“It’s gonna be tight,” Amber says, and I glance at the clock on the dash of the truck, a bit surprised. What with us leaving home late, and then stopping for so long to pick up Amber, and maybe just a little bit my driving, we might actually miss the ferry after all. In response I push my foot down onto the floor and then, when a straight bit comes up, I signal left and move out to overtake the car that’s holding us back. It’s not the longest straight in the world, and before we’re half way past the car, another car rounds the bend in front heading towards us. Probably I should back off, and drop back, but I don’t. Instead I push my foot further down into the floor. Dad’s truck might be new to him, but that doesn’t mean it’s new, and it doesn’t have quite as much power as I need, so we don’t exactly leap forward. For about a second I don’t think we’re going to make it and almost start to panic, but then I see I’ve misjudged, and actually we’ve got plenty of room. Well sort of. As the car comes by it flashes its light and its horn blares. The sound gets all distorted as it shoots past my window.
“Doppler effect.” I say, not to anyone in particular.
“Thanks for the explanation Billy,” Amber replies tightly. “Good to know when I’m dead.”
Dad just raises his eyebrows a little.
Goldhaven is pretty small. You can see the ferry as you come into town. I guess the fact it’s still there is a good thing, but even so I drive right up to the front of the parking lot where you can drop off foot passengers. But then Dad tells me to go further, up to the booth where you have to check in if you’re taking your car across. Dad’s truck isn’t going of course, but it’s the only way we’re going to make it in time with Amber’s bags. When I wind down my window to speak to the woman in the booth, he leans across and explains, and after a moment’s hesitation she waves us through. There’s loads of space on the dockside, because all the cars and cargo that are going on the boat are already onboard, so I can stop right beside the foot passenger entrance. As soon as I stop, Dad jumps out and he’s already got all of Amber’s bags out of the truck, and waved to the ferry operative who’s waiting by the gangway, a steel walkway that connects to a door in the side of the ferry. The guy comes down to check our tickets, and looks a bit shocked by all Amber’s bags, and mine. And my bike.
“You’ve got about a minute to get that all onboard,” he says. And we don’t argue. We have to do two trips each, but we’re able to load them all inside the ferry. And then we come back outside onto the dockside. Amber gives Dad a hug, and then she goes inside with the last of her bags. So then it’s just me and Dad there.
“Well Billy, I guess this is it.” He says, and his voice sounds constricted, like he’s choked up. I don’t want to look at him, but I don’t want to not look at him either.
“Hurry it up now please, we need to stow the gangway.”
I turn to see the ferry operative with his high-visibility yellow vest and his radio, crackling away. I turn back to Dad.
“You’re sure you’ll be alright?”
Dad nods his head, and then he grabs me in a bear hug. “Come here Billy.” I feel how strong his is, squeezing me towards him. But just as much, these days I feel how I’ve grown stronger too. I hug him back, blinking away the prickling of tears in my eyes.
“Now please. If you’re going,” the ferry operative says. There’s actually two of them now, and I realize with a jolt that they’re not coming with us. They’re waiting for me to get on board so they can pull the walkway and leave it on the dock side. I nod and after a second I let Dad go.
“Be good Billy. And don’t get into any trouble,” Dad says, and I sort of half smile. Quickly I turn and jog up the metal ramp onto the ferry, my footsteps ringing out. As I step off into the hull of the ferry, they unlatch it and the walkway drops away, held up by steel cables from a crane overhead. Already we’re moving. Only then do I hear Dad’s voice behind me.
“Billy!” He shouts, he looks a little desperate all of a sudden, like it’s suddenly gotten too much for him. He shouts something else, but I can’t hear it with the judder of the ship’s massive engines. Dad cups his hands round his mouth and tries again.
“Keys!” he yells, then makes an ignition-turning motion with his hands. I clamp my hand against my pocket, and feel his truck and house keys are still there. But by now the ramp is gone completely, and already the distance between the ferry and the dockside is widening. If I take Dad’s keys with me he’ll be stuck here, unable to get home. I pull my hand behind me to throw them across, but I don’t do it. What happens if I miss? They’ll fall into the swirling water beneath us, no one’s ever going to get them out of there, and anyway they’re not waterproof, they have a battery so you can zap the truck. Maybe I could zap it from here, and unlock and Dad could at least wait inside for a locksmith… Suddenly the ferry lets out a blast from its horn and it jumps me out of such stupid thinking. I look down, at the black water, swirling and foaming from the chop of the propellers, then at the distance to the dockside, growing with every second I delay. I pull my arm back again, and this time I send the keys sailing out over the gap. For a second or so they hang there, twisting in the air, then Dad’s hand reaches up and catches them.
“Good boy Billy!” Dad yells, and he lets out a whoop. The two dock workers both clap ironically too, and I grin, but then I’m told to get away from the door and it’s closed shut in front of me, so I can’t see anything. I rush to help Amber drag our bags to the storage area, and then outside onto the deck, and I’m disappointed when I see Dad’s truck is gone already. But then I see he’s driven round, so he can watch the boat leave from the end of the harbor arm. The ferry goes so close I can just hear what he shouts out, when we glide by:
“Don’t get into any trouble!”
I wave frantically, and then think of something. “Look after Caroline for me!” I yell, and he grins back, and hold up his hand, in the thumbs up gesture.
And then the rocky arm of the harbor is gone and replaced by a lively sea, blue topped with crests of white, dancing in the sunlight. I can’t hear Dad anymore. But behind us I see the red of the truck shrinking into the distance of our wake, and for a very long time, he doesn’t drive away.
Chapter Five
I stand at the stern of the ferry watching the island for a long time. It won’t actually disappear – you can see the mainland from Lornea, and vice versa, at least on a clear day, but the features disappear, and there’s something metaphorical about that. When you’re on Lornea, you kind of see the stuff that happens on the mainland, but you don’t really notice the details. That’s what’s special about it.
“Come on, you wanna get some food?” Amber says, and I’m surprised because I’d almost forgotten she was there.
We go to the café, and Amber queues to get two coffees, while I sit and look in my backpack for the sandwiches I made earlier. I’m going to have to be very careful with money – well, I’m going to have to learn to be careful, now that I’m at college, because everything is incredibly expensive, and even though Dad’s a successful businessman now, running the whale watching trips, his boat is still mostly owned by the bank. Unfortunately I didn’t have a lot of time this morning, so my sandwiches are a bit plain.
“Here.” Amber joins me, sliding a plate with a much nicer looking sandwich on it in front of me, as well as the coffee.
“I made my own,” I tell her, a bit confused.
“I know you did Billy.” She gives me a smile. “I was a bit worried you might have made me some too.” Her smile turns sarcastic, and she sits down. She takes a big bite out of her sandwich, and chews it loudly. I watch her, and think how I’m lucky that she happens to be moving to Boston at the same time as I am.
The ferry takes four hours, and the time goes too quickly. All too soon and we’re going by little islands covered in seabirds and there’s sailboats all around, and container ships, and airplanes taking off and landing from the airport, and ahead of us the skyline of a proper city, not like Newle
a. I start to feel nervous again. Then we get closer still, so we can see the dock where the ferry berths, and then we’re right there, and there’s all sorts of shouts and clangs, and the whole ship judders as it slows down. And finally the ferry is in the berth, and then the doors open. We have to queue to get off, and we’re almost the last to do so, on account of all the luggage Amber has, but she finds a baggage trolley on the dock, so we can wheel everything to where you have to catch the cabs. I think we’re going to part here, but Amber has a better idea, and we share one cab, a minibus, to get all our bags in, plus my bike. I give the driver the address of my accommodation, and we sit watching the city slide by outside, slowly because of all the traffic.
I opted to live in an apartment in one of the main student areas. I wasn’t sure, but Dad said I should make sure I’m in the heart of everything that’s happening, though he doesn’t really know, because he never went to college.
“Freshman?” the driver says, as he turns into a street that looks familiar from the photos on the university’s accommodation website.
“Yes.” I nod. He knows the address much better than me, and seconds later we pull up at the sidewalk. In front of us is a modern looking, three-storey building.
“You wanna come in and look around?” I ask Amber, and I can tell she wants to.
“Can you wait?” she asks the driver.
“I got the meter running.” He replies, and she screws up her nose. Amber has to watch her money too, at least until she gets her first pay check.
“Fuck it,” she tells me. “I’ll get another cab later.” So we unload everything onto the sidewalk, and pay the driver, and he drives off. Then she looks at me expectantly, and I realize I don’t actually know how I’m going to get in. I don’t have a key yet. I have to scrabble around in my bag to read the letter the university sent, and I realize I have to go to the accommodation office. Luckily there’s a map on the letter showing where it is, and obviously I have my bike, and it only takes me two minutes to get there. But then I have to show about four hundred pieces of ID, and sign my name a hundred times, but finally the receptionist gives me a set of keys, one to get into the building, and another for my room. But then, when I come back, I can’t see Amber anywhere.
A bit confused, I use one of the keys to open the outside door, and I see all Amber’s bags are lined up inside. I go up the stairs and there’s three front doors for three apartments. Number twelve, that’s mine, has the front door open. I go inside and finally find Amber, in a super-basic kitchen diner, chatting to a guy with ginger hair.
“Hey Billy,” she says. This is Guy. He’s your housemate.” She smiles, and Guy comes over to me and pumps my hand. He has a zit on his chin that looks ready to burst.
“Yo! Cool to meet you dude. This whole thing is gonna be so freaking awesome!”
We chat for a little while – well mostly Guy chats, talking a lot about all the parties we’re going to go to, and how amazing they’re going to be. Apparently he has an elder brother here, who’s told him exactly what to expect. Then Amber suggests we look at my room. I think she does it to get away from Guy, but he clearly doesn’t figure this out since he follows us. I unlock room three with my key. Inside there’s a single bed, a chest of drawers and a desk. It looks a little bit like a prison cell.
“Awesome freaking view,” Guy says – he’s already at the window. “Way better than mine.”
I have a look too, but there isn’t really much of a view at all. The trees that line the avenue are blocking most of it, and even if they weren’t it would just be buildings. It’s nothing like the view from my bedroom at home, where I can see the whole sweep of Silverlea beach. All seven miles of it. I feel a burst of homesickness.
And that gets worse when, a few minutes later, Amber says she’d better go, since she still has to find her own apartment. I tell her I’ll search for a Boston cab company – because the Lornea Island ones I have saved in my phone won’t operate here – but Guy jumps in again, telling her to get an Uber, and I think even Amber thinks this is cool because we don’t have those on Lornea Island yet. By the time we get downstairs, the car is already here, and Guy and me help to load her bags. Then she gives me a hug, and tells me she’ll see me soon. She gets in the car, and Guy and me both watch it drive away.
“Wow Billy, she is super freaking hot.” I turn to see Guy is shaking his head, like he’s pretending he can’t believe it. “Say, is she, like… I mean are you guys…? You know?”
I’m confused. “What?”
He makes one of his hands into a loose fist, and pokes a finger from the other hand in and out. “I mean are you like, fucking?”
“What? Me and Amber?” I’m not very impressed with Guy so far.
I give him a look, and turn to go back in, though I feel him following me up the stairs.
“So is there anyone you are seeing?” He persists, standing in the doorway of my room for a moment. I don’t answer him, but instead of going back to the kitchen, or to his own room, he just comes in.
“I had this girl I was dating back home. Kinda dating,” he says, then sits down on the bed. Just as I was about to put my backpack there to start unpacking. “I mean we were, you know. Just fucking really.”
“Could you get off the bed please?”
“But we kind of split up,” Guy goes on. “You know, she went to Berkley. The whole long distance thing…” He gets up when he sees I’m serious and I dump my suitcase onto the bed. “And I’m not worried. I mean like, I’ve been here a whole day and you should see the girls. They’re everywhere, and they’re freaking hot. I mean smoking.” He’s sat at my desk now, leaning back in my chair. “We’re going to have such an awesome time.”
“That’s good.” I think about telling him I need the desk, to set up my computer. Then I remember something Dad told me, how I have to make an effort, even if I don’t want to.
“I’m studying Marine Biology,” I say. “I chose Boston University because it has one of the best Marine Biology courses in the whole world. And because it’s quite close to home as well.”
Guy kind of nods and grins. “Supercool. I’m doing Law. Say do you wanna beer? I got some grass too, I don’t know if you’re into that?”
“You’re studying Law?”
“Yeah. Why?”
I shake my head. “No reason.”
“Shall I skin one up?”
“No. But thanks.”
Guy nods again. “Cool. I’ll just get the beers then.”
After a while he leaves, and I start unpacking. I guess he’s nervous, just like I am, and this is his way of showing it. While he’s gone I connect my laptop to the Wi-Fi, but then he doesn’t come back, because someone else arrives in the apartment. I hear Guy talking to them in the little kitchen lounge area. I don’t particularly want to go out and meet them, but eventually I know I kind of have to.
It’s another boy, a bit older than me, and dressed in sports clothes. Guy’s given him a beer already and they’re knocking them back.
“Yeah, so I bet it’s gonna be three girls and three boys,” Guy says, and I work out he’s talking about the six rooms in the apartment. Then he spots me, standing in the doorway.
“Billy, this is Jimbo. He’s in room four.” I step forward and we shake hands. He’s got a really firm grip, like he’s testing me. Guy’s holding out a beer to me this time, and I take it now, if nothing else I need something cold to fix my hand.
“Are you into sports?” Jimbo asks, then goes on. “You don’t look like you’re much into sports.”
“No,” I start saying, but he’s not listening.
“I play a lot of hockey. Like a lot of hockey.” He chuckles, and twists to point at the shoulder of his tracksuit, which has a badge sewn onto it. I notice that’s in the shape of a hockey stick. He turns back to glance at what I’m wearing, hiking trousers (I like them because they have extra pockets on the thighs, which is useful to carry things), my best checked-shirt, then looks at Guy
too, who’s wearing jeans, but with a t-shirt and BU jumper. He seems disappointed. “I guess you guys don’t play hockey?”
And then the front door opens again, and a girl comes in, carrying bags and looking nervous, and we all troop out to meet her. And then later on another girl arrives. The whole episode takes a while, but eventually I work out that alongside me there are five other members of the apartment. They are:
James (Jimbo) Drew, 18, from somewhere near New York and here on a sports scholarship to study sports science. Which isn’t really a science is it? He’s the one who told me to call him Jimbo, but I haven’t decided if I’m going to yet.
Guy Musgrave, 19, from Dover, Delaware. He really is in the first year of a law degree.
Laura Collins, 18, from a small town outside Philadelphia. She’s in the room next door to me. She’s studying French History and has blonde hair and really big boobs. Even if I hadn’t noticed this fact myself (which I had), Guy and Jimbo have mentioned it at least a dozen times between them.
Claire Leharve, which I think is a French name. She’s 18 and comes from somewhere in Ohio. She’s studying English Literature, and when she came in she was literally holding a copy of Wuthering Heights, as if it might protect her. Looks-wise she’s the opposite of Laura, she’s very tall and thin, and has no boobs at all. Neither Guy nor Jimbo spent long talking to her.
Sarah Ellingham, 18, from Connecticut. She’s studying psychology. She has dark hair and I think she’s actually quite a lot prettier than Laura, although not in an obvious way. She’s the one Guy said was shy, and I suppose she is, because she hasn’t said much yet. Maybe that means she has hidden depths.
And then there’s me. So that means I’m the youngest in the house (it’s an apartment not a house, but already everyone’s calling it a house, so I’m going to do the same). But we’re all freshmen, or freshwomen, if that’s a term. Normally I’d look it up, but I don’t really seem to have the time, even though none of us are actually doing anything, except sharing little details about the schools we went to, and why we chose to come here.
The Island of Dragons (Rockpools Book 4) Page 3
