Red (16 page)

‘That's OK.' He rolled away from her to lie on his back, stretching his body out to the sun, his eyes closed. ‘It was good fun,' he said. ‘Better than hanging around here.'

• • • • •

When Jazz joined them, the subject changed to the day Red had left them in Wagga.

‘It was all right for a while,' said Peri. ‘We hung out at the river but we got a bit sick of that and we went back up to the station to get the next bus for Melbourne. Kate was there with that young cop – the one who bandaged me up the night before. They were interviewing the staff and we walked right into it.'

‘Dad flew down and picked us up,' said Jazz. ‘He was seriously pissed off when we told him the whole story. He reckoned he knew all about the commission and he'd been working on it before the cyclone. He said he couldn't believe that we didn't trust him; he could have helped us and all. He didn't know about your dad, though.'

Red listened.

‘It's so good to be back home,' said Jazz. ‘And this is going to be the best story to tell all my friends when we get back to school. They can be your friends too. And you can decide if you're going to be Rhiannon again or if you're going to be Rose, like when we were in Wagga, or Ruby, like when you put that note up on the board. We can play tricks on them and use different names at different times. We'll be in the same class and we can sit together and do stuff just like we used to in Year Five. It's going to be so cool.'

Red didn't reply. She pressed her hand against her chest and felt the cool metal of the memory stick on her skin. Jane had given it back to her after everything was cleaned off it. ‘It's yours, to keep,' she said, ‘to remember.'

• • • • •

There will be school but not with Jazz. Dad said they would talk about it when he felt better. ‘Not Sydney,' he said when she started to ask him. ‘Maybe Melbourne, maybe somewhere else.'

Tomorrow they will talk about and plan it together. Peri too. He will come with her and they will sit in the sun in the hospital garden and Dad will promise to fix it with Peri's mum and dad and he will say ‘You kids are so amazing. You have grown so much, Rhiannon.' And she will shake her head and say ‘I'm not Rhiannon, Dad, or Rose, and not Ruby, not now, not any more. I'm Red.'

LIBBY GLEESON
is an acclaimed and much-loved author of well over 30 books for children and teenagers. Her books have been shortlisted for Children's Book Council awards thirteen times and she has won three times.

Libby has been a teacher and lecturer, and is actively involved in writers' organisations. In 2007 she was made Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for services to literature and literacy education, and in 2012 she was awarded the Dromkeen Medal.

You can find Libby's website at
www.libbygleeson.com.au

• • • • •

You might also enjoy Libby Gleeson's
previous novel,
Mahtab's Story

Mahtab and her family are forced to leave their home in Herat and journey secretly through the rocky mountains to Pakistan, and then to faraway Australia. Will they ever be reunited with their father? Will they ever find a home?