Davo by N.R. Walker

Author:N.R. Walker [Walker, N.R.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: BlueHeart Press
Published: 2022-04-28T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nine

The next day, I finally caught up with Creepy and he showed me the art he’d made over the years. They were sculptures, using recycled materials, mostly metal but not always.

There was a goanna piece a metre long. I could make out horseshoes, old food cans, banged out and flattened but still recognisable. Aluminium cans for the underbelly for contrast, bike chains for a tail. It was incredibly lifelike.

An emu that stood over five feet tall. Each ‘feather’ was pressed metal over the body, which looked to be a motorbike engine casing.

A kangaroo that appeared to be entirely made out of old car parts. It had hubcaps for leg muscles, a grill for the pouch, red brake-light casings on its chest, and various engine parts I couldn’t recognise.

There was an echidna, a wombat, and a wedge-tailed eagle in full flight. Bolts, nuts, springs, cogs, spanners, metal piping, aluminium, steel.

“Oh my god,” I whispered. “These are amazing.”

He gave a single nod. “They take some time.”

“Do you sell these?”

“Nah.”

“You should.”

“Wouldn’t know how,” he said. “Or how to transport them. They’re heavy buggers.”

“I could help you.”

He side-eyed me. “Why?”

“Because you should sell these. Or display them, at least. Is there a gallery in Port Hedland or Dampier?”

Creepy laughed really loudly. “Kid. You’re funny.”

I sighed. “Well, a website is easy to set up.”

He shook his head. “Nice to dream, but no. Besides, you might not wanna look too close. About ninety-nine per cent of what I use is junk I’ve found. Like old farm machinery, abandoned car parts. Things get left in the desert all the time, and the heat and sand make them unusable pretty fast.”

“And the other one per cent?”

“Well, just between you and me, if the local government roads and traffic department have any old signs go missing, I wouldn’t know anything about that.”

I laughed. “No one has to know.”

He pinched the beak of a brolga statue, as though he was so familiar with it, like he knew every plane of metal by feel.

“So,” he said nervously. “You and Davo, huh?”

Oh my god.

“Yeah. I guess?” I really wasn’t sure why he was asking or where this conversation was going.

“He’s . . . he’s a good guy.”

Oh, for crying out loud. This was another shakedown.

“Yes, he is,” I replied. “If you’re going to put the ‘hurt him and they’ll never find your body’ speech on me, you’re too late. Junie’s beaten you to it.”

He chuckled. “Well, I dunno about never finding your body.”

I couldn’t even be mad. “I know he’s a good guy. I know he’s one of the sweetest men I’ve ever met. He’s smart and kind and funny. He works hard. People respect him. I get it.”

Creepy relaxed then. “I remember the first day I ever met him. First day at work. I’d come from another mine up north. I’m a fabricator by trade, right? I weld stuff. We’d had the drive shaft of a truck clear snap. It must have been fifty degrees that day, and I had to weld underneath the truck.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.