Page 34 - SAMPLE Talking the the Moon

I shrug.
“And they don’t answer back,” she says.
She puts the photo back on the mantelpiece and I
go upstairs, sit on my bed and take deep breaths until my heart stops racing. Then I open the window. The seagull’s sitting on Mimi’s shed, looking up at the sky. I’ve never spoken to her out loud before (really honestly truly) but now I do. Not loud enough for anyone else to hear but just loud enough for my words to be carried to her on the breeze.
“Coral was eaten by the sea monster,” I say.
She looks at me, lifts one leg and scratches her head with her foot. Then she screeches twelve times – kee-yah kee-yah kee-yah kee-yah kee-yah kee-yah kee-yah kee-yah
kee-yah kee-yah kee-yah kee-yah.
She might be telling me not to worry, everything will
be fine when I’m twelve, or she might be saying she wants twelve fish for tea. Anyway, I’m worried. I can’t help it.
Shadow
I spend the rest of the day making a lemon cake with Mimi and helping her sort out some photos she took of the West Pier before it fell into the sea. And I almost
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