Free Stay Well Soon by Penny Tangey Page A

has finished filling up.
    I pick up the washing basket and take it outside to the line. It is a cloudy day. Fingers crossed that it won’t rain.
    We are running out of pegs so I have to hang the socks up in pairs. Mum bought a new packet of pegs only a few months ago but we are always losing them.
    I look in the grass for pegs and I find thirteen.
    Back in the laundry I put the basket on top of the machine. It is very quiet in the house now. But then I hear a creaking sound. I stop still. There’s another creak and a rustle. It sounds like the noise is coming from the kitchen. Like there’s a person in the kitchen.
    I want to escape. I quickly open the back door and go outside into the backyard.
    Maybe I am being silly. If there was someone in the house, Angel would have barked. She always barks when strangers come. Dad Tony trained her that way. Angel loved Dad Tony even though he was always yelling at her.
    I crouch down and give Angel a pat on the head. She rolls over and wants a scratch on the tummy.
    I stand up and go closer to the back door. I can’t hear anything now except the washing machine.
    I walk around the house to the kitchen window and look in. I can’t see anyone.
    I go back into the house and step into the kitchen. I hear the rustling noise again and I see a plastic bag on the bench waving around in the wind. I shut the window and it stops.
    That still doesn’t explain the creaking sound. I will have to investigate.
    I pick up a big frying pan for protection and I walk into each room of the house. To be on the safe side I check behind the doors and in the cupboards.
    Rhys’s room is last. There’s no-one in there. I guess the creaking was nothing after all. I put the frying pan back in the kitchen and go back to Rhys’s room. His room smells gross, like him. There are tissues and clothes all over the floor.
    I pick up a big armful of clothes. I try to hold them far out in front of me so I can’t smell them. I take them to the laundry and put them in the dirty pile.
    The dirty washing pile looks the same size as it was this morning. Will it never end?
    I am getting hungry. Mum told me there was cheese and bread in the fridge but I don’t want a boring old cheese sandwich for lunch. Maybe after the next load of washing is hung out I will ride my bike down the street to the shops and get a sausage roll. Except sausage rolls are three-fifty and obviously I have to save all my money for horse equipment.
    In the lounge room I pick up all the cushions from the couch. I find a dollar coin and a fifty-cent coin. I look on the dresser in Mum’s room. There’s a ten-dollar note, but she will notice if I take it.
    I walk past Rhys’s room and see his savings jar sitting on his dresser. It is in the shape of a motorbike.
    I turn the jar upside down and try to shake the coins out of the slot in the rider’s helmet. They won’t come out. I pull the rubber stopper out of the bottom and some coins rattle out. There’s exactly three dollars fifty. If I take that plus the one dollar fifty, I can have a sausage roll and a can of Creamy Soda because of the special deal.
    When I’ve hung out the next load of washing I ride my bike to the Langwarrin shops. I am so hungry now. My mouth starts watering when I smell the chips being cooked in the shop.
    Mrs Baker, who used to be a teacher at school until she started crying all the time, is working in the shop.
    â€˜Hello, Stevie,’ she says.
    â€˜Hello, Mrs Baker,’ I say.
    I order the special sausage-roll-and-can-of-drink deal. She puts a sausage roll in a bag and hands me a can.
    I give her my money. The cash register takes ages to open up. ‘Sorry, love,’ says Mrs Baker. ‘This register’s as slow as a wet week. What are you up to today?’
    â€˜Doing the washing,’ I say.
    â€˜The washing-up?’
    â€˜No, the clothes washing.’
    â€˜You do the laundry all by