Chapter 06:00: Ferrari Forever

Chapter 06:00

FERRARI FOREVER

‘1 minute 59 seconds,’ says Big Ben.

He was counting in his head and I bet he’s right but it felt like half an hour. We’re still holding hands. Mrs C Eckler told us we must maintain the energy to centre ourselves. I know if I move I’ll be sick. The air is very warm for February, like the middle of summer. But the light rain is helping; it’s good to be outside. We’re in the eco play park, where everything’s made of trees, and still looks like trees. If I didn’t feel sick, I’d go on the swings.

I love swinging. Before school when I was in First Year, Grandma took me to the park every day to calm me down when my body felt fizzy. One morning I counted each swing up to 100 out loud and Grandma was crying because she was happy. I know that sounds odd, but she said they were tears of joy. I never used to talk very much and she didn’t know I knew my numbers. Afterwards, she had to sit down on the bench to get her breath back.

Everywhere I look, there’s trees. Some of them are like brown canes coming out of the ground with ruler marks on them. Mrs C Eckler sees me looking.

‘They’re bamboo, Elle. The fastest grow 90 centimetres a day!’ Some of the trees have trunks so large you could live in them. You could have one room on each floor and a spiral staircase going up. I think they’re oak trees which are hundreds of years old. I’d love to live in a REAL treehouse. And there’s palm trees too, lots of different kinds. It’s the greenest place I’ve ever seen. Except for the glass building in the middle, which is the centre, it’s like a tropical jungle. I wonder if they grow trees inside the centre, like in a glasshouse. That would be better than the pretend beanstalk in the café video. I could happily sit here forever if I didn’t feel sick.

I can hear birds singing and a strange noise like the sound of a fast car approaching but it’s like someone turned the sound of the engine off. Like the sound’s invisible. And it’s coming from the sky!