Chapter 30: Squad Eleven

Saturday 22-Sept 2007

The first hint Chris had of just how unusual his day was going to be was when he turned up before dawn to find Jerry already there with his uncle, Tom, backing their truck into Shahia's driveway.

Chris spent the next hour or so helping them rip the floor off the bathroom, and pull the shower basin out. By the time they'd done that, they'd taken the toilet out and had to turn the water off. Of course, that was a bit of a problem for everyone else ‑ all those workers and no water or toilet ‑ so Chris went next door with Tom and Shahia. The family there had said they were keen to help, though Chris suspected that this was pushing it a little; still, what choice did they have?

Diffidently, he explained the problem, and Tom backed him up. It helped since Tom's truck was clearly evident. While Shahia was going back to her house to grab some old sheets they could use to protect the neighbour's floor, Tom took Chris aside.

"You're the one he put in hospital, right?"

Chris nodded, and showed him the scar.

"You're okay other than that?" This guy clearly wasn't very impressed by a scar — he had lots of them. In fact, Chris suspected he'd win any scar comparison contest he entered. Chris nodded.

"Good. You did real good! None of us ever managed to get through to him, but what you did, along with what the headmaster said to him afterwards, that got through to him. You ever need anything, you give me a call, okay?"

He gave Chris his business card. Chris looked it, awed. "Thanks."

The official start of the working bee was nine o'clock, but the house was already full by eight o'clock. Just after that, Jenna came by. "Chris, here's a medium, put this on." She handed him a white t-shirt. The back of the t-shirt had a huge, colourful logo of a fist smashing through a wall, with the words "SQUAD-11" on it. She turned around to show him that her singlet top had the same on the back. "I've got one for every kid," she smiled, "even Maria."

Wow. And since it was actually a nice day, fine and sunny, that's what people would be wearing. How cool.

He changed t-shirts and spent the next half an hour doing the rounds with Lisa, making sure that everyone was sorted. He also reminded Lisa of the importance of fun, how hard Shahia had worked to ensure that the cooking was fun. She smiled and thanked him for the reminder.

He found Shahia in the bathroom with Tom and Jerry, listening as they talked about what they'd found. The cold tap had been leaking, and the wall and much of the floor was rotten. The joists could stay in place, but they'd need to augment them with more joists. They thought they could still get it done by the end of the day, but Tom had to run off and buy a whole lot of stuff. Shahia offered to pay, but Tom just stared at her.

"I don't think so, Miss."

Chris called Lisa on her phone, only to find out that she was in the next room. He asked her to help Tom get his truck out, and she set off looking for people to move cars. Who owned which car was all written on her magic clipboard.

There was nothing to do in the bathroom while Tom was off buying stuff, so Chris wandered around the house doing odd-jobs for a while. Sue and Jenna were assaulting the kitchen cupboards, cleaning and sorting; a couple of shelves needed replacing. David was on his hands and knees scrubbing the kitchen floor, getting ready to replace bits of the lino. When he passed by a minute later, Jenna was standing on his back reaching for the top cupboard, and they were all laughing.

He heard more laughter and some shouts from outside, so he went outside to see what was going on. To his surprise he saw Mr Hanson unloading a big barbeque from a trailer, with Mr Cartwright and a couple of the guys helping. He saw an area on the lawn that was roped off. The soccer coach teacher was already there, unpacking a box, a huge esky by his side.

He rushed down to the trailer, shaking his head. Mr Hanson! He was the last person in the world that Chris had expected to see today. When Mr Hanson saw him, he came over and shook Chris's hand. "Chris, how are you?"

"Mr Hanson! Thank you for coming."

"Oh no, Chris, I'm just Michael today," he said, pointing to a badge on his chest that said "Michael". "We're just a bunch of mates helping out a wonderful girl because it's the right thing to do, defending the Australian way."

Chris's jaw dropped. And then he realised. Mr Cartwright ... he'd listened to those recordings of Mr Hanson — Michael — off Sue's iPod and then he'd done something about them. Chris had first of all assumed that he hadn't bothered; however, his comment about Sue's recordings being clear told him that he had listened after all. So then he'd assumed that Mr Cartwright had done nothing, and that Mr Hanson and Mr Cartwright had been together at the Anzac service because Mr Cartwright thought nothing of what they'd said. But then there'd been the Australian Values assignment, with Mr Cartwright there when the assignments were returned, along with the surprise remarking of Shahia's work — and he'd never thought! Mr Cartwright, eh? He was capable of pulling off big surprises. Chris was damned impressed.

"Michael, then ... How's your son?"

Chris was rewarded with a big smile for that. "His tour of duty is nearly over. I'm really looking forward to having him back from Iraq."

"You bet, sir, err, mate!" This was going to take some getting used to. He noted that Mr Cartwright had been listening in. He walked over to shake his hand.

"Mr Cartwright ... Eric, thanks for coming." He had one of those badges too. He'd have to hustle over and find out what his soccer coach's first name was.

"A pleasure, Chris. Duty as well, but not because I'm headmaster, just because I'm Australian; or even just because I'm human."

Chris nodded. These guys understood completely. Or perhaps it was he that finally understood correctly? How cool. He was just starting to wonder where his parents were when he saw his dad with an obviously heavy wheelie bin. He saw his mum reach in and pull out a couple of cans of soft drink, and start looking for anyone who was thirsty.

Ahh. And for the rest of the day, people didn't need to stop work to find food or drink. It seemed that anytime someone needed refreshments, either Michael, Eric, his mum, or his dad were there with what they wanted, while the coach cooked on the barbie.

He checked his watch; it was just a bit past the official starting time for the working bee, and already the place was packed, full of the noise of tools, chatter and laughter. He wandered into the house to check on Shahia. She was kneeling on the kitchen floor with David talking about what he should do with the lino. She looked up at him and smiled, so he knew she was good. He spotted Hassan and Jay through the window, their backs bent, working hard. They were replacing one of the posts on the front gate with supervision from his Dad.