Free Now Showing by Ron Elliott Page B

one-room rock house surrounded by hundreds of cops around the hill like in Butch Cassidy.’
    â€˜They die in Butch Cassidy.’
    â€˜Well, I don’t want to have to correct you, but they don’t die. The shot freezes. Before they are dead. Like Thelma & Louise. Anyway, we get away. There’s this hidden mine shaft under his hut. But he tells you all the secrets first and says he’ll hold them off and we get away.’
    She nodded.
    â€˜Stand up.’
    Robin stood, pushing back into the corner. ‘Can he take a bullet?’
    â€˜He steps outside after we’re gone, full of regrets. Gets riddled, especially by the Gatling gun on the chopper.’ I pushed the butt at her again. ‘Okay, now if you grab the stock, and I grab the barrel. Whatever you do, don’t touch the trigger. Or let go.’
    She had the stock.
    â€˜I’m not lifting you. You’re stepping up on those bits of wood.’
    She nodded.
    The barrel was slippery. ‘Just a sec.’ I got up on one knee and I got one arm right along the barrel, kind of wound around. ‘Okay.’
    Robin pulled and I leaned back on my heels as she started to walk up the wall. I leaned further and further back as she found footholds between the wood logs shoring up the side. Her face appeared at the top. She was straining now but there didn’t seem to be a way for her to take the last steps up onto level ground.
    â€˜Hold on,’ I said.
    And I held hard on the barrel and let myself fall back, dragging Robin up the last bit and over the edge and onto the ground, where she fell forward onto her knees. I lay looking up at the heavy stars, gasping for breath.
    Robin stood, dusting herself like she’d simply tripped over.
    â€˜We did it,’ I said.
    â€˜Yep, let’s go.’
    â€˜Robin! Give me a sec.’
    She picked up the rifle and her father’s lantern while I got up and winkled my fingers to get the circulation back.
    â€˜Where’s all the blood from?’
    She held up the lantern, examining my bloody t-shirt.
    â€˜Your father. He sucker-punched me.’
    She scowled. ‘When we get back to Perth, I’ll move out.’
    â€˜I just saved your life.’
    â€˜I know. I’m letting you go.’ She gave me the rifle and started walking.
    I followed. I didn’t say anything. I had nothing left. Not after ‘I saved your life’.

    ***
    â€˜You’ll thank me,’ she said after we’d gone a little way.
    I could see a distant glow. Our fire had died down, but the car light was a presence in the darkness under the trillion stars. ‘It’s so quiet out here.’
    We both stopped walking and listened.
    â€˜Your mum sounds like she was good. Working. Keeping you all together. Doing whatever she could for everyone.’
    â€˜Yeah.’
    We started walking again.
    After a while she said, ‘When I left Kal, Mum and Gail and Liz came to the train station to see me off. The big success. So proud. “Off to university.” “You’re so smart.” So excited. But, just as I was about to get on the train, she pushes this casserole dish at me. I mean, you’ve seen it. It’s an oven pot, with a lid. “Still warm. For your first night.” It was tuna casserole. What are you going to do, right? I’ve got a suitcase; I’ve got my pack, a handbag, sleeping bag. Now here’s this giant tuna casserole – to cart through the city, while I find my way to the uni. Geek-girl from the country. No idea. “Bring the dish with you next time you’re back up.” Sure Mum. Next time – I’m back.’ Robin stopped walking and gritted her teeth and battled not to cry. Instead, she growled, low and determined like a cough she wouldn’t let finish.
    â€˜It’s okay, Rob,’ I said, reaching to pat her shoulder, but she shook me off.
    â€˜No it’s not.’
    We walked again. She walked.