Daylight Saving Read Online Free PDF Page A

nosebleeds, was beginning to look normal compared to Leisure World. I checked that my swim trunks were still in the rucksack, and I left the cabin.
    Chrissy, the older of the two sisters, was out in the garden next door, putting last night’s leftovers in the bin. “Hey,” she said. “Daniel. Wait up.”
    I stopped. “Hi,” I said.
    She crept close to where I was standing with the bike. “I wanted to talk to you.”
    “OK,” I said.
    “Your dad,” she said.
    “Oh,” I said.
    “He came over to the barbecue last night.”
    Maybe,
I thought,
he went to the barbecue, drank a cup of tea, and told a funny and charming story. Maybe not.
    “He seemed a bit . . . worse for wear. Was he OK when he got home?”
    “Fine.”
    “Does he usually drink like that?” she asked.
    “Everybody needs to cut loose once in a while.”
    She smiled and her shoulders dropped. “He reminds me of my ex-husband,” she said. “Running too fast because he thinks he might be able to get away from himself.”
    “I’ve got to go,” I said.
    “You know, you seem stressed out, Dan. I practice Reiki. It’s basically a way to relax. A bit like massage. Maybe I could book you in for a session.”
    “I’ve got to go,” I said.
    I grabbed the Shopper and left.
    I didn’t really know why I was going to the Tropical Dome. I had forgotten about swimming as an activity. As a kid, I had liked it. Mum had taught me to overcome my fear when I was small. We’d gone straight to the deep end at the local pool. “Are you scared?” she had said.
    “Yes,” I’d said.
    “What are you scared of?” she’d said.
    “Sinking to the bottom.”
    “OK,” she’d said. We had climbed into the water together. “Try and sink,” she had said. I looked at her like she was mad. “Go on, I’ve got you.”
    Of course, I couldn’t. It was impossible to sink. Once I knew that, I was fine.
    For obvious reasons, I hadn’t swum since the toddlerbody incident, but seeing the way Lexi had cruised through the lake, I remembered that it could be a pleasure.
    The atmosphere in the Tropical Dome was close and muggy. Once you were in there, it was difficult to tell the real plants from the fake. Women lay on their loungers, drinking brightly colored juices, while the men read the paper or slept. Music blared out from the café shack. The wave machine came on every hour for fifteen minutes, and it was on now, so all the kids were in the water, their screams rising into the Dome’s upper atmosphere. I didn’t want to go in there with the inflatable alligators and the pissing children, so I waited near some thick vegetation, still wearing my T-shirt. I heard a voice above me.
    “You OK, matey?”
    It was the lifeguard, sitting on his high seat at the top of some scaffolding. He was about eighteen, with long dyed-blond hair, red shorts, and a white tank top.
    “I’m fine,” I called up.
    “Looking a bit edgy, man.”
    “I’m just waiting for the waves to finish,” I said.
    “Yeah, good call. Good call.” He climbed down from the seat. He wore a necklace strung with brown and white beads and animal teeth. “Even
I
wouldn’t go in there at the minute,” he said.
    “What if someone was in trouble?” I said.
    He laughed. “Nice one. Yeah, I’d go in if I
had
to. But it’s like
Pirates of the Caribbean.
Without the hot girls. I’m Ryan,” he said.
    “Daniel,” I said.
    He blinked slowly and held out his hand for one of those high-grip handshakes. I thought back to the fist bump with Lexi: I was lost in a world of special handshakes. “Good to meet you, man,” he said.
    “Do you like working here?” I asked.
    “You can’t beat the Dome. Hot all year-round. Where else in this stupid country can you wear shorts in October?”
    I thought of winter PE on the rugby field, shivering and hoping I’d get hit just to numb myself from the cold, or so I could leave the field injured. Not that the teachers would let me.
Come on, Lever. Hefty lad like