Trust by Kate Veitch

stood and started loading up their bags.
    ‘Okay, cuz, let’s move it on out,’ she said in a hokey cowboy accent. ‘City o’ Gold’s a-waitin’.’
    With his backpack slung over one shoulder, Finn followed her moochily from the park, thinking about what was happening at his house, and wishing it wasn’t. At least Robo-Boy was watching out for him; Robo-Boy and Stella-Jean, between them, had stopped Lucas and his gang today. Finn raised his arm, slowly, stiffly, the way Robo-Boy did when he was summoning his powers to keep everything safe.
    So, this is the music dude from Faith Rise. As Auntie Ange – who’d arrived late, well after she and Finn had eaten their spaghetti bolognaise – introduced him, Stella-Jean thought, Yeah, he kinda looks like a musician. It was the long curly hair, mostly: a bit hippie-ish, and definitely way cooler than any of Angie’s other friends from Faith Rise.
    Finn, who’d leapt for the front door yelling ‘Mum!’ when he heard her arrive, fell back when he saw who was with her, and was soon slumped on the couch again watching The Incredibles for the four hundredth time.
    Angie relieved Gabriel of the bulging plastic garbage bag he’d lugged in and dumped it in front of Stella-Jean. ‘Ooh, just wait till you see what’s in here ,’ she said. The excitement in her voice was a dead giveaway. Stella-Jean dropped to her knees, tore open the bag and started pawing through the contents like a terrier. ‘Oh. My. God,’ she said with awed fervour as a riot of fabric spilled across the floor. ‘This is fab ulous! Wow, look at this jacket! Where did this come from?’
    ‘The emerald velvet? Flea market, Barcelona,’ said Angie, watching with a two hundred-watt smile. Stella-Jean held a flowered crepe dress up toward her. ‘And I got that when I was about your age, in an opportunity shop in, um, Hawthorn, I think. Oh, Stella, the op shops back then!’
    ‘Wowie ka- zow -ie!’ crowed Stella-Jean. She jumped up and hugged her aunt ecstatically before throwing herself back into the treasure trove. ‘But you’ve never even shown me this stuff. Where’s it all been ?’
    ‘I’ve kept finding things all week, stuffed in cupboards, out in the shed. Anything that was worth keeping I put aside for you. But you wouldn’t believe the tons of rubbish I’ve got rid of! By the time they picked up the skip today it was completely chock-a-block. And now the whole house is cleared out.’ Angie turned her glowing face toward Gabriel, who smiled back at her. ‘Every single room is ready now.’
    ‘ Thank you , Ange! This stuff is so cool!’
    ‘I knew you’d be thrilled, sweetie. Oh, I’ve got some things for your mum too. Is she here?’
    Stella-Jean shook her head. ‘Book group.’
    ‘Mum! Mum! ’ said Finn, pulling urgently at Angie’s arm.
    ‘Finnie darling!’ Angie bent to hug him. ‘My special little guy! I haven’t even said hello to you properly!’
    ‘But Mum, what about my room?’ he said urgently. ‘You didn’t throw away any of my stuff, did you?’
    ‘Oh, honey, wait till you see. Your room is so beautiful now: the bed’s fixed, I’ve got rid of all those clothes that were too small, all the broken old stuff is —’
    The skin around Finn’s mouth and the sides of his nose went white and taut. Uh-oh, thought Stella-Jean. ‘Not Robo-Boy,’ he said. ‘You didn’t throw him away?’
    Angie hesitated, then cast her eyes toward Gabriel. ‘It was broken , Finnie,’ she said.
    Instantly, Stella-Jean knew what had happened to Robo-Boy, and so did Finn. And he knew who was to blame. Letting go of his mother’s arm, he rounded on Gabriel. ‘You threw him away ? In the r ubbish ?’
    ‘You heard what your mum said, didn’t you, Finn?’ Gabriel said. ‘That thing was broken.’ He had a smooth, gliding kind of voice, Stella-Jean thought, like his sentences were lines in songs, just sliding away. ‘We don’t want broken things around, now, do we?’
    Finn