New Guinea Moon by Kate Constable

Author:Kate Constable
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: JUV000000, book
ISBN: 9781743433249
Publisher: Allen & Unwin
Published: 2013-01-03T05:00:00+00:00

Julie wakes to a blaze of light in her face. She screws up her eyes against the light, thinking confusedly that she’s forgotten to turn off a switch, and the power has come back on. She blinks and focuses.

But it’s the beam of a torch shining in her face. And behind the torch, the dim shape of a man.

She has a split second of absolute clarity. It’s a burglar. He is in the flat, with her. And she forgot to check that the back door was bolted before she went to bed.

The torch beam plays across her face. Then, unhurried, the dark figure turns away. The spotlight of the torch dips and swings over the walls of her bedroom, sweeping across Holly Hobbie, and Julie catches a glimpse of the man’s face. Casually, he turns and strolls through the doorway.

It’s his nonchalance that strikes a shaft of white-hot anger through her. He couldn’t care less that she’s woken up and seen him; he isn’t scared of her at all! Without thinking, she snatches up the only weapon within reach — the hardback novel on her bedside table — and hurls it at his back. She misses; he is already out of the room.

‘Get out! Get out!’ Julie leaps from the bed and grabs the chair with both hands, by the leg and the back, and brandishes it. Swear words pour from her lips, as fluent and furious as Curry Crabtree himself. Screaming abuse, Julie throws herself after the intruder, and as she comes into the living room, she sees him run. He lopes toward the open back door (she knew it) and she chases him out into the backyard.

‘Piss off! Raus! Get out of our house!’ she screams, incoherent with rage.

A grumble of dry thunder rolls around the horizon, and by a flicker of lightning she sees him scramble over the sagging back fence, a dark shape, clumsy as a bear.

‘And stay out!’ she yells. Her hands are shaking as she lowers the chair.

Then Gibbo is running across the grass, faster than she’s ever seen him move. ‘Jesus wept! You all right, Julie?’

Tony races up behind them. ‘What happened? Bloody hell!’ He throws his arms around her. His breath is warm and beery.

Julie leans into the hug. ‘I’m fine, I’m fine.’ Dimly, as if through thick morning mist, she processes the sounds she’d heard a moment before: the crunch of gravel as the car pulled up, the sweep of headlights at the front of the unit. Maybe that was what had made him run, not her chasing him at all — or maybe it was Gibbo running outside —

Gibbo says, ‘You sure you’re all right? He didn’t — you know — touch you?’

Mutely Julie shakes her head. She feels Tony flinch. He puts his arm around her shoulders.

‘Thanks, mate, I’ll take it from here.’

‘Okay.’ Gibbo shrugs, and retreats to his own unit, throwing worried looks over his shoulder.

Tony leads Julie inside and sits her down at the table while he bolts the front and back doors, and checks all the windows.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.