Floundering by Romy Ash

were little, but it’s starting to puff right up on the beach. He kneels down in the sand. A wave threatens to foam over us, it wants the fish back. He sucks in deep on his ciggie, ashes it beside him then sticks the filter of the ciggie in the little fishy mouth of the puffer, between its barbed teeth. The fish puffs up with smoke. There is a spot of blood on the wet sand. It’s puffing smoke right into its belly. The ash on the end of the cigarette stays whole like it does when Gran’s friends forget to ash them. Little puffs of smoke escape but most of it goes inside. Its body gets huge and round, its fins sticking out like branches. I test the sharpness of the hook on my thumb and scrunch my feet into the sand.
    The puffer fish loses its shape. Its beady eyes are pulling inside its skull. Nev steps back. We lean in. It bursts. It makes a popping sound. A little bit of gut gets on my knee. Shiny and slimy. There are flappy bits like burst balloon around thefish. Smoke comes out of the holes. He laughs. The butt’s still gripped tight in the fish’s teeth. I lean down, pick the butt from its lips and put it in my pocket. I rub the guts off my knee.
    See, he says. He pulls the line from my hand and the hook scrapes against my palm.
    Ow, I say.
    Come on, says Jordy. He pulls my arm. Nev is still laughing, shaking his head. A gull flies down to peck at the carcass and screeches at us to get away.
    Come on. I’ll show you something, Jordy says. We walk away from Nev and when I look back he’s not following us, he’s just staring out to sea.
    Further down the beach, there are tons more people. Jordy walks towards them and I follow him, stepping in his footprints in the sand. I have to jump between them because his legs are longer. When we get to the people I don’t look any of them in the eye. I look at their legs standing in the sand, their thongs and brown feet. Hear the sound of fishing rods coming away from the spool, then the clicking of them being wound back in. We walk under the lines stretching into the waves. They say G’day to us, and Jordy scowls. I pick at my ear scab and it starts to bleed again. I put spit on it to try make it stop and the blood on my fingers tastes like metal. In the wet sand I can see the patterns the little snails make. I follow Jordy up into the hot sand, the dunes shrugged up around us, then back onto the gravel road. There are tents everywhere. Kids screaming and running. The drone of cricket announcers from a radio somewhere. We walk past the tents. All their awnings opening towards the road. We walk until the tents get sparse. The road becomes skinnier and then Jordy walks into the scrub that thetents turn their backs to. We walk until the point where the white sand around the camp turns to red and loop back around so we’re headed towards the back of the camp.
    I’m hot, Jordy, I say.
    Don’t be a pussy.
    My shoulders are burning.
    I see it. It’s just standing. Jordy’s magicked it there. A kangaroo as pale as white sand. Jordy whistles between his teeth and it cocks its head at us.
    Is that what you wanted to show me? I whisper.
    No.
    We creep past it and it stares at us the whole way. When I look back, it’s gone and I can’t even picture where it was standing.
    Do you reckon you could have a kangaroo as a pet?
    No way.
    Why not?
    What do you reckon?
    I don’t know.
    They’d go bad. You couldn’t ever tame them properly.
    Really?
    Really.
    You think you know everything.
    Do not.
    Do so. I hear him take a huge breath and sigh.
    Remind me why I let you come? But I can tell it’s a joke.
    You asked me to come.
    Whatever.
    From here we can see the backs of the tents. The bushes scratch at my bare legs. Jordy nudges me and we walk closer towards them.
    Be quiet, he says.
    I am quiet.
    Shhh.
    You’re the one talking.
    He punches me hard in the shoulder. Corks me bad, and I have to gulp in breath to stop myself crying out.
    He whispers, Look, but I’ve got no idea what