A Thousand Water Bombs Read Online Free Page A

starting to get the idea that perhaps it was more serious than I thought.

a week to go
    THE BREAKFAST MENU
    KEENER: Crispy bacon in two slices of crusty white bread in front of the computer.
    AMY: Wholemeal bread, spread with Marmite, dipped in egg and fried. On a tray because teenagers can’t get up!
    FLO: Fried egg and potato waffles in front of the telly.
    MUM: A pot of tea in bed.
    DAD: Fried egg, bacon, beans and toast, reading the paper.
    Saturday mornings are good. Dad does the breakfast. It takes ages and we all get different food at different times delivered to different places. We stay in pyjamas until he
suddenly realises we’re going to be late and then there’s a mad rush to get ready for swimming (me) and ballet (Flo). Amy and Mum have a lie-in.
    On the way to the pool I texted Copper Pie to see if he wanted to meet up later in the park.
    The reply said: COME OVERHEER.
    I hadn’t been to his for a while. He’d rather come to mine and I’d rather not go to his. His mum shouts at him. And doesn’t talk to me, unless I’m in the
way.
    Copper Pie was kicking a ball against his garage door. It was so loud I could hear it before I turned into his street. I joined in.
    ‘I’ve got to look after Charlie. Mum’s going to the supermarket,’ he said. I wouldn’t leave Charlie with him. He’s hardly babysitter material.
    ‘In here, you two!’ Copper Pie’s mum shouted from the kitchen. We went straight in. Some people have to be obeyed.
    ‘Charlie’s having his nap. I need you to stay in the house while I do the shopping and when I come back you can have a bag of crisps each. If he wakes up, go and get him and be nice until I get back. If Dad gets back before I do you can go to the park. Understood?’
    I nodded.
    ‘Yes, Mum.’
    She was gone. See, she doesn’t bother with ‘Hello, how are you?’ It’s all instructions.
    ‘Where’s your dad then?’
    ‘Gone out with Bee’s dad.’
    ‘So you’ve seen Bee’s dad then?’
    ‘Nope. I didn’t see any dads last night, or trainers, but this morning Mum said Dad had gone off early to watch a game over in Tyndall with a mate – so it must be
Bee’s dad.’ Copper Pie paused and made a moody face. ‘He usually watches me play.’
    ‘What shall we do?’ I said. We used to say that all the time. No one ever had a good idea. Jonno changed all that. Or maybe Tribe did.
    ‘We could get the guns out. Aim from my window and —’
    ‘Yet me out!’ It was Charlie’s voice, coming through the baby monitor. He’s three, not really a baby. He can talk quite well, except he can’t say Ls, Rs or THs.
They’re either Ys, Ws or Vs.
    ‘Yet me out!’
    ‘We’d better go,’ I said.
    ‘No way. Leave him.’
    ‘Yet me out, Mum!’
    ‘We can’t leave him, he’ll —’
    ‘He’ll what?’ said Copper Pie.
    ‘He’ll be upset.’
    ‘All right, Softy. You can get him if you like.’
    ‘Mum! Yet me out!’
    I didn’t really want to, but I didn’t want C.P.’s mum to come home and find him screaming either.
    ‘Back in a minute,’ I said. The hall of their house is spotless. No shoes, no brollies, not even anything on the bottom step waiting to be taken upstairs. It’s because they run
a nursery and there are rules about being tidy and clean. We’re not allowed in any of the rooms on the ground floor, except the kitchen. Even at the weekend when there aren’t any little
kids there, we still can’t go in. Everything, apart from cooking and eating, goes on upstairs in their house. The staircase goes round a corner to get to the first floor and that’s when it all changes. I stepped over dirty washing, two books, the sucky bit from the hoover, a fluffy scarf, a toothbrush, a yoyo, a shin pad and a bowl with the remains of an
apple in it (or possibly banana), and that was only what was on the first lot of stairs. The second set was just as bad.
    At the top I turned first right into Charlie’s bedroom. He was lying under his duvet cuddling