Reaction - Lesley Choyce [18]
“Life’s too short to miss riding in a gen-u-ine mint-condition 1962 LeSabre ragtop.” Dad points at the car as if he’s sending the kid to the principal’s office. “Now hop in, boy! I mean it.”
The kid looks at me for help. I shake my head. What can I do? When my father wants something, he gets it.
You can tell the kid’s worried there’s a hidden camera somewhere, but he shrugs and climbs in the backseat with Dad anyway. I slide in beside Colin. We take off with a screech.
Dad doesn’t tell Colin to slow down and doesn’t freak out when he comes a tad too close to a parked car. He just reaches over the front seat and cranks up the radio. The wind whips my hair over my mouth and eyes. Colin’s hat flies off. People on the sidewalk turn to watch us. We’re all hooting and laughing. It’s so perfect. It’s almost like we’re in a commercial.
This whole thing is Classic Dad. The surprise visit at the exact right time. The amazing car that may or may not have belonged to Elvis Presley. Letting Colin drive. Dragging a stranger along. Turning an ordinary Friday lunch period into something pretty close to a “life moment.”
So maybe it’s a bit on the flashy side. What’s wrong with that? Dad’s right. Life is too short not to enjoy it. I’m only seventeen, and I get that. Why doesn’t Mom?
I turn around and look at Dad. He’s making Tim or Tom—I don’t remember the guy’s name—sing the doo-wop part of some old rock-and-roll song. The fact that neither of them knows the tune doesn’t bother him at all. They’re hollering at the top of their lungs like two kids at a campfire.
It’s right then that I realize something.
I know how I can fix this thing.
I suddenly know how we can all be happy again.
Orca Soundings
The following is an excerpt from
another exciting Orca Soundings novel,
Rock Star by Adrian Chamberlain.
978-1-55469-235-4 $9.95 pb
978-1-55469-236-1 $16.95 lib
STRUGGLING AT HOME AND AT SCHOOL,
Duncan decides to try out for a local rock band. He plays the bass guitar in the school orchestra, but it is a long way from band camp to rock star. Joining a heavy-metal band, he tries to fit in, dumping his old friends and trying to walk the walk. When his dad’s new girlfriend starts to teach him about real rock music and introduces him to her musician brother, Duncan discovers that there is more to being a guitar hero than playing in a heavy-metal band.
Chapter One
After school I walk up the front steps of our house and head straight for the kitchen. I’m starving. There’s a peanut butter jar on the counter. But sure enough, someone’s used it all up. Empty. That puts me in a bad mood.
There’s almost nothing in the fridge. Some stuff that looks like dog food in a Tupperware container. Milk. Old celery. I grab the celery and take a bite. Ugh. All wilty and squishy. So I bend over and gob it into the garbage bin. This is disgusting and weirdly satisfying at the same time.
I’m still bent over the garbage when Dad calls me into the living room. “Duncan!” he yells. “Duncan!”
You’d think I was twelve or some-thing, not fifteen. I’m in grade ten.
School’s not my favorite thing, to tell you the truth. Mostly it’s boring. Some days I even hate it.
But one thing I do like is the school band. I play bass guitar. Sure, the songs are pretty lame. What do you expect from a big orchestra, with clarinets and French horns and all that stuff? But playing bass guitar is pretty cool.
It’s just me and Dad now. I don’t have brothers and sisters or anything. Mom died two years ago. She had cancer. It was quick. One day she sat down with me to tell me. She’d been sick for a while, and the doctors thought it was something else at first. I forget what. But then they figured out it was cancer. Six weeks later, she was dead.
“Duncan McCann! Can you come in here for a second?”
I stop gagging and stand there, motionless, like a video on pause. I thought the house was empty. Something in Dad’s voice sounds different. I remain still. I’ve got a pretty good imagination. If I pretend something,