Catch by Sarah Brill Extract

Read an extract from Catch by Sarah Brill.

Sometimes life suddenly changes. For me, everything changed on a Friday.

I was walking home with two shopping bags stuffed full of everything Mum needed for dinner when I had a sudden urge to throw up. It was so sudden, so strong, I stopped walking. I put the bags down, looked up and there he was. Falling towards me. He’d been painting a sign above the bookshop and fallen from a long ladder.

I stretched out my arms and he fell into them.

Everyone around us kept walking like nothing had happened. Like it was normal for a sixteen-year-old to be standing on the footpath holding a man in her arms.

He looked only a little older than me. Solid and unshaven. Blue eyes and strawberry-blond hair. I could feel the muscles in his back and legs as I held him. I would have blushed if I wasn’t so surprised. He was wearing overalls covered in dried paint of various colours and he held a paintbrush in his hand.

He cleared his throat like he was trying to interrupt my thoughts and said, in a strong Irish accent, ‘Would you mind putting me down now?’

I reluctantly let him go. I liked holding him. I liked that large, solid body in my arms. He didn’t feel heavy to me. He felt like comfort. I helped him get steady on his feet.

He looked at me, and then he looked at the paintbrush, covered in light blue paint, in his hand.

‘Thank you.’

It was weirdly formal.

‘No problem.’

We stared at each other for a bit longer.

‘Well . . .’ he said, as a kind of goodbye.

‘Okay,’ I said, like I was giving him permission to leave.

He tried to smile. I think he was in shock. I might have been too. He looked up to the sign he’d only half finished, and shook his head a little, like he’d decided to never go up a ladder again. The sign read More Boo in light blue script. The rest of the sign was the clean, bright white of the background. He walked away in the opposite direction from me, the paintbrush still in his hand.

The bookshop was one of the few low-rise buildings left on the street. Buildings were being knocked down now to make room for taller apartment buildings with shops below. The bookshop owner was going to be a bit surprised by the half-finished sign and the ladder still in place.

I picked up the shopping bags and kept walking.

At home Mum was frantic. She’d left work later than she wanted to and was trying to clean the house and prepare dinner at the same time. It wasn’t good. The house was getting messier and the dishes for dinner were all only half made. Some of them were waiting for the ingredients I’d just bought, others had been put aside because she’d become distracted by cleaning.

Mum’s hair, which was short and curly and often out of place, looked as chaotic as the house. My sister Meg had invited her boyfriend Rik and his parents over. Mum was freaking out because she didn’t know what to cook or how to behave.

‘I just want everything to be right, you know, Beth? For Meg.’

I put the yoghurt, pomegranate and basil on the bench along with everything else I’d bought and took the broom from Mum’s hand. I had grown over the summer, in a sudden and surprising burst, after being the smallest one in the family for so long. I was still trying to get used to my bigger feet, my bigger frame. But mostly, I was still trying to get used to looking down at the top of Mum’s head.

‘I’m sure it will be fine, Mum.’

I swept the floor. It wasn’t really dirty, but I wanted to look busy so Mum didn’t ask me to get the seeds out of the pomegranate. Mum was hunting through the cupboards looking for salad bowls and starting to fire out her questions. Mum was a social worker. Conversations with her were often more like interviews. I kept my head down. Mum’s questions didn’t always need answers. Sometimes she just needed to ask the questions.

Today they were things like:

‘Why do you think Meg wants us to meet them now?’

‘Why here rather than a restaurant?’

‘Are you sure your new uniform is long enough?’

‘How are you feeling about starting Year Eleven?’

‘Do you think your father will get home in time?’

‘Is it going to rain?’

Dad got home from his bike shop in time to shower, change and finish off a few of the dishes Mum had started. I assured Mum that my uniform was long enough and Year Eleven was most likely going to be just like Year Ten. It was probably the wrong thing to say, but it was the best I could come up with at the time. I managed to avoid answering any questions about Meg by going to set the table. I knew what the evening was about. I’d known for a few weeks, but it wasn’t my news to tell.

When Rik and his parents arrived there was a lot of polite hand-shaking. Mum and Dad had been debating whether they should do a traditional Japanese bow to greet them, but Rik’s parents put out their right hands straight away and introduced themselves as Mariko and Tadashi. They asked us to call them Mari and Tad. Everyone seemed happy with that and moved inside to have a drink.

Meg waited until we were all sitting down at the table and the dishes had been passed around before she just came out with it. By that point Mum was probably thinking it was going pretty well. Everyone had food, Rik’s parents seemed to be enjoying themselves. Mum must have thought she’d passed the hardest hurdle of the night.

Then Meg spoke.

‘Rik and I are having a baby. It’s due in June, which is pretty good timing school-wise. We aren’t going to get married or live together, but Rik will be here a lot to help with the baby while I’m studying for my exams. At the end of the year we’ll work out whether we move in together, but for now the baby and I will be here and Rik will be at his home. No one will be giving up their study or plans.’

Meg looked around the table. Everyone had stopped eating. She said in a quieter voice, ‘We’re really excited about this, and we want you to be too.’

Meg waited, but when no else spoke up she started to eat again. Everyone sat watching her. Mum looked at Dad, then at Rik’s parents. Dad looked from Mum to Meg, but then somehow his gaze got stuck on Rik. Rik’s mum, Mari, couldn’t look at anyone but Rik. Rik’s dad, Tad, was looking around at anything, anything that wasn’t a person.

I sat looking at my hands. There was light blue paint on them I hadn’t noticed until this moment. I knew Meg would want me to say something to break the tension. I thought back to the Irishman in my arms and considered telling the story to the table. I tried to imagine their reactions, and all I could see was them staring at me for telling such a ridiculous story at a time like this.

Mari stood up. She said, ‘Riku,’ in a tone that made Rik stand up too. They walked out into the backyard, shutting the door behind them. Then she started. We could hear everything, and even though she was speaking in Japanese the message was pretty clear. Rik hung his head for a bit, then tried to talk to her, but she cut him off and spoke some more.

At the table Meg kept eating. I scratched at the paint on my hands and wondered what the painter was doing now, whether he’d ever climb a ladder again or even keep working as a painter. Tad tried to continue to eat the salad on his plate. He smiled at us and complimented Mum on the meal. After a few more minutes of trying to be polite, he excused himself and went to retrieve his wife and son.

Tad came back into the house with his family behind him and announced that they would be leaving now. Mari wouldn’t look at anyone.

Rik kissed Meg quickly. ‘I’ll call you later.’

Meg nodded into her food and kept eating.

Mum followed them out. ‘It was lovely to meet you both.’

Tad herded Mari and Rik into the car.

Mum kept trying. ‘We should do this again soon.’

He closed the car doors, trapping his family, and came back to Mum. He took her hands. ‘It will be okay. She just needs some time.’

Mum nodded. She needed some time too.

Extracted from Catch by Sarah Brill, available 30 September wherever books are sold!

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Catch

by Sarah Brill

A unique and irresistible YA coming-of-age story about sixteen-year-old Beth, who discovers she has a life-saving gift. A superb novel about finding out what it takes to be an unlikely hero.

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