Saving Silence
Authors: Gina Blaxill
Tags: #Juvenile Fiction, #Action & Adventure, #General
To my aunt, Julia Blaxill,
for being my unofficial Dorset agent
SATURDAY 9 NOVEMBER
When I went out that night, I wasn’t expecting to save someone’s life. Let alone Sam Costello’s.
There was a crowd of us including me, my boyfriend Ollie and my mate Nadina. After fifteen minutes of trawling the high street, we’d grabbed a table in Mmm Hot Chicken. It wasn’t one
of the nicer fast food joints Walthamstow had to offer but we liked it for three reasons. One, the owner was usually happy for us to hang out there all evening. Two, it was cheap. Three, the
E
and the
N
had fallen off the name sign on the front, making ‘Mmm Hot Chick’ a standing joke. I was ninety per cent certain they’d done this on purpose to draw
attention.
This Saturday, Mmm Hot Chick was busy and poorly lit. The light over our table had blown so it was pure chance that I even spotted Sam step through the door. I watched him pause and glance past
the queue of people waiting to be served. He was wearing what seemed to be his default outfit of a blazer, shirt and cord trousers – too smart for here. I’d never seen him in anything
more casual, despite jeans or tracksuit bottoms being more or less unofficial uniform at our sixth form. Perhaps he dressed that way to make himself look older.
Right now, he was looking lost. Little wonder. From what I knew of Sam, this wasn’t his scene. He’d avoided people ever since he’d started our school in Year 10. Where he went
at lunchtime I didn’t know. It definitely wasn’t the canteen. And he was always first out of the form room at the end of the day. If he had friends, they didn’t go to our school.
As form rep and then head prefect I’d done my bit to try to include him because it seemed the right thing to do. It hadn’t worked. ‘Give it a rest,’ Nadina had told me.
‘You can’t be everyone’s mate. He’s just stuck up.’ I wasn’t convinced. Who would choose to be a loner? Perhaps he had a reason I couldn’t work out.
Something to do with his past. Sam came from somewhere up north and had arrived at our school rather suddenly. No one knew anything else about him.
So what was he doing here now? I soon knew, because Sam started walking in my direction. Then he froze. He was staring at something over my shoulder. I looked back but there wasn’t
anything out of the ordinary. Ollie had just come back from the loos, and everyone was laughing at something he had said.
‘Save my seat,’ I said. Nadina asked where I was going, but I was already making my way over to Sam.
‘All right?’ I asked when I was close enough.
Sam opened his mouth – but no words came out. It struck me how anxious he looked. There was sweat on his forehead and he was fiddling with the strap of his messenger bag. I gave him a
friendly push.
‘Earth to Sam!’
Sam’s eyes fixed on mine. For a moment I wondered if he’d taken something. They looked glazed over, not quite in focus.
‘Imogen,’ he blurted. ‘I need to talk to you.’
‘Go ahead. Get a Coke and join us. We’ll shove the chairs up and make space.’
‘No. Not here. Outside.’
Without giving me a chance to reply, Sam hurried out. I called his name, but either he didn’t hear me or didn’t want to.
I felt a hand on my arm. It was Ollie.
‘Why’s he here? What’s he want?’
I shrugged. ‘To speak to me, so he says.’
‘Why? You’re not mates, Im. He’s not your boyfriend. I’ll have a word and stop him bothering you.’ He started towards the door.
‘Hey! It’s OK. I’ll go outside, see what he wants,’ I said, grabbing Ollie’s arm and pulling him round to face me. He looked really pissed off. Well, that explained
why Sam had taken off so quickly. Ollie wasn’t usually one of those aggressive types who grilled any guy that went near his girl, but right now he looked far from happy. I was surprised
he’d reacted this way. Perhaps if he’d been at the table when Sam had arrived, Sam would never have come over at all.
‘Call out a search party if I’m not back in five,’ I said, grabbing my coat. I could feel Ollie’s eyes burning into the back of my head as I walked out the door. For a
moment I thought Sam had run off, but he was waiting there, hands in pockets, shoulders hunched against the cold. Everyone had been grumbling about the weather this year. There were rumours of snow
next week. Whatever Sam had to say, he’d better make it quick. Why he thought talking here was more private was a mystery. We were right next to a group of smokers, and over the road people
were milling about outside KFC. Around this time those neon fast-food signs were practically magnetic. Someone was shouting from inside the 24-hour mini-market. Music boomed out of a passing car.
To an outsider this street might seem scary, and it was true that there had been some nasty break-ins at some local shops recently. But in the six years I’d been living in north-east London
I’d always felt perfectly safe. Besides, I knew how to look after myself.
‘So,’ I said, ‘what’s up?’
‘It’s not easy to explain.’ He didn’t meet my eyes. ‘I was going to put up and shut up, but I can’t. It’s too important. I’m sorry. Really sorry.
You’re not going to like this, but you need to know.’
He moved away from the smokers towards the bus stop, stepping out into the road to get past. I was about to follow when I heard an engine rev loudly and looked round. A car appeared out of
nowhere. It was hurtling forward. Straight towards Sam.
I didn’t think. I moved, crashing into Sam and pushing him aside. As we hit the pavement, I heard smashing glass. Someone shouted Sam’s name, someone else screamed and pain whammed
up my right side. My head swam before zipping into focus. We had to get away – fast. I scrambled up, pulling Sam with me. The car was backing away from the pavement and the bent bus-shelter
post and what was left of Mmm Hot Chick’s window, revving its engine.
Bright red blood was splattered all over Sam’s neck and chest. He seemed to have lost the ability to function, staring at the car like a rabbit in the headlights.
‘Run, stupid!’ I shouted.
I grabbed his hand and dragged him out on to the road. I could see the bright lights of KFC and a ring of people outside. People meant safety. Headlights loomed and brakes squealed as a minicab
swerved to avoid us. We made it across and through the doors. Warmth, faces, voices, overhead music – someone was trying to push us back, someone else was yelling about police. I fought my
way through, focusing on getting to the back of the restaurant.
Noise erupted all around me. Realizing I was still holding Sam’s hand, I dropped it and sat down heavily on the nearest chair.
‘Move!’ Nadina pushed through the people circling me and Sam, Ollie close behind. She crushed me into a hug. Relieved to hold on to something solid, I hugged her back.
‘Am I hallucinating or did that really just happen?’ My voice sounded surprisingly calm.
‘It bloody well did! You OK?’
‘We need to call the police,’ I said, taking out my phone. From the corner of my eye I could see Sam leaning against the wall with a dazed look on his face. Blood was dripping from
his chin and soaking into his already sodden shirt. ‘An ambulance too.’
‘For the love of God! Let someone else do that.’ Nadina snatched the phone. ‘D’you realize what you just did, Im? Like,
seriously
!’
I stared at her. ‘What?’
‘Jesus!’ Nadina waved a hand in front of my face. ‘You concussed?’
‘Stupid question,’ Ollie said. ‘She’s hardly going to say, “Yeah, I’m concussed,” is she?’
‘Hey! Don’t call me stupid. I’ve seen hospital dramas—’
‘Knock it off, you two!’ I snapped. ‘I’m fine. OK?’
Ollie knelt in front of me and tentatively took my hands, giving them a squeeze. He’d been hanging behind Nads and only now did I see how ashen his face was. He was shaking his head as
though he couldn’t take this in, and he kept glancing over his shoulder. I’d never seen him frightened before.
‘Did you see who did it?’ he asked. I shook my head. ‘You coulda been killed. Just sit here, yeah? We’ll take care of the rest.’
I squeezed his hands back.
‘Im, you saved Sam’s life!’ Nadina said, her expression earnest. ‘It was him that car was heading for. He totally froze. He’d be
pulp
if it wasn’t for
you. Hear that? You’re a bloody hero!’
Within minutes the emergency services arrived. While it was clear I hadn’t sustained any physical injury, the paramedics still checked me over. Maybe I was in shock. I
did feel as though I was passing in and out of reality. Sam was in a worse state. Someone had fetched some napkins to hold to his chin while we were waiting, but it hadn’t stopped the
bleeding. The paramedics were talking about stitches and plastics. They were worried about his wrist too. It was only after they’d taken him to A & E that I realized no one had gone with
him.
Mmm Hot Chick’s window was a mess. The police had put a cordon around the front. That’s gonna need a lot of repair work, I thought. Ridiculously, I wondered if the owner would get
the
E
and
N
on the sign replaced while he was at it. The police were keeping everyone who had witnessed the incident in KFC to interview. Ollie was reluctant to leave. He said
something about ‘looking after me’, but the police didn’t want too many people milling around. Only Nadina had been allowed to stay. Not that anyone could have stopped her if
they’d tried.
A police officer came over to me. I told her what had happened, Nadina filling in the blanks.
‘Sounds like you and your friend were just in the wrong place at the wrong time.’ Even as the officer said the words I knew she was wrong. Everything had happened in such a blur it
was hard to remember precisely, but someone had called Sam’s name. Someone inside the car. I could’ve sworn it. And I’d instinctively shouted at him to run, feeling on a gut level
that we were in danger.
So what did that mean? That this wasn’t random? Was this a
murder
attempt? That was insane. Totally out there! This was Sam Costello we were talking about, for God’s sake.
Completely ordinary, if a bit secretive. A good kid. Not the type who got involved in violence.