I Lost My Mobile At the Mall Read Online Free PDF Page A

driving, but I know for a fact she can drive and listen to me talk at the same time. My mother is the Queen of Multi-Tasking. She could perform brain transplant surgery, launch the Space Shuttle, fold table napkins, head peace talks in the Middle East and make spaghetti bolognaise all at the same time. Except when it suits her. Then it's: Please be quiet, Elly. I'm trying to think.
    Doesn't she realise THIS IS AN EMERGENCY?! I seriously consider jumping out of the moving car and then, mercifully, I see we have pulled up outside Nan's house. I hurtle up the steps and Nan's already standing at the front door.
    'Eleanor!' exclaims Nan. 'Aren't you looking beautiful this morning. Come in, darling, come in.'
    I kiss Nan's cheek and speedily admire the vase of pink hydrangeas on the hall stand. Then I edge past her to the oak dresser in the sitting room and grab the phone. I dial Bianca's number (which takes ages because Nan's still got one of those prehistoric telephones with the holes for your fingers. The kind you see on Antiques Roadshow ).
    'Hey, what's happening?' yawns Bianca, even though it's now midday.
    I put Bianca through the full interrogation. Has she ever shown Jai the pictures of me on her phone? Has she ever let Jai upload pictures from her phone onto his computer? Does she know he's got this hideous mirror on FacePlace? Is it about me? Has she ever seen it? Who else knows it's there? Did she hear Jai on the radio?
    'Really? A month's supply of Palatial Pizzas!' gasps Bianca. 'We better not talk too long, he's probably trying to ring me.'
    After more intense questioning Bianca admits:
Yes, she did let Jai see the pics on her phone.
Yes, she did lend him her phone last week after his got run over by the school bus – but only for a day until he got a new one.
No, she didn't know his FacePlace mirror had the pics on it.
    Then I wait until she gets out of bed, boots up, logs on and . . .
    'You don't have to worry, El. They're cute,' giggles Bianca. 'The one of you sticking out your tongue with the chilli prawn on it is hilarious! And this one of you in the shower cap! You look like a button mushroom!'
    I tell her down the phone, as loudly as I dare, that the entire population of Oldcastle, Britannia, New South Wales, Australia and The Planet Earth is now viewing these pictures of me and thinking I am the Dork of the Universe! WHAT IF WILL SEES THEM?
    There is a silence during which I swear I can hear Bianca scratching her head and then I hear a ding on her computer and I'll bet it's someone posting on her FacePlace mirror saying something like: Hey, check out Elly Pickering looking like a fungus!
    'Do you think the free pizzas will include the cheesy crust ones, or just the plain crusts?' asks Bianca.
    There's one thing that I've come to appreciate about Nan's ancient phone: you can bang down the handpiece really hard in someone's ear. It's much more satisfying than pressing a red button. I start to dial Will's number when I hear yelling from the kitchen.
    'Eleanor! Come and speak to your grandmother,' calls Mum. 'We didn't drive all the way over here just so you could run up a phone bill.'
    I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that because I have to talk to Will. My mother will have to prise this phone out of my cold, dead hands.
    'Hey, Elly? What's up? I'm down the coast with my dad this weekend,' says Will.
    Phew! His dad won't have turned on the radio. They will have listened to Jack Johnson CDs in the car. Will sounds lazy and relaxed. I can tell by his voice that he's been for a surf. I could tell him about everything happening back here in Oldcastle and the exploding supernova disaster in cyberspace, but I hear his voice and none of it seems to matter. It's like the cool incoming tide that sweeps the sand smooth again at the end of a crowded day on Wobbegong beach.
    Instead I just tell him how I'm without a phone now and I'm not sure when I'll be getting a new one.
    'That's no biggie. I'll see you at school