Unsteady

Chapter Three

          Days passed and Zoe heard nothing from Pin. He was nowhere to be seen in the yard and she was sick of hearing the voice mail response she knew off by heart by now. Hey this is Pin, I can't talk right now so leave a message! It replayed in her head like a broken record, even after the times she flung her phone across her bed with enough force to let out the frustration, but not enough to warrant a lecture from her Mum. Why couldn't she get a hold of him?

          It was the morning of the fundraiser and Zoe woke up feeling sick to her stomach. The back of her neck began to sweat. She reached across to her bedside table to grab her phone. No calls or messages from Pin. She had a bad feeling, but this went beyond worry. Maybe something really was wrong with her? Maybe she was sick?

          As the thought crossed her mind, a wave of nausea came over her and she could feel the bile climbing up her throat. Zoe leapt out of bed and made a beeline for the bathroom. Thanking her lucky stars there was no one in there, she knelt over the toilet bowl and emptied the contents of her stomach. The heaving seemed to last forever, the lack of oxygen causing a throbbing pain in her head. She prayed that nobody would hear her as she fruitlessly tried to pull her hair out of her face.

          At last the heaving stopped and Zoe leaned on the tiled wall for support. The coldness was comforting against her cheek - her head felt like a matchstick. Taking slow breaths, she glanced around the room. Everything was silent. There were no pounding footsteps coming up the stairs or doors swinging open. Not wanting to chance her luck, she wobbled to her feet, using the sink as a crutch. Her head was spinning and any time she tried to fix her gaze on something solid in the room it was as if it purposely started shifting. The bathtub danced and the wash basket got further away as Zoe stumbled out of what felt like a trick mirror room at a carnival.

          Another feeling grew in Zoe's stomach as she perched herself on the edge of her bed. Only this time it wasn't nausea, it was dread. It was fear. Today wasn't the day to be dealing with this, though. Not with the fundraiser and the kids coming in to see Bright Fields and get pony-shaped balloons. Just one more day, she told herself, just one more day and then I'll deal with this. Today was about the yard, not Zoe's unreasonable, illogical paranoia. That's what it was. It was paranoia.

          Outside her window the sun was high in the sky and there wasn't a cloud in sight. Marcus would be pleased. Although he wouldn't be too happy if Pin was a no show, because, bad and all their relationship was, Marcus knew that Pin would sell Bright Fields during the showjumping display. He was a good rider, and even Marcus wouldn't deny that. Now they could only hope that Pin wouldn't let them down.

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          'Step right up to have your face painted like Bob - five pounds a pop!'

          Becky's voice floated through the air with the flow of bubbles coming from a bubble machine that Marcus set up on a bale of hay, beside it a speaker blasting a playlist that Susie made. The yard was swarmed with kids fighting over who got their face painted first and begging their parents for just one more go on Firefly or Major. The atmosphere was even better than Zoe expected, who was overseeing a group of kids doing unicorn makeovers on Raven and Sparkles. Raven looked less than impressed when a gummy mouthed six year old nearly took his eye out putting the horn on his head, but stayed still despite the pandemonium.

          Everything was going to plan; Becky was face painting and Mia, Susie and Jade were leading pony rides around the island. Gaby sold balloons to screaming, ecstatic kids and Marcus led obstacle courses in the arena with the kids on yet another one of Mia's ponies, Fletcher. He looked awful tired of weaving through the same poles and doing figures of eight around two old tires but the kids were loving it. Zoe checked her watch. One forty five. It was nearly time to rotate. The gang swapped jobs every hour to save things getting tedious, and her, Becky and Marcus were up next for leading the pony rides.