In Ecstasy by Kate McCaffrey

Author:Kate McCaffrey
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Juvenile Fiction/General
Publisher: Fremantle Press
Published: 2009-01-01T07:00:00+00:00

mia

After a big weekend I always found Tuesdays harder than Mondays. By Tuesday I’d bottomed out which left me feeling empty and flat. Nothing would lift me up, not even thinking about Lewis. It was easy to see everything negatively. I wanted to touch and feel thrilled but instead I felt empty and lonely, isolated from everyone as if there was a barrier around me that nothing could penetrate. I hated it.

‘Hi, Jordie,’ I said, leaning in the doorway of his room and watching my brother glue parts to his model aeroplane. He glanced up at me quickly, tongue sticking out slightly, then went back to his plane.

‘Whatchya doing?’ I asked, though it was obvious. I slumped on the end of his bed.

He had both hands tightly clamping a wing to his B52. I knew it was a B52 because the instructions—or destructions, as Jordie used to say—were spread out in front of him like a tourist map. I looked at the back of his head, bowed over in concentration, and I felt an overwhelming urge to touch him, like he was a little baby again, and I used to stroke the side of his face to help him go to sleep. The compulsion was so strong it surprised me.

‘I think it’s off,’ he mumbled.

‘What?’ I asked, startled by the sound of his voice.

‘The glue,’ he said, releasing the wing, which promptly fell off the body of the plane. ‘Bum,’ he said sharply.

‘Can I help?’ I leaned down and picked the wing up, looking for a reason to stay in his room. ‘If I hold it for longer it might stick. You can build another bit.’

He gave me a funny look but re-glued the wing and stuck it back in position, then gingerly passed it to me. I held the wing against the engine air intake.

‘It’s a long-range bomber,’ he said, holding high a brush tipped with green paint. ‘Originally designed to carry nuclear weapons.’

‘Really?’

‘Yeah.’ He applied quick brushstrokes to the tip of the plane’s tail. ‘I’m gunna be a pilot. But not a bomber one.’

‘Really?’ I said again, but this time the surprise showed in my tone.

‘Mia,’ Jordie frowned, ‘I’ve always wanted to be a pilot, since forever.’

I nodded as if I remembered, but truthfully I had no idea. I carried out my task carefully, making sure the wing was in the exact position Jordie had placed it in. The truth was, I knew very little about Jordie. There was a time I’d known him really well, in the months after Dad left. The two of us had stuck together. Sitting in his room reminded me of how I’d actually enjoyed his company, when we used to talk and he’d make me laugh. Suddenly I was overwhelmed with nostalgia. I suppressed the urge to cry and focused on my little brother’s animated face telling me the history of the B52.

‘Do you know one of its nicknames was BUFF?’

I shook my head. ‘Why?’

‘It stands for Big Ugly Fat...’ he dropped

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