thought.
Sam and Cara played five rounds of Steal the Bacon while Alice refereed and Christopher weeded the flowerbeds and Mom watched nervously from a safe distance. Sam let Cara win every round.
By the time Cara’s new friend Bea rode up on her bicycle (Alice and Cara weren’t allowed to have bicycles even though Cara was ten and Alice was eleven and it wasn’t the accident season
all
the time), Mom had relaxed and was chatting and laughing with Christopher over the rosebushes. Alice and Cara and Sam and Bea decided to play relay races across the empty field next door. They got Christopher to count down THREE TWO ONE GO, and all four of them raced from the fence at the side of the garden to the other end of the field.
Alice and Sam were the fastest, but because they both had to swerve around a whole heap of cow patties right in their path, they ended up tied with Bea and Cara just before the finish line at the opposite fence.
Slightly frustrated, but still laughing, Alice ran the last few meters to the fence at the same time as the others. The problem, Alice thought afterward, was that they hadn’t realized a new fence had been put in. If they had, they would’ve seen that thegrass sloped steeply downward just before it. If they’d known that, they wouldn’t have fallen those last few meters, right into the new electric fence.
Alice shot backward so fast that she landed on her back in the grass. The impact knocked all the air out of her lungs and for several long, long seconds she couldn’t breathe. When she turned her head she saw that Cara’s eyes were closed. As if from very far away, she could hear Bea screaming for Mom and Christopher. Bea, who hadn’t slipped down the slope. Bea, who hadn’t run into an electric fence. Bea, who wasn’t affected by the accident season.
Alice pushed herself up on her elbows. Cara was opening her eyes. On Alice’s other side, Sam was lying on the grass like she was, his face pale, clutching his ankle with both hands.
Alice could see the panic in Mom’s face as she ran up. When she saw that Sam was hurt too her hands flew to her mouth and she looked horrified. Christopher bent down and picked Sam up like he weighed nothing at all. Mom hurried over to Alice and Cara, but she kept looking back over at Sam, and Alice knew they were both thinking the same thing.
Sometimes having a stepbrother meant having one more person to be afraid for during the accident season.
***
At lunchtime Kim closes up the secrets booth early, but before she does, I sit behind the privacy screen and type up another secret to slip into the box. I write it quickly, andsome of the letters stick and some of them don’t come out at all, so that what ends up typed on the piece of paper is this:
It’s neever theones i kiss that I’m inlove wth.
I don’t expect it to get put up at the end-of-term installation, and that’s partly why I decide to put it in the box.
Kim follows me back to the cafeteria. She tells me that this year Ms. Byrne wants to do something different with the secrets booth installation; she wants students to illustrate the secrets, make up a whole secrets room in one of the classrooms, with the secrets typed out and hung up but also with paintings and sculptures made up to represent them. I tell her I’m not sure about this. I kind of like the secrets installation every term, the way they’re all hung up on clotheslines throughout the school hallways, just above our heads, like they’re the words we’re silently saying. Like little thought bubbles that we can read but can’t reach. It’s equal parts eerie and reassuring.
Kim looks at me appraisingly. “Your mother’s the artist, isn’t she?” The Artist, as if my mother’s the only artist in the world.
“Yeah. One of them, anyway.”
“Figures.” Kim pushes open the cafeteria door and lets me through. The sound inside is like a fog. “Hey.” She stops, and holds me back. “Why don’t you take
Sam and Cara played five rounds of Steal the Bacon while Alice refereed and Christopher weeded the flowerbeds and Mom watched nervously from a safe distance. Sam let Cara win every round.
By the time Cara’s new friend Bea rode up on her bicycle (Alice and Cara weren’t allowed to have bicycles even though Cara was ten and Alice was eleven and it wasn’t the accident season
all
the time), Mom had relaxed and was chatting and laughing with Christopher over the rosebushes. Alice and Cara and Sam and Bea decided to play relay races across the empty field next door. They got Christopher to count down THREE TWO ONE GO, and all four of them raced from the fence at the side of the garden to the other end of the field.
Alice and Sam were the fastest, but because they both had to swerve around a whole heap of cow patties right in their path, they ended up tied with Bea and Cara just before the finish line at the opposite fence.
Slightly frustrated, but still laughing, Alice ran the last few meters to the fence at the same time as the others. The problem, Alice thought afterward, was that they hadn’t realized a new fence had been put in. If they had, they would’ve seen that thegrass sloped steeply downward just before it. If they’d known that, they wouldn’t have fallen those last few meters, right into the new electric fence.
Alice shot backward so fast that she landed on her back in the grass. The impact knocked all the air out of her lungs and for several long, long seconds she couldn’t breathe. When she turned her head she saw that Cara’s eyes were closed. As if from very far away, she could hear Bea screaming for Mom and Christopher. Bea, who hadn’t slipped down the slope. Bea, who hadn’t run into an electric fence. Bea, who wasn’t affected by the accident season.
Alice pushed herself up on her elbows. Cara was opening her eyes. On Alice’s other side, Sam was lying on the grass like she was, his face pale, clutching his ankle with both hands.
Alice could see the panic in Mom’s face as she ran up. When she saw that Sam was hurt too her hands flew to her mouth and she looked horrified. Christopher bent down and picked Sam up like he weighed nothing at all. Mom hurried over to Alice and Cara, but she kept looking back over at Sam, and Alice knew they were both thinking the same thing.
Sometimes having a stepbrother meant having one more person to be afraid for during the accident season.
***
At lunchtime Kim closes up the secrets booth early, but before she does, I sit behind the privacy screen and type up another secret to slip into the box. I write it quickly, andsome of the letters stick and some of them don’t come out at all, so that what ends up typed on the piece of paper is this:
It’s neever theones i kiss that I’m inlove wth.
I don’t expect it to get put up at the end-of-term installation, and that’s partly why I decide to put it in the box.
Kim follows me back to the cafeteria. She tells me that this year Ms. Byrne wants to do something different with the secrets booth installation; she wants students to illustrate the secrets, make up a whole secrets room in one of the classrooms, with the secrets typed out and hung up but also with paintings and sculptures made up to represent them. I tell her I’m not sure about this. I kind of like the secrets installation every term, the way they’re all hung up on clotheslines throughout the school hallways, just above our heads, like they’re the words we’re silently saying. Like little thought bubbles that we can read but can’t reach. It’s equal parts eerie and reassuring.
Kim looks at me appraisingly. “Your mother’s the artist, isn’t she?” The Artist, as if my mother’s the only artist in the world.
“Yeah. One of them, anyway.”
“Figures.” Kim pushes open the cafeteria door and lets me through. The sound inside is like a fog. “Hey.” She stops, and holds me back. “Why don’t you take
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