As Far as the Stars by Virginia Macgregor

Author:Virginia Macgregor
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Published: 2019-02-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-Nine

17.54 CDT

It’s good to make progress, to feel the mountain disappearing under our feet. The trees start thinning the higher up we go and there’s a change in the air too, how it makes my head go lighter.

Leda keeps darting ahead of us or disappearing under bushes, chasing critters.

‘So, you were really fine with it, not going to school growing up?’ I ask.

‘We’re still talking about me?’

‘We’re not nearly done.’

‘FI,’ he whispers.

‘I’m just getting to know you. It’s what people do.’

‘Right.’

‘So, tell me, I’m interested. It must have been weird, having your dad as your school. Not going to classes with kids your age and stuff.’

‘It was all I knew,’ he says. ‘And Dad said I was lucky. That by travelling, I was seeing the world for real, not just in books. He said that I was going to “The School of Life”.’ He puts on a grand voice. ‘I guess I believed him.’

I realise that’s what I haven’t been able to put my finger on – that weird contradiction in Christopher, how part of him seems totally wise about the big world stuff, how calm he is, how he seems to let things float off him, stuff that rubs the rest of us up the wrong way, but how he’s totally clueless at the same time. Because, I guess he’s never had the chance to be a kid. To make friends. To have a crush on a girl and ask her out and then break up. All that mindless shit that takes up every waking minute of most of a kid’s life growing up.

And for a second, I kind of envy him.

‘That’s allowed – travelling around rather than going to class?’ I ask.

‘Dad had to prove that I was following a curriculum, covering the basics – but as long as that was in place, it was fine.’

‘And did it work? Your Dad’s philosophy? Do you understand life?’

‘What? You can’t feel the deep wisdom radiating off me?’

‘Yeah, I can, actually.’ I pause. ‘It’s just—’

‘It’s not enough, right? That’s what you’re thinking.’

‘No—’

‘I mean, what’s the point in learning to meditate with Tibetan monks if you can’t even talk to a girl.’

‘You are talking to a girl.’

‘Under duress.’

‘Really?’

‘No. Not anymore.’

‘Not anymore?’

‘It’s hard for me – at first. To make small talk. To walk up to someone and start a conversation.’

His shoulders slump and his pace slows, like his thoughts are weighing him down.

‘Was it hard starting school, after all that time?’

He nods but doesn’t look up.

‘A boys’ boarding school, you said?’

He nods again.

‘I’ve heard those can be rough. Dad went to one here in the States. He’s still scarred by the experience.’

‘It’s not that bad. They leave me alone, mostly. I’m lucky I joined in the sixth form; everyone’s grown up a bit by then. We get our own rooms. And if you do your work the teachers leave you alone too.’

‘So, you haven’t made any friends then?’

‘I’m not sure.’

‘What do you mean, you’re not sure?’

‘I sit next to people in class.

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