Spinner by Ron Elliott Read Free Book Online

myself. I seem to be growing down rather than up. So they say. Bloody opinionated they are, aren’t they?’ David’s uncle sniffed at the air or the day, looking out over the farm.
    David realised he was watching him out of the corner of his eye. He seemed to find everything so much fun, even the air.
    â€˜See, here’s the thing, David. I saw you bowl last night. I think you are good enough to bowl for Australia. Right now. I mean even if there were any other bowlers not on death’s door.’
    David looked up at him. He couldn’t help it.
    â€˜Insane, yes? Of course it is. Won’t happen. Can’t. You have no idea how good a bowler you are. The control. I saw it straight away. And your grandfather knows it.’
    David started to shake his head.
    â€˜He knows it and he knows it’s time. So I’ve convinced him to let us try to make it happen. Now.’
    David looked at his uncle closely. He needed a shave, and some sleep, but his smile was still such a dazzling thing, David had trouble looking away.
    But he did. He looked away and said, ‘I don’t want to.’
    â€˜I think my brother would have wanted you to do that. I think it would have made him the proudest man in the world.’
    David felt like he was up a tree; as though the branch he’d just grabbed had snapped and he was about to come away.
    â€˜See David, here’s the other thing. Your grandad can’t afford you. The farm can’t afford you.’
    The branch gave way. Snap. David was falling.
    â€˜But that’s okay. If we get you bowling down in Perth, then I think I know a way we can make enough money for you to send some to him, to help him on the farm. Would you like that?’
    What David would have liked was to be asleep again and to wake up not in this day. But he wasn’t falling now. He checked the sun. It was higher and shining on all the ground. He sniffed the air too and found the faint stirrings of sheep dung and earth mixing with something else hecouldn’t quite place. Yes. The fetid water of the dam had a musty smell that the sun stirred up.
    â€˜My mother drowned here.’
    â€˜Here?’ His uncle blew a long, slow sigh until there surely couldn’t be any air left in him. He took a step forward and skidded slightly on the dusty incline.
    David watched his uncle searching about in the dam as though he might see her floating there. He took another step forward as though to dive and retrieve her. ‘Well I’m here now, all right,’ he said into the water before turning straight away and scrambling up the slope and limping back towards the house.
    Grandad was waiting for them by the wagon. David got up on the seat and sat silently. His uncle climbed up beside and grabbed the reins.
    His grandfather said, ‘If anything happens to him, I will find you and I will kill you.’
    â€˜Fair enough, George. But what if what happens is fame and fortune and wonderful things for everyone? Any room for that in your perspicacity?’
    â€˜Not so’s I’ve seen.’
    David made himself not look at either man or at the farm. He watched a bag of bread get pushed by his grandfather’s long fingers into the well by his feet. Then came a Gladstone bag.
    â€˜Bowl well, boy.’
    David made himself hold still. He didn’t even nod, but just looked at the bags in the footwell. His uncle shook the reins and the horse stepped. They were going. He watched his knees swaying in time to the horse’s steps until he knewthey were off the farm and onto the main road, and that’s when he finally let himself look around at the paddocks and other farms on the way to Dungarin.
    â€˜How will Grandad get the rig back?’ asked David, after a mile or so.
    â€˜Come in on a horse, I expect, and lead it home.’
    â€˜How did you get out to the farm last night?’
    â€˜Maybe I borrowed a horse.’
    David looked at the man but