Angel Creek (4 page)

That night Jelly had the strangest dream. She dreamed she was walking along the creek with her dad as he pointed out birds. As they approached the tunnel it grew dark. Not a gentle dark like night falling but the kind where great plum-coloured clouds bloom in the sky like ink in water.

‘We'd better hide in the tunnel,' said Dad. ‘It looks like rain.'

But as Jelly watched, the tunnel came alive and began to transform. Its monstrous jaws opened wide. Jelly turned to her father, but he was gone. She was about to run back the way they had come when she saw something deep inside the monster's belly. It was Nonna. She was sitting in her favourite chair, smiling and beckoning. Heavy raindrops began to fall and Nonna called more impatiently for Jelly to get out of the rain. Jelly desperately wanted to go to her, but she couldn't bring herself to walk into the monster's wide, snapping jaws.

While she was deliberating, one of the cockatoos in a nearby tree swooped down and flew into the darkness. As it approached Nonna its wings grew larger and its body grew longer until soon it was a full-grown angel with long white curls that whipped about its face. Nonna reached up. The angel grasped her wrists and pulled her into the air. As they flew out of the tunnel, Nonna and the angel turned into two noisy cockatoos—flashes of white against the inky sky. When Jelly turned back to the tunnel the monster had disappeared.

5

christmas

Jelly woke the next morning in her grubby clothes in a twisted pile of blankets on the floor. It took her a moment to realise where she was, but then she heard Gino rustling next to her. When she sat up, she saw Pik asleep in her bed, dribbling onto her pillow. Jelly's heart sank. It was Christmas. Downstairs was a towering tree, draped in tinsel and hung with baubles. The star that Jelly had made years before sat crookedly on top. But, unless their parents had come back in the night, Jelly knew there'd be nothing under it. She couldn't imagine a worse way to wake up on Christmas morning—Nonna in hospital, her parents gone and Maureen snoring on the couch downstairs.

Then she remembered. And despite everything, her heart leapt.

‘Gino,' she whispered. ‘I'm going down to see the angel. Come with me?'

‘Me too,' said Pik, sitting upright, immediately awake. He jumped out of bed, onto the pile of blankets that was his brother.

‘Get off.' Gino shoved him.

‘I'm not taking Pik on my own,' Jelly said.

‘All right, I'm coming,' Gino said. ‘What about Maureen?'

‘We'll leave her a note. Come on, Gino. The angel's probably starving.'

‘I'm starving,' said Pik.

‘You can wait.' Gino pushed him out the way as he got up.

They crept down the stairs, past Maureen who was sprawled across the couch with her eyes shut and her mouth open, even though the sunlight was slanting in through the window right over her face. The fairy lights on the Christmas tree still blinked hopefully but, as Jelly had expected, there was nothing underneath. Pik stopped to check behind the tree.

In the kitchen, Jelly found a note from her mum wedged under the biscuit tin. She must have scribbled it before they left last night.

Jelly, Dad and I have gone to the hospital with Nonna.
I expect we won't be around much over the next few days,
at least until we know Nonna's going to be all right. I'll
need you to help Maureen with the kids. Sorry, sweetheart.
We'll have an extra-special Christmas when everything is
okay again. Love, Mum.

Nonna would be all right, Jelly told herself. She had to be. She went back to Pik. ‘It's okay, Pikster.' She steered him into the kitchen. ‘Santa's just waiting for Nonna to get better.'

They packed bread, grapes, water, bandages and other things, and the old picnic blanket from under the stairs. Jelly left a note in red texta for Maureen:
Gone to pick flowers for Nonna.
Once again her brilliant mind astonished her.

In the daylight, the tunnel seemed smaller and less frightening than the night before. Pik poked his tongue out at it as they passed. Birds swooped in and out of the peppercorn trees, squawking loudly, but the streets were quiet. Not a car or person in sight. Everyone was probably doing what people normally did on Christmas morning: sleeping in or opening presents. Not wandering the streets like orphans before the sun was fully up. They reached the mulberry tree and crawled under the fence into the school.

When Jelly opened the door to the shed, she couldn't see anything in the shadows. Then she noticed a small pile of droppings, like black pebbles. Where was the angel? Her heart lurched. She and Gino stepped into the shed, but Pik stayed outside.

‘Stinks,' Gino said, wrinkling his nose. Jelly took another step forward. Suddenly there was a terrible squeal and the angel scuttled out from behind the door. Jelly fell against the side of the shed as the angel clambered up her, clawing at her T-shirt and drooling into her face. Its breath was as foul as dirty vase water.

‘Get it off me! Get it
off
me!' she pleaded, her heart banging around in her chest, but Gino was laughing so hard he could barely stand up. Pik peered around the door, sniggering.

‘It only wants
you
, Jelly,' Gino said. ‘Not
me.
Remember?'

Jelly pulled at the angel, but it was holding on so tight its skinny fingertips were bruising her ribs. She stumbled and the angel came with her. As they landed on its injured wing, the angel bucked in pain and Jelly pulled herself free. She staggered backwards, but when she saw the angel crumple over its twisted wing she knelt down to scoop it up again.

‘Stop laughing, Gino,' she said. ‘It's really hurt.'

Gino crouched beside her and they studied the angel's wing as it nestled into Jelly's chest. In the daylight it was easier to see the injury. Jelly parted some feathers gently and the angel flinched. There was a small crust of dried blood matting up the downy feathers underneath and a thin white bone was sticking out of the skin, which looked puckered and pinky and sore.

‘Pass me the water,' Jelly said. ‘It looks like it's been bleeding in the night.'

‘It needs a bang-daid,' Pik said. ‘Poor angel.'

Gino and Jelly shared a furtive grin. ‘
Bandaid
, you idiot,' Gino said. He took the water bottle out of the plastic bag and passed it to Jelly.

‘Mum says not to call me that.' Pik shuffled closer to pat the angel's head.

‘You're right, Pik,' Jelly said, dribbling water over the wound. ‘It does need a bandaid. But let's give it some food first.'

Pik bared his teeth at Gino.

Gino broke off a crust of bread and held it out to the angel but it only burrowed deeper into Jelly's chest.

‘You scare it. Give the bread to me.' She broke off a tiny corner and held it under the angel's nose. It sniffed, then a silvery tongue darted out and the bread was gone. ‘See!' she said. But her smugness didn't last long. The angel began to cough and gag, and spat the morsel of bread out onto her lap in a gooey trail of slime. ‘Ew!' She resisted the urge to push the angel off her lap. ‘Did we bring any tissues?'

Gino laughed until Jelly gave him the evil eye.

As she trickled some water onto her filthy shorts to try to wash off the muck, the angel thrust its head forward and licked desperately at the wet patch.

‘It's thirsty,' Pik said, gnawing on a piece of the abandoned bread stick.

Jelly tried to tip some of the water into the angel's mouth but it shied away from the bottle and would only lick it off her skin. Eventually she worked out it would drink from her cupped hands and its long tongue lapped in and out until it was full.

‘Try a grape,' Gino said.

Jelly pulled one off the bunch and handed it to the angel. It sat up in her lap, suddenly interested, and sniffed at the fruit. Then it grabbed the grape in both hands and deftly peeled away the skin before popping it in its mouth.

‘Ha!' Pik said. ‘Monkeys do that.'

‘Give it some more,' Gino said. ‘It likes them.'

‘Not too many,' Jelly said. ‘I don't want it throwing up all over me again.'

The angel shoved the grapes into its mouth as quickly as Jelly could peel them. Gino and Pik watched, stifling fits of giggles. When they laughed the angel would hide its face against Jelly's chest and she would have to coax it out again with another peeled grape. She was beginning to feel like a mother ape.

‘We'd better go soon,' said Gino, suddenly serious. ‘Our parents might be back.'

‘Not yet.' She stroked the angel's hair. ‘We need to bandage its wing.'

Jelly pulled out some bandages and Dettol from the plastic bag and looked around the shed for something she could use as a splint. ‘Get a stick from the mulberry tree,' she told Gino. ‘A strong one but not too big.'

The angel lay still as Jelly bandaged its wing, like it understood she was trying to help it, and she was as gentle as she could be. Her dad had taught her how— close to the body and folded in tight. The cockatoo had been tricky, flapping around everywhere. But the angel wasn't like that. It trusted her.

When she was finished she stroked its hair until it fell asleep. Gino sat quietly, watching. She could see that he was impressed. She was feeling quite pleased with herself, too. Perhaps she wasn't going to be an environmental scientist like her dad anymore. She might be a doctor. Or a vet. As she looked down at the sleeping angel she wondered if it was more human or more animal. It was hard to tell. It looked like a human, but it sure acted like an animal.

When Gino and Pik weren't looking, Jelly pulled its dress thing up, just a little bit, to see if it had a bottom. It did. And it looked like angels didn't wear undies.

Jelly pulled the dress down quickly before the boys saw her peeking. She didn't want to look at what it had in front. Especially if it was a boy. She wondered if all angels were that skinny or if it had been lost and hungry for a while. In the pictures she'd seen in books and churches, angels were grown-up and had long golden hair and harps and things. Or they were fat babies—cherubs, with bows and arrows. Maybe only the kid ones were this skinny? She wondered if it did have a mother and a father. Were they looking for it?

‘We'll take you back,' Jelly whispered to the angel. ‘Just as soon as your wing's better.'

But she wanted to show Stef first. After all, what was the point of having something magical happen to you if you couldn't share it with your best friend? Gino was pulling bark off a mulberry twig. ‘Can we go now?' he said. ‘Dad'll kill me if we're not there when they get back. I'm supposed to wash his car today as punishment for staying out last night.'

‘That's so mean,' said Jelly. ‘It's Christmas Day!'

Gino shrugged. ‘Yeah.'

Jelly stroked the angel's wings and felt all her anger towards her uncle come up out of her chest, like a gust of hot air, and rush down her arms and through her fingertips. The angel stirred and then settled again. ‘Let's go then,' she said, and took Pik's hand. Gino pulled the door shut behind them and slid the bolt across.

‘It's not going anywhere,' Jelly said.

‘It can still crawl,' Gino said. ‘It might get out. I don't want it to escape.'

‘What do you mean you don't want it to escape? It's not like it belongs to you.'

‘Yes, it does,' Gino said. ‘I found it.'

‘
What
?'

‘In the creek. I was the first to see it. You didn't even want to go into the water.'

‘But
I'm
the one looking after it. It wants
me
.'

‘Yeah, Gino,' Pik piped up from behind Jelly's legs. ‘Jelly fixed its wing.'

‘Shut up, Pik! This has nothing to do with you. It's my angel. I'm taking it home with me to show my friends.'

‘You can't do that,' Jelly said.

‘Why not?'