Brownsville Tales - Robin, 3

He didn't go to school next day. He was going to, he was up and dressed and ready to go, and then – he didn't. Bryan got a phone-call at breakfast-time and he had to go to the mine early – something to do with Rick's truck not starting and the ventilation fans having to be started. Whatever it was, he was up and gone in a hurry.

“I might be late home tonight. I'll have to go to town and do some shopping after work. Get yourself a sandwich or something when you get home from school and I'll bring takeaways home for supper. Does a burger sound good to you?”

“Yeah, Dad. Two burgers would sound even better. They're not big y'know.”

“Two burgers? Okay, I suppose you're a growing boy and all that. You want fries with them?”

“Well, of course! Thanks.”

“You haven't got 'em yet. Thank me when you do. I've gotta go! Make sure you put the screen in front of the fire and close the doors when you leave. 'Bye Rob.”

“'Bye, Dad. See you tonight.”

Bryan left in a hurry. Robin watched the car go out of the drive, and then he had a brilliant idea. He put a couple of shovelfuls of coal on the fire, sat down and put his feet up. He wasn't going to school. Stuff that. He was staying here by the fire, where it was warm. Nice. This was the life.

He didn't often bunk school, hardly ever actually, but today he was. It was freezing out there again. There was even ice on the inside of the window in his room when he woke up. His dad didn't believe in heaters in the bedrooms. He claimed that they were not healthy and were a waste of money. No-one ever froze in their bed.

He imagined that Darren would be walking to school by now and he wondered if those goons were chucking ice at him again? He wouldn't be stopping them if he was there anyway. He got no thanks for helping him yesterday and he wasn't doing that again, but he still didn't like it.

No-one deserves that sort of treatment, not even Darren Hughes. But – none of his business. Hughes had made that perfectly clear.

Why didn't he like him? That'd really upset him for some strange reason.

He was NOT going to sit here worrying about that all day. It was great sitting by the fire on a frosty morning. He probably wouldn't get many chances to have a day off like this again. Would Deb and her sprog be moving in here, or would him and his dad move into town?

He didn't know, but he hoped they would stay out here. He didn't want to leave the Ranch, this was his home, the only home he'd ever known. Shame that things couldn't stay as they were, but that's life. Only dead things don't move.

Why didn't Darren Hughes like him and what could he do about it? Nothing! That's what.

He had another breakfast, like a hobbit – hobbits were known for second breakfasts. Actually, now that he was starting to get hair on his legs, there was some growing on the tops of his feet too. Maybe he was turning into a hobbit? Nah. He was already too tall for that, hobbits were only little people. Darren Hughes was little. Why didn't he like him?

He lazed around the house all day and did nothing much, except for keeping the fire going. The daytime TV was all a lot of rubbish – soppy soap operas, dumb-arse people screeching at talk-show hosts and infantile pre-school, children's programmes. He soon gave up on that and turned it off. He wasn't missing anything on TV when he was at school.

If he knew his dad, he was going to want a major clean-up around the house before his girlfriend arrived tomorrow. He did think about making a start on that now, but no. If he did too much, his dad would know that he didn't go to school. So, he did none.

Besides, it was his day off, wasn't it? There's an idea – he could watch Ferris Bueller's Day Off. They had it on DVD. But, no. He'd seen it a hundred times already and he couldn't be bothered.

He sat and watched the coal burning on the open fire and the day slipped passed all too quickly.

It was way after dark when his dad arrived home and Robin was hungry!

“Nice and warm in here,” Bryan smiled.

“Yep. I got it warm just for you.”

“Sure you did. Want to help me put these groceries away?”

“Later, Dad. I'm starving here. Let's eat before it gets cold.”

“Before what gets cold? Oh, right. I was going to get burgers, wasn't I? Well, I forgot.”

“Dad, you didn't!”

“I didn't – forget. They're in the bag there. Help yourself.”

They sat either side of the fire, devouring their luke-warm takeaways.

“How was school today?”

“It was fine. Is Debbie still coming out tomorrow?”

“She is. Should be here about lunchtime.”

“Right. Is she bringing that kid with her?”

“Darren? Yes, I suppose she will be.”

“Damm.”

“That'll do, Rob. I told you, this is happening whether you like it or not. You'll just have to learn to get along with the kid. Why don't you like him.”

“I, ah . . I dunno. Why doesn't he like me?”

“How do you know that?”

“That's what he told me. He said he don't like me at all and he's not going to live out here with us.”

“Is that so? I think you'll find that he's got no more say in the matter than you have, and that's not a lot.”

“Gee, thanks, Dad. So I'm going to have to live with someone who hates me?”

“Could be. Lots of people do.You'll work it out. He seems like a nice enough kid, and so are you – mostly.”

“Well, thanks. You don't think I'm a stuck-up, conceited pig then?

“I don't know. Are you?”

“No, I'm not! But he thinks so.”

“You'll just have to show him he's wrong then, won't you?

“So you don't think I am? I'm pleased someone likes me.”

“Of course I bloody like you. You're my boy, my first-born and you always will be.”

“Probably. Unless they invent time-travel.”

“Not likely. Now then, we're going to have to have a major clean-up here before Deb arrives. We don't want her thinking that we're a couple of slobs.”

“That sounds like work.”

“It does, but it's got to be done. But not now. I've already done a day's work, we'll start in the morning.”

“Great.”

It wasn't so great next morning when his dad came into his room, banging and crashing and waking him up. “Come on, Sleepyhead, out of bed! We've got work to do.”

“Oh no,” he groaned. “It's too early. It's not even daylight yet. Go away!” He rolled over and pulled the covers up over his head.

“Oh no you don't,” Bryan exclaimed. “It is morning. It's after 7 already and the sun will be up soon enough.”

“This son won't be.”

“Oh but he will.” Bryan whipped the covers right off him.

“Ow! Damm, Dad. It's cold.”

“Move your butt then.”

Robin was sleeping naked, as usual, and he had to roll on to his stomach to hide his morning boner. That meant his lily-white butt was exposed to the world, but that was better than the alternative.

“Come on, Boy,” Bryan grinned. “Get some clothes on and I'll see you in the kitchen” He left and took all the covers with him!

Robin could get up and dressed or he could lie there and freeze. He got up.

He came out to the kitchen and his dad was sitting by the fire, drinking coffee. “Here's my Laughing Boy,” he grinned. “Have a rude awakening, did you?”

“I did, and don't worry, you're going to pay for that.”

“You'll try. Get something to eat and we'll get started. I'll do my room and the lounge. You can do your room, and then get started in here. I'll help you when I've done my bit.”

“Oh great. This is the messiest room in the house, because we spend the most time in here.”

“I know. That's why we'll both be cleaning in here. We've only got until lunchtime, so there's no time to waste. Do the dishes and dry them and put them away for once. Get rid of all this junk. Burn whatever burns. Then throw the clothes into the laundry and wipe-down all the ledges and surfaces. I'll vacuum the floor, and then we're going to scrub it.”

“Oh joy. But why bother? Wouldn't it be more honest to let her see how we really live?”

“Not likely. She'd run a mile.”

“That'd be a bad thing?”

“Shut up, Rob.”

They worked all morning. It's amazing how much dust and dirt collects, especially up in the high places. That's the downside of having a big fire. They finished-up when they heard a car coming in from the highway. Robin put the cleaning gear into the laundry and went to the bathroom to freshen-up before their visitors came in.

They arrived and Robin fell in love – with her, not him. She came in carrying a couple of flat boxes and gave him a big warm smile.

“Hello, Robin. Nice to meet you at last. I've brought lunch, as promised. Where should I put these?”

“Umm, yeah. Hey, Debbie. Put them on the table, I guess.”

“No sooner said than done. You do like pizza, I hope?”

“Pizza? I love pizza! But where did you get them? There's no place in town does pizza, is there?”

“Not as far as I know. I made them myself. Darren cut-up some cartons to make boxes – he's a clever boy, my Dazza. You do know each other, don't you?”

“Well, kind-of. Hello, Darren. Nice to see you here.”

Darren just nodded and said, “Hey.” Everyone paused, like they were waiting for him to say more, but he didn't.

“Well,” Deb smiled again. “Not very talkative, my Boy. Let's eat, shall we,? Before it gets cold and yucky.”

They ate and it was great pizza. There were no fries though, there was no time to heat them.

“What did you think, Rob?” his dad asked.

“Of the pizza? That was Ace! Thanks, Deb. I've never had better.”

“Pleased you liked them. I will clean-up here. Why don't you boys go and get lost? Dazza wants to have a look around outside, don't you, Son? Will you be his guide, Robin? You must know the area really well.”

“Sure. I'll show him around, if he wants me too.”

“Thanks,” said Darren. He picked-up his big notebook and headed out of the door.

'I knew he was booky.' Robin followed him out. “What's the book for, Darren?”

“Just my notes. Mum's planning on living out here, so I'm finding out about the place.”

“Yeah? There's not much here now, but it was a huge town once.”

“Not really. There was a town, but there was never any more than about 300 people living here. A lot of the miners lived in town, or at the Point, and they walked out here every day.”

“How do you know all that?”

“I read. That will be where the Progress Mill was, down there at the corner of the river. Can we go down there?”

“Sure. Just watch your feet, there's a lot of holes and stuff. It was a huge operation. They had a 60 head quartz-crushing battery there.”

“65 head, actually. It was big, but it wasn't the biggest. The Wealth's battery was bigger. That's why the place was called Crushingtown.”

“I knew that. They say that when the batteries stopped on Sundays, it was so quiet the locals couldn't sleep. They would've been hella noisy and echoed off the hills too.”

“They would. How many bedrooms are there in your house?”

“Just two. That's why we might have to share a room.”

“Not happening. Two bedrooms? It's not the house where Jack Lovelock was born then. Their one's gone. It must've moved, been demolished or burnt down.”

“Yeah? Jack Lovelock? I know about him. New Zealand's greatest-ever runner and he cleaned-up at Hitler's Olympics in Berlin in 1936.”

“He did.”

“But, how do you know that ours was not his house? It's old enough to be the one.”

“Because you've only got the two bedrooms. Lovelock's father was the Superintendent of the battery here and bosses always had big houses so shareholders had somewhere to stay when they came visiting.

“Ah, right. You're pretty bright, Dazza. I've lived here all of my life and already you know more than me.”

“I'm not super-bright, I've just been reading. Don't call me 'Dazza'. That's Mum's stupid name for me.”

“Okay. What should I call you then?”

“'Sir' could work.”

“Not for me, it won't. I'll call you Darren.”

“Suit yourself. Can we go up these stairs in the foundations here?”

“Well, yeah. But why would you want to? There's nothing up there.”

“No, but it's high-up. There'll be a better view from up there.”

“Let's do that then.”

The stairs and the old concrete foundations climbed up the foot of the hill. The building that used to be there was obviously several stories high. Darren was puffing and out of breath when they reached the top. Robin wasn't and he felt quite smug about that. He was much fitter than the townie.

“Okay,” Daren said when he'd recovered. “This was the Progress Mill and they used to crush and process the ore here from the Globe and Progress mines. That would've come down the hill there, on an aerial cableway. The Wealth and the Dark were across the valley, by the main road down there.”

“The Wealth would be the Wealth of Nations mine,” Robin replied. “But what was the Dark?”

“Sheesh! You should know that. The Keep it Dark was one of the richest, longest lasting mines in the whole district. It wasn't huge, but it produced gold year after year.”

“Right. I did know that.”

“So,” Darren consulted his notebook. “The Wealth was the furtherest away, by the bend in the highway. The Dark was next to it, and then the Hercules. The Golden Ledge, Vulcan and Independent were along the same line and the Energetic was back up in the hills. Do you know where the Pandora was?”

“No. Where?”

“I'm asking you. I don't know.”

“Oh. Same. There was a lot of mines.”

“There was. Most of them weren't very big and they only lasted for a few years, but gold that came out of this area provided the money to get the whole country going. There were over 70 mines altogether.”

“Around here?”

“In the whole district.”

Robin stood looking out over his valley that he'd thought he knew so well. “I wonder if there's any gold still out there? That'd be cool.”

“Could be, but not very likely,” Darren replied. “Those old-time miners knew what they were doing. They wouldn't have missed much.”

“Deep down, there could be. Modern machinery can get to where they couldn't.”

“Maybe. Have you got a couple of million dollars worth of modern equipment?”

“I wish. Damm!” he looked around. “What're you doing?”

“Pissing,” Darren grinned. His track pants and boxers were down around his knees and he stood with his half-hard dick poking out and releasing a stream that soared down over the concrete cliff and splash-landed far below them.

“When you've gotta go, you've gotta go! Oh Man, that feels better. I was bustin'”

“You must've been! Wow.”

Robin stood staring with his mouth hanging open and his eyes bugging out. Darren finished peeing, but he was in no hurry to put his junk away. He put his hands behind his head and shook his dick dry by flicking his hips.

He was small and skinny, and that dick wouldn't have looked out of place on someone twice his size. It dwarfed his nuts which were almost hidden behind it. Uncut, his foreskin was almost peeled back and the tip of his purple knob was peeking out. His skin down there was milky-white, except for the darker-pink dick, and a small tuft of curly black hair topped his equipment.

Robin couldn't stop staring. He had, of course, had plenty of fleeting glimpses of other people's gear before. But, apart from his own, he'd never had a close-up look. Was it rising in a full-on hard-on? Yes, it was!

It had just occurred to him that the kid wasn't in any hurry to pull his pants up and put everything away, when he wiggled his hips again and said, “Like what you see?”

“Well – yeah!” Robin blushed, but he didn't stop looking. “You, umm, you're really well-built, down there. For a small kid, you're big!”

“I'm not THAT small.”

“Right. You're not.”

“Is mine bigger than yours?”

“I, umm, I'm not sure. Could be. Maybe.”

“Come on then,” Darren grinned. “Flop it out and we'll compare them. Or are you shy?”

“Not really,” Robin grinned back. “But . . not here. We can see across the whole valley. Anyone out there can see us – especially if they've got binoculars or a telescope. My dad's got a telescope.”

“Why would they?”

“You want to risk it?”

“Not really. Come back under the trees there, and then we will.”

“All right!”