The Island of Dragons (Rockpools Book 4), Gregg Dunnett [books to improve english .txt] 📗

motor down the creek towards the sea. Dad gets me to steer the whole way, and as the creek widens into the estuary, we pull up the sails. The new mainsail is a dark red color, it comes from a really old, traditional-style boat, and the foresail comes from an old racing yacht, so they’re not exactly matched, but together they work well, and we cut through the water nicely. As we meet the sea there’s a swell, but she rides it well. We take turns to helm, and we play music, and drink coffee and sing and play silly games, like I-spy, and guess the animal, which I always win, because Dad only knows the most basic fish, and I hit him with really obscure crustaceans and mollusks. But he doesn’t mind, and then he starts to win by making up animals that don’t exist, but that his Mom used to make up stories about. It’s nice, because he doesn’t often talk about his family.

It doesn’t feel like eight hours later that we have to start the engine again to motor into the marina in Boston, and I get the sad feeling again, but only for a while because I’m really hungry by then, and it’s nice when we do get in, to go for a meal and eat lots. After that Dad asks if I want to sleep on the boat, or go back to my apartment.

I actually got lucky about that too. The university nearly rented it out again, when they thought I was dead, only then the new student dropped out of college, so she didn’t move in after all. And then Dad got back in contact with them, and said I’d still need it, because I wasn’t dead after all.

I tell him I’d better go back tonight. Or I might not go at all. He just looks at me and nods.

But in the end it’s less weird than I thought it would be. Dad comes with me, and I don’t know if he had too much beer with dinner or what, but he’s full of energy, and suddenly really funny. Guy and Jimbo and the girls are all there, just watching TV, and they’re full of questions about what happened. And I answer some of them, but Dad does most of the talking. And Dad can be kinda cool when he wants to be, with the way he tells jokes and goofs about. We ended up talking until two in the morning, and Guy even offered him some of his drugs, but Dad said no. Dad’s cool like that too.

The next day I had to go into college to explain why I missed so many classes and tutorials, and find out what was going to happen about it. Dad offered to come with me again, but this time I said I wanted to do it alone. It wasn't just me and Lawrence, it was a proper meeting with the head of the Marine Biology faculty, and two other professors. One of them was Professor Little – do you remember him? The one with the extremely interesting invertebrates, the pistol shrimp? I had to tell my whole story again, and they asked a load of questions, and only when I’d finished did they start asking about my class work. I’d missed about a third of my classes, and I thought they might make me repeat the whole year, which would have been really boring. But they didn’t. Lawrence showed them the grades of the work I had done, and they said I could go into the second year, just as long as I complete all the work I’ve missed. So I’m going to be busy. Oh, and I won’t have Lawrence for my tutor next year either. Professor Little said I’ll be with him. So that’s cool.

I still have to attend my weekly class at the Harvard campus, and it’s two weeks later that I bump into her. Lily, I mean. I suppose I knew it would happen sooner or later. It’s almost exactly like the first time we met too, on the same corner, only this time I’m not running and I don’t knock her books to the floor. Instead we both just stop. And Lily speaks first.

“Hi Billy.”

I don’t know what to say. She’s sent me two messages since it all happened. The first said she was glad I was still alive. The second asked to meet up. But I didn’t reply to either.

“Hello Lily,” I say, and I step to the side, to get around her, and back to my next class, but she puts her hand on my arm.

“Billy, can we talk? Please?”

“I have a class.”

“Come on. You’ll catch up.”

“I am catching up.”

A hint of a smile shows on her lips, and then fades away. I try not to watch, because my stomach is churning like I’ve had eight cups of coffee. She’s still so beautiful. It’s like I’d almost forgotten how beautiful.

“Let me buy you a coffee.”

“I don’t think I want a coffee.”

“Something stronger then? Come on Billy. We really should talk.”

I want to ask what we have to talk about, after she got back together with James just one week after she thought I’d died. But at the same time, I guess it’s inevitable that we talk sometime. And I do have someone in my next class I can get the notes from now. Do you remember her? The mature student, Linda Reynolds?

“OK. But I’ll just have a water.”

“Great. Come on.” Lily leads me across the square to where there’s a coffee shop.

I sit down in a booth by the window, while Lily goes to get drinks. She gets me a coffee, even though I said I didn’t want one. Plus a bottle of water. I stare at both of them.

“I guess you want to know what happened?”

“Not really.”

But she tells me anyway.

“I told you about how Dad runs the company, it wasn’t bad. He didn’t put profits above everything