Hurt by Suzuma Tabitha

Author:Suzuma, Tabitha [Suzuma, Tabitha]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781446452134
Publisher: RHCP
Published: 2013-09-04T14:00:00+00:00

9

He is discharged the following afternoon and spends the next couple of days knocking around the house, bored, while his parents are at work and his brother at school. Consuela fusses around him like a pestering fly and he attempts to drown out her whine with day-time TV and naps on the living-room sofa. Lola is busy with the musical and so their interactions are restricted to late-night Skype calls and sporadic texts throughout the day. Every morning, however, with a look of confusion, Consuela hands him an origami crane from the letter box, the paper bird bearing only his name, its wings tightly folded around Lola’s message. Sometimes it’s a little anecdote from school, other times it’s a comment about her day. Just a few lines in that neat, slanted handwriting of hers, but always ending with something romantic, or an expression of her affection – anything from something as simple as I miss you to a declaration of something stronger.

Aaron, Zach and Eli have all been in touch, wishing him better. Perez has been calling him on his mobile two, sometimes three times a day, but Mathéo has just been letting it go to voicemail. He returns to the hospital for some tests and is almost relieved when he is told that normal service can resume. Normal service, except for diving – much to his father’s annoyance. The neurologist is clear, even gives him a copy of the medical report: training in the gym is fine, but he will need a good fortnight away from the pool – to keep the wound dry as much as anything else.

Mathéo texts Perez the news with some satisfaction. He pretends to be fed up when telling his parents, but deep down feels nothing but relief. He doesn’t want to think about the new dive, or anything to do with diving. Maybe now that he is being allowed time off he will be able to put some distance between himself and the horror of what happened in Brighton. Now that he’s remembered, he desperately needs to forget about it again, blot it for ever out of his mind, take it with him to his grave. No one can ever, ever know, or his life – his life will be over. He just needs to wipe his mind completely clean, wash the blood from his hands and return to something of his former self.

After seeing the specialist, he has to wait an agonizing six hours before he can speak to Lola. It’s the very last day of school and the final night of the show: he has specific orders not to call or text, in case the unimaginable happens and she forgets to turn off her phone. But after being parted for two days, and effervescent with the news that he will no longer be under Consuela’s surveillance or immersed in his usual intensive training schedule, he feels unexpectedly heady with freedom.

‘Meet me tonight outside the school hall?’ Lola sounds rushed but excited. ‘Promise?’

He laughs.

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.