Riddle Gully Secrets by Jen Banyard Read Free Book Online

rolled his eyes. ‘Of course it was!’
    â€˜How’d your dad take it when he found out it was an iPad?’ said Will.
    â€˜Um … Twig doesn’t know,’ said Dan.
    â€˜The iPad’s still a secret?’ said Pollo. ‘How come?’
    â€˜I lay awake all night thinking.’ Dan took a big breath. ‘I’ve decided not to tell him. I’m sick and tired of hiding away in a tent and doing home-school. I’m going to run away instead. I’ll live off the bush and find a proper school and make real friends apart from Twig and aliens.’
    â€˜That would be unwise,’ said Ash. ‘Your bushcraft skills need serious work. You’d die of dehydration within the week.’
    â€˜Hang on! You mean you don’t have to go to school?’ said Will.
    Dan shook his head. ‘I report to a head office every now and again. Twig teaches me.’
    â€˜No getting up and going off every morning. You’re so lucky!’
    â€˜No I’m not!’ said Dan. ‘You try living with Twig twenty-four hours a day! You’d have run away years ago!’
    â€˜I’m sorry to tell you this,’ said Pollo, ‘but at our age, it’s illegal to run away.’
    â€˜It is?’
    Pollo nodded.
    Dan slumped down onto a log. ‘I don’t want to get into trouble.’
    â€˜What about your mum?’ said Will. ‘Why don’t you live with her?’
    â€˜I can’t,’ said Dan. ‘She’s gone to the cosmos.’
    Pollo started. ‘She’s an astronaut?’
    Will cleared his throat. ‘I think he’s saying she died.’
    â€˜That’s right,’ said Dan.
    â€˜My mum too,’ said Pollo. ‘I was six when she got sick.’
    â€˜My mother passed when I was a baby,’ said Dan, ‘along with a sister. I wish I could remember them but I can’t. I’ve given up trying.’
    â€˜I’ve got a baby half-brother in Canberra I wouldn’t mind forgetting,’ said Will.
    â€˜Yeah, well, it’s made Twig a bit clingy is all I can say,’ said Dan.
    â€˜You can’t run away,’ said Ash. ‘Just tell your dad the truth about the iPad.’
    â€˜It would shatter him,’ said Dan.
    â€˜So would running away,’ said Ash.
    â€˜You don’t understand,’ sighed Dan. ‘I’m letting himdown just by bringing the iPad into the tent. My whole life, Twig has taught me the evils of consumerism and modern technology. How it all blunts our senses and smothers our spiritual connection to Earth and the cosmos – I know it off by heart.
    â€˜Until lately I’d let it wash over me. But at the last place we stayed – Twig was fruit-picking – there was a kid called Evan. I got the iPad from him ’cos he was getting a new one for his birthday. He had rowdy sisters and stuff everywhere, and even though his oldies were nice, they didn’t mind telling him off. Evan wasn’t bad and he wasn’t especially good. He was just, you know, regular – like I want to be.’
    Dan looked at the others pleadingly. ‘I’m just a kid who wants to play a few games and get yelled at by his parents every now and again.’
    â€˜Do you maybe believe in that portal stuff just a little bit?’ asked Ash.
    â€˜No!’ Dan banged his fist into the palm of his hand. ‘And it’s the last straw! As long as I can remember, Twig’s been dragging me from place to place, never stopping long enough so’s I can make any friends.’ He mimicked his father’s voice. ‘“Don’t get attached to people; sooner or later, you lose them, you have to say goodbye; it hurts”.
    â€˜He’s got a biscuit tin full of old family photos that his grandma passed on to him – great-uncle this and great-great-grandmother that. He pulls them all out and pores over them for hours. Sometimes I wonder if he