Frankie and Joely Read online

  ‘Hey big boy,’ says Thommo, ‘better put it away. You’ve got an audience.’ Thommo points to Frankie who realises she’s staring. Mack tries to cover himself with one hand while grabbing at the sheet inside the hammock.

  Frankie doesn’t turn away. Instead, she watches Mack, taking in his body, his muscles, his embarrassment, and it makes the morning sweet again.

  Joely is curled up in a sheet when Frankie walks into their room grinning. When Joely sees her friend so close to the verge of laughter, she forgives her immediately for yesterday, and is pleased she’s decided to love her friend again.

  ‘What’s so funny?’

  ‘Just saw your cousin in the nude. Not bad either.’

  ‘Yuck. Which one?’

  ‘Mack. I don’t want to see Thommo nude.’

  ‘I don’t want to see either of them nude.’

  ‘He’s not bad, really. He’s muscly. Sort of cute,’ says Frankie as if she’s trying to wind Joely up.

  ‘Oh don’t.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘He’s my cousin,’ says Joely, realising that how she felt yesterday about Frankie riding on the back of Thommo’s bike hasn’t gone after all.

  ‘Yeah. So?’

  ‘Well, I don’t want to hear that he’s cute,’ says Joely, cross and grossed out all at the same time.

  ‘Why not?’

  ‘It’s … creepy.’

  ‘No, it’s not.’

  ‘Yes, it is.’

  And then Frankie laughs and laughs. Pretty soon, Joely’s laughing too and the pair of them can’t stop.

  ‘How did you see him nude?’

  ‘He fell out of the hammock.’

  ‘What?’

  Frankie shrugs.

  ‘Why did you get up so early?’ says Joely.

  ‘I don’t know. I like it when it’s quiet,’ says Frankie.

  And then Frankie grins again, straight at Joely, like she’s the most important person in the world.

  ‘Actually I got up hoping to see your cousin nude.’

  ‘Yeah right.’

  Frankie shrugs again. ‘Better than watching you sleep in.’

  Joely rolls over and untangles her legs from the sheets. She almost falls out.

  ‘I’m up.’ Joely smiles at her friend. ‘What are we doing today?’ Joely hopes the answer is nothing.

  ‘Going to the pool?’

  Joely groans. She looks at her pale, spotty arms. ‘I’m going to be one big freckle by the time we go home.’

  ‘If they all join up it’ll look like a suntan. Jill said she’d drop us in, but we’ll have to get the bus home,’ says Frankie as she riffles around in the drawer.

  Joely can’t believe how comfortable Frankie is as she talks about Jill. It’s like Jill is Frankie’s aunt not hers. Joely decides that, as of tomorrow, she’ll get up earlier. She’ll make sure she’s part of the day’s plans before Frankie can lock in everyone else around her, and come back to tell Joely what they’re doing.

  Joely looks away as Frankie strips off. She wishes she could be as comfortable as Frankie is, but the room is so tiny that seeing Frankie change just in front of her is all a bit much. To cover her discomfort, Joely starts chattering about the house and the heatwave and the drought. ‘I know I’ve been coming here forever, but I’ve never seen the grass so dry and—’

  ‘Who’s Bluey?’ interrupts Frankie as she bends down for Joely to tie up her bikini strap.

  Joely pulls tight, avoiding having to answer.

  ‘Ow,’ says Frankie.

  ‘Sorry.’ Joely can’t believe how smooth Frankie’s skin looks.

  ‘Joel? Who’s Bluey?’

  ‘Just a cow I used to ride sometimes.’

  ‘You rode a cow?’

  ‘Yes. When I was really little. We all did.’ She doesn’t want to talk about Bluey because she knows how ridiculous it sounds being upset about a cow dying, and she’s worried that if she starts talking about Bluey she might cry. ‘Nice bathers,’ she says, changing the subject.

  ‘Savers,’ says Frankie with a smile. ‘I boiled them, cos I was bit worried about who they used to belong to. You know, second-hand bathers and all!’

  ‘Ew, gross!’

  Frankie shrugs. ‘They were only four bucks. Hot water would kill germs, wouldn’t it?’

  ‘I think so.’ Joely laughs at Frankie’s disgusted face as she thinks about wearing someone else’s bathers.

  ‘Is there an op shop here?’

  Joely nods, realising she’s never been inside. ‘In the main street. It’s only little.’

  ‘I thought I saw it yesterday. That’s great. Country ones are the bomb. Can we look?’

  ‘Sure.’ Joely had never been op shopping before she started hanging out with Frankie. It wasn’t that she thought there was anything wrong with it, just that her mum always bought new things. She still wasn’t sure if she really liked it, but she’s not about to tell Frankie that.

  ‘Morning sleepyhead,’ says Jill from the doorway, handing Joely a plate. ‘Made you a bacon and egg toastie.’

  ‘Thanks,’ says Joely, immediately forgiving her aunt for organising their day with Frankie instead of her. Just the smell of slightly burnt bacon is enough to make Joely forgive anyone.

  Frankie grabs a t-shirt from the drawer and quickly finishes dressing. Joely wonders if she’s embarrassed at Jill seeing her in her bathers.

  ‘I’ll give you girls ten minutes,’ says Jill. ‘I’ve got to meet a friend in town.’

  Chapter 10

  Frankie stares out the window of the car as Jill and Joely chat in the front. It’s like she’s a thousand miles away from anything, and she’s surprised at how nice it feels.

  ‘So how is your mum? Really?’ says Jill.

  Frankie listens as Joely pauses for a really long time before saying, ‘I don’t know’.

  It was exactly the same answer she’d give if someone asked her. Perhaps, Frankie thinks, it’s always the same answer because nobody really knows anybody else. It’s always a bit of a mystery.

  ‘She rang to say I had to feed you lots of salad. And not potato salad, but leafy salad,’ says Jill, sounding like she wants to laugh.

  ‘Great,’ says Joely. ‘Leaves are my thing. I’m a regular koala.’

  Frankie smiles at her friend’s sarcastic tone and wonders why Joely’s mum is so weird about food. If somebody was feeding Frankie, her mum wouldn’t care less. As long as she ate it and didn’t come home hungry.

  Jill pulls the car off the road. ‘See you later, girls. Have a swim for me.’

  As Frankie starts to get out of the car, Jill adds, ‘Oh and if you see those boys of mine send them home. Ged has a list of jobs for them. Just because it’s school holidays doesn’t mean they can slack off at the pool.’ Jill tries to lighten it with a laugh, but Frankie can’t help but wonder if she wants them home because she doesn’t want them spending the day with her.

  Frankie is surprised to see Joely lean over and give her aunt a kiss on the cheek. Joely seems much happier than when she kissed her mum goodbye at the train station.

  Climbing out of the car, Frankie looks at the pool. It’s a box of blue water, surrounded by green grass and so many bodies; half the town must be there. There are kids screaming as they bomb into the water, splashing it everywhere and a mother yells at her child to get out of the deep end. Frankie wonders how they’ve managed to keep the grass so green. Perhaps all the pool water that gets splashed out keeps it bright.

  Jill toots as she drives off and Frankie follows Joely towards the entrance. The smell of chlorine is strong even from out here. A guy is leaning back on a stool, texting when they walk past. He doesn’t look up. ‘Four twenty for a swim.’

  Joely hands him a ten-dollar note and Frankie lets Joely pay for her.


  ‘Your change,’ he says, finally looking up. He looks straight at Frankie.

  Joely sees him watching her friend with her long brown hair hanging straight, and her sunglasses covering half her face and she’s pleased. She’s never been noticed here on her own before. With Frankie she feels special because she’s with the girl the boys stare at.

  She grabs Frankie by the arm and pulls her through the turnstile onto the steamy, chipped concrete. Joely can’t remember the pool being this sunny, but she hasn’t been here for a while. Last year the pool was closed because of some council battle that was going on, and the year before that she hadn’t been able to swim because her wrist was in a cast. Now she looks around, her heart racing, sweat running down her back. Her mouth is really dry, like the air is sucking the water out of her whole body. ‘There’s no shade,’ says Joely scanning the grass for a spot. ‘This is a bad idea.’

  ‘It’s tiny,’ says Frankie.

  Joely’s too busy trying to find cover to answer Frankie.

  ‘Joel,’ Frankie elbows her. ‘It’s tiny,’ she says again, looking stunned at the size of the pool.

  ‘Yes. I told you. It’s a country pool.’

  ‘There’s more grass than water,’ Frankie says. Laughing, she walks to an empty rectangle and drops her stuff.

  ‘Don’t be a snob,’ says Joely.

  ‘I’m not. But technically this is more like a spa than a pool.’

  ‘The locals call it a pool.’

  ‘They probably call the main street a shopping strip, too.’

  Joely looks at Frankie spreading out her towel. ‘I’m not lying here. I’ll fry,’ she says.

  ‘Just for twenty minutes. Then we’ll find some shade.’

  ‘No,’ barks Joely, suddenly cross. Just because Frankie has olive skin, doesn’t mean she shouldn’t understand what happens if Joely lies in the direct sun for more than ten seconds.

  ‘Okay then,’ says Frankie as she lies on her stomach. Perching on her elbows, she watches four teenage boys wrestling with a large blow-up tube, trying to dump each other in the deep end. She smiles at the sight, liking their bodies, and wonders how old they are.

  ‘If you can find somewhere better I’ll move,’ says Frankie. But Joely sits on her towel just close enough to be with her, but far enough away to make a point. She watches Joely cover herself in as much sunscreen as skin can actually take, and hopes that Joely won’t sulk for the rest of the afternoon.

  One of the boys flips over the tube in the pool. The others get dumped and come up yelling. Frankie turns to see if Joely has noticed. But her friend is hiding under a huge hat and is reading some daggy book she must have borrowed from Jill. It looks like a bad middle-aged romance.

  ‘I actually like spas,’ says Frankie, but Joely pretends not to hear. ‘Spas are much better than pools. Besides it looks super deep and super cold and that’s really all that matters,’ says Frankie loudly.

  Joely looks over her book and raises an eyebrow reminding Frankie of someone’s grandmother.

  ‘In fact, it looks so inviting that I’m going in,’ says Frankie.

  Joely watches Frankie stand, drop her t-shirt and short skirt on the towel and walk cat-like in her red bikini to the edge of the pool. The boys turn on their rubber tube, sensing her presence behind them. She expects them to say something, but instead they just stare, like she’s something they’ve been waiting for all day.

  Frankie steps up, balancing on the concrete edge. Everything becomes still. The whole pool is waiting, wondering what this girl with the long hair and the red bikini is going to do next. Then, surprising even Joely, Frankie spins round and salutes her. It’s such an odd gesture, so out of character for Frankie, that it’s like she’s leaving Joely forever. Then she dives perfectly into the pool, the water splashing as she disappears.

  Joely jumps to her feet and waits for Frankie to come up. Maybe Joely was wrong about how deep it was and Frankie has split her head open on the bottom. The boys crane up on their rubber tube, kneeling like a pack of expectant children, wondering what has happened to their entertainment. Mothers gather up dripping toddlers and clutch them to their hips, ignoring pleas and wild cries. And Joely stares at the place she last saw her friend.

  Seconds pass. A crow circles, surveying the scene.

  Suddenly, Frankie shoots out of the water at the other end of the pool. She must have swum all the way along the bottom like a stingray. Joely hears her laughing. There’s no acknowledgement of her audience. She just raises her arms and dives under again like she’s finally come home.

  People on the grass start moving again. Toddlers are released back into the shallow end. The boys return to wrestling each other off the tube, turning away from the strange girl who briefly interrupted their session like a shark. Frankie’s laugh can be heard, punctuating each plunge into the pool.

  Joely sits on her towel and picks up her book. She tries to read but can’t. She pretends it’s the sun, the heat, the book. But her friend has distracted her and now she can’t concentrate. She stands up and walks over to the pool with her hat and dress and thongs on. She bends down to touch the water, and it’s so cold she wishes she could fall in and swim with Frankie up and down the pool, chasing the deep together. She almost does. But she doesn’t want Frankie to think she’s following her. And besides, she’s still cross with her for not understanding how easily she burns. So she walks back to her towel, hoping onlookers aren’t laughing at her. She wishes that Frankie would come out, so she didn’t feel like a concerned mother watching her child.

  A shadow crosses her face and she looks up. Mack is holding out a dripping ice-cream. Joely reaches to take it, expecting him to pull his hand away and laugh. But he doesn’t. Instead he waits until she’s taken it and then he licks the strawberry patches from his hand.

  ‘Thanks, Mack.’

  ‘Yeah.’

  He sits down on Frankie’s towel, his freckled legs caught up under him. He looks huge. Like a man from another time. Last summer Mack was still skinny. Now his voice is deep and he towers over her like she was a child. Joely remembered when they used to play chasey in the field. He was only a year and a half older, but he always won.

  ‘You’re supposed to be helping your dad. What are you doing here?’

  ‘Actually, Dad sent me to get some—’

  ‘Ice-cream?’ Joely laughs.

  ‘Nah. Nails and things.’ He sounds vague and Joely wonders if he followed them to check out Frankie in her bikini.

  ‘Is Thommo with you?’

  Mack shakes his head. ‘Nah. Dad’s got him fixing the fence. Some of the cows got out again.’

  Joely wonders how Thommo copes working in this weather. His skin is just as freckly as hers, but he never seems to get burnt.

  ‘Your friend got a boyfriend?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘She want one?’

  ‘Why?’

  Mack doesn’t answer and Joely wonders if he’s asking for himself. Not that Joely would know anyway. Even though they talk about stuff and Frankie is the person that Joely trusts more than anyone else, they don’t really talk about boys. Not like the other girls at school. They’re always writing names of boys they like across their bags, but Frankie doesn’t mention anyone. She never says if she’s been with a boy or if she likes someone. They just don’t talk about it. Joely licks the strawberry ice-cream in circles, trying to lower it into the cone and stop the sticky melt running down her hand.

  ‘Is she a bit crazy?’ Mack says.

  ‘No. She just likes having fun. Why?’

  ‘Dunno. I just saw her in the pool, going up and back underwater. She’s freaking people out.’

  Joely laughs. She’s used to these conversations. There’s always someone asking. She never tells them anything they can use. Not because she’s trying to put them off or because she’s j
ealous. It’s just that there isn’t anything to tell. Frankie’s not crazy. She’s just different and does her own thing. Joely puts it down to the fact that she’s been to twelve schools and is never in the same place for long. She’s used to being on her own. Joely hates thinking about that. Hates imagining that Frankie’s going to move towns, states even. Frankie keeps telling her it’s not going to happen, but Joely doesn’t know if Frankie’s just saying it to make her feel better. She’s nearly been in town for two years. That’s the longest her mum has stayed anywhere.

  ‘How come you two are friends? You don’t seem much alike.’

  ‘We just are. You don’t need to be alike to like someone.’

  ‘Yeah, but …’

  Joely bites her cone. It’s soft from all the drips. She knows Mack wants to say something else. She knows, too, that the ice-cream isn’t just a gift, but a payment for information. She looks up and sees a boy looking at them from outside the pool. He has a cap on so it’s hard to see his face properly. Then Mack looks up and Joely thinks he must notice the boy too because he shifts slightly and then says loudly, ‘I’m not going back to school next year.’

  Joely looks at her cousin, but now he’s staring at the water, probably hoping for a glimpse of Frankie in her second-hand bikini. By the time Joely turns to see the boy again, he’s disappeared and she wonders who he was.

  ‘Why not?’

  ‘Dad’s got me a job at the mechanics.’

  ‘Fixing cars?’

  Mack turns and grins at her and he looks like her cousin again. Not like some man she doesn’t know, but just the boy she grew up with.

  ‘Nah. Selling petrol.’

  ‘Really?’

  ‘It’s not that bad, Joely. It’s the only job going around here. At least I’ll be earning money and I can buy a car. It’s not like I’m learning anything at school. I always thought I’d work the farm, but …’ he trails off.

  Joely’s surprised Mack’s telling her all this. He doesn’t usually confess things. Embarrassed, she holds the end of the ice-cream cone out to him. There’s a thin line of strawberry left on the inside. He reaches for it, but she swipes it away, swallowing it in one mouthful. Mack jumps up, grabs her arm and twists the skin like he used to.