The Banksia Bay Beach Shack Read online

  She wasn’t sure they’d give up on Costas so lightly, though, and if she could help simply by association, she was happy to.

  ‘I think maybe I wouldn’t be surprised by that.’ Costas peeled off to the side to head into his yard, where his mum was working under a broad-brimmed hat.

  ‘Hello, Mrs Tinellis,’ Gigi called out and waved. ‘I go to school with Costas.’

  Mrs Tinellis shouted something back in Greek. Gigi had no idea what she was saying, but she wasn’t sure it was a polite hello, judging by the tone and gesturing. But she’d never met any Greeks before, so perhaps she was being greeted warmly.

  Perhaps.

  Costas waved his farewell and Gigi skipped the rest of the way home.

  The next day at lunch, Costas sat near the seesaw. Not with Gigi, despite her invitation, but within sight of her. The boys stared at him across the yard, but left him alone. Maybe some of them had done some growing up over the summer and yesterday was just a glitch. It was about time.

  That afternoon Todd separated himself from the herd and walked with Gigi a little way home.

  ‘So, Gilbert. How was your holiday?’

  She’d known Todd all her life and he’d never once asked her about her holiday. ‘Um. Okay. I guess.’

  ‘I saw you jetty-jumping that day. It looked like fun.’

  ‘It was.’ What is going on?

  ‘Maybe one day we could do it together. I mean, get a group of us together and stuff.’

  Gigi dropped her schoolbag and Todd picked it up.

  ‘There you go.’ He handed it to her. ‘Anyway, I’ll see you tomorrow.’ His cheeks had turned red.

  Is this what happened to boys when they matured? They turned into someone else? Todd – sweet and charming? Well, that was just plain confusing.

  Gigi turned down the road. She liked it better when boys were enemies and she knew what to expect from them.

  One cold day in June, as Gigi ate her lunch, Sam spat on the ground next to Costas as he passed him. Darren did too. Todd stood there, hesitated and then followed suit. Gigi abandoned her spot under the twisted gum tree and plonked herself down next to Costas.

  ‘What are you doing?’ he whispered, as eyes turned their way and hands were raised to hide flapping lips.

  Gigi squared her shoulders and shot a look at the gang of boys across the playground. They remained where they were, unmoved, but Gigi could see their expressions. Todd was shocked. Darren confused. Sam angry.

  As the long silence was broken by the bell, Gigi stood up, feeling rather pleased with herself.

  After school, she was on blackboard duty. Apparently, telling Miss Smith that it would be a nice change to look at history from the side of both the victors – or oppressors, as they rightly should be called – and the losers was not appropriate. Maybe it was the phrase ‘for a change’. Or the choice to throw ‘oppressors’ into the sentence. Whatever it was, she was stuck beating chalk dust out of the dusters and washing down the board.

  The winter sun hung low in the sky as she left school, dragging her schoolbag behind her. The streets were nearly empty; a storm was coming in. She stopped by the milk bar and bought a chocolate milkshake and ambled home.

  A block from the school, which sat at the northernmost part of town, she heard a clanging sound behind her. She turned around to see Sam hitting an empty can with a stick. He was alone. And for some reason that frightened her more than if he’d had his gang backing him up.

  ‘Are you in love with that wog?’ Sam sneered, closing the gap between them. ‘Off to see your wog boyfriend, then?’

  ‘Go away, Sam.’ She wouldn’t let him hear the nerves in her voice. She just wouldn’t.

  ‘Why? What are you going to do about it?’ He stood an inch away from her but she wouldn’t back down.

  ‘Nothing. You’re not worth my energy.’ She put her hands on her hips.

  Oh shit. She should run. But she couldn’t. Firstly, everyone knew that bullies only understood strength. Secondly, her legs felt like they were made of jelly. Heavy jelly. And she knew they wouldn’t actually obey her command to get out of there.

  From behind a nearby tree, Todd emerged. ‘What’s going on?’ He put his hand on Sam’s shoulder.

  ‘I was just asking Gigi about her wog boyfriend.’

  ‘Nah, Gilbert’s just being polite.’ Todd looked at Gigi. ‘Isn’t that right?’

  ‘I don’t have to explain myself to you.’

  ‘Ha.’ Sam sniggered. ‘That’s what you get for sticking up for Fish-Girl.’

  ‘I thought you were a mate, Todd.’ Darren appeared. Gigi hadn’t seen him coming. ‘One of us.’

  Gigi had to find a way to get out of there.

  ‘Of course I’m one of you.’ Todd looked to Gigi and then back to Sam. ‘Go home, Gilbert. Now,’ he barked.

  Gigi turned and ran.

  She ran so fast she took the corner too sharp and fell onto the edge of the gutter. She took a great big gash out of her shin, but she got back up and kept hobbling.

  Around the next block she stopped and closed her eyes. When she opened them again, Costas was standing in front of her. She looked around. She’d stopped in the middle of the road, right outside his house.

  ‘Come with me.’ He led her inside.

  A man, she assumed Mr Tinellis, came into the living room, took one look at Gigi’s leg and disappeared, returning shortly after with a bag full of gauze and iodine and bandages.

  He tended Gigi’s leg with a gentle touch – cleaned the wound, disinfected it, bandaged it up.

  ‘Thank you.’ Her voice was weak.

  Mr Tinellis squeezed her hand.

  ‘He was a doctor. Back home,’ Costas said as he helped his dad clear away the bloody bits of cotton wool. ‘After the war, their village was in ruins. Then the civil war hit Greece. They lost everything. We came out here once the civil war finished. Back in 1949. But he isn’t allowed to be a doctor here.’

  Gigi nodded, as if she understood what Costas was saying. Civil war? What civil war? His dad was a doctor? But wasn’t?

  Ouch. The pain was too much.

  She was about to stand up when Costas’ mum burst into the room. Her arms were flailing about, words coming out of her mouth at an alarming pace.

  Costas spoke to her in Greek. His voice was calm, as if he was explaining something to her. Gigi suspected Mrs Tinellis wasn’t all that keen on his explanation.

  After some more gentle words from Costas, Mrs Tinellis stood quiet. She looked at Gigi and said a broken ‘Thank you’, before bowing and leaving the room.

  ‘Why is she thanking me?’ Gigi looked to Costas.

  ‘I was telling her who you are. I told her about today. Am I right in guessing this is the fallout?’ He pointed to her leg.

  She looked at the floor and nodded. ‘They didn’t do it to me. I slipped when I was running away. Sam just frightened me, is all. And then Darren turned up. And then I ran.’ She pushed her hands onto her hips and raised her gaze. ‘Todd was nice. At first. Then he wasn’t.’

  Costas was looking at her with the kindest expression she’d ever seen. ‘You are one in a million, Virginia. Can I help you home?’

  ‘No. I think I’m okay. Please thank your dad again for me.’

  Staring up at the night sky through her tiny window, Gigi lay in bed that night unable to sleep. She didn’t think the boys would actually hurt her. They were just trying to scare her. It had worked. And she hated herself for it, because that meant they had won.

  And what about Todd? Had he actually saved her? No, that couldn’t be right.

  Gigi was confused. Life was taking turns all over the place and she couldn’t keep up. First, the whole Lily and Richard thing. Now Todd was saving her from bullies, sort of. And every time she spoke with Costas, a tingle tickled her spine.

  She threw her arms above her head and longed to be ten again. Things were simple when she was ten.

  The school year dragged on and everyone
fell into a sort of routine. Gigi sat with Costas at lunch throughout winter, and once a week Sam or Darren would walk past them and make some unsavoury comment about Costas’ stinky lunch, then knock it into the dirt. But never more than that. As the warmth of spring pushed the colder days aside, Todd would watch and mock with his mates, his glare hardening with every week.

  ‘Would you like to try it?’ Costas held out his lunch to Gigi one day in October when it was clear no one was coming past to ruin things.

  ‘What it is?’

  ‘Lamb kofta.’ He held out the meat shaped a little bit like a sausage.

  Gigi took a bite. It was delicious. She swapped her cheese sandwich for it and devoured the whole thing.

  After school, they walked along the beach together. ‘Have you ever fished off the rocks?’ she asked, as they headed north along the sand.

  ‘Nope. Never fished.’

  ‘Wait here.’ Gigi ran to the fishing shack and grabbed a couple of rods.

  When they got to the rock pools, Gigi showed Costas how to bait his hook.

  ‘You’re very clever, Virginia.’ He seemed genuinely impressed.

  ‘It’s just fishing.’

  They threw their lines in, and within seconds Costas’ was being pulled down. Gigi showed him how to reel it in.

  On his hook was a large snapper.

  ‘Not bad for your first time.’ Gigi was a little jealous, to be honest, but the feeling soon dissipated at the look of joy on Costas’ face. ‘I’ll show you how to clean it up and you can take it home for dinner.’

  At the fishing shack she stepped Costas through scaling and gutting the fish. It wasn’t a job she ever enjoyed, more something you got on with. She was used to the smell by now, but she could tell by the look on Costas’ face that he was having trouble with it.

  ‘I know it isn’t a pleasant aroma,’ she said. ‘But even fish guts can come in handy every now and then.’ She told him about the guts-in-the-schoolbag incident.

  ‘You didn’t!’

  She gave a sly grin.

  He bent over laughing. ‘I wish I’d seen that.’ He waved the fish’s insides in the air.

  ‘Don’t forget the high-pitched scream.’ She imitated the sound that had come out of Sam’s throat when he’d discovered the stinky mess in his bag.

  They both doubled over until tears fell down their cheeks. Gigi’s stomach ached.

  ‘Remind me never to get on your bad side, then, Miss Virginia.’ Costas threw the guts away and they finished cleaning the fish.

  Outside the shack, Gigi said goodbye.

  ‘Thank you, Virginia. This has been the best afternoon I’ve had since moving to the Bay.’

  ‘Really?’

  ‘Even with the smell.’ He smiled.

  ‘Do you want to go digging for crabs tomorrow?’ Gigi asked.

  He nodded. ‘That sounds like fun.’ Costas headed home, catch in his hand.

  Gigi stayed behind to meet Ian. She’d convinced him to teach her some boxing moves, having a session with him every time he and her dad came back in from a long-haul fishing trip. Of course she told him it was for fitness. Of course he didn’t believe her, but he didn’t say anything. If anyone knew her, it was him.

  Ian, who was four years older than Gigi, had been a part of her family’s life for as long as she could remember. They’d virtually grown up together. Though when he was fourteen he had basically ignored her for two years. Which was fine by her as he’d been smelly and generally not very nice for those two years. When he finished school two years ago, he started working for her dad on the boat full-time.

  Gigi was glad Dad had Ian to help him. She didn’t like the idea of Dad out at sea for long stretches on his own.

  After their boxing session, Ian turned to her, concern across his face. ‘Squirt, if anyone’s, you know, bothering you, you’d tell me, right?’

  ‘Yeah.’

  He took her by the shoulders. ‘Seriously. No one messes with my little sister.’

  Gigi really liked it when he referred to her as his sister. Which he didn’t do nearly often enough.

  She assured him she was perfectly fine, and he let it slide. Gigi didn’t think the boys would ever actually come after her. But she also wasn’t going to take any chances.

  On a nondescript day in November, when the sun had burned off the morning cloud and the afternoon heat was beating down on her as she walked home from school, Gigi stopped by Costas’ house. She hadn’t seen him for a few days and was worried.

  What if one of the boys had escalated things?

  She walked past the large vegetable gardens that now bore cucumber and peas in large quantities. There was another plant growing that she didn’t recognise – a small green bush with tiny leaves that grew in pairs opposite each other. She touched the leaves and as she pulled her hand away the most delicious whiff met her nose. She sniffed her fingers, then the plant. It was that same aroma from the first time she’d met Costas outside his place. What was the name of that dish? Keftikis? Klefto? Something with lamb.

  She walked up to the front door and raised her hand. Drawing in a deep breath, she tapped the wooden frame lightly.

  Mrs Tinellis answered and didn’t look too thrilled when she opened the door and saw Gigi standing there.

  ‘Good afternoon,’ Gigi said, not knowing how much English, if any, Costas’ mother understood. ‘I just wanted to check on Costas, as he hasn’t been at school. Is he okay?’

  Mrs Tinellis shut the door.

  Gigi stood there, not sure whether to wait or leave. She heard voices inside. Raised voices. The only word she could pick out from the commotion was ‘xenos’. It was said numerous times.

  As the voices raged on, Gigi started to rock back and forth. No. You shouldn’t be here. She turned and walked up the path.

  ‘Virginia. Wait.’ Costas stepped up behind her. ‘Sorry.’ His hand went to his stomach, a grimace of pain flashing across his face before composure returned.

  Gigi smiled at her friend and saw his mother standing at the window with the curtain pulled back, watching them.

  ‘I just wanted to check on you. You haven’t been at school.’

  ‘I’ve been sick. Flu. I’m sorry you worried about me.’

  Gigi wasn’t sure she believed him. ‘Are you feeling better now?’ She’d never had flu herself. Not proper flu. Did you get stomach cramps with flu?

  ‘Yes. Thank you. Much better.’

  ‘When will you be back at school?’ Gigi knew – well, Lily had told her – that you shouldn’t let a boy know you were keen; they liked to figure that out themselves, and besides, you didn’t want to come across as a hussy. But she missed the quiet, gentle company of her friend.

  ‘Next week.’

  A noise from inside rang out into the evening.

  ‘Does your mother not like me?’ Gigi asked.

  Costas shook his head. ‘It’s not you. She doesn’t know you. And she knows you’ve been a good friend. She’s just . . . a little . . . wary of foreigners.’

  ‘Xenos?’

  ‘You heard? Sorry. That wasn’t very nice.’ He looked at his feet. ‘Ma just needs time. To get to know you. To get used to this place. They haven’t had it easy since they came to Australia.’ His voice was heavy with sorrow.

  Gigi understood. Look what Costas had to put up with at school.

  ‘Okay.’ She smiled. ‘I’ll see you next week.’

  On Monday, Costas didn’t sit with Gigi at lunch. Or Tuesday. He was polite. As always. But the distance was undeniable. When she asked him about it, he simply explained it away as trying to get to know the other kids, trying to fit in more.

  Except he didn’t speak to any of the other kids.

  At the end of the week Gigi sat with a pen and paper on the swing her dad had hung from a large gum tree up the back of the caravan park. In just a month, the park would be full of vans and tents and her peaceful perch would be overrun with pesky little kids. It was only a month now
till Lily was back and there was so much to say. She scribbled down all her news – or what accounted for news around here, which was school, milkshakes, and boxing lessons (about which Lily had expressed her horror in her last letter) – and told her how much she couldn’t wait for the summer holidays to start. Writing to Lily once a month always made her feel better. Then she went inside and helped Mum prepare dinner.

  With the days getting longer, it was still light by the time they’d finished eating and Gigi excused herself from the table, promising to do the washing-up after a quick walk.

  ‘I’ll get them tonight, squirt,’ Ian said. At some point in the last few years he’d taken to joining them for supper every Friday night he and Dad weren’t out on the boat.

  Gigi gave him a quick hug and headed off into the hills. She climbed till she got to her favourite spot among the banksias and lowered herself into the long grass. The setting sun cast long shadows down the hill and bathed the ocean below in a soft pink glow.

  A small group of surfers gathered at the north end of the beach, where the waves broke best. Gigi recognised Ian among them, his height making him easy to spot.

  Mum must have let him off the hook for the washing-up. She always did let him get away with anything. The son she never had, Gigi supposed.

  It wouldn’t be long now till the handful of locals out for a sunset surf became a horde of tourists splashing in the waves, dropping their ice-cream scoops into the water – Gigi’s sleepy little town disrupted for the holidays. But that also meant the return of Lily.

  Gigi lay back in the grass and looked up to the rising moon, dreaming of all the fun summer would bring.

  Laura spent three mornings helping Virginia in the shack, mostly cleaning and dusting and tidying. The woman wasn’t much of a conversationalist, but if Laura had learned anything during her time as a reporter, those who were hiding something usually weren’t.