Jalan Jalan (13 page)

‘Ha haa,' I say back.

‘Jesus Christ, I knew we should have taken them home with us when we left,' says Kim.

Naomi just shakes her head and pulls the sunglasses down from her hair to cover her eyes. There's some sort of invisible shield around her, warning me off.

‘Come on, guys, let's find the bus.' We follow Jussy up the road and through the crowds. He looks at the front of a red, blue and yellow bus and then says something to a man standing by the side who might or might not be the driver. The man scratches his stomach, which pokes out of a too-small coffee-splattered T-shirt, and nods.

‘This is the baby,' yells Jussy.

We get in the bus and it's surprisingly empty compared to the claustrophobic outside. I get a window seat and Naomi sits next to the window on the opposite side of the aisle, shoulders turned away. I tell New Me I really don't care. Julie sits next to me. The others sit along the back seat like naughty school kids.

‘You looking forward to this?' Julie puts her knees up against the back of the seat in front and nods her head in time to the music coming from a portable radio on the dash.

‘Yep. First jungle time. Can't wait. Me and Laura always wanted to see orang-utans.'

‘Laura?'

Laura?

The Christmas feeling drops out of me like pine needles shaken from a dead tree and the gormless smile does likewise. I find myself examining the blue-red pattern of the seat in front.

‘Yeah, well. Anyway. Take it Laura wasn't the prostitute from last night.'

I'm vaguely aware of Julie's head now wobbling left and right.

—Are you never going to leave me alone? I ask.

—Left you alone last night, didn't I? Actually I couldn't even get in your messy head. Didn't want to.

—I wish I could take a pill now. I was happy. I was happy.

—Perhaps if you'd shagged someone, I'd be leaving you alone today.

—I don't want to shag anyone.

‘Have a smoke. You look like shit.'

How is Laura waving a cigarette under my nose? Julie pushes the side of my head.

‘Hellooo. Smoke.'

‘Oh, thanks.' I take one and the bus starts pulling off. Laura shuts up but I can sense she's sitting somewhere, probably on Old Me's lap down there, watching. I drag hard on the cigarette and force a smile back onto my face, wobble my head to the music.

‘That's it. Dance. Shake that drug back up.'

It's Julie talking. Just Julie. She's the only one here so relax. Fucking relax.

‘Love this
dangdut
music.'

‘
Dangdut
?'

‘Indonesian music. Love it.' Head wobbles. Wobble wobble wobble.

We wobble together and the drug does a final burst for me and then I'm whirling my hands above me along with Julie while the others behind us and a handful of locals hum, sing and hand-dance along. Naomi stares out the window and Laura and Old Me swirl around in my gut.

—
Fuck you all,
I say to the three of them,
fuck you all and let me live.

Wobble wobble.

Forced gormless smile.

A pile of pine needles between my feet. Christmas feeling gone.

The grass sways above us and above that a near-invisible plane silently cuts the sky like a surgeon's scalpel.

‘Have you ever noticed how those really high, nearly invisible planes seem to cut the sky like a scalpel?' Laura twirls a long blade of grass with her lips.

I'm too off-balance to answer. My brow creases while I try to work out if thinking the same things at the same time is scary or romantic.

‘If they could keep that white incision going all the way across the sky from horizon to horizon, do you think it would tear and all the sky's innards would fall on us?'

My hand finds her naked thigh. For some reason the coolness and smoothness of it makes me sad for an almost unnoticeable moment.

‘Where does your brain get these things?'

‘Dunno, but can you imagine it? I bet there would be colours unknown to man inside the sky's guts. And beautiful things that fall down on the earth in soft plops and they'd be so squashy and gentle we'd be able to climb out from under them and say, “Look at that. The sky fell on our heads and it was alright and actually quite nice.”'

‘You've been reading my Asterix books. Vitalstatistix is always scared of that lot falling on his head. I think he shouldn't have worried.' Something small lands on my cheek. I brush it off.

‘Do you worry about it? About everything falling in on you?' Her hand strokes the back of my arm.

‘Not really. In the words of the chief, “The sky might fall on our heads tomorrow, but as we all know, tomorrow never comes.”'

‘Optimistic, those Gauls. But it does fall sometimes, you know.'

‘Well if it's all soft and lumpy and colourful we shouldn't worry. And even if it's hard and painful and grey, it won't fall on us.' I get up on one elbow and smile at her dishevelled state: her T-shirt up over her breasts and her knickers around one ankle, shorts caught up in the long grass.

‘Oh yeah, why not?'

‘Because I won't let it.' And I kiss her on her forehead.

‘Oh, my hero the ice-cream man. You'll protect me, will you?'

‘Yes.'

‘How are you going to do that with your trousers around your ankles?'

‘I'll do it, don't you worry.' My finger runs along the inside of her thigh. Somewhere high a skylark watches and sings. ‘And you best make the most of my free strawberry splits, because in two weeks I become a manly trainee teacher.'

‘Oh, I can't wait. We can compare board pens.' She pulls me down by the neck and kisses me and then pushes me away. ‘Come on, we're supposed to be having a walk, not spending the day shagging in the long grass and debating mortality.'

‘Is that what we're doing? OK. Let's forget the mortality and just shag.'

‘Uh-uh.' She pulls up her knickers and shorts and straightens her T-shirt. I lie there watching. The only sound is the skylark and the grass bowing in the light breeze. ‘Walk, drink, food and then maybe, just maybe, I'll let you protect me some more.'

‘I will never ever let the sky fall on our heads, whether it's soft and fluffy or hard and deadly. We're too good together to have anything happen.'

‘Pull your pants up, Mr Romance. Let's get off this hill and find a beer.' She walks away with the sunlit grass kissing her naked ankles. I watch with a smile on my lips. I look to the sky and will it to stay up there, high and beautiful and untouchable to all but the chirping birds.

LIBERATION

D
reams
fragment and scatter into daytime oblivion as the bus jolts and my head bangs against the metal rail that runs along the windows. My mouth is dry as paper and I can feel sweat droplets on my brow. Next to me, Julie's head lolls forward near her chest and her eyes are closed. I look around the bus; all the seats are nearly full with teenagers or young adults. One or two are older people with bags on their laps, and one woman holds a live chicken on hers. Naomi is asleep, Kim is sitting in the middle of the back seats dragging on a cigarette, watching Jussy talking and laughing with two girls sitting further up the bus. Marty is standing in the open door at the back holding onto to the frame, spraying piss to the wind.

‘Couldn't do this in Melbourne,' he says as he shakes himself dry.

I look out the window, and coconut trees, bushes with massive green leaves and giant ferns go past. The bus is bouncing up and down on what must be unsurfaced road. The bouncing is sloshing the fluids in my bladder. I don't know whether to drink first or pee. I'm not yet quite up to peeing off of a moving vehicle so I look in my bag for a drink and find none. I twist in my seat.

‘Anyone got a drink?'

Kim reaches between his legs and pulls up a bottle of Bintang.

‘Breakfast,' he says, walking up the aisle to me.

‘No water?' I ask.

‘Fuck no. Come on, man, it's the weekend.' He hands the bottle over to me.

I take it and gulp. My tongue now feels like a lump of papiermâché. I drink more.

‘Good sleep? Come down yet?'

‘Yeah. Back on the ground.' I think. ‘How far have we got to go?' I need some accompaniment for my liquid breakfast and pull my cigarettes out of my pocket.

‘About half an hour. You been asleep for two hours. Missed your first view of outside the city.'

‘This bus got a loo?' I ask.

‘Yeah. A big fucking outside one.' He waves his hands at the window. ‘Marty and me managed it. The bus guys don't seem to mind. Go for it, it's kind of liberating.'

My legs are feeling cramped and tingly from being stuck in a small space for too long, so I decide I might as well try it. I stand and try to squeeze past Julie without waking her, but the gap is too small and the bus jolts. Her head meets my bum.

‘Jeessuuus. Didn't expect to wake up to that,' she says and pushes me out into the aisle. ‘Hope you haven't got the squits.'

‘No. You're safe.'

I stagger with the motion of the bus to the open back door. There are two steps down before a drop onto the passing brown road. How the hell am I supposed to do this? I realise it'll be easier if I free my hands of beer and cigarette. Cig between lips, I go down one step, wrap my arm around a chrome handrail, put the beer in that hand, look for my zip and remember I haven't got one. I pull the front of my light cotton trousers down and somehow manage to get him out while holding the front of my trousers just low enough to aim out the door. I'm aware of Kim and Marty watching my progress from behind.

‘Do you mind looking the other way?' I say with the cigarette clamped between my teeth.

‘We putting you off?' asks Marty.

‘Yes.'

‘Well, half the rest of the bus are watching too.'

I crane my neck and look back into the bus. A young group are watching and giggling and the older woman with the chicken on her lap tries to hide a smile. I'm sure they can't see my bits. I hope. I change my angle to make sure.

Don't give a shit. Don't give a shit.

Close my eyes.

Don't give a shit. Come on, New Me. You can do it. You don't give a shit. No penis shyness.

And there it is. I look down at it arcing out and then being turned into spray by the speed of the bus. It is liberating. I lean to my hand holding the beer and manage to pass the cigarette to my fingers and get the bottle to my lips, then I put the smoke back between my teeth; nothing spilt or lost.

Pissing, smoking, drinking arsehole.

When I'm empty and he's back in my trousers, I stay there on the step, watching trees and ferns as tall as me go past and I smile. I'm actually about to see my first jungle. I'm not on the Number 11 going to work. I'm not in the developed world of consumerism and rules and profit and fashion and who's got this and who needs that and my car's faster than yours and what's on TV tonight.

I sit down on the step and wallow in my epiphany, knowing that to pee free is to be free, until the bus slows a little and the road disappears and becomes something I only thought existed in adventure films: a rickety bridge with great gaps between pieces of old wood and rusting metal. About fifteen metres below it a fast-flowing and shallow river is visible through the holes as we pass over. I lean out of the bus, holding onto the handrail, and look behind. The bus is following carefully placed planks that aren't much wider than the wheels. They rattle as we go over them. I smile. Life is better when death can nearly reach out and grab you. I almost wish it would. A morning of epiphanies.

We rattle off the other side of the bridge and I watch it disappear as we go around a bend. I sit back on the step and take in every leaf, every tree, every pothole, until the bus slows. We pass by bamboo and wood huts and houses and stop at the end of the road. A sign tells us we've arrived at Bukit Lawang, our destination. We blink our gritty eyes, stretch our arms, pick up our little shoulder bags and get off.

‘This way,' says Kim. We follow him to a path that leads up between wooden shacks and stalls selling all colours of sarongs and batik-patterned shirts. The jungle is green and thick and high behind the buildings. In a few seconds the river is on our left, wide, fast and shallow; it flows back in the direction we have come from and then falls quickly over a weir. There is a restaurant partly on stilts overhanging the river on the other bank, and on this bank wooden-and-bamboo-constructed bars and eating places interrupt the view. Bob Marley posters and Rasta colours decorate the walls of a lot of them and occasional reggae music mixes with the sound of the river. The buildings are nearly all open on at least two sides. Cushions, bamboo chairs and tables furnish them. An occasional owner or barman says hello or tries to get us to come in for a drink or food. My stomach is rumbling, but Kim keeps us going.