Deborah Robertson

Careless

Published 2006

Pearl and Riley closed the door behind them. From inside they could hear their mother crying. They were four storeys in the air and it was a hot day. She was eight, he was five. Riley's lips quivered. 'What will we do?' he said. She looked down. And then she smiled for him the madonna of all smiles; serene and consoling, a smile so at odds with her own true feelings that only a grown woman should be capable of it." In the midst of her life with her small brother and unpredictable mother, Pearl is a child who strives to get things right.