The drive-in is all I could think about as I ride my bike home. I had thought of asking Dad about it when I return home, but he was already fast asleep on the couch in front of the television.
He is still asleep when I wake up at 6:30 the next morning. I wake him, letting him know I was heading to the gym with Indy for our boxing session. We should have done it yesterday but we were too hangover. Dad tells me to have a good time and he will see me later. He will be heading off to the hospital soon to pick up Mum and Theo.
Bradley and Indy are putting their gym bags in Bradley’s car when I get outside. I jog over to them and slip my own bag into the back boot of the car.
“Good morning,” Indy greets me with a hug.
“Good morning to you both,” I say.
“So is your mum coming home today?” Bradley asks, closing the boot.
I nod. “Yeah she is. Dad is leaving soon to pick her up.”
“Are we able to come over and meet your brother later?” Indy says.
“Of course you guys can. You know you are always welcome over.”
We hop into the car, driving to the gym in the next town over. I keep my mouth shut about the drive-in, not really wanting to talk to my friends about it and what my co-worker had said. Even if any of the things they say was true, it didn’t happen for me last night.
Once at the gym, Bradley went off his separate way while Indy and I went off to our boxing class. We greet the girls in our group and then our trainer gets us started. Indy is my sparring partner, and starts off with the pads while I box.
“Are you up for going to Café Tiara later when we finish here?” Indy asks as our trainer tells us to start off with straight punches for a minute.
“We are at the gym and you are already thinking about food?” I say, focusing on the pads as I punch them hard.
“What? I’m hungry.”
“Yes, of course I will come along with you guys later,” I answer.
“Hey, you go past near the drive-in on your way home from the bowling alley, don’t you?”
“You know I do, Indy.”
“Did you see any mysterious things happening there last night?”
I didn’t answer her straight away, concentrating as hard as I could on the pads. I want to forget what I have seen the other night at the drive-in. I was probably hallucinating from the alcohol. The twins were making this story up, I’m sure of it. I mean, nothing interesting has really happened in this town since the murder of Anne Jones and the drive-in closed down. Whoever started this rumour was bored and wanted something exciting to happen.
Besides, ghosts aren’t real. They are just a figment of our imagination. I’m sure someone is probably illegally trespassing and is causing this mysterious activity.
“I saw nothing last night,” I assure her as the trainer tells us we have thirty seconds left.
“Are you sure there wasn’t anything?”
“I have come to a conclusion, Indy. Whatever I saw the other night was due to the alcohol.”
Indy chuckles. “You are oblivious, Leela. I dare you to go to the drive-in between 9pm and midnight. You will be able to see for yourself what goes on there at night.”
I shake my head. What is it with this rumour that has gotten some people fascinated by it? Why haven’t I heard about it before instead of two weeks later? “Let’s focus Indy. I want to enjoy this workout, not discuss the drive-in.”
I know she is dying to ask me more questions, but this wasn’t the place for us to start arguing on what’s true and what’s not. For the rest of the session, Indy keeps her mouth closed.
I was thankful when she continued to keep quiet about it once our session was over, and we meet up with her brother. But for how long, I wasn’t sure.
The three of us made out way to our favourite café in the town for breakfast. And I was glad when the drive-in never slipped out of the twins’ mouths once. Instead we spoke about my new baby brother as we ate. The twins wanted to know every detail like out of my parents who did he look like. My brother was only two days old and I had no clue who he looked like. All I knew was he has inherited his mother’s red hair. I guess time will tell who he would end up looking like.
After breakfast we headed back to Bradley’s car. As we walk pass an alley way between the café and the store next door, I notice someone standing there, searching through the big bin belonging to the café. He looked to be our age, his clothes dirty and holey, his skin full of dirt like he hadn’t showered in days. My heart went out to him. I have never seen a homeless person in Faulkner Hills before. I have mostly seen them around the suburbs or the city, but never in town.
I tell Bradley and Indy to wait for me. I pull out my wallet, taking out the ten dollars note I had. It might not be enough for a full breakfast meal, but it was enough for him to maybe get some banana bread, raisin toast, a cheese toastie or a muffin inside the café, along with a drink.
I walk over to him. “Excuse me?”
The boy looks up at me, his brown eyes meeting mine. He steps back from the bin, ready to bolt for being caught snooping through the bin for scraps of food. His dark hair was medium length with a side fringe covering his eyes.
I held out the money to him. “This is for you. You can go into the café and treat yourself with something for breakfast.”
The boy takes the note from me, staring at it for a long time like he wasn’t sure if it was real. Finally, he glances up at me and thanks me.
I smile at him and then turn back to my friends who were waiting for me.
* * *
Indy and Bradley come over to meet my brother, cooing and rocking Theo gently in their arms. I watch Theo stare at the twins, wrapping his small hand around their thumbs, wondering who they were. He doesn’t cry, just stares at them both with a blank look.
“Aw, he is so adorable,” Indy says. “I wish I could have one.”
“Dad will kill you if you have one now at seventeen,” Bradley reminds her, taking a seat in the chair in the corner of my brother’s room. “He will then lock you up inside the house until like you are fifty.”
Carefully, without dropping Theo, Indy flips her finger up at her brother. She then places her hand back on my brother.
“I’m not stupid to fall pregnant,” she says.
Bradley chuckles. “What about that pregnancy scare you had last year?”
In October last year Indy had a pregnancy scare after dating this guy for only two weeks. She claimed the condom had broken, but she was lucky it didn’t happen. I couldn’t imagine my best friend being a mother at seventeen.
“Please,” she says. “Don’t ever remind me about that. Anyway, I didn’t mean that I wanted a baby now, but I do hope to have my own someday.” She looks up at me. In a loud whisper she tells me Theo had fallen asleep in her arms.
I carefully take him from her. Theo doesn’t stir. I look over at Bradley. “Do you want to hold him one last time before I put him in his cot?”
Bradley gets up and takes him into his arms, rocking him gently. He looks at his sister. “You know, I’m surprised Mum and Dad never had any more kids than us. I mean, Mum does talk about wanting more kids, but nothing has ever happened.”
“I think we were too much of a handful growing up,” Indy says. “I mean, after being in labour for eight hours and then having to wait another ten minutes for you to come out after me, I wouldn’t blame her for not wanting anymore children after that. Besides, I think Mum and Dad are happy that they had one of each.”
“We couldn’t be that too much of a handful.”
“Are you kidding? We were little terrors growing up.”
I notice the twins were getting louder instead of talking in loud whispers. The last thing I wanted was for them to wake up Theo. So I take him from Bradley and put him down in his cot. I had just put him down when Mum walks in.
She smiles at us. “How is everything going in here?”
I smile at her. “Theo has just gone to sleep. We were just leaving to let him rest.”
“Thank you guys for getting him to sleep. Bradley, Indy, are you two staying for lunch?”
“Thanks, Mrs Hamilton,” Bradley says. “I’m leaving soon to meet up with some friends to play basketball.”
Mum looks at him weird. “Are you sure you want to be playing in this heat? It’s thirty degrees outside.”
“I’m immune to the heat. Seriously, I don’t feel it. Anyway, I’m going to go. I will catch you later, Leela. Mrs Hamilton, congratulations on your first child. He is sure going to grow up a handsome young man.”
Mum smiles. “Well, thank you, Bradley. I will see you later.”
Bradley leaves the room.
Indy turns to me. “What do you want to do, Leela? Do you want to watch Netflix before you head off to work?”
“Yes, of course.”
Mum gestures us out of the bedroom before Theo wakes up. She tells us she will put together lunch for us. Indy and I settle in my room, flipping through Netflix to see what we could watch. We were in about five minutes of the movie we had chosen when I hear Theo crying from the room next door. Mum walks in with our sandwiches and then checks on Theo.
As I eat my sandwich, I can’t help but think about the boy I met this morning. It almost made me feel guilty for eating the sandwich when that boy and many others who doesn’t get enough food to eat. I hope the boy is okay and he spent my money well on to fill up his stomach.
YOU ARE READING
Finding Reed
Tínedžerská beletria"Haven't you heard?" Bradley says as he and his sister turn back to me. "The drive-in is haunted." Rumour has it that the old Faulkner Hills Drive-in is haunted after a murder had taken place there almost two years ago. Leela doesn't believe in thos...
