Golden Boys by Sonya Hartnett

Author:Sonya Hartnett
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9781743484623
Publisher: Penguin Group Australia
Published: 2014-07-17T04:00:00+00:00

He could pretend it was a dream, but it wasn’t: he wakes, the next morning, craving the water. He knows he will go mad, a wolfman, if he doesn’t swim. Against his wishes he remembers the sight of his father stumbling onto his knees, and only the water can wash away such a hurting vision. After dinner he takes his towel and, without telling anyone, hurries up the road to the Jensons’. It is still light and will be so for a while longer, but he isn’t bothered by the dark. He will tell the Jensons to ignore him, he doesn’t need company or help, he will make himself as tiny an intrusion as possible: the important thing is that he swims. The hand he raises to the door is shy, but steely.

Bastian, in green pyjamas, opens the door and stares at him owlishly. ‘Hi, Bastian,’ says Syd.

‘Have you come for a play?’

He proffers his towel. ‘No, a swim.’

Bastian crinkles his nose. ‘I’ve got no one to play with.’

Syd’s noticed it already: the bikes aren’t here. ‘Where’s Avery and Garrick?’

‘I don’t know. They’re not my friends. They’re Colt’s friends.’

Syd nods. He shifts his weight. Bastian leans against the door. ‘So,’ Syd says finally. ‘Can I have a swim?’

Bastian smiles. ‘Only if you play first.’

Though he could kick himself for stooping to the demands of this half-boy half-guinea-pig, Syd instantly agrees. He follows Bastian through the house, passing Mrs Jenson in the kitchen. She is unloading a dishwasher that stands beside the sink, its sinewy pipe-arms reaching to the taps, huffing a burnt-smelling steam. ‘Hello, Syd,’ she says, and smiles her wilted smile. She always sounds tired, although she has only two children to look after, and a dishwasher.

There are worse things, he supposes, than being temporarily stuck in the playroom. The slot-car set is assembled on the floor, and it’s an inviting thing. ‘You be blue, I’ll be red,’ says Bastian, plumping down at the finish line with its tiny chequered flag. Syd tests the blue car’s fitness by pinning it to the track and pumping the control so the car screeches and wriggles. When he lets it go it shoots off like a bullet, launching from the track and whacking into the wall. Syd smiles with brute satisfaction but Bastian cries, ‘Oh no, not like that!’ and retrieves the car, blowing lint from its chassis. The child’s idea of racing, Syd is depressed but not surprised to discover, is to have the cars travel at such a speed that they not only stay on the track, but also never outstrip each other: when he eases pressure off the control and drives the blue car slower and slower, Bastian’s red car likewise slows, until they are trundling side-by-side around the course like miniature Sunday drivers in hats. ‘You do know what a racing car is, don’t you?’ he asks the child archly, and squeezes his control so the blue car powers forward, misses the corner, flies over Bastian’s knees and vanishes under a bookshelf.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.