Free Speed Freak by Fleur Beale Page A

ducks under and through. That way you don’t waste time. It’s all about timing, mate. All about trying to be faster than the other guy.’
    It wasn’t a bad evening. I even read him a chapter of the story he and Erica were partway through. ‘You’re going to have to do without the goodnight kiss,’ I told him. ‘I’m saving those for my girlfriend.’
    I heard him giggling as I left the room. I’d be seeing Kyla in a week. Dinner out. Just the two of us. Dad owed me — and he’d better not try any smart comments either. Not after all the lovey dovey grief he and Erica treated me and the kid to.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN
    DAD AND I were deep in kart prep over the next week, and we weren’t as careful as we’d been up till then to keep it all low key when Erica was around. Like when we went over the analysis charts, and there was Felix sitting on the other side of the table, drinking in every word.
    Tuesday morning at breakfast, Dad said, ‘Check the trailer inventory tonight, Archie. If we’re short of anything, I can get it tomorrow.’
    I’d pack my gear as well, running through our checklist to make sure I had all the paperwork, helmet, rib protectors, suit, gloves. The works.
    Erica suddenly got very busy packing Felix off to school.
    School had that end-of-term feel about it. Mr Taylor reminded us rather tetchily that we still had two more days until the Easter holiday, so buckle down, shut up and work.
    ‘Some of us only have one day,’ Colin said, and not in a whisper either.
    Mr Taylor ignored him. Dad had already got permission for me to skip Thursday. When the bell rang, Mr T said, ‘Good luck, Archie.’
    Colin jabbed my ribs with his elbow. ‘You’d fall into shit and come up smelling of roses.’
    ‘It’s my winning personality,’ I said.
    James said, ‘Make sure you beat that Craig guy. He was a bit too up himself, I reckon.’
    ‘Good-looking, though,’ Ginnie said.
    ‘And rolling in the dollars,’ Nina said.
    Girls! I wondered what Kyla thought of him. Maybe it’d be safer not to ask.
    I waved goodbye to my mates and rode home. A couple of streets away from my house I spotted Felix jogging along with a determined look on his face. I cruised up beside him and dismounted.
    ‘What’s up, buddy?’
    He stopped, and — surprise, surprise, he looked square at me. ‘I want to help.’
    I joined a few dots. ‘With the kart?’
    He nodded and, man, did he look stubborn. Not my fight. I pulled out my phone, hit Erica’s number and held it out to him. ‘Argue it out with your mum.’
    His end of the conversation was pretty much a blank. I wasn’t surprised when he gave the phone to me — without saying anything, naturally. I took it and damn near dropped it. She was going ballistic. ‘Archie, I will not tolerate this sneaking around. You might be obsessed with speed, but I’m not having that for my son. I respect that it’s important to you, and I don’t think it’s asking too much for you to respect what’s important to me.’
    Bugger you, lady.
‘Sure. Next time I see Felix walking along the road all on his lonesome, I’ll just ride on and ignore him. Fine.’ I hung up on her.
    Felix stuck his hands behind his back. ‘I want to help.’
    I wanted to ride off and leave him, but it wasn’t his fault he had a psycho for a mother. I started walking at his speed towards home. No way was I going to do her dirty work. If she wanted Felix to be somewhere he didn’t want to be, it was her problem. Not mine.
    He came along too.
    My phone rang. ‘What?’
    ‘I’m sorry. I apologise. I jumped to conclusions. His carer was on her way to his school to find out where he was. Would you mind taking him back to her?’
    The bloody nerve of her! ‘I’m not doing that. I’ve got work to do. He doesn’t want to go and I’m not carrying a yelling kid down the street. He can come with me.’
    I turned the phone off, and we walked home in silence. I made us a drink and a sandwich.
    ‘Are you