Summary
Miles goes out in the boat again, with cold sea spray flying in his face. He considers going into the cabin to thaw out but sees a catch bag floating on the water. He pulls it out. Abalone stick to each other and form one giant rock. Miles uses a blunt shucking blade to separate them according to size in plastic tubs. Miles knows Dad would kill him if he threw back the undersized ones, which are most of the catch, and the cannery turns a blind eye to these things for Dad anyway.
Martin’s bald head emerges in the water. Martin is large and imposing but Miles knows he isn’t as aggressive as he looks; he isn’t like Dad. Miles starts cleaning Martin’s catch but Martin stops him and winks, saying he’s the one being paid. Martin separates his catch smoothly and then pours some tea out of a thermos for both of them. Jeff comes up next and when he sees Miles holding a tin cup of tea, comments sarcastically that he’s glad to see Miles working hard. Miles dumps the tea and takes Jeff’s flippers, gloves and hood and puts them in the fresh water bucket. Martin holds Dad’s slack airline tube and looks over the water. Dad has been down a while. Miles has only been down once, and he feared the darkness and the kelp wrapping around his legs. In a few years, he’ll have to start diving for real. Finally Dad surfaces. He rips his mouthpiece away and celebrates his haul of two full bags of huge abalone. He smiles at Miles and exclaims that a few days of this and they’ll be back.
Harry puts on his parka and gumboots to bring the Redskins show bag he bought to Stuart. He isn’t allowed out on his own but he decides it is okay if he walks fast. He passes an area thick with trees and then crosses a bridge, reaching a scrubby area of cleared land with old farmhouses. This is where Stuart lives in a caravan with a wooden shed attached to it. Stuart and his mother don’t appear to be home, so Harry leaves the show bag at the door and walks back. On the bridge he finds a dead bandicoot. He wonders if he should take it to Joe’s place so Joe can strip it and keep the skeleton. A dog comes out of the bushes. Harry lets it lick his face then throws a stick for it, chasing the dog through the scrub until they arrive at a bogged-up paddock and old wooden shack. Harry realizes he is at the home of George Fuller, whom everyone at school fears. There are rumors George Fuller burned his parents alive in their beds. The dog brings Harry a knotted rope for him to throw. Harry throws it and quietly addresses the dog when trying to get it back from his mouth. The dog growls and Harry is startled when the shack door opens. Harry takes off running when he sees George Fuller. Harry falls when he hits his shin on something sharp. Someone calls his name, and Harry jumps up and runs without stopping until he reaches the bridge. He wonders how the man could know his name.
Dad says Miles can leave work; Joe is waiting for Miles in his orange van full of surfboards, sleeping bags, fishing gear, and tools. There is a pile of hot fries and gravy that Miles can smell. They drive past abandoned-looking homes and shacks. There are decent waves, so they excitedly get into their wetsuits and go in the water. Miles is delighted to catch the first curl. Later Joe and Miles sit on their boards waiting for a last line to surf. Joe says the boat he has been working on for years is finished. It is ready to sail and take Joe away. Joe says maybe Miles can come over and help pack up the house on the weekend. Miles responds by saying Aunty Jean is a "bitch." The narrator comments that Granddad had left the house to Joe, who’d lived with him since he was thirteen, but Aunty Jean stole the house from him by contesting the will. Joe says she’s going to put money away for Miles and Harry, and anyway, it isn’t about the house: it’s simply time for him to go. Miles wants to tell Joe things are bad at home; that he doesn’t know what to do on the boat. But he only says he will come help pack up the house on the weekend.
At home in the morning, Harry hears Miles coughing and asks if he is sick. With their bedroom light on, Harry can see Miles has dark bags under his eyes. Miles puts an extra sweater on and a beanie hat and says he’s fine, telling Harry to go back to bed. Harry listens to Miles making toast. He curls up and thinks about the dog. He knows he’ll go back to see it at some point. The perspective shifts to Miles. They’ve finished work early: the tubs are full with their daily quota. Miles thinks he’ll drop by Joe’s to see if he wants to go surfing. Martin sees a school of Atlantic salmon rushing under the water. Dad casts a line. The lure is out for a second before he gets a catch and reels the salmon into the boat. Jeff grabs a rod too; soon Martin and Miles are knelt down, stabbing the salmon on the bottom of the boat.
Suddenly a ten-foot short-fin mako shark comes over the side of the boat, following Dad’s line. The shark thrashes wildly, knocking over Miles and Martin. In the commotion the boat nearly capsizes. However, Jeff kills the shark by firing two shots with his rifle into the shark’s head. Miles realizes the shark hasn’t hurt him, despite his terror, but all the abalone and salmon are gone. Miles watches in horror as Jeff slices open the pregnant shark, revealing two dead pups and one wriggling in its mother’s blood. Jeff stabs it and throws it at Miles, who catches it in his arms. It is fully formed, more than half a meter long. Miles thinks Jeff could have let it go by sliding it off the boat.
Dad begins driving the boat and then rips the shark from Miles’s hands and slaps Miles hard in the face. Miles says he can’t hear. He sees Martin’s leg is broken and he looks unwell. Miles and Martin sit together under blankets on the ride back. Martin tells Miles his Dad is going to need him and to watch out for Jeff. Miles understands the broken leg means Miles is going to have to work for his father instead of going to school next semester. At the hospital, Miles remembers how his grandfather had died from fluid collecting in his lungs, and how he stood at the door like a coward rather than holding his grandfather’s hand. A nurse comes out to the waiting room and tells Miles that Martin is fine; just a broken leg.
Harry returns to the bushes where he met the dog and calls out “Here boy,” unsure of the dog’s name. He decides he’ll run if he sees George. Harry hides behind a tree and watches George step out on to the verandah where the dog sleeps in a sunbeam. The dog barks and runs to Harry, then pulls Harry by the sleeve, who allows the dog to lead him to George. George seems to have trouble speaking, but Harry makes out that the dog is called Jake. George walks inside and gestures for Harry to follow. Harry considers the smoking chimney and thinks it’ll be warm inside. Harry hesitates then opens the door. George is pouring tea. From the outside the house looks decrepit, a standard picker’s shack, but inside it is orderly and clean. There is a vase of fresh white lilies. Harry and George sit and drink tea while discussing how George rescued Jake from the side of the road. When Harry leaves, he says he might come back another day.
The next day, Miles and Dad try starting the boat, but the engine sputters. When Miles suggests they shouldn’t go out, Dad slams his hands on the dash and says, “You think I have a fucking choice?” Dad storms off down the dock with clenched fists, leaving Miles to move the boat himself. He can’t pull-start the dinghy, so Mr. Roberts, who saw Dad storm off, offers to tow it. Afterward, Miles can’t get in the car. He is considering walking to Joe’s when Mr. Roberts appears again and offers to drive him. The narrator comments on how Mr. Roberts got richer than the others by selling abalone not to the cannery but up at Hobart, where abalone are snap-frozen and flown to Asia.
On the drive, they discuss Mr. Roberts’s son Justin, who now goes to private school. Justin and Miles used to surf together and be friends, ages ago. Miles is enjoying being driven in the heated car until he sees white lilies tied to a river gum tree on the tight bend before the river. Miles chokes on the Butter Menthol Mr. Roberts gave him. Mr. Roberts pulls over so Miles can spit it out. Mr. Roberts hands Miles a hankie and says he never passes the spot without thinking about Miles’s mum; it must have been bloody terrible. Miles says he was too young to remember. As they pass the tree, Miles notes it still has a scar: a line where the bark never grew back after they hit it hard. When Mr. Roberts drops Miles off, he tells Miles not to get stuck here with his dad and that he’s too young to be out working; he’s had it rough enough.
Analysis
With the detail that the cannery “turns a blind eye” when Dad sells them illegally undersized abalone, Parrett introduces the theme of economic strain. Having gone into debt to buy Uncle Nick’s share of the fishing boat, and working in the over-fished Tasmanian abalone diving industry, Dad feels the economic strain of not being able to pay off his loan while also supporting his children and an alcohol addiction.
Poverty exacerbates Dad’s stress levels and anger, leaving Miles to live in fear of his father’s unpredictable mood. However, after a moment of trepidation and fear that something has happened to Dad while under the water, Dad surfaces with a large catch of abalone. In perhaps the novel’s only instance of Dad expressing an emotion other than anger or placidity, Dad is thrilled. The abalone catch comes as a good omen—a sign that the economic strain his family has been suffering may soon be alleviated.
By depicting Harry venturing out to explore the Bruny landscape on his own, Parrett introduces the theme of parental abuse. Although Harry may not perceive himself to be in any danger, it is neglectful of Dad to leave a child as young as Harry without childcare all day. As Harry explores a sparsely populated rural area, Parrett injects tension into the narrative by having him nearly come into contact with George Fuller, a man Harry perceives to be a haunting figure based on rumors he has heard. As Harry runs away, an instance of situational irony occurs: George calls out to Harry, and Harry has no idea how the stranger knows his name.
In a good mood because of the bountiful abalone catch, Dad lets Miles off early from his unpaid job on the boat. By showing the stark contrast between Miles’s mental and emotional state while on the boat versus how he feels around Joe while surfing, Parrett introduces the theme of refuge. To get away from their Dad’s violent, selfish behavior, both Harry and Miles will find places of refuge, where they can relax among safe authority figures. However, Miles reflects on how Joe plans to sail away from the island and the boat he has been restoring; with Joe gone, Miles will lose his only refuge. The reader learns that Joe himself also had to take refuge from Dad when he had been Miles’s age. To get away from Dad’s violence, Joe moved in with Granddad.
After another bountiful catch, Dad and the divers are in a good mood. They see a school of fish rushing past and greedily pull up salmon after salmon. Just as everything is going well for the fishers, a ten-foot mako shark chases a salmon out of the water and into the boat. Chaos erupts as Miles and the men try not to get hurt by the shark, which thrashes with enough strength to break Martin’s leg. The commotion ends with Jeff firing two rifle shots at the shark’s head. However, the rocking motion means all the abalone and salmon are lost in the water. Dad’s positive mood vanishes, and he slaps Miles in the face instead of checking to see if his son is hurt.
The shark incident is followed by a scene that foreshadows the novel’s climax. When the boat engine barely sputters to life, Miles hesitantly suggests that it isn’t safe to take it out. Dad erupts in anger, saying he has no choice when to go out—suggesting that he can’t afford to take a day off fishing. Parrett also provides more clues about what happened to Miles’s Mum. While being driven home by Mr. Roberts, Miles passes the tree where her car crashed.
