Belly Flop Read Online Free

the street now, but we can’t see anyone.
    Doesn’t matter.
    We know who did it, don’t we Doug?
    I’ve just told Mum and Dad about Troy and Brent Malley.
    They were pretty shocked.
    Mum gave me a hug.
    Dad looked as though he was going to cry, though that might have been because of what he’d just seen.
    My calculator.
    Smashed to bits.
    Dad reckons we mustn’t jump to conclusions, but.
    He could be right.
    I’ve just noticed something scratched on the brick.
    The word MONGREL.
    I’m not sure if Troy and Brent Malley can spell that well.
    Dad’s on the phone now giving Sergeant Crean a list of the people he reckons would chuck a brick through our window. Dad hates dobbing, but he’s had to mention most of the town.
    I’m still shaking, Doug.
    My guts feel like they’ve been through a sheep feed machine.
    Mum’s still shaking too. Even her shoulders are trembling, and I don’t think it’s because she’s picking up broken glass. She’s normally very relaxed handling sharp objects, that’s why she’s so good at darts.
    Gran usually shakes a bit, but not as much as she is now.
    She wouldn’t admit it, but I think she’s a bit scared. You can tell by the words she’s yelling at Dad.
    â€˜Get a different job, you hopeless bugger, before we’re all killed,’ for example.
    Normally she’s much ruder to him than that.
    Mum and Dad have gone to give a statement about the brick to Sergeant Crean down at the bowls club.
    Poor things.
    It won’t be easy for them, walking into that place with everyone throwing glances at them and muttering things.
    I’m on my bed trying to fit my calculator back together.
    It’s not easy with my hands shaking so much.
    Gran’s just been in.
    â€˜Good on you for having a punt,’ she said.
    At first I thought she meant the calculator.
    I’d just spent ten minutes trying to straighten a bent battery terminal and wondering if angels are any good at electrical repairs.
    She didn’t.
    â€˜That was a brave try, the party,’ she said; ‘You had a punt, that’s the main thing.’
    Gran reckons if a person won’t have a punt, they might as well just lie down and let a cattle truck run over them.
    â€˜Thanks, Gran,’ I said.
    She went to her room for a rest.
    Poor thing.
    She’s too old to be hated by an entire town.
    Specially when her and Grandad used to be so popular.
    Once Gran was president of the bowls club four years in a row.
    And Grandad, before he died, was the most loved swimming pool attendant this town’s ever had.
    And the best diver.
    It says so on his retirement medal.
    The one Mum keeps in her bedside drawer for when she needs a cry.
    I’m gunna stop wasting my time on this calculator, Doug.
    I’ve got more important stuff to do.
    Like come up with another plan to make everything in our lives OK again.

 
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    Last night wasn’t a good night for coming up with plans.
    My brain kept getting distracted by other stuff.
    Worrying about school today, mostly.
    Having to face all those kids.
    Specially two of them in particular.
    I’d have been awake all night if it hadn’t been for you, Doug.
    When I was little and Gran used to tell me about you, she always reckoned guardian angels were better than hot milk drinks for getting to sleep.
    She was right.
    Thanks, Doug.
    I feel a bit better about the Malleys this morning.
    I think it’s because I dreamed about you, just like I used to.
    Boy, I was glad to see you.
    Well, not actually see you of course, but feel your breeze.
    It was a top dream.
    I was in the main street and I was pretty upset, party cause Dad had just stuck his elbow in my ice-cream and party cause the town was surrounded by hundreds of angry farmers with guns who wanted to kill us.
    Me and Dad knew we were cactus.
    Even if we ran as fast as we could, there was no way we’d make it to