Free Angel Creek by Sally Rippin

me. I’ll go and get them.’
    Maureen was watching her carefully. Jelly couldn’t quite meet her eye. She stared at a mole just above her raised eyebrows.
    â€˜Off you go then,’ Maureen said slowly. ‘But hurry. I don’t want you kids to still be out when your dad wakes up.’
    Instead of climbing over the back fence, Jelly went out the side gate as if she was going to the playground. She rounded the side of Maureen’s house and ran through her garden to cut through to the bike path. Her feet pounded the earth and her heart raced. She imagined Pik, swallowed up by the creek. She saw his face, deep in the cloudy water, his body tangled in the reeds, and then the face of the angel looking out at her in place of Pik’s.
    He won’t have gone near the water, she tried to convince herself. It frightens him. He can’t swim. He would’ve stuck to the path. He will be fine. He will be fine.
    But the banks are so slippery , came a dark voice from inside her, the creek so high .
    She skidded down the bank, clutching at bushes and reeds to slow her slide. A flock of cockatoos screeched overhead. She reached the path and began calling his name.
    An early morning jogger was heading towards her. She wanted to ask if he’d seen a little boy, but felt too ashamed. It was all her fault. She had drowned Pik. And she had no idea how she could live with herself. The jogger passed, and tears streamed down her face. ‘Pik!’ she called.
    â€˜Pik, where are you?’ She ran, but her eyes were so blurred with tears she could hardly see where she was going. She stumbled on, praying, praying that the worst hadn’t happened. ‘Please, please make Pik okay. Please let me find him. I will never have another mean thought. I will take that angel back to the creek somehow, even if Gino never speaks to me again.’
    She reached the tunnel where everything had begun. There was no sign of Pik. Jelly hung her head in her hands. I can’t do this on my own. I wish, wish, wish that someone was here to help me. She had never felt so alone.
    Then she heard faraway voices echoing through the tunnel. She listened. Was that Pik? Talking to someone? She’d never loved the sound of his voice so much. Her heart leapt. His voice came again. Louder this time. ‘There she is,’ she heard him say. She looked up to see two figures coming through the tunnel, silhouetted against the slanting light.
    Pik and the boy with the black hair walked into the daylight. They were holding hands and the boy smiled at Jelly.
    â€˜Pik!’ she shouted. ‘Where were you?’
    â€˜He was wandering along the track,’ said the boy. ‘A little too close to the water. Said he was looking for—’
    â€˜â€”angels,’ Pik finished, smiling at his new friend.
    â€˜Yeah.’ The boy shrugged. ‘Says they’re in the creek. But I told him that even if he did see one he should never try to catch it because it’s bad luck to catch an angel, hey, Pik? You just leave them alone.’
    Pik nodded. ‘I didn’t tell him you and Gino got one.’
    â€˜Nup,’ the boy said, grinning. ‘He didn’t tell me that.’
    â€˜But I did tell him I couldn’t find you,’ Pik said, sniffing theatrically. ‘I told him that you and Gino went off without me. Again!’
    Jelly dried her eyes on the back of her hand and even though the boy was there she pulled Pik into her arms so tight he gasped. ‘You’re naughty,’ she said, laughing. ‘You are so naughty, Pikky, I should smack you.’ And then she tickled him so hard he squealed. She looked up at the boy. ‘Thank you so much. I owe you one. You have no idea how much trouble I was going to be in.’
    â€˜Two,’ the boy said, his smile bright. He flicked his fringe out of his eyes. ‘Actually, that’s two you owe me now, I believe.’
    Jelly felt her