A Reason to Exist

Chapter 60

The shoot at Flinders Street station was quick. Tucker did a few tricks down the rail, landing them easily. Around him, nervous dates waited on the steps checking the time on their phones, students let off their leash on a Saturday morning bounded towards the pedestrian lights, a group of tourists followed a yellow flag over to Federation Square. It was busy, and people were on such a mission, they hardly noticed Tucker. But then three ticket inspectors and two policemen stood at the top of the stairs. 'It's time to move on,' one of the policemen called out, in an unexpectedly high-pitched voice. 'Sure thing, man,' Lichten replied, as Johnny started packing up his equipment.

Next, we went to the State Library of Victoria. Tucker had skated there many times before. He rode down the steps and up the wall ride of the sculpture building sunk into the ground. Some teenagers filmed him with their phones. A group of alcoholics, sitting with glass bottles in paper bags at their feet, chatted loudly amongst themselves. A man wearing a gas mask stood on an upside down milk crate orating about the Adani coal mine into a wireless microphone. He didn't give a damn about what Tucker was doing. He was there to save the world.

Afterwards, we went to the abandoned swimming pool in Brighton. The grass was overgrown, weeds coming up between the pavers around the pool. The house was a grand Spanish-style villa, but it looked as though it hadn't been lived in for years.

'This is just like that Dogtown doco,' Tucker said, delighted. 'How the hell did you find this place?'

'A friend of a friend of a friend. Apparently the owner's kids are all fighting over the inheritance, so it's been unlived in for years.'

'This is the sickest thing ever.' Tucker ripped off his t-shirt and skated over to the edge and dropped into the empty swimming pool. He did a few spins. I was having flashbacks to last night, that torso, that skin on my skin and a national declaration of happiness bottle rocketed inside of me. Glee threw open windows and had a smudging ceremony erasing old hang-ups. I breathed deeply, savouring this moment, writing on a fluoro yellow post-it note 'this is what it feels like to be happy'.

Johnny took out his camera equipment and started filming, casually. Forbes and Lichten went over to the garden shed. It had a flat tin roof. It looked further away from the pool than it had in the picture.

When Tucker slowed down to a halt at the bottom of the swimming pool, Forbes yelled out 'It's too far away. The shed thing isn't going to work.'

The boys all looked disappointed.

'Just do what you can in there,' Lichten said. Forbes and him went over to an old weathered garden setting and sat down, stretching their legs out and shading their eyes from the sun.

After fifteen or twenty minutes of filming, Lichten called out 'Cool man, I've got it. Let's grab some lunch and head over to Braybrook.'