Call Me Lion by Camilla Chester

Author:Camilla Chester
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Firefly Press Limited
Published: 2022-12-15T00:00:00+00:00

13

It’s Friday morning, which means I have been friends with Richa for nearly two whole weeks. We’re over halfway through the three weeks of Just Jive. Ryan is walking us in and Richa is chatting on as usual, making us laugh. There’s no concertina bus this morning but a woman runs towards us pushing a double buggy with three wheels. I can hear her feet hitting the pavement and the sound of her breathing. The two noises combine into a steady rhythm. The woman is wearing white headphones and running gear. One of her kids is a baby and the other one is about two or three years old. He is pushing against the buggy straps, like he’s urging his mum to run faster. He probably wants some cool wind on his face, instead of all the heat.

‘Hi Ryan,’ the woman says. As she runs by, she pulls out one ear bud then waves a hand in the air at my brother.

‘Hey, Janine,’ says Ryan.

‘Two pm for weights session, right?’ The woman calls over her shoulder.

‘Yep. See you then.’ Ryan calls back then quickly whips out his phone. ‘Totally forgot about that,’ he tells us. He stops to open the voice memo app on his phone.

‘What’s that?’ asks Richa, looking over his arm.

‘This? You can record anything audio and it plays it back when you need it.’

Ryan uses the app to record a reminder to himself about the weights session with Janine and saves it, showing us how he does it.

‘What’s that one?’ Richa asks, pointing.

‘I’ve labelled them, so that I remember what they all are. You can read it if you like,’ offers Ryan.

‘The letters are too small,’ says Richa. ‘What does it say?’

She’s so casual about it and it makes me think of all the times she has had to cover up her secret. Ryan reads the label of the recording that Richa pointed out and laughs. ‘Maybe that’s not one for the ears of ten-year-olds. I’ll play you this one instead.’

Ryan presses play and the noises of the gym flood out of his phone into the hot air of the morning. You can hear the tinny music and the steady tread of the running machines. There’s some heavy breathing and straining and groaning noises. Then Ryan’s voice blares through it, drowning out the other sounds of the gym as he talks about a workout routine for one of his clients, a man called Dirk.

My mind starts to whir with the beginnings of an idea. Maybe there is a way I can help Richa learn to read after all. If only I can get hold of a phone. I think about Maryam, Scarlett and Tiffany all taking selfies on the first day of Just Jive. It’s annoying not having my own phone.

At the mention of burpees on Ryan’s recording Richa giggles.

‘Burpees,’ she says, making herself laugh again.

‘They’re a killer, burpees are,’ says Ryan with a straight face, stopping the recording.

‘Aahan’s are,’ says Richa, ‘especially after a pakora or two.

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