The Boy Who Could Fly. Laura Ruby

and left it on purpose. But she couldn’t seem to help herself. “You could have shipped it to them.”

      “I said, they forgot it.”

      “Fine,” said Georgie.

      “Anyway, you should talk.”

      “What?”

      “You’ve stolen things before,” Bug said. “A lot of things.”

      “That wasn’t my fault,” said Georgie, getting angry.

      “No? There was Noodle. She was just wandering around, and you kept her. And you don’t seem to feel too bad about it. What’s so different?”

      Georgie felt the rush of blood through her veins, as if all of sudden she had too much blood and not nearly enough vein. “You sound just like your father.”

      Bug sounded like a robot when he said: “Get out.”

      “Bug, I just meant—”

      Bug flew forwards so fast that he blurred before her eyes, and Pinkwater exploded into the air in a burst of feathers. “Get out!”

      Georgie jumped back, whipped round and charged towards the door. As she ran, she misjudged her footing, slamming into the suit of armour. It fell over like a stack of pots and pans. She opened the door, Pinkwater’s disapproving chirp following her out:

      “Bad!”

       Chapter 5

      Punk Rock

      Georgie sprinted nearly all the way home from Bug’s apartment, slowing only to catch her breath before she reached her building. She didn’t want anyone to think she’d been running from something. Because she wasn’t running. She’d just been in a hurry to get home, that’s all. Bug? Who’s Bug? Oh, that weird-looking guy in the Cheeky Monkey ads.

      “Ha!”

      Georgie focused in on the crow perched in a nearby tree. “What are you looking at?”

      “Ha! Ha!” said the crow.

      “Keep laughing, beak-face. I’m going upstairs to get my kitty.”

      “Ha!”

      Dexter the doorman was waiting at the entrance of the building. “Good afternoon, Miss Bloomington,” he said gravely. He said everything gravely. His grave manner went with the grey hair, the grey beard and the grey uniform.

      “Good afternoon, Dexter.”

      “It’s Deitrich, Miss.”

      “Oh, sorry,” said Georgie. “Deitrich.”

      “Are you all right?” Deitrich said. (Gravely.)

      “Yes, why?”

      Georgie was tall, but Deitrich was one of the few people who was much, much taller. He looked down at her, gravely, but kindly. “You seem sad.”

      “Sad? No, I’m not sad. I’m absolutely fine. Great, even,” Georgie told him.

      “Of course,” said Deitrich, opening the door so that she could enter the building, discreetly slipping her a tissue so that she could wipe her eyes and blow her nose before going up to the penthouse.

      “Georgie? Is that you?” Bunny Bloomington drifted into the foyer. “You’re a little late.”

      Georgie couldn’t imagine she’d been more than an hour, but she knew her mother. “I hope you didn’t worry.”

      Bunny pressed a kiss to Georgie’s cheek. “I didn’t. At least, not that much. Well, a little bit. Some.” She looked at Georgie critically, as if seeing her for the first time. “Where did you get those clothes?”

      Georgie had forgotten about the clothes. How could she forget about the clothes? And, duh! She’d left her own clothes at Bug’s! “I spilled some Kangaroo Kola on myself, so Bug gave me this stuff to wear.”

      Georgie could see her mother working to take this information in. “Oh,” Bunny said. “Next time you’re on a long visit, could you give me a call, please? I’m not saying that I don’t trust you, please don’t think I don’t trust you, I know you’re thirteen, and—”

      “I know, Mum,” Georgie said. “You’re right. I should have called.”

      Bunny bit her lip. “You and Bug didn’t decide to go on any, um, outings, did you?” That was her mother’s word for invisible exploration. Outings. “Because I’m just not comfortable with that. That’s the very thing that got you kidnapped in the first place, and I’m so afraid that someone will see you popping in and out of sight and get ideas.”

      “Mum, we didn’t go on any outings. We sat in his apartment for a while and I left.”

      “His apartment,” Bunny said. “Was that man there? His guardian? What’s his name? Foo Foo?”

      “Juju?”

      “Yes, Voodoo. Was he there?”

      Georgie got the idea that her mother would not be pleased to hear that she had spent some time with a boy alone in his bachelor pad. “Juju was there. He looks like a turtle.”

      “Yes, well, it’s not his fault, is it?” Bunny said.

      “Guess not.”

      “So,” Bunny said. “How is Bug doing these days? I see him all over the television and in every magazine.”

      “Bug’s a jerk,” said Georgie.

      “What? Did you two have an argument?”

      Georgie sighed. “Sort of. I don’t know.”

      “Well, you are getting older. You’re changing. Becoming a beautiful young woman. Maybe,” Bunny said, “that’s confusing to your friend.”

      Georgie sighed again. There was nothing beautiful about what she was becoming, she was sure of it. In the short time she had known her parents, she had grown to love them with all her heart. That didn’t mean she always understood everything they said to her. And it didn’t mean that they always understood everything she said to them.

      “Maybe he’s confused because he didn’t know that a girl could actually get to be twenty metres tall,” Georgie said.

      “Oh, honey,” Bunny told her, “there’s nothing wrong with being tall. It doesn’t mean boys won’t like you. Your Aunt Tallulah on your father’s side was very tall, and she had five husbands! Or was it six?”

      “That’s something to look forward to,” said Georgie.

      Bunny laughed. “Noodle missed you, you know. She’s been yelling at me for the last half hour. Sometimes I swear she’s trying to tell me something and if I listened hard enough, I’d understand.”

      “Where is she?” Georgie said.

      “In your room. The last time I checked, she was playing solitaire on the computer, but she might be napping. If people knew what that cat could do, everyone would want one.”

      “I’m going to say hi to her,” said Georgie.

      “Sure,” Bunny said. “I didn’t even ask you. How was the museum?”

      “Filled with lots of stuffed dead things,” Georgie said.

      “Just the way a museum should be,” her mother said. “Anyway, you can relax for a while. Maybe we can all watch a film after