Chapter 24: The campfire

Saturday 7-Jul 2007

Chris watched the embers of the old log burning in the fire. It was just his parents and him left; everyone else had gone to bed.

Shahia had gone early, both because she was exhausted from getting everyone ready to drive up to the farm with his Dad that morning, and because Maria wasn't settling too well.

Bec and Alyssa had been sent to bed over their loud protests when it got too late, and Jay and Hassan had sat out by the fire playing their guitars and entertaining everyone until it was too cold to play, and then his aunt and uncle had gone to bed, leaving just the three of them, too stupid to go in from the cold — though Chris was exempt from that, since he was sleeping out in the cold stables anyway.

It was nice to sit watching the fire, knowing that there was nothing to do, nothing to think about. It had been a hard week, he'd worked his butt off in the first week, so that he could have a little bit more free time to spend with Shahia and the kids when they arrived, though he would still be working. Then today, he'd been working when they arrived, and the rest of the day had just been crazy, getting everyone organised and settled in.

Even crazier, Shahia had up and told his aunt and uncle her story straight out. Chris had been gobsmacked, but she'd just looked at him and said that it would probably come out sooner or later, so why not straight away. And judging by the looks she was getting from his aunt, in particular, it had been a good idea — her aunt was pretty much going to insist that she would be the one to look after this "little babe who takes cuteness to a whole new level", while Shahia experienced all that the farm had to offer.

Just the three of them. His mum looked at him and indicated that there was space next to her under the blanket she and his dad were sharing. Chris shrugged, and moved over to her. She pulled him in tight next to her, and gave a little shiver of cold — or was it pleasure. "Hmm, I'm wrapped up in here with my two favourite men in the whole world."

They sat there in a comfortable silence for a few minutes, watching the fire burn. Chris enjoyed it; it was nice, and nice to be called one of her two favourite men. He glanced at his dad and mum: they were making eyes at each other. How cute.

"Maybe I should hit the sack?"

"Umm, Chris, no, don't go; you're here for a reason."

He looked at them suspiciously. What came next was no surprise.

"So, Chris, second term is over."

"Yeah, and I survived."

His mum gave him a big grin. "You know what, that's exactly what you said to me at the end of the first term. But then, you sounded surprised. This time, you sound determined. How are you going to say it after the next term?"

Chris looked at the fire, feeling sheepish. "It's sure been a big term. I'm sorry."

"What are you sorry for? For the fact that your marks have gone right up?"

Nah. Not sorry about that. Not at all. "Actually, that's Shahia's doing."

"Umm, how is that?"

"Well, I started taking notes for her. And I knew that if her marks go down, she can lose the kids, so I paid attention, instead of just paying attention. Bingo, my marks went up."

"Still it must make you feel pretty happy?"

"Sort of. Why didn't I do that before?"

His dad cocked his head at the sky. "Perhaps you're feeling sorry about being in the First Eleven?"

Chris laughed. "Yep, real sorry about that."

They both laughed back at him. "That's my boy."

His dad again: "Maybe you're sorry for getting in that fight when you were protecting Shahia?"

"Well, no, of course not, but..."

"Don't say it," his dad cut him off. "It was a shock for us for a few hours, but we wouldn't have had you do anything different at all."

What could he say? He said nothing, just gazed into the fire.

"Maybe," said his mum, with a speculative 'imagine if' tone, "just maybe, you're sorry that you've fallen in love with Shahia?"

"No. I'm not sorry about that. Not at all."

He looked around at his parents when he heard surprised noises. "Oh, come on, don't tell me you didn't know."

"We weren't sure whether you realised it. We didn't think you'd admit it to us."

Chris shrugged. "What's the point of denying it? I know it. You know it."

"How did you know that we know?"

"Well, when I realised I was in love with Shahia, I figured out why you gave me that look back when I told Shahia about the riot."

"When did you realise?"

"At the dance, when I held her in my arms and we danced together. Then I knew, and I knew I'd just been denying it."

His dad snorted. "Dangerous things, dances."

His mum jumped in. "Yeah, they are, aren't they. Let's ban them."

"Right, Chris, you're not allowed to go to any dances anymore."

"What?" Chris was outraged. "You can't blame the dance, it would've happened any..." He tailed off. His parents had dissolved into peals of laughter.

"Ha Ha," he said, when they finally stopped laughing.

They grinned at him.

His dad said, "Chris, you've come such a long way since the beginning of this year. Do you remember watching Missing Persons, and how you used to think about running away?"

Chris looked at them in shock. "You knew?"

"Sure, we pay attention. You aren't thinking about it anymore are you?"

"No way, how could I do that?"

"It's such a difference. We had all but given up."

"Given up!?"

"Yes, you were a tough problem last year," his mum replied. "So bad, in fact, that in early December last year, your dad and I took your psych profile to a psychologist for advice."

Chris was astounded. He'd done the psych profile through his dad's work to help choose a career, but it hadn't helped at all.

"Was that why you got me to do it?"

"No, we only thought of it later. We hope you aren't too mad at us for that."

Chris thought about this. Was he angry? Shouldn't he be? But no, he thought it was a pretty smart move actually.

"So, did it help?"

"Are you kidding? With how much things have changed? Actually, he did help. It was a good kick up the pants for us — we were pretending that you were still a kid. He said that treating you as an adult would make a lot of difference. Then he gave us some ideas how to do that — like coffee on Sunday mornings. And he said that you had some secret, something big that was bothering you."

Ahh. Actually, that explained a lot.

His dad took over. Actually, this was a strange conversation; they were taking it in turns, completing each other's thoughts. Amazing. "So, we know it didn't help that much. It was just a turning point; it gave us a new direction. For a little while, things hung in the balance — you were better, but we were still worried. Then Shahia came along. Since then, we've just been hanging on, trying to enjoy the ride."

"Yes, this brings up the subject of Shahia," his mum said.

"Chris, you know that we were a little ... unsure ... about Shahia at first," his dad told him.

He nodded. "It was a bit of a surprise, given the way that you pushed me towards her."

His mum coughed. "Yes, I suppose I did. We were just desperate, anything to get you to grow up. I thought you'd just see someone with problems, give you a sense of perspective, not that you'd get so involved. But once you did, it was like a big slippery-slide, and there was no way off."

"Why? How can you even talk like that?"