Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta Read Free Book Online

semi-carnage in front of me but I just can’t help thinking back to my dream.
    “So you made the offer,” I say.
    He nods but even that seems painful.
    “And they didn’t like it?”
    “He wanted the negotiations to take placebetween him and the girl. ‘Isn’t she in charge over there?’ That’s what he said. Like I thought he would. Remember that part where I said he’ll want to speak to you?”
    “And he’s a coward who gets his thugs to do the dirty work for him.”
    “Oh no,” Ben says, trying to shake his head and pushing Raffaela’s hand away. “He did all this himself. You’ve got to hand it to him. He does his own dirty work.”
    I can tell Ben’s angry.
    “I am allowed to delegate,” I say to him, speaking more sharply than I should.
    “Yeah, I know. But you weren’t delegating. You were avoiding someone and I got caught in the middle. Look at me. I’m five foot four. I’m a weakling. My specialty is medieval jousting and violin. I’m not built for pain. He, on the other hand, is a ten-feet-fricken-tall unit.”
    “Then we try again and give him want he wants for the time being,” Raffaela says.
    “We have no idea what he wants.”
    “Did this happen on our territory or theirs?”
    “Does it matter? It hurts the same. They havebooby traps everywhere. It’s like one of those bad Chuck Norris–Vietnam War movies from the eighties.”
    “So they’re bored?” I ask.
    “Out of their tiny brains. They just worked out that you can’t get mobile coverage out here. So no text-messaging means more terrorising. You can’t walk a metre without a trip-wire getting you. You need to call a meeting with Richard and the other leaders. Remind them of exactly where the boundaries are because if one of the younger kids gets caught in the wrong area, there’ll be casualties and the teachers will start asking questions and the other Houses are going to go apeshit.”
    “Then we’ll go check the boundaries later today.”
    “I’m not going!”
    “Yes you are, Ben. You’re my second-in-charge.”
    “Only chosen because you didn’t want Richard. Don’t think for one moment that I thought you picked me for any other reason. I don’t get chosen for things unless there’s a motive. You know why I’m head of my House? Because Number One Son found Jesus Christ and is now a happy clapper withthose Hillsong People in Sydney, and I’m about this close to joining him.”
    “I’ll get Richard, then. He’ll be the best of a bad bunch of backstabbers. Is that okay with you?” I snap. I walk out and slam the door, thumping furiously down the stairs.
    The teacher who has replaced Hannah is calling the roll in our dining room and everyone acts as if it’s the most natural thing in the world. Everyone except for me and Jessa McKenzie. She sits at the bottom of the stairs wrapped in her nightgown, with that perfect yearning concern on her face.
    “Go get some breakfast,” I say firmly.
    “Are you going to Hannah’s?”
    “It’s none of your business where I’m going,” I mutter, slamming out the front door.
     
    Hannah’s house has begun to lose her scent. These days it smells musty and still. I walk to her room in the attic and lie on her bed. It’s been a week since I’ve seen her and I know that it’s time to go and speak to one of the teachers. To ask casually where she is. I bury my face in her pillow. I can’t remember one day in the last five years that Hannah hasn’t been aroundand for a moment I want to cry. I’m angry that I want to cry because I feel like I’ve been manipulated by the soundtrack in my head—the same one that made me cry in some shit sentimental movie with Julia Roberts where the mum is dying of cancer. I get off the bed and walk down to the kitchen. Hannah’s manuscript is there on the table, but it seems thinner and the pages are spread out like someone’s just read them, like someone’s just been here, which makes me feel uneasy. The pages aren’t