|
"Laura's Dream" |
| Copyright Francis Blow, 1986. |
| CHAPTER 7 |
| When Carla saw her daughter ride up the driveway, she opened the kitchen window. "How was your first day back at school?" |
| "Really hot, Mum." Laura gave a half smile. Her blouse was sticking to her back with perspiration, and all she could think of was the crystal clear water of the pool. |
| Laura stopped in the kitchen to give her mother a kiss, and to grab a can of drink on the way to her room. Upstairs, she tossed her clothes into the laundry basket. Her new bikini was yellow, with gold edging; the top was a semi-racing style, and the bottoms had high cut legs, tending more to sexy than sporty. Laura hoped that Josh would appreciate it. |
| Carla called as Laura went out the back door, "Don't stay in too long, sweetheart. Your muscles are overheated and you might get cramps. Besides, I'm sure you must have some homework." |
| "No worries, Mum." Laura replied, as she wedged open the pool gate, so Joey could come in while she was swimming. She put her towel and drink on a plastic sun lounge, and then dove straight into the water. Ice cold shocked every square millimeter of her skin. She surfaced, gasping with the initial shock. Goose bumps rose instantly, and her stomach tried to curl in on itself. |
| Gradually, Laura became accustomed to the temperature. She swam a few laps, before floating on her back, luxuriating in her private version of Heaven. All she felt like doing was floating until she dissolved. Unfortunately, Joey chose to come out then. He jumped in next to her. Suddenly, he was trying to climb onto her. |
| "It's cold!" He spluttered. |
| "Get off me, you brat! You nearly drowned me. Get off!" |
| A game of water wrestling began, without rules. It quickly ended with Joey flying in a parabola, headfirst into the centre of the pool. |
| "Do it again, Laura!" He screamed, when he surfaced. They played for another twenty minutes, until Laura had had enough. They climbed out, and Laura followed Joey after she locked the gate. He left his costume in the laundry, dried off with Laura's towel, and she watched him race up the stairs, past their parents room, the study and his room to their bathroom. Laura kept her own costume on, rather than showering yet. Instead, she went to her room, to the right of the bathroom, and put the towel on the chair at her desk. |
| The desk, in the corner between the sliding glass doors, faced the street at the front, and looked out at a drainage easement on the right, where tall trees gave her privacy from the neighbours. The open balcony tempted her to take her homework outside, yet she knew from experience that she would get little done out there. |
| Laura heard Joey turn off the shower, as she started her work. She did not feel like doing anything. Laura forced herself to plough through it. Cross breezes from the open doors cooled her as she worked; the bikini dried quickly where the air could get to it, leaving one damp patch where she sat on the towel. |
| |
| An hour passed before Laura stopped working, and that was only because she saw Josh ride up on his new bike. Her first impulse was to jump to the balcony and wave, but she decided not to, as Josh would think she was a lovesick cow. |
| "Take it easy," she advised herself. "Be sophisticated. You have to wait, and you simply can't meet him in just a bikini." |
| From her wardrobe, Laura selected a Disney T-shirt. It was three sizes too large, had Minnie on the front and back, and it was Laura's favourite. She had a momentary thought of wearing the beautiful emerald ear rings her grandmother had given Laura for Christmas, then dismissed the idea as too obvious. |
| Only when she was covered from neck to mid thigh, did Laura go to the front door, where Carla had already let Josh in. He had a towel over one arm, so Laura took him by his free hand, and lead him out the back. |
| "I can only stay half an hour, Laura, then I've got to start my homework." |
| "Did you bring it with you? We can work together in my room," Laura offered. "How come you haven't started it yet?" |
| "I had other stuff to do. Last one in's a girl!" |
| He beat Laura by holding her behind him at the gate and diving in fully clothed. |
| It was not until after she had taken off the T-shirt, with Josh whistling at her, that Laura realised he had again given her the lame excuse of doing "other stuff" instead of an explanation for spending less time with her. They swam and played together, yet Laura felt that Josh was trying to avoid touching her, and then Josh left, exactly half an hour later. |
| Disappointed and feeling unwanted, Laura lay on one of the plastic sun lounges to try and work out where she was going wrong with Josh. |
| The glare and heat, along with the day's unaccustomed work, took Laura into a deep sleep. She awoke to find her father shaking her shoulder. |
| "Come on, sleepy head! Time to get ready for dinner. What are you doing asleep now? You won't be able to sleep tonight." |
| "Daddy! I didn't mean to fall asleep. I just dozed off. Do I have time to change?" |
| "Just put your shirt on. I'm sure your mother won't mind this once. Help her set the table, while I find Joey." |
| Laura found her mother in the kitchen, opening a tin of pineapple. |
| "There you are," Carla said. "Can you take the salad bowl out, then set the cutlery? Is your swimsuit dry?" |
| "Yes, Mum. To both questions." |
| "And then you can cut up the chicken, Miss Smartie." |
| "Yes, Sir, Mummy!" Laura saluted, then hurried out to narrowly avoid being whacked on the behind. The meal started with Laura saying grace, and her mother put in a special prayer for those children who had been kidnaped. Laura shivered when she remembered her own abduction. |
| During the meal, Laura asked her parents if it was all right for her to have a pool party for some friends. |
| "Not this week, I hope," Carla said. "I would like to get on top of all the housework." |
| "Don't worry, Mum. It's not for a couple of weeks. How about Friday week?" |
| Her parents agreed that the Friday was a good choice. There would even be a chance of making it a sleep over night for the girls, as long as their own parents agreed. |
| "With all that's been happening recently, with kids stolen all over the place, some parents will be keeping close watch on their children," John told Laura. "You can tell them that we will supervise every single move you kids make." |
| "Oh, Dad! That's a bit much," Laura protested, then saw that he was grinning at her. "Don't tease, Daddy. Some of them will be new to the school." |
| "Daddy," Joey asked with a mouth full of food. "Why are kids stolen?" |
| "First, don't talk while you're eating. Bad people sometimes steal children because other bad people want to buy them as slaves." |
| "You mean to dig in mines and wave big fans over them?" |
| "Close enough," John answered. "Usually, it's for much worse things, and you don't need to know what they are." |
| He glanced at his daughter. "That means don't bother asking Laura about it, either." |
| Laura nodded. "I wonder how much I'd get for the Brat? Maybe I'd have to pay them to take him!" |
| "Laura!" Carla rebuked her. "That is not funny. A boy of seven was taken this morning at Saratoga. Before that was a girl of twelve, and another, ten years old." |
| "Let's drop the subject, okay?" John decided. "Tell me what you did today at school, guys." |
| |
| After dinner Laura packed the dishwasher, after which she practiced backstroke in the pool. She wanted to make the swim team, and the only way was to be one of the better swimmers in the school. Laura had been in the water ten minutes, when Jem arrived, dressed in a red beach wrap that covered a blue, one-piece costume. |
| "Hi, Laura. That's a really sexy cossie. Buy it for Josh, did we?" |
| "Lay off, Jem. Mum gave it to me for Christmas. She says I've got the figure of a model, and I should be proud of it." |
| "Yeah? A model of what. Okay, okay! She's right! And I'm sorry about the crack about Josh." |
| "No worries. Ready for some laps? This pool's so short, it's good for practicing racing turns." |
| Jem dove in next to her, then pushed Laura under water. "Try and catch me!" |
| It was on. They chased each other around the pool in a variation of "Tag" that would have been better called "Dunk". The two of them did manage to do some serious training, until eight o'clock, when Jem had to return home. |
| Laura did not go inside, though. It was still too humid for her. Instead, she went for a walk through the strip of trees that divided her place from the neighbouring house. Although the sun had set, there was enough twilight to see her way. The trees provided natural air-conditioning, and it was very peaceful under their leafy branches. |
| There was one severe drawback to the narrow strip of bush. As soon as Laura bumped a low hanging bough, mosquitoes swarmed around her, and she had to run home. Laura slapped at the cloud of hungry insects, where they feasted on her; they even bit through the material of her costume. |
| A few mosquitoes followed her inside, and Laura attacked them with a can of insect spray. By the time she was under the shower, Laura's skin had numerous red spots. She was able to dab calamine lotion on all the bites, except for the ones in the middle of her back; Laura would ask her mother to do them when Carla came upstairs. |
| Homework. When she returned from the bathroom and pulled on a cotton nightie, Laura found her books waiting on her desk. First, though, she had to kiss Joey good night; that duty done, she continued where she had left off when Josh had arrived. |
| The slight breeze that passed through the open doorways provided some relief from the heat, but it died all too soon. Heavy perspiration started running off her. Laura ignored her discomfort and worked on. |
| Carla walked through the open doorway. "Still going, baby?" |
| "There are a couple of projects, so I thought I'd start them. Could you do me a big favour, Mummy, Darling? Put some lotion on these bites please?" Laura lifted the nightie so her back and shoulders were uncovered. |
| "My goodness, Laura, how did that happened?" |
| While Carla applied the soothing lotion, Laura explained about her walk in the trees. John came in while Laura was talking. |
| "You're a silly girl," He said. "Next time, cover yourself in repellent and wear a shirt." |
| "In this heat? I'll just use bug repellent." She kissed her parents good night, and continued with her work. |
| The nap after school had left her wide awake, so when she had gone as far as she could with her projects, Laura stepped out onto the balcony, to catch any vagrant puff of wind. The balcony ran around almost half the house at the front, joining her bedroom to Joey's, which was on the other corner. A more private balcony was at the back of the house, where her parents had a big master bedroom and ensuite. |
| In bare feet, Laura tiptoed past the windows for the bathroom and toilet, to Joey's room and peeked in. Joey was sleeping in just his underpants; he lay sprawled on his stomach on top of the covers. Clutched under one arm was his toy bear. Laura smiled. The bear had originally been hers, and she had passed it down to Joey when she turned twelve. |
| Laura returned to where her side of the house faced the trees, and sat on the plastic sun lounge she had there. From that position none of the street lights reached her and she was able to study the sky with its stars, planets and satellites. |
| There was just a whisper of breeze, enough to cool her damp, cotton nightie. Laura made herself comfortable, settled back and stared up into the night. The entire universe wheeled before her eyes, as she watched, then dreamed. |
| |
| Laura woke, stiff and covered in morning dew. It was daylight and she had slept outside all night. Memories of the vivid dream lingered in her mind. |
| Laura hurried to check the time. |
| Seven o'clock, and she hit the alarm the instant it sounded. Her clothes went into the laundry basket, and she stood under a tepid shower only long enough to remove the stickiness. Laura dashed back to her room to dress, pack her books, and then down to the kitchen, where Carla had set out breakfast. |
| "Morning, Laura. I heard you going crazy up there, so I got your Wheatbix ready. What's the rush?" |
| Laura started scooping cereal with her spoon. |
| "I want to spend a while in Dad's study." She replied as she ate. |
| Carla reached across and took the spoon out of her hand. |
| "I'll help you. You almost got some in your mouth." |
| "Mum!" Laura was indignant, when Carla started to feed her like a baby. Joey burst into laughter. |
| "Here comes the butterfly, to land inside the little flower." Carla guided the spoon into Laura's mouth. Laura tried to take control of the spoon, and a brief wrestling match ensued. Carla released the spoon before Laura wore the bowl of cereal. "Now will you sit and eat like a young lady, or shall I keep feeding you?" |
| "Uh, sorry, Mum. I'm just in a hurry." |
| "I guessed that. Tell me about it later," Carla sighed. "Don't leave the house without giving me my kiss!" |
| "Thanks, Mum." Laura smiled and put her bowl in the dishwasher before she ran up the stairs. |
| Once in her father's study, Laura accessed the Britannica index on the computer. She flipped through chapters and made notes; every few minutes she checked her watch. |
| Carla came in and tapped her shoulder. "Time to go, baby." |
| "Okay, Mum. Can I leave this stuff here till I get back?" |
| "Sure. Your lunch is in your bag." |
| "Thanks, Mum, I love you." She exchanged a kiss and hug with her mother, who whacked Laura on the behind as she turned to go. |
| Carla watched Laura run down the stairs, skirt flying. |
| "You be careful baby." She whispered. |
| After Carla heard the front door close, she looked at the list of references that Laura had left on the screen. Everything had to do with the U.S. space programme. |
