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Back My Spare Heart Save as PDF
Chapters (25)
  1. COVER PAGE
  2. PRAISE
  3. DEDICATION
  4. CHAPTER 1
  5. CHAPTER 2
  6. CHAPTER 3
  7. CHAPTER 4
  8. CHAPTER 5
  9. CHAPTER 6
  10. CHAPTER 7
  11. CHAPTER 8
  12. CHAPTER 9
  13. CHAPTER 10
  14. CHAPTER 11
  15. CHAPTER 12
  16. CHAPTER 13
  17. CHAPTER 14
  18. CHAPTER 15
  19. CHAPTER 16
  20. CHAPTER 17
  21. CHAPTER 18
  22. CHAPTER 19
  23. RESOURCES
  24. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
  25. ABOUT THE AUTHOR

As we headed back to class, I thought about Caitlin doing yoga and having tea with her friends, and my mum working all the time. I thanked the ancestors that I hadn’t got stoned. I sailed through the rest of the day without any hassle, even putting a good score on the board during my lunchtime basketball session. Finally, things seemed to be picking up a little.

CHAPTER 10

CHAPTER 10

When I got home, Caitlin was sitting on the verandah, reading a book. ‘What are ya reading?’ I asked.

‘Information about my yoga instructors’ course,’ she said, obviously happy I was taking notice.

I sat on the chair opposite her. ‘Do you think we could go to the organics shop on hipster corner and get a drink or even a snack?’

Caitlin looked at me as if all of her hopes for me had been fulfilled. ‘Really?’

‘We’ve been learning about organic foods at school,’ I told her and I’d never seen Caitlin smile so much.

In like two seconds flat, Caitlin had me in her Subaru and driving on the road that led down to the coast, away from The Village.

‘So what did your teacher teach you about organic foods?’ Caitlin asked excitedly.

I thought for a second about something that would make her wet her pants. Dad used to joke about organic foods before he met Caitlin, saying that blackfellas had organic foods and access to the cleanest water before whitefellas took our land. ‘Michael taught us about all of the different principles of growing food organically – good soil, pesticide-free and how surrounding particular plants with other plants keeps pests away.’ It was something I’d actually learned from one of the garden shows Caitlin watched, but she had no idea and was beaming as we drove.

I wasn’t feeling so relaxed when Caitlin pulled up on the hipster strip out the front of Trent McLean’s mum’s shop. We parked and I followed Caitlin along the path to McLean’s Organics. There were quite a few people sitting in the alfresco area, and I didn’t really notice them. I was busy trying to act normal, excited and nervous at the same time that Trent might be standing right there behind the counter.

In the part of the shop that pokes out into the alfresco area, there was a guy in a singlet and a beanie with old-school pirate-type tats pouring coffee. For a moment my heart skipped, thinking it might have been Trent.

I took a breath as I entered the store. I looked around for Trent, but he wasn’t there. I sighed. That was anticlimactic.

There was one of those old-style fruit and vegetable displays in the centre of the store with crates and old baskets full of pineapples, bananas, apples, tomatoes and pretty much every organically grown fruit and vegetable you could get your hands on. I picked up a tomato and stared at it like a weirdo.