Magic or Madness by Justine Larbalestier Read Free Book Online Page B

take an hour and a half to walk. Lot quicker if you had a bike. I bet Mere would get you one.”
    Reason grunted. “I like walking.”
    The doorbell rang.
    “That’ll be Jessica. Wanna stay? She loves having an audience. She’s hilarious, very Patsy.”
    “Patsy?”
    “You don’t know Patsy? From that old show? It’s not on anymore. Really good, but. I’ve got the DVDs. We could watch them together sometime. So, you wanna stay?”
    “Nah. I better get back. Does your dad’s room have a balcony?”
    Tom grinned. “Sure.”
    From the front balcony, they looked down on Jessica, who was wearing high heels and a shoestring-strap dress made of nearly transparent layered chiffon. Tom tried to imagine what Reason would look like dressed like that. He couldn’t. He’d make her something much classier. An emerald green dress, cut on the bias, simple. No bows, no ruching, nothing extra.
    Tom leaned over the railing and called to Jessica, “Just a second.” He turned to Reason. “Are you in one of the front rooms?”
    “Uh-huh.”
    “Well, then, just step across.”
    Jessica pressed the buzzer again. “Coming,” he called. “I better go, Ree. Hey, wanna hang out later? Or tomorrow?”
    Reason nodded. “Sure. That’d be great.”
    Tom ran down the stairs, his feet barely touching them. His life had just gotten a million times better. Not only was Reason gorgeous, but odds were she was magic, just like him.

8
    In the Witch’s Kitchen
    I hoisted both legs over Tom’s railing and then jumped across to my own. An old man watching from the street called out to me to bloody watch myself. I waved to him and laughed.
    I now had a bag of almonds, a street directory, three escape routes—I could leave via Tom’s house if I wanted—and a clear idea of how to get to Kalder Park. A most excellent morning.
    I lay on the bed smiling, thinking about Tom. I’d never introduced myself to anyone using my real name before. I’d never claimed to have a nickname and he’d called me Ree just like I told him, as if it really was mine. It felt strange, but I liked it.
    I liked Tom too. He talked a million miles an hour and he blushed constantly. Fair-skinned people make the best blushers, and Tom’s skin was so fair it was translucent. I’d been able to see the blue veins below his skin, as though I could see right through him if I stared hard enough. I bet there was no way he could lie and get away with it—he’d turn bright pink. I trusted him.
    He had a nice smile and a sense of humour, and I’d figured out long ago that looks didn’t have much to say as to whether you were a good person or not.
    Tom was definitely funny looking. White-blond hair paler than his skin, even, and skinny. Really skinny. The kind of skinny that made people worry if he was eating enough. Skinny like I used to be before I started getting lumps and bumps.
    That’s what Sarafina called them. I’d known about puberty—what menstruation was, why it happened, about breasts, hips, pubic hair, reproductive organs—for as long as I could remember. Sarafina was very determined that my head be full of facts. Information. Reason. Even so, she called them lumps and bumps. Sarafina felt the phrase was more descriptive of their power to disrupt. Plus when I called them that, it made her laugh, which wasn’t always easy.
    Especially not now. Tom’s mother too. It was oddly comforting that we were both in the same boat. But how strange was that? Tom hadn’t seemed a bit surprised, though. Maybe lots of mothers in Sydney went mad.
    I’d heard about the dangers of city living all my life, and not just from Sarafina. There were lots of people in the bush who were sure that everyone in the cities was nutty and had to go off to special loony doctors to get fixed, except they never were because mostly madness is unfixable. It was all the thieves and pollution and murderers and rapists in cities that drove you mad in the first place and until that was fixed,