Head of the River by Pip Harry Read Free Book Online

He’s doing chin-ups on a raised bar. He’s so light and wiry he makes it look easy.
    â€˜Where you been?’ he says, dropping like a cat to the ground.
    â€˜Longer run,’ I lie.
    I pull up my strength program on my phone and start with squats, threading a leather belt around my middle. Adam helps me lift the heavy plates onto the ends of the bar. I stand with both feet apart, keeping my back straight. My legs shake as I take the weight off and bend my knees, letting my muscles take the load. I do a few more reps than I would normally, thinking about Sam and our conversation.
    â€˜Are you okay, Leni? You’re so quiet today,’ Adam says as I shake out my thighs.
    â€˜I’m worried about Cris,’ I say.
    Adam touches my cheek and looks at me with a tenderness that makes me uncomfortable.
    â€˜He’ll be okay.’
    How could I tell him I was going over my conversation with Sam in my head. Wishing it had gone another direction. Imagining I had said something different than the stupid comment about impressing the coaches. I could have said: ‘Why do you do all those ergos? Because you can’t not do them? Because something inside you says you have to? That not doing them makes you feel like you’re missing a piece?’
    And he would have nodded and said, ‘That’s exactly it. You really get me.’
    Cristian
    Leni barges into my room after her afternoon row, peppering me with questions. I’ve called in sick to Patto. He had a go at me and told me to pull my head in and get back down to the river. ‘No time for sulking in rowing. I’ve been dropped from more crews than I can count. We’ll do land training tonight but I’ll expect to see you tomorrow morning, otherwise you’re wasting everyone’s time.’
    â€˜Yes, sir,’ I said in a dead voice, hanging up my phone.
    I’ve done nothing but sit around, eat, watch TV and sleep. I feel sluggish and bloated. The only high point was getting a text from Penny saying she was thinking of me. I keep opening it and looking at it. It has a heart emoticon.
    â€˜What’s going on? Why is Sam Cam rowing in your seat?’ asks Leni.
    I put my hands up in surrender. ‘Relax, take a load off.’
    Leni flops into a beanbag, breathless.
    â€˜Until I drop the weight and improve my fitness I’m rowing in the seconds.’
    â€˜What are they thinking? You’re the best rower in the squad.’
    â€˜I dunno about that. Sam beat me by a mile this morning. Even if I didn’t fall in, I wouldn’t have won.’
    â€˜Everyone’s taken a swim in the Yarra. It’s a rite of passage.’
    â€˜You haven’t.’
    â€˜There’s still time.’
    Dad storms down the hall and comes in without knocking.
    â€˜Have you been dropped to seconds?’ he shouts.
    â€˜Dad, calm down!’ I say.
    â€˜This crazy! Cristian, one day you row for Romania … Australia. Whichever country you choose. You’re out because why?’
    â€˜Because too fat and too unfit,’ I say, feeling overwhelmed. ‘They want me to drop 15 kilos. How am I going to lose 15 kay-gees?’ I ask him, deadly serious. The coach’s scare tactic has worked. I’m terrified I can’t do it.
    Dad calms down and sits on my bed.
    â€˜When I was a young man, like you, I would eat, eat, eat. Eating all the time. My mother was always feeding me. Stews, cakes, bread. So I got fat.’
    He puffs out his cheeks to illustrate. ‘I not make youth team for European Cup if I don’t lose weight. I liked watermelon, so I ate watermelon. For three months. I get skinny. Made crew. Won championship. I never eat watermelon again.’
    â€˜You ate only watermelon, every day, for months?’ I ask. Some of Dad’s stories have to be made up.
    â€˜Yes. That’s what I say.’
    â€˜No offence, but nutrition has changed a bit since the olden