The Story of a lifetime...

When I was 6 or 7, my brother had a BMX pushbike, he had swapped his 10 speed racer for it with his friend.
I remember his racer, it was big and shiney and green, he had been given his racer. It was my favourite.

Of course, Paul's racer was too big for me to ever ride it. But I always dreamed of riding it down the street at such a great speed.
So much bigger and faster than my bike, I had an old bike, it had been re-painted and it had 3 gears, but it was still old. But I could ride it. I loved being able to ride to the shop on my bike.

We had one of those old corner shops, you know, the ones that dont seem to exist anymore, but my old corner shop is still there, I know, I went back a few years ago, it was still there, I remember it because the lady who ran it used to cut our hair.
Anyway, the shopkeeper and his wife were really nice people. We liked them, they always used to take care of us boys, infact all the kids in the neighbourhood liked our shop, I guess thats why they are still there.

But back to our bikes, my big old bike, it was the one my brother had when he was younger, I liked the BMX because it could go really fast over rough roads and dirt tracks, but what am I talking about, I was 7 years old at the most!
I used to go out riding every day, I would ride around our suburb and I would wave at people with beaming pride, hey, I could ride really well back then. I was always happy in those days, both of my parents were still there and my brother and I still talked and were really 'brothers' in the sense of the word.

I remember another of my brothers friends, we called him "Smurf" (not because he was blue) it was because he was always the shortest of our friends.. my brother was about 13 at the time, so was Smurf I think.
My brother got on really well with Smurf, I remember them always being out doing something, your typical teenagers I guess. Smurf's mother was a really nice lady, I still sort of remember her, mind you it was such a long time ago.

They owned a house that was right on the side of a really really big hill, their backyard went into the hill and they could go anywhere they wanted too, they only lived about 5 minutes ride away...
I liked the hill, it was real bush, the real Australian bush, at that age I was always fascinated with the bush and the birds and the waterfall just up the valley from their house.
You could walk for hours and not see anything when you were in "their" backyard. It wasn't really all theirs, it just seemed that way, and we used to play in there anyway.

We were always off playing or doing something, I remember though that Smurf was a real trickster. He used to like to play jokes on me all the time. Usually my brother Paul was in on this... shame really, they were so mean to me sometimes.

There was this big cave up on Smurf's hill. It was this big deep cave that was all dark and sinister like, it used to scare me, specially when my brother and Smurf used to make up stories about it.. how mean they were, but I'll get to that in a minute.
This was my life in about 1980, time stood still during those years, life was good, everything was perfect. We lived as a happy family and everything was great.

My brother and Smurf and myself always went out riding pushbikes, back before I got my 'new' bike, we would go over to what we called the "muddies" or mudflats, now there is a new suburb there, I saw it when I went back a few years ago, its just not the same anymore, all the memories are still there, I can still see where we went in my mind, I can still make out all the places we rode.
The tracks would now go through someone's livingroom but I can remember some of them. Like out the back of the muddies there was another hill, we used to drop our bikes at the bottom and walk around in the bush, it was still a new area with very few houses, we always lived in these new places where no one else thought to go.
I remember that was the first time I saw a snake out there, it just crossed the path infront of us, my brother told me not to move and it went away, he always knew what to do.

Smurf would hide in the bush and pretend to be someone else when we walked past, he'd always scare us, well me anyway...!
But his pride and joy was what other things he could do.

In his backyard, in the big cave, I remember we went up there early in the morning, before lunchtime, his mother had made us lunch and told us to be careful, it was summer I think.
We had trekked up the mountainside for ages and we had reached the cave, we had water and we had food, so we stopped to make camp in the cave.
I remember still that it was this big cave with lots of room, atleast it seemed like it then. I dont know if it would be now, I haven't seen the cave since that day, I vowed never to return... it would take me years to get over what happened.

We set up our little camp in that cave on that morning. It was sunny and warm outside, infact bordering on hot, it was the sort of day you 'normally' would have walked down to the beach on... NOT gone trekking around in the bushland, and yeppers, we could walk to the beach in 5 minutes if we wanted, it was the perfect place to live.
The birds were singing, we had a beautiful bird that you could listen to for hours, it had this sound it made that would echo all through the valley. I loved it there it was always peaceful. Until this day...

We were just laying back and talking, my brother and Smurf were happy and they talked with me happily too. I dont think they really wanted me there, but they didn't have alot of choice in the matter I think.
So it was on this day, we started telling stories, my brother told one first I think, but it was a long time ago, I cant remember alot. We told jokes and we laughed and ate our sandwiches.

I remember then when Smurf told his story, it was the scariest I had ever heard. He told us of the old murderer who had escaped from prison. He had said that he was caught after he had escaped from the mental hospital and killed a man... their little daughter the only family member to survive.
Apparently, they had been out driving in the country, not far from where we were... their car had broken down and the father had walked back saying to his daughter, "stay in the car, no matter what, do NOT get out of the car unless I say so" so the little girl stayed in the car as her daddy had told her, she wrapped herself up in a blanket and went to sleep.
Meanwhile her father had begun walking back along the country road toward where he had seen some lights down a long driveway...

Hours later, the little girl woke up with a start, she heard something banging on the roof of her daddy's car, she was very scared, but she did as her daddy had told her and she stayed covered up...
The banging got louder and louder, and the little girl was very scared, she started to cry, then all of a sudden, there was all this bright light and a loud voice talking to her; "Little girl, we know you are in the car, we want you to listen very carefully..."
The little girl didn't know who the voice was from, and the banging on the roof of her car got very loud and scary, it wouldn't stop, and the voice kept going "This is the Police, we want you to unlock the car, open the door and get out of the car... Once you are out of the car we want you to run towards the lights and DO NOT LOOK BACK..."
The girl was bordering on panic now, after all, she was only 11 years old and she was told to stay int he car by her daddy. But he always said do everything the Policemen said. So she looked out the window of the car, 'The banging on the roof continued and the car rocked back and forth'. She saw on the roadway alot of lights and police cars, she had seen alot of Policemen standing there with worried looks on their faces...
So she was really scared now, and the banging continued on the car roof...

The Polieman with the loud voice told her to get ready, so she unlocked the car door very carefully and she got ready to get out and run... The Policeman shouted out "NOW" and she kicked open the car door and jumped out at a run, she was almost where the Policemen where when she turned and looked back at her daddy's car...
Up on the roof of her daddy's car was a big man, he looked very mean and angry, he was banging something onto the roof of her daddy's car and smashing at the roof with his fist...
She looked even more carefully as she discovered that the angry man on the roof of the car was banging her daddy's severred head onto the roof of her daddy's car... The angry man turned and stopped to look at her, he spoke with an angry voice and said that "someday I will return for you little girl"... and then he jumped off the roof of the car and ran into the darkness...
The Police raced after him but they did not find him, the little girl grew up to be Smurf's mother...

Atleast thats what they told me, anyway, part way through the story, some rocks fell down across the front of the cave, only little ones, but enough to let you know someone was there... I didn't much like that, but I had my big brother and his friend there to protect me...
At the end of the story, Smurf told me it was a true story and thats why his mother was always so quiet and didn't like to drive cars anymore.. and some more rocks fell of the top of the cave and rolled over the entrance.. Then Smurf told me that the Madman had never been caught by the Police on that night, and he had never returned for his mother...
I was a little bit scared by that time, so I told him to stop it... he said it was a true story and thats why he told me, he made me swear to secrecy.

Some more rocks fell down.

I told him to stop doing that, he said that he wasn't, so I watched him for a while, and the rocks kept falling, just a couple at a time, as though someone were standing on the hillside above the cave listening to us. We were all scared just a little, then my brother said, "what if its the mad man who killed your grandad ?" and Smurf looked really scared and said that it couldn't be, but that he wasn't going out to look in any case... someone would look for us if we didn't return by nightfall.
By this time with my big protectors to look after me, I was a little worried that they didn't seem to want to investigate. I sat and ate some more food and drank some water. I didn't like the idea of losing my head and having it bashed on someone's car roof. A few more rocks fell down.

After about an hour of this happening and us being a little more scared, I told Smurf and my brother that I was scared and that one of them should go and have a look, they bluntly told me that they weren't going out to lose their heads to any madman.
I think at about that time I started to cry and began to get really scared, my brother was no help either... I didn't like it.
We sat in the cave for hours that day, too scared to move.

Finally, Smurf said he would go out and have a look, he said he would run off and try to get some help. He said that he would bring the Police back with him.
He told my brother and me to stay quietly in the cave and not to worry.
His last words to us were "should anything happen to me, remember me how I was, not how I could be without my head."

I was really scared for Smurf as he went out of the cave, a few minutes later we heard it...
A blood curdling scream, and some more rocks fell down infront of the cave...

We knew now that Smurf had met the same fate, it was only a matter of time now... Something was being beaten on the ground ontop of the cave.
My brother didn't look too happy by this time, and I was crying. His best friend was gone and we were trapped in a cave miles from anyone and we were the only ones who knew where!

A little while later, the beating on the ground stopped and I cried a little more, a voice told us to come out of the cave... it was a horrible voice and I was even more scared, so we stayed in the cave.

I remember now how scared I was when Smurf stuck his head into the cave and told me that it was all a joke and that there was no man who wanted to rip off our heads, I remember not liking him scaring me that much. I dont know that I spoke to him much after that, but after all, to him, I was just a kid, and he was a big teenager like my brother.

They were always doing things like that to me before that, but that one took the last straw and cut it up into little pieces to use as confetti.
I didn't like it so I went home and I didn't follow my brother as much anymore.
Infact, to think back upon it today, I think it was maybe one of the last times I remember actually being friends with my brother. It was only a couple of years later that we didn't talk at all.

Its sad to think back and see how much we did wrong, but I remember some thing I read not all that long ago, the words ring true to me today now more than ever,

"Remember Yesterday, and Dream of Tomorrow..."

====
ende.


Simon.