‘Oh, you’ll need to cancel that. Sorry – I thought I’d told you already. I’ve had a meeting come up.’
‘They could just come for a little bit?’
‘Sorry, Stella. Another time, hey?’
‘Okay. They were excited, but okay.’
Kelly finishes her apple and doesn’t look up from her screen. When she leaves, I go into her glasshouse and snap leaves off her seedlings, one by one.
***
I can’t stand the idea of calling Mum, so instead I text Taylor and tell her about the dinner being cancelled. I tell her I’ll bring dinner to Fairyland and then I go off without telling Kelly where I’m going or when I’ll be back.
I walk up and down the beach for a while and then I get on the train to Sutherbend. I nearly walk to Clem’s and then I change my mind and walk to Zin’s, instead. She’s home and grins and hugs me when I tap on her window. ‘I’m seeing Monica later. But I’m free for a couple of hours.’
‘How is Monica?’
‘She’s more glorious than I ever imagined.’
Zin chatters and I find myself longing for Clem. Clem, who I can sit in silence with. When it’s time for Zin to go and meet Monica, she pulls me into a tight hug. ‘I love you, Stell.’
I hug her back. She smells like flowers and cookies. ‘I love you, too.’
I pick up some pizzas and walk to Fairyland, where Taylor is on the phone to Adam and Mum is dozing in front of the television in her work clothes.
‘Pizza!’ Taylor says, hanging up the phone and pouncing on the boxes. Mum wakes up and smiles at me, and I can see that she’s cut the split ends off her hair and painted her nails, for Kelly’s.
‘I’m sorry it got cancelled,’ I say. I can see Mum’s good blouse hanging on the end of the bunk bed.
Mum waves her hand. ‘We’ll go over there another time. Maybe next week?’
I don’t know how to tell her that I don’t think Kelly will ever have her and Taylor over, so I eat my pizza quickly and then go out for a walk to say hello to people and see how the plants and trees are all going.
Taylor catches up to me and says something I can’t hear.
‘What?’
‘I said, are you going to stay at Kelly’s?’
‘What? No. Of course not.’
Taylor glances sideways at me. ‘Because Kelly called Mum a few days ago. Sounded like she was asking about you staying there for longer.’
‘What?’
‘Stop saying what! Just listen. I only heard one side of the conversation, but I’m pretty sure. Mum’s been flipping out.’
‘I’m not staying there forever,’ I say, but even as I say it, I imagine it. Staying. I shake my head. ‘Why would Kelly say that to Mum?’
‘I don’t know. Mum’s been crying.’ Taylor kicks at a clod of hard, dry dirt and sighs. ‘She thinks she’s losing you, Stell.’
***
As it nears dusk, Mum insists on driving me back to Kelly’s. She waves a finger at Taylor before we leave home. ‘Don’t you even think about going anywhere, okay?’
We don’t talk until we get out of Sutherbend.
‘Where was Dad? I thought I’d see him.’
‘His counselling session, love. You know that.’
‘So he’s doing counselling again.’
‘Yeah.’
‘How is he?’
‘Just tired.’
‘How is he, actually?’
‘He’s fine. Spending a lot of time with that dog. You’d swear the dog knows it was your dad who found him and saved him, the way he follows your dad about.’
‘Mum.’
She sighs. ‘He’s okay, love.’
‘Is he gambling?’
‘He’s really flat, but he’s stopped for now.’
‘For now?’
Mum bites her lip. ‘It’s all that matters. Who knows what he’s going to do down the track, but for now he’s not.’
I wait for Mum to ask me about living with Kelly permanently; to tell me not to. To guilt me and pressure me so that I agree to come back with her, even if I’m not sure that it’s what I want to do. Mum just sighs and reaches for my hand, and I feel a tremor running through her fingers. ‘My, my,’ she says eventually. ‘So, can you really hear the ocean from her place?’
***
It rains and rains. When I get up the next morning, Kelly’s already gone to work. I wonder if she’s noticed the snapped seedlings, whether she’ll say anything to me about it if she does. When I switch on the television, it’s full of footage of the Sutherbend River breaking its banks.
I call Mum.
‘We’re alright,’ she says. I can hear the murmur of her workplace in the background. ‘It’s all fine.’
‘But the river . . .’
‘It’s nowhere near as bad as the last flood. We’re safe on our side of the park. It’s the high side. It’s all fine.’
After pacing around Kelly’s house, I call Taylor, who’s staying with an Ascott friend. ‘The paths in town are all under water,’ she says. ‘Took me ages to walk here.’
‘How’s everyone else at Fairyland?’
‘What?’
‘And where would they go?’ I ask.
‘Who?’
‘Where will everyone at Fairyland go if it does flood?’
She sighs. ‘I don’t know, Stella.’
After hanging up, I try to catch the train to Fairyland, but big patches of the tracks are under water. Walking there isn’t an option because it will take me hours. I call up the River Pub and Stu answers, sounding harassed.
‘How’s the water situation?’ I ask.
‘Not great – scaring away all my customers.’
‘But not as bad as last time?’
‘No. Not as bad as last time.’ He pauses. ‘But there’s a lot more rain coming. I don’t know, Stell. Honestly, it could go either way.’
***
When Kelly comes home, I’m waiting for her by the door, which I know she doesn’t like.
‘The river’s flooding,’ I say. ‘In Sutherbend.’
‘Yeah – some of the storm drains around here are looking a bit full, too,’ she says, putting down her bag.
‘Could you drive me, maybe? I want to make sure everything’s okay and the train lines are down.’
‘I’ve got a meeting tonight, Stella. I’m sorry.’
‘Could they stay here? If they need to?’
‘Who?’
‘My parents. Taylor. My family.’
Kelly goes very still. ‘Oh, Stella. I don’t think so. There’s not the room.’
‘They could sleep on the floor.’
‘I’m sure it won’t come to that.’
My breath catches in my throat. ‘But if it does . . .’
‘There are plenty of hotels nearby.’ She backs away from me, towards her wet garden. ‘They’d be happier booking in there. Lots of the rooms overlook the sea.’
***
My head is consumed with thoughts of Lockwood High, of how strange it is that Kelly would ask me to stay here longer when most of the time it doesn’t feel like she wants me here, at all. Zin and Lara both call me to say my family can stay with them if they need to. Clem texts to tell me the same thing, but I guess it’s probably come from his mum.