Free Why We Took the Car by Wolfgang Herrndorf Page B

there when he was done. I was busy, I said, I had to get going. Then I went straight inside and listened through the closed door to see if he was maybe going to take off with the tools. After a little while I went upstairs, lay down in my room, and tried to think about something else. But it wasn’t so easy. I could hear the clang of the tools downstairs as he tinkered with his bike. He was singing in Russian too. Really badly. And somebody in the neighborhood was mowing their lawn. But when things finally quieted down around the house, it made me uneasy. I looked out the window and saw somebody walking around our backyard. Tschick walked all the way around the pool, then stood shaking his head in amazement next to the aluminum ladder while scratching his back with a screwdriver he was carrying. I opened the window.
    â€œAwesome pool!” yelled Tschick, smiling up at me.
    â€œYeah, awesome pool, awesome jacket. Now what?”
    He just stood there. So I went downstairs and we chatted a little. Tschick couldn’t get over the pool. He wanted to know what my father did, so I told him. I wanted to know what he’d said to get the Ford Fiesta dude to stop bothering him. He shrugged his shoulders. “Russian mafia.” He grinned. And I could tell that wasn’t the real answer. But he wouldn’t tell me what he’d really said, despite my pestering him for a while. We talked about this and that and eventually — inevitably — we made our way over to the PlayStation and started playing GTA . Tschick didn’t know how, and we didn’t get far. But still, this was better than lying in the corner and screaming.
    â€œAnd you really didn’t get held back?” he asked at some point. “I mean, did you end up looking at your report card? I still don’t get that. Man, you’re on vacation, you’ll probably go somewhere cool with your parents, you can go to that party, you’ve got an awesome . . .”
    â€œWhat party?”
    â€œAren’t you going to Tatiana’s?”
    â€œNah, don’t feel like it.”
    â€œSeriously?”
    â€œI have other plans for tomorrow,” I said, pushing madly on the triangle button of the game controller. “And besides, I’m not invited.”
    â€œYou didn’t get invited? That sucks. I thought I was the only one.”
    â€œIt’ll be boring anyway,” I said, running over a few people with a tanker truck.
    â€œMaybe if you’re gay. But for a guy like me that party is the ultimate. Simla will be there. And Natalie. And Laura and Corinna and Sarah. Not to mention Tatiana. And Mia. And Fadile and Cathy and Kimberley. And sweet-ass Jennifer. And that blonde from the other class. And her sister. And Melanie.”
    â€œHuh,” I said, staring blankly at the TV screen. Tschick was staring blankly at the screen too.
    â€œLet me try the helicopter,” he said.
    I handed him the controller and we didn’t talk any more about the party.
    When Tschick headed home, it was almost midnight. I heard the bike creak off toward Weiden Lane, and then stood alone in front of our house for a minute. Above, stars in the night sky. And that was the best thing about the entire day: that it was finally over.

CHAPTER 15
    Things were better the next morning. I woke up as early as I normally did for school. Couldn’t change my inner alarm clock that quickly. But the silence in the house reminded me: I’m all alone and it’s summer break, the place belongs to me, and I can do whatever I feel like.
    The first thing I did was carry some CDs downstairs and crank the stereo in the living room all the way up. I put on the White Stripes. Then I opened the back door and lay down by the pool with three bags of chips, a Coke, and my favorite book and tried to put all the bad shit out of my mind.
    Even though it was still early, it was already ninety degrees in the shade. I dangled my feet in the