Read Online Yesterday by C. K. Kelly Martin - Free Book Online
Authors: C. K. Kelly Martin
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Remember the time he let me drive the boat?” She smiles brightly.
“I do,” I say. It was just over a year ago but it feels like longer. My dad was busy with work and my grandfather had rented a boat and taken my mom, Olivia and me for a day trip.We were out on the water, about a half hour away from the ramp at Kawakawa Bay, and Olivia was so excited by the speed and the sight of the frothy waves the boat was leaving in its wake that my grandfather asked my mother whether it would be all right to let Olivia take the wheel for a while. Surprisingly, my mother agreed and Olivia turned solemn at the helm, steering good and straight, like she’d done it countless times before. My grandfather let her remain at the helm for at least ten minutes before taking over again.
I see the pride Olivia felt that day reflected in her face now. “Maybe we can get Grandpa to rent a boat here sometime this summer,” I suggest. “Explore Lake Ontario.”
I wish I could remember that day in the same way that Olivia’s eyes tell me she can. I remember the fact of it but the memory itself is sterile. Just images, sounds and a transcript of events that didn’t leave any deeper an imprint on me than the latest episode of
Knots Landing
.
“Don’t you like Grandpa?” Olivia asks, unwilling to be distracted from my original questions.
“Of course I do. I think … nothing feels the same after Dad. I can’t explain it.”
Olivia sets both her hands on the table, wriggles her fingers and peers worriedly down at them.
I clear my throat and say, “I miss him. I miss New Zealand. I miss the way everything used to be.” This is far from the whole truth but I don’t want to make my sister anxious. If she’s doing okay, I’m glad for it. “I think it’s just going to take some time for me to settle in here.”
I yawn like I’m bored with the topic and ready to put it behind us. Then I take our dirty dishes over to the sink and wash them so my mother won’t have to, as if that will make up for the weird things going on inside my head. I wipe down the kitchen counter too and even make my bed, which is something I rarely do, if I can trust my memory at all.
As pointless as it seems, at school I try to keep my mind on what my various teachers are jotting sloppily down on their blackboards but during English there’s a knock at the classroom door and the vice principal’s standing there in a white shirt and blue tie, asking to speak to me. He apologizes for “what transpired at the museum” as I think to myself that he doesn’t know the half of it.
At lunch Christine and Derrick want to know if I’m feeling better. I say I’m back to normal but I end up listening to them more than I talk and as the three of us are streaming out of the cafeteria at the end of the period, I find myself within arm’s length of Seth. He pretends I’m invisible and speeds up, breaking away from me.
It’s how I’d probably act if our situations were reversed so it doesn’t come as a shock but what
does
surprise me is that at the end of the day one of the guys Nicolette introduced me to at Corey’s party is leaning against my locker scratching at the knee of his black jeans.
“Hey you,” he says as though we know each other much better than we actually do. “How’s it going?”
“Hey,” I say guardedly.
“I was just wondering if you needed a ride home?” he asks, straightening. “I know you’re new here and all so …”
I narrow my eyes and point to my locker so he’ll stand aside and let me open it.
“Sorry.” He laughs and shifts his weight to the locker next to mine.
My hair falls forward so that I can only make out thin strips of him through my curtain of dirty-blond strands. I enter my locker combo and slide the lock open. “The thing is, I don’t live that far,” I say, more to my locker than to him.
“That doesn’t matter,” he tells me, all perfect teeth and quarterback shoulders. “I’m sure you could
“I do,” I say. It was just over a year ago but it feels like longer. My dad was busy with work and my grandfather had rented a boat and taken my mom, Olivia and me for a day trip.We were out on the water, about a half hour away from the ramp at Kawakawa Bay, and Olivia was so excited by the speed and the sight of the frothy waves the boat was leaving in its wake that my grandfather asked my mother whether it would be all right to let Olivia take the wheel for a while. Surprisingly, my mother agreed and Olivia turned solemn at the helm, steering good and straight, like she’d done it countless times before. My grandfather let her remain at the helm for at least ten minutes before taking over again.
I see the pride Olivia felt that day reflected in her face now. “Maybe we can get Grandpa to rent a boat here sometime this summer,” I suggest. “Explore Lake Ontario.”
I wish I could remember that day in the same way that Olivia’s eyes tell me she can. I remember the fact of it but the memory itself is sterile. Just images, sounds and a transcript of events that didn’t leave any deeper an imprint on me than the latest episode of
Knots Landing
.
“Don’t you like Grandpa?” Olivia asks, unwilling to be distracted from my original questions.
“Of course I do. I think … nothing feels the same after Dad. I can’t explain it.”
Olivia sets both her hands on the table, wriggles her fingers and peers worriedly down at them.
I clear my throat and say, “I miss him. I miss New Zealand. I miss the way everything used to be.” This is far from the whole truth but I don’t want to make my sister anxious. If she’s doing okay, I’m glad for it. “I think it’s just going to take some time for me to settle in here.”
I yawn like I’m bored with the topic and ready to put it behind us. Then I take our dirty dishes over to the sink and wash them so my mother won’t have to, as if that will make up for the weird things going on inside my head. I wipe down the kitchen counter too and even make my bed, which is something I rarely do, if I can trust my memory at all.
As pointless as it seems, at school I try to keep my mind on what my various teachers are jotting sloppily down on their blackboards but during English there’s a knock at the classroom door and the vice principal’s standing there in a white shirt and blue tie, asking to speak to me. He apologizes for “what transpired at the museum” as I think to myself that he doesn’t know the half of it.
At lunch Christine and Derrick want to know if I’m feeling better. I say I’m back to normal but I end up listening to them more than I talk and as the three of us are streaming out of the cafeteria at the end of the period, I find myself within arm’s length of Seth. He pretends I’m invisible and speeds up, breaking away from me.
It’s how I’d probably act if our situations were reversed so it doesn’t come as a shock but what
does
surprise me is that at the end of the day one of the guys Nicolette introduced me to at Corey’s party is leaning against my locker scratching at the knee of his black jeans.
“Hey you,” he says as though we know each other much better than we actually do. “How’s it going?”
“Hey,” I say guardedly.
“I was just wondering if you needed a ride home?” he asks, straightening. “I know you’re new here and all so …”
I narrow my eyes and point to my locker so he’ll stand aside and let me open it.
“Sorry.” He laughs and shifts his weight to the locker next to mine.
My hair falls forward so that I can only make out thin strips of him through my curtain of dirty-blond strands. I enter my locker combo and slide the lock open. “The thing is, I don’t live that far,” I say, more to my locker than to him.
“That doesn’t matter,” he tells me, all perfect teeth and quarterback shoulders. “I’m sure you could
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