Angel Creek Read Online Free PDF

away. Instead she stood in the doorway of her parents’ room and watched her mum and dad. Her dad was frowning in his sleep. She couldn’t imagine why anyone would want to grow up. All those things that adults had to worry about. And all that sitting around talk, talk, talking when there were so many trees to climb and gardens to explore. She thought about this as she listened to her mum’s quiet, feathery breath and her dad’s snorkling one. After a while she wandered into the study to look up angels on the internet.
    The first site she found was full of paintings of angels. None of them looked like hers. These angels were tall and graceful, and floating on clouds, with harps or doves in their hands. Also they all looked very human. Jelly’s angel was much more like a creature, wilder and more animal-like. Jelly hadn’t seen it fly, obviously, but it didn’t even seem to be able to walk on two legs. It mostly scuttled crab-like across the floor. The only thing it had in common with these angels was its face, its delicate porcelain features. Jelly typed in ‘can angels come to earth?’ and found many stories of people who’d seen angels. But in all the cases, angels had come to them, not the other way around. No one had ever just stumbled across an angel in the wild. This made her wonder: had their angel been on its way somewhere when it got caught up in the creek rubbish? She turned the computer off.
    In her bedroom, Jelly curled up on the lumpy blankets that she and Gino had slept in. She watched the shadows of the peppercorn trees on the ceiling, and thought about the angel. She wasn’t going to let Gino take it home. It was too dangerous. And Gino lived too far away to be able to get it back to the creek. No, Gino was wrong. She would have to show him somehow. He used to listen to her. Why had he suddenly become so difficult?
    And he was so mean to Pik. He sounded just like his dad when he bullied Pik. Except Gino never said anything when his dad got stuck into him, just stood there, eyes glassed over, like a rabbit caught in the headlights of a car.
    It drove Jelly crazy. She couldn’t imagine ever being scared of her parents the way Gino seemed to be scared of his. Now that his precious car was dented, Zio Mario would be in a foul mood. And Gino would be the one to cop it. She almost felt sorry for him then.
    Jelly rolled over onto her side and glimpsed a small pile of badly wrapped presents hidden under her bed. She smiled. They were obviously Gino’s. He was terrible at gift-wrapping.
    She pulled one out and saw her name on it in fat black texta. Of all the presents hidden under there, she had pulled out hers. That was a sign, she decided. It wouldn’t hurt to take a little peek. It was probably something awful anyway, like the stinky perfume he’d given her from the two-dollar shop. Or the ugly shell paperweight he had made at school. Jelly giggled. A little peek would prepare her for the worst. But when she saw what was inside she gasped.
    It was a silver heart locket. The one she had seen last Christmas and had so desperately wanted. She had told Gino that all her friends had them, but her parents had said no. Gino must have remembered.
    Jelly suddenly felt very bad. Not just for peeking at her present but also for fighting with Gino. It had been a pretty ordinary Christmas for all of them. But at least she was in her own house. It must be much worse for him. She wrapped the locket up again, slipped it back in among the others, and decided to risk a truce. She crept down the stairs.
    â€˜Psst, Gino,’ she hissed, while Pik was distracted by the cartoons. ‘Want to come outside?’
    â€˜Okay.’ Gino slid off the couch and followed her to the back door. Jelly wasn’t sure if she had been forgiven or if she was just the best option he had at that moment, but she had to admit that was one of the best things about Gino. He didn’t stay