Raven Summer Read Online Free

Raven Summer
Book: Raven Summer Read Online Free
Author: David Almond
Pages:
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Mrs. Woods. “You’re going to be on
tonight
, Liam.
And
the
Chronicle’s
been on,
and
the
Journal.”
    She smoothes Max’s hair.
    “Now, make sure you both speak clearly,” she says.
    She waves at my mum as she steps out of the back door.
    “Hello, Mrs. Lynch,” she says. “Isn’t this a turnup?”
    Mum giggles.
    “It’s a hoot. Liam and Max on the telly!”
    “Oh, and that poor
baby
!” says Mrs. Woods.
    “I know,” says Mum. “And she was in my house and you know I never even
saw
her.”
    “Poor little mite,” says Mrs. Woods.
    Joe Tynan rubs his hands and grins as he looks out at the scenery. He says he just loves it out here. What a setting for this bit of news. The story’s got the lot. It’ll more than likely go national, even further.
    Dad snorts. He’s in the kitchen doorway drinking coffee.
    “We’d like you to be in this, too,” says Joe Tynan.
    “Me?” says Dad.
    “Yes. You’re Patrick Lynch, aren’t you? It’s an honor to meet you, sir. In fact, we’d just been talking about doing a feature on you.”
    Dad’s face twists.
    “And now this!” says Joe Tynan. “It’s just like one of your books, isn’t it?”
    “What?”
says Dad.
    “It
is
,” says Joe Tynan. “The wandering lads, a strange child, the message, the treasure …”
    “Treasure,”
says Dad. “It’s hardly—”
    “And there’s the other thing, too.”
    “The other thing?”
    “Max’s been telling me. The
raven
, Mr. Lynch. The trek across the fields, the snake, which all seems like pretty weird stuff.”
    “Weird stuff?”
    “Magic, Mr. Lynch. That’s what we’re talking about. Magic, taking place in the fields and lanes of Northumberland.”
    “Hell’s teeth! Is
that
the angle you’re going for?”
    “It’s not an angle, Mr. Lynch. And after all, there’s plenty magic at work in your stories.”
    “But they are
stories.”
    “Exactly,” he says. “They are stories, and this is—”
    “The real world,” says Dad.
    “Correct,” says Joe. “But as you’ve said many times yourself, the real world is the very very strangest of places.”
    Dad snorts again.
    “Of course it is!” he says. “But it doesn’t need magic to make it strange.”
    Joe just smiles.
    “There’ll be a perfectly rational explanation,” says Dad.
    “Could be,” says Joe. He rubs his hands and grins again. “But until the explanation turns up, what other approach do you suggest we take?”
    Six o’clock that evening we’re all in front of the TV. Mum’s got a glass of wine. Dad’s got a pint of beer. I’m drinking Coke.
    “I warn you,” says Dad. “They’ll miss out most of what you said. They always do. They never get it right. Don’t be surprised if you’re not even on at all, specially if there’s been another knifing in Middlesbrough, or some little kid’s been mauled by a dog in Wallsend.”
    He swigs his beer and grunts.
    Mum’s all grins.
    “Liam and Max on the telly!” she says. She squeezes my arm and giggles. “Hey, we should have put some of my paintings up in the background, Liam! Make sure we do it next time!”
    Dad grunts again.
    “Next time!” he says.
    Then he shuts up. We’re the first item on the news. It starts with stuff about the baby and appeals for information. They ask the hiker in the red cap to come forward. A doctor says he knows the mother’ll be in great distress, but she will of course be treated with great compassion. So please come forward. Then it slips into Mysterious Events in Secret Northumberland. There’s a swirl of mist, the cry of a raven, a flash of black wings, a casket of treasure, then a film of Rook Hall and the police searching around it.
    “Here we are in the twenty-first century,” drones Joe Tynan, “but could ancient forces—forces of magic and mystery—still be at work?” He reads the message in a stagey voice. “Please look after her right,” he says. “This is a child of God.” He widens his eyes. “What could it all
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