Crown Park Read online

  Anna gave another tired sigh. “What about the boy you mentioned — what was his name?”

  “Liam Bennett. He’s a big, dumb moron. He’s always trying to get me into trouble and he won’t let me join in any of the games.”

  “Well,” said Anna, “at least we can do something about that. If he’s a bully then the school has to sort it out.”

  “No, they won’t. The teachers are scared of him.”

  They returned to eating.

  After a while Jack asked, “Is Dad coming home tonight?”

  Anna shook her head. “Dave’s working all weekend. So am I. We’ll get double pay because Monday’s Anzac Day.” She said it as if the money would make up for their absence.

  It wouldn’t, but he didn’t say anything. He was used to doing things by himself.

  Soon afterwards they left. Anna went back to the supermarket where she’d work until nine, and Jack went home. This time he rode slowly, thinking about what Anna had said about getting double pay.

  Money! That was the only thing that seemed to interest either parent these days. It was the reason they had shifted from Wellington to Taupo. His father had good work driving logs to the port at Napier, but he wanted to buy his own truck so he could do contracts. They paid heaps more than wages. That’s why he and Anna were working such long hours. Jack knew he should be thankful because they were doing it for his future as well as theirs. But at times like this he wished that things could be different.

  When he got home, he went looking for the book Magic Thinks Big. He found it in a box labelled “Jack’s books”. The box was still taped shut. Nobody had read to him since arriving in Taupo.

  He pulled out the book and climbed into bed. If his parents weren’t here, then he would read to himself, even though it was a little kid’s picture book.

  It took him some time because he wasn’t a great reader, but when he had finished he felt better. He turned out the light thinking of Magic’s adventurous world instead of the problems in his own. As he dozed off, he wondered if cats really did have dreams where they did wonderful things. Did Chainsaw ever dream like Magic? Jack hoped so, because then someday they might share a dream together.

  Chapter 3

  Saturday morning Jack watched cartoons on television. When they finished there was nothing to do at home so he decided to go and find Chainsaw.

  That was a mistake. He’d only gone a block when he met up with Liam Bennett swaggering along the footpath. Alongside him was a bigger boy with the same thick body and sneering smile.

  “Jack Spewit,” Liam cried. “Who let you out?”

  Jack tried to walk away.

  “Hold it, Spewit,” said Liam, grabbing Jack’s arm. “Don’t be rude. I want you to meet my brother Brian.”

  “So this is the Spewit,” said Brian. “The one that plays with the little kids.” He nudged Liam. “I can see why you don’t let the little vomit play with you.”

  “You should come and watch us play footy,” said Liam.

  “Yeah!” added Brian. “We could use you as the ball.” Both brothers seemed to find this hilarious.

  Again Jack went to move away. This time they let him, but not before they’d yelled more insults at him. Jack walked with his head down. A bad morning had just become worse.

  It didn’t get any better when he got to the takeaway shop. The place was closed and Chainsaw wasn’t there. Jack decided to wait. There was nothing else to do.

  He sat with his back against the corner of a fence, hidden in the shadows behind some bushes. His mind was full of ugly thoughts. They started with the Bennett brothers, but moved on to his parents and later to himself.

  Eventually, the sun climbed high enough in the sky to shine into his corner. Its warmth put him to sleep and for a while the ugly thoughts disappeared.

  When he woke, Chainsaw was crouched beside him, kneading away at his leg. Jack put his hand on the cat’s back and once again the sound of a chainsaw filled the little backyard.

  They stayed like that for maybe an hour. Neither seemed to want to break the spell. Jack certainly didn’t. The only peace he felt these days was when he was with Chainsaw. He wasn’t going to give that up easily. If only he could find a way to be with him always.

  He’d already tried to take Chainsaw home. One afternoon, he’d picked him up and headed off down the road. But he’d only gone a short distance before the cat went crazy, scratching his arms to get down. Jack didn’t see him for three days after that.

  Jack now understood that if the two of them were to be together then it would have to be on Chainsaw’s terms. The cat would always do his own things. As if to prove this, he got up, crawled out of the bushes and strolled off along the driveway to the road. Jack followed him with his eyes, disappointed that the magic had been broken.

  When Chainsaw got alongside the front of the shop, he stopped, looked back and meowed. Jack brightened. It was a clear invitation: “You can come with me if you like.”

  It took Jack only seconds to make a decision. He crawled out of the bushes in time to see Chainsaw move out of sight along the footpath.

  By the time Jack reached the front, Chainsaw was crossing the road, walking slowly, as if he had all the rights. A car screeched to a stop, its wheels centimetres from running him down. Jack gasped, but Chainsaw continued as if nothing had happened. Jack waited until the car had gone before crossing and following at a distance.

  After a while Chainsaw moved from the road into a bushy gully at the back of Crown Park. Jack went faster, worried that he might lose sight of him. He need not have been. Chainsaw was waiting for him on the path that went along the bottom of the gully. He moved on as soon as Jack appeared.

  They followed the path that led deeper into the park. Although Chainsaw was out of view at times, he was always waiting around the next bend. Only when Jack caught up, would he start moving again. Chainsaw was taking him to his home.

  Jack tagged along, making up stories about what Chainsaw’s mum might have to say when they got there.

  “What’s that you’ve brought home, Chainsaw?” he imagined her saying.

  “It’s a human, Mum. He’s so cute and he doesn’t have anywhere to go.”

  “Oh, yeah! He seems well looked after to me. What are you going to feed him on? We hardly have enough for ourselves.”

  “I’ll go out and catch more. There’re plenty of rats down at the dump.”

  “Humph,” would go the mother cat. “I don’t see any humans eating rats. More like hamburgers and chips. He’ll be real expensive to feed.”

  There would be a pause while Chainsaw hoped his mother would give in, but she wouldn’t. Not yet. “And there’ll be other costs,” she’d go on. “He’ll have to be desexed, and that costs a fortune.”

  “I don’t think he’s old enough to breed yet, Mum.”

  “Humph!”

  Again Chainsaw would keep quiet, sensing he had almost won. Then he’d ask in a pleading voice. “Can I keep him, Mum?”

  His mother would look at the human and then back at Chainsaw. “All right. You can keep him, as long as you clean up after him. Humans don’t bury their poos, you know. And some of them make really big poos.”

  Chainsaw’s path took him out of the bushes and into the geothermal area where steam was drifting across the track. He continued until they reached a place where the steam was so thick that it blocked the way. He turned to check that Jack was still with him, before disappearing into the steam.

  Jack stopped. This could be dangerous. The steam looked different to the rest. It seemed to glow from within, as if there was a fire, or worse still, molten lava.

  He waited a couple of minutes, debating whether to follow or not. In that time Chainsaw did not reappear, but nor were there any noises suggesting he’d got into trouble. Jack took the first step.

  Immediately, everything was hidden by the warm vapour. He stretched his arms out and crept forward. The glow was getting brighter.

  When th
e steam thinned, Jack saw that the glow was not molten lava. Nor was it a fire. Dug into the wall of the crater was a room. The bank had been extended with a lean-to of corrugated iron. Storage holes had been scooped out of the soft pumice. The floor had been smoothed by sweeping.

  On one side there was a mattress and a sleeping bag. In the middle of the space was an old La-Z-Boy. And on it, in a patch of afternoon sunshine, was the source of the orange glow: Fluoro Fred, mumbling to himself. At his feet was Chainsaw.

  Jack stopped and eased back into the steam, hoping that he’d not been seen. He felt betrayed. Chainsaw had led him to the crazy man. But worse still was the way that Chainsaw was rubbing against the man’s legs. There was no doubting that they were friends. Then Jack spotted the food and water containers beside the armchair and realized that the two were more than friends. Chainsaw was the madman’s pet.

  Chapter 4

  Jack hid in the steam listening to the mumbling. It seemed like some sort of chant. On and on it went, repeating over and over.

  Then it stopped and another voice sounded. “Well, are you coming in, or are you going to stand there all day?”

  Jack’s body stiffened. This was not the voice of a crazy man. The words were clear and spoken with authority.

  Jack moved forward a bit, but not so much that he could be seen.

  “Well, Buddha,” said Fluoro, stretching down and stroking the cat, “it looks like your friend doesn’t want to be with us. Just as well. I’ve told you before not to bring humans home. You never know where they’ve been.”

  Jack gave a little giggle. He took another step forward.

  “Ah,” said Fluoro. “Maybe he will stay with us for a while.” He beckoned with his hand. “Come on in. I’m neither insane, diseased, nor an addict.”

  Jack moved out of the steam. “Do you call the cat Buddha?” he asked.

  “Yes, it is the greatest compliment I can give to my friend. What do you call him?”

  “Chainsaw.”

  Fluoro chuckled. “Yes, very good,” he said. “Then from now on I too will call him Chainsaw. And your name is?”

  “Jack.”

  “Hello, Jack,” said Fluoro. “So, what do you call me? I’m sure the locals have some sort of name.”

  “The kids at school call you Fluoro Fred.”

  Fluoro put his head back and laughed. “I like it.”

  “What’s your real name?”

  He stopped laughing. “Fluoro Fred will do for now. My name from a previous life is not important.”

  “Are you a fragrant?”

  Fluoro was puzzled for a moment. Then he laughed again.

  “A fragrant, eh? I think the word you’re after is vagrant. Fragrant means sweet smelling, and not too many vagrants are that.”

  “What about you?” asked Jack.

  “I smell no different to any other human, I hope. But there’s only one way you’ll know for sure. You could join me and Buddha Chainsaw for a meal.”

  Jack stood for a while as if making up his mind. But really he’d already decided. The thought of going home was much less attractive than being with Chainsaw.

  “OK,” he said.

  Now it was the man who had second thoughts. “What about your parents? When are they expecting you home?”

  “They’re both working. Mum won’t be home until late and Dad’s hauling logs to Napier.”

  Fluoro leant over and stroked the cat. “What do you think, Buddha Chainsaw?”

  In reply the cat left the man to rub against Jack’s legs.

  “OK,” said Fluoro as he got to his feet. “Then let’s have some lunch. Do you eat sausages?”

  Jack nodded.

  “Excellent!” said Fluoro, rubbing his hands together. He took a couple of steps towards his storage area, before turning back and glaring at Jack. “I was planning to have steak,” he said. “But I ended up twenty dollars short yesterday. Sometimes money just seems to fly away. Have you ever noticed that, Jack?” Then he grinned. “But maybe it’s for the best. I’ve heard that too much steak causes gout.”

  It was a good meal. Jack couldn’t believe how tasty the sausages were after being cooked on a sheet of rusty iron. In fact he couldn’t believe any of what was happening. He shook his head in wonder. Here he was sitting in the middle of a geothermal area having lunch with a crazy man as if it were perfectly normal.

  Except Jack was no longer sure that Fluoro was crazy. He might talk strangely, but what he said made sense.

  Jack turned to him. “Why do you live like this?”

  Fluoro chuckled. “A good question. A simple one to ask, but a hard one to answer.” He paused. “Do you ever get fed up with your everyday life, Jack? School? Home? Feel that you you’ve had enough of it?”

  Jack rolled his eyes and nodded. Did he ever. That’s why he was here.

  “Then you’ll understand that’s what happened to me. So I decided to do something entirely different.” He opened his hands to indicate the surroundings. “And this is it.”

  “Why here?”

  “Ah! That’s easier to answer. All my life I’ve been fascinated by geothermal areas. Now I can live in the middle of one. It makes me feel closer to the earth than I have ever been before.”

  Jack nodded. He could understand that. “Is the mumbling part of it as well?” he asked.

  In answer Fluoro closed his eyes and began mumbling. Except this time Jack could make out more of the sounds.

  “Om mani padme hum. Om mani padme hum. Om mani padme …” He went on so long that Jack was thinking “crazy man” again.

  Then suddenly, Fluoro stopped and looked up at him. “That’s the one I use most often,” he said in a perfectly normal voice. “It’s a Buddhist mantra that helps people come to peace with their world.”

  “Oh mummy pat me bum?” said Jack. “What does that mean?”

  Fluoro frowned. “Don’t ridicule other people’s religion.”

  “I’m not!” replied Jack. “That’s what I heard.”

  “Well,” Fluoro said slowly, “it’s ‘Om, mani, padme, hum,’ and it’s not what it means that is important. It’s what it does. It makes me feel good and gives me peaceful thoughts.”

  “I’ve got a book like that,” said Jack. “It’s called Magic Thinks Big.”

  “And why does it make you feel peaceful?”

  “I don’t know really,” said Jack. “There’s a cat in the story called Magic, and he can go places in his mind.” He shrugged. “There’s just something about it that makes me feel good.”

  Fluoro nodded. “Can you go places in your mind?”

  “Sometimes. But I’m not very good at it. When Mum or Dad used to read to me, I could do it better. But they don’t do that anymore.”

  “That’s a pity,” said Fluoro. “Because it’s good to go off to places. I do it all the time.”

  “Where do you go?”

  “Oh, I stay right here,” replied Fluoro with a grin. “But I travel back in time. I try to go back to before the last big eruption.”

  “What’s it like?”

  Fluoro looked at the boy for a long time before answering. “Maybe I can take you there. If we get comfortable, and I tell you what’s happening in my mind, we might be able to share the journey.” A pause. “Do you trust me enough to do that?”

  Jack looked away. He didn’t know if he did or not. What he did know was he was feeling his most relaxed since moving to Taupo. If just talking to Fluoro worked, then taking a mind journey might be even better. Anyway, what was there to lose? His life was already rubbish. How could it get any worse?

  “Yes,” he said. “Let’s do it.”

  Fluoro’s idea of getting comfortable was to drag a beach lounger from the back of his home and unfold it for Jack. The canvas was ripped in a couple of places, but was still strong enough to hold Jack’s weight.

  The man then sat in the La-Z-Boy and leant back until he too was lying down. He began talking.

  “The time we’re
going back to is about two hundred years after the birth of Jesus Christ. Almost all the world is populated with people except for here. It will be still another few hundred years before the first Polynesians make it to this land.

  “Imagine we’re on a rise, looking down at the land that will become Crown Park. Behind us we can see Tauhara. It is covered with bush, like most of the land we can see, except for dots of bare patches where steam rises into the air.”

  Jack was finding it difficult to see any of this. To him it was only boring description. I want things to happen, he thought. I want action!

  At that moment a heavy weight landed on his lap. Jack flinched, thinking that somehow it had resulted from his wish for action. Then the kneading started and he knew it was Chainsaw. His hand automatically moved to the cat’s head and began stroking back and forth. Instantly, the sound of an idling chainsaw filled the makeshift home.

  Fluoro was still talking. “… trees so big their crowns are filled with other plants, forming gardens in the air. And in these gardens are birds feeding on fruits and insects. Every now and then a metallic note rings through the forest, to be answered soon after by an echo of similar sounds.”

  Slowly, Jack began to see this land in the past. He stopped hearing the words and began seeing images. And what images they were. It was like standing in the middle of a 3D fantasy movie. Something like Imax3D, except here, when he looked around, he saw things everywhere — above, below, behind. It was the ultimate movie experience.

  Standing next to him was Fluoro, still dressed in his orange outfit. On the ground was Chainsaw showing an unhealthy interest in a nearby bird. There were birds everywhere, and so tame. Their songs filled the air with music.

  As he listened, Jack began to hear a different sound. A deep background noise that gradually got louder as the source moved closer. It took a while for him to work out what it was, but when he did, he couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Without doubt it was the doof-doof-doof of bass notes coming from a car stereo system.