When Words Die Read online

  When

  Words

  Die

  “If everything you say gets laughed at...

  then you become afraid of everyone...

  and are no longer able to speak...

  even knowing all that does is bother everyone...

  Your heart...

  ....shuts down...

  And your words die....”

  Natsuki Takaya, Fruits Basket, Vol. 5

  Also by Jenni Francis

  Keri Series

  Losing William

  Fire Island

  Danger Signs - Falling on Deaf Ears

  Cold as Ice

  Watch Me!

  When Words Die

  Standalone

  A Little Book of Short Stories for Boys

  Watch for more at Jenni Francis’s site.

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Also By Jenni Francis

  When Words Die (Keri Series, #6)

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

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  Further Reading: Watch Me!

  Also By Jenni Francis

  About the Author

  © Copyright Jenni Francis 2018

  Published by Jenni Francis 2018

  P.O. Box 89

  Matakana 0948

  www.jennifrancis.com

  The moral right of the author is asserted. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means without the prior permission in writing from the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition as imposed on any purchaser.

  Disclaimer: My story is set in Awanui. However any similarities with Awanui in the Far North are co-incidental. I just like the name. The characters, the setting and the story are all entirely from my imagination.

  ISBN:

  Contents

  Chapter 1...........................................................1

  Chapter 2...........................................................3

  Chapter 3 ..........................................................9

  Chapter 4.........................................................12

  Chapter 5.........................................................15

  Chapter 6.........................................................18

  Chapter 7.........................................................24

  Chapter 8.........................................................26

  Chapter 9.........................................................30

  Chapter 10........................................................32

  Chapter 11........................................................35

  Chapter 12........................................................38

  Chapter 13........................................................44

  Chapter 14........................................................46

  Chapter 15........................................................52

  Chapter 16........................................................55

  Chapter 17........................................................63

  Chapter 18........................................................67

  Chapter 19........................................................71

  Chapter 20........................................................75

  Chapter 21........................................................81

  Chapter 22........................................................84

  Chapter 23........................................................92

  Chapter 24........................................................96

  Chapter 25......................................................101

  Chapter 26......................................................105

  Chapter 27......................................................113

  Chapter 28......................................................120

  Chapter 29......................................................124

  Chapter 30......................................................130

  Chapter 31......................................................132

  Chapter 32......................................................138

  Chapter 33......................................................143

  Chapter 34......................................................148

  Dedication

  To the bravest girl I know.

  She’s also a bit wild and a lot stubborn.

  But she’s brave and she’s beautiful.

  Chapter 1

  Chloe - July term 3

  It wasn’t any better.

  It was worse.

  Much worse.

  The words she had practised for days stuck in her throat. Like broken glass. Chloe stood there, rooted to the spot. Unable to move, or speak. Especially speak.

  “Do you understand me? What’s your name?” the lady at the school reception said again.

  All Chloe could do was smile. In the end, the woman moved away and consulted her computer.

  “Are you Chloe?” she barked. “Chloe Hemana?”

  Chloe was able, just, to give a tiny nod.

  “You’re in 9G. Lexie, can you take this girl to Miss Thompson’s class, please.”

  Lexie got up reluctantly from the desk she was sitting at and tucked her phone away in her pocket.

  “Leave your phone here! You won’t need it. And tell Miss Thompson this is the new girl. And good luck to her,” Chloe heard her mutter. “Why the mother didn’t come with her, I don’t understand.”

  Because I didn’t want her to, Chloe thought to herself. Because this was going to be a new start. A school where no one knew her and didn’t know she didn’t speak. She followed Lexie outside and across the quadrangle.

  Lexie looked at Chloe curiously. “What’s up with you? Are you shy or something?” she asked.

  Chloe put her head down and hoisted her bag higher on her shoulder. She shook her head.

  “Well, all I can say is, you better toughen up, ‘cos the kids at this school will chew you up and spit you out. Specially the way you look. Here, this is your class.”

  Lexie knocked at the door and walked inside. Thirty pairs of eyes swiveled around to look at them. With her pale skin and red hair, she was never going to be inconspicuous. She felt her face redden. She willed herself to keep walking. Miss Thompson moved from the back of the room.

  “You must be Chloe,” she said kindly. “Thank you, Lexie, you can go now,” she said as the girl was whispering something to another
girl seated by the door.

  Lexie stood up and strutted out the door, a look of insolence on her face.

  “Here’s your desk,” Miss Thompson said to Chloe. “I’ve put you with Lani. She’s offered to look after you. Okay?”

  Chloe nodded. Miss Thompson seemed understanding, at least. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad after all.

  Chapter 2

  Keri

  The airport was crowded when we walked into the arrivals hall. Not surprising as it was only four days before Christmas. On the electronic board the list of planes that had just landed included Jess’s plane. Air New Zealand flight 5616 from LA. Dad and I moved closer to the rail that separated us from those arriving, but we kept getting pushed out the way by other excited adults and children. It was mayhem in there.

  We moved to the stairwell behind us and stood on a step slightly higher than the other people’s heads. From there we had a much better view. In front of us, behind the waiting crowd, other travelers rushed past pulling suitcases or pushing trolleys, dragging children, or letting them ride on the top of the piled luggage. It was fun to watch. But my main focus was on the doors ahead of us as they opened and closed for each group exiting the customs hall.

  Gradually, Jess’s flight number crawled up the arrivals board and at last the sign told me her plane had unloaded and that they were clearing customs. The place had not cleared out much, as three more planes had landed since we arrived, and I very nearly missed seeing Jess and her family come through security. Her grandparents were there to meet her as well, and there was a lot of hugging and laughing going on when we finally pushed our way through the throng to greet my best friend and her family.

  Jess had grown! She was at least 50cm taller than me. She saw me and her eyes grew wide with surprise.

  “Keri,” she screamed. She threw her bag down and flung her arms around me. “How did you know when we were coming?”

  “Talked to your nana!” I grinned. “We’ve come to help with transport.”

  “That’s fantastic! There’s so much to tell you, oh, it is good to be home. Soon as I heard that accent on the plane, I knew it was real.”

  Dad and I gave the rest of the family welcome-home hugs, and we made our way slowly to the exit. Her little sister Pippa wasn’t little anymore. She’d gone from a seven-year-old in braids to a nine-year-old in a crop top and sneakers. Two years in New York had changed her too.

  “Nicky won’t recognise you,” I teased her. “You look like a teenager instead of his best tomboy friend.”

  She frowned at me a little. “Does he still climb trees? I haven’t climbed a tree since we left here.”

  “He does,” I assured her. “But not much now. He missed you and then William went missing and now he’s even more quiet. Maybe you can wake him up a bit.”

  Her eyes gleamed. “Yeah! That’s what I’ll do. Wake him up!”

  Her mum stopped outside the doors and breathed in deeply. “That smell,” she said. “I know it’s car fumes too, but I can still smell the green and the sea and the summer.”

  Dad and I grinned at each other. That’s what he’d said to me as we were driving in. He remembered having the same reaction when he came back from working in England when he was young. We moved slowly to the cars pushing two trolleys piled with teetering luggage, talking non-stop across each other. By the time we had stowed all the bags and cases in the cars there was barely room for the people, but finally, with bags on laps and under feet, we started a two-car convoy back to our suburb.

  In the back seat, Jess swung her head from side to side. As it was, she swung her head from side to side, taking in all the changes and chatting away furiously.

  “You wouldn’t believe what it was like,” she said. “It was sooo different to schools here – no playing fields, security everywhere, passes to get out of the classroom to go to the loo, you have no idea. I’m just happy to be home. It’s been a loooong two years.”

  “Yeah, but we were at intermediate school when you left. High school is a bit different. It’s a lot more disciplined,” I said.

  “No way, can’t be as bad as where I’ve been. Oh look, a pohutukawa in bloom! Now I know I’m home.”

  “Just in time for Christmas, summer, holidays and the beaches.”

  “Yes! Beaches. I’ve not seen the sea since we left. Rivers, inlets, lakes, but not a good surf beach. Dad says he’s going to resurrect his surfboard. He never surfed before we went, so I don’t know why he would think he would now. Silly man,” she said affectionately. “Oh,” she said, as we came into our town’s main street. “Can we go and look at the old school before we go home?”

  Dad obediently turned at the next intersection and drove around the block to our old school.

  “There it is,” she said. “Look at that lovely green field, and the trees and gardens and the play area and the netball courts. I wonder if I’ll be any good at netball anymore.”

  “You haven’t played?” I asked.

  “Nope, we played basketball in the gyms a few times, but not netball. Okay, we can go now. Thanks, Mr Walker. I have no idea what our house is going to look like. We’ve got to get heaps of stuff out of storage, and the agent told Mum that there is a bit of damage, and the garden needs work. I don’t think she’ll mind. She’s been so bored sine we moved over there. Oh, there’s your house, and there’s your brothers outside. How cool is that. And there’s your mum waving.”

  I couldn’t help laughing at her excitement. I was pretty excited myself to have her home again. I had been very lonely when she first went away. It had been the worst year of my life. Then Mereana came along. I felt a twinge of anxiety as I thought about whether Jess and Mereana would get on. Jess had been my best friend since we started school in year one, then Mereana was my best friend since Jess went away. Now she was back. I suspected there might be problems ahead.

  We pulled up behind her grandparents’ car and started pulling the suitcases out of the back. Along the road I saw Mum and the boys. Mum was carrying something in a bag. The boys ran the rest of the way, then stopped. I guessed they were both shy. William had only been three when they left and now he was a big boy at school. Nicky still suffered from anxiety and he held back as Mum greeted Jess’s parents.

  “Jason, nice to have you back, and Sue,” she gave Jess’s mum a big hug. “We have missed you! So glad you are home.”

  “Oh, my,” Jess’s mum said. “Look at your boys! How you have both grown. I can’t believe it. Pippa, look, here’s Nicky.”

  They had been best friends before the family moved to New York, but they looked warily at each other.

  “Remember what I said?” I nudged Pippa.

  “Oh yeah.” She stepped forward to Nicky, tagged him on the arm, and ran, calling back, “Bet I can climb the tree to the top now!”

  Nicky may have become quiet and anxious recently, but he was up to a challenge from a girl.

  We raggle taggled into the house and put suitcases into each room.

  “Don’t worry too much, I’ll get it all later,” Mrs Reid said. “I just want to look around and take it all in.”

  “I’ll make some afternoon tea for us all,” Mum said, “and I’ve got some groceries at home for you. I’ll drive them down later.”

  “You are wonderful,” Jess’s nana said. “I’ve bought a few things, but to be honest, I don’t like going to the supermarket anymore. Very crowded and very expensive.”

  “Yes, it certainly is,” Mum agreed. “Let’s do this together. Isn’t it nice to have them back?”

  Jess and I wandered outside after we’d had a look at her bedroom (not too bad) and the lounge (a bit scuffed and the carpet needed cleaning) it was a jungle out there.

  “I don’t know whether to laugh or cry,” her mum said. “It’s such a horrible mess, but I am very happy to have something to get stuck into.”

  “Come on, let’s go down the back and see if our hiding place is still there.”

  Giggling like five-y
ear-olds instead of fifteen-year-olds we ran through the long grass, around the back of the garden shed, through the hole in the fence and into the wasteland where years ago we had constructed a kind of a shelter from old roofing iron and branches and a bit of discarded canvas for a roof. It was still there, but the branches were decayed, the canvas fell to pieces in our hands and the tin was full of rust holes. We lay down in the long grass beside the hut and basked in the warmth of the early summer sun.

  Chapter 3

  Chloe

  Last day. End of term. End of the school year. At last. Summer holidays beginning and six whole weeks free of struggling, stress and anxiety. Chloe stood in line for the school bus. Lani waved to her from her line by the bus in front.

  It had been a long and unhappy six months since they had moved here. Mum was unhappy, and Chloe was unhappy. Dad was unhappy, because Mum and Chloe were. He hadn’t thought that moving here would be so traumatic. He hoped that by taking a position near the village where he had been born would get them out of the city and into a community where everyone knew everyone else. But Mum didn’t take to living here. She missed the city, her friends and her parents.

  For Chloe the hardest part had been leaving her grandparents behind. They were the only people outside of her mum, dad and Lily, that she was able to talk to. It wasn’t that she couldn’t talk to anyone else, she just could not get the words to come out, her throat to relax, her brain to make the words come. Try as she did, nothing happened.

  Lani was a good and patient friend, but Chloe still wasn’t able to talk to her, and sometimes Lani wasn’t her friend anymore. Chloe couldn’t blame her; having a friend who never spoke must have been as hard as being that friend.

  The only one who wasn’t unhappy was Lily. This had been her best year ever, she said. She started school and she LOVED school. She also got a karaoke machine for her birthday. It was what she had always wanted, and she sang on it every day. She LOVED her karaoke.

  Now here it was, end of the term, and Lani was going away for the whole six weeks. There would be, literally, no one outside of her family to relate to. Chloe didn’t know what was worse – school where she was teased mercilessly for not speaking, for having red hair, for having pale, pale skin and freckles; or home, where there would be nothing to do. She sighed and climbed on the bus. She looked for the closest seat to the front that was beside the window. It was much easier to pretend to be looking outside than to keep her head down and not catch the eye of others getting on.