Les Grands Chantiers (Wattys 2022)

2. How Do You Do, Fellow Kids

Brendan sat next to Wilbur on a bus as it slowly threaded its way through the leafy northwestern suburbs of Corviston. Brendan would have honestly preferred an Uber, just to get in and out as quickly as possible, but Floriana had a firm policy of getting around on public transport only, and she had a knack for finding out when people had contravened her edicts. The bus rounded the umpteenth roundabout. It was the offpeak. Most of the other passengers were housekeepers, maids and old ladies with shopping trolleys. 

Brendan looked out the window and watched the expensive houses go past. Most of them were obscured by shrubbery. The forested foothills loomed in the near distance, obscured slightly by heat haze, walling them in like a hedge around a well-manicured garden. This was the type of place where he imagined the guy from yesterday might live. He felt a slight sense of dread well up in his gut. 

His old school had been not far from here, but he had never had any cause to come here since he had left. He realised that there was a slight chance that he might be recognised. For once in his life, he hoped that the "all Asians look the same" thing might actually be true. He had not been that well-known in school, even in his final year, but there was always that chance. 

The tall ivy-laden fences and elm trees gave way to open parkland. Gray Park, was, like the airport, main city centre thoroughfare, Department of Education building, seven streets, five community centres, three schools, four libraries, several trams, at least one train, at least two buses, and countless other things in Corviston, named after Ruth Gray. the founding mother of the Republic of New Carinthia. 

They alighted and headed for their target, the jumble of curved concrete in the middle of the park. Despite the fact it was only a few blocks away from his old school, he had never really been here. This was where the rebellious kids went to wag school and smoke, and well, he had never been one of those. He had never had the time. 

The skatepark was rather well patronized for a school day. Brendan felt the dread knot up in his stomach. He wanted to be in and out as fast as possible. He wondered why they had even agreed to come in the first place. Maybe they should have tried to negotiate with Floriana. But that was pretty futile, usually. 

Wilbur was going to do things by the book, though. He always did. Here goes, Brendan thought.
As he got closer he could see that some of the kids were wearing chains. There were a lot of eyes on him but none of them seemed to belie recognition. He breathed a sigh of relief. 

There was a kid with a nose ring at the front who seemed to be the leader, at least to Brendan. He didn't say anything, just glared at the two newcomers. 

For a moment there was an awkward silence. This was definitely a mistake, Brendan thought. We should have gotten, like, a really famous skater on board to try and sell this project. But I don't know any famous skaters...

Brendan tried to garner up the courage to speak, trying to remember tips on public speaking from school that he barely remembered. 120 words per minute is ideal. Pick one person in the audience and stare them in the eye and deliver your speech to them. "Uh, hi. I'm Brendan-" 

"And I'm Wilbur, and we're from an organisation called the Corvistion Intelligent Neighbourhood Co-Operative," Wilbur completed his sentence, with a noticeably more peppy delivery. 

They were met by complete silence. Brendan estimated that only half of them were even looking at him. They did not look very excited. Some of them were giving them sidelong glances and whispering amongst each other. Not very confidence-inspiring.

"We've got an exciting new project we'd like to run past you guys. A really exciting one." Wilbur had decided to do most of the talking, something which Brendan was grateful for. "You'll actually be able to ride your boards on it."