Dappled Annie and the Tigrish by Mary McCallum

Author:Mary McCallum [Mary McCallum]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9781927271155
Publisher: Gecko Press
Published: 2014-01-28T16:00:00+00:00

It was darker here than the hedge, much darker; the dappled light was more like dappled dark, with only freckles of light sprinkled on Robbie’s hair and shoulders.

CHAPTER 10

The shinies

Annie scrambled down the other side of the log—fell down it, really—until she dropped to the ground beside her brother. He was sprawled flat on his stomach.

“Are you okay? Are you bleeding? What hurts?” Annie tried to think what her mother had done with Lew when they brought him back from the lighthouse with his broken leg. She needed bandages, water…

“I want Mama,” said Robbie.

I want her too, thought Annie. But she said, “It’s all right, Robbie. I know what to do.”

There was something on the ground in front of him—lots of somethings. Annie leaned closer. The shinies.

“Here,” Robbie said, holding up his hand. His palm was brown with dirt after all the falling and climbing, and on it were fragments of what must have been the tiniest bird’s egg ever. He held it up and didn’t move.

“A bird’s egg?” said Annie. “Oh, I thought you’d…”

Robbie rolled on to his back and stared up at Annie with his sad face. It really was a sad face with its turned-down mouth and turned-down eyes. She looked at the treasures all jumbled together: a white Lego block, a pebble, a rolled-up piece of red wool, three bottle tops, a leaf…

“Robbie, you’ve got peppermints!”

“Mmm.” He didn’t move. “Lew gave them to me.”

“Here, look—there must be—”Annie knelt down and picked them up one by one— “Six! And peanuts—four of those—and one of Grandma’s toffees…Robbie! Did she know you took that? You know, you are a very good finder—we won’t be hungry now.”

Robbie’s face stopped being a picture of sadness. It wasn’t happy, but the mouth wasn’t turned down, and his eyes looked softer, even sparky. Then he sat up—boing—like a spring.

“I am a good finder,” he said, and he picked through what was on the ground to see if there was any more to eat. “Apple seed?” he said, holding it up.

“You have that,” said Annie.

Robbie put the seed in his mouth and chewed for three chews, then swallowed. “Will I turn into an apple tree?”

“Maybe.”

“I will grow only green apples,” he said, “and green frogs, and cute green lizards can live on me and eat my green apples.”

“Good idea.”

Robbie was looking at his feet. “I can feel roots growing. You can pick my first apple, Annie.”

“Thanks. That’s…are you sure?”

“Yup.”

“Thank you, Rob.”

“That’s okay. And Mama can have the rest for apple crumble.” He was humming now and scooping things back into his pockets, then he put out his hand for the peppermints and the peanuts.

Annie gave them to him.

“One for me—” he put a peppermint in his mouth—“and one for you.”

Annie was more hungry than she realized. The peppermint was sweet and zingy. She sucked and, while she sucked, she watched the trees carefully. There were no more waving branches, but she could feel them watching her too. She swallowed. Robbie gave her another peppermint.

While she chewed, Annie leaned close to his ear and spoke quietly.

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