New Guinea Moon Read Online Free Page B

wildness and the danger, the unknown, on the other side of the glass.
    But she’s too tired to puzzle it out now. She’d promised to ring her mum, to tell her she’s arrived safely. But first she picks up the threadbare towel that Tony’s found for her and goes to take a shower.

4
    â€˜What about the time —’ Allan Crabtree wipes his mouth. ‘What about the time you put your Islander down in such a hurry, brakes squealing, and you jumped out like your arse was on fire. You couldn’t get out of that plane quick enough —’
    Tony chuckles. ‘And Curry here comes belting across the tarmac, screaming at the top of his lungs. You’re sacked! How dare you leave the effing plane in that state! ’ He gives Julie a shy glance. ‘Except he didn’t say effing.’
    â€˜You were shaking like a bloody leaf,’ says Allan. ‘Shrieking like a girl. There’s a snake in the cockpit; there’s a snake in the cockpit! ’
    All the faces around the table, Tony and the four Crabtrees, turn expectantly toward Julie, for whose benefit these stories are being told.
    â€˜Oh, wow,’ she says. ‘A snake ?’
    Tony looks gratified. ‘I was flying in some green tree pythons for Baiyer River —’
    â€˜That’s a wildlife sanctuary,’ says Ryan Crabtree, startling Julie with the first words he’s spoken all evening. He is Allan and Barbara Crabtree’s son, a year older than Julie, back from boarding school for Christmas. He shoots her a glance from under his long, slightly greasy hair. Julie had dismissed him earlier as sullen and miserable, but perhaps he is just shy. She supposes it isn’t his fault that his dark, heavy eyebrows give him a perpetual scowl.
    Barbara says, ‘Tony, maybe you could take Julie out to Baiyer River while she’s here.’
    Nadine, the Crabtrees’ thirteen-year-old daughter, chimes in quickly. ‘ I want to go to Baiyer River. I’ve always wanted to go to Baiyer River. I want to see the baby deer —’
    â€˜Shut up, Nads,’ mutters Ryan.
    â€˜Nadine,’ says Barbara, ‘Uncle Tony’s trying to tell a story.’ She pushes back her chair and lights up a cigarette; she had waved away a bowl of fruit and ice cream when the housekeeper brought around dessert. She lowers her eyelids, heavy with eye shadow. Barbara has a dark bob, stiff as Cleopatra’s wig. She looks bored, as if she’s heard all these stories a hundred times, but she commands, ‘Go on, Mac.’
    â€˜Well,’ says Tony. ‘One of the buggers got loose in the cabin. I managed to pin it down with a box before we landed, but its tail was thrashing around like a bloody whip. But Curry was screaming and yelling blue murder, how he didn’t give a f— didn’t give a fig about any effing snake — Pardon my French, kids. Sorry, Barb . . . You’ve got a responsibility to the flaming aircraft, get back in there and shut her down properly! ’
    â€˜I made him do it, too,’ says Allan with satisfaction. ‘Snake or no bloody snake.’
    â€˜Damn thing tangled itself up behind the instrument panel. Took us hours to pull the bugger out.’
    Allan takes a swig from his stubby of South Pacific lager. ‘Remember the day Peter Manser clipped a tree, going from Goroka to Lae? He landed at Lae and the old balus was knocked about a bit, leaves hanging out of the flaps and what-have-you. Someone said, what happened? Peter says, “Oh, I hit a bird.” They said, “It must have been a bloody big bird.” “Yes . . . ” says Peter.’
    â€˜ It was sitting in a tree! ’ chorus Ryan and Nadine.
    Julie laughs. Barbara blows out a stream of smoke and smiles a faint, tight smile.
    â€˜Peter used to scare the —’ Tony coughs, glancing at Julie and Nadine, ‘— scare the suitcase out of his passengers. He’d