Read Online Friday Brown by Vikki Wakefield - Free Book Online Page A

mint.
    ‘Yeah, it is. But it’s actually not that hard. Joe helps out at the markets. He sorts through fruit and vegetables and gets rid of all the rotten stuff. Sweeps the floor. The greengrocers just sling him some cash here and there. It all adds up.’
    ‘What about benefits?’
    ‘We’re not supposed to get money from the government, otherwise it’s too easy to track us down. We don’t exist, remember? It’s better that way.’
    ‘Better for who?’ I asked but she didn’t answer. ‘So what do you do?’
    Bree looked uncomfortable. ‘You’re limping,’ she said, changing the subject. She stared down at my feet.
    ‘I don’t like wearing shoes. These are too tight. Come on, it can’t be that bad. I know what Silence does.’
    She laughed. ‘You’ve seen him in action? Quick little bugger, isn’t he? He’s nearly been caught a few times. I reckon his ear’s half hanging off by now.’
    I nodded. ‘What about Darcy?’
    ‘Darce? Umm. Guys like her.’ She said it in a rush, as if the admission had a bad taste. ‘If you know what I mean.’
    I knew what she meant. The thought of it made me feel empty.
    ‘Don’t feel bad,’ Bree said. ‘She brags that she only has to work one day a week. She’s a cold one. Crappy childhood and all that.’
    ‘So what about the others?’
    ‘Arden looks out for the rest of us. Makes sure we brush our teeth.’ Again, that flashing smile.
    ‘Like Wendy Darling.’
    Bree shook her head.
    ‘Peter Pan. The Lost Boys.’
    Still blank.
    ‘Never mind.’
    ‘Malik deals,’ she went on. ‘He works the clubs. That’s why he’s always asleep in the daytime. And AiAi is pretty good at selling stuff to tourists.’
    ‘Stuff? Like what?’
    ‘Once he got forty bucks for a potato that looked like Mary McKillop.’
    We laughed. Blunt ends of hair were making my neck itch. I brushed my hand through what was left and a few stray, long pieces caught in my fingers. I yanked them out.
    ‘It’s not so bad,’ Bree said. ‘You have a good-shaped head.’ She offered me a cigarette.
    ‘No, thanks. Where are we going?’
    She shrugged and headed off down the path by the river.
    I kept my distance and stuck to the far side of the path. The river was brown and sluggish and it reminded me of Willy Wonka’s chocolate river. A few tourists pedalled madly in paddleboats, shrieking, skirting the spray from a fountain.
    ‘I had some money, but it’s gone,’ I confessed because the worry wouldn’t leave me.
    ‘Gone? Gone how?’
    ‘I’m not sure. It was in my backpack last night and this morning it wasn’t there.’ I tried to keep accusation from my tone.
    ‘Someone nicked it, you mean?’ She frowned. ‘Darcy, you think? Wouldn’t surprise me.’
    ‘I’d hate to be wrong.’
    ‘Yeah. But you probably wouldn’t be. How much are we talking?’
    She flicked her butt into the water. It landed at theriver’s edge, suspended in phosphorescent ripples of scum. A duck sailed in to check it out, followed by the rest of the fleet.
    ‘A few hundred.’
    ‘Shit.’
    ‘Yeah. Shit.’ I spat the word out.
    ‘Don’t make a big deal about it to Arden,’ she said. ‘She looks after us. But if you’re new, like you are, she makes you earn it. Your place here. Do you get what I’m saying? You have to prove you won’t screw anyone over.’
    ‘She was going to make me leave this morning.’
    ‘I know, she blows hot and cold. But we’re all she has.’
    ‘Where’s her family?’ I asked.
    ‘She ran off when she was fifteen. She’s been on the street for two years. Reckons she’s never going back. Anyway, I shouldn’t be talking about her business.’
    I guess I was trying to understand why anyone would choose to live on the street when they had a home and a family somewhere.
    ‘We’re the same age,’ I said. ‘She seems older.’ I thought of Arden’s hand and my skin prickled. ‘That squat is pretty bad,’ I blurted to change the subject. ‘And