For all the Luke Walker chapters click here 🙂

Story continues from yesterday:

****

There was a long, uncomfortable silence in which both boys pretended to read.  Joe didn’t dare tell Luke his secret and Luke was hurt by Joe’s lack of confidence in him.  There was no one else in the house.  Joe’s parents were away for the weekend and Janet, who had been left in charge, had gone to a party.

“How long ’til Janet’s back?” asked Luke eventually.

Joe looked at the clock on the wall.  “I’m usually asleep before she gets back,” he said, “what time have you got to go?”

“Maybe I should go now,” Luke wondered aloud.

Joe felt sad.  “I keep my food separate coz my mum lied to me,” he mumbled.

“What d’you mean?”

“She gave me meat – for three months! – and I didn’t know.  I didn’t know but I was eating lamb!” his voice trembled with emotion.

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I should’ve known.  I should’ve been able to tell.”

“How?  She told you it was soya.  It’s not your fault.”

“I liked it,” he confessed in a barely audible whisper.

“Joe.  Listen to me.”  Luke’s voice was quiet but firm.  “It’s not your fault.  They make soya things taste like meat on purpose so people who like meat will eat it.  You didn’t know.  An’ I know that for a fact coz I know you and I know you wouldn’t have eaten it if you’d even suspected it was meat.”

Joe felt the huge weight he’d been carrying fall away.  He looked up at his smiling friend and smiled back.

“So you have your own separate food?”

“Yeah.”

“D’you buy it yourself?”

“Yeah.  She gives me the money.”

“D’you cook it yourself?”

“Yeah.”

“Cool.”

***********************************************************************************************************

For all the Luke Walker chapters click here 🙂

*******************************************************************************************

vegan, vegan children, vegan children’s story, short story, animals, animal rights