Juno of Taris by Beale Fleur

Author:Beale, Fleur [Beale, Fleur]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9781869795269
Publisher: Random House New Zealand
Published: 2010-12-01T06:00:00+00:00

In the morning, my parents looked as if they’d hardly slept. Mother said, ‘It’s Friday.’ Shaving day. As if I didn’t know. ‘We ask you to continue to comply.’

‘We think it’s best,’ Dad said, ‘for you, for our family and for the community.’

‘Promise us.’ Mother’s voice was urgent.

So much for listening to the grandparents. ‘I promise,’ I said. I snatched Hera up and headed for the door. ‘I promise to comply – for today.’

Silvern was waiting and fell in beside us. I slowed to a walk. She rubbed a hand over Hera’s hair. ‘Hello, pretty bubs. Your sister’s grumpy today. You’re grumpy today.’ She tickled her under her chin and Hera stopped yelling to gurgle at her. ‘I know what’s wrong with you. You want lovely long hair. You don’t want to be a bald little bubs, do you?’

I risked a question. ‘Do you really want to grow your hair?’

She stopped talking and we greeted Arsha on her way to the tannery, listened to some pathetic piece of news, smiled and went on. ‘Let’s run,’ Silvern muttered. ‘We’ll tell people we can’t stop or Miss Siren will go off again.’ We sped up, and Hera shrieked for the joy of hearing her voice bounce with the rhythm of our feet. ‘Sure I want to grow my hair,’ Silvern whispered. ‘I reckon every kid does. I hate being bald. It curdles my inner being.’

We slowed as we neared the schoolyard. I could hardly believe what she was saying. These words had come from Silvern? Silvern who was always so saintly, especially on shaving days? I stared, but this was definitely her – blue eyes, beautifully shaped brows … ‘Silvern, do you pluck your eyebrows?’

She laughed, and Hera copied her. ‘Of course.’

‘Do your parents let you?’ I surreptitiously checked again. Yes, this stranger had Silvern’s dimpled chin and delicate ears.

‘I don’t ask permission and I don’t tell them,’ she said serenely.

‘But – you’re always so good. You always comply. People never withdraw from you.’ I shook my head, stunned.

Her face grew serious and a little sad. ‘Yes, that was me. I don’t know what it is now, but it’s not comfortable like before. Mother says it’s hormones and I’ll get through it.’

I felt young, and not a member of the club. I didn’t have the excuse of hormones – I just didn’t ever feel comfortable. ‘Did they talk to you?’

‘About the hair?’ She pulled a face. ‘They talked all flaming night and started again first thing this morning. According to them, hair would make the walls of Taris split open.’ She glanced around, then whispered, ‘We need to talk about this. We can’t do anything about today’s shaving – we’ll just have to comply.’

‘What …’

But she hissed at me to be silent. Justa was glaring at us from the steps.

We went into our schoolroom. I kept Hera with me and plonked her down in the middle of the floor again. Too bad if Justa objected.

She didn’t. In fact, she hardly noticed Hera wriggling towards a brightly tasselled toy Pel had brought in for her.

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.