waiting for me I click the stopwatch Go Ranga plunges his biscuit into the Milo Past halfway I say It is he snaps Quiet The frown grows deeper A wet stain creeps up the biscuit from the Milo Just above the surface of the Milo the biscuit begins to swell Ten seconds I say Ranga’s hand shakes slightly The biscuit wobbles like jelly The secret is not to hold it too tight otherwise it snaps off on the edge of the dry part Fifteen seconds Smoothly Ranga lifts the biscuit out of the Milo and raises it to his mouth It bobbles around like pale-brown gorilla snot Just as he gets it above his face a crack appears where the swollen wet biscuit meets the hard dry part then the wet part drops straight into his mouth He swallows it whole and grins Your turn Fifteen seconds the record for this game It should be easy to beat Ranga clicks the stopwatch I put the biscuit into my Milo so carefully that I don’t stir it at all I’ve put extra sugar into mine so it’s thicker and won’t soak into the biscuit as easily I can’t lose Ranga tries every trick in the book to put me off but I 11
(cid:68)(cid:80)(cid:3)(cid:73)(cid:82)(cid:70)(cid:88)(cid:86)(cid:86)(cid:72)(cid:71)(cid:17)(cid:3)(cid:36)(cid:87)(cid:3)(cid:191)(cid:73)(cid:87)(cid:92)(cid:16)(cid:191)(cid:89)(cid:72)(cid:3)(cid:86)(cid:72)(cid:70)(cid:82)(cid:81)(cid:71)(cid:86)(cid:3)(cid:44)(cid:3)(cid:82)(cid:83)(cid:72)(cid:81)(cid:3)(cid:80)(cid:92)(cid:3)(cid:80)(cid:82)(cid:88)(cid:87)(cid:75)(cid:17) Sixty says Ranga He’s laughing the mongrel I force away the smile that tries to creep onto my face I lift the biscuit It’s huge bloated with Milo wobbling I swing it up towards my mouth In slow motion the crack appears It widens and then the bottom of the biscuit drops away from my hand I try to get my mouth under it but it brushes past my chin splurts down the front of my shirt and splatters all over the table Ha Ranga’s on his feet pointing at me Gunk he yells Gu-unk I smear the remains into a pile with my hands then I pick up a spoon and scoop some into my mouth I screw up my face pretending it tastes bad swallowing as though each spoonful is a brick Ranga is laughing so hard he’s hugging himself Urgh gross He acts like he’s vomiting so I pretend some of it wants to come back up and I squish a bit of mush out between my teeth Ranga’s eyes are watering What do you think you’re doing Ian Mum’s standing by the edge of the lounge room hands on hips glaring at me I wipe the goo from the corners of my mouth with the back of my hand Dip and Gunk I say 12
She stares at me and then at Ranga for a second It feels like eternity then she spins on her heels and heads out into the backyard Clean it up Ranga’s got his hands on his hips head jutting forward chin out and eyes glaring Yes clean it up he says pointing at the gunk You dirty boy He spins around twice like a ballet dancer and stalks into the lounge room leaving me trying not to crack up and spray gunk out of my mouth I’ve just got to the sink and rinsed out a dishcloth when Ranga calls out to me Hey Sticks there’s a new kid over the road I wipe up the gunk Yeah I say I saw him just before Does he live there I think so New people moved in last night Ranga comes running into the kitchen There’s something weird about him the way he was sitting there I think he saw me but he didn’t wave He just went I nod It was the same before when I saw him He looked like a retard I have this uncomfortable feeling like something bad is going to happen Ranga just said what I thought when I saw the kid but I didn’t say it Not out loud anyway I know what Mum would say if she heard me and I can’t 13
let Ranga say it either Don’t say that You don’t know what’s up with him Ranga just shrugs and picks up the PlayStation controls again 14
