Toad Rage - Morris Gleitzman [2]
I can't help worrying about it, thought Limpy miserably as he pushed his way through the big tropical leaves into his room. It's just the way I am.
He carefully lifted Uncle Roly onto the uncle stack.
“I don't know what Mum's moaning about,” Limpy said to himself. “I don't reckon my room's that untidy.”
He looked around at the neat piles of rellies. Uncles by the bed. Aunts in the corner. Cousins next to the mud patch.
The only way I could make these tidier, he thought, is if I had some of those racks.
He'd seen a picture of the racks in a newspaper that had been chucked out of a passing car. Humans used them for storing round, flat metal things, but Limpy could see they'd be perfect for dead rellies.
He straightened up Uncle Roly on the uncle stack. In a couple of days he'd be adding Uncle Bart to it.
Poor old Uncle Bart, thought Limpy. He spent most of his life saying “stack me,” and soon I will be.
A voice interrupted his sad thoughts.
“Limpy.”
Limpy turned round.
Mum and Dad had followed him into his room.
He started to tell them about the racks, but they didn't give him a chance.
“Limpy,” said Mum gently. “I know we get a bit cross with you sometimes, but we just want to say that we're really glad you're still around.”
They both gave him a hug.
Limpy glowed with pleasure. Most of his brothers and sisters had been swept away from home ages ago, when they were still blobs of spawn, and sometimes he worried he was a bit of a burden to Mum and Dad.
“If you ever got flattened, you know, more than you have been already,” said Dad, “we'd be really, really sad.”
Limpy glowed even more.
He started to tell them he felt the same about them, but just the thought of a Mum and Dad stack made his throat ache so much he had to stop.
Instead he said, “And Charm too?”
Mum smiled. “Of course,” she said. “We're glad she's still around too.”
Limpy glowed again. A lot of parents were ashamed of kids like Charm. Kids who'd stayed small because of pollution. But he could tell by looking at Mum and Dad's faces that they loved his younger sister as much as they did him.
“Where is Charm?” he said. “I haven't seen her since I got back.”
“She went down to the highway,” said Mum, “to get me some mozzies for dessert.”
Limpy stared at her in panic.
“She shouldn't be going to the highway,” he said. “She's too young.”
“She's got to learn to collect food like everyone else,” said Dad. “Anyway, she'll be fine. She's with Goliath.”
Limpy felt anxiety stab through his glands.
Not cousin Goliath.
Anyone but cousin Goliath.
Limpy tried to make a frantic dash through the leaves and off in the direction of the highway, forgetting that if he hopped too fast, his crook leg made him go in circles.
He grimaced with frustration. This is the one drawback, he thought as he staggered around the room, of having one leg shorter than the other.
He crashed into a stack of rellies. Uncles rolled in all directions.
“Calm down,” said Dad. “Charm'll be okay. Goliath'll look after her. He's big and strong and sensible.”
“Big, yes,” Limpy wanted to shout. “Strong, yes. But can someone who sits in the middle of the road and tries to wee on passing traffic really be described as sensible?”
Limpy didn't have time to stand around shouting.
In the distance, from the direction of the highway, he heard the faint sound of a sixteen-wheeler slamming on its air brakes.
He had to get to Charm before it was too late.
Limpy's head was spinning by the time he got to the highway, partly because he was out of breath and partly because he'd been round in so many circles.
It didn't matter.
He could see Charm and she was okay.
So far.
She was sitting in the moonlight in the middle of the road, a small figure next to a much larger one.
Limpy peered anxiously at the hulking figure of Goliath at her side and saw he was holding a stick.
“Oh no,” groaned Limpy.
His warts prickled with fear.
He could feel the vibrations of an approaching vehicle.
If he didn't act quickly, Charm and Goliath wouldn't be okay for much longer.
“Charm,