Read Online Dropping In by Geoff Havel - Free Book Online Page A

the Milk Arrowroot past halfway.
    â€˜Sorry,’ James says, sitting back and making the table wobble again.
    I can’t wait any longer. Only eight seconds, but if I leave it I’ll gunk. I lift it out and, as I raise it to my mouth, I see James watching everything I do, opening his mouth whenI open mine. I nearly crack up but somehow I make it.
    â€˜Beat that,’ I say to Ranga through my mouthful of mush.
    He just laughs and then winces, holding his lip. ‘Easy,’ he says but he chickens out after nine seconds and lifts his biscuit into his mouth. He smirks at me and does a number one sign with his finger.
    â€˜My turn,’ James says. He gets his chair as far under the table as he can, but he still has to lean forward. He rests his arm on the table but the effort makes his hand shake worse than ever.
    â€˜I’ll get a tray, ‘Mum says. She gets up and gets a serving tray from the kitchen. She puts it across the armrests of James’ chair. A little frown flits across his face but she doesn’t notice it.
    â€˜How’s that?’ She puts his Milo mug on the tray and steps back.
    â€˜Good, thanks, Mrs Whyte.’ He smiles.
    Mum picks up the timer and James gets in position. His hand is tense as anything and the harder he tries to keep it steady the tenser it gets. I’m afraid the biscuit is going to shatter.
    Mum clicks the timer. ‘Go!’
    James dunks. He’s been watching us because he only sinks it to halfway, but it’s sort of waving back and forthand up and down in the Milo. It’s going to snap off before he even gets it out. His face goes redder as the seconds tick past. At about ten seconds he lifts the biscuit out and actually gets it to his mouth. He’s beaming, with biscuit mush oozing out of the corner of his smile. Ranga and I high-five him.
    â€˜Twenty seconds,’ Mum says.
    James’ smile disappears. All three of us are looking at Mum.
    â€˜What?’ she says.
    â€˜I only counted to ten,’ James says. ‘I don’t want any favours. I want to win fairly.’
    Mum is smooth, but we all know she isn’t telling the truth. ‘Time flies when you’re having fun,’ she says. We’re all still looking at her. ‘It seems to go faster when you’re really concentrating. Besides, ten seconds is a win anyway.’
    James is not convinced but I back Mum up. ‘I counted to twenty — with “and” in between each one. Your brain must have been racing.’
    James still isn’t convinced. He turns to Ranga who looks back and then says, cool as you like, ‘I wasn’t counting. I was watching but it seemed like a long time to me.’
    Finally James smiles. ‘I win!’
    â€˜Only round one,’ Ranga says. ‘Now I’m really going to show you how it’s done.’
    â€˜Bring it on,’ James says.
    Behind him Mum has a faraway look in her eyes and she’s frowning slightly.
    I have to go again and at one minute I get the Milk Arrowroot into my mouth without gunking. Ranga tries for seventy seconds but he gunks. James and I laugh our faces off while he scoops the biscuit mush off the table and eats it. Then it’s James’ turn.
    He’s got delusions of grandeur. He holds the biscuit in for eighty seconds but when he tries to lift it out, it barely makes it over the rim of the cup before it cracks off and splatters all over the table.
    Ranga and I are laughing and chanting, ‘Gu-unk, gu-unk,’ but Mum looks really uncomfortable. She’s holding herself back while we watch James trying to scoop up the gunk and eat it.
    It’s Ranga who sorts out the situation. ‘Don’t think you can get out of this,’ he says. He scoops most of the gunk back into James’ cup and hands it to him. ‘If I have to eat my own gunk so do you. It’s the rules.’
    â€˜Right,’ says James and he takes a big