The next morning it was as if the experience at the old man's house had never happened, and neither Lee nor I mentioned it at all. For the next couple of weeks we spent the days loafing around at the coast, learning to surf, and spending our $500 on accommodation and drinks at various bars. I guess we just lost track of how much we were spending, until we paid for another week's accommodation at the hostel and realised we each only had a few dollars left.
"I guess we'd better start asking around for work at the employment agencies again?" I asked Lee.
"We haven't got any other option," he replied, the subtext clearly telling me that going back to the old man was not an option, not that I had considered it to be one either. And so the next day we didn't go to the beach as usual, but trawled round all the agencies in the city with copies of our CVs, asking for any work available. However, the story was the same at each one: not interested in backpackers as we were a risk, too many had done a few days work and then moved on to another city or town. No matter how much we tried to convince them that we were serious about staying for a few months to earn some much needed cash, no-one seemed willing to take that chance. But we didn't give up, and the next day we did the same thing, also asking in every hostel, bar, or shop we could find whether there was any work available. Unfortunately the response was always 'thanks, but no thanks'.
By the third day of job hunting we found ourselves once again down to a few remaining coins in our pockets and no way of paying for food or a bus ticket to the next destination on our itinerary. We'd both been refusing to talk about the only option which we knew would get us some more money, but things had once again become too desperate to bury our heads in the sand any longer, so I broke the silence:
"Lee, I think we have to consider going back to the old man. We'll hear him out first and then decide whether to go through with it again. What do you think?"
There was a long pause, and Lee wouldn't make eye contact with me. Eventually he spoke:
"Doesn't look like we have a choice, does it?" His tone was quite firm, as if I was responsible for the situation.
"Look, you've spent as much money as I have and if you can think of any other way of making some quick cash then speak up. Don't blame me about this for fuck's sake!" I replied; I wasn't proud of what we'd been reduced to having to consider to make money but I certainly wasn't going to be made to take the blame all on myself for it.
"Alright, let's go." Lee muttered, and we made our way back along the St. Kilda Road to the old man's flat.
We pressed the buzzer several times, but there was no response. "Perhaps this is a good sign," I said, and we turned to go. Just as we turned around the guy appeared from round the corner. I could tell that he didn't recognise us immediately, and I didn't want to have to explain who we were in order for him to remember us. I was also a bit pissed off that we hadn't been that memorable, did he do this a lot?
"Ah, boys! Good to see you again. What can I help you with?" Oh God, he was going to make us ask, how humiliating.
"Um...we were wondering whether you had any more work for us..." grudgingly, and after a pause in which he did not speak, I continued: "...please."
"Well, I'm not really looking for anyone at the moment. But, as you're obviously in need of help I'm sure I can find something for you to do. I'll pay $500 again, but that's between you rather than for each of you this time." His offer was half what he'd paid last time and I certainly wasn't going to degrade myself for the equivalent of about 100 quid.
"No way," I replied, and started to walk away, but Lee stopped me:
"Look mate, where else are we going to get any money from? At least this will give us enough to get a bus out of here and try to find work in Adelaide." I could see the logic of his argument; and I really wanted to say goodbye to Melbourne, and its memories.
"Okay, we'll do it." I told the old man, grudgingly.
"Good, excellent. But you'll both have to come back in a couple of hours I'm afraid. I'll see you here at 7 o'clock."
"Fine," I said, and Lee and I wandered off to try and kill a couple of hours.
The wait was awful; at least last time we hadn't been given time to think about it, we just went for it, did what we were told, and then forgot about it once we were done. Now, we had a couple of hours wandering around the city not talking to each-other and imagining all sorts of awful things he could make us do. Eventually we made our way back to his flat at 7 and were buzzed in to go straight up to his flat. He came out of the living room which sounded like he had the TV. blaring out, and led us through to his pokey little kitchen.