Read The Amazing Spencer Gray for Free Online Page B

glare in the cockpit was harsh. The cockpit ceiling was transparent for maximum viewing pleasure. ‘She got Alzheimer’s disease. Do you know what that is?’
    â€˜Umm ... isn’t that when you lose your memory and stuff?’
    â€˜Yeah, essentially that’s it. You forget things—normal things like birthdays and where your car keys are—but you also forget how your body works, and what you need to do when you’re hungry, or have a full bladder, and things like that. The worst thing is that you forget much deeper things, like who the people around you are. So, even though she loved them so much, Ray couldn’t recognise her daughters at the end, even when they were right in front of her.’
    â€˜What do you mean?’
    â€˜Well, she knew they were important people in her life, but she couldn’t remember whether they were her sisters or her daughters, she couldn’t remember their names, or what they liked to do, or if they had any children of their own, or any of those sorts of things.’
    Spencer imagined his mum not knowing who he was and felt alarmed. ‘That’s horrible.’
    â€˜Yeah, I know. It’s distressing, isn’t it. Sorry, mate, I didn’t want to upset you, but I just thought I should explain why a cloud passed over Reg back there.’
    â€˜Yeah, no, I’m glad I know. Thanks, Dad.’ Spencer paused. ‘Is she still alive?’
    â€˜No. She died last year, and it was a relief to everyone,if you know what I mean. Not that they wanted her to go, but just that her life had lost so much quality. The things that had been so meaningful to Ray had become completely meaningless, and just painful. So it was very hard on Reg and the kids.’
    Spencer thought about Leon’s mum, who seemed to be always losing her keys and locking herself out of the house, and how, even though she had spare keys hidden in a few places outside their house, she could never remember where they were when she needed them. Leon would get a text message from his mum asking him to go home to let her in.
    Uneven green lumps were now in the distance—the Stirlings. Dad led the Drifter into wide thermals, leaving one and picking up the next, circling towards the ranges.
    â€˜You know how we’re going round and round and round in the same direction in these thermals, Dad. In a spiral.’
    â€˜Mmhmm; that’s how they work. The hot air rises like a corkscrew to the top, and we piggyback it, if you like.’
    â€˜But, do you ever get dizzy? I mean, after a while in the same thermal?’
    Dad laughed. ‘I know what you mean, Spence, butthe radius of most thermals means that you don’t get dizzy. We’re turning fairly gently, in the scheme of things.’
    Spencer nodded. He took a breath. ‘Dad?’
    â€˜Mmm?’
    â€˜Could Leon’s mum have Alzheimer’s disease?’
    Dad looked across at him and took a moment to answer. ‘Usually it’s an older person’s illness, Spence, so it’d be quite unusual for someone as young as Mrs Wilkes to have it. Why, what’s she doing?’
    Spencer explained about the keys but Dad said she’d have to be doing loads more weird stuff for it to be Alzheimer’s. ‘If she got lost on her way home from work, or went to the shops and then didn’t know why she was there, or anything like that, then you’d have cause for concern, but not otherwise. Just sounds like she’s a busy woman, and maybe a bit of a scatterbrain—but that’s okay. A lot of us are like that!’
    Spencer was relieved—especially for Leon. Imagine having a sick parent at this age, having to look after them—take them to the loo and stuff. Hardcore.
    Spencer leaned back into his seat and started to look for bits of the landscape that he might be able to recognise from their last trip to the ranges.
    The wind shifted and raised them and they felt