On the Jellicoe Road

“I’m in charge,” I say, staring at him, bristling with fury.

He looks down at Richard and extends a hand. Richard is still stu

“You okay with that decision, Dick? Can I call you that? Her being in charge?”

Richard mumbles something unintelligable.

“Good to hear.” Griggs walks away.

Richard sways slightly so I hold him up. He puts his sleeve to his nose. “Maybe we should meet tonight and discuss the boundaries,” he says.

“Clear this area now,” I tell him before turning to Trini, who is clutching the three kids to her breast.

“You okay?” I ask them, but they’re too busy trying to disentangle themselves.

“Make sure you debrief them and that they’re okay,” I tell Trini. “I’ll come and speak to them later.”

“I don’t want them hassled,” she says, leading them away.

I walk back towards the disappearing Cadets. “Hey,” I call out after Jonah Griggs. He stops with Anson Choi by a tree and leans against it, a ghost of a smile on his face. He looks pleased with himself and I give him that little moment of triumph before I get up close and slap him hard across the face.

“Don’t you ever do that again,” I say, furious.

“Ouch, that hurt!” he says, rubbing his cheek.

“I can fight my own battles.”

“I wasn’t fighting your battles,” he argues.

“Yes you were. That’s my business,” I say, pointing to where the others, except for Ben, have retreated, “and your little patronising act could put me in a weak position with them.”

“I don’t think they realised he was protecting your interests, Tayls,” Ben calls out. “They’re too stupid.”

“I wasn’t protecting her,” Griggs argues angrily over my shoulder at Ben.

“It kind of came across as if you were,” Anson Choi explains to Griggs patiently.

“Did I ask your opinion, Choi?”

“No, but just from my perspective and what I know about your history,” Anson Choi says calmly, “it came across like you were—”

Griggs gives him a look and Anson Choi puts up his hand and nods as if he understands that silence is required.

“Protect your boundaries and it won’t happen again,” Griggs tells us.

“If you think you’re scaring us, think again, GI Jerk,” Ben says.

I look at Ben, impressed with his wit and force. “Let’s go,” I say to him, and we walk away.

When we reach the bend and they no longer can see us, Ben gives a laugh. “How bloody impressive was that?”

“I thought you were very impressive,” I say.

“No, I mean him giving Richard a biffo.”

I stop and stare at him.

“He had it coming to him, Taylor. While you’ve been so tragic for the past week with the whole death-by-eighties-music thing, Richard was an arsehole. I was bloody impressed with Griggs,” he says to me. “He’s gone from a zero in my eyes to a two.”

“How does he get to a ten?”

“If he did to Richard what he did to me. I got the full enchilada, you see. One to the face and the two to the gut, plus the stepping on the fingers.”

“So when it’s happening to someone else it’s all cool?”

“Any pain inflicted on Richard warms my heart and it warms yours as well. Go on, admit it. When he hit the ground and the blood went flying and you knew in your heart his nose was broken, didn’t you just want to jump for joy and stomp on his ugly face?”

I look at him, shaking my head. “Actually, no, Ben. I didn’t. I was thinking that I’d rather be in the common-room watching Home and Away.”

“You know what your problem is? You don’t know how to enjoy yourself. That was fun. That was better than Home and Away.”

Later I go see the Darling girls and take Jessa and Chloe P. with me, only because they’re convincing about their ability to ask questions of people their own age as opposed to my question-asking, which Jessa points out could be intimidating.

Darling House is a touchy-feely House. Everyone is really sweet and they even say grace before meals. It’s interesting to see how other Houses work. The past leaders of my House were so hell-bent on being the best that there was no room for anything that didn’t have to do with power. Here, every emotion and talent and opinion is nurtured and supported.

“I’m grateful for what you did,” Trini says to me, offering me tea and jam tarts, which are served to me on what looks like their best china.

“I’m not really here for your gratitude,” I say honestly. “I need your support and frankly it hasn’t really come my way.”

“Well, change is scary,” she says, as if she’s giving a lecture to her House. “The past leaders have always been despots. We feel safe that way. Richard is exactly like them and it’s better the devil you know.”

“But you don’t run this House like a despot.”

“Of course I don’t. It’s against our ideology. But outside this House we still need order. Just say you let the Cadets run around our property and I have to worry twenty-four-seven about the girls. It’s bad enough keeping those Murray and Clarence guys away from them.”

“I would never let the Cadets run around our property.”

“Well, Richard said—”

“Screw Richard, Trini.”

“Taylor, we don’t use that type of language in our House,” she says reprovingly.

She leans forward and stares at me intently. “I’m responsible for these kids, Taylor. Like you are for yours. When I leave for holidays, those who don’t have a place to go, they come home with me. So if those Cadets ever come near my year sevens again, I will maim them.”

I nod.

“Would you like to see them now?”

We walk into the junior dorms, where Jessa and Chloe P. are deep in conversation with a cluster of the juniors who are bombarding the hostages with questions.

“Tell me about the set-up,” I say to them, sitting down on one of the beds where some of them are congregated.

The girls look at me blankly.

“What she actually means, girls, is what was it like out there? Kind of describe it to us,” Jessa says, beaming at them and then at me. Trini beams at her and there’s a lot of beaming happening.

The spokesperson for the three sits up. “They had us in a tent and they had two senior boys guarding us and all these boys wanted to come and look at us because they don’t get to see many girls but the two boys guarding us wouldn’t let anyone near us because someone told them that Jonah Griggs said that if anyone touched us they were to break their arms.”

“Jonah Griggs is their leader,” another one of them explains to me.

“Did they scare you?” I asked.

“When they first caught us, it was a bit scary.”

“They have a barbecue every night. That’s what the Cadet guarding us said.”

“Wow,” Jessa says. Chloe P. is equally impressed.

“So what was it like out there?” I say brightly, repeating Jessa’s words. “Kind of describe it to us.”

“There are six boys to each tent and about fifteen tents per form. The year-eleven tents are the closest to the bush trails and the teachers’ tents are right in the middle of them all. They have this Brigadier from the real army staying with them and everyone thinks it’s cool but they said he can be a bit scary. You should see his tent: it’s massive and always locked up.”

“And where is the Brigadier’s tent?” I ask i

The girls draw me a diagram and I’m impressed at just how much they took in.

“She’s very impressed,” Jessa tells them, beaming.

Everyone’s still beaming and this time I beam back.

Chapter 14

The look on the constable’s face said it all to Jude. Another fifteen minutes of their life would be wasted by indifference. But he could see the younger cop sitting at a desk behind him—the one who always stopped Fitz in the street to make sure everything was okay. The young constable caught Jude’s eye and after a moment he wandered over casually.