Friday Brown by Vikki Wakefield Read Free Book Online Page A

lemon, but I shook my head.
    Silence sucked another blast from his inhaler.
    ‘Sit,’ Arden said. ‘Are you okay?’ she asked Silence.
    ‘He got wheezy,’ Bree said. She opened a twist-topbottle with her teeth, chugged and swallowed. ‘He’s better now.’
    Darcy shuffled to close the space between her and Carrie.
    Carrie jabbed Darcy with her elbow.
    I sat next to a young boy with long hair the colour of rain-soaked wheat and shifty eyes that rolled and flicked from side to side. His fingers were bitten and raw, swollen around the nails, like burst sausages. He looked about nine or ten.
    ‘AiAi,’ Arden said and reached across to tousle his hair. Aye-aye. ‘He’s the baby of the family. Who else have you met? Joe? Carrie? Darcy, our little ray of sunshine?’
    Carrie snorted. She was so big she couldn’t cross her legs properly and her chin touched her chest.
    Joe and I nodded to each other. He offered the bag of pretzels.
    ‘We don’t need her,’ Darcy said. ‘The group’s getting too big. We’ll get found if we get too big. If they find me they’ll take me back.’
    Arden looked over at Darcy.
    The girl shrank.
    Arden turned her laser-stare to me. ‘So, tell us about you. Where are you from? And what have you done?’
    ‘I haven’t done anything,’ I stammered. ‘I’m from the country…’
    ‘Everybody’s done something, country girl.’ She lit another cigarette and lazily pulled a flick-knife out of her boot. She flipped it open and sliced a ragged tip from herfingernail. ‘I know it. We all know it.’ She waited. The tip of the knife was pointed in my direction.
    Dread made my arms tingle. ‘I ran away,’ was all I gave her.
    Her laughter was short. ‘We’re all running,’ she sighed. ‘There’s something you need to understand about us. We’re not a gang. We’re family.’
    Family. The word struck like a gong.
    ‘There are rules we follow so that we can stay together,’ she continued. ‘Some of us are listed as missing persons and that means there are people looking for us. Who’s looking for you? Are you missing?’
    ‘Nobody.’ I wasn’t missed.
    ‘Well, you’re lucky. If you want to stay, you need to keep our secrets. Can you keep other people’s secrets, Friday?’ Her eyes glittered.
    ‘Yes.’
    ‘AiAi here has a junkie for a mother. He’s had so many broken bones he rattles when he walks. He’s got one leg shorter than the other and he’s missing more teeth than he’s got left. Did Silence tell you why he can’t speak?’
    ‘No.’
    ‘His father stood on his throat. In boots. For a long time. And Carrie pretends she’s a vampire dyke to keep the…’
    ‘Stop,’ Carrie said in a hoarse voice. ‘She gets the picture. We’re all really fucked up.’
    ‘Speak for yourself,’ Darcy said.
    ‘Yeah? Hey, Darce, tell us how you earn your keep,’ Carrie hissed.
    ‘I earn more than you do…’
    ‘Dysfunction is the new black,’ Joe smirked.
    Arden held up her hand and their bickering stopped. ‘Here’s the deal. We all contribute two hundred dollars a week to the family budget. We don’t care how you get it. Nobody will judge you. That money is looked after by me,’ she pointed to Malik, ‘and him. You feed yourself during the day and we meet back here every night at six for dinner. We watch each other’s backs. We are invisible. We’re quiet and we don’t get caught.’
    ‘I got caught,’ AiAi said.
    Arden smacked him on the top of his head and his mouth snapped shut.
    ‘What happens with the money?’ I asked.
    Arden frowned. ‘Expenses. If you need a doctor, stuff like that. It’s for our future.’
    AiAi said, ‘Tell her about the place, Arden.’
    Arden ignored him. ‘So, can you keep our secrets, Friday?’
    Silence grabbed my hand and squeezed it.
    Carrie’s eyes were dark with something unsaid and Darcy stared at a crack in the floorboards.
    Bree closed one eye and looked into her empty bottle. She turned it as if it was a