Out of Time by John Marsden

box?Where’d I put it? Oh no!’ he yelled suddenly, violently throwing his hat on the ground. Oh, Jesus Christ no!’ He picked up a biggish stick and held it, club-like. James panicked and pressed the ‘Return’ button. As he felt the disintegration begin he heard the swaggie’s final shout, ‘The bloody dog’s shat on me bloody tucker box.’
    â€˜HAS ANYONE FED the dog?’ their mother called, as she passed the door of the television room.
    â€˜I did it yesterday. It’s James’ turn,’ Ellie said, without taking her eyes from the screen.
    â€˜Yeah, after I’d done it every night for a week,’ James said.
    â€˜Oh! You liar!’
    â€˜I did. You never do it.’
    James rolled slowly off the bean bag and eased out of the room. He was sick of arguing and sick of Ellie. He went to the end of the yard and sat against the fence. It had been a hot slow day. Holidays were all right, he thought, but sometimes they got boring. He looked to his right and saw the crisscross of tracks in the dirt where he and Ellie had made a town and carved out roads. One of the cars they had been playing with was still there: a blue Volkswagen, peeping out from a minor cave-in at the end of a road.
    A ladybird crawled past James. He picked it up and recited the traditional song:

    Ladybird, ladybird, fly away home.
Your house is on fire and your children are gone,
Except for the little one under the stone,
Ladybird, ladybird, fly away home.
    He blew on the ladybird but there was no response.
    â€˜Cruel mother,’ he muttered, repeating the verse and blowing harder. At last the insect spread its incongruous wings and flew from his hand: at first tentatively, then wheeling and soaring until it was gone. James was annoyed then that he had let it go.
    Ellie came out of the house with the dog’s bowl.
    The dog bounced and bounced around her. She put it on the ground and the dog buried his nose in it, with eager woofling noises. Ellie came over to where James was sitting. She stood in front of him.
    â€˜You have to do it tomorrow night,’ she said.
    James changed the subject.
    â€˜You know what the biggest difference is between animals and us?’ he said.
    â€˜What?’
    â€˜We know we’re going to die and they don’t.’
    â€˜But we don’t really know we are. I mean, we pretend we’re not.’
    â€˜OK, what do you think the difference is, then?’
    â€˜I think the biggest difference is that we like beautiful things, just because they’re beautiful. Animals don’t understand beauty. Well, they don’t seem to.’
    â€˜They might, and we just don’t realise it.’
    Ellie giggled.
    â€˜Can you imagine a cow looking at a painting and thinking how beautiful it is?’
    He rolled over and picked up the toy Volkswagen.
    â€˜I’d hate to die in a car accident,’ he said. ‘I’d like to know beforehand, so you could go to Disneyland and everything. And so people could get you presents.’
    Ellie shivered.
    â€˜Gee, I don’t want to know. I’d like it sudden. But not in a car crash. I hate the way Dad drives sometimes. He goes so fast. And through orange lights.’
    â€˜He’s a good driver. I like going fast.’
    â€˜I feel safer with Mum.’
    The dog, having emptied his bowl, came snuffling around James’ feet, as though he might have food hidden in his socks.
    â€˜Go away,’ James said, grabbing him fiercely around his muzzle. The dog see-sawed his head to get free, planting his feet firmly on the ground and using the strength of his neck to buck the boy’s hand off. James let his muzzle go, then got to his knees to wrestle in earnest as the dog obligingly returned to the fray. Ellie ran around them laughing. The dog bounded away then came circling back for more. Ellie grabbed his neck as James tried to roll him over, but he wriggled free and came