Mutation by Chris Morphew

Author:Chris Morphew
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: ebook, book
ISBN: 9781742733906
Publisher: Hardie Grant Egmont
Published: 2010-10-11T16:00:00+00:00

The house was quiet when I got back from school. I dropped my bag off in my room, thinking I was the only one home, then went downstairs for something to eat and found Mum in the lounge room, lying on the couch with her hands on her stomach. The baby had grown heaps, even in the last week, and the bump under Mum’s hands was becoming extremely noticeable.

She glanced up as I walked in. Her face was fixed with the worn-out look that she seemed to carry with her all the time these days. She’d been crying.

‘Come here,’ she said.

‘What’s wrong?’

She waved me over impatiently. ‘Just –’

I bent down next to her. She grabbed my hand and pressed it to her stomach.

‘Are you serious?’ I said. ‘It’s already –?’

Something bumped the palm of my hand.

‘There!’ said Mum. ‘Feel that?’

Another bump, and it was like a scalpel straight through my chest. A tear rolled down my cheek and I didn’t try to stop it. For a second, everything else just disappeared and all I could feel was that tiny body reaching out to push against mine.

‘Kicking,’ said Mum, head falling back to her pillow. ‘Seven weeks and he’s already kicking.’

‘He?’ I said, snapping out of it.

Mum shrugged. ‘Just guessing.’

I stood up. ‘Where’s Georgia? She needs to feel –’ Mum’s smile disappeared.

‘She’s back at the medical centre. The blood test Dr Montag took on Tuesday turned up something –’

‘Blood test?’

‘Yeah,’ said Mum, trying to hide the concern in her voice. ‘He didn’t really explain why he took it, but – Anyway, he wants to keep her overnight, just to make sure everything’s okay.’

It might have been the worst panic I’d felt since we’d got here. Something in Georgia’s blood. Something serious enough to make Montag start screening the whole town.

‘Then what are you doing?’ I demanded. ‘Why aren’t you down there? Who’s with her?’

‘Jordan – Calm down,’ said Mum, sitting up. ‘You think we’d leave her in that place by herself? Dad’s with her. He’s going to stay there tonight.’ She gave a half-hearted smile. ‘He said I’d seen more than my fair share of that place.’

‘Oh.’

They wouldn’t do anything to Georgia. Not with Dad there.

Mum got to her feet and gave me a hug. Her stomach pressed into mine and I felt the baby move again.

‘We’re going home,’ she said.

I pulled back. ‘What?’

‘Dad and I have been talking about it. Phoenix just isn’t working out for us. As soon as we can organise a flight, we’re heading back to Brisbane. You can go back to your old school and –’

Mum frowned at the look on my face.

I knew what she and Dad were like when they fixed their minds on something – and I knew the kind of fight they’d put up when Ketterley told them there were ‘no flights available’. Trying to leave Phoenix wasn’t just impossible. It was dangerous.

‘I thought I could handle it,’ said Mum, voice starting to crack. ‘When we first found out – I thought

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