Page 50 of The Snag List
‘Sooo! How was it?’
‘It was very teenage, actually. We got McDonald’s, had fairly dodgy public sex and got tattoos.’
‘Shut up! Please say matching.’
‘Not matching. Mine’s here.’ Lindy pulled the neck of her top down to reveal her shoulder where a very fine red line joined a group of her freckles to make a drawing of a constellation.
‘It’s so cute. Is it Adam’s star sign or something?’ Finn’s face was pained at the mere idea.
‘Nah, it’s Aries for me and Max!’
‘Love it. New-age tattoo for your new-age life-coaching career is perfect.’
‘Maybe it’s a new-age tattoo for a new age of me,’ Lindy countered.
‘Does that mean you’ve made a decision?’ Finn kept her voice low in case Adam returned.
Lindy curled up in the other corner of the couch. ‘I don’t know. Today was actually amazing. And I do keep thinking how I have no evidence that that time wasn’t just a one-off. A horrible one, obviously. I just don’t know. Like, taking it on today’s terms – it was so good. We felt like us again. And that gives me so much hope. But then another part of me is like … it wasn’t us in our real lives, you know? And can we bring whatever we had today back here to this?’ She nodded, indicating the rest of the house.
‘’Sake, Lindy!’ Finn mugged. ‘I can’t believe you didn’t make the decision to end or not end your marriage in a single day! Jeez.’
Lindy laughed grimly.
After she said goodbye to her sister, she headed upstairs. On the second-floor landing, Adam was at the bedroom door of the apparently now awake Max.
‘You better get to sleep, pal. You don’t want to be tired in the morning. We’ve got the Awesome Slime Adventure series to shoot and loads of great content to work on through the weekend.’
Adam carried on up to their bedroom and Lindy tapped on Max’s door. ‘Can I come in for a sec?’
‘Yep.’ Max had his notebook on his lap, she noticed. She settled down beside him and looked at the figure he’d drawn on one of the pages along with the words ‘free solo’.
‘What’s this?’
‘It’s this guy I saw on YouTube called Alex. He made a movie calledFree Soloabout climbing El Capitan in America but, get this –’ he turned to her, eyes wide ‘– with no ropes.’
‘Oh Jesus.’
‘Can we watch it, Mom?’
‘Yes, but you have to hold my hand – it sounds terrifying.’
‘Yeah, he’s a legend.’ Max returned to his notebook.
Lindy subtly twisted her head to see that he was writing random words: arete, bomb-proof, undercling, smear.
‘Are these climbing terms?’
‘Yup.’ Max turned to her. ‘I figure if I want to climb, I have to know the words.’
‘And you want to climb? I absolutely couldn’t even imagine doing it. That’s amazing, Max. But you mean with ropes, yeah?’
‘Well, ropes at first.’
Lindy shelved the ‘at first’ part of that comment to argue with at a later date; an idea was hitting.
‘Do you know there’s actually a climbing wall at Monteray Vacay, the place we’re going on holiday in August?’
‘Really? Can we go? You and me, like? No offence to Dad but he’d probably turn it into a Maxxed Out thing.’
