Free Why I Let My Hair Grow Out by Maryrose Wood Page B

what I did.

nine
    â€œMor? Open your eyes, luv. it’s your Old pal colin talking.”
    I wanted to stay inside the soft fur of the cloak, wrapped in the warmth of Fergus’s voice, but there was something freezing cold on top of my head and I came to with a violent shiver.
    â€œToo cold!” I said. My eyes flew open. Colin’s face was very close to mine, his cornflower-blue eyes gazing at me with concern. I could smell his spicy drugstore aftershave, mixed with the faint aroma of cola and cigarettes. Quite pleasant, actually.
    â€œYou smell good,” I mumbled.
    His face turned pink and he jumped back about a foot. “Well, if you’re busy smellin’ people I guess that means you’re alive,” he said, with an embarrassed smile. “Can you sit up, then?”
    Of course I could sit up. Why wouldn’t I be able to—but as I moved, my head throbbed and I was hit by a wave of nausea. Colin moved with me, maintaining a constant distance as if we were dancing, and I realized he was holding an ice pack on top of my head.
    I looked around, turning my head as little as possible because of the ice pack and also so I wouldn’t make myself puke. We were by the side of the road, in the same spot where I’d wiped out. My bike was lying on the ground, looking a bit bent, and I was sitting in the dirt in a shallow ditch alongside. The skin on my right forearm was scraped and raw, and on my right leg the sweatpants were stuck to my skin. A dark spot of blood below my knee was seeping through the fabric.
    Colin was in the dirt next to me. Patty and Lucy Faraday were standing behind him, looking at me with stricken faces, like I was a heap of severed limbs they’d just discovered in a Dumpster.
    â€œOw,” I said. This was more because of their horrified expressions than because I could feel any real pain.
    â€œYou’re all right, Mor. Bump on the head and a bit o’ road rash, looks like,” Colin said. “The biker’s badge of honor. Now you’re official. You can come back and work for us next summer.” He grinned and winked, but the worry didn’t leave his face.
    I looked past Colin and saw his van parked nearby, skewed across the entire width of the road. It made me wonder what would happen if someone needed to drive by, but two vehicles would qualify as a traffic jam around here.
    â€œCan you tell us your name?” Patty demanded.
    â€œMorganne. I mean, Morgan,” I said.
    â€œWiggle fingers and toes?”
    I complied.
    â€œBrilliant,” said Colin. “Now can you do the hokey pokey and turn yourself around?” Colin’s deadpan was so excellent for a minute I thought he was serious.
    Patty put her hands on her hips, Wonder-Woman style, and looked up the road. “You shouldn’t even be on this road. It’s not part of our route.” She frowned. “If Mrs. Faraday here hadn’t seen you turn down it, we’d have had the devil’s time finding you.”
    It’s always the way, when you get hurt: First people are happy you’re alive, then they want to kill you.
    â€œGuess I made a wrong turn,” I said, trying to sound witless. People can’t get mad at you if you convince them you’re too dumb to get stuff right. I was still clinging to that theory, anyway.
    â€œI’m sure ’twas my fault, Patty,” Colin said, clambering to his feet. “I should’ve done a more thorough job explaining the day’s map. If I take her to hospital now we might make it back to the inn for supper.” When he got up he left the ice pack perched on my head and I had to grab it before it slid down my back.
    â€œI’m fine!” I protested, trying not to wobble as I stood. I loathed hospitals worse than Sophie Billingsley loathed pink. Colin reached back in time to catch me before I toppled over. “I’m not going to the hospital.”
    â€œYe surely are,