Read Online Dropping In by Geoff Havel - Free Book Online

and she cracks up, pointing at me and at the front door. I nod. She cracks up even more. I’m laughing too as I head for the door.
    The first thing I see when I open the door is Ranga’s face with a fat lip and blood smeared on his cheek.
    â€˜What happened?’ I ask.
    Ranga talks out of the side of his mouth. ‘That kid Luke was hassling James and he wouldn’t stop. We had a fight.’
    â€˜Who won?’ I ask.
    Ranga starts to smile but then he winces. He holdshis lip and licks where it’s split. ‘I was winning, but then he got hold of me and he was punching me out when the other guys dragged him off.’
    â€˜Luke had a blood nose and I bet he gets a black eye,’ James says from behind Ranga.
    â€˜So what happened when they dragged him off?’ I ask.
    â€˜The other guys said he was gutless and to leave me alone. Jimmy, the guy who does all those balances on his front wheel, said if Luke didn’t cut it out he’d have to deal with him.’
    â€˜He left,’ says James, grinning like an idiot. ‘We had to look out for him on the way home but he wasn’t waiting for us so maybe he’ll leave us alone now.’
    â€˜Why did you think you might run into him on your way home? You didn’t go past the shop, did you?’
    â€˜No, but we reckon he lives around here.’
    That’s not good news. ‘Around here? How do you know?’
    â€˜That’s his tag in the underpass,’ Ranga says.
    â€˜Warren!’ Mum’s seen Ranga’s face. She hurries him into the kitchen. Before he can protest she’s taken a bag of frozen peas out of the fridge and wrapped them in a tea towel. She tells him to hold it on his lip while she cleans up his face with a wet washer.
    Ranga does everything she says, not complaining even when I’m certain she hurts him a bit wiping off the blood and putting Betadine on the split in his lip. If it was me, I’d be in trouble for fighting, but she would fuss over me too. She’s a great mum.
    Ranga looks relieved when she stops. It’s hard to put together the kid who takes crazy risks on a skateboard, who fights guys a lot bigger than him and who always gets into trouble for saying and doing stuff without thinking, with the kid sitting there doing exactly what Mum tells him. He looks like a puppy.
    â€˜Would you boys like a Milo? Ian and I were about to have one,’ Mum says.
    Ranga’s eyes light up. ‘Dip and Gunk!’ he says.
    â€˜What’s Dip and Gunk?’ James asks.
    We tell him the rules while Mum makes the Milo.
    We roll a dice to work out who goes first and I lose. That’ll make it hard to win.
    My Milo is steaming. Ten seconds I reckon, that’s all I’ll try for. Mum has the stopwatch. She’s going to be the judge too.
    I’m about to put the Milk Arrowroot biscuit into the Milo when Ranga says, ‘Past halfway!’ like we always do.
    â€˜Yes,’ I growl. I take a few seconds to refocus.
    â€˜Hold it steady!’ Ranga says just as I start to lower it again.
    â€˜Stop it! I know what you’re doing,’ I say.
    â€˜What?’ says Ranga, all helpful innocence.
    â€˜You’re trying to put him off,’ says Mum. ‘That’s cheating, Warren.’
    Ranga shakes his head. ‘No, it’s an important part of the game. I’d be cheating if I did this.’ He bangs the table with his hand. My Milo slops around in my cup.
    James has a huge grin all over his face. He loves it. He’s holding his biscuit already but his fingers won’t grab it properly. They’re too tight and the biscuit is on a bit of an angle. It will snap straight off if he does it like that. I hold my biscuit up, above the cup, ready to start.
    Mum hisses and raises a finger to Ranga. He sits back. I lower the biscuit into the Milo. One. James’ eyes nearly bug out. He leans forward and bumps the table. My Milo slops up