The Other Side of Summer (22 page)

Oh Dad, I thought.

‘Don’t worry, Gabe, that’s not your official title,’ said Wren dryly.

Gabe shrugged and looked at Dad. ‘I don’t mind it.’ He put his hair behind his ears the way I remembered. It had grown back quickly after his operation.

Wren held up her hand for a high five (ironic, of course, being Wren). Milo did, too, and after him Sophie, so then I felt I had to as well. When our hands touched I hoped he wouldn’t see any trace of how, when he was in a room, he was everywhere to me.

‘Hey,’ he said.

‘Hey.’

He took off the guitar case that was on his back. It was the Ibanez Artwood.

‘Jam later?’ he said to me.

‘Definitely. But no Christmas carols.’

‘What’s that?’ said Dad. ‘No Christmas carols? Nonsense!’ And suddenly the room filled with that terrible Slade song and everyone groaned, except for Dad and Sophie. They were dancing.

At half past two, Mum caught me looking at the clock. Everyone was lounging in the garden, overstuffed with Dad’s feast. Dad had left on his special mission over an hour ago. Gabe was on a beanbag by the lemon tree, practising some riffs, and Bee was at his feet.

‘Not long now,’ said Mum.

I was standing just inside the sliding doors, to get away from the sun for a bit and also because I couldn’t sit still. Mum put both arms around me and rested her face on the top of my head. She could still do that – although I
was
a bit taller, it was nothing to get excited about. But it didn’t seem to matter at all. I didn’t feel powerless and tiny anymore. Well, hardly ever.

‘They’re here!’

It was Wren, shouting from the front room, which was now her and Mum’s art room and had a view to the street.

‘Let me! Let me!’ I shouted, my bare feet thundering on the wooden floors, through the living room and down the hallway.

I took a deep breath as two tall shapes appeared behind the glass panel of our front door. Finally, after two years in which time had both crawled and flown, here was the one person who knew everything. Dad had brought her to me.

When I opened the door Mal and I screamed at each other. We hugged hard and messily and she lifted me right off the ground, and we screamed even more.

‘Let the poor girl inside, Summer!’ said Dad, laughing.

Everyone had gathered at the door now but we didn’t care what we looked like. We screamed again, still holding on tightly, jumping on the spot.

‘Right, folks, I think they might need a few more moments.’ Mum herded everyone back into the house.

‘Oh my goodness, look at you,’ said Mal.

‘What?’

‘You have absolutely no tan!’

We laughed so hard we were almost cackling, holding onto each other.

‘You are so tall! How can you be this tall?’ I screeched. ‘I grew, too, and now you can’t even tell!’

‘Are you going to actually let me in, Summer? Because I came a very long way, you know, and I have certain needs, like the need to use a bathroom. Hopefully you have an indoor toilet here because I’ve heard about dunnies and I’m not using one.’

I thought I would never stop smiling as I led her inside. I wanted Mal to talk forever.

‘Also, I need to know how long it’s going to be before I see a kangaroo.’

The adults were asleep in the living room and the mood was mellow. It would be night soon. The hours of the day stretched generously behind us and it was the turn of the cicadas to make all the noise. We’d had pavlova
and
Christmas pudding. We were feeling full and happy.

‘Shall we have that jam now?’ said Gabe.

‘I’m up for that,’ said Mal. ‘Has Summer told you what an amazing voice I have?’

Gabe looked awkward for a moment, because I had in fact told him that she sounded like she was having her appendix taken out with no anaesthetic. And
I
felt awkward because watching Mal and Gabe talk made me feel like my two worlds were colliding.

‘She did tell me,’ he said, but his eyes began to twinkle.

Mal threw her head back and laughed. ‘I’m joking, don’t worry.’

‘Well, I say we get out of here,’ said Wren. ‘Who wants to go to the river?’

‘Yes! Me, definitely. The river.’ Mal nudged me and I refused to look at her.

‘At night!’ Sophie breathed. ‘Wait, does this mean you’re not taking me?’

Nobody replied. We all looked at each other. During the afternoon, Sophie had fallen completely under Mal’s spell and she’d been as quiet and wide-eyed as a loris. Of course she had another side, I told myself. Everybody does.

‘You’re coming, Soph,’ I said. ‘This can be your first guitar lesson.’

The moon was huge and flat, more like a space where something had once been. Like a sound hole.

It was still warm and there weren’t many people about. Gabe had the Ibanez Artwood on his back, and I had my own guitar on mine. We all talked as we walked along. Sophie screamed when a bat flew over us, but she calmed right down when she saw how
impressed Mal was that there were such enormous bats here.

‘That’s amazing. Huge bats! You guys! What else am I going to see on this walk?’

‘Um, possums?’ said Milo.

‘POSSUMS!’ Mal shouted.

Everyone laughed at her, with her, near her, as she pointed out all the things that were new. I loved seeing this place through her eyes.

Then Mal and I hung back for a while, still getting used to being in each other’s space again and wanting to relish small moments of it in peace.

‘So what’s new back home?’ I said. ‘Has anything changed?’

‘I don’t know, really. It all seems the same to me. I guess you don’t notice change so much when it happens right under your nose.’

I slowed down some more.

‘But … am I the same?’ I asked. ‘Because you are. I think.’

‘You’re the same and different. You’re my best friend, Summer. That will never change.’

Gabe said he knew a place that was perfect.

We walked across a deserted cricket pitch and
through a densely wooded area. Now we were on a rough pathway I’d never been down before. Gabe and I were a little way ahead of the others.

‘I didn’t know you spent much time around here,’ I said, trying to hide my curiosity as much as I could while still searching for the answers I wanted.

‘I come here a lot. It’s weird. Before I used to come with my mates, sit under the bridge in the same spot. It was just a hiding place for us, I suppose. But now … I don’t know, this will sound crazy.’

‘It won’t, I promise.’

He smiled at me. ‘Okay. When I go to the bridge these days, it’s like I’m looking for something.’

‘Or someone?’ I couldn’t stop the words from coming out.

He caught my eye. We didn’t speak. And then he stopped suddenly and looked ahead. ‘This is it. We have to climb over this fence and then down. It’s a bit steep. Maybe this was a dumb idea. Will you be all right with your guitar?’

‘I’ll be fine.’ I looked back to make sure the others were far enough away that they wouldn’t hear me. ‘Gabe, when you stopped just then, did you remember something?’

He squeezed his eyes shut and opened them again quickly. ‘It’s not there. I mean, it’s there but I can’t
reach it, Summer. It’s like … You know when someone loses an arm or a leg and they say they can feel it even though they can’t see it? Like that.’

At that moment I felt Bee slide alongside me, positioning herself so that my hand was on her back. Us three, again.

I felt more certain than ever that it was only a matter of time.

‘A waterfall? You guys live near a waterfall!’

Mal was still being hilarious. I could tell that everyone loved her.

‘You live near the National Gallery,’ said Milo.

‘Oh, do I? I’ve never been,’ Mal replied, laughing, pretending to look guilty.

It was actually a very small waterfall, but it was wide and loud, kicking up a long thick line of frothy cream at the bottom that carried on, tripping over rocks and disappearing around a bend. The best thing was the set of three flat rocks Gabe had brought us down to, like a tiered stage. It was perfect. That, and the powerful noise of the water, so I could sing and be loud without feeling shy.

Mal, Sophie and Milo sat on the lowest rock. Sophie had her guitar in her lap and was softly strumming the
two easy chords I’d showed her, with her chin resting on the top and her bottom lip pouting in concentration. Wren and I sat on the third, highest rock, with our feet on the second, and Gabe stood behind us. I looked around at him as he fine-tuned his strings.

‘“The Other Side”?’ I said to him.

He nodded, serious but not solemn. It was Floyd’s song, and we’d finished it for him.

‘Wren?’ I said. ‘Ready?’

She smiled.

I wanted to cry, but I wasn’t filled with sadness. I was okay.

We were okay.