At the Lake
Page 15
I have to tell Jem how sorry I am, Simon thought urgently. I don’t want to be horrible to him any more.
Ah wanna cross the bridge to someplace else.
I wish I could talk to Rosie about it …
And Barney. Simon’s face went hot every time he remembered Barney’s anger, and — even worse — what he had said about not knowing if he could trust him any more.
You can! You can! Simon cried silently in anguish. Oh, please give me another chance! Both of you!
Did the song say anything about how you changed things? It was silent about that. Simon would have to work it out for himself.
Just before lunch Barney dropped in. Simon’s heart lurched: he hadn’t been alone with Barney since the accident; there had always been other people around.
Barney pulled up a chair opposite Simon’s.
‘Hey, you’re dressed and up!’ exclaimed Barney. ‘That’s progress. How are you coping with one leg and one arm in plaster?’
Simon said something in response, but he was actually thinking about how to start the real conversation with Barney — the conversation about what had happened at the rock.
‘Barney!’ His voice sounded funny. He didn’t know what to say next.
Barney’s face turned serious.
‘Barney, I …’ Still the words wouldn’t come.
He opened and closed his mouth a couple of times. This was awful! There was no easy way into what he wanted to say. He leant forward tensely, his knees almost touching Barney’s.
‘Please give me another chance! You can trust me! I want to get along with Jem. I want to care about him — like Rosie with Tommy. I don’t want to turn into someone like Squint Lewis.’ He stared imploringly at Barney.
‘I hate what I did at the rock. Why did I do it? Jem’s never mean to me — or anyone else. I kind of depend on him being friendly whatever I do or say — and after the rock he wasn’t for a while.’
Simon took a deep breath and rushed on: ‘When I was trapped in the wardrobe and I heard his voice, I wanted to cry, y’know. I wanted to … like … hug him. He was just so … staunch, all the way through.’
He stopped. Would Barney say anything?
‘You were both staunch all the way through,’ Barney said quietly.
‘For someone of eleven, he’s pretty amazing,’ Simon went on.
‘Yes,’ said Barney, ‘he is; and you’re pretty amazing for a boy of fourteen. When Jem told us what Squint Lewis was doing to you, I realized you’d been under a lot of pressure. I knew something was going on, but I had no idea how bad it was. I don’t think that’s the whole story about why you bullied Jem, though I think it made you more inclined to be mean than friendly.’
‘I didn’t seem able to stop,’ said Simon. ‘But when I saw how Squint treated Rosie and Tommy and Mrs Lewis — I heard Squint hitting her when I was in the wardrobe — well, I thought that’s how I might turn out if I don’t change.’ He looked hard at Barney. ‘I want to change — I have to change. Will you give me another chance? And how can I ever make it up to Jem?’
Barney took his time answering. He took Simon’s hand between his own.
‘What happened at the rock, happened; you can’t undo it. But you can make amends. Why not talk to Jem the way you’ve just talked to me? It takes a lot of courage to be honest like that. I’m sure Jem will hear you out. It would be an important step to changing how you get along together.’ Barney’s face was bright with encouragement.
‘Will you give me another chance?’
‘Oh, Si, Si. Of course I will.’ Barney squeezed Simon’s hand.
Simon straightened his shoulders. He felt strangely light. For the first time in days he could lift his head and look into his grandfather’s eyes without hunching his shoulders. He smiled and Barney smiled back.
Before either of them could say any more, the doctor came through the door.
‘Hello, Mr Butler. How are you feeling, Simon?’
‘I need to get home! There are things I have to do!’
The doctor looked at him for a moment. ‘Something’s changed,’ he said. ‘You’ve decided to get going again. That’s great! Your body’s healing well, and there’s nothing to worry about with the head injury. I’ll talk to your parents tomorrow about going home in a couple of days.’
‘Why not tomorrow?’
‘Well,’ said the doctor, ‘we’ve had a request from Mr Quinn and his wife — that’s Rocco Quinn, the blues singer — they’d like to visit you tomorrow evening with Sophie. They want to meet you and Jem and thank you for what you did. I wasn’t sure you’d be well enough, but I think now you could handle it just fine. What do you think?’
Rocco Quinn! thought Simon. I can tell him how much I like his song.
‘Wow!’ he said. ‘Wicked!’
And then, like a snake’s tongue flicking in and out: Why should Jem get to see him, too? I’m the one who’s in hospital! Simon pressed his hand against his mouth. Did he think it would be easy, changing himself? Wanting to was just the beginning.
The doctor continued: ‘Three of the nurses on the ward want to change their shifts so they can be on duty when the Quinns visit.’ He smiled. ‘I hope the hospital can handle it! Better keep it under your hat.’
Simon imagined himself saying casually to the others at school, ‘Oh yeah, and Rocco Quinn dropped in to the hospital one night to say “Hi” — to Jem and me.’
Suddenly he felt as though he had turned the binoculars around and was looking at everything from the other end: instead of seeing blurry chunks too close, the picture was far enough away to be complete. It was a picture full of people, with Simon himself standing in the foreground pointing at the lake. I’m showing the others how important the lake is to me, thought Simon. It’s kind of like my guardian. It’s where good things happen, not bad. But if bad things start to happen, I have to fight them, even when I’m the one who’s doing them. Especially then, because that’s hardest.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I wish to thank Ian, Stephen and Rodney, Judy, Val and the late Kel for their encouraging and perceptive comments on early drafts; also Britton House Movers (WN) Ltd for allowing me to wander around their yard and take photos, and Pete for talking boats with me.
Copyright
Teachers’ notes are available online at
www.harpercollins.co.nz
HarperCollinsPublishers
First published in 2011
This edition published in 2011
by HarperCollinsPublishers (New Zealand) Limited
PO Box 1, Shortland Street, Auckland 1140
Copyright © Jill Harris 2011
Jill Harris asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publishers.
HarperCollinsPublishers
31 View Road, Glenfield, Auckland 0627, New Zealand
25 Ryde Road, Pymble, Sydney, NSW 2073, Australia
A 53, Sector 57, Noida, UP, India
77–85 Fulham Palace Road, London W6 8JB, United Kingdom
2 Bloor Street East, 20th floor, Toronto, Ontario M4W 1A8, Canada
10 East 53rd Street, New York, NY 10022, USA
National Library of New Zealand Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
Harris, Jill, 1939-
At the lake / Jill Harris.
ISBN: 978-1-86950-884-5
ISBN: 978-0-7304-9892-6 (epub)
[1. Brothers—Fiction. 2. Holidays—Fiction.]
I. Title.
NZ823.3—dc 22
Cover design by Mark Thacker
Cover images by shutterstock.com
books on Archive.