Falling Star (6 page)

8

On the Wharf

The Wharfside Motel consisted of a row of connected cabins with a restaurant at one end. The cabin Edison was sharing with Steve and Toby contained two single beds, a blow-up mattress on the floor, and a closet-sized bathroom. It had one little window that looked across the road to the open sea. Edison said he'd take the mattress. It meant he'd be further from Steve. As he lay on it, he could hear Shay, Matthew, Jason, and Brandon in the cabin on one side, and the girls in the cabin on the other. At first he thought their voices were coming through the thin walls, but then he realized he was hearing them through the heating vent in the floor beside his mattress.

There was a knock at the door and Mr. Field peered in. “I have messages for Toby and Edison.” He consulted a note in his hand. “Toby, your mother says you're allowed to take something for seasickness tomorrow if you want. She's just found the permission slip I sent home with you.”

Toby made a tutting sound. “She's always losing things.”

“She says she found it when she was cleaning your room. That was the first she'd seen of it.”

“Really?” said Toby innocently. “How strange.”

“Would you like a couple of my pills?”

“Nah, thanks,” Toby said confidently. “I don't need them.”

Mr. Field looked at another note. “Edison, your mother says she'll be at High Park to watch the game.” He looked up. “That's good. We'll need all the support we can get against the Academy.” He glanced back at his notes. “Nothing for you, Steve.”

“Figures,” said Steve.

When Mr. Field had gone, Steve asked Edison, “Why's your ma coming to watch us play High Park?”

“Dunno.”

“Why didn't she watch us play Centreville and North Bay?”

Edison shrugged.

“Why just High Park?” Steve persisted. “Are you trying to get in there or something?”

Edison didn't answer.

Steve, who was lying on one of the beds, raised himself on one elbow and said slowly, “That's it, isn't it? Your ma's going to get you into High Park.”

“You don't just get into High Park,” said Edison. “You have to try out.”

“Like you'll have to try out, coming from Canterbury, and with your folks knowing who to talk to so they get you in.”

“My coach at Canterbury recommended me, and the sports director at High Park said our game with them could count as my trial. All right?”

Steve snorted and flung himself down on the bed with his face to the wall.

Toby put on the TV and lay on his bed watching a game show, while Edison settled back on his mattress and closed his eyes. He was sick of being needled by Steve, but he had only two more days to put up with it. That was how many hours? It was nine-thirty, Sunday night, and they'd be home around five-thirty on Tuesday night, so that made twenty-four hours until this time tomorrow, and another two-and-a-half until it was Tuesday, and then …

He must have dozed off. The TV was still on, but Toby was in the bathroom. Steve hadn't moved. He seemed to be asleep. Edison glanced at the clock on the wall. Ten minutes until lights out. Ten more minutes to put up with Steve. He decided to spend them outside, in case Steve woke and started at him again. He slipped outside and closed the door quietly behind him.

He could make out the open sea on the other side of a wall of rocks across the road. A few steps beyond the motel, the road ended where the wharf began. A cluster of lights illuminated the far end where the ferry came in, and a few more lights spaced out along the dock threw pools of light. It was raining and the wind was picking up. He could hear the slap of waves against the sea wall, and his face was growing sticky with the salty spray that the wind was flinging across the road.

“You make me sick.”

Edison turned. Steve was standing in the cabin doorway.

“Get lost.” He set off toward the wharf.

Steve followed, saying, “You're a total screw-up, but it won't matter, will it? You'll still walk into High Park.”

Edison spoke over his shoulder. “What's it to you, anyway?”

“I tried out for High Park and they turned me down.”

Edison remembered the Eagles coach saying someone from Brunswick Valley had tried out for the Academy. So it had been Steve. “That's not my fault.”

“You ought to know what sort of place you're getting in to.”

“What's that supposed to mean?”

“Do you want to know why I didn't get in?”

They were on the wharf, in the darkness between two pools of light. The choppy sea glistened beyond the low wooden barrier at the edge of the wharf. It was raining heavily.

Edison stopped, his back to Steve. “I don't give a toss why you didn't get in.”

“I'll tell you anyway. I had a trial, and I got in. Then two days later it was, ‘oh, sorry. On reflection we've decided you're unsuitable for High Park.' So Mr. Field bugged them for a reason, and guess what they told him about why I didn't get in.”

“I told you already. I don't care.”

Steve repeated, his voice rising as he spat the words, “Guess what they told him. They said I was unsuitable because I had inadequate parental support. Translation: We found out your old man's inside and that means you and your folks aren't good enough for us.”

“That's not my problem.”

“Wrong.” Steve jabbed Edison in the shoulder. “It's your problem because screw-ups like you get into High Park without even trying and that means there's no room for me.”

“That's crazy.”

“Right — but it's true.”

“It's not my fault. Leave me alone.”

“Why don't you make me?”

Edison stared at the lights at the end of the wharf.

Steve jabbed him on the shoulder again. “Why don't you make me?”

Edison raised his elbow and swung around, catching Steve on the jaw. As Steve staggered backward, Edison turned and pushed him hard on the chest with both hands. Steve grabbed Edison as he fell and pulled him down with him, smashing his face against the boards of the wharf. Edison half raised himself. He thought his nose was bleeding, although it was hard to say if it was blood or rain running into his mouth. He felt Steve's knee on his back, forcing him down. He lashed out with his arm, catching Steve on the side of the head, and squirmed free. He scrambled up.

Heavy feet sounded on the wharf, approaching at a run.

Edison rushed at Steve and they staggered backwards.

“Jeez, guys. Knock it off.” It was Toby's voice. “Guys, quit it!”

Their feet hit the low board at the edge of the wharf and they flew into the air. The last thing Edison heard before he hit the water was Toby's voice from above them.

“
Jeez
, guys. Now what am I supposed to do?”

9

Shared Understanding

“How are we going to get our clothes dry?” asked Steve. Edison, Steve, and Toby were in their Brunswick Valley School soccer outfits. They had changed into them as soon as they got back to the cabin. Their sodden clothes lay in a pile in the middle of the floor, and a trail of wet footprints led from the door to Toby's bed where they sat. They had turned the heat up as high as it would go.

“Let's ask the girls,” said Toby. “They know about stuff like that.”

“We can't risk going round to their cabin,” said Steve. “We're lucky we got back here without Mr. Field seeing us.”

Edison and Steve had still been floundering from the shock of their fall into the frigid water when there had been a huge splash between them. Toby, standing up to his chest in water, had grabbed each of them by the collar, hauled them to their feet, and ordered, “No more fighting. And no drowning.”

Edison had looked at Steve and said, “Jerk.” Steve said, “Freakin' idiot.” Then, suddenly, they were laughing, all three of them, as Toby marched them to the shore beside the wharf and they scrambled up to the road.

“I know how to ask the girls,” said Edison. He lay on the floor with his head beside the heater vent. He tapped, and spoke into it. “Is anyone awake in there?”

There was no response. He tapped louder. “Anyone awake?”

He heard a mutter of voices from next door. Then, a few seconds later, Julie's voice said, “Go away.”

Edison looked at Toby and Steve.

Toby said, “Try again.”

Edison tapped louder.

“I said, go away.”

Edison tapped louder still.

“We're asleep.”

“No, you're not.”

“We were.”

“Sorry.”

“Bug off.”

Edison tapped even louder.

Julie swore — Edison was surprised at the word she used — and snapped, “Who is it?”

“Edison.”

“What do you want?”

“Help.”

“So? We've got a big game tomorrow, in case you've forgotten, and you might want to stay up all night but we're trying to sleep …”

“Tell her to shut up,” said Toby.

Edison said, “Shut up and listen.”

There was a pause, then, “Don't tell me to shut up, you snot-nosed bonehead.”

Edison looked at Toby and Steve. They were grinning.

Toby whispered, “You should hear her when she gets mad.”

Edison tried again, speaking more urgently. “We need help.”

“What sort of help?'

“Come round and we'll tell you.”

“You come round here.”

“Can't.”

A few seconds later, after another murmuring of voices, Julie and Linh-Mai stole into the boys' cabin. Linh-Mai was wearing Spiderman pajamas, and Julie had on a long T-shirt with a picture of a wrestler on the front. He had a square shaven head and a drooping moustache, and his open, snarling mouth revealed three missing teeth.

“Nice sleepwear,” said Toby. “It's clever how they can put your picture on your T-shirt, isn't it?”

Julie smacked him on the side of his head. She had been surveying the boys in their Brunswick Valley uniforms and said, “It's a bit late for playing soccer, isn't it?” Then her eyes fell on the pile of wet clothes. “What's going on?”

“We went swimming,” said Steve.

“In your clothes,” said Julie.

“We forgot to take them off,” said Toby.

“And now you want us to get them dry,” said Linh-Mai. She looked at Julie. “Why are boys so useless?”

She crept from the cabin and returned a few seconds later with two hair dryers.

Julie said, “We're not helping until you tell us what really happened.”

While the boys held up their wet clothes and the girls wielded the dryers, Toby started, “Steve and Edison got into it.”

“Why doesn't that surprise me?” said Julie.

“He started it,” said Steve. “Boasting about going to High Park …”

“You're the one that started on about High Park,” said Edison.

“Don't start again,” said Toby.

Linh-Mai looked at Edison. “You're going to
High Park
?”

“Don't know yet.”

“'Course you know,” said Steve. “That's the only reason you're playing for us — just so you can show off when we play them.”

Julie and Linh-Mai were looking at Edison.

He gnawed at his lip. “My old coach at Canterbury recommended me to High Park,” he started.

“That means he's in,” said Steve.

“Let him finish,” said Julie.

“The High Park coach said I had to try out, but if I played for Brunswick Valley when they played High Park that could count as my trial.”

“So he's in,” said Steve.

“Not unless I play better,” said Edison. He hung his head. “Right now I'm pathetic.”

“If High Park had turned me down because I wasn't good enough, I wouldn't have minded,” said Steve bitterly. “But when it's because of …” He stopped, shaking his head, and swore softly.

Toby put his hand on Steve's shoulder. “It's not fair, about your dad and all,” he said. “But that's not Edison's fault.”

Steve muttered, “I guess.” After a few seconds of silence, he said suddenly, looking at Edison, “You'll be all right. You've just lost your nerve.”

Edison looked up in surprise. “How did you know?”

“Obvious, isn't it? Don't worry. You'll get it back, all of a sudden. You just have to keep trying.”

“What do you mean, he's lost his nerve?” said Linh-Mai. “What's he talking about, Edison?”

“Like Steve says, I've lost my nerve,” said Edison. “You can't play soccer — you can't play
any
sport — if you've lost your nerve.”

Julie and Linh-Mai and Toby were looking from Edison to Steve, their faces blank.

Steve explained, “You have to, like,
know
that whatever you plan to do — shoot, or dribble, or whatever — you're going to do.”

“If you don't believe it, you might as well not bother,” said Edison.

Steve nodded.

“How d'you mean?” asked Toby.

“I mean, it takes nerve to try to play … like Steve and I do …” He was afraid of sounding conceited and spoke hesitantly. “Trying to dribble round defenders — that takes nerve. If you do a step-over, or a feint, or whatever, and you get past them, you look great, right? But when your stuff doesn't work and they get the ball off you, then you just look stupid.”

Linh-Mai interrupted, “No, you don't.”

“You do,” Steve insisted. “And trying a shot at goal — that takes nerve too.”

“Can't say I've ever tried it,” said Toby.

“You're a hero if you score,” said Edison. “But more likely the goalkeeper's going to save …”

“… Or someone's going to block your shot,” said Steve.

“… Or you miss,” said Edison.

“So you end up looking a complete loser,” Steve concluded.

“Not just a loser,” Edison added. “A cocky show-off loser.”

Steve nodded again.

“Jeez,” said Toby. “Missing a goal isn't the end of the world.”

“You guys are so totally heavy,” said Julie. “Lighten up, will you? We're playing soccer, not … not … waging war.”

Steve looked at Edison. “They don't know what it's like, do they?”

Edison said softly, “No.”

Julie started, “So you two got in an argument about soccer, and …” She looked scornfully at Edison and Steve. “Don't tell me you got in a fight over it.”

Edison looked at Steve, who looked at Edison. They hung their heads.

“What a couple of jerks,” said Julie.

“It wasn't really a fight,” said Edison.

“It was just a sort of push … or two,” said Steve.

“Then we fell off the wharf,” said Edison.

“And Toby jumped in after us,” said Steve.

“He was like a Newfoundland dog swimming to the rescue,” said Edison.

“More like a rescue hippopotamus,” Toby put in. “Anyway, I can't swim.”

Edison and Steve and the girls looked at him in astonishment.

“But … what if it had been deep?” said Steve. “Like, too deep to stand?”

Toby shrugged. “I didn't think of that.”

Edison started, “Toby …” Then he couldn't think what to say.

Linh-Mai broke the silence. “It's like a sauna in here.”

“We didn't want to end up dead of hypothermia,” Toby explained.

“We'll all be dead anyway if Mr. Field catches us,” said Julie. “He'll send us home.”

“We'd better get back to our cabin,” said Linh-Mai. “Your clothes aren't quite dry, but they will be by morning.”

Edison, Steve, and Toby whispered, “Thanks, girls.”

“Where would you be without us?” said Julie as she slipped out of the door after Linh-Mai.