I Lost My Mobile At the Mall by Wendy Harmer Read Free Book Online Page B

face it, you can't go through life with a chronic name like Pickering and not develop a few revenge strategies. When we get home tonight we'll get down to business. Until then, just stay clear of him. And by the way, you have snot coming out your nose.'
    Tilly leans in to the mirror and applies balm to her pretty lips (she's addicted to the stuff) while I mop up my watery snot. Then she smacks a kiss at me and leaves. I head off to find sanctuary with Will under the jacaranda tree.
    I find Will alone, kicking back, lying on the grass and looking at the sky through the branches. I resist the urge to ask him: What are you thinking? I've asked him this before and usually his reply doesn't make much sense: Nothing. Everything. Just random disconnected stuff. That's where you find the truth. (Huh?)
    As I suspected, he hasn't seen the pics. Will hardly ever goes on FacePlace. They've only got one laptop at his house and his mum Jasmine uses it most of the time. The Phillips family live right on the beach at Hammerhead. I love their house. It's an old wooden shack, jammed full of Jasmine's water colours and pottery. There are surfboards stacked in every corner and more still are piled up on the roof beams with the Tibetan prayer flags, driftwood and crusty old lanterns covered in shells and dried barnacles.
    His dad Took (that's his nickname, I think his real name's Greg) is a full-on old surf rat greenie. He's always ranting about how much he hates computers and mobile phones – all the 'techno-horrors', he calls them.
    'They make the world move too fast,' says Took. 'They're like a rope around your freakin' neck. People reckon they can ring you any time they like or send you some dopey email or message and tell you what's on their mind. If they just sat and thought about it for a minute, they wouldn't be spouting such nonstop bullshit!
    'Those bogans out in West Britannia use their technology to get these tiny pictures of the surf sent to 'em on their mobile phones. Pictures big as a postage stamp! What's that about? And then, if there are any waves, they come in droves down here and hassle the locals. There's no respect for the surf life any more. I live here on the beach where I can smell and see and hear the ocean, be part of it all. That's what it's about.'
    When he gets on one of his raves, it can go on for hours . . .
    'There are three million computers sold in this country every year. The greedy leeches suck down fossil fuels and most of 'em end up in landfill where all the filthy chemicals inside all that shiny new metal and plastic – mercury, barium, flame retardants, lead, chromium and cadmium – get into the waterways and kill fish and birds. I'd ban computers. And mobile phones. Every last one of 'em.
    'When I was a kid . . .'
    Sometimes, though, Will gets to go on his mum's computer and check out the surf sites. He has got a mobile, but I don't think Took even knows the number.
    I sit on the grass next to Will and tell the whole story about what's on the net and he stands up and tears at his tie. He paces the grass. I can see that he's mad and I'm grateful.
    'Why do you even look at this stuff, Elly?' Will says. 'Dad's right. It's all bogus! You want me to pay out on that redneck?' he asks fiercely.
    I just smile like a cat and tell Will that I already have a payback in mind for Jai and he grins back at me.
    'Sweet! I knew you would. That's what I like about you, Elly, you're strong and independent. Most chicks would go into total meltdown over something like this. And what you have to remember is that anything that's said about you in cyberspace isn't really real. It's like, in another universe.'
    There's one thing in this speech that makes me take notice: That's what I like about you . Why didn't Will say: That's what I LOVE about you. Still, anything Will says makes my insides melt and go gooey until I'm a soft-centre caramel. He could read from the Oldcastle Yellow Pages and I would be standing there looking at