Westpoint Tales - Entangled Tales, 86 - Justin & Billy

(North Beach)


Justin and Billy left the school and walked down to the beach to talk. Jonathan went to class waving his copies of the suspensions.

They walked out on to the beach and sat on a huge old log that had been deposited there recently by the battling surf.

“What are you thinking, Sunny?”

“I’m thinking, ‘Fuck ‘em!’ Fuck the lot of them, Justin. There’s twelve people on that committee, so at least seven of them voted to chuck us out of their school. They finally found a way to cut Superboy down to size.

I’m sorry that I was the way they found to get at you. Now you know a little bit about what it’s like to be a Carver in this town.”

“Billy don’t! Don’t be sorry and don’t blame yourself. I don’t care. I don’t care what they do; as long as we are together, nothing else matters. The whole world can go take a running jump into hell for all I care. I just want to be with you. I need to be with you.”

He put a hand on Billy’s shoulder and squeezed gently. “Okay?”

Billy bent his head to rub his cheek on the back of Justin’s hand.

“Okay,” he agreed. “I love you, that’s what matters.”

“Hey!’ Justin grinned. “Don’t you start any lewd and immoral behaviour on the beach or we’ll get kicked out of here too!”

“Let them. Fuck’em, Justin, let’s chuck it. Let’s chuck it all and just walk away. I know you love this town, but it’s got a real nasty side and that’s the side I’ve seen all my life.”

“Okay, if that’s what you want, we’ll do it. We’ll walk away together and go and find a new life somewhere else.”

“Yeah. Let’s do that. We could go and live in a city, get an apartment and get jobs somewhere. You can be yourself in a city, people mind their own business and there’s no old biddies gossiping over the back fences.

Let’s go and live in a city – not Christchurch though. We could go to Wellington.”

“That’s a plan – we’ll do that. We’ll go back and tell Mrs. Lowry and Mrs. Lewis thanks but no thanks. That was a really big thing they were doing, putting their jobs on the line like that, but if we just go anyway, they can rip the resignations up and there’ll be no harm done.”

“Yeah, I suppose they will. There’s no point in their resigning if we’re going anyway. We’ll go back to the school and tell them.”

They started walking back towards the town. Justin said, “Do you think we should do what Mrs. Lowry said and tell Ma and Grandmother what the school board has done?”

“We’ll have to tell them that we’re going, but there’s no point in upsetting them about what the bastard school board has done. There’s nothing they could do anyway. What about ‘Billy’s Burgers’ though?”

“Your mum can have that, she’s running it anyway. The business has started, they don’t need us anymore. We’ll start a new life with no baggage from the past.”

“Yeah. A clean start. What about the others though? Jonathan, Peter, Jay, Daniel, Tony, Claire, Lucas – the list goes on and on. Dee, Ross, John, everybody?”

“That’ll be hard, yes. Hard to leave everybody, but we don’t have to say goodbye. When we’ve got somewhere to live, we’ll tell them where and they can come and see us if they want to.”

“They’ll come. We’d better get a bloody big house then.”

“We will. We’ll get a bloody big house in the city and we’ll be as lewd and immoral as we want to.”

“Yeah, fuck’em!”

Justin stopped walking, picked up a handful of stones from the side of the graveled road, and stood tossing them into the water of the estuary beside them. “What about your education, Billy?”

“What about it?” Billy joined him in throwing stones.

“You haven’t finished. I think that I should get a job to support us while you go back to school somewhere.”

“No way, Justin. I’m not sitting around while you’re working.”

“You won’t be sitting around, you’ll be at school. You need to finish your education and get some qualifications. You’ve got a fine brain, Billy. “It would be a crime to let that go to waste.”

“I’ve got a fine brain? Look, Sweetcheeks, I don’t need no education. I can read and write and I’ve got a computer to tell me anything I need to know.”

“You’ve got a computer? Where?”

“I’ve got the world’s best computer. It knows most everything and what it doesn’t know it can find out. It’s user-friendly, a great calculator, and I can play games with it. Great games – sex games even.”

“Oh? Where is this computer then? I’ve never seen it.”

Billy took hold of Justin’s head, pulled it forward and kissed him on the hair-line. “My computer’s right here, Doofus, in your head.”

“Oh!” Justin grinned back. “Pretty crappy computer you’ve got then.”

“It is not. It’s the world’s finest – simply the best. I don’t own it though, I just rent it. It costs me kisses to rent it.”

“Does it now? I think the rent’s due.”

“Yeah, I think it’s overdue actually.”

“You want to play some games with your computer? Sex games?”

“Oh yes. Let’s go home and I’ll show you what I can make it do.”

They walked back up the beach road, hand in hand and giggling happily.

“Computer bytes!”

“Cookies.”

“CD ram”

“I’ll ram you!”

“Oh, yes!”

“Mr. Justin Jonathan Reynolds, you are the best thing that’s ever happened in my life. I love you.”

“Mr. William Robert Mathieson, ditto. I love you totally.”

“We’d better hurry home. I can feel some sex games coming on.”

As they came out from the beach road and started up Derby Street, a car tooted as it went past them. They let go of each other’s hands and jumped apart, guiltily, but when they looked back, the driver was waving to them. A few steps further on, a second car passed and the lady driver also tooted and waved.

“You’ve got a lot of friends around here, Sweetcheeks, a lot of friends.”

“Yeah, but a year ago, I had none. We’ll make new friends.”

“We will. You’ll make friends wherever you go.”

In the distance, up the road, they could see a large crowd, mostly students, milling around outside the Highschool.

“What do you think’s going on there? There must be a fire or something.”

“There’s no smoke. It’s probably just another fire-drill. Or, maybe Jonathan’s done what Mrs. Lowry suggested, and started a strike.”

“A strike? What would they do that for?”

“For you of course, what else?”

“They wouldn’t would they? I suppose no-one wants to be back in school anyway.”

“Well, I certainly don’t. C’mon Justin, let’s go this way and avoid the crowds. We’ll ring Mrs. Lowry from home.”

They crossed the road and ran up on to the old railway embankment. At the far end of the track, they decided that they didn’t want to face the crowds up the main street either, so they went over to the wharves and wandered along there, going home along the river-side.

Although there was a cement company boat and a large coal barge in the port, there didn’t seem to be anybody around. It was quieter than a Sunday. They slowly made their way along to the end of the wharf, crossed over the quiet railway yard and it was mid-afternoon by the time they went in through the back-door of the hotel.

Kathleen called from the kitchen. “Justin? Billy? Is that you? Where the hell have you been?”

“It’s us, Grandmother. We’ve just been walking.” Justin looked into the kitchen. “Oh. Hello Ma, Mrs. M. What’s everyone doing here? We’ve been kicked out of school.”

“We know that, Superboy,” Ma replied. “That’s why we’re here of course. Come in and sit down. You too, Billy. We need to talk.”

They walked in and looked around. Bob and Connors, Jonathan, Lana, Butch Carver and Paul Jamieson were all standing there looking at them. Justin scanned around the angry, grim looking faces and he took hold of Billy’s hand.

“We don’t care!” Billy burst out. “They can shove their school and their town. We’re leaving and we’re going to go and live somewhere else.”

“You are not,” his mother said. “You’re not going anywhere, either of you. This is where you belong and this is where you are staying.”

“I’m sorry, Mrs. M,’ said Justin. “But we are going. We’ve decided and we’re leaving. We don’t want to stay here where we’re not wanted.”

“What are you on about, Dimwit?” Jonathan exclaimed. “Of course you’re wanted here.”

“By some people, maybe,” Justin agreed. “But the School Board, the town – we have to go.”

“Wait a minute, Boy,” Bob took hold of Justin’s elbow. “Come here with me, you need to see this.”

He led them through the hotel, through the (closed?) front door and out into the street, with everyone from the kitchen following. They walked out into the middle of the street and it was empty – totally empty. The normally busy daytime street was completely deserted, there was nobody in sight anywhere – no cars and no pedestrians at all. Nobody.

“But. . Grandfather, I don’t understand. What happened? Has there been an emergency? Is the town in trouble?”

“Bloody town’s in trouble all right!” Ma Carver hobbled out to join them. “Everyone’s down-tooled and gone home. The whole town’s on strike.”

“But why? What happened?”

“Fuck, Justin! Sometimes you’re so bloody thick!” Jonathan yelled at him. “Westpoint’s on strike because of you – both of you.”

“Because of us? What have we done now?”

“You got kicked out of school, that’s what. Superboy and his best friend have been ordered out of the school so the town’s out on strike until somebody fixes it!”

They stood looking down the deserted street, in shock almost. “But why? They can’t. The whole town wouldn’t do that, would they?”

“They have, Justin”, his grandfather smiled. “That’s exactly what they’ve done. This town loves you, Boy. You’re our very own Superboy. So, you see, you can’t leave – not after this.”

“But I’m not!”

Tears started flowing and Justin sank down and sat, overcome and crying in the middle of the street. Billy knelt down and held him but he was crying too.

Jonathan whipped out his cell and took a photo of the pair of them – one sitting in the middle of the empty main street, the other kneeling and holding him and both of them crying. There was no newspaper that night, the Westpoint News was on strike, but the Editor, Bryce Hartigan, put Jonathan’s photo on the following day’s front page under the bold headline, “Westpoint, Thank You.”

Page three of the paper also had a bold type headline, “Superboy, Thank You” and there was a montage of photos from the paper’s files – Justin and Billy onstage with Oliver, Justin on crutches and photos of the coal-truck and Tom Craddock’s granddaughter, photos of him unconscious and bloody after the shooting at the school and of him, dressed up and singing at Jeremy Carver’s funeral. There were photos of the crumpled rubbish-tin at the Square, of the R&R shop and factory and of Billy’s Burgers and the party in the Square, along with one of the crowd cleaning up the next day.

The following morning, Mrs. Lewis came to the Adelphi and found them. Justin was busy cleaning, Billy was next-door in the burger bar. She waited while they changed clothes and then took them to the school.

Mrs. Lowry met them and led them out on to the stage in the hall where the entire school was assembled. When the applause faded, she read to them, and to the school, the apology from the entire Board of trustees – the EX- board of Trustees, they had all resigned and there would be an election for a new board.

She announced that she would be nominating Justin as the student’s representative on the Board, but he declined and asked her to nominate Jonathan instead. Red-faced and embarrassed, Justin and Billy stood up before the school and thanked them and told them not to do it again!

Justin finished by grinning and saying, “We’ve got a bloody great school here! Anytime anyone is in trouble, don’t look at us – ask your friends for help.”