And Did Those Feet ... Read Online Free PDF Page B

muscley dudes. Scotty types. Short legs, sandy hair. The twins were like a matching salt and pepper set. Difficult to tell apart unless you knew what to look for. There was one way I remembered. I’d heard about it in a letter. Only Dougal talked. Ewan could but wouldn’t, except in extreme emergencies. Dougal talked for both of them. Then there was Wee Jock, which is Scottishfor what’s-his-name. He was at the crawling and gnawing stage.
    Aunty Lorna was the first to talk. “I suppose I shouldn’t say this, Sandy, but you’ve grown a foot since I saw you last.”
    â€œHey, I’ve always had two.”
    They all paused for a moment trying to work out where I was coming from, then realising it was one of my witty one-liners, all laughed on cue.
    She gave my shoulder a shove the way that boys do when you get one past them. “You know what I mean, last time I saw you, it must have been a few years ago now, you were smaller than the twins.” She had a sweet, sing-song voice with a bit of an accent, maybe Aussie, maybe Irish, I don’t do accents.
    â€œHow was the trip? We all thought you’d fly down.”
    â€œI tried but my arms were too weak.” They laughed, they were ready this time. “It was long. I tell ya, you can fly to Fiji in half the time.”
    â€œYou been to Fiji?” Dougal asked his eyes round with excitement..
    â€œOh yeah lots.”
    â€œWhere else?”
    â€œOh Bali, Vanuatu … we used to travel a lot once…” then I couldn’t carry on. There were always these little dead ends I came up against.
    â€œWell, you are going to find our place a bit different from Fiji, no coconut palms, no ‘Isa Lei’.”
    â€œYou’ve been there, Aunty Lorna?”
    â€œOh yes, Frank and I had our jet-setter phase. Then we stood still for a while and when we went to move, we found that we had put down roots.”
    â€œWhen you bought the farm?”
    She smiled and opened the door to the Landrover. “No. It was when we had this little posse.”
    Everyone piled into – and onto – the dented old beast. Dad used to bring home 4X4s but they were nothing like this. They were thick carpets, sat-nav and CD stackers; this was primitive. The seats were just squabs covered in this really prickly nylon, the dashboard tray was full of tools and strange farm-type equipment. The big tyres made a lot of noise on the road and cold air leaked through gaps in the floor.
    There were four of us squashed into the cab; Aunty Lorna driving, Iain holding Jock in the middle and me crammed up against the window. The rest of them bounced around on the back. Aunty Lorna drove like there was no tomorrow ; you could tell the boys liked it. She hooned this crate around corners really fast and bashed the gear stick back and forth to keep the revs up. We all flew around a bit in the cab because there was nothing to hold on to. It must have been even harder for the twins and Jamie who were on the back. Every now and then I caught glimpses of them shooting past the back window as we rocketed around corners.
    After about ten minutes we got off the sealed road and headed for the wild farms tucked into the ranges below Mount Taranaki. I could see the mountain, looming up before me, shrouded in white and gleaming in the early eveninglight. It was simple and impressive, like those mountains you draw when you’re a young fulla. A real upside down “V”. But it was more than this, the snow seemed to drape over its shoulders like a cape or a wedding dress. Against the pale pink and blue sky this huge shining pyramid made me feel that I was an ant crawling on an elephant. That I didn’t account for much.
    I couldn’t take my eyes off it.
    By the time we reached the farm gates it was getting dark. The sky was now brighter than the road which threaded darkly through endless hedge-rimmed paddocks. It was hard to talk over the noise