An Angel in Mucky Shorts
by Elizabeth-Irene Baitie

Auntie Lulu has a monster living in her house. It’s got a boxy head like a milk carton, hair that’s never combed, and eyes like a bullfrog. It wears mucky shorts and has dirty nails. It flicks dead flies at me and thinks it’s funny to let snot drip from its nose onto a table. Its name is Reggie and he’s Auntie Lulu’s son—which makes him my cousin. Yuck.

Things are going from bad to worse in Rabi’s life. She told her classmates that her tree at home had the sweetest mangoes. And she promised to bring some to school to prove it. But every day someone steals the fruit from the tree! How will her mates ever believe her now? And who is this sneaky mango thief? Dreadful Auntie Sakwaa has come to live with them and is stinking up Rabi’s house with her green horse medicine. Her disgusting cousin comes to stay, and he turns her own little brother against her!Just as Rabi thinks her life couldn’t be more messed up, she meets an angel. And it wasn’t wearing a sparkling white robe.