the young bloke

It happened like it always does;
phone call out of nothing  
someone with that voice  
and you know before the words come out  
that a life has done its run  
 
I hired him myself
remember the day well  
him too young for the work we do  
“sorry mate, the young one’s always cause us pain”  
but his dad asked me honest
sat at my kitchen table
said his boy was no good as a fisherman’s son  
“gets seasick. Hopeless case. But he can work, he works real good”  
 
so I said ok  
broke my rule  
hired a seventeen year old  
and for two years the men have come to love him  
 
cheeky  
fast learner  
good with the girls  
usually got a try every rugby game he played  
 
for men working away
he was our collective son
one of us
 
we all loved the stories  
his latest fuck-up  
his latest women-troubles  
his latest reason why he was late to work again  
 
I remember the day we wrapped him in our jackets  
when that power lead was faulty  
and it belted him lifeless in the heaving rain
remember the men helping lift him in to the ambulance  
and I sat in the hospital until his father came  
had to meet him at the steps  
 
by then I knew the young bloke would be ok  
but still  
to meet a boys father at the hospital gate  
is tough work  
 
and then his mother arrived  
angry at him  
at me  
at his father  
at all of us  
so overcome with the worry of it  
and we all got out of there  
while she tore strips off the young bloke
him in the hospital bed  
“what the fuck were you thinking”  
while he smiled his shit-eater grin  
hands burned black by the shock he'd got  
 
two years of that
the good and the bad
boy becoming a working man
one of us
 
proud of him
 
and then the call late last night  
 
he’d worked a half day yesterday  
scored two tries in the game later that afternoon
(we'd have heard about that all fuckin' week)  
 
he must have been feeling fine  
a weeks pay in his pocket
and just signed on with us to come to the next big job  
 
got drunk  
drove himself from the rugby club  
to the pub  
 
it’s about 1 mile  
 
hit a pole  
and it ended right there  
 
 
 
 
so I took the call  
and then started to make all the calls I have to make  
lot of our men off on leave  
a lot already off the job too
and the right thing
is to try to beat the grapevine  
when the fruit it bears is bad
 
dialing numbers in the dark
remembered the line about why I never hire the young ones  
sat down  
gave old salt  
to new wounds