After we finished our dinner, we take a relaxing walk around the backyard. It was a cool night, with a bright moon dangling in the sky and stars are hiding behind the clouds. The grasses are tall and wet, brushing against my leg. I wrapped myself in a pink cardigan and as we walk across the grasses, we can hear owl hoots from far away. This is more like film scene you usually see where the little adventurous girl is hiding from the bad guy.
“What’s our plan for tomorrow?” Hayley asks as we pass a big tree and the horse stable.
“According to our plan sheet, tomorrow’s a fun day. And last night, I saw a brochure of Cadbury World. What do you think, Birmingham Girl?” Jeremy asks, grinning at Vi.
“Oh shut! I’m not a
“What about cinema?” I say. i don’t actually think it’s the best idea, but it’s nice though. And when I get back to the states, I can casually say to the others, “Oh yes! I watched that one in
“Good idea.” Jeremy says.
“What about a gallery?” Ian suddenly says.
“I hate galleries!” Hayley says, “They shows you things you don’t even know what it is and it has got really high price!”
“Okay, Okay…then, where will we go?” Jeremy asks.
There’s a silence between us. The only things heard are our feet stepping on the grass briskly and the owl hoots and the traffic from far away. Ten suddenly, Vi comes to a halt, “I know! I know! I know!” she screams.
“Ssssh! You’ll wake the neighbors up!” Jeremy says, putting his finger on his lips.
“I know! But this is the greatest idea so far!” she squeaks to lower her voice.
“Ok, what?” I say. We all have stopped walking, and turning to her, watching her face glows in the excitement of her idea. Hope this one will be good!
“Thinktank!” she says in a low, discreet voice. We stare at her blankly, what did she say?
“Oh my god! You don’t know Thinktank?!” she jumps impatiently and explores our dumb faces. “It’s a great place! They got a planetarium, cinemas, café, cool robots, inventions, and technologies! You name it!” she points her fingers as she says the things.
“Right….” I say, waiting for more information I can feel more familiar with.
“God!” Vi put her palm on her forehead, “Right then! You all should see it! We will go there tomorrow!” she says in a final tone.
“Right….” We all say.
We change our plan, from visiting a world of chocolate of Cadbury World in Bournville to Thinktank in Millenium Point. It was almost 1 p.m. when we arrived there. I wear my best “Cinema Night” outfit which is a grey long cardigan, black tights, and long checkered shawl cos Vi said there is an Imax and Planetarium inside. According to Vi, this place is “must-visit” and we can’t miss Thinktank in
We arrive there 10 minutes by car. Fortunately the traffic isn’t so busy and so we can get there easily. This has so far gone as what we have planned on the first day when we arrived in
It is such a shock as I enter the massive building with wall of glass. It is so crowded and kids are running everywhere, I suddenly feel too big and overdressed for this place. As far as my eyes could see, there are just parents, kids under 12, and even younger kids. This place is really really big and cool. Why should it be a Thinktank for young kids, not a nice club, shops, tattoo store, books store, and saloon for teenagers. That is so unfair! Even Air isn’t as big as this!
As we pound our feet, our eyes are moving from one corner to the other. This is amazing! We are now looking at what we can read form the board is “Thinkback”. The whole floor consists of some separated galleries. As we enter the Move It gallery, we are served old things in the past. There are the huge locomotive of the City of
“See! Isn’t that this place is absolutely amazing?!” Vi turns to see us gawking at this place. “This is a gallery, a cinema, and a cool place, all at once!” she adds.
Wow. She is right! I mean this has so far been the second time when Vi got the right thing on the right point after the incident where she has to chose between a green skirt and a bright blue tube dress. And she chose the skirt which is the right choice and she often use it!
“So, where’s the planetarium?” Hayley asks as we move along the machines and touch it and read the informations provided. I still am gawking at the designs! Oh my! The designs are so….what do you say? High-tech! With lots of abstracts shaped things, metal tables with flat screen TV… and everything is so cool!
“It’s on the L1floor. It’s the last floor of this whole building. We’ll visit it later, ok? I still want to explore floor by floor and every inventions and cool things!” Vi says excitedly.
And so we start our exploration from the Thinkback, to the Thinkhere, which is not really interesting for me cos it only tells you about
“Pretty boring here, huh?” Ian suddenly asks when I’m looking at William Hutton's death mask. I turn my back, “Yeah, not as interesting as the Thinkback part.” I admit.
“How about if we go to the next floor? They’ll catch up with us.” Ian says.
“Errr…ok.” I take his arm blushingly and he gives a little jolt as I do so but then he sends me a warm smile and squeezes my hand even tighter.
Thinknow is much more interesting. It has got 5 galleries, telling us about the genius inventions of nowadays gadgets, medicines, forensic and even how to recycle our rubbishes everyday. I wish I were 6 again…..this place is a whole package of fun and education!
Then after 10 minutes or so, Vi and the others are catching up. We had so much fun around the galleries especially in The Street gallery where we can really work a hydraulic digger. And when we’re laughing, all the kids are staring at us, even some are crying! I don’t even remember, am I that scared of a 16-year-old gang when I was a little kid?
The next thing we know, we’re at the L1, where we’re lining up to get inside the well-known planetarium. They say that the Planetarium has got a 360 degree dome ceiling where the breathtaking images are shown! That would be real great then!
After we pay the entrance fee, we get inside and suddenly, TARAAA! We’re in the middle of a full dome ceiling where gigantic images are playing! All the people here are looking upwards and around to see the images better. This is sooooooo great!
The show last for about 40 minutes and what we’re looking at is the west midlands sky and we’re spotting the objects that we can’t see from down here! I don’t know a sky is that beautiful, with lots of emerging colors, blending and spreads all over the place. The rock-shaped objects are scattered across the sky and it’s just so beautiful!
“Oh my gosh!” I say, looking around the ceiling.
“It’s very pretty, huh?” Ian says, holding my hand and we’re both looking up at the ceiling and it makes my whole body tingles. Never once in my life, looking at a ceiling this long, and this interested.
After spending lots of money, buying souvenirs for Nathan, Nicho, Mum, Dad, and myself, then we’re sitting at the café, having a nice cup of chocolate. I got a really hard time, choosing which figures I want to give Nathan, because clearly, he likes dinosaurs, but he also likes robots. And they got the Build-a-Hovercraft kit, dinosaur models, and even talking clocks! And so I buy all of them and ended p with 3 shopping bags just for the souvenirs.
“Cool down, Sugar! You’re getting all greedy about it!” Hayley chuckles and sips her chocolate.
“No, I’m not!” I say, avoiding the fact, “I just think all the souvenirs are cute and I’ll find it useful someday! Besides, I got loads of little cousins!” I say triumphantly. Which is a lie..
“Alright..” Hayley rolls her eyes.
She, Jeremy and Ian also bought lots of souvenirs and when we’re out of the building, it’s almost 5 p.m. Jake takes us all back to the mansion and we’re talking all the way back to the mansion.
“Tomorrow’s our last day…” Jeremy says, opening the conversation and it turns to a busy talk.
“Dang, yes it is..” I say, hit by the realization. How fast a week could be?! And I these past week’s memories are playing in my mind like a video cassettes. There, we are, riding horses, then party, Vi’s parents arguing, went to the Air, playing hide and seek, experiencing royal breakfast everyday, the job…..oh my god! I haven’t told Hayley about the job!
“So, where will we go tomorrow?” Ian asks, opening his wrapped burger and bites it.
“hmmmm……Airport?” Vi says plainly.
“Other than that?” Ian says, raising his eyebrow.
“How about a nice dinner in a posh restaurant?” Hayley suggests.
“I don’t know, a theme park?” I say.
“Theme park is nice, but we’ll be all too tired. And dinner isn’t possible. Our plane takes off at about 2 p.m.” Vi says.
There’s a slight pause before Vi says, “How about a nice walk to my hidden place?”
“You got a hidden place? Wow! Cool!” Hayley says.
“I know..” Vi says triumphantly, flicking her short hair backwards.
“Alright….” Jeremy says.
After we’re all bathed and gathered in the dining room, the tension between Vi’s parents has grown stronger and it impacts my feeling even if I don’t know what had happened recently. But I can tell something happened. It’s so obvious, like printed on Mrs. Freyson weary eyes and Mr. Freyson’s angry bark when he calls the chef and give the chef a hard time by saying the ribs isn’t cooked although it’s perfectly cooked.
“So…how’s your day?” Mrs. Freyson asks in a trembling voice.
“Nice! We had a great fun in Thinktank!” Vi says, chewing her macaroni and cheese.
“Really? What did you all do there? Isn’t that it’s the place for kids?” Mrs. Freyson looks up and meeting my eyes since we’re sitting across each other.
“Yes, but it actually got heaps of fun things there! Why don’t they built it when I was little?” Vi protests.
“They haven’t got the technology, Dear” Mr. and Mrs. Freyson suddenly say in unison. Of course, unintentionally. And they go blushing and pretend to get busy with their ribs awkwardly. This is the first time I see Mr. Freyson actually blushing!
I almost burst into laughter as I see these two adults playing like kids when they don’t get what they want. But I clamp my lips together and try to hide my silent laughter, but then as I look around the table, Ian, Jeremy, and Hayley are also doing the same thing!
Then we abruptly continue to focus on our food before we can’t contain the laughter and explode it.
The whole night is beautiful. We lay side by side on the rooftop after we finished our dinner and we’re looking at the sky, busy with our own thoughts. I think this is the best time to tell Hayley about the work at Sanctuary part and so I spill it all out.
“Hayley, ummm, actually, I have something to tell you.” I say, swallowing.
“Oh, really? What?” she turn on her right side and put her hand to support her head. Her eyes are glittery and she looks so pretty. I feel small all of a sudden. Will she grants us another chance?
“Um……It’s about the shop-keeper of your mum’s store.” I gulp, trying to continue to the end. Ian, realized what I’m talking about quickly straightened his back and take the turn to talk.
“Yeah, what is it?” Hayley asks, looking confused.
“It’s us.” Ian says without any “good and complicated” talk like what I have in mind. Hayley now really looks blank and suddenly Vi also joins the talk, “Please don’t fire them! I was the one who said to Sugar that it’ll be alright!” she says.
“Uh, what are you guys talking about, huh?” She says dubiously.
“It’s us!” Ian echoes.
“The shop-keepers!” I add.
She looks at us perplexed, from my face, to Ian’s, to Vi’s, and finally to Jeremy, “Do you have any idea about this, too?”
“Nop. Not at all.” Jeremy shakes his head.
“Ok, good. Cos this is quite…..shocking!” she says eventually.
“Will you tell your mum about this so that we probably….” I say, “…can still have chance to work there?”
Hayley still hasn’t moved from her shock then gradually, she opens her mouth, but then closes it again. She gulps and finally says, “Let’s see what I can do about this.” She reaches for her phone and climbs down to call her mum.
After some 10 minutes of waiting, she’s back and sits in the middle of me and Vi. “How’s she?” Ian asks.
“Has she replaced us?” I ask.
Hayley inhales and says, “she has hired another girl. But she still wants a confirmation from you two. She seemed shocked to hear that her two shop-keepers are in
I release my breath in relief and hold her hand, “Thanks a lot!” I say. and she just smiles.
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