Chapter 3
By mid afternoon the next day, Cory was so bored he could scream. They had spent the morning shopping; something Cory loathed. That is, Maggie and Meredith had been shopping. Cory just did as he was bid. They made him try on new jeans and track pants and bought him T- shirts and socks, sneakers and boots. Cory lost interest after ten minutes of this but Maggie and Meredith were content to spend hours choosing fabric so that Maggie could make Cory even more new clothes. Cory’s protests that he had enough clothes by now were ignored. He felt faintly guilty that they were obviously spending a lot of money on him and would be annoyed when he left at the end of the two weeks but shrugged it off.
“If they want to chuck their money away then I’m not going to stop them,” he thought.
It turned out that Maggie loved to sew and liked nothing better than looking at fabric and patterns. So Cory was left to wander round the few shops in the small town that really almost didn’t qualify for the name of town. This rapidly palled and he was reduced to tossing bits of gravel into a handy grating and scoring himself 50 points for every stone he dropped through. He was approaching seven thousand when Meredith finally caught up with him to take him back to the car. Lunch was a hasty affair of sandwiches as Maggie was keen to get started with the sewing. After suffering the indignity of being measured, Cory beat a hasty retreat as he saw what looked like acres of polar fleece and denim spread out on the table for cutting.
“Don’t go too far away,” warned Maggie. “I’ll need you to try things on as I go.”
By this time a damp and drizzly rain was starting to fall and Cory was feeling restless. A quick glance at the books in his room showed that he had read at least half of them and the rest he dismissed as being too babyish. They nearly all had the word Magic in the title.
“Typical girl,” thought Cory. “Only girls believe in magic. Everyone knows there’s no such thing.” He asked if he could play on the computer and was told that Brian used it for his work so it was out of bounds unless it was under his supervision. Cory was furious about this. He went across and turned on the television but Maggie quickly turned it off again.
”We don’t watch television in the daytime,” she said briskly. “We feel it is better to do things than to watch other people do them.”
Cory looked mutinous at this. He wanted to watch surfers and he could hardly do that himself instead. They were miles from a beach and anyway it was the start of winter. He slumped into a chair, drumming his fingers on the arms, and stared moodily at the floor, figuring that if Maggie didn’t like it she might let him turn the set on again.
The worst thing was Meredith who bounced around him like a friendly puppy wanting to play. Cory told her to get lost and that he didn’t play with girls, but she took no notice. Eventually he grudgingly suggested they could kick a ball around outside. This met with an unenthusiastic response and they were both beginning to feel rather desperate when Meredith suggested they could play hide and seek.
“We’ll make it inside and outside,” she suggested. “That way it will be really fun.”
“But you live here. You’ll know all the best hiding places,” objected Cory.
“Not really. I hardly ever get to play it. You can’t hide from yourself,” said Meredith sadly, turning large mournful eyes in his direction.
“Please play with Meredith,” Maggie asked him. “You could at least make an effort. She is only trying to be friendly.”
Cory felt guilty. “Okay, then. You can hide first,” he said with a resigned sigh.
He closed his eyes and counted loudly to fifty, while Meredith shrieked in delight and headed out the door. Cory spent a few minutes searching before finding her under her bed.
“That didn’t take long. How did you know I’d be here?”
“It’s raining,” Cory pointed out. “I didn’t think you’d hide anywhere you could get wet.”
“Your turn to hide. One two three…”
Cory ran into his bedroom and then thought, “Too easy. I know, the boat!” he decided. He slipped out the french doors, reflecting that they were proving to be useful already, and ran quickly across the wet grass to the shed. He ducked inside with a gasp as the rain came down harder. Lifting the canopy of the boat, he wriggled over the side and into the centre where he found there was just room over his head for him to sit crouched in the bottom of the boat. He considered climbing into the cabin but decided it would be too stuffy. He heard Meredith opening the shed floor and kept very still. She walked around the boat, moving a couple of cartons from a stack against the wall, then left the shed, banging the door behind her. Cory grinned to himself and decided to climb out and sneak up behind her. As he crawled to the side he glanced up at the instrument panel where a round silver button gleamed at the bottom of a small screen.
“ I wonder what that does?” Cory thought. “Maybe it’s a TV.”
He decided to find out, and reaching across he pressed the button firmly. There was a sudden jolt and Cory was thrown back onto the floor of the boat, which now appeared to be rocking from side to side.
“Ouch,” he said, rubbing his elbow where it had collided with the edge of the seat. “I guess that’s what they call hitting the deck.”
Pushing back the canopy he began to climb out then stopped in amazement. There was no sign of the shed with its workbench of carpentry tools and lawnmower pushed to one side. Instead the wooden deck of a ship stretched out beside him. Gulping in amazement he ducked back under the canopy. Yes, sure enough, there was everything just as it had been when he climbed in. He peeped out again and saw the deck with a large mast hung about with ropes and a white sail flapping in the breeze.
“I must be dreaming,” thought Cory. “It must be a mirage brought on by shock. Perhaps I’ve gone mad and the stress of going to another foster home has turned my brain.”
He watched as an order rang out and a sailor dressed in ragged clothing, and with a scarf knotted around his head over dirty unkempt hair, came over to the mast and started swarming up it. He climbed swiftly and by tipping his head back Cory could see the sailor aiming at a crow’s nest high above. He decided to climb out and get a better view. After a quick glance around, he slipped on to the deck and crept to the shelter of a large coil of rope and bundle of sails, which were neatly stacked against the wooden side of the ship’s cabin. From there he had an excellent view. At the end of the boat on a raised platform, a sailor stood holding an enormous steering wheel. A fair-haired man, who Cory assumed must be in charge, was bellowing orders.
“Steady as she goes, Mr Mate,” he boomed, and an answer of “Aye, aye, captain,” came from the sailor at the wheel.
Cory was thrilled.
“This is the life for a man,” he thought. He looked up at the crow’s nest as a cry of “Ship ahoy,” rang out. At this, the boat erupted into a hive of activity. Sailors poured out from a hatch beside Cory and began energetically hauling on ropes and lashing barrels to the rails. Cory was amazed to see some of the men priming long guns and pistols while others sharpened wicked looking cutlasses on some sort of grindstone.
“They must be going to have a battle,” he thought excitedly. “I wonder if I can join them.” He hesitantly stepped out of his hiding place and approached the nearest sailor.
“Can I help?” he asked tentatively.
The man barely glanced at him but grunted and handed Cory a wicked looking knife. “Polish that,” he said, and Cory proudly rubbed the knife on the piece of leather proffered by the man until it was gleaming.
A sudden squall of rain came slanting across and a large wave pitched the ship high in the air. The deck lurched and the ship shuddered as it crashed down from the crest of the wave in a mist of spray. The man swore and stepped back under the shelter of an overhanging beam. Cory stood there for a few minutes getting wetter and more uncomfortable as he tried to keep his footing on the slippery deck. The sailors were ignoring him, and each seeking a dry place for themselves, so he d
ecided to creep back into the boat for shelter until the storm was over. He discovered that from the outside, Brian’s boat appeared to be a pile of fishing nets at one side of the deck. Cory made a dive under this as a wave tilted the deck and tipped him off his feet. As he tumbled into the boat his elbow hit the silver button. There was a jolt then a sudden silence as the boat stopped rocking.
Time For a Change Page 3
