Without Looking Back by Tabitha Suzuma

Author:Tabitha Suzuma [Tabitha Suzuma]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: RHCP
Published: 2009-05-06T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eight

DAD GOT THE job and started work on Monday. He had managed to arrange it so he would only go into the office in the mornings, then work from home in the afternoons. That way, he reckoned, he would be back not too long after they got up. On Monday morning, however, Louis woke at the sound of Dad’s alarm. He found himself listening out for the sounds of his father getting ready – the shower, the radio, the kettle, the toaster, and eventually the click of the front door and the sound of the car starting up outside. Louis got up to pee and, from the bathroom window, watched the blue Peugeot bumping its way slowly along the dirt track under a hazy morning sky. Then the car turned and shot off down the main road, disappearing from sight.

Millie was up too, still in her nightdress, stirring chocolate powder into a bowl of milk and cereal at the kitchen table, creating some kind of revolting paste. ‘What are we going to do while Dad’s at work?’ she asked him.

‘I dunno.’ Louis shrugged, putting on some toast. ‘Ask Max.’

‘Ask Max what?’ came a voice behind them, and Max entered wearing only his jogging bottoms, stretching and yawning loudly.

‘Ew,’ Millie complained. ‘You’re getting hairy armpits.’

‘Shut up,’ Max said lightly. ‘It’s going to be a scorching day today. I heard it on the weather forecast.’

‘I’m going to wear my new summer dress!’ Millie announced happily.

Max helped himself to the toast from the toaster. ‘That’s mine,’ Louis protested.

Max sent the smaller of the two pieces spinning across the table. ‘Stop being such a baby.’

Spreading butter on his remaining piece of toast, Louis said, ‘We could go swimming.’

‘What? I’m not going all the way to Windermere leisure centre.’

‘I meant swimming in one of the lakes,’ Louis said.

Millie’s eyes widened.

Max looked at Louis suspiciously. ‘Which lake?’

‘Any lake,’ Louis said. ‘There are loads of them.’

‘I want to swim in the lake!’ Millie announced.

‘Shut up,’ Max said. ‘You’ll drown.’

‘I can swim!’ Millie protested loudly. ‘Louis, please can I come?’

‘We can all go,’ Louis said.

Max hesitated. ‘We don’t have any swimming trunks.’

‘We can wear shorts.’

‘What about me?’ Millie demanded.

‘You can swim in your knickers. There’ll be nobody around.’

Max grinned. ‘OK, let’s do it!’

They packed their rucksacks with towels and a change of clothes, locked up the house and went over to the barn to fetch their bikes. Even though it was only ten o’clock, the sun was already high and bright in a cloudless sky. They set off slowly, Millie wobbling precariously on the uneven track. Louis led the way, and once they got out onto the road, they picked up speed, Millie crowing in delight. A warm breeze lifted Louis’ hair as he stood up on his pedals, and for the first time since the seaside, a feeling of well-being rushed through his body. As the road began to steepen, his breathing quickened and the back of his T-shirt stuck damply to his skin. He glanced behind him to make sure that Max and Millie were still in sight and then pressed on.

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