Better on our own - English

Hard Words

My parents got me my own car. That was so cool! Sure, it was linked to the condition that I came home more often than just every 5 weeks, but also because they were worried that I would be lost here, at the end of the world, as they thought about this area, and not would get anywhere if I didn't have a car.

My parents had taken it surprisingly well that I wanted to drive back during the morning and I didn't have to use the lie I had prepared. It would have kept me awake every night for three nights at least if I had to lie to my parents - even if it was for a good cause like our investigation into the Senny's case!

There was a knock and I looked up to see Cody poking his head in through the door. I was lying on the bed reading a book and looking at him questioningly.

"Do you have time?" he asked me curiously and I could see that he seemed terribly bored, even though I had just heard him laughing loudly while he was playing with Penny a short time before. She went along with pretty much every nonsense he came up with and her imagination seemed just as limitless when they turned a simple game of tag into hunting an evil dragon or a game of hide-and-seek into finding a dinosaur that needed to be captured for the rescue of the humanity.

"Sure. What's on your mind, buddy?" I replied to him and sat up, putting the bookmark in the book and putting it on the bedside table.

"On my mind? Nothing. Mum is hanging out the washing outside and having a chat with Helen. She came to check on her foot," he replied with a shrug of his shoulders and sat down next to me. Penny's sprained ankle hadn't stopped Penny from going to work. However, the last two days of the week she had been more focused on office work, which, along with her limp, I could tell was worse than she was openly admitting.

"Ah, and you're bored?" I said with a grin and Cody grinned too.

"Can we go for a ride?" he asked me, pulling his Switch out from behind his back to excitedly present it to me.

"If your Mum is around? I don't know, Cody. She'll know straight away what really happened to her vase and her curtains," I replied uncertainly, running my hand down the back of my neck. Penny hadn't said anything about the vase and the curtains yet, but I was still afraid that she would and that all her pent-up anger would be released then.

"It really was the cat. We weren't lying!" Cody stated perplexed, and I had to laugh.

"True, but Miss Pawdry only did that because we scared her with the karts," I reminded him.

"Oh come on. She's outside too. See?" He jumped up and pointed out the window into the garden. I followed him and actually saw Penny sitting on a bench with Helen, Miss Pawdry curled up on her lap and a basket of laundry on the grass with the contents yet to be put on the line. We actually seemed to have some time.

"Okay, but only on the lower floor and we'll keep an eye on your Mum! Withdraw as soon as she comes back in!", I gave in and Cody nodded eagerly at my rules before he ran to the drawer of the cupboard and took the karts out. He already knew exactly where I had the interesting things.

We had half an hour in which Cody told me that the mayor had visited Penny on Friday night after he had been in bed and he had heard the front door open late and then a car driving away. Plus he would have been to the cinema with them. I had to get it out of the boy, but he had been offended that the mayor had ruined his evening with his Mum, even though Mr. Davies had seemed to be trying really hard to score points with the boy. At least Cody had picked up a big bag of popcorn, nachos and chocolate chips, the latter of which he had brought with him and was now gleefully sharing with me as we raced the karts through the lower floor - this time without a marked race track.