The Wrong Hands by Nigel Richardson

Author:Nigel Richardson
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780375846557
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Published: 2008-02-12T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 14

NEXT MORNING UNCLE George never mentioned the restaurant or me and Jennifer. It was like it didn’t happen, which meant he was thinking about it one hundred percent. Instead he told me I’d ruined the showroom floor. When I got in, he was already there. He was down on his hands and knees inspecting the floor like he was inspecting his Merc for scratches. I didn’t see him at first. There was no one else in yet, so I assumed he was in the toilet cubicle. I thought that would give me enough time to log on and send an e-mail to Jennifer thanking her for the night before and apologizing for knackering up the lights in her apartment.

I’d just got my jean jacket on the back of the chair and flipped off the top of my latte when I heard a squeaking noise, and then I saw Uncle George’s head appear between the pianos. He just said one word. Ruined. Actually he didn’t use that word, but that’s what he meant. He got on his feet and went to his desk. “Totaled,” he said. “Thanks to you.”

I went and had a look at the floor myself. It didn’t look so bad. Maybe a bit whiter and dried-out-looking. Then I remembered that Jennifer had called Uncle George Uncle Porky. Which meant that he knew that I’d told her his nickname was Mr. Porky. I felt myself go red.

Derek came in. When he knew Uncle George wasn’t looking, he pointed at me and mouthed the word freak, then shook his head. I just ignored him. Then Kate came in. She had new purple bits in her hair. She stopped in the middle of taking off her coat and said, “Uh-oh,” like she could feel the bad vibe between me and Uncle George. I really wanted to e-mail Jennifer, but I got out the cleaning gear and went round dusting the pianos. I didn’t look at Derek. Train Set Man was my permanent enemy for calling me a freak, checking out my e-mails, then telling Uncle George where I’d gone. I took the dead bits off the flowers and topped up the water. I didn’t want to give Uncle George any more excuse to give me aggro. All the time I could feel him watching me. I knew exactly what he was thinking. He was wondering if I’d done it with Jennifer.

But it wasn’t until the afternoon that he said anything about her. Or even spoke to me at all. Derek had gone off early to meet a bloke who was adjusting his satellite dish. Kate’s ears were flapping; I could tell. Her ears were small even though she’d got all these silver rings in them, but they picked up a lot. Uncle George said out of the blue, “Why did that bird call me Uncle Porky, then?” I couldn’t think of what to say, so I didn’t say anything. He said, “Eh?”

I said, “It’s not Uncle Porky. It’s Mr. Porky.” I really wanted to look at Kate, but I didn’t dare.

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.