Angel Creek by Sally Rippin Read Free Book Online

would have been listening carefully. He would have understood what was going on.
    So she swung up behind the boy with the black hair and the brown arms, and he took her all the way back to the creek without saying a word. As they coasted down St Peter’s Road, Jelly couldn’t help wondering what Stef would think if she saw her now, on the back of a boy’s bike with the wind in her hair.
    They arrived at the creek and the boy pulled up in the shade of a peppercorn tree. Jelly clambered awkwardly off the bike. When she turned around to thank him he was gone.
    Jelly collected her shoes and Gino’s from the muddy creek bank. She could see Gino in the distance making his way home over the bridge. She climbed the apricot tree to watch out for him, and thought about that boy. How lucky they were he’d turned up from nowhere. And she realised she hadn’t even asked him his name.

9
    keeping secrets
    Jelly and Gino peered though the back window. Only Jelly’s mum was in the kitchen. Gino’s dad wasn’t in sight. He breathed a sigh of relief and wiped the sweat from his top lip.
    â€˜Mum won’t say anything,’ Jelly assured him. ‘She’s fine with me playing by the creek.’ She grabbed Gino’s hand and pulled him through the back door. They tried to slip past Jelly’s mother but she grabbed Jelly’s arm before they could get away. ‘Uh-uh. Straight up to the shower, you two.’ She rolled her eyes. ‘Don’t think I don’t know where you’ve been. You’d better get cleaned up before your parents get home, Gino.’
    Jelly washed and changed into fresh clothes, then waited for Gino in her room. Her dad walked past and blew Jelly a kiss. ‘How’s Nonna?’ she asked.
    â€˜All right.’ He smiled. ‘Making trouble as usual.’
    But Jelly saw the sadness flicker over his face. Her stomach clenched into a fist. Was anyone telling them the truth? Jelly was desperate to see Nonna for herself.
    â€˜Can I visit her, Dad?’
    â€˜Not just yet, sweetheart.’
    At last Gino came out of the bathroom. Jelly beckoned him into her room. ‘How was the angel?’ she whispered. ‘Did you get it to eat anything?’
    â€˜I tried to feed it some apricots but it wouldn’t let me near it so I left them on the rug. I filled a tray of water for it, though.’
    â€˜Good thinking. Imagine if Jack found it.’
    â€˜Lunch,’ her mum called.
    Zio Mario was back and in a foul mood. You’d think it was his mum who was in the hospital from all the fuss that Zia Pia was making over him. He strode over to the table and waited to be waited on. Jelly and Gino sat as far away from him as possible and far from Sophia, who dribbled and threw her food around. Somebody had put Nonna’s special chair by the back window, as if it was watching out for her to come home.
    It wasn’t a real Christmas lunch; everything felt strange without Nonna around. They sat in silence. Partly because of Nonna and partly because no one felt like coaxing Zio Mario out of his dark mood. Jelly’s mum dished up the pasta left over from the night before and Jelly and Gino wolfed down two servings each without looking up from their plates. Pik, as usual, just picked at his food, which was partly how he got his name, and also because it was short for piccolo , which means small.
    All the kids had been given nicknames when they were little, but Pik’s and Jelly’s were the only ones that had stuck. Jelly was short for her full name, which was long and old-fashioned and had never felt like it belonged only to her.
    After moving his lasagne round his plate for a while, Pik suddenly announced to everyone at the table, ‘We found an angel.’
    Jelly looked up as Gino choked on his garlic bread. He coughed then gave Pik the greasiest look she’d seen in a long time. Jelly, her heart hammering in her chest, stared