Six by Karen Tayleur Read Free Book Online Page A

business, unaware that I was looking down on them. There were so many places I hadn’t seen. So many people I had yet to meet. I wasn’t sure how I was going to fit everything I wanted to do into just one life.
    And then there was Finn.

    YEAR 12 JOURNAL, DAY 8
    1.20 p.m.
    I love English Language class.
    Today Finn talked to me. He touched me and talked to me and asked me for help with a question that he seemed to know the answer to. I don’t know if I made this up but I think he may have even smiled at me. Something’s changed and the idea of Finn and me is not just an unattainable dream anymore.
    On our way to the next class, Poppy said, ‘Maybe you should see the careers counsellor.’
    ‘Do you mean the nurse?’ I asked. I felt like I had Finn fever.
    ‘The careers counsellor,’ she repeated.
    ‘Why do I need to see the careers counsellor?’ I asked. ‘I’m going to be a doctor. I know what I have to do to be a doctor.’
    ‘Oh, Sarah.’ Poppy shook her head with a laugh. ‘You’re not going to be a doctor.’
    Then she skipped the rest of the way to class, like a five-year-old.
    And just for a moment I hated her.
    I hated that she thought I had a choice.

7
SARAH
    Autumn leaves are
    falling down
    falling down, falling down
    Autumn leaves are
    falling down
    my fair lady

    SOMETIMES YOU CAN miss autumn here in the ’burbs, for the warm days can stretch on forever. A sure sign that summer has gone is the end-of-season sales at Silver Valley Shopping Mall where prices are slashed, slashed, slashed to the bone. The days are still long in autumn, but the sun loses its kick and the light is kinder to the eyes. Here and there a timid red leaf will wave a flag of surrender before it drops to the ground, but mostly the trees are still green and the summer flowers are giving it one last fling. Some girls start draping their school scarf around their necks from the first day of autumn, but that’s usually more in an effort to hide make-out hickeys than to keep warm.
    I drove around the local streets that autumn with my aunts in their automatic transmission cars, trying to log enough hours to sit my driver’s licence. My family only had manual shift cars and I’d given up trying to work the clutch and the gears while still obeying the road rules. It was like my brain could only do one thing at a time. Aunt Elya was very bossy and made me drive about 20 kays an hour, gasping if I dared to go any faster or if I made a mistake. Aunt Aisah surprised me by being very cool and laid-back.
    ‘Very good, good girl Sarah,’ she would coo. ‘Perhaps next time, though, around the corner a little slower. I’m sure our neighbours would like to keep their letterbox.’
    If I had a favourite aunt, which I’m sure you’re not supposed to, it would be my Aunt Lili. Aunt Lili was my youngest aunt and the most likely to take my side if ever I was in trouble. She would always give me a secret wink and argue my case, even with my dad, which my mother would never dare do. Before she got married I used to have sleepovers at her flat where we’d watch romantic comedies and eat caramel popcorn until my teeth ached. I’d always thought she would be the one I would turn to for driving lessons, but that autumn my Aunt Lili was the size of a hot air balloon, pregnant with her first child. She was a constant presence on our home horizon and Mum was spending a lot of time with her, which left a lot of Mum’s jobs to me. Dad was often at the Council for this meeting or that, so some nights I would just heat up a dinner that had already been prepared for Jefri and me. Other nights I’d have to go to the local supermarket, which sat like a pink fluorescent mushroom among a field of cars, to shop for an instant dinner.
    Sometimes I’d talk to Cooper with his shifting eyes and nervous smile. Sometimes I’d see Nico in the deli and we’d say a few words, mainly about Poppy or school. We didn’t mention The Woods, but it was there between