Free Tim Winton by Breath

the gunwales Loonie broke into his split-lip grin.
    We wound down the creek through a tunnel of overhanging trees until it met a broad estuary whose shores were densely timbered.
    There were no huts or jetties here, nothing to suggest that people came by at all, and it was obvious that none of this country had ever been logged. The landscape looked primeval.
    Sando throttled up and sent us charging across the shallow inlet.
    When I glanced back at him in the stern, clinging to the tiller with the wind furrowing his hair and beard, his smile was cryptic, even sly.
    At the plugged mouth of the river the estuary narrowed to a little cul-de-sac between high, marbled dunes and on the seaward side there was a high bar like the one at Sawyer Point. When Sando killed the motor we heard the rumble of surf but we couldn't yet see the ocean.
    Where are we? asked Loon ie.
    This is Barney's, said Sando, already reaching for his wetsuit.
    This whole stretch of coast sticks out further south than anywhere, so it picks up every bit of swell.
    How come the name? I asked.
    Cause Barney lives here, he said with that fey grin.
    Loonie and I both looked about. There was still no sign of habitation, no footprints in the sand, not even a vehicle track in the hills beyond.
    Only fair to tell you, said Sando.
    Lives where? said Loonie scornfully.
    Sando cocked his head seaward and stood up in the boat to pull on his suit. He stepped out and we followed his lead. We helped pull the dinghy onto the sand then took up the boards he assigned us and followed him up onto the buttress of the bar where we finally saw the long sweep of the bay.
    Oh, man, said Loon ie. Far out.
    I stared at the clean, blue walls of swell fanning down the empty beach. Each wave broke about two hundred yards out at an angle to the shore and peeled evenly east across the sandbanks into the tiny distance. I couldn't believe how long the wave was, and as if reading my thoughts, Sando explained that it was best to walk back up the beach after each ride. There was not a human mark on the beach, only wheeling birds, seaspray and the white noise of falling water.
    And what about Barney? I asked with a misplaced grin, assuming that I was up with the joke.
    He's not hungry all the time, said Sando. Which improves the odds.
    Fuck, said Loon ie. Tell me it's not a shark.
    Okay. It's not a shark.
    Loonie gave out a wheezy laugh of relief, and I laughed along with him.
    Well, said Sando. Not your average shark, put it that way.
    The laughter died in our throats.
    It's not that big a deal. I've been comin here for years and look at me. Still got all me fingers and toes.
    But you've seen it? I croaked.
    Oh, yeah. Five, six times.
    And what kind of bloody shark is this? said Loonie hotly.
    Like I said. Not your average noah.
    Stop pissin about and just say it, said Loon ie.
    He's a white pointer, mate. The great white hunter.
    Fuck! Fuckin fuck!
    Now you can shit yourself all you want. Pants down, son, knock yourself out.
    Sando and Loonie stood there, staring each other down. You just didn't call Loonie out like that. I knew he wouldn't take a backward step now, not for man nor boy. I shrank back, feeling like the bird chested kid that I was, and waited for something to blow.
    How big is this thing? I asked, as if it made a ghost of a difference.
    Aw, maybe fourteen foot, said Sando genially enough. He still had Loonie in a steely glare. Hard to tell, Pikelet. Got a big ole head, though, and a grin like Richard-fuckin-Nixon.
    So - I was desperate for diversion now - why's he called Barney?
    Sando laughed. I named him after Eva's old man; he thinks I'm a waste of skin. He won't eat me outright, the father-in-law, but he likes to show the ivories every now and then, just to remind me who's boss. So, Barney it is. Come on, let's hit it while the tide's in.
    Loonie threw down his board. Why the fuck you bring us here for?
    Make men of you, said Sando. Thought you had the nads for it.
    Coupla