Paws, page 8
I’m not sure what Mum means exactly or what small wonderful things are. I try to remember all of Mum’s friends and the people who came round when Grandad died, but it was a long time ago and my memories aren’t very good.
“Bad things don’t last forever, and good always comes after bad, okay? You remember that.”
I nod, but I’m not sure if she’s right because I can’t think of anything good happening after a bad thing.
“Anyway, sweetie, maybe try to get some sleep, okay?” Mum backs out of the room. “I’ll let you off from brushing your teeth tonight, so long as you promise to give me all the biggest smiles and rest that leg.”
I nod and smile because I hate doing my teeth – two times every day! – and she smiles back with a small laugh before walking away, the soft padding of her bare feet disappearing down the hall until I hear her in the kitchen, doing all her usual cleaning up jobs before she sits down and watches TV until bedtime.
I rest back against my squishy pillow, my head sinking down and my achy shoulders and neck feeling better straightaway. Kevin lets out a big yawn and climbs onto my pillow, wrapping his body around my head, his face on my right and his tail curled on the left. I rest my hand on his back and close my eyes, thinking about Ryan’s face and Mum’s words and wondering if Derek caught the bus home again after school.
I lie in bed on my left side, looking at Kevin, who’s sitting by my bedroom door. His nose is pressed against it, low down near the floor, and it’s like he’s a toy, not moving, listening to all the sounds of the morning outside. I hear a scratch on the other side and then grumbling and a lazy woof that definitely came from Dennis. Kevin’s tail wags from side to side, brushing the floorboards, and he sniffs at the door, but I don’t get up to let him out because there’s a lot of pain in my leg and I have a headache.
The handle turns and my door opens and Kevin scurries back, claws tapping against the wood. Dennis waddles in gurgling and grumbling, which is his way of saying hello. I know he’s happy to see Kevin because his stumpy round tail is wiggling. He finishes saying good morning to Kevin and then flops past him and over to me, and he peeks over the side of the bed and licks his lips and gurgles a bit more.
“Morning, Dennis,” I whisper and then look up to see Ned leaning against the doorframe. I catch sight of the back of Kevin as he whips past Ned and down the hall towards the kitchen, probably for his breakfast.
“All right, Alex,” Ned says. “Can I come in?”
I nod and he enters, hands in the pockets of his school shorts. His hair is gelled over to the side again and even though my room is still dark with the blinds rolled down, I can see it shimmers from the hallway light shining behind him. He also smells the same as he did the other morning, but I don’t cough or say anything because Mum said we shouldn’t.
He stands by my desk looking at my underwater puppy calendar and he rubs one of his socked feet against his shin. “Not going in today then?”
I shake my head and then croak, “No.”
Mum came in earlier, when she first woke up and before she had her shower, and I was already awake because my head was hurting and there was too much sadness inside for me to sleep. She said I could have the day at home and that she’d take the day off so we could do fun stuff together, though I don’t really want to do fun stuff, even if it is the quiet fun stuff that Mum likes to do.
“Fair enough,” he says, still facing my calendar. “Does your leg still hurt?”
“Yep,” I answer, though at the moment, with it resting on top of my left leg, it feels okay.
“Bummer. I remember pulling a muscle in a football match once. Hurts for a bit but it’ll go away.” He turns and faces me, sitting back against my desk and I hope he doesn’t knock anything over because he’s done that before, though this morning he seems quite calm and I don’t mind him being in my room when he’s like this.
“What you gonna do today?” he asks, and I shrug because I haven’t thought about it, though I am hungry so I’ll probably have some breakfast first. “Fair enough,” Ned says again.
Dennis sits at Ned’s feet and then collapses onto his belly. He licks the floor between his front legs in big long licks that are the opposite of Kevin’s tiny quick ones. Ned runs a foot up and down over Dennis’s back.
“Dennis will keep you company, won’t you, you dork?” he says, but Dennis doesn’t look up or even stop licking the floor, which is gross. I wonder what he can taste.
The shushing of the running water in Mum’s shower stops, and the sound of music from the kitchen trickles into my room along with the singing of birds outside, and the smells of grass and trees and warm, fresh air, all through my open window.
“So, are you ready for the dog show on Saturday? Only two more days, right?”
I shake my head, not sure I want to talk about the dog show because for some reason that makes me think about what Jared said yesterday and the fact that I still haven’t completed Map 5 and that I still haven’t got any real friends.
“Why not?” Ned asks, his forehead creasing as he moves the edge of my blinds aside with a fingertip and peers out, sunlight drenching his face.
“Because I won’t win a trophy.”
“Why won’t you?”
“The bald man with the Dalmatian and all the other dogs like him.”
Ned sighs and looks back at me, shoving his hand back in his pocket. “Nah, don’t let that stop you from entering,” he says. “So what if baldy goes? You should still enter just because Kevin is awesome and you’ll have loads of fun.”
I stare at Ned, at his dark eyes and brown skin and hair, and shake my head. “But I need the trophy,” I croak, my throat dry and scratchy.
“No, you don’t.”
“I do,” I say, forcing the words out a bit louder because Ned’s wrong. I do need the trophy but I won’t win the trophy because Kevin isn’t good enough to win.
Ned shakes his head. “Alex, trophies don’t get you friends. They’re nice to have and, like, you remember how you won them, but Mum just gets annoyed at all the dust they collect and who wants that, right?” Ned smirks at me and I smile because Mum is always moaning about all the dust in the house and saying things like, “But I only cleaned this the other day.”
There’s a bang at the front door and Ned suddenly straightens and steps over Dennis.
“Ned,” I hear Mum yell from her bedroom further down the hall, and Ned rolls his eyes and shouts back “Yep”, which startles me a little.
“Oops, sorry Al,” he says and then comes over and ruffles a hand through my hair, like he used to do before Dad went to work in the mines. “That’ll be Mindy,” he says and his voice sounds quieter when he says Mindy’s name, “because Wilma’s giving me a lift to school today.”
I nod and wonder what the inside of Wilma’s Volkswagen is like and if it’s blue like the outside.
“Have a good day, right? And make sure Dennis doesn’t cause trouble.” He smirks again and then plods out of my room, grabbing his schoolbag and shutting his bedroom door. He shouts bye to Mum, but then Mum rushes from her room and past my bedroom door in a waft of flowery smells.
Dennis never causes trouble so I don’t know why Ned said that.
My leg and head hurt too much to sit up and peer out the window, but I listen to Mum and Wilma and Mindy’s voices all saying “Hello” and “No problem” and “My pleasure” and “Thank you” and then I hear Derek’s voice saying hi to Kevin and then asking how I am.
I want to shout out and tell him about my leg and my head and how I’m probably not going to go to PAWS any more and ask if he’ll show me how to complete Map 5, but I don’t, because my brain is still too tired and heavy. Mum tells him I’m still sleeping and not to worry and to pop over later, and then I hear lots of footsteps scuff and clatter on the driveway as all of them leave. I follow the sounds across the road and over to the car at number nine, and then there’s the thud of closing doors and an engine starting up and a motor purring as they drive away.
And then it’s quiet again except for the birds, and Kevin trots back into my room. He sniffs at Dennis, who’s now sleeping in the spot where Ned stood, and then bounds up onto my bed and snuggles in next to me, smelling of his biscuits.
I don’t stroke him because I’m too tired but also comfortable under my blanket, but he doesn’t seem to mind because sometimes we just like to be close to each other.
Mum’s flip-flops slap as she comes up the hallway and enters my room, her hair wet and curly from the shower. She perches carefully on the edge of my bed.
“Just me and you today, sweetie,” she says. I don’t nod and I also don’t correct her even though it’s Dennis and Kevin as well. “Movie?” she asks.
“No,” I whisper and close my eyes.
“Okay, you have some sleep then,” she says, and I feel her hand rest on my forehead and then brush through my hair. “We can watch movies when you’re ready.”
I lie still, breathing in Kevin’s dog smell and Mum’s birthday shower gel smell and the lingering scent of Ned, and I listen to Dennis as he starts to snore. I know at some point Mum stands and tiptoes from my room but I don’t care because I’m tired.
“Alex, you have a visitor.” Mum peeks in my door and I sigh and hit PAUSE on OrbsWorld to see who it is.
Kevin dashes in and leaps straight onto my bed without a sound, and as Mum steps aside, Derek appears round the corner, dressed in a plain white T-shirt and light green shorts, and I think about all the clothes in my drawers and closet and I don’t think I have any green clothes at all.
“Hey, Alex,” Derek says and then he pauses, one socked foot in my bedroom and one out in the hall. “Erm, is it okay if I come in?” he says, shifting his white hair out of his eyes with his fingertips.
“Course it is, sweetheart,” Mum says, placing her hand on Derek’s shoulder. As Derek enters, Mum leans in and says, “Derek’s mum and I will be having a cuppa in the kitchen if you need us,” and then she skips off, reminding me of some of the girls at school.
“Hi,” Derek says again, and I wonder why because he’s already said hello once.
“Hi,” I reply.
“Are you playing OrbsWorld?” he asks and sits on the bed next to me, dragging himself backwards until his back is leaning against the wall like mine. Kevin sprawls out in between us and faces the bedroom door. Derek stretches out his legs and crosses his ankles and I notice just how different the colours of our skin are.
Derek smells like a kitchen does when something yummy is cooking.
“Yeah, I just switched it on,” I say, and look back at my laptop screen, hitting PLAY and focusing again on choosing battle gear for my robot.
“Tunnels of Disaster and Doom?” he asks.
“Yeah,” I say, and I want to ask Derek if he can help me finish Map 5 but inside my body I feel a bit scared and I don’t know why so I bite my back teeth together and click on my rock-climbing boots and golden wing helmet for my robot.
“Cool,” he says.
I nod and enter the mud portal, which takes me underground to the tunnel entryways. The entries for Maps 1 to 4 are surrounded by a yellow glow, which proves I’ve completed them, and entry 6 and the Trade Fair portal are boarded up with planks of wood, which tells me I can’t go in yet.
In the middle is entry 5 and above it flashes READY? in big red letters.
I glance across at Derek but not at his face, though I can tell he’s looking at the screen. I want to ask him for help, but I still don’t, and I bite even harder on my back teeth.
“Are you feeling better?” Derek asks.
I nod. “Yep, my leg still hurts a bit but Mum’s been giving me painkillers and so my headache is better and my leg doesn’t hurt as much as it did this morning.”
“Cool,” Derek says again and I think this might be his favourite word. “What did you do today?” he asks.
“Erm, slept mainly, and erm, watched movies with Mum.”
Derek rests one hand flat on Kevin’s butt, and Kevin moves his head up off the bed and then sideways onto Derek’s shin. I hear a tick tick tick and glance down to see Derek flicking the nails of his thumb and pinky together over and over. “Kevin’s a cool dog,” he says. I nod and then Derek adds, “Jared was mean to you yesterday.”
My insides tighten, like I can’t breathe and I quickly think about the breathing techniques I have to do when I’m feeling like this, and I suck in and then out, and in and out, because I do not want to start crying again.
“Ah, sorry, should I not have said that?” Derek asks, his fingers now digging into his skin. Kevin stands and turns around, and then puts his head on my shoulder and licks my cheek.
“It’s okay,” I say, feeling a bit calmer, but I still don’t want to talk about what Jared said and how much faster Ryan is at running than me, because today I wondered whether if I had run yesterday, maybe we wouldn’t have made districts and I don’t want to think about that either.
“Okay,” Derek says slowly, and I can see in the corner of my eye that he’s looking at me, until Kevin stops licking me and starts licking Derek’s cheek instead. Derek giggles and tells Kevin to stop, which makes Kevin wag his tail and clamber on top of him and lick him some more.
Once Kevin is lying back down, Derek asks, “Which bit do you get stuck on in this map?”
“Where the ants come on the platform. I can never get out of the way in time and they always knock me off into the lava and I have to get past so I can get to the fair and Map 6 and . . . ” I stop, glancing at Derek to see if there are any visual clues to tell me if he’s still listening, and he looks right at me so I think that means he is.
“Yeah, that bit’s tricky but I’ll show you what to do when you get there.”
My chest feels light and my heart beats fast, and I turn back to my laptop and hit ENTER. My robot spins and whizzes through the portal and then lands at the bottom of the ladder, ready to climb down and start Map 5.
“My mum brought over some cookies for you,” Derek says as I hit the arrow keys and space bar to start manoeuvring through the tunnel. “For Ned and your mum, too. Do you like cookies? Mum made them herself just now; she’s good at baking.”
I nod. “Yeah, only soft ones though,” I say, and then I wonder why I said that to Derek because when I told people at school once that I didn’t like hard and crunchy foods they laughed and said it was weird. But Derek says, “Yeah, these are soft ones, definitely,” and that’s it.
I carry on leaping and ducking my robot, and the platform with the ants is getting close and my heart is beating faster and I curl my toes.
“Okay,” Derek says. “When you climb up the ladder to get on the platform, you have to hold down T for your torchlight and then you’ll see a small box in the corner. You have to press the down arrow and hold it down and then you’ll hide in there until the ants have all passed.”
I nod as my robot climbs the ladder, and then I see it: a small brown box in the bottom right corner. I do exactly as Derek said. My finger presses the down arrow hard and my robot crouches down and slides into the box just as the ants scurry by, missing me completely.
“Now you can carry on,” Derek says. “The rest will be easy for you because you’re good.”
I smile, my lips parting, and I release the down arrow. My robot stands and I take him through the rest of the map – and Derek is right again: the rest of the map is easy. I tap the right arrow and hold S on the keyboard as fast as I can, my robot sprinting to the hole with END written above it, ants chasing me but not catching me.
“I DID IT!” I say, making Kevin stand and bark, his ears pinned back, and making Derek laugh and fall sideways on my bed.
“You’re funny,” Derek says, sitting back up, and I know he means it in a good way, not the rude way some people do, because his smile is big and showing off his white teeth and he’s laughing now with his hand pressed to his chest. “You so made me jump.”
I laugh too because I’m happy, definitely happy inside and outside. I finished Tunnels of Disaster and Doom Map 5 and now I can go to the fair and complete the final map – Map 6! I watch the gold coins in the corner of the screen increase as my eighty million Orbsicles hit my pouch.
Once I’ve stopped laughing and Kevin has stopped licking our faces, I lean back against the pillow behind me and smile at my laptop. My robot is back at the tunnel entryways and there’s a yellow glow around entry 5 and the boards have gone from entry 6 and the fair.
“Thanks for your help,” I say to Derek, but I don’t look at him in case he’s looking at me.
“That’s cool,” he says and I smile again.
I start on Map 6 as Derek tells me about school today and Skyscraper Escapades and how Vinnie was sad when they left the house so he gave him a piece of cookie, and I tell Derek that next time he should bring Vinnie because that would make Kevin happy.
And then I hear Wilma call Derek’s name and Derek slides to the end of my bed and stands up. “Better go,” he says, but before he leaves, he turns to look at me. “I like your room, by the way, you’re really good at drawing.”
I nod and look down at Kevin, my lips smooshed together because I don’t know what to say and Mum always says that’s okay because not many people know what to say to compliments.
“Oh, and Mum says we can go to the dog show on Saturday because Dad is going out of town on a conference. Are you still going?”
I look up at him, standing by my door, his small pale hand gripping the handle, and then at Kevin, who is staring at me, his ears forwards, waiting for me to talk.
Yesterday was the worst day ever, but Mum was right when she said that good always comes after bad. If I can complete Map 5 after not being able to for so long, then maybe there is a chance I can win that trophy and make a friend in time for secondary school.
I nod at Kevin and then at Derek. “Yep, me and Kevin will be there.”
