Careful What You Wish For Read Online Free PDF Page B

agitated.
    ‘Was it scary?’
    ‘What do you mean?’ He gave her a hard look.
    ‘Pinching it? Did you nearly get caught or anything?’
    ‘Nah.’ He sniffed and stared at the ceiling, then walked over to the window and looked out. ‘Nothing easier.’
    Ruth pulled out a chair for him and went to the fridge. He had his back to her now, and she could see that he was trembling. There was not much in the fridge except some cheese and tomatoes.
    ‘Are you cold?’
    ‘Nah,’ he grunted.
    ‘So how come you’re shivering?’
    Howard didn’t answer but lifted up both legs of his jeans to the knee. Big red stripes like burns crisscrossed the white skin. He stood there and said nothing, letting her look.
    ‘My old man went ballistic.’
    Ruth was shocked. ‘When?’
    ‘Last night.’ He nodded thoughtfully, as if he was finding it hard to believe it himself.
    Ruth went to the cupboard above the sink and pulled down the zinc-and-castor-oil cream – her mother’s answer to every skin condition known to humankind – and handed it to him.
    She indicated the chair again and noticed the way Howard winced when he sat down. He unscrewed the lid of the plastic tub, scooped out some cream with his finger and began to rub it over his legs.
    ‘Use it all,’ Ruth told him. ‘We’ve got more.’
    Howard nodded and kept applying the cream.
    ‘Sandwich okay?’
    ‘Yeah,’ Howard said. He finished with the cream and started fiddling around with the camera on the table in front of him, frowning.
    Ruth pulled out the bread and quickly threw together a couple of big cheese and tomato sandwiches and put them under the griller, trying to think what to say. Behind her, Howard sighed a couple of times.
    ‘Needs batteries and another lead!’ he said, exasperated. ‘Should have taken the box as well.’
    At school, Ruth had heard of Howard Pope before she’d even spoken two words to him. Within a week of him arriving at the school, Lou’s phone had gone missing and was eventually found down the bottom of Howard’s bag under his smelly socks, along with Justin Appleton’s PSP and Melissa Todd’s iPod. The fact that all these items were banned wasn’t the point. Howard had stolen them and then left them at the bottom of his bag!
    Ruth found that rather intriguing, even though she had pretended to be outraged like everyone else. It had made her wonder about the quiet new kid with the thick glasses and solemn face. Why would he steal something and not use it? After that incident, everyone was wary of Howard Pope, but that didn’t seem to bother him too much. Or stop him. Two months later, the police were up at the school looking for missing items from the local electrical shop. A toaster, a milkshake machine and an electric kettle were found in Howard’s locker. Crazy! Why would an eleven-year-old want those things?
    He was also known to have unbolted the window to the tuckshop, stolen a tray of doughnuts and fifteen Mars Bars and then shared them around with anyone game enough to partake.
    After that, most kids at the school had a grudging respect for Howard. They wouldn’t be seen dead actually hanging out with him, but he had a kind of status. He was the official school thief . When anything went missing everyone blamed Howard, whether he was guilty or not. And the most intriguing part of it all, to Ruth, was that he didn’t seem to care.
    She poured him some milk.
    ‘So your dad beat you?’ she asked after a while.
    ‘Yep.’
    ‘What with?’
    ‘A leather belt.’
    ‘Why?’
    ‘I took a look at his rifle.’
    ‘His rifle?’
    ‘He goes pig shooting. I was mucking around with it and … he caught me.’
    ‘Were you shooting it?’
    ‘No way,’ he sniffed. ‘He was at his girlfriend’s place, and I didn’t have anything to do. So I took it out just to see how it worked. It’s a good gun,’ he said proudly. ‘Worth about three grand.’
    ‘Yeah?’
    ‘He only ever hits me when he’s drunk or hung-over,’