Jumping The Cemetery

They ride down the A6. No one is talking.

Correction. The barnacles are talking, but no one can hear them, in the bottle.

Captain Goose: Hey! Hey! Hey! Oi!

Captain Wally: May as well give up.

Captain Goose: What if they've forgotten?

Captain Wally: What?

Captain Goose: The Blowhole!

Captain Wally: Ooh, the Blowhole. What if they forgot?

Captain Goose: Exactly. Jump up and down a bit, will you. And shout.

Captain Wally (jumping): Blowhole! Blowhole!

Captain Goose: Excellent man! Blowhole! Blowhole!

Schopenhauer rides methodically, behind Gaius.

He is keeping his eye open for the turn off to Blackmans Bay.

Suddenly he notices that his bicycle basket is thrumming.

Thrummm! Thrummm! He slows down and looks in.

The barnacles are enjoying the ride, thinks Schopenhauer. He can see their little mouths, opening.

What are they mouthing? Schopenhauer wonders. It looks like a mariners' song. Yo ho! Yo ho!

How jolly the life of a tar.

He nods at the barnacles, and grins, as you would to a capering sailor.

Yo ho, yo ho, sings Schopenhauer, speeding up again.

What's that ? says Gaius, slowing down. Did I hear you say Blowhole, Blowhole?

No, says Schopenhauer. Yo Ho! But yes, we must look out for the turn off. We're stopping off there, remember?

Of course I remember, says Gaius. And here's the turn off. And Arthur and Unni, waiting. Hello, have you two made up your quarrel?

What quarrel? asks Unni. Arthur and me are like that.

She crosses one finger over another, to Arthur's chagrin.

Very good, says Gaius. Now, let's find the Blowhole.

They ride down Blowhole Road to the esplanade, and follow the signs to the northern end of the beach.

The Blowhole is a rock arch, through which you can see the sea rocking and waving and sucking and splashing. Local boys like to jump off it. It's called jumping the cemetery.

Here are some local boys now, in their swim shorts, Axel and Macca.

Foreigners! hisses Axel, spotting Gaius and Schopenhauer. Let's go.

Wait, boys, says Gaius. Is this the Blowhole?

Yeah, says Macca. We're just leavin'.

Axel and Macca melt away, muttering something about jumping off Soldiers Rocks being harder.

Ah, very pleasant, says Gaius, sitting down in a comfortable spot to watch the sea cavorting through the frame of the Blowhole. I should not be surprised to find that this was once an aboriginal gathering place. There may well be a midden nearby.....

Schopenhauer wanders off to look for a midden. It would be a scoop if he found one. He pats the notebook in his trouser pocket.

Gaius closes his eyes.

Captain Goose and Captain Wally are frantic, inside the bottle. Thrumm Thrumm!

They can see, through the salt water and the glass bottle and over the rim of the bicycle basket, the rocky arch of the blowhole, distorted by diffraction.

Suddenly they both stiffen. (Why shouldn't a barnacle stiffen?)

They look at one another. Is that Arthur, standing up there? And the other one? Is it Unni?

So high! Are they thinking of jumping?