Haunting of Lily Frost (20 page)

13

matilda rose

Five days later and Ruby and I are both missing school to watch, as a team of special rescue police in diving suits wade up and down the river. Dad wanted to come with us, but I persuaded him that I had to do this bit on my own. There have been lots of strange conversations in our house since Danny rescued me. Lots of tears, too. Mostly my parents sobbing because they couldn't quite believe they almost lost their daughter to the water for a second time. In fact they even started playing the blame game for an hour or so, until I pointed out that really it wasn't because we'd moved to Gideon that I ended up nearly drowning in the river; it was because of Tilly.

It's not something I ever thought I'd have to do, to convince my parents that a spirit was haunting the house they'd bought. Mum was particularly sceptical, and it took a lot of calm talking on Ruby's part, before she would even consider it. I think Dad already knew something weird had been going on for me, and anyway he's just more open to that sort of stuff. Max tried to make money out of it at school, setting up a ghost story blog about Gideon, until Mrs Jarvis found out and shut it down.

It took me quite a few days to convince the local policeman that I did in fact see a hand in the river. Maybe Danny had something to do with them finally believing me, and agreeing to the search. He's here too, but he's on the far side, away from me, away from everyone. I still haven't thanked him for saving me. In fact we haven't spoken since he dived in and pulled me out. Mum wanted to have his entire family around for dinner to thank him, but I pretended I wasn't well enough. I'm not up to talking to Danny or Julia yet. I'm pretty sure Tilly did something stupid that led to her death – that after Danny broke up with her, she ran off, and went down to the river, the place they used to go together. And if he'd just told the police earlier that he'd dumped her, maybe they would have started looking for her body before the fish got to it, or the water or whatever happens to make a body decompose in a river.

But I can't stop looking across at him. I'm amazed that he dived in and saved me. It's not like he owes me anything. He's staring down at the river, Luther lying at his feet. Ruby told me it was Luther I could hear under the water. Luther that barked, and barked, and barked, as Danny kept coming up for air and then diving under again to try to find me. Luther wasn't barking for me; he was barking only for him.

Ruby clutches my hand. ‘You okay?'

‘Yep.'

‘What if they don't find anything?'

‘They will.'

‘Lil –'

‘They will, Rubes. I know what I saw.'

‘But you saw it when you were drowning. It could have been sticks or anything.'

‘No. It was her hand. And she was holding onto me.'

‘I'm just saying –'

‘I know. I know what you're saying.'

We've had this conversation a hundred times over the past five days. It's not, Ruby reassures me, that she doesn't believe me; it's just that it seems highly improbable that the hand of a ghost would be grabbing my ankle under water. I'm no longer sure what's likely and what isn't. All I know is that it was Tilly's hand and hopefully, given that I'm responsible for six police divers searching a freezing river for five hours, they'll find it and free her, and me, from this haunting.

At least Ruby doesn't let go of my hand. It's the only part of me that isn't freezing. The rest still hasn't thawed after being stuck under water for so long.

We watch without speaking as each diver comes up and conferences with another. I'm terrified they'll decide there's nothing down there. But we see one nod, indicating further along the river and they all bob back under, one at a time, like shiny black eels.

It's a perfect autumn day. Low sunshine is sneaking through the gum trees and sparkling across the water. There's no sign of the storm that ripped through here, tearing at the leaves and the branches, felling whole trees across the track. It's almost peaceful this afternoon, a good time for a family picnic. The ribbons are dancing under the bridge. They sway and flutter in the light breeze, as if to say, here I am, come and get me.

‘I have to do a wee,' says Ruby.

‘There are toilets at the oval.'

‘Will you be all right?'

‘Yes, I'm not five,' I say. I'm almost tired of reassuring everyone else that I'm okay.

Danny and Luther walk over to me as soon as Ruby's gone. I feel awkward, not knowing what to say.

‘How do you know she's down there?' Danny says.

‘She told me,' I say, without looking at him.

‘How could she tell you?' I can't help looking at him, and it hurts to see the sadness in his eyes. He seems older than he did last week. But maybe I do too.

‘Did she ring you? Leave you a note? What, Lil?' He sounds angry.

‘She haunted me. Until I came looking for her.'

‘But – dead? You sure?'

‘I'm sure. I think she jumped off the bridge after you guys – after you broke up with her, and she drowned.'

‘You think I'm responsible?'

‘No. Well, I don't know. You should have told people, because it might have made a difference.'

‘She broke up with
me
, Lil. Said there was someone else. Someone she'd met online. That's why I thought she'd run away. I thought she'd left that night to meet him. She was wild. She was always wild, okay?'

‘But why – why didn't you say?'

‘I don't know. I was embarrassed. She dumped me for some guy she'd met in a chat room.'

‘I'm sorry. You must have really loved—'

He shakes his head. ‘I didn't. That was the weird thing. We were more friends than anything else. And I don't believe she's dead. Tilly could look after herself. She'd jumped that gap so many times. She was the only one who could. She's not dead. You're wrong.'

‘I'm not, Danny. I know she's down there.'

‘She's not,' he says, refusing to look at me.

Ruby walks back and stands so close to me she's bumping my shoulder. ‘Lil, a toilet has a seat and somewhere for the stuff to go. That is a hole in the ground. Not a toilet.'

Despite the fact that he's angry with me, Danny laughs. ‘Called a drop-down dunny. We love them in the country.'

‘They stink.'

‘That's right and in summer the flies swarm around you while you sit on one. It's charming.'

Ruby groans and I smile for a second, until we're all silenced by the sight of a diver bursting out of the water, clutching something in his hands.

‘Oh, no,' Danny says.

A huddle of people descend on the diver, and there's talking and commotion and Luther starts barking madly,
and then a policeman in uniform holds out a plastic bag and
the diver places whatever it is carefully inside.

‘Is that it?' Danny whispers. ‘Is that her hand?'

One of the divers looks over to where we are standing and nods, confirming what I already know.

‘Oh, no, no!' Danny yanks away from me when I try to touch him. He's crying and Luther licks at his hand. Ruby grabs onto me and I can't think of anything to say, because really it's just what it is.

Standing in the church, I'm amazed at how many people are here. It seems nearly everyone from Gideon has come out to say goodbye. The pews are so packed and still people stand three deep at the back, sniffing into hankies, crying loudly as the priest reads his words. I don't listen to the service. I'm trying to imagine her. Not the ghost of her. Not that terrifying blue skin and dripping wet hair caked with mud and dirt, but the real her; the smiling, wild, alive her.

Danny's up the front with Julia. They're both in black. They nodded at me on their way in, but we haven't spoken at all since they found Tilly's hand in the river. Apparently they found part of her foot too the next day. They had to do DNA testing to make sure it was her, but that was all they found. The rest's gone. Somewhere downstream, buried under the dark wild water.

Mum and Dad are with me. And Max. They cancelled the classes at school so everyone could come. But I sent Ruby back to the city.

No one knows I found her hand, except Danny and Ruby and my family. The town was told some police lie about a diver in the river, and they were happy enough to believe it. I think Tilly's mum wonders, though, because she grasped my hands very tight when she came in and smiled, nodding her head like she was saying thanks.

Through the service, Mum holds my left hand and Dad holds the right. They've been like this since I almost drowned again. I'm not even sure they actually realise how close they came to attending a double funeral today. But they still must be worried about me, because this morning they even offered to stop the sale of the house and go back to the city. Isn't that the way with parents? Always changing their minds.

But the weirdest thing is I've told them it's okay to stay in Gideon. That I'd actually like to live here for a bit, try my hand at life without Ruby, my best friend, and my lifeline. Max was pleased. He told me I could come and hang with his basketball friends. Everyone wanted to meet his sister who'd almost died.

The organist starts playing Tilly's favourite song, as the pallbearers stand ready to carry her from the church. Her mum cries louder as the coffin is carried out, and everyone files after her. I watch them pass. Their sad faces, their tears falling as they walk, and I can still feel the grip of Tilly's fingers on my foot, how determined she was that I would stay with her, rotting together, frozen forever in time. I'll never know what really happened that night. Or why she ended up drowning in a river she thought she could beat. And that has to be okay.

As Danny passes me, he looks over and nods. He's wearing a suit and his hair is tied back. On his lapel is the little badge from the red hoodie that I wore that first day to school. Tilly's badge. I'll have to ask him one day what's so special about it. I'm sure in a town this size we'll have to become friends sooner or later, because as he once told me, there really isn't much choice.

14

resting place

As I round the bend and hear the wind rushing through the ghost gums, I know it's changed down here. The air feels lighter and warmer. The sun is brighter. And I'm not scared anymore. I remember that first day I walked down here with Ruby, both of us freaked by the cool air and the long fingers of the trees that seemed to be reaching out to us. Now it feels just like any other place.

Last week the council ripped out the broken bridge, because they were terrified another teenager would jump to their death. Some of the kids at school tried to fight it, arguing that to take away the bridge and the ribbons would be removing the place Tilly's friends went to talk to her. But in the end, the council won. It only took them about an hour to pull apart the wooden planks and carry them away, trying to cleanse the place of fear and death.

Just like they tried to do when they filled in our neighbour's pool with concrete. But even hidden by a metre of grey cement, I knew the pool was still there. Its shell buried underground like a skeleton.

So now this looks exactly like any other bend in the river. Any other spot to stand and watch as the water slips past, deep and dark and sometimes treacherous.

But I know it's not. I know it's really where Tilly lies.

As I go to leave, I spot something red on the track, almost buried in the gravel. I dig around and pull it out. It's one of the dancing ribbons from the bridge. I'm about to toss it back into the river, when I hear the low growling bark of a dog on the track and instead I squash the ribbon into a tight little ball and push it down into the pocket of my jeans. Maybe I'll give it to Danny when I see him at school. Or maybe I'll just keep it. To remind me.

If you haven't heard of Gideon then you're lucky. It's this crappy little town about two hours from the city. There's not much here. A few shops. A mobile library. A school. That's all.

Or at least that's all there seems to be at first. But dig a bit deeper and you'll find there's more than you think. A river with dark secrets. A boy I really like. And a house that might look haunted and creepy, but also keeps me safe.

At least, I hope so. Because for the next little while, this place is home.

acknowledgements

This book has been a long time coming. And it may have never been finished if I didn't have a space to write in – so thanks to Bird Studios in Brunswick – the perfect place to drink coffee, bunker down and slog it out. Thanks to Arts Victoria for funding me to write. Thanks to Jules for being an early reader. Huge thanks to my partner, Aidan, for telling me when ideas are great, or more importantly when they stink. Thanks to my agent, Sophie Hamley at Cameron's for taking on this book and finding it the perfect home. Thanks to Mark Macleod for his wonderful edit. And finally a massive thanks to Kristina Schulz and Kristy Bushnell and everyone at UQP who made it such an ‘ace' journey from beginning to end.

First published 2014 by University of Queensland Press

PO Box 6042, St Lucia, Queensland 4067 Australia

www.uqp.com.au

[email protected]

© Nova Weetman 2014

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no part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system,

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Cover design by Jo Hunt

Typeset in 11.25/15.5 pt Bembo by Post Pre-press Group, Brisbane

Printed in Australia by McPherson's Printing Group

This project was supported by the Victorian Government through Arts Victoria.

Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

National Library of Australia

http://catalogue.nla.gov.au

Weetman, Nova, author.

The Haunting of Lily Frost / Nova Weetman.

ISBN 978 0 7022 5015 6 (pbk)

ISBN 978 0 7022 5263 1 (pdf)

ISBN 978 0 7022 5264 8 (epub)

ISBN 978 0 7022 5265 5 (kindle)

Young adult fiction.

A823.4

University of Queensland Press uses papers that are natural, renewable and recyclable products made from wood grown in sustainable forests. The logging and manufacturing processes conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin.