Unpacking Harper Holt by Di Walker

Author:Di Walker [Walker, Di]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781760650643
Publisher: Walker Books Australia
Published: 2018-10-14T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 18

After school the next day, riding along the Beach Road bike track, Harper felt the cool breeze burning at her cheeks. Four days of school down and one to go before the weekend, and it couldn’t come fast enough. The past two days had gone by without incident, mainly because Rowena wasn’t there. It seemed to Harper that without Rowena around everyone was more relaxed. The other students were a bit chattier, a bit friendlier, a bit less on guard.

It had been seventeen days since the accident. Seventeen days since her real life had ended and she had begun living this painful new one.

The track was becoming familiar to her now that she had ridden it so many times. She had even started to recognise people she had seen several times, some with children, some walking dogs, some just walking.

There was one man, about the same age as her dad, she thought, who seemed to be jogging as often as she was riding. He wore the same jogging clothes every time, his orange fluoro running shoes easily identifiable from a distance. Even though he didn’t say anything to her, he gave her a nod of acknowledgement every time they passed each other. So did the woman who was power walking with her baby in a three-wheeled stroller and the couple who sat on the green bench just past the cafe. Every now and then she saw the woman running up and down the steps and her dog waiting patiently for her at the tree.

Harper didn’t know any of them personally, and they didn’t know her, yet they had formed this little community. Harper felt like she was accepted here on the Beach Road track. The girl on the bike.

As she approached the Beach Run Cafe, Sarah was once again on the deck, stacking the tables and chairs. Despite having seen Harper approach, this time she just kept doing her job. Harper slowed to a stop and got off her bike. She wheeled it over to the deck and stood near Sarah. She didn’t know what to say. She just stood. Sarah stopped wiping the table and looked at this young girl, who she had seen so many times now on her bike, sometimes riding so fast that she worried for her safety and the safety of the other regular track walkers. Today she seemed calm, like she needed to say something. Sarah broke the silence.

“Out for a ride? You like to ride. I see you nearly every day.”

“Yeah.” Harper looked at the ground in front of her. “You work a lot.”

“Gap year. This is my dad’s cafe. Uni next year. Hey, I’m sorry about the other day. I didn’t know.” Harper shrugged. Sarah continued, “We only heard about it a few days after the funeral, from one of your neighbours. I’m really sorry.”

This took Harper by surprise. She hadn’t actually thought about having neighbours. It hadn’t crossed her mind that people, here, on the track, were talking about her. She wasn’t sure how she felt about it.

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.