Date: Sun, 3 Dec 2006 07:40:31 +1300
From: Kiwi <canned-heat@hotmail.com>
Subject: Flight of the Toucan - pt.2

Toucan flew. Toucan ruled! He was loud and funny and rude and controversial
and his audience grew larger every night. The Warwicks were delighted; they
were on to a winner. (He was a nice kid too - off air.)

His life at school didn't change. He was still quiet and shy and largely
ignored, but for two hours an evening, three nights a week, he was Toucan
and he ruled.

The rumors flew around the town. Toucan was a woman! No he wasn't. Of
course he wasn't. He was a stud. He was a big-city radio jock on the run
from the law. He was an old man in a wheelchair. He was a kid, a crippled
kid. Crippled and blind, but with a great voice and personality. He was a
retired rock-star. He was Toucan and he was a star, and the legends grew in
the telling.

Before long, Toucan was the best known unknown in town and everyone who
listened to the radio was listening to him. His Friday night show was
extended to midnight, and he began broadcasting on Saturdays as well -
7pm., to midnight.

He tried to talk to everyone who phoned in, but the lines were running
hot. Colin Warwick, noticing how busy he was, started coming in to take
some of the pressure off him. Then he brought some of his other staff into
the secret and made sure that someone was always working the panel when
Toucan was on the air.

Largely on the strength of Toucan's success, Westpoint Community Radio
expanded.  They linked up with other community stations and began
broadcasting Coastwide. This necessitated a change of name and they became
West Radio - All over the Coast. (In later years, when they began
broadcasting in FM, they became West FM - The Voice of the Coast.) And they
never looked back.

Soon after Toucan started flying, a game of cat and mouse developed and
everyone entered into the fun. Some people, especially nosy teenage girls,
were determined to find out who Toucan really was. Robbie, the Warwicks,
their staff and his family were equally determined that they would not.

Various strategies were tried, including hiding him in a back room, for
hours, while the late-shift DJ lied that, "Toucan has left the building."
They tried bundling him up and smuggling him out by car. That didn't work;
other cars were soon waiting to give chase.

Robbie, officially, got at job as a cleaner at the newspaper offices to
explain his presence there. This got him noticed at school, but they soon
gave up when he claimed not to know who Toucan was. But, some people still
wondered.

The best solution they found was for Robbie to stay at home and not come
into the studios at all. Technical staff converted his garden shed into an
outside broadcasting unit.  Telephone lines were laid on, and he did his
shows from there with a technician on the panel at the radio station.

One day the most unlikely rumor of all started, but it soon died as people
laughed it off.  The quiet outsider, Robbie Keenan, couldn't possibly be
Toucan could he? No. That was ridiculous.

This short-lived rumour had one lasting result. Bryce Hartigan noticed him
again and he started watching Robbie even more closely. Could it be true?
Well, could it? He was sure that there had to be more to this quiet, shy
and unobtrusive, (and very cute!), boy.  Appearances could be deceiving,
Bryce knew that for real. Everyone thought that he was really good-looking,
every girl's dream, but when he looked in a mirror, that was not what he
saw.

Bryce Hartigan was good-looking. Okay, he was really good-looking, but that
was only on the surface. On the inside, where only he could see, he was
ugly. Ugly, lonely and probably gay.  No-one knew that, but he did. He was
alone, scared and gay - probably.  Dammit!

Robbie Keenan? Toucan? Well, why not?

He watched him closely, from a distance. Robbie was always alone, but
seemed to be happy with it. The only time Bryce had tried talking to him,
he'd run away. Now he just watched him. Robbie always seemed to be outside
every group, always standing in the background, just watching what was
going on.

Every night when Toucan was on the air, he always had lots of the latest
gossip. Gossip, jokes and stories that only someone who was there would
know about.

Bryce watched Robbie watching and he wondered. Robbie went to school and
that was it - he went to school and then he went home, nowhere else, not
even the Square. He was a real loner.

The more he watched, the more he liked the kid. He was very cute. How come
no-one ever noticed that? He'd really like to make a friend of Robbie
Keenan, but he didn't know how to. Every time he approached him, Robbie
walked away.

He wouldn't want to know Bryce anyway, not if he knew what he was really
like. Life's a bitch sometimes.

Toucan was flying high and West Radio was spreading its wings. The link-up
was completed and they were going to start broadcasting, 24/7, to
Brownsville, the largest town on the Coast. Colin Warwick called a meeting
of all the staff and, when they were assembled, handed over to his wife,
Linda.

"Okay. Listen up people. This is my show. Well, it's everybody's really,
but I got stuck with the job of organizing it, so here's what we're going
to do -"

On the Saturday, West Radio was live on air, broadcasting from
Brownsville's annual Industries Fair at the Victoria Raceway. They
broadcast all day, but the eagerly awaited climax was on Saturday evening
when, during a live concert of local bands and artists, all of the
announcers and DJ's of West Radio would be live on stage. That is ALL of
the DJ's, including the mysterious and never-seen, Toucan.

That announcement caused a bit of a sensation, and it seemed like half the
kids in Westpoint made the hundred-kilometer pilgrimage to Brownsville to
see Toucan live on the stage.

The radio jocks, five of them, four guys and one girl, came out on the
stage one by one.  They introduced themselves and spoke about their regular
shows and timeslots on West Radio. Finally, two of the guys carried a
small, cloth-covered table out to centre stage.  The girl, Lise, brought
out a wooden-box speaker shaped like an antique radio. She placed it on the
table and stood back, announcing.

"Last but not least, we have the latest addition to our staff - the man
without a face.  Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you - Toucan!"

She switched the speaker on and stepped to the side as Toucan's distinctive
theme song began. "I love Rock and Roll, put another dime in the jukebox
baby. I Love Rock and Roll, put another dime and dance with me."

He introduced himself, "Hello Westpoint. Good evening West Coast and
Hellooo Brownsville. Toucan talking to ya."

He continued talking about his show, the timeslots, requests, dedications,
give-aways and the music, always the music. As expected, the crowd was
disappointed by the faceless voice on the speaker, and they grew restless.

Mutterings grew and booing started. "Fraud."

"Gyp."

"We want Toucan. Where is Toucan?"

Mrs. Warwick had planted protestors in the audience but they weren't needed
as the whole crowd soon took up the chant. Clapping and stamping, they
began chanting with one voice.

"We want Toucan. We want Toucan!"

The sound grew louder and louder. Objects, fruit and stuff, were being
thrown at the speaker on the table. It looked like a fully-fledged riot was
about to break out.

"We want Toucan. We want Toucan."

Two of the DJ's lifted up a screen - a white bedsheet attached to
poles. They held it up in front of the table and the speaker and flying
objects bounced off it. All the lights on the front of the stage went out
and the lights behind it came up so that all that was visible was the
brightly back-lit screen and the silhouetted shadow of the table and
speaker.

The noise didn't stop. It just got louder and louder until it was suddenly
cut off by a super-loud and penetrating "Screech."

"Screech, screech screech!" There was an outburst of applause and cheering
as the shadow on the screen moved. The silhouette stood up, wide wings
lifted and spread and the head turned sideways to reveal the shape of a
huge parrot's beak, and a toucan stood before them.

The faux wings dropped away, the head was lifted off and discarded and the
shape of a slender teenage boy was revealed on the screen. His arms lifted
out to the sides again, with his fingers splayed out. He turned a couple of
slow circles and he screeched.

"Toucan. Toucan! Toucan!! Away with the crud." And he danced and sang as
music played.

"Just give me some more of that Rock and Roll music."

Now the crowd whistled and cheered as the shadow danced and sang along with
the Beatles. The song finished and the boy cried out, "Toucan. Toucan!
Toucan!! That's it folks."

He bent over and folded into a small square again, The DJ's dropped the
sheet, the lights came up, and there was nothing there but the speaker on
the table. Lise lifted the speaker up and carried it away. Ivan whipped the
cloth off the table with a flourish and Jerry picked up the spindly-legged
table, held it above his head and walked away leaving the brightly-lit
stage empty.

Mr. Warwick came out, a microphone in one hand and waving with the
other. "That's it, Folks", he announced. "Toucan has left the stage. If you
want more, listen to West Radio.  Toucan flies Wednesday, Thursday, Friday
and Saturday nights, 7pm., until late, on West Radio - all over the Coast."

He left the stage, the lights went out and music played - "Dance on."

And they danced. A dance party went on into the night and it was still
going as Mrs.  Warwick drove Robbie home to Westpoint.

"Don't you wish, Robbie, that you could just go out and join them? To be a
kid in the crowd, dancing and having fun?"

"No. Not really. No-one would want to dance with me anyway. I'm a loser,
but for a few minutes there I was the King of the World. I was Toucan,
everyone was looking up at me and nothing beats that."

"I don't know, Robbie. It's all a bit of fun, but I think that if I was
your age, I'd rather be out there having fun with the rest of the
kids. You're only young once and it doesn't last long. Don't waste your
youth, that's all I'm saying."

"Thanks, Mrs. Warwick, but I'm not. I'm doing the best that I can. When you
were a kid I'm sure that you would have had lots of friends. You must have
because you would have been gorgeous. I'm not. I don't have friends, none
at all, but I can be Toucan."

"You're wrong, Robbie. Really wrong. You could make friends; you don't have
to be Toucan. You could just come on air and say, "Hey, I'm Robbie Keenan."
People would still want to know you."

"No, they wouldn't. Toucan is popular because nobody knows who he is. He's
just a voice on the radio so they all have their own idea of what he's
like. Nobody wants to know Robbie Keenan. He's just a loser."

"He's not you know. Far from it. You're a great kid, Robbie. You're bright
and smart and really good-looking too. You went out and got yourself your
own radio show. How many other fourteen year-olds have done that? And you
do it and people listen and they love it.  Don't sell yourself short,
you're a great kid. You rock."

"Toucan rocks, it's not me. Hell, it's not even an original idea, I stole
it from the movie."

"Robbie, shut up. If I was fourteen again, I'd rather get to know Robbie,
not Toucan. Any day."

"Mrs. Warwick, let's both shut up."

Bryce knew. He stood in the crowd at the Brownsville racecourse. He watched
the shadow dancing up on the stage, and he knew who it was. Toucan was the
same boy he'd been watching for weeks. No doubt about it. He didn't know
how he knew, but he did.  Toucan was Robbie Keenan.

He had no intentions of blowing his secret; he wouldn't do that to him. He
didn't even dare dream that Robbie could be a pervert like himself, but he
really liked him and he wanted to make him his friend. If he could. If he
wanted to. If only he'd stop running away from him.

How could he use this information? Blackmail?  No, of course not. You can't
blackmail someone into liking you. He knew that there was more to this kid
than met the eye.  Beneath that quiet exterior, Robbie was a really cool
guy. Robbie rocked. 'Rocking Robbie on the Radio.'

Well, one thing was for sure, Robbie knew everything that happened on
Toucan's show.  Of course he did, Robbie was Toucan. There must be some way
he could use that.

Monday morning at school, everyone was still talking about Toucan's
appearance on Saturday night. A lot of the theories had been killed by his
standing up on the stage. He couldn't be an old man, or anything else
either. Toucan was a kid and not a crippled one either.

Still, some people refused to give up their favorite fantasies. Maybe that
wasn't really Toucan. Maybe that was some kid pretending to be him. No!
They all heard him, didn't they? Ah, but, was that really his voice? Maybe
Toucan was off-stage, talking into another mike. How did they do that trick
with the table anyway? There was more to this than meets the eye.

Indeed there was, Bryce smiled to himself. He didn't wonder who Toucan was,
he knew who he was. And he thought that, maybe, he was falling in love with
him too. Bryce walked away from his friends and he went looking for Robbie.

He'd almost given up when he finally found him. He was sitting on the steps
at the back of the library, with his sister, Liz, (his gorgeous sister,
Liz), her current boyfriend and another girl - Rebecca Bangs. ("And she
does," was a favorite joke.)

She was sitting very close to Robbie. Too close - she was all over him, the
slut! She even had her feet hooked across his ankles. Rebecca was a "bad
girl" and she had a reputation as an easy lay. Men's Rooms all over town
had the message written on the walls. "If you want a good time - Rebecca
Bangs."

When he saw them, Bryce was totally dismayed. So that was how it was?
Robbie Keenan was not like him, he was straight. Just another horny,
straight boy and he was going to bang Rebecca like so many others before
him.

They were talking about Toucan, of course, like everyone was. Or, rather,
Rebecca was talking and the others were listening to her.

"I've figured it out, it's obvious. Toucan is like the Wolfman, you know,
in that movie.  Whoever he is, he's a completely different person to who he
is on the radio. I'm going to find out; Jack Swan's working at the radio
and he will know who Toucan is. He'll tell me.  I'll make sure he does. I,
like, totally love Toucan you know."

'If only you knew. You've got your hands all over him.' Bryce turned to
walk away, but he looked back and something happened that would change his
life forever.

Robbie looked up at the movement and their eyes met. He rolled his eyes,
made a little shrug, and flashed a small, embarrassed grin at Bryce.

He got the message. Robbie was telling him that he really didn't want to be
there. He was uncomfortable and he wasn't interested in this cheap girl who
was all over him. Great!  Bryce beamed his happiest smile back at him, but,
unfortunately, Rebecca saw it and she got the wrong idea entirely.

"Bryce Hartigan," she simpered. "Hello cutie. How's the best-looking boy in
Westpoint?"

"Umm. I'm good, Rebecca. Catch you later" Bryce fled.

'You're not eating me, Maneater.'

'Robbie doesn't want to be with her. He doesn't. Maybe, just maybe, there's
hope for me yet. He smiled at me. Well, it was a grin, but it was for
me. Definitely for me. I love you, Robbie Keenan. I want you, I need you, I
love you. But am I ever going to get you? No, probably not. But that won't
stop me from trying.'