Free Stay Well Soon by Penny Tangey Page B

yourself?’
    â€˜Yes.’ Me and Dad Ben used to do it together, but now it is just me.
    â€˜You are such a good girl, helping your mum,’ Mrs Baker says. ‘How’s Rhys going?’
    â€˜He’s okay.’ I pick up my lunch. ‘Thank you,’ I say.
    â€˜I wish my children were more like you.’
    I ride my bike to visit Star, but he’s not there. I sit on the stump to eat my lunch. The sausage roll has gone a bit cold, but what can you do?
    When I get home the washing is all dry. Even though it was cloudy, it was a good drying day, warm and windy. I get the washing in and fold it in front of the television. Mum comes home and she helps me finish the socks.
    The phone rings and it is Dad Ben. He talks to Mum for ages and then finally I get a turn. I tell him all about the Australian history project. He says it sounds like I’m busier than a one-legged man in an arse-kicking contest.
    Dad Ben has a way with words.
    I tell him that the presentation is on Grandparents and Friends Day but he doesn’t take the hint.
    Morgan is late to school on Monday, so I have to sit by myself again. Luckily, I have brought Prancer in the Dark to read.
    We have Indonesian first thing. I ask Morgan how to say, ‘I’m fine’, but she says she doesn’t know. That is a surprise; Morgan is really good at Indonesian because she’s been to Bali. The first time I went to Morgan’s house she showed me the blue and silver sarong that she bought. I hope I own something as beautiful as that one day.
    At lunchtime Morgan is being all quiet and funny so I get out Prancer in the Dark .
    I have not even read a page when Morgan says out of nowhere, ‘What did you do yesterday?’
    â€˜Not much,’ I say.
    â€˜You didn’t go anywhere, visit anyone?’
    â€˜No,’ I say.
    â€˜I know.’
    â€˜Know what?’
    â€˜About your big secret.’
    I don’t say anything.
    â€˜Your brother Rhys has cancer,’ she says.
    â€˜How do you know?’
    â€˜Brianna told me. I saw her at Bunnings on Sunday.’
    â€˜Why were you at Bunnings?’
    â€˜Dad’s building a mezzanine.’
    â€˜What’s that?’
    â€˜It’s like an extra storey for the house but it doesn’t go all the way across. It’s going to overlook the lounge room. But I don’t care about that. Don’t change the subject. Brianna told me about Rhys.’
    â€˜How would Brianna know?’
    â€˜From her mum, Mrs Anselma.’
    Of course. Brianna can’t keep a secret.
    â€˜That’s why you can’t do anything after school. You go to visit Rhys at the hospital.’
    â€˜So?’
    â€˜So why did you keep it a secret from your best friend? Friends should trust each other. You’re not my friend at all! You’re wearing that bracelet as though it means something, but it doesn’t. You may as well be walking on Indigo and Jade’s graves.’
    Morgan walks away.
    She passes April, who’s coming back to the classroom with her lunch box. April says, ‘Trouble in paradise, ladies?’
    When I get home from school I put my bracelet in the bin. I don’t want to remember stupid old Indigo and Jade anymore. They’re not even real.
    Morgan doesn’t even like horses, and horses hate her. All that time I’ve been wasting with Morgan, I should have been trying to get my horse, Atta Girl. She would never trample me.
    I go back to Rhys’s room. No-one knows that I took the money for the sausage roll from his savings jar but I know it was the wrong thing to do. I didn’t really need a sausage roll. I could have saved that money for Atta Girl.
    I take the stopper off the jar. I will just take the same amount as I did the other day, but this time I will save it for horse equipment.
    I take out a two-dollar coin, a one-dollar coin and a fifty-cent piece. Then I quickly go back to my room.
    There is a knock