Kaimoana Tales, Dills & Wills 4 (last one)

They woke in the morning and grinned at each other, which was a bit of a tradition by then.

“Good morning, Gorgeous.”

“Hello, Handsome.”

“Funny what a day brings, Wills. I never thought yesterday morning that we’d be waking up together today.’

“No, me neither, and not in Amberley either! I wish yesterday had never happened.”

“Yeah, me too, but it did.”

“It did. Bloody Damian!”

“You’re still angry with him then?”

“I’ll always be pissed at him and his parents too.”

“But not Ashton?”

“No, not Ashton. He’s in the same shit-heap that Damian was.”

“Be thankful for the parents you’ve got.”

“I am, and you should be too. We’ve got a great family.”

“Yeah, we have. Hope they don’t kick us out.”

“Couldn’t see them doing that. I hope not. They must have some ideas about us by now.”

“You think? No-one’s said anything.”

“Good job too. Don’t ask, don’t tell works for me.”

“Me too – for now. Want to have a shower.”

“Together? Great idea! We can use up all the hot water with no mothers yelling at us.”

They weren’t that long in the shower. Neither of them was interested in sex after the hot and heavy night they’d had, and there’s not a lot else to do in there, apart from washing yourself, (or your mate!) They came out, got dressed, stripped the bed and rolled the sheets up for the laundry, and then went out to find something for breakfast.

“Never thought I’d say this, but I could get sick of takeaways.”

“I know what you mean.”

They bought apple pies and OJ, and then walked back to the motel to hand-in the keys and collect the car.

“There’s no hurry to get home, is there Dills?”

“There’s not. We’ve got all day. We can’t leave yet anyway, the garage is not open and I want to get some petrol before we go.”

“Haven’t we got enough to get home?”

“Well, maybe, but I’m not taking Mum’s car back empty, it’d be more than my life’s worth.”

“What are we going to do then? Park outside the garage until it opens?”

“No. Let’s go and have a look at Amberley Beach. I’ve never been down there and always wondered what it’s like. We usually just shoot straight past on the highway.”

“Fine, we’ll go to the beach then. Don’t you know what’s there?”

“No, but we’ll soon find out. There’s some sort of settlement there. The maps show some streets by the beach.”

“Not a city then?”

“Hardly, it’s just little.”

It wasn’t that little. At the end of the straight road from Amberley to the beach there were several streets of small houses and cottages clustered close together, each on a small, flat section.

They were very individual and brightly coloured, but they were all of the same distinctive style of beach-side buildings that could be found in similar settlements all over the country. Oaro was full of them and the older parts of South Bay were the same.

They were small, low to the ground, mostly flat-roofed and built of the cheapest materials. Obviously not for full-time living, these were owner-built weekend cottages and holiday homes. It was easy to tell the few that were permanently occupied, they tended to be larger and their grounds and gardens were better kept. Most places had nothing more than rough lawns, shrubs and trees.

Most of the surrounding, sheltering, trees were the ubiquitous pine trees, they were everywhere.

“They’re American, you know.”

“What are, Wills? The cottages?”

“No, the pine trees. Pinus Radiata. They originally came from the Monterey Peninsular area in California. Apparently, they’re rare there and you’re not allowed to cut them down.”

“You’re not? Just as well that doesn’t apply here. Pine trees are everywhere.”

“They are, they grow up in the snow-grass in the mountains right down to the beaches with their feet in the sea. Nine out of ten trees planted in New Zealand are Pinus Radiata.”

“Really? That’s a lot. Why don’t people plant native trees?”

“Some do, but not a lot. They’re too slow growing and pines are fast and easy. There’s more money in Pinus Radiata; they grow in any sort of ground and it’s only 25 years to maturity. Fast turnaround means more profit.

It’s a soft-wood, useless it’s treated to stop it rotting. Builders call it ‘long grass’. The original tree was a slow-growing hardwood, but ours are about 30 generations of development away from them.

The timber is easy to build with, if it’s treated. It’s light and it doesn’t split. It makes good firewood, when it’s dry, but most of them finish-up getting pulped to make paper. You’ll hardly ever see a plantation in NZ that’s not pines, apart from orchards. The Kaiangaroa Forest, up in the central North Island, is the largest man-made forest in the world.”

“In little New Zealand? Wow. How do you know all this stuff, Wills?”

“I’ve got a head full of useless information. Probably comes from growing up with a teacher for a father.”

“Yeah, probably. Is that what you want to be – a teacher?”

“Maybe. I’m thinking about it. What are you going to do, Dills?”

“I’m going to be a rich and famous rock-star.”

“Yeah, right! Good luck with that. I’ve heard your music.”

“Hey! Some people like my sort of music.”

“You think? I don’t, I think it’s bloody awful. You’re lucky that I love you.”

“I am, very lucky.”

“Yeah, so am I. Don’t worry, Dills. Teachers make pretty good money. I’ll be a teacher and support you while you try to make music.”

“Thanks, I think, but I’d rather be a rock-star and you can be my groupie.”

“I already am! I love you, Dills.”

“Cool. I love you too, bigtime!”

Dylan drove slowly up and down the flat streets. There was nothing but cottages and a few overgrown empty sections. There were no shops, hotels or motels, no parks and not even a community hall. This was obviously a quiet place for family holidays. The boys thought it was all a bit boring really. He stopped the car at the end of one of the sandy tracks going up and over the sand-dunes.

“Let’s go and have a look at the beach.”

“Okay. I’m not swimming though, it’s too damm cold for that.”

“You got that right.”

Over the low sand-dunes, they walked out on to the long, long, gray beach. Wide, flat and sandy, it stretched off in either direction as far as the eye could see, fading into the haze in the distance. It was an overcast day, so the sky was grey and so was the sea, except for the white-capped waves.

“Boring!”

“Yeah. Looks good for surfing though, there’s good waves and no rocks anywhere.”

“Maybe. Do you surf, Dills? I’ve never tried.”

“I surf, sometimes. I’ll have to teach you. There’s some good beaches up north of Kaimoana.”

“Okay, let’s do that, but I’m waiting ‘til the summer. It’s cold here.”

“The sea is always cold, but, yeah, that wind’s got a definite chill in it. Always seems to be windy on beaches around Christchurch.”

“Bummer! I hate cold winds.”

“That’s rich, coming from a Wellington boy.”

“Shut up, Dills. It’s not always windy there. It’s not as bad as people think.”

“Just as well too. Want to go for a walk?”

“Yeah, straight back to the car. I’m friggin’ freezing!”

“Toughen-up, Wills. No wonder they say that youth today are getting soft.”

“I can get hard too. Come back to the car and I’ll show you.”

“Randy little bugger. Do you ever go 5 minutes without thinking about sex?”

“Sometimes, when I’m sleeping.”

“That’s probably the only time too. Let’s go back to the car.”

“Yes!” William took off, running back to the track.

Dylan followed at a slower pace. He stopped for a pee in the bushes, and when he came around a corner, William was standing there facing 2 rough-looking characters who were blocking the track.

One of them leered, “Aren’t you the pretty little thing? What’s the big hurry, Darling?”

“Oh, yeah,” the other one said and held up his tray of cans. “We’re going to party in the dunes. Why don’t you come back there with us?”

“Why don’t you fuck off?” Dylan walked up to them.

“Think you can make us, do you?”

“If I have to, yes.” Dylan stood tall. They looked him up and down, one of them stepped aside.

Dylan took hold of William’s arm. “Come on, Wills.” He led him past them and down to the car.

“Dirty bastards!” William hissed.

“Just keep quiet and keep walking, Kid.”

They got to the car and looked back up the track. The others had gone. Dylan got in. William got in the other side, and then climbed over to sit on him. He snuggled in.

“Thanks, Dills. You’re my hero.”

“Any time, My Love. I’ll avoid a fight if I can, but I’ll fight if I have to. While I’m around, no-one touches you unless you want them to.”

“No-one touches me – no-one but you, always.”

“Always.”

They kissed.

“Maybe I should’ve though, with Damian. He wanted me to love him.”

“No, you shouldn’t have. You can’t think like that. It was not your fault.”

“I can’t help feeling that I should’ve done more for him.”

“Wills, you didn’t know. You’re not a mind-reader. All you knew was what he told you.”

“He told me plenty. I should’ve known.”

“When Brodie came and told us, it was a surprise, wasn’t it?”

“It was a total surprise. No-one expects that.”

“Well, then. You didn’t know.”

“You’re right, I didn’t Thanks, Dills. I really need you, you know. I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

“I hope you never find out.”

“So do I.”

They kissed again.

“Okay, my Beautiful Boy – time we got this show on the road.”

William climbed back into his own seat and they went back to the bigger village on the highway. The Service station was open for business, so they pulled in there to fill the car up. They bought some munchies and cans of coke as well.

Dylan pulled out on to the highway and started towards home.

“Don’t go too fast, Dills.”

“What? Are you worried about my driving?”

“No, your driving’s fine, I just don’t want to go home.”

“Yeah, but we have to. Besides, I’d like to see the family now.”

“Yeah, I guess.”

At Waipara, they passed the turn-off to State Highway 7 – the Lewis Pass road to the West Coast.

“You ever been over there, to the Coast, Dills?”

“No, never. Have you?”

“Nope, but I’d like to. They say it’s very different.”

“We should go and have a look sometime, just you and I.”

“Yeah, let’s do that. How about next weekend?”

“Next weekend? Why not? We could do that, as long as Mum will give us the car, and as long as the funeral and everything’s out of the way by then.”

“Damian’s funeral? Damm. Do you think we should go? I think I’d be sick if I had to watch his parents make a big fuss about him.”

“It doesn’t have to be like that, but I think we should be there. You definitely should, you were his best mate and I should be there to make sure that you’re all right.”

“I’ll be all right if you’re with me. Yes, we’ll go. It’d be good for Ashton to see us there too. He knows that we know what Damian’s life was really like.”

“Good Boy. He could do with friends at the moment. Never thought I’d be saying that about Ashton Woods!”

Over the hills, they came down to the coast at Oaro. There was a blond boy there, hitch-hiking, but he was going the wrong way, so all he got was a friendly wave.

“He’s a dork!”

“He is? Do you know him, Dills?”

“Nope, never seen him before.”

“How do you know he’s a dork then?”

“Because he is – he’s hitching on his own. Only a dork would do that.”

“You think?”

“I do. Who knows who’s going to pick him up? It could be someone like those creeps you ran into this morning. Don’t you ever do that, Wills. If you want to hitch anywhere, I’ll come with you.”

“I love you too. I won’t do it on my own.”

“Good! We’re getting close to home. We’ll be there by lunchtime at this rate. Do you want to stop and park for a while?”

“No, I don’t think so, unless you really want to. I think I want to go home to my family.”

“So do I. We’ll go home then.”