Ostrich Boys Read Online Free PDF Page A

want.”
    Sim shoved him out the way, warning him with a glare to keep his voice down. “What about what she did to him last week? Remember? In front of everybody at school? She wasn’t all that cut up taking the piss out of him then, was she?”
    I shrugged. “Yeah, but …”
    “If she wasn’t his sister she’d be just as bad as Fowler and Munro.”
    Kenny got his nose in again. “After what she did, I bet she’s half the reason Nina dumped him.”
    I knew that wasn’t true, but I also knew I couldn’t explain why not either.
    “She won’t understand,” Sim said. “She was there at the funeral same as everyone else, and she didn’t do anything, did she? No one’s gonna do anything because no one else knew him like we did. So no one else is gonna understand.”
    I nodded. Maybe he was right.
    He slipped his sunglasses back down into place. “Look, if we don’t go now, we get done for the graffiti. And then we’re never gonna be able to do this. I’ve already told my mum I’m staying at Kenny’s tonight, and he’s said he’s staying at mine—we’re already doing it. Just get Ross and let’s go.”
    “Yeah, Blake,” Kenny said. “Come on, it’s nearly ten.” He pushed his watch in my face. “The train goes at half-past.”
    I checked over my shoulder again. “Okay, but how am I supposed to sneak him out now his dad’s here?”
    “Just pass him through.”
    “I’ve got to get out too, don’t forget. I can’t still be here when they come back and see Ross isn’t.”
    “Climb through with him.” Sim stepped back to give me room.
    “Can you fit?” Kenny asked. Which wasn’t particularly fair.
    “Of course I can
fit,”
I hissed. “But I’ll make a hell of a lot of noise doing it.” I pointed out the crockery and glasses in and around the sink that I was bound to smash trying to climb over. “I’m gonna have to leg it out the front door while they’re upstairs. Wait for me on the corner, okay?” I turned back to the table to grab Ross.
    But Kenny stopped me. “Do we need all of him? Can’t you just scoop some out? No one’s going to notice if there’s just a scoopful missing.”
    Sim and I weren’t impressed.
    “Are you sick?” Sim asked. “And what’re we meant to carry a ‘scoopful’ in, anyway?”
    Kenny shrugged. “There must be some Tupperware somewhere. He had a lunch box, didn’t he?”
    “D’you really think he’d want bits of him here, bits of him there?” I remembered my earlier thoughts, wondered if we’d be able to tell whether we’d taken some arm or leg or whatever. “No way am I gonna get into this much trouble just so we can end up with his big toe!”
    Kenny was ready to argue again, but I heard footsteps coming back down the stairs and waved at him to shut the hell up. I swore, realizing it was too late to pass the urn through without getting trapped in here. “Now what am I meant to do?” I said.
    They both shrugged.
    I swore again. “Just meet me on the corner in five minutes, okay? And get ready to run.”
    They nodded. Then ducked their heads quicker than if someone was aiming a gun at them. Caroline had walked back into the kitchen, with Mr. Fell behind her.
    Yesterday at the funeral was the first time I’d seen him since Ross’s accident, and there had been a weird little bit of me worried he might resent me for still being alive when his son was dead. I’d just avoided him. And now I was scared he’d hate me for spraying Ross’s name on people’s doors and cars. But he smiled at me, came over and shook my hand, pumped it hard. “Blake, good to see you. Wonderful of you to come round.”
    I didn’t know how to reply. So I said something stupid. “I, er, just opened the window a bit. I wanted to let some air in.” Anything to distract him from the guilty flush on my face.
    “It is a bit stuffy, isn’t it?” he said. “Push it all the way up if you want. We seem to keep barricading ourselves in at the moment.”
    I opened