Isolation

Inter-school dancing lessons are great. I get a chance to actually touch a girl. I always try to dance with Pam. She never talks to me much. I think it’s my pimples. I want to hug her, but I guess pimples are contagious. I told her about the elevation that different types of steam engines can cope with up a hill and what the wheel configurations mean, but she just sighed. I think she was tired. She asked me if I liked Peabody Clam. I said I wasn’t too keen on seafood. She sighed again and told me it was an American pop group.

She walked away after our dance together. I watched her go. She has nice legs. I wondered what undies she wore. I like that green ribbon in her hair, but it was a bit crooked.

When I got home, Mum yelled at me. ‘What’s that lump of ice cream that’s melted on the bedroom carpet? I’ll never get it out.’ I wondered what had happened to my ice cream. For some time, watching my iPad in bed, I was sucking on an empty stick. Mum said she was not going to talk to me for a week. There could be benefits in that.  

Dad never talks to me anyway, ever since I broke his golf club trying to swat a possum on the roof. He thinks I’m a dud because I do poorly in my exams. Who cares about past tense clauses or that lichen is a mix of moss and fungus?’ I know more about racing car logistics than anyone in my class. The last time I tried to talk to my dad about something, I think it was helicopter robotics; he said I needed to take a shower. I told him I had one the day before yesterday, a long one. Took nearly half an hour. Practiced my singing till Mum told me to shut up and take my bicycle out of the kitchen. I took it there because I had to get to the food cupboard quickly after school. She was not talking to me again. I think it was the tyre marks.

I tried to talk to Wayne at school. I told him I thought his schoolbag was great with those Ferrari stickers. He called me a turd for putting chewing gum on his chair. His mum couldn’t get it out of his pants. I said it wasn’t me. I didn’t think he’d mind. He went off to play football with the other kids.

I went home by the river alone, as usual. I stood and looked at the water. I wondered if all my life was going to be like this. Being fifteen is not much good. Never mind. I look forward to dancing with Pam at the next dancing lesson. I’ll put pimple cream on and tell her about a new shoe-making machine I saw on YouTube. It’s great. It cuts the leather and sews on the soles…