Puppy Fat by Morris Gleitzman Read Free Book Online Page B

mean,’ he said, ‘the sort of worry you feel when your parents have let themselves go so badly nobody wants to ask them out?’
    Aunty Bev gently led him over to the settee.
    â€˜Keith,’ she said, ‘is there something you want to tell me?’
    *
    Keith was still glowing with happiness when he got to Dad’s place, even though he felt a bit sick from drinking so much carrot juice.
    Every time he thought about his chat with Aunty Bev, he glowed even more.
    She’d been great.
    â€˜No problem,’ she’d said after he’d told her about Mum and Dad. ‘You won’t recognise them soon.’ She’d patted herself on the chest. ‘Not now they’ve got their own personal grooming and fashion adviser. So you can stop worrying and go back to growing.’
    Then, before she’d gone back to sleep, she’d told Keith how vegetable juice was full of growth vitamins and didn’t make you fat, which was really good of her because he hadn’t even asked.
    â€˜Hello Keith.’
    Dad was in the kitchen, putting instant coffee into a mug.
    â€˜Hello Dad,’ said Keith.
    If he hadn’t been so happy he’d have sighed.
    Nine-thirty and Dad was already in his pyjamas.
    Keith hoped that when Aunty Bev finished advising Dad on personal grooming and fashion and Dad started going to nightclubs, he’d remember to change out of his pyjamas first.
    â€˜What’s that on your fingers?’ asked Dad.
    Keith saw that the fingers of his right hand were stained orange.
    â€˜Carrots,’ he said. ‘They were the only vegetables Mum had. I grated them for juice. It took three hours.’
    â€˜As long as it’s not nicotine from cigarettes,’ said Dad. ‘Smoking’ll stunt your growth and you wouldn’t want that, would you?’
    â€˜No Dad,’ said Keith wearily.
    He watched Dad fill the coffee mug from the hot tap and slouch back to the telly.
    Keith sighed.
    All the personal grooming and fashion advice in the world wouldn’t be any use unless Dad perked up first.
    OK Tracy, thought Keith, it’s up to you.

8
    Tracy stood next to Mum’s fridge, eyes shining.
    â€˜A whole kitchen, seventeen storeys above the ground,’ she breathed. ‘Unreal.’
    She went over to the sink and gazed out the window.
    â€˜There’s another twenty-one kitchens above this one,’ said Keith.
    â€˜Can we go up to the top floor?’ said Tracy excitedly. ‘It’ll be really good practice for when I go to Nepal.’
    â€˜Nepal?’ said Keith.
    He wondered if he’d heard her right. Foreign words could be a bit hard to understand sometimes, specially if the person saying them had a mouthful of egg, sausage, bacon and onion sandwich.
    Tracy swallowed and took another big mouthful.
    â€˜You must know Nepal,’ she said. ‘It’s just to the right of Afghanistan.’
    Keith remembered Tracy’s travel brochure collection at her place in Australia and how in the Campsites With Views bundle Nepal had even more brochures than New Zealand.
    â€˜Highest mountains in the world,’ said Tracy wistfully, wiping her mouth on the back of her hand. ‘It’s gunna be great. They’ve got mountains there so high you need oxygen to get to the top. You dream about that when you come from a place that’s three metres above sea level.’
    Keith grinned.
    He remembered how Tracy had climbed onto the roof of the post office in Orchid Cove to see if she could see Brisbane.
    Then a thought hit him and he stopped grinning.
    â€˜When are you going?’ he asked anxiously. ‘You are still here for ten more days, aren’t you?’
    Tracy grinned.
    â€˜Course I am, you dope. I wouldn’t come all this way and only stay for the weekend. We’ve got a stopover in Nepal on the way back.’
    Keith felt weak with relief.
    To do what he was about to ask her to do she’d