Chapter 2
His room was a pleasant surprise after having shared a dormitory with three other boys for the past six months. It was light and airy with a large window stretching along one wall and a set of French doors at one end.
“The doors open on to the veranda,” chattered Meredith, “so you can go outside when you want to without bothering the rest of us.”
“Meredith,” protested her mother. “That’s hardly polite.”
“Oh he knows what I mean,” scoffed Meredith. “You do, don’t you?” she demanded, standing in front of Cory who gave her a sickly grin.
“Um, sure. Yes. It’s fine,” he told Maggie grudgingly as he looked around the room. A large single bed was covered with a soft furry blanket of some sort with dolphins on. There were dolphins and curling waves in patterns on the curtains and a large wooden desk sat in an alcove formed by a bank of shelves.
“I put some books here for you,” explained Meredith cheerfully, “but there’s heaps of room to put your own stuff. Oh!” She blushed as she remembered the one small bag Cory had brought.
“We have to get Cory a bike, Dad,” she reminded him.
“I’ll take Cory to choose himself one tomorrow,” promised her father. “Oh blast, that’s the phone.”
He raced off to answer it and Cory realised that Meredith was very like her father. Maggie was much quieter and remarked that she would go and prepare the dinner.
“Get Meredith to show you round outside when you are ready,” she said. “Meredith, don’t rush Cory. Give him some breathing space to unpack.”
“It’s okay, I’ll do it later,” mumbled Cory, not intending to unpack any more than he had to. They needn’t think he was going to stay in a place with only a girl, even though the promise of a bike sounded hopeful.
“Come and I’ll show you the house then, and I’ll explain a few of the ground rules,” said Maggie. “Then I have to get the dinner on or we’ll never eat tonight. Oh dear, that sounds like trouble,” she sighed as Brian’s raised voice could be heard on the phone in the hallway.
“No, no! That won’t possibly work. I’ll sort it out and phone you back with the details. Cretins!” he said as he slammed down the phone.
“You would think a little bit of common sense would prevail but no. I’m going to have to go to Wellington and sort this lot out.” He turned an apologetic gaze in Cory’s direction.
“Sorry, mate. I hate to do this on your first day here but the bike will have to wait a week or so. I have to make a business trip. Maggie, you’d better pack for me while I made a couple of calls. I’ll leave first thing in the morning.”
Meredith’s protests were ignored as Maggie rapidly showed Cory the bathroom and kitchen.
“Let me know anything you really can’t bear eating,” she said, “and if you’re hungry in between meals you can have fruit or make a sandwich. You can take turns with Meredith to wash the dishes and I expect you to keep your room reasonably tidy so I can clean it once a week. We’d like you to tell us where you are going if you go out so we know when to expect you back. No alcohol, smoking or drugs and we expect you to tell the truth at all times. Is that understood?”
She finished in a rush and Cory nodded, feeling rather bewildered. Alcohol and drugs? What did they think he was? He wondered what on earth Ms Lannigan had told them. If they thought he was as bad as all that, he was surprised they even considered letting him into the house at all. He glowered at Meredith and wished she would leave him alone for five minutes. She dragged him outside to meet the animals.
“Tabitha is our cat, she’s pretty old now but she still catches mice.”
A well fed tabby cat consented to be stroked before stalking off to clean itself in a patch of sun on the veranda. “These are the calves. They are getting big now so they eat the grass but when they were little we fed them with bottles.”
Four black and white steer stretched their heads over the gate and sucked at Meredith’s fingers as she held them out. Cory decided he was not impressed.
“Do you eat them?” he asked.
“Of course not,” Meredith answered in shocked tones. “They are just babies. We sell them to a farmer and buy some more tiny ones in the winter,” she explained. “I don’t like to think about anyone eating them. Though I guess that’s what will happen to them eventually,” she added mournfully.
“Do you have a dog?” asked Cory eagerly. He had always wanted a dog of his own but never thought it likely to happen.
“We did have one, called Bonny. She was a spaniel, but she died a year ago. Mum and I cried so much that Dad said he’d never get another dog as it was too upsetting when they died. He might change his mind now you’re here though. Let’s ask him.”
“No, wait,” called Cory desperately. “Don’t bother because I’m not intending to stay in this dump…” he was thinking, but didn’t quite like to say it when Meredith was looking at him so eagerly. “Until spring!” he said finally. “I’m sure that’s when puppies are born, in spring.”
Meredith looked doubtful. “Oh, I suppose that would make sense,” she said. “Anyway that’s about it. There are heaps of cows on the farm next door. That’s where old Mr Sanders and his wife live, they haven’t got any children. At least they have, only they’ve all grown up and left home now, so that doesn’t count, and the rest of the place is all trees.”
“I saw them when we were driving here,” said Cory. “Does anyone live in there?”
“No. It’s private property. It belongs to some sort of forestry trust and anyway, it’s so dark and gloomy under all those pines I’ve never really wanted to go in there.”
Cory sank deeper into despair. Staying in the country with a girl had pretty much ruined the holidays and now it turned out there weren’t even any houses close by. He had hoped there might be some boys near enough to hang around with but it was obviously going to be worse than he had imagined. He wondered how long it would be before they put him to work.
“What’s in the shed?” asked Cory idly as they walked past a large corrugated iron garage.
”Just tools and garden stuff,” said Meredith without interest. “Oh, and Dad keeps his boat there, of course.”
“Brian’s got a boat?” Cory brightened. “Can I look at it?”
“Sure,” said Meredith, and led the way to the shed door. Inside was a long sleek motorboat on a large metal trailer.
“Wow.” Cory’s eyes were like saucers. His mental plans for a racing car were immediately shelved in favour of a speedboat of his own. He ran his hand lovingly along the smooth red fibreglass side of the boat. “It’s huge. Can you sleep in it? What’s under the cover?”
Meredith shrugged. “I guess you could sleep in it, but we have never bothered. We mainly go out for the day. It’s got a cabin. Look.”
She stepped on the side of the trailer and pulled up one end of the large canvas canopy that stretched over the boat. Inside there was a swivel seat in front of an impressive bank of instruments. Beside the swivel seat was a bench seat with space to sit front or back. At the front of the boat was a tiny cabin with two benches big enough for sleeping on. A tackle box and fishing rod were lying on the floor at the back end of the boat.
“Pooh, it smells of fish in here,” said Meredith and dropped the cover again.
“Changing Times. What a strange name for a boat.” Cory read the gold lettering on the prow.
Meredith laughed.
“It’s because Dad’s business suddenly started making heaps of money and he said it was obviously a sign of the times. He said it would mean he could spend lots of time fishing instead of working every day. It hasn’t really worked out like that though,” she sighed. “He still seems to work all the time and we hardly ever go out in the boat.”
“If I had a boat like this, I’d go out in it every day,” breathed Cory in awe.
At that moment Maggie called “dinner time’” and Cory sat up for his first meal with the Miller family. Meredith a
nd Brian talked and talked and talked. Maggie occasionally got a few words in and there would be awful pauses when one of them asked Cory a question. He invariably had his mouth full of food and had to try and choke it down so he could mumble an answer. They were all stupid questions too. They would natter on about boring politics, or something equally deadly dull happening in the community, then ask him what he thought. As if they even cared!
After a while Maggie laughed.
“Leave the poor boy in peace to eat his meal.”
Cory thankfully turned his attention back to his plate. He couldn’t understand why he was so hungry all the time. He certainly wasn’t growing that he could see and yet there was a hollow pit in his stomach that demanded constant fuelling. At least Maggie seemed to understand this and told him to help himself from the dishes on the table. Not like one place he’d be been where they frowned on anything other than ‘organic food’ and only tiny quantities of that.
As Cory lay in bed that night, feeling the texture of unfamiliar sheets and sniffing at the slightly new paint smell of the room, he thought that the day hadn’t been as bad as he had feared.
“I wonder if Brian will take me out on the boat?” he wondered, and drifted off to sleep dreaming of boats and dolphins.
Time For a Change Page 2
