Nature of Ash, The by Mandy Hager Read Free Book Online Page A

to think.
    Mikey thumps me in the chest. I’m so pissed off I thump him back. And then we’re fighting for real, all our screwed-up emotions spilling out. He elbows me inthe cheek, which hurts like hell. Rolls so he’s got the whole force of his humungous weight on top of me, and starts bouncing to drive out all my air. I claw up at his face, trying to mash his eyes, knowing full well he’s unbeatable once he’s mad. He head-butts me between the eyes, and a bright burst of light explodes behind my temples as I try to pull him off me by his hair.
    ‘I want my dad!’ he screams. ‘You bring him back!’
    ‘He’s bloody d—’
    He whops me in the mouth with his shoulder. ‘Go away,’ he shrieks. ‘Want Jow Jow.’ He rolls off me and curls into a foetal ball. He’s crying hard out now, still slapping at me until I crawl out of his lethal range.
    I hurt all over, but it’s his heartbroken sobs that finally do me in. I’m swept by the most unbearable exhaustion. ‘I’m sorry, mate.’ I drag myself on to all fours and wrap myself around him. ‘It’s going to be all right.’ I hope like hell he can’t hear the lie. It feels like nothing will ever be all right again.
    He tries to shrug me off but, damn it, I need to hug him just as much as he needs a hug from me. If we’re going to survive, we’ll need to stick together. And I’m going to have to step up to the mark to protect him. I have no choice … because while our little world has just been blown to bits, outside our door the bigger world is now imploding too.

CHAPTER FOUR
    BY FOUR IN THE AFTERNOON I’m feeling so knacker ed I can hardly stand. I’ve managed to stop Mikey from spazzing out, but now he’s stuck on the sofa, wittering on that I should contact Jiao. I’m buggered if I will: since when has some stranger mattered to him more than me ? Besides, the UPR is threatening our whole existence and I’m not prepared to hear her try to justify it — no bloody way.
    To make things worse, the internet has crashed so I can’t check out all the bullshit about Mum. Those four god-awful letters are prickling at my nerves, and Jeannie still hasn’t called me back. Could the cops already know about them? If so, what does it mean? That they don’t care? That Dad was left to handle sicko death threats on his own?
    There has, however, been a constant stream of othercalls: people I hardly know saying they’d like to help. I end each call as quickly as I can. ‘ Yes, I’ve come home to help Mikey ’ … ‘ Yes, I know Dad was a great, inspiring man ’ … ‘ Thanks for calling but I really have to go .’ For god’s sake, can’t they leave me be? I understand that people need to express their own shock and grief but the last thing I need right now is other people’s shit heaped on my already over-flowing stack.
    To rouse Mikey out of his mood, and to divert my brain, I start to bake a cake, using up the one last browning apple in the fridge. I’ve always been the family baker, from the time Grandma taught me when I was six. And I’m bloody good at it, though I’d never admit this to my new mates down south. I give Mikey the bowl and spatula to lick once the mixture’s in the oven, and he takes them away without a word. I’ve seen him sulk before — god knows, he’s master of the silent treatment — but this is very different, as if the joyful part of him that’s always bubbling just below the surface has leaked away.
    I’m halfway through washing up my mess when the phone rings again. I daren’t ignore it, in case it’s Jeannie, so dredge my hands out of the water to answer the call.
    ‘Hello?’
    ‘It’s Jiao.’ Jeezus, is she psychic? But I don’t respond, and hear her struggling to swallow before she presses on. ‘May I speak to Mikey please?’
    I hold the receiver out as soapsuds dribble down my arm. ‘Mikey, it’s your girlfriend.’ I know I’m being a total arsehole but I don’t care.
    He’s off the sofa in a