The Legend of Kevin the Plumber Read Online Free Page A

I’ll probably end up an actor, I thought, or a stuntman like Dad. Every rags to riches story needs to start off with a raggy job.
    I spent the day in the garage with Muz, watching him fluff around with the VK. It had been years since I’d been in Muz’s shed and I’d forgotten how neat it was. I grabbedtools for him and tried to get what he wanted before he asked.
    â€˜Will I be shovelling shit all day?’
    â€˜Don’t know, Gaz. I doubt it. Plumbers do heaps of different stuff.’
    â€˜Like what?’
    â€˜Oh, all the new houses and that, connect up the water . . . and the sewerage. Put all the taps and stuff in, baths, sinks, gutters. Roofs. Gas. They connect the gas to the houses. I don’t think it’ll be shovelling shit all day but that will be part of it.’
    â€˜Bewdy.’
    A ute pulled into the driveway at two thirty. Todd’s Glass and Glazing. I cleared a path through the shit on my bedroom floor so he could get to the busted window. I thought about offering to pay for the glass but the thought was as close as I got. Muz gave him sixty-five dollars from his wallet. He thanked the bloke and watched the ute back out of the drive. Then he was looking at me.
    â€˜What?’
    He shook his head. ‘Nothing.’
    Mum was smiling through clenched teeth when Mario told her I’d found a job.
    â€˜Starts on Tuesday,’ he said.
    Mum’s eyebrows clawed up her forehead. She stared at me for a long time.
    â€˜Well done,’ she said.
    â€˜Mario did all the work. It’s only for a month. I’ll find something in . . . I’ll find something else after that.’
    Mum’s mouth puckered and she slumped into a kitchen chair. She lit up a smoke and I went into my room.
    I put my headphones on and blasted into the Battery Lickers live album. I was singing away to track three — ‘Chain Bang’ — when I felt a hand on my leg.
    I jumped and sat up, pulled my headphones off.
    â€˜Sorry, love,’ Mum said. ‘Didn’t mean to scare you.’
    â€˜You didn’t scare me, just . . . ’
    She looked at the mess on my floor. ‘Sorry about last night.’
    I nodded. ‘How’s your head?’ I asked.
    She smiled. ‘Okay. Yours?’
    â€˜No probs.’ I rapped on my skull with my knuckles. ‘Cast iron.’
    Mum knocked on her own head and wheezed a laugh. ‘Yes, well you must have got it from somewhere.’
    I smiled and she sat on the edge of my bed.
    â€˜Amazing that you found work so quickly. Fantastic.’
    â€˜Muz,’ I said, and paused the CD.
    Mum nodded.
    â€˜Do I . . . should I go to school?’
    â€˜What, for the rest of the week?’
    I looked at her, tried to read her face. She stared at the floor.
    She sighed. ‘Whatever. You choose. You’ll have to get your stuff from your locker at some stage. All those bloody new books. And if the work dries up you’ll have to go back, so don’t do anything stupid.’
    Mario was standing in the doorway with Sharon under his arm.
    My sister smiled. ‘Working dude now, huh?’
    I poked my tongue at her.
    â€˜What do you want for your birthday?’ she asked.
    Mum put her hand over her mouth. ‘Seventeen. Jesus.’
    â€˜I don’t know.’
    â€˜You’ll need some wheels,’ Mario said, and my eyes lit up.
    Mario pushed his hand at me. ‘Not a car. You can get yourself a car when you’ve got your licence. A bike. Get you to work and back.’
    â€˜Ride a pushie to Chrissy Bay?’
    â€˜Seven thirty start,’ Mario said. ‘Too early for your mum and I’ll be offshore for two weeks. Maybe you could organise a lift. Until you do, do you want a new bike? Would you ride it?’
    â€˜Of course,’ I said. I’d only been walking everywhere since Gel rode my old shitbox off the end of the jetty. I’d missed the buzzing buckle in the front