Chapter 5

On getting home that day, our main character was to get a rude shock.

But let's slow down for now, for I shall soon reach that part.

Finian Relish walked home alone that day. He had also gone and taken the longest route home so that it was almost three o'clock when he reached Number 12, Relish Residence.

Normally, he and a group of primary five and six boys trudged to their houses together, chattering boisterously, exchanging boy talk and kicking debris ball on the walk home. On the days it was usually very hot for months, the boys brought their bicycles to school and had rowdy bike competitions to kill time as they journeyed home.

Mrs Relish, his mother, usually took a short break from work to pick Pippa up and drive her to her various after-school lessons. All things Finian thought to be girly crap. Odessa took the secondary school bus home or joined other girls to carpool with a friend of hers who had a Toyota SUV.

Finian had just emptied the mailbox of all of two lousy letters and a shiny postcard from their old neighbour family and was surprised to see Pippa doing handstands on the porch.

'Hey,' Pippa said from her position downside up.

'Why are you home? Where's Mom?' he wanted to know.

His younger sister did a split handstand, then dropped to the ground and sat up. 'Inside,' she said.

'Why are you home?' Finian repeated. The boy wasn't so happy about her early arrival. He already started to grieve the few hours and minutes he always had to himself alone in the house before Odessa arrived and then the rest of the family.

Pippa shrugged, bringing out her button phone and another object from the zip pocket of her faded dungarees.

'Well?' asked the boy, peeved.

Pippa raised her head to glare at him. 'So what?' She rolled her eyes. 'Piano lesson was cancelled today. They say Mrs Cox's gone to have her baby. And the ballet teacher called to have a flat tyre. So Mom brought me home.'

Finian started to correct Pippa's wrong English structure when his eyes fell on the shiny object in her palm. His mouth dropped in a round "O".

I can just imagine the shock the poor boy must have felt. You would have been equally shocked too if something you threw away several miles ago re-appeared in front of you.

He swallowed painfully past the clot of panic that had moulded in his throat. His heart started to beat erratically. Hoping with all of his beating heart that he was mistaken, he squatted in front of his sister to snatch the coin.

His hands shook as they traced the shapes on the coin and he almost dropped it on seeing the strange dent at the back.

'Pippa, where did you find this coin?' He could hear his voice tremble like a tiny leaf in a cold wind.

His sister stopped to look up from her phone. She glanced at the coin in his hand and shrugged, going back to pressing the phone. 'I found it on the floor in your room.'

Then she took the coin out of his shaking hands and bit down hard on it. 'I think it's real,' she declared, failing to notice the frightened mouse look on her brother's face.

'I've been meaning to do that to check if it's real. I've seen people do that in movies,' she explained and dropped the coin back into her pocket, cradling her jaw.

Finian had sat down on the ground, weak with shock. He was dead sure he had tossed that coin at school. So what was it doing with his sister? How on earth had it materialised in his room?

His body felt hot and suffocating with all the mystery and fear. The boy wanted to scream and scream. And maybe run out into the street and scream some more.

He wondered why it was all happening to him. He had almost gotten himself killed and the coin he had thrown away had re-appeared all in the space of one day.

He frowned as a thought hit him. He realised everything that had happened to him that day revolved around the coin. Everything had been about the bloody coin.

Just then his sister giggled and he looked up, frowning deeply. Her attention was on the phone, but he wasn't so sure she hadn't giggled at him.

A thought formed in his mind. He shook his head and let it sink in. Yes, he couldn't put it past his mischievous sister. The rude brat.

As his sister giggled again at something on her phone, Finian Relish was then convinced about it. What other explanation could there be for it? Pippa had happened to be near the school gates waiting for their mother and most certainly had seen him toss the coin into the bush. She must have gone after it.

The fear that had taken hold of his body slowly diffused. A fresh wave of anger and annoyance hit him. He stood up from where he had sat down to squat again in front of Pippa.

'Give me the coin,' he demanded, stretching his hand out for it.

Pippa looked up with a frown. 'Why do you want it? It was "on the floor".' She sighed when he wouldn't budge and rolled her eyes. 'Finders keepers, Finnie. I found it, so it's mine now.'

Our main character didn't bother to argue with the girl. He dipped his hand into her open jean pocket and snatched the coin.

Before she could even react, he was on his feet and almost at the door. He smiled and blocked out her cries of protest.

As he stepped into the house, Finian decided to give the coin another chance. If he didn't feel its mojo again, he could toss it out. Either way, Pippa wasn't having it.

He put the coin in his trouser pocket and went towards the kitchen to see his mother. Then he changed out of his school uniform and headed to the quadrangle where he and most of the other boys played football.