing through,’ I say.
‘Not so flukey,’ he says. ‘I must call this number forty times a day.’
‘What number do you dial?’
‘I dial the number for Eli Bell,’ he says.
‘What number is that?’
‘773 8173.’
‘That’s insane,’ I say. ‘This phone doesn’t take calls.’
‘Who told you that?’
‘Lyle.’
‘But isn’t this a call?’
‘Yeah.’
‘So I guess it takes calls,’ he says. ‘Now, tell me, where are you at?’
‘What do you mean?’
‘At what stage of your life are you at?’
‘Well, I’m thirteen years old . . .’
‘Yes, yes,’ he says, urgent. ‘But be more specific. Is it close to Christmas?’
‘Huh?’
‘Never mind,’ he says. ‘What are you doing right now and why? And please don’t lie because I will know if you are lying.’
‘Why should I tell you anything?’
‘Because I need to tell you something important about your mother, Eli,’ he says, frustrated. ‘But first I need you to tell me what has just happened to you and your family.’
‘Lyle got taken away by some men who work for Tytus Broz,’ I say. ‘Then Iwan Krol chopped off my lucky finger and I passed out and woke up in hospital and Slim told me Mum got taken to the Boggo Road women’s prison and Gus got taken to my father’s house in Bracken Ridge and I escaped from hospital and I’m on the run like Slim in 1940 and I came here to find . . . to find . . .’
‘The drugs,’ the man says. ‘You wanted to find Lyle’s stash of heroin because you thought you could take that to Tytus Broz and he might exchange the drugs for Lyle but . . .’
‘It’s gone,’ I say. ‘Tytus got to the drugs before me. He got the drugs and he got Lyle. He got it all.’
I yawn. I’m so tired. ‘I’m tired,’ I say down the phone line. ‘I’m so tired. I must be dreaming this. This is just a dream.’
My eyes are closing with exhaustion.
‘This is not a dream, Eli,’ the man says.
‘This is crazy,’ I say, dizzy now, confused. A fever chill. ‘How did you find me?’
‘You picked up the phone, Eli.’
‘I don’t understand. I’m so tired.’
‘You need to listen to me, Eli.’
‘Okay, I’m listening,’ I say.
‘Are you really listening?’ the man asks.
‘Yes, I’m really listening.’
A long pause.
‘Your mum will not survive Christmas Day,’ the man says.
‘What are you talking about?’
‘She’s on obs, Eli,’ he says.
‘What’s obs?’
‘Observation, Eli,’ he says. ‘Suicide watch.’
‘Who are you?’
I’m feeling sick. I need to sleep. I have a fever.
‘Christmas is coming, Eli,’ the man says.
‘You’re scaring me and I need to sleep,’ I say.
‘Christmas is coming, Eli,’ he says. ‘Sleigh bells.’
‘I’ve gotta lie down.’
‘Sleigh bells, Eli,’ the man says. ‘Sleigh bells!’
‘I gotta close my eyes.’
‘Sleigh bells,’ the man repeats.
What was that song she sang about sleigh bells? ‘Sleigh bells ring, are you listenin’? In the lane, snow is glistenin’. Gone away is the blue bird. Here to stay is the new bird.’
‘Yeah, sleigh bells,’ I say to the man. ‘Your end is a dead blue wren.’
And I hang up the phone and I curl up on the earth floor of Lyle’s secret room and I pretend that Slim’s girl Irene is sleeping down here in the hole with me. I slide into a bed with her and I spoon against her porcelain skin and I reach a comforting arm across her warm breast and she turns to kiss me goodnight with the face of Caitlyn Spies. The most beautiful face I’ve never seen.
Boy Meets Girl
The office of the South-West Star community newspaper is in Spine Street in Sumner Park, an industrial suburb neighbouring Darra, across the Centenary Highway that takes drivers north into Brisbane’s CBD or west towards the Darling Downs. The newspaper office is two doors up from the Gilbert’s tyre shop where Lyle goes to get second-hand tyres. It’s next door to a