A Reason to Exist

Chapter 31

The party was pumping when we arrived. Bubble tag graffiti garnished the walls in bright colours. There was a DJ deck in the corner. The DJ was wearing a tie died singlet and headphones and had his arms in the air as though he was conducting the crowd. Even though the night was young, people were already on the dancefloor. Elsewhere, guys were doing tricks on their skateboards, slamming their wheels on the plywood surface, jumping up rails and ledges, skirting across banks with pure-bred noise.

'Where's all the girls?' Zuri shouted in my ear. I looked around. She was right. There were hardly any girls. I could only spot a handful on the dancefloor.

There were groups of heavily tattooed guys sitting around the edges of the street course. Many were smoking or drinking from cans. There were spotlights in each corner of the room. I could see a pile of concrete rubble behind the half-pipe. I looked down at the floor and found I was standing amidst cigarette butts and crushed beer cans. The cigarette smoke was thick. I imagined the toxins I was inhaling and my chest tightened. My mother would have a complete flip-out if she knew I was passive smoking. I'd never been to any indoor venue where people were allowed to smoke.

'Glad I don't have asthma,' Zuri shouted.

'Me too.'

Tucker dropped his skateboard onto the ground, turned to me and said, 'Fucking awesome, isn't it?' He stepped on to his board and skated off with his three mates.

Zuri and I didn't have our skateboards. We felt out of place in this heavy swamp of smoke, surrounded by 16 to 30+ year old strangers, mostly male, mostly tattooed. Testosterone was breeding between the concrete pillars. This was the arena to find the greatest man; the one who is most fearless, the funniest, who takes the greatest risks, who jumps the highest and lands the smoothest. This is where cockiness, arrogance and self-assuredness is awarded. Guys swear like troopers, smoke like fascists, drink like publicans and skate like swat teams.

One guy yelled out to another 'Get off the acid!' and Zuri and I looked at each other and grimaced. This wasn't quite what we'd expected when we'd heard the word 'party'.

'How soon is it polite to leave?' Zuri asked.

'Do you think we need to be polite here?'

'It's like they're cavemen,' Zuri said and we laughed.

'Bloody hell,' I said, looking around. 'Darwin's origin of the species.'

Out of this gathering of Neanderthals, Tucker rose and became the main attraction. Slowly, other skaters were stepping off their boards and moving to the sideline. Spectators were filming his tricks on their smartphones. He'd never been here before, but somehow he was skating this course as if it were his second home. His tricks got more and more daring. Less than an hour ago he was saying sweet, timid, romantic words and now here he was skating with sheer determination and I'd been downgraded to just another minion in his army of admirers.

At last, he stepped off his board, walked over to us and said breathlessly, 'It's a fucking wonderland. Come on, there's supposed to be a massive bowl upstairs. Let's check it out.'