Shine by Candy Gourlay

Author:Candy Gourlay
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781448152667
Publisher: Penguin Random House Children's UK

20

MY HEART WAS an atom bomb. It detonated in my chest, phwoom, its mushroom cloud straining against my breastbone.

I couldn’t breathe. But I kept running, the cold sweat burning my back, the tears streaking down my face.

As if in sympathy, the skies opened again. But this time it was like God had tipped a great bathful of water onto the Earth in one great gush. The skies poured on and on, harder and harder. By the time I’d struggled my way up to the house, there was a steeliness to the rain – it slashed at me like talons, the water cascading over my face and up my nostrils.

I stopped at the house, leaned my head on the breeze-block wall. Closed my eyes.

You coward, Rosa.

I tried to picture Mother walking slowly up the slope of the beach. Picking her way through the sand, her skirt blowing about her, arms held out gleaming in the street light’s glow, hair whipping in the rising wind, the voices in the sea muttering louder and louder. I imagined the disappointed phantom, alone on the sand, one hand raised towards her unfaithful daughter. Why are you running, Rosa? Don’t you love me?

It’s unkind to summon the dead, Yaya kept telling me. And how I had mocked her. Ha-ha! You’re just scared, Yaya. Scaredy cat!

Well, the last laugh was on me because now I was scared too. Now I understood what Yaya meant. Now I knew what it was like to be afraid.

I splashed my way up the rest of the path to the front door.

It was only when I was standing there, staring at the brass lock that I realized. I didn’t have a key. But then there was a whirring noise and I became aware of a tiny pin-light of red above my head. Father’s security camera.

The door swung open and I shrank back as Father loomed, his face contorted with anger.

But he pulled me quickly into the house, slammed the door shut and wrapped his arms around me.

He hugged me so fiercely I swear I could feel my ribs creaking. I felt a wetness trickling down my neck and realized he was crying. And if I hadn’t been so shaken I would’ve laughed. Aren’t you being a bit over the top, Father? But he made me feel better, he made me feel safe . . . so I just let him hug me until he held me away and began to rant in a hoarse voice, his eyes raw and red.

‘You can’t do that, you can’t just leave the house without telling us! I thought something terrible had happened to you. I thought you’d been taken—’

Taken? What was he talking about? Taken by whom? I signed.

I felt like all the blood had receded from my face and I could hear my teeth chattering. I must have looked a fright. But Father was so engrossed in his own upset he looked right through me.

‘Taken! Or hurt! Or mugged! Or—’

I threw my arms round him, pressing my cheek against his.

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.