Secret Sparrow by Jackie French EPUB & PDF – eBook Details Online
- Status: Available for Free Download
- Author: Jackie French
- Language: English
- Genre: Action & Adventure Fantasy
- Format: PDF / EPUB
- Size: 5.73 MB
- Price: Free
BURRANGONG, SEPTEMBER 1978
The sky was a clear balloon blue when Arjun heard the wave surge down
the street behind him. Arjun turned. The river had vanished in a rage of
water, rolling, slashing, crashing, a mix of white-tipped froth of mud and
logs and hamburger wrappers. Cars bounced like plastic toys in a bath.
Flash flood.
Run! thought Arjun. Where? The new mall where he’d been heading
had been built on the river flats across the river from the main town. Its
high ground was over the bridge, impossible to get to now.
He couldn’t outrun the water. He began anyway, pushing his legs, his
lungs screaming. Behind him the mall erupted in shrieks as water gushed
through its door.
A motorbike roared out of a side street in a flash of black and purple. It
swerved towards Arjun. Tyres screeched as the rider braked to a brief
standstill.
‘Climb on!’
Arjun clambered on the back before he realised what he was doing. The
rider gunned the motor; Arjun clung to the black leather jacket in front of
him. He glanced behind.
The wave’s swirling edge was almost upon them.
The motorbike swerved wildly, jumping up onto the footpath, then into
the slightly higher ground of the new park, tearing through the marigolds.
Bikies don’t care about flowers, thought Arjun, then realised the figure he
held wasn’t the sturdy shape of a bloke, but a woman’s, skinny under the
leather jacket. Her helmet hid her face.
The bike swerved around a picnic table. Uphill, Arjun thought, we’re
heading uphill — but there was little ‘up’ to climb. All this side of the river
flooded every time a downpour surged down the mountains upstream and
into the river, which was why the town was built on the high side across the
bridge . . . except for the new mall. The council had said the new levee bank
along the river would block a flood.
The council had been wrong.
Arjun risked another look behind. The wave hadn’t even slowed as it
swallowed the park’s small rise. The water followed them like some
determined monster, the wave’s wide froth mouth grinning at them, about to
gulp them down.
The bike’s engine roared as the rider hauled on the throttle.
‘It’s going to get us!’ Arjun screamed.
‘Not if I can help it!’ the rider shouted.
They flew. The wind roared. All at once the first surge of the wave
crashed, spilling foam, leaves, bits of wood, plastic bottles around them as
the water and its debris overtook the bike. The wheels swayed. The water
rose to Arjun’s ankles as the water behind them surged into another wavelike crest.
‘You can’t keep going in this!’
The rider laughed. ‘This is a doddle! There isn’t even anyone shooting
at us. Hold on!’
Shooting? He didn’t have time to think. He just held on.
The bike swerved as the water sucked and dragged it. A log bashed
against the headlights, then was gone. For a second Arjun thought the flood
had captured them, but the bike suddenly straightened, heading to the right
now through shallower water. A sign flashed by on the side of the road.
Johnson’s Lookout.
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