Page 61 - Mobile Magic

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It’s pretty simple, just four numbers, always the same.’ The bird cocked his little head to one side, watching and listening intently as she dialled four digits. He was memorising the frequency pattern.
She smoothed over an area of bare earth with her hand as she told the operator the name and address of her friend Rowan. Rowan had been her next door neighbour for years, but she had not even talked to him since her family had moved
away from the city. They used to do heaps of stuff together - she missed him a lot.
For some reason she had always found it easier to get on with boys than girls. Boys like Rowan were gentle
and genuine, not sharp
and bitchy like most of the girls she knew; but
the boys in this new town
seemed a wimpy bunch, too
frightened of what their mates
would say to even be seen talking
to a girl. She scratched the number in the bare earth with a twig and hung up.
‘Did you get that pattern, Mobo?’
Mobo’s fluffy crest shot up in the air - he was making a deep purring noise - then he sang a short tune which sounded like the noise Patrick’s mobile had just made.