Henry Hoey Hobson Read Online Free Page A

Henry Hoey Hobson
Book: Henry Hoey Hobson Read Online Free
Author: Christine Bongers
Tags: Fiction/General
Pages:
Go to
and kept right on walking.
    The library loomed before me. I should have thought of that earlier. Burying myself in a book was a far safer option than setting myself up for another ambush on the handball court. I’d had enough blood sports for one day.

CHAPTER SIX
    â€˜How was your first day, honey-bun?’
    I’d closed my book and tossed it onto the couch as soon as I heard her Hyundai Getz pull into the carport under the house. By the time she’d clickety-clacked up the wooden internal steps, I had summoned my best hangdog expression and slumped back on the couch in the darkened lounge room.
    She switched on the overhead fluoro, lighting up her blonde hair like a halo. I quickly dropped my eyes. Looking directly at my mother was dangerous. Like looking into a fire. She could dazzle you without even trying, and I wasn’t in the mood to be dazzled.
    â€˜Why on earth are you reading in the dark? We can afford electricity, you know, now that I’ve got this great new job and all.’
    I tried to duck, but my timing was a bit off and the kiss landed on the end of my nose.
    She was wearing shiny red platform heels – her good-luck shoes. Most women would get a nosebleed in heels that high. Not my mum; she’d been in them for more than twelve hours straight and wasn’t even limping. I had to hand it to her, she was shoe-fit.
    â€˜Thought you were working for commission,’ I said. As usual.
    I avoided looking at her and kept my eyes fixed on her shoes. For someone so tiny, she had impressively muscled calves. Like a professional gymnast, or in her case, a professional stilt-walker. And good knees, I’d give her that. No knobbly or wrinkly bits.
    â€˜Oh, don’t be such a grumpy-bum.’ Her hand ruffled my hair as she swayed past. ‘Do you know what the commission is on a one-point-five-million-dollar apartment?’ The ridiculous heels click-clacked into the kitchen.
    I closed my eyes and hunkered deeper into the lumpy old couch that had covered more kilometres in the past twelve years than the average family station wagon. ‘Thirty-eight thousand dollars?’
    The refrigerator door fwoomped open. ‘Ooh, you made pizza; thanks, hon. Make sure you take those leftovers for lunch tomorrow.’ It whoomphed shut again. ‘Thirty-eight thousand dollars – from just one sale. More than I could earn in a year working at that car dealership. Not that I’m complaining, mind you, it got us the Getz.’
    â€˜Mrrgghhh.’ I muffled the groan in an old velvet cushion, kept handy for times like these. I didn’t want to talk about my mum’s lack of career options. I knew, only too well, whose fault that was...
    Hello, here’s a little surprise for your eighteenth birthday. A baby! Great news if you don’t mind kissing your life goodbye. Farewelling any chance of a university education. See ya later, bozo boyfriend, and bye-bye any hopes for a high-powered career. Hello life as we know it – trying to pay regular bills with irregular commissions while staying one skip ahead of the debt collectors.
    I snatched the pillow off my face and sat bolt upright. ‘Wait a minute, Our Lady of Perpetual Succour – it’s Catholic. That’s private, right? How are we paying for that?’
    â€˜Don’t worry about it, hon. The principal said they’ll send out an account in a couple of weeks’ time–’
    â€˜Mum, why do you keep doing this? You know we don’t have any money. I can go to the local state school–’
    She emerged from the kitchen, waving my complaints away like she was shooing a fly. ‘It’s two buses or forty-five minutes’ walk. The Catholic school is forty-five seconds away–’
    â€˜I’m not Catholic.’
    â€˜You weren’t Steiner or Lutheran either, and you fitted in perfectly well there.’
    That was so wide of the mark, I didn’t even bother
Go to

Readers choose

Tanya R. Taylor

Leanda de Lisle

E.A. Whitehead

Diane Collier

Cindy Gerard

Linda Howard

Peter Howe

Shirlee McCoy