Like Sodium in Water by Hayden Eastwood

Author:Hayden Eastwood
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781868428557
Publisher: Jonathan Ball Publishers
Published: 2018-02-16T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter 14

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I do press-ups and sit-ups on the grass near the veranda. Dan wanders towards me from the sitting room door. His frame is filling with more muscle. He looks slender but strong. Soon he’ll be a man. Maybe someday he’ll be stronger than me. ‘Do you fancy a game of computer rugby?’ he asks.

I catch my breath. ‘Yeah sure, of course. I’d love to.’

Dan seems to have unexpectedly emerged from his moping silence. His walk seems more buoyant.

We sit at the computer. Stick-figured men wearing little pairs of pixelated white shorts run onto the fishbowl screen. The whistle blows and the cheers of the crowd roar through the tinny speakers.

My player breaks Dan’s defence. Dan’s players chase the wrong man. My man dives over the try line. ‘Nice one, Hayde,’ he says.

I score again. Dan’s movements become agitated. I do a set move and then abort it.

‘Ah, you fucking cunt!’ he shouts at me. ‘You shouldn’t be allowed to do that move. It’s not fair; the algorithm for automated tackling is crap. It doesn’t know what to do when you’ve aborted the move half way through. What kind of idiots designed this algorithm! You shouldn’t be allowed to do that! You shouldn’t be allowed to abort moves!’

‘Come on, man, I got that try fair and square.’

Dan mumbles and returns his focus to the game. He scores in a flurry. The score evens and his temper subsides.

With minutes to go, my man picks up a dropped ball and runs the length of the field. ‘Try number three!’ I shout.

Dan brushes the disappointment off and steels himself for a final rally.

My fly half kicks the ball. Dan’s wing catches it and makes a last attempt for the line. A gap opens. His man runs through it and into an empty patch of field. Pixels from the try line, my men tackle him.

Dan hits pause. ‘No ways, that couldn’t happen, your fullback just materialised. He just appeared! He couldn’t have been there! He came from off the screen to tackle me. The computer’s cheating!’

He rattles the desk with his hands. It’s like watching him as an eight-year-old again.

‘Dan, chill out, man. How could he have just appeared?’

‘And fucking hell, my guy went over the line. How come it didn’t give me the try?’

‘Dan, you know how this thing works. If you get tackled before the line and then roll over the line, it doesn’t give it you!’

Dan reaches over and switches off the computer.

‘Don’t be such a fucking spoilsport!’ I shout.

‘No, this stupid fucking computer, it’s cheating. It’s cheating!’

I push him. ‘Why did you have to ruin the game?’

He pushes me back. We grab each other. I try to lift his legs from underneath him and drop him to the floor like I used to when we were boys. But he’s become strong. His burly legs remain firmly planted on the ground.

He shrugs me off and storms out. ‘Fuck you, you fucking wanker! You’re such a fucking prick!’

‘No, fuck you!’ I shout after him.

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