Kaimoana Tales
by Kiwi
Riley
Part 24
He was awake far too early in the morning. Bloody sunshine! Something was going to have to be done about the drapes in his room. They were big enough, they covered the windows and they were floor-length, but as far as blocking the light out went, they were useless!
Whoever chose the light colour of them was just dumb. Or, sadistic. Or a masochist.
('"Hurt me, hurt me!" said the masochist. "No", said the sadist. Hah!')
He was so not into any of that stuff and couldn't understand people who were. All he wanted was some loving. He was just an ordinary boy - an ordinary, gay, boy.
Peter was a gay boy too! Not an ordinary one though; he was freakin' gorgeous! Riley would so like a piece of Peter, but that wasn't going to happen, was it? The dork was in love with Mr. Cool.
Riley could, kind of, understand that. Ashton Woods was a very cool kid, but, damm! He was totally out of Peter's reach. He was at the top of the heap and Peter, apparently, was at the bottom. Somehow, he was going to have to make Peter see that his dream was impossible and he'd be better off with what he could have - which was Riley.
He'd be happy to be his friend, but he'd like more than that. The Kid was gorgeous.
And, what about this plan of the de Groots? They'd been rich and now they lived like paupers and saved every cent so that they could be rich again. Oh yes? Wishing makes nothing happen. Sounded like Peter came from a family of dreamers.
He buried his head under the pillows and lay with his eyes shut tight, trying to go back to sleep. But it wasn't happening, he was wide-awake now. He sighed, crawled out of bed and went for a shower. He'd have to do something about those blasted drapes.
His mother was already in the café kitchen when he went down there for a coffee. She looked around and smiled as she greeted him.
"Good morning, Riley. Lovely day, isn't it?"
"No it's not," he grumbled and reached for the coffee. "Its way too early and the bloody sun is streaming through my windows."
"Ah, you poor wee thing. Do you want some breakfast?"
"Yeah, I'll have my usual - two strong coffees."
"That's not good enough. You need more than that."
"No, I don't. I can't stand greasy food first thing in the mornings. You know that."
"Greasy? You insulting my cooking, Boy? Have some cereal then, fruit and cereal, it's better than nothing."
"Coffee is not nothing and that's all I'm having."
"Please yourself then, you usually do. Listen, I'm going fishing this afternoon. Do you want to come with me?"
"Fishing? You? Since when do you go fishing?"
"I haven't for years, but I used to do a lot when I was younger. Now we're living here in the Seafood Capital of New Zealand, I thought that I'd take it up again. It's good to have a hobby and it'll be nice to get out in the fresh air for an hour or two. Are you going to come and keep me company?"
(Riley thought, 'I know what hobby I want - Peter de Groot!' But he couldn't say that out loud.)
"Yeah, okay, I'll come. It'll be something to do. Where are we going?"
"Well, don't be too enthusiastic! We'll go down the coast a few K's. I want to try fishing on the rocks, down by Geese Bay. Betty says that it's a good spot, her husband goes there all the time."
"Geese Bay? Okay, we'll have a look. I'm not fishing though, just looking."
"Suit yourself. But you should try it, it's fun. Come straight home after school and we'll get away for a couple of hours."
"Beats working, I guess but I can think of much more fun things to do."
('I'm not telling you what they are though!')
He hung around for a while, hoping to see the girls on their way to school. But there was no sign of them and it was getting late, so he started walking on his own. It wasn't far to go and he was almost there when a car came along behind him and tooted.
He looked around and grinned and waved. It was Ashton Woods, in his BMW, smiling and waving to him. The car didn't stop, just cruised past and turned the corner in to the school. There was no room for him in there anyway, as well as the driver, it was full of girls.
One of them he recognized, it was Fern. 'Wow, Fern, maybe your dreams will come true. Good luck to you, he's a nice kid, and rich.
'Fancy having a Beamer to go to school in. Lucky Sod! That boy could have any girl he wanted, or any boy either if he was into that. Poor Peter, he's wasting his dreams.'
He thought about asking Peter if he wanted to come fishing. He could keep him company while his mother fished and he kept her company. But, no, better not. He wanted to have a serious talk to the Kid and nothing was going to happen while his mother was around.
Nothing was going to happen anyway, but it wouldn't stop him trying. He'd go and see him later, after they got back.
He had an okay sort of day at school. Nothing much happened, but it was okay. The best part of it was at lunch-time. He was walking around, looking for somewhere to sit and someone to sit with, when Ashton called him over to join his circle. He was delighted to do that, there was no cooler place to be. He was only one of a group, but at least he was in with the in-crowd.
They sat in the sunshine and talked. Riley answered a hundred questions and gave them a, highly censored, story of his life so far and how he came to be here, in Kaimoana. He thought that he was going to like it here.
Actually, as time went on, he was thinking that some of these kids were wannabes. They were the beautiful people, or trying to be, and they were a bit up themselves and trying hard to impress. Not everyone though, Ashton wasn't. He was top of the heap but he was a thoroughly nice kid and not at all up himself.
Riley really liked him and he could see why Peter did too. Maybe he could do something there? If he got to be part of this group and Ashton's friend, he might be able to get them together.
He didn't believe that anything could happen there, but, at least if Peter got closer to him he might see for himself how hopeless it was and he might look around for someone else - like Riley.
After school, much to his regret, he had to decline an invitation to go with Ashton and his friends. They were going to someone's place for a drink and a snack.
"Sorry, no, I can't. I'd love to come, but I can't. I've gotta get home because I've got a date."
Well, he did. It was a date with his mother, but he wasn't telling them that!
"Okay, some other time then," Ashton smiled.
"Yeah, thanks. Sometime would be great, just not today. Once I make a promise I like to keep my word."
"Good for you! That's a very good way to be, Riley. See you tomorrow."
"Yeah, tomorrow. Laters, Ashton."
He did feel like kicking himself as he walked away, but Ashton approved of him, so that was good.
He walked home and his mum was there and ready and waiting to go. She left the café to Betty and Sue and told them that she'd be back in a couple of hours. They went up to the house, Riley changed out of his school clothes and they got into the car to go to Geese Bay. His mum drove, he'd been having lessons but he needed more and she was in a hurry.
"I've put in some extra gear so you can throw a line out if you change your mind."
"I won't. I don't like killing things."
"You're a strange boy, Riley Sullivan. Man is a natural hunter, it's part of his nature."
"It's not part of mine. Maybe I'm not natural."
"No-one ever said you were, but I still love you."
"Thanks, Mum. I love you too."
"You'd bloody better! But, I still think you should try fishing, you might like it. Who knows? It might change your life."
"I doubt it. Let's go, Mum."
She started the car and headed, south, out of town to go to Geese Bay. Riley didn't know it, but his life was about to change in a major way.
They arrived and she stopped and parked, just north of the twin road-tunnels, between the highway and the rocky shore. Riley got out and stood looking around. The railway line was over at the far side of the road and the steep bush-clad hills reared up behind them.
"Is this it? It's hardly downtown Auckland, is it?"
"Of course it's not. This is nature and it's beautiful. We don't live in the city anymore, get used to it."
"You're telling me nothing! But I don't know if I'll ever get used to it. Those road-tunnels are pretty cool."
"They are. There's talk of removing them because the trucks are getting bigger all the time. It'd be a shame if they did."
"Yeah, it would. There's a third tunnel, down there by the beach."
"Where? Oh, there. I don't think it's a tunnel, it's probably just a cave. They say that these hills are riddled with caves."
"Are they? Do you think that there's cavemen up there?"
"In this day and age? Not likely! Don't be silly, Son."
"Shame. It'd be cool, in a way, to be a caveman. Courting was so much easier then, they just bopped them on the head and dragged them off to the nearest cave."
"In the cartoons, they did. I don't know about real life. I don't think that girls would have stood for that, modern girls certainly wouldn't - or modern boys for that matter."
"S'pose not," Riley mumbled and turned his back so she wouldn't see him blushing. What did she mean by that remark? Did she suspect something? He didn't know.
"I'm going to check-out that cave and see where it goes."
"Okay. Don't get bopped on the head. I'll get started here."
"Not funny, Mum." He stumbled off down the beach.
That was really not funny. His mother didn't know that he was gay, did she? He was embarrassed, but it would be good, kind of, if she worked it out for herself. It'd save him from having to tell her. He was not looking forward to that.
There wasn't much to the cave. It was just a low, dead-end tunnel with sand, pebbles and sticks of driftwood on the floor. It was big enough to walk into, but soon got too low to stand upright and it was getting lower, and darker. It was too dark to see in the end and he had no flashlight or anything, not even a lighter.
"Oh, oh!" It suddenly occurred to him that this cave was probably crawling with creepy things - cave-wetas and suchlike. He got out of there in a hurry.
He'd never seen a live weta, but he'd seen pics. They were creepy, mini-monsters. If one of them landed on him, he'd freak.
He went back to where his mother was. She was fishing already.
There were lots of empty shells and bits and pieces of sea-weed and stuff along the shoreline. Some of the shells were really pretty - pink and pearly-looking. He didn't know what they were, but they'd make great Jewellery, if you were into Jewellery. Shame that most of them were broken. They were thin and fragile-looking.
He arrived just in time to see his mother pull a flapping fish out of the water. She inspected it, unhooked it and whacked it on the rocks to kill it. Damm, he didn't know that she could be so efficiently brutal. Killing things didn't worry her then.
"All right!" she beamed. "Got one already. This is a good spot!"
"Yeah, good for you, Mum. What is it?"
"It's a fish, Silly. What did you think it was?"
"I know that, but what sort of fish is it?"
"Don't they teach you anything in those schools? It's a perch, of course. They're not the best of eating, but they're not bad in a pie."
"I'm sure that his mother would be pleased to hear that."
"Shut up, Riley."
They sat and chatted for a while. It was nice there in the sunshine and it was a good place. There was hardly a trace of men's works anywhere, apart from the road and railway line up behind them.
The Tranz-Coastal passenger train rattled past. It was late today - again. Riley stood and waved to the people out on the observation deck. They smiled and waved back. Hah! They probably thought that he was a local yokel. But, he wasn't, was he?
A truck hooted at him. What for? He wasn't doing anything.
It was funny how just about every car tooted when going through the road tunnels, like it was compulsory or something. Just one of those things that people do. Kids thought it was funny and no-one ever really grows up.
It was nice there, but he got bored with just sitting still. Communing with nature was really not his thing, he was a city boy. Well, used to be a city boy.
"I'm going for a walk, Mum. Going exploring."
"Okay. Don't get lost and don't be too long. We'll have to be getting back soon."
"Won't be long. I'll just go along the bay."
He made his way along the stony shore, it was mostly loose pebbles, which made for hard walking. There were a lot of big rocks sticking up out of the water. Some of them, down near the end, were almost big enough to be called islands. They even had bushes and stuff growing on top of them, like they were crowned with messy hair styles. Green hair, that'd be a sight!
The debris along the tide-line was more and more of the same. Somebody had lost a jandal. There were even some MacDonalds' wrappings. Where did they come from? There was no Maccas for miles around here. Bloody messy tourists!
He was almost at the end of the small bay and focused on the rocks at the end. Was that an albatross sitting on that one?
A movement at the side of a column of rock, caught his eye. What was that? Some animal or something?
There were no wild animals around here, no land-based ones anyway, apart from rats and possums and it was too big to be either of those. So, of course, he had to investigate.
He cautiously made his way around the rock. There was something there, in the back of a shadowy cleft. Something quite big, it was as tall as he was. He picked-up a handy club-sized chunk of driftwood and edged forward.
"I know you're there. Come out, whatever you are!"
It did! A human-sized figure emerged from the shadows. Whoah! Riley's eyes nearly fell out. His mouth hung open and he stood, shocked, brandishing his make-shift weapon.
It was a caveman! An actual, living, breathing, caveman. It couldn't be, but it was!
Whoah!
(What a good place to stop - if you're a swine.)
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