Lionboy
Chapter One
One Saturday afternoon in September Charlie's mum was on a ladder
in the backyard, doing things to plants halfway up the wall.
Charlie didn't know what, or care. He liked the yard, the gorgeous
honey-lemon smell of the flowers, and the great Christmas tree
that hung over the back wall, with its shiny silver and green and
purple fruits that he would harvest toward midwinter and sell at
the market. He liked climbing around in the tree and in the ruins
beyond, running down to the river, and talking to the cats that lived
down there. But he didn't care what his mum was doing on the ladder-until
he heard a shriek and a clatter and a rude word, and he
ran out to see.
His mum was on all fours, on the fallen ladder, on the ground,
with festoons of the honey-smelling plant around her, her red hair
wild and her face as white as ice.
"Stupid, stupid," she was muttering.
"No you're not," said Charlie. He offered her his hand and she
pulled up to her feet, wincing. "You wouldn't be a professor if you
were stupid."
"Clever people can do stupid things," she said. "Let me into the
house."
She hobbled inside and Charl ... read full excerpt from: Lionboy ebook
