Hide & Seek - Alyssa Brugman [42]
You line up to get on, thinking it will be fun, watching other people screaming and laughing. You pick a car and wait for it to start, then you're whirling and laughing and feeling sick in the stomach. At the back of your mind you worry that it's not really safe – that the operator will have forgotten to attach that one simple pin or bolt and any minute the whole thing is going to come flying off spinning in the air and crashing in a spectacular spray of metal and bones. Then it stops and you're stumbling out the exit gate feeling giddy, elated, relieved, and a bit short-changed.
Shelby's mum poked her head around the door. 'Dinner's on the table.'
'I don't want any.' Shelby rested her forehead on her arms.
'Yes, you do. It's pasta – your favourite.'
Shelby stood up, wiping her eyes. 'I'll have it in my room then.'
'There's no eating in your room. You know that. You'll sit at the table and eat with your family.'
Shelby stared at her mother. 'Did you hear what my father said to me?'
Her mother smiled and gave her a hug. 'You know he didn't mean it like that. You are becoming quite the little miss, aren't you? Come and eat up. Things always seem better when you have a full tummy.'
Shelby followed her mother down the hallway. She sat at the table and waited for her father to serve her a plate of pasta.
Connor pulled off half the loaf of garlic bread and put it on his plate.
'Don't you want to share that?' his mother chided.
Connor rolled his eyes and tore the bun in two. He handed the soggy, squished portion to his brother, who shoved the whole lot in his mouth, which then was too full to close. Blake's eyes became very wide as he tried to chew the mass.
His mother frowned. Connor laughed, and then Blake coughed, scattering globs of half-chewed bread on the table in front of him.
'Blake!'
'I didn't mean it!'
'I won't be coming to live with you up the coast anyway,' Shelby announced. 'Keisha asked me to join the trick riding troupe. We're going to travel around western New South Wales for the winter – out to Broken Hill and then back again. Zeb said Blue was the best trick riding horse he had seen. They're going to teach me on the road. We're going to be the grand finale.'
'Hang on a sec. Who is Zeb? I thought it was Chad!' her father asked.
'He's one of the circus performers.' Shelby's mother explained.
'Circus performers? Trick riding?' asked her father. 'Explain to me what that is quickly, because I'm having visions of you standing on the top of a horse, or jumping off, or hanging off the side while the horse gallops around,' her father said.
'That's basically it,' Shelby agreed.
'And you didn't think to mention this in the car this afternoon?'
'I did! I told you Keisha asked me to join the troupe, but you were all obsessed about Diablo being stolen.'
Her mother shook her head at her husband. 'That is so yesterday, my love.'
'I said I would go away and learn how to drink unsupervised. Remember?' Shelby reminded him.
'I assumed you were joking!' he replied.
Shelby had been, at the time. She still wasn't serious about it – at least she didn't think she was – but this was a good opportunity to send the trick riding idea out there and see what happened.
'You already know how to drink, silly!' Blake said, perplexed.
'Special drinks, darling,' his mother explained. 'You won't be doing any drinking!' she warned Shelby. 'I think we should start this conversation again from the beginning.'
Blake was still frowning. 'Even if it was a special drink, wouldn't you just put it in your mouth and swallow?'
'You feel you're qualified to give lessons on ingestion, Mr Garlic-Bread Fountain?' asked his dad.
Connor laughed so hard he got the hiccups.
'Keisha came up to me in the Gully today and said they had changed their mind about me. They have shows booked all around the state and they want me to come along. Maybe. If I turn out to be good enough.