Halfmen Of O by Gee Maurice

Author:Gee, Maurice [Gee, Maurice]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781742532400
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Published: 2005-10-04T23:00:00+00:00

8

Underhand Chop

Nick went up to the crater rim with the young Birdfolk and watched them practise flying. They spread their wings and glided into the hollow. Now and then one would try a cautious flap, but this usually led to a tumble on landing. They got rather bad-tempered. Nick wandered away. If he had to live here, he thought, he would build himself a hang-glider and show them they weren’t the only ones who could fly.

Jimmy Jaspers came out of the hall. He climbed the rim and set off towards the river. Nick wondered what he was up to. He ran to catch up. Jimmy moved along quickly, hopping like a goat from rock to rock. He bellowed a song about a girl who had loved a sailor and been left in the lurch. When Nick caught up he had stopped at a thicket of thorn trees.

‘What do yer reckon, younker? Reckon I’ll find a good straight one in there?’

‘What for?’ Nick asked.

‘A handle fer me axe.’ He showed Nick an axe head. ‘Cast and tempered ’er yestiddy. Sharpened ’er this mornin’. Feel that edge. Go easy, yer’ll ’ave yer finger orf.’ He rolled up his sleeve and shaved some hairs off his arm. ‘When I catches up with Odo Cling I’ll slice ‘im up fer bacon.’

He took out his clasp knife and hacked down one of the thorn trees and trimmed off its branches. ‘I reckon this’ll do. She’s good tough wood.’

Nick sat with him on a rock while he shaped and smoothed a handle. The old man spat on his hands. He worked easily and fast. His knife was chisel, plane and sand-paper. By lunchtime the axe handle was ready. He fitted it to the axe head and hammered in a wedge with a piece of rock. He whirled it round his head. ‘I reckon she’s right. You ain’t seen me use an axe, ’ave yer younker? I won the underhand chop six years runnin’ at the Fells Bush A and P show. Let’s get up there an’ cut them pretty pollies a bit o’ firewood.’

He worked all afternoon in the crater. Birdfolk flew in with logs to keep him supplied. By sundown he had a stack as high as his head.

‘I reckon I’m in trim. Bring on yer Odo Cling.’

A Birdman landed with a flurry of wings. ‘They are coming. Wise One and Wanderer and Susan.’

Nick peered into the east, where the distant mountains stood out in the dying sun. In a moment he saw two dots moving on the pink and yellow sky. He felt as if he were in an airport, waiting for a plane to come in from Australia. Then the strangeness of things rushed in on him and he almost cried out with disbelief. This was Morninghall, on the planet O. Those dots were Birdfolk. Susan was flying home with the Half, coming to save the world. He grasped Jimmy Jaspers by the arm.

‘Easy, son,’ the old man said. ‘Yer gotter roll with the punches.

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