Read Online Sing Fox to Me by Sarak Kanake - Free Book Online Page B

like water evaporating, and some blew away or stayed under his fingernails. Trees came loose from the sides of the mountain and tumbled down. Creeks drained and vanished, boulders were unearthed. Mountain houses were crushed into nothing, and roads leading all the way up disappeared from any map.
    Then Samson imagined growing huge, like Optimus Prime, and hurling handfuls of Clancy’s mountain all the way out to sea. ‘Watch out!’ he shouted, but Jonah never listened. He toppled over the side. Samson shrugged, and his shoulders cut clouds in two. He hurled a chunk of the mountain. A long way away, his dad looked up, just in time to see hundreds of tangled trees blacken the sky. Then his car sank beneath a shower of boulders.
    The bedroom door opened, but Samson kept his eyes closed. ‘Are you awake?’ whispered his brother. Samson didn’t answer. ‘Good.’ Jonah shuffled around the bedroom, and in a few minutes it was silent again.
    After Jonah had hidden his dad’s satchel under his bed, he made himself a bowl of cornflakes and ate it beneath the amber stain. When he was finished, he showered and dressed, ready to search the house for the animal that once hung on the kitchen wall.
    Down one end of the house, on the far side of the living room, past the fireplace, was his granddad’s bedroom. When Jonah pressed his ear to the wooden door, he heard snoring. He’d only search Clancy’s room if absolutely necessary – it probably smelt terrible in there, like old man soup.
    There was nothing much to see in the living room, except dozens of unmarked videotapes. Jonah liked movies and wanted to watch one, but the sound might wake his granddad. He reminded himself to come back if Clancy went out.
    The fireplace still smouldered. Jonah held out his hands but couldn’t feel any heat. He wondered how cold it was outside.
    As he walked back down the narrow hallway, Jonah pushed doors open. Bathroom … linen cupboard … only one door left before the room he shared with Samson. Jonah pushed, but it didn’t move. He jiggled the handle and tried again, shoving the door with his shoulder. Nothing.
    He lay down on his stomach, peering through the thin gap between the bottom of the door and the floor. Two wooden legs, probably the end of a bed. Rainbows danced on the floorboards and around the edges of the walls. Jonah wished he could see more. He needed to find another way in.
    A door opened further down the hallway.
    Jonah stood up. The front of his clothes was covered in a fine film of dust and dirt. He turned away, trying to brush his chest clean.
    â€˜What game are you playing?’ asked Samson. He closed their bedroom door.
    â€˜Nothing.’
    â€˜Hide-and-seek?’ Samson sounded plaintive.
    Jonah ignored him. ‘The door’s locked,’ he said. ‘Try it.’
    His brother rattled the handle. It didn’t open. He shrugged.
    â€˜Don’t you want to know what’s inside?’
    â€˜Not allowed,’ said Samson, as if this was the most logical response.
    An old kind of anger rose up in Jonah’s belly and ran through him. What was wrong with his brother? How could Samson not want to know what was behind the locked door, especially when they were being forced to share a room? It wasn’t fair.
    â€˜You’re an idiot.’
    â€˜What about hide-and-seek?’ asked Samson again.
    â€˜I’m too old for that. Go do something by yourself.’
    â€˜I’m supposed to stay around the house. Dad said.’
    Jonah laughed. ‘It’s not like he’s here to stop you.’
    Samson opened his mouth and closed it again.
    â€˜What?’
    â€˜Please don’t hate me,’ said Samson. His eyes had gone strange, like they were somewhere else, looking at something else.
    â€˜What?’
    â€˜Let me think first,’ said Samson, flustered.
    Jonah pushed his brother out of the way and walked back to