It was a genuine real deal Aboriginal boomerang and not one of those cheap touristy things . I was surprised by its size and weight and could well understand how it might knock a ninety pound kangaroo on its ass. My boss seemed quite knowledgeable and instructed me in great detail the art of throwing it properly.
“Make sure the tip is in the center of the palm and don’t let it go too early…go on, give it a go.” he urged.
“Are you kidding ?? this thing will drop out of the sky and kill someone.” We were after all looking down at cars and pedestrians eight stories below and I couldn‘t picture this going well.
“She’ll come back Mate…no worries.” he said with confidence.
And against commonsense I let it fly over that busy city thoroughfare to watch as it traveled with force loudly chopping its way through the city air. Suddenly at about forty yards it hooked up soaring high and left to arc its way back around to land back on our roof ten feet away.
“Holy shit…that was great!! I gotta try it again!” and so two more efforts brought the same results and by now even the boss was enthused.
“Ere…let me have a go.” he said taking the boomerang. Whoosh whoosh whoosh it sounded out as he let it fly with great force and it traveled even further than I could make it. But it never arced up high and it never hooked left….it simply bee lined it straight as a die to land irretrievably on a distant roof.
I picture that eventually a workman like myself will find himself up there on that roof and wonder just as I had…. how the hell a boomerang came to rest on top of an eighth story roof.
