Raven Summer Read Free

through the last field, over the last gate, head for my house.
    Dad’s window’s still open. We put the baby on the kitchen table. There’s a yell from upstairs. Max jumps. I grin.
    “It’s nothing,” I say. “He does that when he’s stuck. When the story’s going nowhere or when one of his characters is causing problems.”
    “Sounds like he’s getting attacked,” says Max.
    Dad yells again, like he’s in agony.
    I point to my head.
    “It’s like he lives in here, not in the real world.”
    “Weird,” says Max. “Where’s your mum?”
    “She went off to Newcastle this morning.”
    The baby’s still whimpering.
    “She’ll need milk,” says Max. “But what kind?”
    I stroke the baby’s cheek, and smile at her, then I go upstairs. I stash the money from the jar in my bedroom. I knock at Dad’s door.
    I hear a grunt, then he calls,
    “Who’s that?”
    “Me.”
    “I thought you were with Max all day.”
    “I am.”
    “No, you’re not. You’re knocking at my door. Is your mother not back yet?”
    “No.”
    “
Tch.
Look, I’m in the
middle
of something.”
    I want to shove the door open. It’s not long since I used to sit under his desk drawing pictures and scribbling as he wrote. Not that long since I even sat on his knee as he wrote.
    “We found something,” I say through the door.
    “Good!”
    “We don’t know what to do about it.”
    “Hell’s teeth, Liam! You’re a big lad now, you know.”
    He comes to the door. There he is with his scruffy beard and his hair all messy. There’s the screen glaring on the desk behind him. There’s the pages of scribble lying all over the floor. There’s the walls filled with books and books and books.
    “I’m in the
middle
of something,” he says again.
    He yells at the sky and shakes his fists as a jet flies past.
    “Go and bomb Tony Blair!”
    “We found a baby,” I say.
    “You found a
what
?”
    “A baby, by the river.”
    He stares at me, like I’m a hundred miles away.
    “And where’s the baby now?” he says.
    “Downstairs, on the kitchen table. And she needs some milk.”

4
    Even when he’s standing there looking at her and touching her
cheek with his finger, he says,
    “You’re having me on, aren’t you? It’s one of your lot, Max, isn’t it?” He rolls his eyes. “And how come you just happened to be at the right spot to find her?”
    “A raven took us,” I say.
    “It led us through the village and down the fields,” says Max.
    Dad grins.
    “Hey, nice touch, lads. But you’ll have to write it yourself if you want all this in a story. I’ve not got the time.”
    He raises his hands.
    “Look, Liam,” he says. “I know it’s a pain that I’m so busy, but I’ve got to get on with this book.”
    “And there was this as well,” I say.
    I put the jar of money and the note onto the table.
    He narrows his eyes.
    “Is this true?” He sighs. “It is, isn’t it? That’s all I need.”
    Dad calls the police. Max holds his knuckle to the baby’s mouth and lets her suck on it.
    “She thinks it’ll give her milk,” he says. “She’ll be bawling when she sees there’s no chance.” He strokes her cheek. “There, there. We’re going to sort you out, sweetheart.”
    Dad puts the phone down. The police are on their way. He stares at the baby. She opens her mouth and screams.
    “What should we do, Max?” asks Dad.
    Max looks inside the blanket.
    “She needs her nappy changed,” he says.
    “We can’t do that,” says Dad. “We should wait for the police before we go ahead and do anything like that.”
    The baby bawls on. Dad makes a coffee. He scribbles in a notebook.
    “So it wasn’t a crow or a rook?” he says. “They all look the same to me. Birds. Black.”
    “Raven,” says Max. “It’s bigger than a crow.”
    “And it was the same one, all the way?”
    “Aye,” says Max.
    Dad scribbles.
    “You can tame them, can’t you?” he says.
    “Aye. And eat them if you’re daft