Tell the Truth, Shame the Devil by Melina Marchetta

reaction. ‘I get all the criticism about religion, you know, Mr Ortley. But the thing is, you can’t take it away from people and not leave something else of substance. That’s what your generation will be remembered for. Taking so much away and replacing it with so little of worth.’
    Seventeen going on seventy.
    ‘I don’t want to hit you when you’re down, Fionn,’ Bish said, ‘but I think your generation is going to be known for being the least useful at anything except ticking likes on Facebook.’
    ‘Cruel words, sir,’ Fionn mocked. ‘Only this morning the nurse let me look at my Facebook page on her phone, and I was feeling heartened by the hundred and fifty likes for the words “Get well soon”.’
    But the mockery was bitter. ‘My leg’s been blown off and someone writes, “Get well soon” as if I’ve just had my tonsils out.’
    Bish was grateful to Fionn for bringing up the elephant in the room. He could see the tears threatening to spill. Bee got vicious if Bish ever caught her crying. Sod off, Dad. I don’t have to share every thought that goes through my head.
    ‘ Sometimes people who care about us say all the wrong things for all the right reasons,’ Bish said. ‘How bad’s the pain?’
    ‘I get asked that question every half-hour by the nurses,’ Fionn said. ‘Can you ask me something else?’
    ‘Talk to me about the other kids on the bus then.’
    ‘I know the chaperones probably said we were a rubbish lot, and all that talk about Violette . . .’ Fionn shrugged.
    Bish thought of the rumours circling around Violette and a number of the boys on the bus. Had Fionn been one of them?
    ‘Did you fancy her?’
    Fionn was surprised by the question. ‘Violette only had time for Eddie Conlon. And Crombie, of course.’
    ‘You didn’t like her?’
    ‘It wasn’t that. On the first day she made a name for herself when she punched Charlie Crombie. I thought she did it for attention, but it scared people off and I realised that was exactly what she wanted. To be left alone.’ Fionn thought about it a moment, his face aflame. ‘I don’t know how the two of them ended up . . . I heard her talking to Eddie Conlon about me. “I know his type,” she said, “I’ll bet you the dickhead asks who our favourite Doctor is.”’ A blush crawled up Fionn’s face again, and reached his ears. It seemed Violette had guessed right.
    ‘I was obsessed with Tom Baker,’ Bish told him. ‘Even wore the long scarf, much like every other nincompoop in the seventies. It’s pretty obvious who everyone’s favourite Doctor is.’
    Fionn laughed, and again his face was transformed.
    ‘She called me a dickhead as well,’ Bish added.
    ‘In here,’ Fionn said pointing to his heart, ‘Violette was tough. Revealed nothing. As girls go, she’s probably up there in the category of don’t-even-think-of-it-unless-you’re-insane, like Charlie Crombie.’
    ‘Do you have someone back home?’ Bish asked.
    The boy shrugged, his cheeks and ears instantly red again. ‘Not really,’ he mumbled. ‘There was a girl from school. We were just flirting.’
    Flirting didn’t appear to conjure up great memories for the lad.
    ‘Tell me about Charlie Crombie.’
    Fionn seemed relieved at the change in conversation. ‘He used to be a student at my school. We were both bluecoat scholarship students, but our paths never crossed. I suppose you know of the cheating thing?’
    Bish nodded.
    ‘I heard him tell Rodney Kennington that he had to repeat a whole history unit at his new school, and that they were going to accept the trip as one of his assignments.’
    Fionn was pensive a moment. ‘The thing with Crombie is that he was hands down the leader.’
    ‘Was there a need for one?
    ‘Always.’
    ‘A bullying cheat? That was everyone’s only option?’
    ‘Yes. If he hadn’t established hierarchy, he’d have been at the mercy of the other year elevens. He said he could smell the weakness in their piss