Inbetween Days by Vikki Wakefield

Author:Vikki Wakefield
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: The Text Publishing Company
Published: 2015-08-21T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

‘You guys are early,’ I said through the door crack. ‘It’s only four. You told me half past.’ My hair was dripping. I had dressed for the dust in old denim cut-offs and a black tank top, but I hadn’t put on any make-up or packed an overnight bag.

Jeremiah and Roly were on the doorstep, grinning. Gypsy snuffled happily at their feet.

Roly groaned. ‘You don’t need much. We’ve got two tents and a full esky. If we don’t get there early we won’t get a good spot.’

‘Come in,’ I said and slid the door open. ‘There’s nobody else here. Have a seat.’ I gestured at the couch.

I hauled Gypsy away by her collar and grabbed some female flotsam from the couch and the floor. I threw it in the laundry sink without bothering to check whose it was. Trudy and I used to borrow each other’s clothing but, now that she was shrinking, she was inching closer to Mads’s size ten than my fourteen. Between the three of us, all messy, the house constantly looked like we were having a car-boot sale.

Jeremiah went straight over to the movies on the bookshelf. Roly spotted a photo album, sat down and spread it out on his lap.

‘Help yourself,’ I said.

I did my hair and make-up as quickly as I could. It was humid already—the oval would be packed and steamy. I threw some trackpants and a thin jacket into a bag and took the pillow and quilt from my bed. The moment the bed was stripped Gypsy began nesting on the mattress. The older she got the more she behaved like a human. I laid some newspaper down in the laundry and filled her food and water bowls. She wouldn’t miss me at all.

‘I was hoping for some bikini shots,’ Roly said, flipping through pages of photos. ‘But these are cool.’

I leaned over his shoulder. ‘These are old,’ I said. ‘Nobody in my family takes photos anymore.’

I squinted at a blurred shot of Trudy and me, aged around five and eleven, frozen in the middle of star-jumps on the trampoline; the two of us, skating on a homemade waterslide in the backyard; sticky fingers in a bowl of chocolate cake batter; Princess Leia bun-heads.

I snapped the album shut and put it back on the shelf.

I knew the photo on the last page of the album had a picture of us both, eleven and seventeen, scowling, turning away from each other. It was fitting: after that was ‘The Gap’. After that was ‘Trudy’s Adventures in Europe’ and ‘Jack-Missing-Trudy Years’ closely followed by ‘Jack Flying under Ma’s Radar’ and ‘Riding in Cars with Boys’.

Jeremiah had only reached the ‘L’ section of our vast movie collection.

‘Shall we go?’ I grabbed my keys and stood by the door. Resentment made my throat tighten.

Jeremiah took the pillow and quilt from me and carried them to the car. He had to stoop to get through the doorway. Roly jiggled around like a five-year-old.

‘Can I drive?’ I asked.

‘No!’ they answered at the same time.

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.