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

I rolled my eyes.

‘What?’ he challenged. ‘Geoff’s a good bloke. What’s wrong with her?’

I pushed past and went back into the spare room. I sat on the butter box and my face found its way into my hands, cradling the sudden heat of guilt. I knew what she had to be drinking about because I had been the one with the shovel digging it all up. I rubbed my arms, trying to coat them.

‘Tessa’s got too much on her plate,’ said Dad, coming into the room, the others behind him. ‘Let’s get this sorted so that’s one less thing she has to deal with. You girls put some muscle into getting that lot into the truck.’ He pointed at the crap under the window. ‘Get around behind that dresser, will you, mate?’ he said to Tim.

I tried to catch Philly’s eye. But she was with Dad: the sooner this was over, the better, and twenty dollars here and there was not enough to change her mind. It felt like the air had hissed from my tyres, too. I had what I needed, anyway. I took a while piling up my arms and adjusting the load to give Dad and Tim time to manoeuvre the dresser out. I had to keep Dad off the scent that I’d found something. Once I was looking at their backs, I dumped the lot, picked up the butter box and disguised it under the jacket. I scuttled with it out the front door and around the corner to where my bike was. I wasn’t sure how I’d carry it home in the basket, but I’d worry about that later.

Tim gave me a grin when I got back inside. ‘Good to see you back.’ He swatted me. ‘Have a nice trip?’

‘Everyone needs a smoko.’

He grinned. ‘Especially you.’

‘Shut up.’ I shoved him, but my eyes were all over the room, looking for more butter boxes.

‘Less talk, more action,’ said Dad.

Dad revved the truck as Tim closed up its tailgate. Tim pecked our cheeks, one after the other.

‘Stay out of trouble,’ he said to me with a further slap on my back.

I darted forwards and punched him on the arm. ‘Don’t keep Daddy waiting.’

He twisted out of the way and laughed as he swung up into the cabin, the truck taking off before he’d got the door closed.

Philly threw her keys in the air and snatched them back at the exact right second.

‘How did the beach go?’ I asked.

Her eyes darted sideways. ‘We didn’t make it,’ she said.

‘Philly. Not again.’ I grabbed the keys in mid air. ‘What did Ahmed say?’

She looked down the street. ‘It couldn’t be helped. Mrs Manto next door needed her pantry done.’

‘Really? Philly! If she needed company, couldn’t you have taken her to the beach with you?’

‘She’s a seventy-five-year-old woman, JJ.’

‘And you are a twenty-three year-old girl who needs to have a bit of fun. With your boyfriend. You can’t always be looking after miscellaneous old women. On top of the hours you work. You’re already the account manager of their biggest client. Relax. Live a little.’ I pressed the keys into her hand, closed her fist around them. ‘We all know Ahmed is a saint, but even he’s got a breaking point. He’s been saying he never gets to see you for ages. You have to start saying no, Philly. You can’t be Miss Perfect for everybody.’

She waved my concerns away.

I backed away, hands waving. ‘It’s your life.’ I went around the side of the house to collect my bike. The jacket was there but no box. I looked around, even looked behind the tree where there was no way it could have been. I couldn’t work it out. I raced back out to the front.

‘Did you see the box beside my bike?’

Philly shook her head.

‘I had a box right there.’ I pointed back around the corner.

‘Dad or Tim probably tossed it in the truck thinking it was Aunty Peg’s.’

‘That’s exactly why I wanted it.’

She got her eyebrows low.

‘Peg’s dairies,’ I said.

She held her palms in the air like a shield. ‘No. No. No.’

The fury hurtled out of me so sudden I couldn’t have caught it even if I’d had a head start. ‘Why is it always “No” with you on this, and nothing else?’

‘Because I’ve been talking to Tessa. If you want to find out if Mum wasn’t where Dad said she was, you’re welcome, but leave the rest of us out of it. Dad’s right. Tessa can’t cope. And neither can he. The past is the past.’ Philly was all reason and calm.

‘That’d be right.’

A kid walked on our side of the street, licking a lollipop. Walking as if she had all the time in the world, taking an interest in things. But Philly wasn’t going to give her any more of a show. Discipline was her middle name, so she waited, holding her car keys steady, giving them a tight jingle every couple of seconds.

‘I don’t want to say it, JJ—’

‘Grow a spine,’ I goaded her.

‘You’re fucked up, JJ,’ her voice spitting fire.

I stepped back like I’d been winded. From Tessa, yes. Dad, even Tim. But Philly?

‘You’re out of control. Tessa’s right.’

‘The world’s messy. You can’t orchestrate every little thing. People aren’t puppets. You can’t make the past disappear.’

‘I’m glad Mum was in the city when she had her appendix attack. I don’t care why she was there. It means she would have got to the hospital faster. If she could have been saved, she would’ve been.’

‘So why did he steal the diaries?’

Philly took a deep breath, turned away.

‘Why’re you protecting him?’ I asked.

She kept moving, throwing back over her shoulder, ‘He’s all we’ve got.’

THAT MISSING THING

Rocco was wearing a retro purple velvet suit and carrying a plastic bag in each hand when I skidded my bike to a stop outside the boarding house. He kicked at my wheel.

‘What the hell?’

‘Where’ve you been?’ His