Read Online Secret Gardens by David Belbin - Free Book Online

Chapter 1 - The Girl in the Window
    One moment can change your life. Dad unlocks the gate to the allotments. I look across the big road. I see her, in the window. She has big, pale eyes and is darker than I am. Short hair. She looks at me. Then her body jerks forwards, like someone’s hit her.
    “Come on, Aazim!” Dad gives me a push. “Come on, dreamer!” he laughs.
    “Hold on.” I say and I look up at the window again but she’s gone. I want to help her. But what can I do? I’m fifteen years old and I’ve been in the UK two years. I speak a bit of English, but not enough to tell the police what I’ve seen. I’ve seen this young black girl in a big house , I’d like to tell them. I think the people there hit her . Why would they even listen to me?
    We walk downhill. The city is in front of us but you can’t see it. All you can see is green. The hedges on both sides of the path are taller than me, taller than my father. Dad unlocks another gate and we are in our allotment.
    An allotment is like a bit of farm land owned by the city. People rent them to grow fruit and vegetables. The council let us use this one because we don’t have much to live on. Here, we can grow our own food.
    It is a cold spring, more like our winters at home.
    “How are you, Aazim?” calls Stefan, from the next allotment.
    “OK,” I say.
    “Found a better place to live yet?” he asks.
    I shake my head.“We have to win our appeal first.”
    The people on the allotments are friendly. Nicer than the people at school. At the week-ends, it’s happy there. People visit each other. They share stuff. We’re making friends.

    Squirrels play in the apple tree. I mow the grass path. Dad digs up some early potatoes. Thanks to all the rain, they’re big this year. We eat a lot of potatoes in our family. Not a lot of meat.
    On the way out, I look across the road. I don’t see the girl this time. We turn down Hungerhill Road. On the walk home, I think about the girl. Then something happens to put her out of my mind.
    Our house is small and damp. I share a room with my little brother, Malik. My sister, Sabeen, sleeps in the living room. When we get back, Mum is upset. Sabeen is crying. There’s a letter on the plastic table. Mum hands it to me because my English is best. I can tell Sabeen has already read it. We have lost our appeal. Any day now, they will come for us.
    “I don’t want to go back!” Sabeen says.
    “Where will they send us?” Malik asks.
    They can’t send us home. We haven’t got a home.
    “They will put us in a camp,” Dad says.
    “I’m not going!” I shout.
    “We have no choice,” Mum tells me.

Chapter 2 - No Good-byes
    I know what will happen. It’s happened to people we know. They’ll come for us. They will take us to a detention centre. Then they will put us on a plane. After the plane there’ll be a bus. The bus will take us to a camp in the desert. For years and years. No school. No job. Nowhere to grow things. I like it here, except for the cold and wet. I want to stay. I plan to stay. But we can’t all stay. Sabeen is eleven. Malik is eight. Too young to work. Too young to go on the run. Mum and Dad can’t leave them.
    But I can leave them.

    Saturday on the allotment. Dad wants to tell Stefan that we’ll soon be gone. But Stefan is not here. Tam has the allotment on the other side. He waves at us, but he’s busy. Tam has three allotments. Sometimes he gives us stuff. Not today. Tam’s not friends with Dad, the way Stefan is. So we don’t say good-bye.
    “It’s a waste,” Dad says. “All these things we started to grow.”
    I look around.There are three beds full of vegetables. We have redcurrants and blackcurrant bushes. An apple tree.
    I watch two squirrels playing chase along the fence. I knew this day might come, but I don’t know what to do. Should I tell Dad I plan to run away?
    It starts to rain and we shelter inside. Stefan’s hut is built of wood, so it’s called a shed . Our hut