Alice Henderson On Debut

Fifteen

The next morning after breakfast, Charlie and I are in the common room playing board games. She's kicking my butt in checkers (I mean seriously, who loses eight games straight in checkers?) when Oona comes in. "What have you girls got planned for today? Anything exciting?"

"We were thinking about heading down to the indoor centre and having a go against the bowling machine," I reply, and watch as Charlie takes advantage of my momentary lapse of concentration to clean up the rest of my pieces in one fell swoop. She throws her hands up in triumph.

"I'm heading into town to run some errands," Oona says. "I was wondering if you wanted to go and spend some time in the shopping centre while I'm in town. See the sights since you've never been here before."

"That's a great idea," Charlie says. She folds up the checkers board and puts it back in the bookcase. "I can show you around."

"I thought you lived out west?" I ask.

"We come in to Toowoomba a couple times during the year for big shops for birthdays and Christmas and stuff. We haven't done our Christmas trip yet, so I'll be able to get some presents while I'm by myself. You can help me pick stuff out."

I look up to Oona. "I guess that's a yes then."

"Excellent." Oona smiles. "I'll meet you downstairs in about twenty minutes."

"I feel like we're on a holiday instead of a cricket camp," I say to Charlie as we head back to our room.

"When you've got as many younger brothers as I do, anything away from home's a holiday," Charlie replies.

I laugh. I'm hoping the rest of the week is this easy and fun.

The shopping centre is bigger than anything I've ever seen. The only one we have at home is on one level but this one is a couple of stories high. Oona drops us off in the taxi zone and tells us to meet her back in the same spot at 2pm this afternoon. That gives us four whole hours to fill. We wave to Oona as she drives off and then Charlie grabs my arm and pulls me toward the entrance.

Inside, Christmas carols fill the air and there are green and red decorations everywhere. All the staff members are wearing Santa hats and flashing bright white smiles. Charlie leads me to an escalator and we step on behind a lady carrying more bags than she can handle, letting the moving steps carry us up to the next floor. In a matter of seconds we've gone from home wares and electronics to ladies' wear.

"This place is huge," I say, feeling a little overwhelmed at the sheer size of the centre.

"This is only one shop," Charlie replies. When we reach the next floor, Charlie takes my hand again and leads me away from the escalators and into the Christmas crowds. We duck and weave our way around people looking at womens' clothes and come out next to a jewellery shop. Charlie pulls me towards another escalator and again, we hop on behind a crowd of people, all heading in the same direction and laden down with bags. As we reach the level of the floor, the noise intensifies and so does the smell of food. It smells like all the fast food I've ever eaten combined into one. We bustle our way off the escalator and Charlie leads me over to a corridor near an electronics shop.

"I thought you wanted coffee?" I ask.

"I do," Charlie replies. "I just wanted to do the 'if we get split up' thing."

I shake my head, confused. "The what?"

The corner of Charlie's mouth twitches up. "Don't you ever do that with your parents when you go somewhere like this?"

"We don't have anywhere as big as this," I reply.

Charlie rolls her eyes. "Well, in case we get separated, we need to come up with somewhere to meet up. See over there past the salad place?" She points across to the opposite side of the food court.

"Yeah," I reply, even though I have no idea what I'm supposed to be looking at.

"Just around the corner is the information desk. If you get lost, just find that and wait for me there."

"What if I can't find it?"

Charlie pulls a don't-be-a-baby face. "Just ask one of the shop keepers. They'll point you in the right direction."

"Okay." I turn and face the food court. There are people squashed in everywhere. A man with a tray full of Happy Meals negotiates his way through the throng of people and finally makes it to a table where a woman and three little kids are sitting. He looks relieved to have made it, and the mum looks relieved to be able to distract her kids with food. Everywhere I look there are lines a mile long of people waiting to be served.

"I hope you didn't want your coffee right away," I say. "Where are you going to get it from?"

Charlie points away from the food court, to the takeaways in the centre of the floor near a bookshop. "The donut shop."

"Do they do the best coffee?" I ask.

"No," Charlie replies. "But they're pretty quick and you get two free cinnamon donuts." She steps away from the wall. "Come on."

I follow her over to the line waiting in front of the donut shop counter. We get stuck behind a woman who obviously didn't use her time waiting to decide what she wanted. I'm starting to feel a little antsy. I'm not big on crowds but Charlie's standing in line patiently, waiting her turn and checking out the people around us.

Finally it's our turn and Charlie orders for both of us. We get our coffees and donuts quite quickly considering the amount of people and fall into step with the other shoppers.

"Where to now?" I ask, sipping on my coffee.

"We follow the crowds while we eat, and then," Charlie says, taking a bite of her donut and sucking in a breath to cool it down, "we go get Dad some aftershave."

"What about your mum?" I ask.

"My mum died a couple of years ago."

Charlie says it so matter-of-fact, it makes me stop dead in the middle of the floor. "I'm sorry," I say.

Charlie turns around and rolls her eyes. "It's fine, Alice. It's not a huge deal anymore. You're stopping traffic." She grabs my arm and pulls me along. "I've got heaps to show you so don't get lost."

I follow along behind her as she weaves her way through the crowd. I can't imagine what it would be like to not have Mum around. I don't have time to think about it though, as Charlie streaks ahead of me and it takes all my effort just to keep up.