Crabs really likes heavy things. Also he dislikes laces. All his shoes have zips, buckles, or slip on. When he was at the tech they used to tie him to the chain-wire fence by his shoelaces, every lunchtime. They tied him to the fence right in front of the Principal’s window and the only way he could ever get out was to break the laces, because he couldn’t bend down — if he bent down they kicked him in the arse. Crabs’s father was always coming up to see the Principal and complaining about the shoelaces but it never did any good. Once Crabs came to school with zip-up boots and they stole them from him so he had to wear the laces, for his own protection.
The first film is crackling through the loud speaker and Carmen sits up near the front window with only her black pants on, her hair down, covered with a heavy sweet perfume she always wears. Crabs shyly eyes her breasts which are small and tight. He would like her to have big boobs, like the girls in Playboy. That is the only way he would like to improve her, for her to have big boobs, but he never says anything about this, even to himself. He says, help me with my boot. He is embarrassed to ask her. He knew this would happen and it was worrying him. He says, just pull. Normally Frank pulls off his boots for him. The boots are one size too small but they don’t hurt too much.
Crabs lies back with his shirt off, his black jeans down, and one sock off while Carmen pulls at the second boot. Crabs is coming on fuzzy as he watches Carmen stretched back, her face screwed up with concentration and effort. He watches the small soft muscle on the inside of her thigh and the small soft hollow it has, just where it disappears into her pants.
She says, hey, careful. The boot is still half on the foot.
He is on top of her and she, giggling and groaning, manoeuvres sweetly below him, reciting nursery rhymes with her arse. He thinks, for the hundredth time, of the change that comes over her when she screws. Until now she is nothing much, talking dumb or sleeping or listening to the serials on the radio. It is only now she wakes up. And you could never guess, no matter how much you knew, that this girl would turn on like this. She sits around all day eating peanut butter and honey sandwiches or reading the Women’s Weekly or reading the Tatts results or the grocery advertisements. Crabs feels he is drowning in a sea of honey. He says, “humpty-dumpty”. Carmen, swerving, swaying, singing beneath him says, “Wha?”
Crabs says, bang, bang-bang-bang.
Carmen, her mascara-smudged eyes blinking beneath his mascara-smudged lips, giggles, groans, arches like a cat.
Crabs says, bang, bang, bang-bang.
Carmen arches. Crabs thinks she will break in half. Him too. She falls. He rolls and keeps rolling down to the left hand side of the car. He says shit, oh shit!
The car is on one side, listing sharply. Carmen lies on her back, smiling at the ceiling. She says, mmm.
Crabs says, Jesus Christ, someone’s knocked off the wheels, Jesus CHRIST.
Carmen turns on her side and says, the Karboys. So she knew about them all the time. She sounds pleased.
Crabs says, you’ll stain the upholstery. He searches for the other boot and the bike chain.
He runs through the cars. He doesn’t know what he is looking for, just those two wheels, one will do because he has the spare. His white jacket is weighed down by the chain. He runs through the cars. Sometimes he stops. He knocks on windows but no one will answer. Everyone’s too scared.
He rounds the back of a late model Chevvy and comes face to face with the cop car. One of the cops is putting something in the boot. Crabs is convinced that it’s the wheels. He keeps going past the car, walks round the perimeter of the drive-in and returns to the Dodge. Carmen has taken the blankets down and is watching the film. He tells her his theory about the cops and she says, shh, watch.
The manager fills out the two forms and gives them meal tickets. He is a slow fat man with a worn grey cardigan. He explains the meal ticket system — the government will supply them with ten dollars’ worth of tickets each week, these tickets can be spent at the Ezy-Eatin right here on the drive-in. If they run out of tickets, that’s too bad, because it’s all they’ll get. If they want blankets they have to sign for them now. Carmen asks about banana fritters. The manager looks at her feet and slowly raises his half-shut eyes until they meet hers. He says that banana fritters are only made at night, but she can purchase anything sold in the cafeteria.
The manager then asks if there’s anyone they want to notify. Crabs begins to give him Frank’s name and then stops. The manager waits and licks the stubby pencil he is using. Crabs says, it doesn’t matter. The manager says, that’s your decision. Crabs says, no it doesn’t matter, forget it. He can see Frank when he gets the notification, when he learns that his Dodge has lost two wheels, when he learns Crabs took it to a drive-in. He’d come out and kill them both.
Carmen says, we’ll walk home next Saturday.
The manager sighs loudly and scratches his balls. Crabs wonders if he should hit him. He’s got the chain in his jacket. The manager is saying, “Now this time listen to what I tell you. First, you ain’t got no public transport …”
Carmen says, I didn’t mean public transport. I …
“… you don’t have a bus or a train because buses and trains don’t come to the Star Drive-in. They’ve got no reason to, do they? Secondly, you can’t walk down that highway, young lady, because it’s an ‘S’ road. And if you know the laws of the land you ain’t permitted to walk on or near an ‘S’ road.”
He looks across at Crabs and says, “And dogs aren’t allowed on ‘S’ roads, or bicycles or learner drivers. So we’re not allowed to let you out of that gate until this bloody government finds a bus that they can spare to get you all home. There are now seventy-three people in your situation. I don’t like it either. I don’t make a profit from you so don’t think I want you around. So we’ll all have to wait until something is done. And we all pray to God that something’s done soon.” He crosses himself absently and Carmen laughs.
The manager stares at her blankly. Crabs would like to lay that chain across his fat face. The man says, “You want me to notify your mother?” and Carmen becomes very quiet and smoothes her skirt with great concentration. She says “no” very quietly.
The manager is standing up. He shakes them both by the hand. He advises them to sign for blankets but they say no, they have some. He has become very fatherly. At the door he shakes their hands again and says he hopes they can make themselves comfortable.
It is bright sunlight outside. Carmen says, he seemed nice.
Crabs says, he’s a bastard. I’ll get him.
Carmen says, for what?
Crabs says, for being a bastard.
Carmen takes his hand and they walk to the Ezy-Eatin, dodging in and out of the temporary clothes lines that have sprung up since last night. There are about thirty cars scattered throughout the drive-in. Some kids are playing on the swings beneath the screen. In front of the Ezy-Eatin a blonde woman of about forty is hanging out her washing and wearing a grey blanket like a cape. She smiles at them. Crabs scowls. When they pass she calls out, “Honeymooners”, and a man laughs. Crabs takes his hand out of Carmen’s but she grabs it back.
The woman at the Ezy-Eatin explains to Carmen about the banana fritters, that they only have them at night, so she has an ice cream sundae instead. Crabs has a chocolate malted with double malt. The woman takes the coupons. Carmen says, isn’t it lovely, like a picnic.