It got so I hardly had time to work the place. People coming and going, newcomers leaving gates open. Folks coming with food and gifts for him, none of which he’d take. Some camping down there so they could be close to him. Then his cousin turns up. Stinking hot afternoon. Eagles wheelin’ across the sky. Frogs singing in the waterholes. He walks up the drive. He was on his own. Looked like a back-packer hunting for work. Asked where ‘John’ was. Took me a while. “Oh yeah, Jonno. Yeah. Nup. Yeah. Down at the river.” “Will you show me?” So, I walked him down and it was full-on weird. As in, weirder than it normally was with Jonno. He sees this bloke and he looks kind of scared and kind of embarrassed. Like I’d never seen him look before. And he didn’t say anything, which – for Jonno – was kind of a miracle in itself. Young bloke just went up to him and hugged him. No-one hugged Jonno. No-one. And then Jonno tried to send all his followers away, but the young bloke said not to. Evening dropped in, all red and gold and full of the cries of settling birds. We sat by the fire. Jonno asked me to sit too. I could tell something was up and he wanted company, but not his followers. Not this time. He introduced us. The young bloke – well, you know who he is. Everyone knows who he is now. Back then, he could have been anyone, and I didn’t take much notice. Seemed like a nice kid. Calm. Determined. Polite. Anyway, he asked Jonno to dunk him too. Talk about lighting the blue touchpaper. Jonno went troppo! No way was he gonna dunk that young bloke. He wanted the young bloke to dunk him. Said he wasn’t good enough to tie his shoelaces, let alone clean him up. Jonno was flipping out. Calling himself all sorts of names and begging the young bloke to change his mind. And all the time the young bloke just sat quietly and listened. 16
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