Dead Heat Read Free Page B

asked, frowning.
    Dawn and Georgia nodded.
    “On your own?”
    The sisters nodded again.
    “What about your grandfather?”
    “He’s helping at the bait shop,” said Dawn. “They open at—”
    “Eight,” said Bri. “Yeah. I know.”
    He had chewed his lower lip, then said, “How about if I pick you up each morning? You’re at the commune, right? It’ll be no
     trouble for me, so long as your mum won’t mind, and I’ll make the airfield in time for the first trips. Joey here could do
     with the company.”
    Joey didn’t say anything, but the sisters knew he was appalled. His peers in town had been locked in battle with the children
     from the commune since anyone could remember, and now Joey was going to have to share a car with the enemy! All term Dawn
     and Georgia teased him mercilessly from the back of Bri’s ute, which culminated in Joey leading the townies down the lumpy
     dirt track into the heart of the commune and its timber cabins and chicken yards and pelting them with mud, destroying their
     treehouse, and finally dragging the commune kids into the stream and dunking them.
    A week later Georgia led an ambush with Dawn and six others, throwing sticky balls of flour mixed with water at the townies,
     who were on their way to a party. The townies’ parents had gone berserk, calling Georgia an uncontrollable little savage,
     but her mother had never been great on discipline and merely said in that calm tone of hers, “Playing is healthy behavior
     for children. You’d rather they sat indoors watching TV?”
    Georgia had been delighted that the enmity between townies and commune kids had deepened to another level. She loved the freedom
     of the commune and she had loved fighting for it. The day it closed, three days after her seventeenth birthday, sold to a
     guy from Brisbane who wanted to develop it into a rainforest health center, was the day her childhood ended.
    Bri turned around in the pilot’s seat and looked at her critically. “Don’t they feed you in the big city?”
    “They feed me just fine, Bri.”
    “You’re too bloody skinny,” he grumbled. Then, “Getting married soon?”
    “Bri, get serious, will you? We’ve got better things to do than sit and talk about my private life. Like getting me to Cairns
     for a connecting flight.”
    “Are you?”
    She made an exaggerated groaning sound and banged her head in the palm of her hand in a parody of agony. “Even my mother doesn’t
     give me such a hard time.”
    “Yeah, well.” Bri grinned and shook his head, chuckling. “Someone’s got to, young lady, or you’ll run wild the rest of your
     life.”
    “I don’t run wild! I’m very responsible, I’ll have you know. I’ve a full-time job with a very reputable publishing company
     and a rented house in a very nice part of the city. I have a company car and an expense account.” Her chin lifted. “I’ve even
     been offered a promotion. National marketing manager. What do you think of that, then?”
    He snorted. “Full-time nothing. It’s not for you, all that soft city stuff. You need something to get your teeth stuck into.
     Something you’re proud of, that you care about and want to fight for. Like the commune.”
    Momentarily she was shocked into silence, then she said, voice small, “I tried.”
    She could feel Lee’s and Suzie’s gazes on her, but she ignored them.
    “You did good,” said Bri, voice softening. “Your mum too. You both did real good, but it wasn’t to be, was it?”
    “No.”
    Bri reached a hand around the back of his seat and waggled his stubby fingers at her. She gripped his hand briefly. He squeezed
     back, giving their clasped hands a little shake like he used to, and she could feel the back of her throat close with tears.
    “You find something worth fighting for, you call me.” He dropped his hand and peered at her over his shoulder. “I’d like to
     sling a handful of flour patties at some blokes, believe me.”
    While Bri radioed