Now we have to wait till Monday so we can ring Perry Cole, but already, we have to think — about everything. About other guys’ fists. About the danger. About Mum and Dad finding out. About survival. A new world has arrived in our minds and we have to handle it. We have decided and there is no time to stick our tail between our legs and run. We’ve decided in front of the telly and that means we have to give it a shot. If we succeed, good. If we fail, it’s nothing new.

Rube’s thinking about it, I can tell.

Personally, I try not to.

I try to focus on the woman’s brilliant legs on ‘Wheel of Fortune’. When she swivels the letters, I can see more of them, just before she turns around and smiles at me. She smiles pretty, and in that split second, I forget. I forget about Perry Cole and all those future punches. It makes me wonder, Do we spend most of our days trying to remember or forget things? Do we spend most of our time running towards or away from our lives? I don’t know.

‘Who y’ goin’ for?’ Rube interrupts my thoughts, looking at the TV.

‘I d’ know.’

‘Well?’

‘Okay then.’ I point. ‘I’ll take the dopey one in the middle.’

‘That’s the host, y’ idiot.’

‘Is it? Well I’ll take the blonde one there on the end. She looks the goods.’

‘I’ll take the guy on the other end. The one who looks like he just escaped from Long Bay. His suit’s a dead-set outrage. It’s a dis-grace.’

In the end it’s the guy from Long Bay that wins. He gets a vacuum cleaner and has already won a trip to the Great Wall of China, from yesterday apparently. Not bad. The trip, that is. In the champion round, he misses out on a ridiculous remote control bed. In all honesty, the only thing keeping us watching is to see the woman turning the letters. I like her legs and so does Rube.

We watch.

We forget.

We know.

We know that on Monday we’ll be ringing Perry Cole to tell him we’re in.

‘We better start training then,’ I tell Rube.

‘I know.’

Mum comes home. We don’t know where Dad is.

Mum takes the compost out to the heap in the backyard.

Upon returning she says, ‘Something really stinks out there near the back fence. Do either of you know anything about it?’

We look at each other. ‘No.’

‘Are you sure?’

‘Well,’ I crack under the pressure. ‘It was a few onions that were in our room that we forgot about. That’s all.’