Shimmer by Jennifer McBride Read Free Book Online

least midnight.’ He shrugged sheepishly. ‘Mum would never believe that the party finished earlier than that.’
    Kora yawned. ‘In that case,’ she said, ‘it is your turn to talk.’
    â€˜What do you want to know?’
    She shrugged. ‘Tell me about your father.’

Dreaming
    Kora sat bolt upright in bed. What was that dreadful screeching? The terrible noise was getting closer. She finally realised it was coming from a human and the accompanying click, click, click of high heels told her it was David’s mother. Stupid humans.
    She rose from her bed and moved to look out of her globe into David’s room.
    Amurru joined her. ‘Sleep well, Empress?’
    Kora knew Amurru had been a supporter of sending her to Earth. She spoke without even looking at him. ‘No. I dreamt of home.’
    â€˜Maybe you will enjoy your second day on Earth better, Empress.’
    She could taste the contempt on her tongue. ‘Two days on Earth is two days too many.’
    The morning light streamed through the open window of David’s room and she could see him in his bed. How could he still be asleep through that racket? The door to his room burst open.
    â€˜David Wolfe,’ shouted his mother. ‘You’d better have a good explanation for this!’
    David sat up and rubbed his eyes. ‘What is it?’
    â€˜Four Fs,’ she said waving a bit of paper wildly in the air. ‘You told me you were doing better at school.’
    â€˜Could have been worse,’ he shrugged. ‘I could have failed five subjects.’
    â€˜Don’t you take that attitude with me, young man.’ Red angry blotches broke out on Marcia’s face. ‘You’re lucky I didn’t open your report until this morning or there is no way you would have been gallivanting about with your new girlfriend last night.’
    Kora hissed. ‘As if I could ever be interested in a human.’
    His mother stomped further into the room to hover over David. ‘You are grounded. For the entire school holidays.’
    â€˜Come on, Mum. That’s not fair.’
    â€˜Your attitude is what’s not fair. You can spend the holidays at home doing chores and thinking about this report and how you could have done better. You can start today by fixing the fence, chopping the wood and cleaning out the chook yard.’
    â€˜What about my job?’
    â€˜You can go to work on Saturdays, but that’s all.’
    â€˜And the camping trip?’
    â€˜You can forget that, too. You’re grounded!’
    â€˜That sucks.’ David pushed his hand through his shaggy hair.
    Marcia leaned over until she was eye level with David. ‘Not as much as this report sucks.’ She grabbed a big handful of his hair. ‘And get your hair cut after work on Saturday or I’ll cut it off myself.’
    With a yank of his hair she stormed out of the room, slamming the door on her way out.
    Kora smiled. ‘I thought father had a temper.’
    â€˜Can you not see he is suffering, Empress?’
    â€˜Oh, poor baby with his little human problems. What about me!’
    â€˜The universe is bigger than just you, Empress.’ Amurru shook his head and shuffled away. ‘There is much for you to learn from humans.’
    She snorted and turned her attention back to David. He had moved across the room to look at the photo of his father. Last night when she had asked David about his father, all he would say was that he was ‘missing in action’. She was not sure what that meant, but what did she care? All she wanted was to get unharnessed and back to Genesia as quickly as possible.
    David put down the photo and yanked his wardrobe open. He grabbed out more of the boring clothes that he seemed to like. He yanked his old T-shirt off over his head. He had his back to Kora and she could see the muscles ripple with the action.
    He hesitated in the process of throwing the