13

THE PEACE OFFERING (AKA FLORENCE, THE NEWEST MEMBER OF OUR FAMILY)

‘Ellie, there’s something I should tell you.’

She’s just walked in the door from her friend Charlotte’s house. Yawning, Ellie flops onto the couch. ‘Well? What is it?’

‘Actually, I need to show you.’

She shakes her head and reaches for the TV remote. ‘I’m not going anywhere. If you need to show me something, bring it here. Okay?’

‘I can’t … Well, technically I can, but it’s tricky.’

She rolls her eyes. ‘Sounds fascinating, but if you really wanted me to show me, you’d bring it here.’

‘It’s in your bedroom.’

‘Wait. You went into my room?’ She jumps off the couch. ‘And what do you mean by it?’

‘Well, I went into your room but only because I had to—’

‘You better not have touched anything! What were you doing in there?’

She throws down the remote and starts turning pink around the cheeks, kind of like Mum. I’m not looking to start World War Three, so I hold up my hands and step backwards. ‘Just take a look. It’s a good thing, I promise.’

Ellie storms down the hallway towards her bedroom, shouting ‘I swear, if you’ve safety-proofed my entire room with bubble wrap, I’ll kill you!’

Dunno what she’s talking about, I don’t even own bubble wrap. Sure, one time I sprayed disinfectant over her pillow, but that was ages ago. I didn’t know people could have an allergic reaction from sleeping on chemicals and her puffy eyes only lasted a day. What’s the big deal?

Ellie flings open the door.

Frozen in the doorway, she points at her bed. Her mouth opens and closes. ‘Is that a …’

She can’t finish her sentence and I’m not sure why. Of course there’s a chicken on her bed. What else could it be? A feathered alien?

Ellie looks stunned, but maybe she’s just noticed her duvet cover. ‘Um, Ellie? You’ll need to wash those stains before Mum gets home. Sorry, I didn’t know where else to put a chicken. Maybe I should’ve used a box.’

She says nothing but gives her head a hard shake, like she’s trying to force words into her mouth.

Another minute goes by and I’m feeling awkward. ‘Ellie? You said saving chickens would make you happy. So I went and, um, borrowed a chicken from Mum’s work.’ She turns and stares at me. ‘Okay, borrowed isn’t the right word but stealing sounds a bit full on … maybe we could call the chicken liberated?’

I’ve already looked up the word ‘liberated’. I figured Harriet was right about her mum using big words to confuse people. If I get caught I’ll need lots of big words, so I prepared a few. However, Ellie doesn’t seem impressed, she just shakes her head again and mutters. ‘You stole a chicken.’

‘Um, could we stop using that stealing word?’

‘I don’t believe this.’

Ellie turns and shuts the bedroom door in my face, leaving me alone in the hallway. I’m not worried because she’s done that a million times and at least she’s not calling me names. Dropping onto my knees, I call through the crack under the door, ‘Just one thing, could you not tell Mum?’

She doesn’t answer.

When Mum gets home, Ellie comes out of her room acting like nothing’s happened. She’s still wearing all black, including her eyeliner, but she says, ‘Hi’ to Mum, which causes Mum to jump, then smile.

Ellie loads the dishwasher after dinner without being asked, while Mum flicks on the TV. The opening music for Who Wants to be a Millionaire fills the house, which means Mum’s distracted for the next half-hour. Trying to act normal, I wander into the kitchen and check the pantry for biscuits, which probably looks suspicious because we almost never have any.

Shuffling packets of soup and bread across the shelves, I say breezily, ‘Everything okay with your chicken?’

Ellie blinks, then slams the dishwasher shut. ‘I don’t know what you mean.’

‘But—’

Too late. She’s gone, walking out of the room like I’m invisible.

Maybe I’d better leave her alone. Bet she’s angry about the stains on her bedspread and I don’t want to get into an argument. Mum might hear and start asking questions. Chicken liberation is the sort of misunderstanding that ends with long-term screen bans. It’s not worth the risk.

Heading for my room, I sit on my bed and skim through keepsafekids.com on my Chromebook.

After about ten minutes, my door creaks open and Ellie’s head appears through a crack. She’s lit up from behind by the light of the TV blazing from the lounge. ‘Lucas?’

She stops and twists her mouth, like she’s trying to choose her words.

‘Yeah?’

Ellie sighs. ‘Did you take the chicken because you thought I was going to tell on you? That day outside the butcher’s, well … I was angry, but I didn’t mean what I said. I wouldn’t tell anyone about the you-know-what. Okay?’

‘No, I wanted to help. You were acting weird … and kind of sad. I just want things back to normal.’

‘Normal?’ Ellie leans further into my room, one hand flicking the door handle up and down. ‘I don’t know if things can ever be normal again. But I was annoyed about the UFOs.’

‘Why?’

‘I get why you didn’t tell anyone else about faking the UFOs, but you could’ve told me. I would’ve helped you.’

‘I didn’t know if you’d keep my secret.’

‘Yeah, but you should know. I’m your sister. You should trust me, even if you don’t tell Mum.’

‘Well, it’s not like you talk to me, much. How was I supposed to know you wouldn’t tell anyone?’

She blinks at me. ‘You’re right … Okay. Maybe we should talk about stuff sometimes. I mean, it’s just the three of us now, right?’

I know what she’s getting at. Our family keeps shrinking and we’ve been so worried about ourselves, we’ve forgotten to check on each other. I’ve been thinking about germs and UFOs, she’s worried about chickens. At least I figured out she was upset and tried to help by taking a bird, but I should’ve known my own sister would want to help with the UFOs. Guess I was too worried about getting caught. ‘Um, maybe we’ll ask you next time. Sorry.’

‘Yeah, I know. It’s okay.’

But there’s something I need to know. ‘Um, Ellie … where’s the chicken?’

‘You mean Florence?’

‘Sorry?’

‘If I had a pet chicken her name would be Florence.’

‘Okay.’

Ellie glances over her shoulder, then says, ‘And I don’t know what you’re talking about. How could I possibly know anything about a missing chicken? So you really need to stop asking, okay?’

‘Oh, right.’ No wonder she ignored me after dinner. ‘Got it.’

Ellie keeps flicking the door handle and staring across the room, not meeting my eyes. I wait for her to say something, but she doesn’t. Instead, she takes a deep breath and puffs out her cheeks.

‘Ellie? Are you okay?’

‘Me? What about you?’ Then she breathes and the words rush out. ‘Mum thinks you’re not coping. I mean, she’s the one not coping, if you ask me. But she says we should try keeping everything the same and provide you with stability or something. Mum thinks that’s why you’re obsessed with safety.’ She takes another deep breath. ‘That’s stupid, right?’

Shocked, I don’t know what to say. She’s watching my face, waiting for an answer. ‘But I’m fine. Honest.’

Ellie’s shoulders relax. I wonder how long she’s been thinking those words without saying them and, at last, she squeezes out a small smile. ‘Well you have been wearing that vest and quoting your stupid website every five minutes. Anyway, you’re starting to act more like your old self, not worrying so much, and doing stupid things like rescuing chickens … which is actually pretty cool.’ She glances over at me. ‘You are all right, aren’t you?’

All right? I’m stressed about kidnapping chickens, terrified of being caught faking alien sightings by FBI agents, and I’m wondering if it’s wrong to create a worldwide hoax.

But I say ‘Yeah’ because Ellie’s smiling. It’s a long time since I’ve seen her smile. I must be doing something right.