Chapter 13
“Oh Dad, you gave me such a fright.” Meredith laughed rather hysterically as her father grinned at her and helped her climb out of the boat.
“Playing pirates were you?” he said to Cory.
“Um, yeah, that’s right. I hope it was okay. We just sat in it and sort of pretended it was going,” stammered Cory.
“That’s fine. I can’t wait to get out in it myself. How about we have a day fishing tomorrow? The tide will be right if we leave just before lunch.”
“Great,” said Cory grinning back at him.
“What are you doing back so soon Dad? We thought you were coming tomorrow.”
“I managed to sort it out a bit earlier than I expected so I changed my flight. Your mother said she thought you were playing in the boat. Now I’m going to take Cory and buy him that bike I promised him. Then you two can get out and explore instead of being stuck round here all the time.”
“It hasn’t been too bad, actually,” said Meredith with a mischievous look at Cory.
Cory was delighted. He enjoyed this sort of shopping, he decided, as Brian let him choose which bike he wanted and joined in a serious discussion about gears and tyres. They bought a bright red helmet to match the bike and loaded it carefully onto the roof rack of the car.
Maggie made a batch of sandwiches and packed generous slices of apple shortcake and chocolate fudge so that Meredith and Cory could go straight out for a ride.
“Just stay on the side roads and steer clear of the main highway,” advised Brian.
The rest of the day passed in glorious freedom as Meredith showed Cory some of the local attractions. They went to the waterhole at the river where Meredith pointed out the best place for diving.
“We can come back in summer when the weather’s a bit warmer,” she said. They rode to a large park where they played for a while on the climbing tower, complete with swings and slide. There were a few boys kicking a ball around at one end of the park and Cory decided to come back on his own sometime and see if he could join the game. As he climbed into bed that night, tired but happy, Cory decided that life was pretty good.
“I hope I catch a fish tomorrow,” was his last thought before he fell asleep.
The next morning Meredith came into his room just as he was waking up.
“Psst Cory,” she whispered.
“What is it?”
“Now that Dad’s home and we’re going out in the boat the magic might not work anymore. It didn’t work yesterday when he was holding onto the boat.”
“Well it’s been pretty good while it lasted.”
“Yes, but let’s have one more turn. If we go straight after breakfast we can go for an adventure somewhere. It would be great to go back to one of the places we’ve been, but definitely not the pirate ship, or even somewhere different.”
“Okay, okay,” muttered Cory sleepily.
Fortunately Brian and Maggie had some business to discuss after breakfast so Cory and Meredith were able to slip away to the shed.
“Where shall we go?” asked Meredith happily once they were in the boat.
“Well,” Cory hesitated, “I’d really like to go back to that pirate ship and see if Joshua managed to take over it and beat the pirates,” he said in a rush.
“No,” wailed Meredith. “I don’t want to. It was horrible and we decided we’d never go back there.”
“I didn’t decide anything of the sort.”
You said it was horrible. You said you didn’t want to go there again ever,”
“Well, I’ve changed my mind,” said Cory firmly, “and now I do want to go back.” He reached across and started pushing in numbers on the GPS panel.
“No,” shouted Meredith. “I won’t let you. I want to go somewhere else.” She clawed at Cory’s hands and started trying to punch in different numbers.
“Stop it,” said Cory.
“No!”
“Let go.” Cory shoved Meredith aside and savagely punched the sliver button on the GPS. There was a sharp crack and the panel split across the centre, a couple of torn wires hanging forlornly from the gap.
Cory and Meredith were shocked into silence.
“I think it’s broken,” said Meredith in a small voice. “Dad will be furious. It cost hundreds of dollars when he bought it.”
Cory felt sick. What a thing to happen. Not only was it the end of the magic adventures, Brian would be so angry he probably wouldn’t take Cory out fishing. Ever. In fact he might not even want Cory to stay.
Cory felt even sicker. He and Meredith walked slowly back to the house where Maggie and Brian were sitting in Brian’s study.
“Um Dad. We’ve done something terrible,” said Meredith in a small voice. Both her parents spun round to stare at her.
“What have you done?” Brian briskly.
“We broke the GPS in the boat,” said Meredith with a sob.
“I did it,” Cory burst out. “It wasn’t Meredith’s fault. It was mine. We were playing in there and I hit it too hard and it cracked.” He began to shake as Brian looked at him sternly.
“Right. Well, you’ve told me. I take it this was an accident, was it? You didn’t do it on purpose?”
“Of course it was an accident,” protested Meredith.
Cory nodded in agreement. “It was my fault though, even if it was an accident,” he explained.
Brian nodded while Maggie bit her lip.
“Okay, I’ll look at the damage later. Now you’d better both run along as Maggie and I have something to discuss.
Cory crept to his room miserably and lay on his bed where he buried his head in the pillow and wished he could relive this day. “Why did I have to do that? Why do I always muck things up?”
He could hear the murmur of voices from the study.
“They’re discussing me,” he thought. “They won’t want me here now.” He thought back on all the times he had been unhelpful to Maggie or impatient with Meredith and wished he could change them.
“I might as well start packing,” he thought dismally.
He looked at the clothes Maggie had made and realised that they wouldn’t all fit in his suitcase.
“I’ll have to get some plastic bags,” he thought wretchedly and went out to the kitchen just as Maggie was showing someone in at the front door. With a sinking heart Cory saw that it was Ms Lannigan.
“Come in here, Cory,” called Maggie. “We all want to talk to you.”
Cory stumbled into the living room, wrapped in misery. The frozen feeling was back inside him and he felt sick. It took two or three minutes before he was able to hear what Ms Lannigan was saying
“I said, how do you feel about staying here, Cory? Mr and Mrs Miller have decided they would like you to be a permanent part of their family.”
“Stay here?” said Cory in a daze. “But I broke the GPS.”
“Oh accidents happen,” laughed Brian. “The insurance will cover it and anyway it was a pretty old model. Now I have an excuse to buy myself the latest technology.” He winked at his wife
“Are you feeling all right Cory?” asked Maggie “You’re very pale.” She came over, frowning, and put a hand on Cory’s’ forehead.
“I’m fine,” croaked Cory, as he realised that this was now his home. “I feel great. I, I just don’t know what to say. “
Turning to Maggie he threw his arms around her in a hug. Maggie hugged him back then her eyes sparkling with tears of joy said, “I’d better make some lunch. We’ll all go for a picnic on the boat and do some fishing to celebrate.”
A few weeks later Cory helped Brian to install the new GPS on the boat.
“Look at that,” said Brian proudly as they chugged out of the harbour. ”This tells me exactly where I am at all times. What do you think of that, then?”
Cory glanced across at Meredith and they both laughed.
“I think it’s magic,” said Cory.
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