Changeling's Island - eARC by Dave Freer Read Free Book Online

or anything. Just not normal, like milk from the Coles around the block back home.
    “Is this milk all right?” he asked.
    His grandmother’s hand wavered across the table. Tim noticed she didn’t look directly at the table either, but side on. She picked up the jug, held it to her nose and sniffed. “Smells fine. Fresh out the cow this morning. You can learn how to milk her this evening.”
    As a reason to rush back to his grandmother’s, that wasn’t on the top of Tim’s list. As a reason to go in a hurry, it wasn’t bad. It was brisk and windy out, scudding clouds ripping across the tops of the old twisted pines. The place didn’t look so frightening in daylight. It did look run down. The fences were rusty. The wire sagged, had been mended here and there.
    He walked along to the main gravel road and looked about. He wasn’t sure which way it was to the corner where he had to meet the bus. Probably back toward the airport. He’d had time now to start dreading it all. What did they know about him? About what he’d done?
    A car came past in a flurry of dust…and stopped. It reversed, and a huge hairy head, with a windswept moustache, stuck itself out of the window and barked loudly.
    “Tim? It’s me, Molly. From the plane,” the girl with the braces on her teeth said from the passenger seat.
    “I would have recognized you even without Bunce and his moustache,” said Tim, quite proud of that line. It made him smile. It made her flush red, which wasn’t what he’d meant it to do.
    “Can we give you a lift somewhere?” asked the driver. She was a middle-aged woman, who looked like an older, shorter-haired version of Molly, only with glasses, and a few creases between her eyes. “Only we have to rush for the school bus. We’re running late.”
    “That’s where I am supposed to be going.”
    Molly spilled out of the car. “I’ll sit next to Bunce. He’ll drool on you, otherwise. Hop in the front.”
    Tim did so. Clicked in his seat belt.
    “Are you going to school here?” asked the driver, accelerating fast enough to push him back in the seat.
    “Um. Yes.” Tim was worried they might ask why. They had to wonder.
    “The headmistress will be doing her happy dance,” said the driver, focusing on the road, not looking at him.
    “We need numbers,” explained Molly. “There are too few kids in the senior grades. It’s, like, just a handful of us.”
    Great , thought Tim. And I wanted to be invisible in the crowd.
    “What on earth are you sniffing at, Buncy?” asked Molly.
    Tim was grateful for the distraction provided by the dog, head cocked on one side and great big black nose and moustache twitching as if he’d smelled a really bad fart.
    “Don’t bark! You’ll send Mum off the road,” said Molly, grabbing him.
    “Fortunately, we’re here,” said Molly’s mother, pulling off the road and onto the broad verge. “And we’ve beaten the bus. Let the big moo out, Molly. He can have a run around.”
    Molly leaned across and opened the door, but Bunce wasn’t going anywhere. Just sat there, staring cross-eyed at something, and giving a little wary burr of a growl.
    “Goodness! I hope he’s not sickening. We really can’t afford vet bills now!” said Molly’s mother, only, it seemed to Tim, half jokingly.
    “He was fine ten minutes ago!”
    “I think he’s defending you, Molly,” said her mother, suddenly, chuckling. “Tim, hop out, and let’s see what he does then. Oh, how funny!”
    By the look on Molly’s face, she did not find it so funny at all. But Tim got out. “Thank you for the lift,” he said awkwardly. In the distance he could hear the bus, and, now that he was out, Bunce bounced out too, and ran around like a mad thing, barking and leaping over bushes. His mistress had to run after him and drag him back to the car, and then grab her bag while Tim got onto the bus, feeling slightly awkward.
    The bus driver gave him a lopsided grin. “Ah. You’ll be Tim Ryan. I was