Кристин Ханна – Rirefly Lane / Улица Светлячков. Книга для чтения на английском языке (страница 10)
Kate shrugged, but scooted to the left to make room for her mom.
“You know, Katie, life is—”
Kate couldn’t help groaning. Not another life-is speech.
Mom surprised her by laughing. “Okay, no more speeches. Maybe you’re too old for that.” She paused at the altar on the dresser. “You haven’t made one of these since Georgia was in chemo[62]. Who needs our prayers?”
“Tully’s mom has cancer and she was ra—” She snapped her mouth shut, horrified by what she’d nearly revealed. For most of her life she’d told her mother everything; now she had a best friend, though, so she’d need to be careful.
Mom sat down on the bed beside Kate, just as they did after every fight. “Cancer? That’s quite a load for a girl your age to carry.”
“Tully seems cool with it.”
“Does she?”
“She seems cool with everything,” Kate said, unable to keep the pride out of her voice.
“How so?”
“You wouldn’t understand.”
“I’m too old, huh?”
“I didn’t say that.”
Mom smoothed the hair off Kate’s forehead in a touch that was as familiar as breathing. Kate always felt five years old when her mom did that. “I’m sorry you thought I was judging your friend.”
“You should be.”
“And you’re sorry for being so mean to me, right?”
Kate couldn’t help smiling. “Yeah.”
“I’ll tell you what: Why don’t you invite Tully over for dinner Friday night?”
“You’ll love her. I know you will.”
“I’m sure I will,” Mom said, kissing her forehead. “Night.”
“Night, Mom.”
Long after her mother had left and the house had gone quiet for the night, Kate lay there, too wound up to sleep. She couldn’t wait to invite Tully for dinner. Afterward, they could watch
– talk about boys and kissing and—
Kate sat up. That wasn’t a bird on the roof or a mouse in the walls.
It was a small rock, hitting the glass!
She threw the covers back and hurried to the window, shoving it open.
Tully was in her backyard, holding a bike beside her. “Come on down,” she said, much too loudly, making a hurry gesture with her hand.
“You want me to sneak out?”
“Uh. Duh.”
Kate had never done anything like this, but she couldn’t act like a nerd now. Cool kids broke the rules and sneaked out of the house. Everyone knew that. Everyone knew, too, that trouble could follow. And this was exactly what her mom had been talking about.
Kate didn’t care about that. What mattered was Tully.
“I’m on my way.” Closing the window, she looked around for clothes. Fortunately, her overalls were in the corner, folded neatly beneath a black sweatshirt. She slipped out of her old Scooby-Doo jammies and dressed quickly, then crept down the hall. As she passed her parents’ bedroom, her heart was pounding so fast she felt light-headed. The stairs creaked ominously with every footfall, but finally she made it.
At the back door she paused just long enough to think,
Tully was there, waiting. Beside her was the most amazing bike Kate had ever seen. It had curly handlebars, a tiny kidney-shaped seat on a platform, and a bunch of cables and wires. “Wow,” she said. It would take a lot of berry-picking money to get a bike like that.
“It’s a ten-speed,” Tully said. “My grandma gave it to me last Christmas. You want to ride it?”
“No way.” Kate closed the door quietly behind her. In the carport she found her old pink bicycle with the U-shaped handlebars, flower decaled banana seat, and white wicker basket. It was hopelessly uncool; a little girl’s bike.
Tully didn’t even seem to notice. They mounted up and rode down the wet, bumpy driveway to the paved road. There, they veered left and kept going. At Summer Hill, Tully said, “Watch this. Do what I do.”
They crested the hill as if they were flying. Kate’s hair whipped back from her head; tears stung her eyes. All around them black trees whispered in the breeze. Stars glittered in the velvet black sky.
Tully leaned back and put her arms out. Laughing, she glanced at Kate. “Try it.”
“I can’t. We’re going too fast.”
“That’s the point.”
“It’s dangerous.”
“Come on. Let go, Katie. God hates a coward.” Then, quietly, she added, “Trust me.”
Now Kate had no choice. Trust was part of being friends, and Tully wouldn’t hang out with a chicken. “Come on,” she said to herself, trying to sound stern.
Taking a deep breath, she said a prayer and eased her arms out.
She was flying, sailing through the night sky, down the hill. The air smelled of the riding stable nearby, of horses and sweet hay. She heard Tully laughing beside her, but before she could even smile, something went wrong. Her front tire hit a rock; the bike bucked like a Brahman bull[64] and twisted sideways, catching Tully’s tire in its arc.
She screamed, reached for the handlebars, but it was too late. She was in the air, really flying this time. The pavement rushed up, smacked her hard, and she skidded across it, landing in a heap in a muddy ditch.
Tully rolled across the asphalt and slammed into her. The bikes clattered to the ground.
Dazed, Kate stared up at the night sky. Every part of her hurt. Her left ankle might be broken. It felt swollen, tender. She could feel where the road had ripped off her skin in patches.
“That was
“Are you kidding? We could have been killed.”
“Exactly.”
Kate winced in pain as she tried to get up. “We should get out of this ditch. A car could come along—”
“But wasn’t that cool? Wait till we tell the kids about this.”
The kids at school. This would be a
And suddenly Kate was laughing, too.
They helped each other to their feet and retrieved their bikes. By the time they were across the road, Kate barely noticed where she was hurt. She felt like a different girl suddenly – bolder, braver, willing to try anything. So what if trouble followed a night like this? What was a sprained ankle or a bloody knee next to an adventure? For the past two years she’d followed all the rules and stayed home on weekend nights. No more.
They left their bikes by the side of the road and limped toward the river. In the moonlight, everything looked milky and beautiful – the silvery waves, the jagged rocks along the shore.
Tully sat down by a decaying, moss-covered nurse log in a place where the grass was as thick as shag carpeting.
Kate sat down beside her, so close their knees were almost touching. Together they stared up at the star-spangled sky. The song of the river floated toward them, sounded like a young girl’s laugh. Just now, with the world so still and silent, it was as if the breeze had drawn in its cool breath and left them all alone in this place that until right now had been just another bend in a river that flooded every autumn.
“I wonder who named our street,” Tully said. “I haven’t seen any fireflies.”