Chapter 8: The Mission

Sunday 15-Apr 2007

It was his mother's idea. He should have known better; he knew how tricksy she was. All he had to do was think back to his New Year's resolution ... yet he couldn't really regret that. Anyhow, she'd come up with the idea in the car on the way back from his Uncle's farm where they'd been staying over Easter, and Chris had been too worn down from seven hard days working on the farm to even think of resisting. All he'd said was that it sounded like a good idea, and it had, too.

His mum's idea was simple. If he really wanted to be in a position to help Shahia, then maybe he should walk a mile in her shoes: for a week, he would act as a single parent to Jay and Bec. His parents would still be around to proffer advice, but that would be all. Chris had complained that it wasn't an exact match, because he had to feed his mum and dad as well, but his mum had just smiled and agreed it wasn't an exact match; did he want her to find a baby instead?

No. Just as things were was quite challenge enough, especially after they'd all spent an hour in the car listing all the things that his mum and dad did for them. He'd looked at the list in dismay — there was no way he could do all that, and go to school, and do his homework. And right then and there he'd got the point — that was still less, a lot less, than what Shahia had to do.

But it wasn't real unless it was real, so he'd agreed. His week started Sunday morning, since they'd agreed that it was too much to land him with cleaning up from the holidays. But there'd still been dirty clothes left over on Sunday morning, so that's where he'd started, learning to separate the colours and the whites under his mum's watchful eyes. She'd said that he could ask for her advice anytime he wanted, but she was going to watch him like a hawk in the laundry, they couldn't afford any screw ups there.

Then he'd made them all breakfast, done the dishes, tidied the kitchen until his mum was satisfied, gone back to the laundry, tidied the lounge, gone out and mowed the lawn, come back in and done lunch ... where had his morning gone?

After lunch, his mum pointed out that he actually had a couple hours of freedom as she went off to the gym. Chris sucked in his breath, gritted his teeth, and rode his bike around to Lisa's house. It'd come to him in the middle of the night, a bitterly cold night out under the stars while on holiday: he didn't have to get Lisa alone at school.

Lisa's mum answered the door. "Hello, is Lisa home?"

"Hi, Chris. Long time no see!" she smiled at him. "Come and sit in the lounge, and I'll go and get her."

He waited nervously in the lounge. He didn't know whether he was pleased or not that Lisa was home. Oh well, might as well get it over with.

"Hello, Chris." Lisa walked into the room.

Chris stood. "Lisa. Hello."

Lisa sat down in the chair opposite him, and waited for him to speak.

"Umm, about what happened..."

Lisa didn't say anything, she obviously wasn't going to help him out.

"Look, I'm sorry. I really was a prick."

There, he'd said it. Why was that so hard? It was nothing less than the truth, but he still didn't like to say it.

Lisa still didn't say anything, but her face had become softer somehow.

"I know I screwed up, fair enough. But can we still be friends, or at least talk to each other?"

Finally, Lisa opened her mouth. "Chris, you really hurt me."

Chris swallowed and nodded. "I know. I can't believe I was so stupid."

"How about we just settle for talking to each other and see how it goes?"

"That's better than I deserve, I guess."

There really wasn't much to say after that, and no point hanging around, much as Chris would've liked to. He knew he'd blown it with Lisa, there was no chance of even thinking about getting together now, but still, just friends would've been nice.

Monday 16-April 2007

It was a relief to go to school, where he could relax and take it easy. It was nice to have all the girls talking to him again as well, as they all said cheerful hellos to him. MSN must have been running hot since he'd left Lisa's place.

Shahia arrived a few minutes late, as usual. His heart went out to her. Actually, now that he looked closely, he could see that she was breathing hard. She'd probably run to get to school on time.

He turned to her, once she'd started to get her breath back, and gave her a bright sunshiny "Hello! Great to see you! Welcome back to school!" She looked away without responding. Chris remembered how he'd thought she was being insulting, but now he knew better. He looked at her sadly; how tough her life was.

There was nothing interesting in the announcements, except that trials for the First Eleven soccer team were after school next Tuesday.

It was nine o'clock that night before he sat down to look at his homework. Where had the time gone? Did Shahia do this every night? He gave up after half an hour, and went downstairs to talk to his mum and dad.

He found them on the lounge suite, by following the soft moans. His mum had her feet up in his dad's lap, and he was massaging her feet. She smiled at him.