Mr Doolan said to write it up like an English assignment so here it is. Miss Phelan said I could count it for English if I put in paragraphs. There are paragraphs.
Before
The Wandoona Show is the second Saturday in August and this year I had Brutus in the Led Steer, 16 and Under. Brutus is a Droughtmaster cross, 14 months, 480 kilos, and I have been getting him ready since March, walking him, washing him, blowing him out, teaching him to stand square, the whole thing. He is a good steer. He is a really good steer. I want that on the record before the rest of it.
There were six of us in the class. I was third in line. The judge was a lady from Roma, which Mr Doolan says is “a pattern” but I don’t know what that means.
During
It was about 11:20. The judge had done the first two and was coming to me, and I had Brutus set up square, head up, and she was walking round the back of him with her hand on his rump, and I was looking straight ahead the way you’re meant to, at the grandstand, and the grandstand went bright.
Not like the sun. Like when they turn the lights on at the footy and you look straight at one. The whole grandstand just went white. And I remember thinking “oh no, not now”, which Mr Doolan says is the normal thing to think.
Then I was somewhere else.
I don’t remember going up. The others on the website all say they remember going up but I don’t. One second I was holding Brutus’s lead and the next I was lying on something cold and I was still holding the lead, but there was no Brutus on the end of it, just the lead, with the clip, and I remember being really worried about that, because that was the good lead.
There were three of them. Grey, short, massive eyes. One of them took the lead off me and looked at it and gave it to another one and that one looked at it and they both looked at me, like, what is this. And I said “it’s a lead” and they didn’t say anything and I said “for my steer” and they still didn’t say anything and I said “he’s in the ring, I have to get back, the judge is literally touching him” and nothing.
They did the thing. It was cold and it didn’t hurt and it took ages and the whole time all I could think about was that Brutus was standing in the ring with no one on the end of him and he doesn’t stand square unless you’ve got your hand on the halter. He drops his head. He’ll drop his head and the judge will think he’s got a weak front end and he hasn’t, he’s just relaxed.
One of them held up a little grey thing, like a stone, and put it near my ear, and I said “please, I’ll come back after, just put me back for twenty minutes,” and I actually think it understood me, because it stopped, and it looked at the other two, and there was this kind of pause like they were having a meeting without talking. And then it put the stone down and gave me back the lead.
After
I was behind the poultry pavilion. Standing up, holding the lead, with the clip. I ran. I ran straight through the middle of the dog high jump and across the back of the ring and in through the gate and the steward said “where the hell have you been” and I said “I don’t know” and he said “you’ve been gone forty minutes” and I said “is Brutus okay” and he pointed.
Brutus was standing exactly where I left him. Square. Head up. Mr Doolan’s wife, Mrs Doolan, was standing next to him with her hand on his halter, which she said later she did because “someone had to and he’s a nice animal”. The judge had done the rest of the class and come back to him. Mrs Doolan had told her I was “unwell” and the judge had said that was fine as long as the animal was presented.
They were doing placings. I walked in and took the halter off Mrs Doolan and she said “don’t say anything” and I didn’t.
Second. Brutus got second. The ribbon’s blue. First was a kid from Mitchell with a Charolais cross that honestly, and I’m not being a sore loser, had a weak front end, and if I’d been there I’d have stood Brutus up next to it so you could see.
What I think
Mr Doolan asked me what I think happened and I said I think I got abducted during the Led Steer and he said yes but what do I think, like, about it, and I thought about it and this is what I think.
I think they could’ve picked any time. They’ve got a ship. They can do whatever. And they picked 11:20 on Show Saturday, in the ring, in front of the judge, forty minutes exactly, which is exactly how long it took to do the class and the placings, and then they put me back. I don’t think that’s an accident. I think they waited. I think they knew about the class and they did it then on purpose so I’d miss it, and I don’t know why, and that’s the part I can’t stop thinking about. Like, what did I ever do to them. I’m sixteen. I’ve got a steer.
Mrs Mangan says they do it to see what you’ll do, and what I did was ask to go back, and she says that’s a good sign and they’ll remember that. Mr Doolan says it’s because Brutus is a Droughtmaster and “they’ve got a type”. Mrs Doolan says I fainted behind the poultry pavilion from the heat and she’s got no idea where the forty minutes went but I should drink more water.
I’ve still got the lead. It’s got a little mark on the clip now, round, like a burn, that wasn’t there before. Dr Faraday wants to look at it. I said he can look at it but he can’t keep it, because it’s the good lead, and I’ve got Brutus in the Hoof and Hook at Roma in October, and this time, I swear, I am not looking at the grandstand.
Tyler’s piece received a B+ from Miss Phelan, with the comment “vivid, well structured, but I’m not sure this meets the brief for a persuasive essay”. Tyler disagrees. Brutus is well.
Document U8MC-19-0311. Status: CONFIRMED. This file is retained indefinitely, or until the Men in Beige ask for it, whichever is never.