he just held me
for a long time
and how Josh
has never had
any of that.
I follow Josh
outside
to the bare backyard
no bike
no footy
no garden
we sit on the step
far away
a dog barks
lonely
he says,
‘I thought
you’d gone home
I thought
you hated me’
‘nah,’
I say,
‘you’re my mate
even if you are
pretty stupid’
on the arm.
he asks me,
‘are you going
to tell everyone?’
I look at him
‘no –
you are’
‘they’ll hate me’
I grin
‘only for five minutes
then you’ll be
yesterday’s news’
I don’t really know
how the other kids
will take it
but I’ll be there
to back him up
no worries.
he sits for a while
watching
next door’s cat
tiptoe along
the top of the fence
then he goes inside
to his room
and rips down everything
on the Alex Carter wall
throws it all
in the bin
when it’s done
he says,
‘can I come
to your house?’
we play frisbee
with Chocker
make fun of
Leanna’s pink hair
eat peanut butter sandwiches
in front of the telly
beat each other
at video games
when Dad arrives home
he says,
‘how about you two
come for a run?’
we groan
‘yeah, OK’
and race to share
Sherryl Clark has written thirty-eight books for children, including Up a Tree, Boots and All and many titles in the Aussie Nibbles, Bites and Chomps series. Her most recent verse novel, Sixth Grade Style Queen (Not!), was an Honour Book in the 2008 CBC Award – Younger Readers category. She has published two collections of poetry for adults and is a co-editor of Poetrix magazine. Sherryl teaches fiction and poetry writing in the Diploma of Professional Writing & Editing at Victoria University TAFE, and lives in Melbourne with her husband.
PUFFIN BOOKS
Published by the Penguin Group
Penguin Group (Australia), 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia (a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty Ltd)
Penguin Group (USA) Inc. 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, USA
Penguin Group (Canada) 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Canada ON M4P 2Y3 (a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.)
Penguin Books Ltd 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL England
Penguin Ireland 25 St Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2, Ireland (a division of Penguin Books Ltd)
Penguin Books India Pvt Ltd 11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi – 110 017, India
Penguin Group (NZ) 67 Apollo Drive, Rosedale, North Shore 0632, New Zealand (a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd)
Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd, 24 Sturdee Avenue, Rosebank, Johannesburg 2196, South Africa
Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London, WC2R 0RL, England
First published by Penguin Group (Australia), 2010
Text copyright © Sherryl Clark, 2010
Illustrations copyright © Evi O., 2010
The moral right of the author has been asserted.
All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.
ISBN: 978-1-74-253042-0