Butterfly Summer Read Online Free PDF

around the playground at school, pretending we were in the Amazon together, planting trees and looking after gorillas and other rainforest wildlife. I got a camera when I was nine and I’d crawl around the garden taking pictures of every insect I could find. We were both conservationists and we had important work to do.
    The adventures we had grew dangerous and exciting, and they saw me right through my time at junior school, but eventually I wanted to know more. Little everyday details like his favourite pudding, and whether he liked cats better, or dogs, and most important of all, if he was ever coming back – but Mum wouldn’t tell me. She said that talking about him made her remember stuff that she didn’t want to think about any more, and there didn’t seem to be anything I could do to change her mind.
    She’d already gone to work by the time I got up the next morning. She must’ve rushed off in a hurry because the kitchen was a mess. The plates were stacked up in the sink with cold, dried-up baked beans stuck to them, and it took me ages to scrub the pan clean. I tidied around the puzzle, leaving the little piles of blue where Mum had left them the night before, and then made myself some toast. The house was deathly quiet again. I sat at the table, thinking about the note, half of me wanting the doorbell to ring and half of me dreading it.
    I was tempted to wait in all day, just in case, but I’d promised Rosa May I’d meet her at ten, and apart from that I really didn’t like being in the house by myself. It just felt far too empty. I set out along the lane, past the Jacksons’ shop and down to Amble Cross. It was another gorgeous day; the sky so blue it looked as if it had been freshly painted that morning – almost too blue to be true.
    I was about halfway to the Garden when my phone vibrated in my pocket. It was a message from Laura. She’d attached a beautiful photo that she’d taken on holiday: it was a spider’s web covered in glistening, early-morning dew, with a small spider sitting in the middle. I texted straight back to say that the signal in Oakbridge was rubbish – the spiders miles bigger – and that I’d discovered an amazing place for when she came to visit.
    “Back again?” said the wrinkly lady at the entrance. “We do like to see young people using the Garden. I’m Maggie, by the way, and the lady in the shop is my sister Joan.
    “I’m Becky,” I said shyly. “I only moved to Oakbridge a few weeks ago.”
    She smiled, waving me through to the tiny shop where Joan was ready with her stamp.
    “Have I told you about the number of species we’ve got this summer?” she asked as I held out my hand. “It’s the heat, you see – we’ve never seen anything like it!”
    I nodded, edging towards the door, impatient to see Rosa May. “I’d better go, I’m meeting my friend.”
    “Oh good!” said Joan. “That’ll be so much more fun than wandering around by yourself.”
    I spotted Rosa May long before she realized I was there. She was up on the bridge, her knees bent, poised to dive into the lake. I stood and watched – she was so graceful, swooping down towards the water like some sort of exotic bird. I waited for her to come up. I knew she’d stay under for as long as she could, testing her lungs to the absolute limit. I closed my eyes for a second, counting. “ One...two...three...four... ” The words came out as a whisper. The longer she stayed under, the harder I found it to breathe.
    After what felt like an age, she broke the surface, and as soon as she saw me, she began swimming towards the bank. I raced across the field towards her as she pulled herself out, the water shimmering on her skin like tiny diamond droplets.
    “Hey, Becky. Did you see? I broke my record. Three-and-a-half minutes without breathing. Actually, I have no idea if it really was three-and-a-half because I can’t time myself properly, but I was counting in my head.”
    I forced the air back