The Serpent's Skin by Erina Reddan (top 5 books to read .txt) 📕

was going under the ground and getting buried with Mum, but on the other hand Mum would like a bit of Phillyness in there with her.

Tim hadn’t made up his mind, but Tessa was putting in a cushion she and Mum made together. It was black and white for Collingwood, which was our team. I knew what I was doing, but I wasn’t telling anyone in case they tried to stop me. I was putting in Mum’s special brooch that she brought out when we needed a bit of magic. I reckoned she needed a bit of that under the ground with her. Only thing was, I didn’t know where she kept that brooch.

Dad was out doing the morning milking so I had a bit of clear. Before I could stop myself, I knocked on Mum’s bedroom door and thought about how funny it would have been if I heard Mum’s voice. Something tingled at my neck. I believed in ghosts, just like Mum. She once told us she saw her mum and dad after their car accident. Great Aunt Dot, who brought her and Aunty Peg up after, didn’t believe her because Mum was only nine when they died. Told Mum it was just the shock of losing them like that. Aunty Peg believed her, though. That was the good thing about Aunty Peg. She was a believer.

I didn’t know where to start in Mum’s room. The drawers were all shut up closed. I poked about in Mum’s jewellery box. Nothing. So I fell on my knees and started going through the shoeboxes.

‘Dad’s going to be sooo mad,’ said Philly, walking in a good while later. She dropped the pile of clean clothes on the chest of drawers.

‘You get out of here,’ I said. ‘He asked me to clean up.’

‘He didn’t ask you to throw everything everywhere.’

I looked around and I saw. It was like all of the guts of the wardrobe had been spewed into the room. I bit down on my lip to stop the panic rising up. ‘You’re just a baby, what would you know?’

‘I’m going to go get him right now.’ She swung on her foot.

But I was too fast. I lunged and grabbed her ankle and down she went, fast and loud. She flung her hand and caught the stand-up lamp and down that went with her, smashing to the floor, the glass splintering into a thousand tiny bits as far as the door.

There was blood on her chin and I scuttled over to wipe it with my jumper and to get her to stop yelling. But Tessa was in there, and hard on her heels Mrs Nolan, who looked like she’d never seen the like of it in all her life.

I knew this for sure because that was what she said later when she had Dad buttonholed to the table. ‘It looked like a bomb had gone off in there and in the middle of it all sat JJ as if butter wouldn’t melt in her mouth.’ We heard a teacup being moved across the table. She’d stopped by this morning to drop off a casserole and Steve for his piglet shift. She’d stayed to help all day given the mayhem she’d found. She was still there at dinner and sent us away after so that she and Dad could have a quiet word.

There was no hope of that because she was doing the talking and her voice could carry clear across a paddock. We’d taken off all right, just as she told us to, but doubled back to huddle in a pack out of sight beside the fridge.

‘Have you thought about what you’re going to do?’ Mrs Nolan dropped her loud voice to soft like a cushion as if Dad could lay his head right on it.

But he didn’t seem to feel the same because all he did was grunt.

‘Now that Sarah’s gone,’ clarified Mrs Nolan. ‘With the kids.’

‘They’ll be right,’ said Dad.

‘Kids are a handful,’ she pushed on. ‘Four of them.’ Making it sound like Dad’s particular kids were even worse than the normal variety.

Dad took a loud slurp from his teacup the way he did when he was with just us, so we knew he was no longer on his best behaviour.

Mrs Nolan didn’t take the warning. ‘You have to think what’s best for them. Man like you is too busy to be fussing around with kids underfoot.’

‘All good, thanks, Nancy.’

‘Girls need a mother. Specially your girls, just at that age.’

Dad didn’t say anything this time, which Mrs Nolan read in a completely different way from us. We heard her charge on as if the gates had been opened.

‘I’ve spoken to the ladies of the district and Jessie is happy to take Philly, which is very good of her given that Philly is still so young and Jessie has those twins already. I could take Tessa—’

‘That won’t be necessary, thanks, Nancy,’ said Dad as if he meant it this time. As if he’d finally woken up to what Mrs Nolan was saying. ‘We won’t be splitting the family. That’s not what Sarah would have wanted.’

‘Sarah wouldn’t have wanted you to be left with all of this,’ Mrs Nolan said. ‘At least think about JJ.’ Her voice dropped lower again. ‘She’s not quite right. I mean what’s she doing spending so much time with that Tommy Rielly? She should be helping out in the kitchen. Somebody has to teach her how to be a proper girl now that Sarah’s gone.’

‘JJ’s all right.’ There was a stop sign in Dad’s voice.

Tessa, Philly and I were biting through each other’s palms with our fingernails. Tim was right there with us, but he was less worried because nobody would think of taking a boy from his father.

‘You weren’t there, Jack. JJ attacked little Philly. There was blood and glass everywhere, not to mention the mess. JJ must have thrown everything helter-skelter. I put it all back in order and now I wish I hadn’t