Skins by Sarah Hay

ran across the sea like snail trails and foam flashed white on its edge. The mainland coast was so close they could see the stripe of the beach. From it grey bush like a coarse fabric covered the lumpy contours of the land and tucked into purple rock. A thin line of cloud lay along the pale edge of the sky. And overhead the infinite space deepened to a dense blue with the occasional thread of wispy mist.
    Jem spun around and around, laughing and squinting against the blue that wrapped around them, until he fell over.
    â€˜Look out, you’ll fall off.’
    But Manning grinned too. He decided that if there was a God, then that was where He would be. He didn’t think much of religion, for anyone he had met who knew about it made him think that it wasn’t worth getting into. He twirled slowly around, squinting too but in effort to see any sign of human life. He could see many miles to the south and the east and the west so that had there been a ship passing, he was sure to be able to see it. He grabbed Jem’s arm.
    â€˜Look, quick! There!’
    A single sail above a small boat flickered white, just on the other side of Goose Island, to the west. Perhaps it was Anderson. But they knew he was caulking his boat for they could see smoke from the fire on the beach. It had to be the Mountaineer ’s whaleboat.
    â€˜Mother of Jesus! You know what that means, don’t you?’
    Manning looked at Jem, shading his eyes from the sun. Jem shook his head. His lip seemed to stick out further than normal and his hair, which he had hacked off, framed his face in ugly spikes.
    â€˜That’s Jansen. The bastard’s gone.’
    Manning hit the rock as hard as he could with his stick. It didn’t break for it was hardwood they had cut for clubbing seals. They had gone to the base of the rock to cut the clubs that morning and then decided to push their way through the scrub to see the view from the top. As he swung it he felt the pain in his back where Anderson had kneed him and it seemed to expand into his chest so that he could hardly breathe. He was aware of Jem and he turned into the wind and wiped the corners of his eyes. Then he sat down. He knew Anderson would be furious. Another whaleboat gone. Bitterly, he wondered who had escaped this time.
    â€˜We have to do something.’
    â€˜What?’ asked Jem.
    They faced west, towards the Sound.
    â€˜Keep coming back here until a ship passes and then signal them.’
    â€˜How?’ asked Jem as he watched a sea eagle hover in the air in front of him and dive deep and straight down the rock face to the sea below.
    â€˜Fire.’
    â€˜Think it was blacks.’
    Manning scraped the crumbly surface of a small indentation in the rock with the end of his club.
    â€˜We could build a boat.’
    â€˜Build a boat?’
    â€˜I saw him on Kangaroo Island.’
    He nodded towards the beach where they both knew Anderson was. Jem didn’t speak. They could hear the roar of the sea as it broke on the steep southern side of the island. Manning looked at his friend and suddenly he wasn’t sure about him.
    â€˜You want to leave, don’t you?’
    Jem nodded. ‘But I want me share.’
    â€˜He ain’t going to give it to you.’
    â€˜What do you mean?’
    â€˜I mean he ain’t going to pay me or you.’
    â€˜How do you know?’
    â€˜Because I know that filthy bastard.’
    They were both silent for a moment, the wind parting their hair on the backs of their heads. The breeze had increased and moved into the southeast. There was a band of cloud that was thickening above the mainland and to the east. Manning was suddenly glad he wasn’t in Jansen’s whaleboat that morning. His eye followed the coast as it curved from the purple hills of Mount Arid to the flat line of beach that continued for miles.
    â€˜You know, we could get him to put us across there.’
    â€˜And then