Gold by Chris Cleave Read Free Book Online

rearview mirror to check he wasn’t shaking Sophie around too badly. The rain had eased, and half a dozen children wrangled their bikes lazily down the long, straight ribbon of road between the banks of identical red brick Victorian terraced houses, each with its single step and low wall separating a painted front door from the pavement. The children stopped their bikes to blow bubble gum and watch the Argalls pull up outside their house.
    Jack opened his door, stepped up and out into the last of the rain, and frowned.
    “Don’t you kids ever go inside?”
    The tallest child was a girl of eight in pink leggings, white trainers, and a green parka with the hood up. She inched her bike forward from the others, gripped the brake levers, and tilted her head to one side. She wrinkled her nose and looked at Jack as if he was slightly retarded.
    “There’s nowt on telly, is there?” she said. “Just shite.”
    He frowned.
    “What?” said the girl. “I only said shite . Is that not a word in fuckin’ Lapland or wherever you come from, Mr. Argall?”
    She leaned over and spat on the road. A long strand of drool failed to detach, and she sucked it back like spaghetti between the gap in her front teeth, looking amiably at Jack all the while.
    “I come from Scotland,” said Jack. “You’d know it if it came on TV. Bagpipes? Kilts? Heroin?”
    “Whatevs,” said the girl. “Is your Sophie alright?”
    “Ask her yourself, Ruby. She does talk.”
    Kate had got out of the car and was leaning back in to undo Sophie’s straps. The girl footed her bike up to her.
    “Mam left a cake for you, Mrs. A. On your step.”
    Kate looked up and there they were, one Tupperware box and one metal biscuit tin on the front step of their house.
    “Two cakes,” she said. “That’s so kind.”
    “Nah, the tin is from Kelly’s mam. It’s biscuits but I wouldn’t eat them if I was you because Kelly’s mam’s dirty.”
    “Ruby, honey, that’s not nice,” Kate said.
    Jack gave her a look over Ruby’s head that said “Yeah, but…” and she tried to keep a straight face.
    “Let’s have you out of there, Sophie,” she said, cradling her daughter’s head as she lifted her out of the car.
    Sophie looked over Kate’s shoulder at the other girl. She blinked against the drizzle.
    “Alright, Soph?” said Ruby.
    “ Amazing ,” said Sophie, “we actually went to the Death Star and we actually met Darth Vader and it was really him because otherwise why would I have these memories ?”
    Ruby rolled her eyes. “When are you coming back to school?”
    “I don’t know, do I?”
    “Soon, Ruby,” Kate said. “When she’s better.”
    “You’ve missed two months now,” Ruby said. “Miss any more and you’ll have to go in thicky maths with Barney and he’ll show you his willy.”
    Sophie shrugged nonchalantly. “Already seen it.”
    Ruby smiled, then she reached up quickly and took Sophie’s hand. She looked into her eyes for a second and tilted her head forward, as if she was trying to direct forces from inside herself, through her arm, into Sophie’s body. Then she let go of her hand, popped her bubble gum, and pedaled away to join the other children riding circles in the street.
    Sophie let Mum carry her inside. The house smelled of toast andbike oil. Her parents’ road bikes hung on hooks in the hallway. Mum set her down on her feet and she kicked her way through the chaos of shoes, unpaired gloves, and discarded coats on the hallway floor to get to the toilet under the stairs.
    Sophie bolted herself into the toilet and collapsed on the floor in the dark. She leaned her back against the wall and closed her eyes. That half a minute of talking with Ruby had wiped her out. It was good, though. Mum had seen it, Dad had seen it. That counted for an hour when they wouldn’t worry. After that she knew she would start to see the lines creeping back into their faces, and hear the sharp edge coming back into their voices, and