Chapter Eleven
Relationships
Paulo woke the next day to sore muscles and a splitting headache. It was going to take him a while to get used to a life like this, he decided. Looking around, he saw that everywhere, people were moving around the dorm, getting changed quickly and chatting quietly. Was it time to get up already?
He groaned and sat up in his bunk, forgetting how low the ceiling was. He cursed as he hit his head, not helping his headache, and tried again, slowly. Today was not going to be a good day.
At least it wouldn't take him long to get ready. He only had the one change of clothes, so all he had to do was wash himself. There was a small block of showers in between the two dorms, so he purposely headed in that direction.
On the way, he caught sight of Hex, struggling to get up. Unlike Paulo, he'd been given a bottom bunk, and was yet still finding it hard to get out of his bed. Paulo looked at the wall clock: it was 6:00am. These people pulled off nearly 16 hours of working a day. Even to Paulo, who spent most of his time at home working out on the ranch, found that exceedingly difficult. Did they ever get a break?
Paulo was suddenly aware of someone trailing him to the shower block. He turned and saw a young man roughly his own age, with his bed blanket slung over his shoulder, following him. He was tall and lanky, and there was something familiar about his face.
"Erm, hi." Paulo said, "I'm Paulo. New here."
"Y'should never have come, Paulo." The guy's eyes looked sad, as he watched, in his opinion,someone else fall into the trap. He smiled nevertheless, "Nice to meet you. I'm Greg."
"Greg?" Paulo ran the name through his head, searching for any possible matches. Where had he heard that name recently? And why did he look – "You don't have a sister, do you? Called Alice?"
Greg stopped right in his tracks and his blanket dropped to the floor. He stared at Paulo with a mixture of shock and disbelief on his features. "What? How – "
Paulo kicked himself for being so forward. How was he going to explain this in one sentence? "I met her just before I came up here. You look like her. She told me about you, how you'd disappeared a couple years back, and then I went and got caught in it myself." Paulo smiled dryly.
"Oh my God, is she OK?"
"She's fine. Just misses you. Look, I'm sorry for bringing it out like that – "
Greg shook his head. "Don't mention it. I'm just so glad she's OK." He bent down and picked up his blanket again, still muttering to himself in disbelief, "Oh, hey – did you meet my parents? Are they all right?"
"I didn't meet them personally, but Alice mentioned them both. I think they're fine."
"Oh, thank God."
Paulo remembered Debbie. "In that case, you would know Michael, wouldn't you? Debbie's son. And David."
"Sure I do." Greg pointed to a dark-haired young man, also Paulo's own age, sitting on the edge of a bed and rubbing his sore feet. "That's Michael. Dave's in the other dorm, so I don't see him as much. That guy over there is Sam, who's also from our place."
Paulo followed Greg's finger to where a shorter, stockier blond was talking to Michael, waiting for him to get to work.
"Thank you very much. I'd like to meet them – Debbie was incredibly worried, too."
"I'm sure she was."
Paulo made his way over to the two boys, slightly nervously. He didn't want to make the same mistake of being too forward, and he wanted to make a good impression. They both looked up as he came over.
"Ah… Michael? And Sam?" He started, mentally congratulating himself. It was a good start, especially one to have thought of on the spot. The boys nodded. "Listen," Paulo began. They both looked at him in anticipation. "I'm new here, but before I came I was staying in a small place about twenty kilometres from here." Paulo noticed both the boys' eyes lit up in hope. He looked at Michael "I stayed with your mother."
"What?" Michael stood up immediately, banging his head on the top bunk. Even after over two years here, he still wasn't quite used to the small space. "Are you serious? Debbie Foreman?"
"The one and only. She's fine." Paulo watched and smiled as Michael's face was overjoyed with a new hope and he grabbed Sam in a bear hug.
"You hear that, Sam? Mom's OK! Which probably means your family is, too!" Sam grinned and looked at Paulo.
"What's your name? Did you meet my family? Why are you here?"
"Unfortunately, no. I'm really sorry. I'm Paulo, by the way. I got here the same way as you did, really. I was just hiking the area with my friend," Paulo waved a hand over at Hex, who he saw was still trying to lure himself out of bed, and made a mental note to go and pull him out himself in a minute, "We stumbled across the site. Both of us were in need of a job."
"Mom is getting the money through, isn't she?" Michael suddenly asked. Paulo's heart started thumping. He knew the answer. No, she hadn't. But should he say that so soon? Could he trust these people enough yet to let them in on what was happening? He shook his head.
"I don't know, sorry." Michael's shoulders sagged.
"Oh well, no worries. I'm sure she is. Have you spoken to my brother?"
"You mean David? No, I don't even know what he looks like. Are you going to tell him?"
Michael hesitated before answering, "I would. At the moment, he's ignoring me. By 'at the moment', I mean for the last two years or so. Tries to pretend he doesn't know me."
Paulo was shocked. This was so different from the way Debbie had portrayed her sons' relationship. "Why?"
"I'm not sure. I think he blames me for this whole mess, or seeing me just reminds him of mom. I guess it's just his way of dealing with it."
"Have you tried speaking to him?"
"Jeez, yeah! But I gave up last year. It's like hitting your head against a brick wall; he just won't listen. Now I just see him round and about occasionally, but hell, has he grown."
"Do you want me to talk to him?"
Michael thought for a moment. "Nah, I don't think so. I'd rather tell him myself. I'll get through to him somehow, and at least I'll have an excuse to talk to him! Hey Paulo, thanks, man. I really appreciate what you've told me."
"And me." Sam interjected.
Paulo smiled and turned around, wishing more than anything he could tell the three boys what exactly he and Hex were doing here. But he knew he couldn't, not until he and Hex had a firm plan.
"Get out of bed, Hex." He said, lowering his voice as he came nearer. Hex glared at him and sighed.
"Jeez, it's what - four in the morning? I have to be given time to adapt to these hours."
After showering, a loud alarm filled the room, and at once everyone started moving. Paulo looked around, startled. Nobody seemed to be panicking. It was probably just a 'get outside' bell. Hex cursed and pulled himself out of bed, following the others out of the door, and Paulo trailed after him, wondering what their second day at the camp had in store for them.
"Have you tried their mobiles?" Amber asked, pacing around the room. Alex shook his head.
"Bad idea. Might be in the hands of the authorities. I wouldn't worry about it. It might take them a while to find a way to contact us."
Amber sighed and sat down. "Are you sure? Here, gimme that thing." She took the palmtop from Alex's grasp and checked the inbox. Seeing no message that appealed to her, she sighed again and handed the computer back to Alex. "I hope they're OK."
"They'll be fine. You worry too much." Li said. She was sat cross-legged on the floor, unwinding and winding her hair into a long plait. Amber shot her a look. Li saw it and took advantage. "You're worried, especially about - "
"Shut up, Li." Amber muttered. Alex looked between the two girls, a confused look on his face.
"Ooh, touchy." Li smirked, eyes twinkling. "Just admit it, Amber. We all know you like - "
"Like who? Paulo? I think he's taken, don't you?" Amber shot back. Li grinned widely. Alex continued to stare at the two girls as if he was watching a tennis match, completely baffled.
"At least I can admit it."
Amber shrunk back in her armchair and sighed, again. She snatched the palmtop from Alex again. "Gimme that." She said.
It was the middle of the day, and Hex was already exhausted. He'd been hoping today would be better, that the only reason he had found yesterday hard was because they'd had the long walk to get to the site.
Then again, he hadn't rested properly since he'd left, so surely it was understandable. He watched as he approached the pile of bricks to fetch a new one. The man in charge had two bricks in line, one smaller and one larger, and there was someone in front of Hex. He cursed as the smaller one was handed to the guy in front of him.
He took the burden from the authority and started walking towards the bricklayers. He couldn't understand how these people put up with this, day in, day out. He was just walking around in circles, picking up loads on his way and dumping them on his way back. And for two years - he couldn't even begin to imagine.
Suddenly the guy in front of him tripped over a lump in the ground and was sent sprawling. Hex cried out in surprise and quickly dropped his brick to see if he was OK. Hex had been trailing him all day, and had noticed a slight limp. He knelt down beside the man and peered at his face to check he was still there, when he felt a heavy hand on his shoulder.
"Get up." A deep voice grunted. He turned to see a huge man with a frown on his face. He wanted to yell at him, make him realise that some of these people weren't fit enough to be working like this, but he knew that he and Paulo had to keep a low profile. He gulped. Well, at least they knew the worker was down... Hex stood up slowly and retrieved his load from the ground. He continued around the men, an uneasy pit in his stomach, and the whole line followed behind him. None of them looked surprised, just tired. He looked over his shoulder while the young man was pulled to his feet, obviously in pain.
He was led away by the large man, and soon he disappeared from view. Hex tried to shrug the thoughts off his mind, only to realise how desperately he needed the toilet. How did they do things around here? Did he need to ask to be excused? He dumped his burden next to one of the bricklayers and turned to the man behind him.
"Hey," He began. The man looked startled at the thought of someone speaking during working hours, "I need the loo. Do I need to ask to go, or can I just go?"
The man hesitated. "You just go. And be quick." He muttered, before darting off to continue working. He was acting like he wanted no responsibility for this at all. He shrugged to himself and went inside.
As he came out of the door, he was shocked to see Paulo emerge from the opposite end. He stopped in surprise, but Paulo made straight for him.
"We need to talk," He muttered as he neared Hex, grabbing him by the arm and pulling him back into the toilet block, "And here is the only place we're going to get some privacy."
"Why? What is it?"
Once Paulo had checked there was nobody else in there, he turned to Hex. "I've met Michael, Sam and Greg. It's not really that important, I just thought you'd like to know, and seeing as I was passing you here, I might as well tell you."
"Good. What about the other one - Debbie's other son, or something?"
"Michael says he hasn't spoken to him in over a year, but I wouldn't worry about that yet. We need to make a plan, fast. Somehow, we must create a distraction so you can get to Erica's computer and tell the others exactly what we've seen, so they can work something out. As for the distraction - "
"I don't see why we can't let Michael in on this, at least. I think he deserves to know that he and the others were the original reason we came here."
"Maybe, but as a last resort. The fewer people that know, the - "
Paulo broke off as the door handle turned. It seemed like an eternity before the door opened and they were faced with the massive frame of an angry-looking official.
So there you have it! Chapter... what is it? Eleven? Thanks for reading, guys, and please review! What's going to happen to Hex and Paulo? Don't forget Pass on the Story and CC!
Spinky :D
