Read Magic or Madness for Free Online Page B

forty-two.”
    The girl shrugged as though it were perfectly normal to her, which he guessed it would be. He wondered why Mere hadn’t told him about her granddaughter. Or the child who was this girl’s mother or father. Did she have other children? Other grandchildren? Was the girl going to be studying with Mere too?
    “Can I join you?” he asked, even though he didn’t need her permission. He was allowed to climb Filomena whenever he wanted.
    “Sure,” she said, and then looked uncertain, like maybe it was a bad idea. Too late. Tom was already standing on the same branch as her.
    He grinned and she grinned in return. She was even prettier up close, with shortish wavy light brown hair and dark brown eyes that had gold and reddish flecks in them. Her eyelashes were black and about a metre long. Tom tried to think of something to say to her, but he was lost imagining what she’d look like in a Schiaparelli ball gown. Emerald green. Mustn’t stare, he reminded himself, though she was staring back at him.
    “I’m Tom,” he said at last, extending his hand.
    “Reason,” she said as they shook hands. It made the branch under them shake, and they both wobbled. They giggled and sat down, scooting closer to the trunk of the tree.
    “Your name is Reason?” asked Tom. He wasn’t sure he’d heard her right.
    “Uh-huh. People call me Ree.”
    “Weird name.”
    “Yeah. My mother’s mad.”
    “Yeah? Mine too.”
    “No,” said Reason. “I mean really mad.”
    “Yeah,” said Tom. “Mine too. She kept trying to kill herself. Then one time when I was little, she tried to kill me and Cathy too. So she’s in Kalder Park now.”
    “Wow. My mother’s in Kalder Park! Sarafina tried to kill herself too.” The girl seemed amazed by the coincidence, which struck Tom as weird. If she was Mere’s granddaughter, she should know it wasn’t a coincidence.
    “Mum would never take her meds,” said Tom. “She thinks they put devils in her head.”
    The girl nodded, then said softly, “I miss her.”
    “Yeah,” said Tom. “Me too.”
    They sat quietly for a while. When the silence started to make Tom uncomfortable, he asked, “How come you call your mum by her first name?”
    “Huh?”
    “You called her ‘Sarafina,’ not ‘mum.’”
    “She doesn’t like it, I guess.” Reason shrugged. “I’ve always called her Sarafina.”
    “Weird.”
    The girl just shrugged again. Clearly, she didn’t think so.
    “Are you going to be living with Mere now?”
    She hesitated, then said, “Uh-huh.”
    “Cool. Great house, eh?”
    “Yeah. It’s huge.”
    “Biggest one in Newtown. I mean, take a look at my backyard.”
    They shifted out along the branch until it started to bow under their weight. Tom’s backyard was less than a quarter the size of Mere’s. He wondered if Reason knew that Mere owned it too, as well as the house on the other side of hers.
    “Are you from Sydney?” he asked, though he didn’t think so. Her accent sounded more bush than city.
    “Nah. I’m from . . . well, we moved around a lot. Never stayed anywhere very long. We were in a settlement not far from Coonabarabran for five months. That was the longest.”
    “The bush. Huh. You been in a city before?”
    “Been to Dubbo. And here once before. There was a big custody case when I was little, but we weren’t here long.”
    “Do you like Sydney?” Tom asked, though he couldn’t imagine anyone not liking it. Especially compared to Dubbo.
    “Well,” said Reason, “it seems really big. Crowded. The houses are so close together. Really narrow streets.”
    Tom waved her words away. “But what do you think of the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge and the Tannie Gardens?”
    “The what Gardens?”
    “Botanical Gardens.”
    “Haven’t seen them.”
    “You’re kidding? Well, we gotta climb higher,” he said, shifting closer to the trunk. “You can see the bridge from the top.” He pulled himself up to the next branch. “Ugh.”