This was an exercise in voices. Dialogue is a tricky thing, but to get a sound and cadence for characters even trickier. To separate their voices from the authors can often be difficult unless you internalise the thought processes, and inhabit that world. It sounds a bit arty farty douche baggery like, but it is true. Enjoy. 

***

The Springfield Massachusetts Kite Boys

 

It is autumn, and the trees by the river look like a riot of candles. The sun bounces off the leaves and water, dancing furiously, colouring the afternoon sky and everything else it touches. The clouds are drifting towards the mountains, their bellies painted pink, their tops headache grey, and the only sound to be heard is the gentle babble of the river and wind whispering through the leaves.  

 

Sally Ann looks across the river, her feet dangled in the water, and sees Elliot sitting on his jetty. She waves, and from even the other side, she can see him blush. Her hair is as red as the leaves on the ground, in soft curls that fall past her pale shoulders. He waits for a few minutes, wondering what it would be like to talk to her, which is long enough for Sally Ann’s older sister come out, and take her into their home. Elliot has been in love with Sally Ann since he was 4, but in the 9 years since he has never spoken a word to her, nor anybody else. Elliot was born mute, and hasn’t ever been able to make a sound due to a missing voice box. From a young age he was scared of the machine that gave him his voice, and so he chose never to use one again. He mastered sign language easily, was handsome, fiendishly intelligent and most of all happy, or at least that was the impression he gave.

 

As he turned his back on Sally Ann, he saw above the trees, a kite bobbing in the wind above him.

 

***

 

Joshua Helly had been made deaf by an accident which also took the life of his elder brother Zach. They had been messing around with matches near their father’s tractor, when he dropped them and set the barn alight. As Joshua ran for the exit, a giant piece of timber fell, blocking his path, and causing debris to fly everywhere. The tractor then crashed down on him, knocking him unconscious. He couldn’t remember what happened next, but he remembered hearing his brother shout ‘Run!’ which he did. Then there was a massive explosion which threw him clear of the barn. Turning, in silence, he saw the barn collapse, and then he felt his chest collapse as he realised his brother was in there.

 

His father took the loss of his eldest badly and turned to drink. As the liquor swelled in his veins, he all but forgot his family. The black hole that Zach had once filled grew into a chasm and he fell into it completely. His mother left after the abuse got too great, but she didn’t take her baby with him, she couldn’t handle the burden of a deaf child and the road.

 

‘Now Joshua honey, you know mama would take you with, but you need to stay at your school y’hear. Pops won’t hurt you honey, but he will hurt me and I gots to go.’ Joshua looked at her blankly, his mother’s sign language wasn’t good, but he understood that it was just him and his pa from now on.

 

Joshua grew up fast, he had to, he was all but running a house by the age of 10, but he had no grievances, just a sense of unease and loneliness. He smiled, did the house work, went to school and made sure his father had all the alcohol to paper over the cracks in his life. When his father had passed out he would go to the railway and sit by his favourite tree. Pressing his ear to it, he would feel the trains coming, feeling the fear and excitement it brought to the wildlife around him. It was on one of these days when he saw the light playing in the sky. Something in him drew him to it.

 

***

 

Emery Jack was held back for two years at school before the authorities realised he wasn’t a trouble maker, or retarded, but gifted. He had grown up with his grandmother who was a fire brand, and who cared for no one but Emery. Emery, in turn, only ever cared for how his grandmother was. He’d had enough of being held back by all the other children, and after much persuasion, on Emery’s part, his Grandmother took him out of the school. At home she taught him everything, the Classics, Latin, History, Science, Shooting, Calving, and Emery absorbed it all. But the one thing Emery loved more than anything else was flying. He had frequent dreams of flying over the hills and mountains, and his Grandmother took it upon herself to encourage him. Emery could fly a plane by the age of 12, regularly crop dusting their fields and that of neighbouring farms at the age of 15. It was on one of these days when he saw it, just hanging above the trees, dancing in and out of an invisible current, a red kite which had a candle on it. The kite cut through the air, like a clipper through waves, all the while the light dancing up and down in the trifle coloured sky. Something, in his stomach was calling him to it, and when he landed, he made his excuses to his grandmother and went into the forest.

 

***

 

They all came together, at the same time, from their respective solitude. In the clearing was the kite tied to a tree, no one was around, and there was a pleasant calm. They all looked around, fearing some trap, and it took a while before they noticed each other was there. Each recognised the other, there was only one school in the area, and all of them nodded or waved. Slowly they went to the kite, Emery being older than the other two gave it a tug and it fell to the ground like raining mackerel.

 

‘How weird is this?’ Elliot nodded, but Joshua just stared at Emery’s mouth.

 

‘’Ardon?” Joshua said, the noise welling up from him, and as it dropped out of him -feeling cut out and unfinished, he gave a slight gurgle

 

‘Sorry , you’re the deaf kid, I said it is weird.’ He said it, exaggerating the words, but Joshua didn’t understand properly. Elliot jumped in and did the sign language,

 

‘I ‘gree.’ He said quite loudly, nodding a lot. Emery smiled and they all looked at each other.  It was one of those nice moments where you feel safe and yet excited about what was to come, a real childhood feeling.

 

Elliot picked up the kite, and turned it over in his hand. After looking around the floor, the branches he turned to Joshua and signed something.

 

‘What’s up?’ Emery said, who was also looking around the clearing.

 

‘E says…e says, there are ‘o foot prints, on the floor.’ They all  looked down, and sure enough, there was no sign of life. Just a mush of brown leaves, mud and twigs. The odd flash of yellow or orange broke through, but there were no footprints, none apart from their own. The mud seemed churned up, but no foot prints. They all sat up against the tree the kite was tied to and they talked to each other, with their voices, hands and eyes. They all talked about how they had come to be there, and they laughed about how silly they all were.

 

‘This is really weird. But hey, it was nice meeting you guys, but I gotta shoot, my nan will be wondering where I have been’ Emery stood up, brushing the forest floor from his legs.

 

‘E too, see you around ‘aybe?’ Joshua said, as he was pulled up by Elliot. Elliot looked around , pointed to the tree they were sat at and signed something quickly. There, engraved on it was a very crude heart, with the initials ZH and LAJ. They all stared at it, running their fingers through the trees knots, grooves, and through the engravings, hoping touch would make them see something else.

 

‘Dudes, there is something going on here. Fancy meeting here tomorrow?’

 

The other two nodded. You could see the happiness in their eyes, glistening beneath the surface. They had seen Emery around, but he always looked so cool and nonchalant that they didn’t dare talk to him, they didn’t dare talk to anyone. After all, they were just the cripple boys of Springfield, Mass.

 

***

 

Elliot had taken the kite home with him, and as the trees outside his windowed bowed in an autumn night breeze, he stared upwards from his bed. He turned the kite over in his hands and imagined himself on a large beach, with blue skies. The red shape blurred against the clouds as it dipped up and down. He fell asleep with that dancing diamond imprinted in his mind. It was the first time he had gone to bed, not thinking of Sally Ann Jones.

 

***

 

Joshua cried that night, silently, whilst having the biggest smile on his face. It wasn’t just because he thought he now had friends, it wasn’t that he could now escape his father, but it was that he felt that tiny bit more normal. All his life he had been kept away from people, and looked at as different, but now, now he was part of something else.

 

***

 

Emery got home and sat down next to his grandmother who was working her way through her second glass of Bourbon whilst listening to some Delta Blues, tapping her furry slippered foot.

 

‘Emery Jack, what is that look in your eye?’ she said, glancing at him sideways, smiling slightly and eyes narrowed.

 

‘I am not sure, but I think something fun is on its way.’ Emery said, smirking mischievously.

 

‘Now is that so? Remember Emery Jack the difference between fun and wrong.’

 

‘Two drinks right?’

 

‘Two drinks angel.’ His Gran laughed and drained her glass. ‘You just be careful. Who’s involved in this fun?’

 

‘You know Joshua, the deaf boy and Elliot…them two.’

 

‘Now Emery, you don’t be mean to them children, they have been let down by the almighty so we should look after them.’

 

‘I know grandma, I actually like them, I like the way they seem to just fit together, and we laugh.’

 

‘Well, that makes me very happy and proud of you Emery, I’ll drink to that.’ And his grandmother raised her now full again glass, ‘To new friends.’

 

‘New friends.’ Emery smiled, friend was a word that was never really around him, and even though there was a little selfish part of him that didn’t want to be with them, or be associated with them, that was crushed by how much he actually enjoyed being near them.

 

***

 

To watch people talking in sign language is one of the most achingly beautiful dances you can see. The necessity of it is immediately apparent, but then that passes, as the dexterity, the deft flicks of the wrist turn it from words to ballet. Elliot and Joshua, even considering their conditions, had never ‘talked’ before at school, yet that next golden day they sat by the tree near the football field, and they talked about kites, Emery Jack, and how they felt. Neither of them ever told anyone how they really felt, who would understand?

 

Elliot’s hands twisted and dove, looking Joshua in the eye as he did it, ‘I want to one day wake up and say hello. I want to wake up and shout to the world I am Elliot. I want to be able to say I do when I walk down the aisle, but then I realise I will never wake up to that. It hurts, I don’t think it is fair that I have to go through this. But then I remember that it isn’t about fair.’

 

Joshua was nodding. ‘I ‘ish I could hear you say I ‘oo, but I cannot. I like to dream that I am ‘ith Zach again, an it ‘urts, I ‘ear his voice. I thin’ that I remember what stuff soun’s like. I dream of songs, and I some’imes think I can ‘ear ag’in, but I know I can’t.’

 

‘I wish I was normal. I wish I was normal enough for girls to like me. But who wants a mute?’ Elliot looked across the field, and he saw Sally Ann sat a way away, with some friends, making a Daisy chain and laughing.

 

‘Oo like ‘Ally Ann? She is a pretty ‘irl.’ Joshua nodded, smiling, ‘There is ‘o ‘eason why you couldn’t ‘ate ‘er.’

 

‘What would we do together,’ Elliot signed, head dropping its gaze to the floor, ‘Sign at the diner while we ate, sign in the cinema in the dark? Girls like to talk.’ Joshua laughed,

 

‘ ‘Ucky I am deaf then.’ They both laughed at that. ‘My brother ‘old me that girls want you to ‘isten, not talk. So I am the one who is ‘isadvantaged.’ They laughed again, and fell into a natural lull. The birds sang above them and hopped from branch to branch, Elliot looked up, he wanted an excuse to look away from Sally Ann, and then, as the breeze died and the sun broke out in force, Joshua spoke. ‘ ‘Hey sound like whistles and steam ‘on’t they… Birds…’

 

‘Yes, they sound like that.’ Elliot began to feel selfish. Joshua had something, something natural in his hearing, and it was taken away from him. He only had a missing voice, no one expected him to answer anything, no one pressured him for an opinion. Also he had never had a voice, so what was there to miss?

 

‘I ‘ope I ne’er forget that…’ The bell rang with impeccable timing, scattering the birds from the branches, and they went back to their classes.

 

***

 

Emery Jack had spent most of the day reading about kites. He liked to know everything so he started at the beginning.

 

***

 

Kites have been objects of interest and fascination to people throughout the world for at least 2000 years. Some people think that kites may have been invented even earlier, suggesting that kites were being flown in China as long ago as 1000 BC. Unless new information comes to light, we have no real way of determining when they were invented, who invented them, or even which country they were first used in.

 

It is currently thought that kites may have been independently invented in both China and Malaysia, and that this new invention then spread through the rest of Asia from these two countries. There certainly is documentary evidence to suggest that kites were being flown in China as long ago as 200 BC. when a general in the Han dynasty is recorded as having used a kite as an instrument of war, by using it as a method of determining the correct distance to dig a tunnel to enter a palace and end a siege.

 

Other Chinese legends relate how kites were used to lift fireworks in order to terrify an opposing army, and how they were used to lift observers before a battle. Other uses for kites in Asia included a novel way of fishing (also practised in New Zealand), scaring birds from crops, as a way of lifting construction materials to the tops of buildings, and as a toy.

 

In some Asian countries the kite had considerable religious significance. In Korea, newly born children had kites flown and released for them, taking away any bad luck they had been born with. Kites were flown by farmers in Thailand at the time of the monsoon, to ask the gods to make the monsoon winds blow long enough to prevent all the rain falling on their crops and flooding them.[1]

 

***

 

Kites, it seemed to Emery Jack, were not just toys which adults played with (pretending it was for their children.) He looked forward to meeting the others at the tree and telling them this.

 

***

 

Elliot looked out over the forest from his bedroom in the attic. The sunlight formed transparent beams, with the tiny dust flakes floating in them to the floor, or to the sky, Elliot could never tell. The cd player in the corner played a song called ‘Passing Afternoon[2],’ and as the piano chords drifted, arpeggio-ing up and down, he strained to see Sally Ann. Their houses were at the top of the hills, looking at each other across the lake, and Elliot would look over, see the windows like little pen smudges, the people like ants moving about in their rooms.

 

Elliot’s lips moved silently in time with the words. He knew what they meant, and he could feel each word like a soft bullet, thudding into him as he imagined a quilt made up of the seasons of the year, he tried to imagine if one day he would be part of that quilt, part of that world where everything just moves on, and no one notices you and everything is just nice and gentle. The sky was darkening like ink in a jar of water, slowly spiralling into his eye, and his alarm clock rang. He’d eaten dinner, and often he would come up to his room to be alone, but now he had to go meet his friends. The word still hadn’t lost its magic and he smiled as he threw his coat on and bolted from the door.

 

***

 

Joshua had been huddled up in his room since he’d come home from school. His dad wasn’t home, but he knew he’d be back soon. He was probably out buying booze, or seeing one of the numerous women who hung out at those bars. He hated how his father would ram home how he was his dad, but he never did anything like be a father. There is nothing fatherly of being put to bed most nights by your teenage son. There is nothing fatherly about hitting a child, and there is nothing fatherly about wetting oneself at a parent-teacher meet at school because you have drunk far too much.

 

Joshua was scared. Looking out to the woods, he saw the kite with the candle float up. He could feel the apprehension in his chest, what if this was some joke. What if this was just people messing with him because he was disabled. He wouldn’t have thought like that if it hadn’t happened before, but it had and so things were beginning to pile up and he could feel himself slipping.

 

He thought about the one time when the authorities had come round, he heard them (one of the last things he did hear), mumbled through closed doors, talk of how there was obvious evidence of both his mother and father having mental issues, of there being history of dementia and depression. Could he be depressed? How could someone as young as him be depressed? He didn’t know the answers to these questions, which worked him up even more.

 

BANG! The front door slammed and the whole house shook. Joshua felt it in his very marrow, and he knew his dad was back and angry. His father had stopped shouting years ago, but his signing was poor and his body language loose and violent. He could feel his father slamming his palm against the wall, the sign for him to come down. As the decades of dust fell from the beams, Joshua got on his training shoes and jacket, he was preparing to run.

 

He came down the stairs, and he would have made a dash if his father wasn’t blocking the door. His father signed to him, sloppily,

 

‘Where you going boy, my dinner ready?’ Joshua nodded and pointed to the kitchen. ‘Don’t I get a ‘hello pa’ boy? You gonna sit down with your old man….aww shit my hands are tired. You can read lips…read mine while I eat.’ He didn’t always sign, sometimes it wasn’t a good idea like when you were holding a knife and fork. He knew if it was something they wanted him to be involved, he may try it. But normally Joshua’s father just ranted at him. His father dragged him into the kitchen and pulled up a chair. He shovelled the food into his mouth, half of it being sprayed back over the table and into his lap. His dad was obviously saying something, his mouth and throat were moving in vocal patterns, but he couldn’t make it out. He was now slamming his palm on the table, each jolt made him jump. Then it came, swift as anything, a slap across the face. He felt all the blood in his face rush to those areas, he felt his eyes drain themselves of the water he had, but he didn’t make a sound. He just looked at his father, silent, and then he picked himself up, looked at his father one more time and ran for the door. His dad went to grab him but missed and hit his head on the edge of a cupboard as Joshua just flew away. His father was used to sleeping on the floor, and in the morning he wouldn’t remember a thing.

 

The trees were rushing past him, blurred into underwater plants by his tears, but he kept on running. A strange ghostly noise was coming from him, deep inside him something was hurting very badly, as if he’d hurt his heart and it was crying out. The branches were scratching his face, his hands were out in front of him, and it was three minutes before he stopped for breath and to control himself. After a couple more minutes, he walked to the clearing.

 

***

 

Joshua came through to the clearing, stumbling slightly, and the silence made the shaking of the branches even more disorientating. His arms were spread for balance, occasionally rubbing his eyes as the tears, which had slowed, but still leaked out. He saw Elliot listening to what Emery Jack was saying, whose arms were spreading out and wildly flapping, Elliot was laughing. They both stopped and turned to Joshua, and they stood there like a Mexican stand off, in complete silence as what they were seeing soaked in.

 

What happened next was a whirlwind of bodies and panic, both Elliot and Emery ran to Joshua, Emery putting his arm around him in the biggest comforting embrace he could imagine, the blood seeping into his shirt. Elliot seemed angry, his hands were flickering so fast he could barely make them out through the snot and tears.

 

‘What happened Joshua? What happened?’ Elliot kept repeating as Emery turned his face to him, he mouthed slowly,

 

‘It’ll be ok? I’ll make sure it is ok.’ Emery nodded and smiled at the corner of his mouth. When Joshua had got his breath, he simpered and that annoyed him,

 

‘Noth’ng, nothing ‘appened.’ The others seemed to get irate,

 

‘Of course something happened, tell us, we won’t laugh…’Elliot signed. Emery turned to Elliot, said something and Elliot looked back at Joshua, ‘Emery says if you don’t want to, you don’t have to tell us.’ Emery was looking him in the eye, nodding again. He took Joshua by the tree and sat him down, taking out his handkerchief he dabbed the cuts that were deep and still bleeding. When they cleaned Joshua up, they all sat in silence, Elliot turned to Joshua and signed, slowly, almost sadly, ‘Do you know who has been tying this kite to the tree?’

 

Joshua shook his head, he was embarrassed that they had seen him looking like this. Elliot continued,

 

‘Because I didn’t tie it today, and neither did Emery. Do you fancy hiding out here sometime and seeing who it is?’ Emery was just sitting there, smiling to himself, and from behind the tree he produced a tent, a box of food and a little cooker. ‘We could have a fire, talk, what do you say? Wanna stay here tonight and plan our observation?’

 

Joshua was feeling overwhelmed, he had gone from desperation, to happiness, to feeling more alone than ever, and back to happy, he wasn’t used to this.

 

‘I’d lik’ oo stay ‘ere fore’er’’

 

‘Who wouldn’t!’ Boomed Emery as he stood and started the long and amusing process of trying to organise putting up three tents with a person who couldn’t hear the instructions he was saying, and one who could ask for help. It was dark by the time they were set up, but the fire was going nicely and they had started toasting bread.

 

‘I think,’ Emery said looking at Elliot, ‘That we should divide up the responsibility of who is going to find out what about this kite mystery.’

 

Elliot’s hands wove in and out of the firelight like shadow puppets, Joshua, who was still shaken, nodded. ‘I’ll ‘ee whot I can ‘ind out about the ‘etters, Ellio’ says ‘e will find owt about the ‘ite and set up an observa-sion from is room.’

 

‘What does that leave me?’ Emery said, looking at the other two, half sad, wondering if it was all going to be taken away from him.

 

‘Ou could help Elliot as’ Sall’ ‘Nn out on a date.’ Emery laughed so loud that things scurried away into the undergrowth. ‘Hey, she’s a cute lil’ girl that Sally Ann. Her sister’s not too bad either. Yeah, I’ll help you ask her out.’ Elliot, even in the firelight, had gone the darkest shade of red. He was both annoyed that Joshua had told his secret, but also really glad that Emery Jack had agreed to help.

 

Elliot looked and Joshua and stuck his middle finger up at him. Joshua started laughing, ‘Even I know that sign language!’ Emery said, chortling as he turned his toast. ‘Now Elliot, what do you like about Sally Ann?’ Elliot, if it was possible, went even more scarlet, but then he started to sign to Joshua.

 

To Emery Jack, who didn’t know sign language, he could tell what Elliot was saying was important, the slow gentle arcs of his arm, the way his fingers rested on his palms and made soft shapes made it obvious to him. With the Satsuma glow from the fire, he thought he saw right into Elliot’s heart. As if he would never actually need words to make Sally Ann love him because Elliot had enough love for the pair of them.

 

When he finished, Joshua sat there, looking at Elliot in a different light. He looked at Elliot and thought that he’d spent so long in his life fearing people, that maybe he would never feel the way Elliot did about anyone else. These emotions were so confusing for him, but finally, he turned to Emery,

 

‘He said ‘hen he sees ‘er he fe’ls normal. When he ‘ees her ‘mile, when he sees her loo’ at him, everyone disappear’ and it is jus’ ‘im and her.’ Joshua choked back his tears which were welling back up, ‘He then sed that every ‘ime e sees ‘er, ‘e dies ‘cause ee won’ ‘appen.’

 

Emery sat in a daze. He wasn’t sure if he had ever felt that much about anyone, and he was two years their senior. They went to bed shortly after that, each in their own tent, each with burgeoning futures falling out in front of them.

 

***

 

Joshua got up before the others, and in the early twilight he went to the tree. He ran fingers through the letters, he knew from the moment he saw them who they belonged to, but he didn’t want to say. But now, in the half light he knew he should just come out with it. He turned to find Emery standing behind, looking down on him. He spoke slowly so Joshua caught the words,

 

‘So whose initials are they? I had a feeling from the way you looked at them the first time that you had a clue.’ He didn’t seem angry, or upset, just curious.

 

‘I theen’ it is my brother, Zackk Helly.’

 

‘And who do you think the other one belongs to?’

 

‘His ‘irlfriend, Lou Ann Jones, ‘Ally Ann Jones’ sister.’

 

‘Do you think it is Lou Ann who is tying the kite?’

 

‘Tha’ or Zackk.’ He laughed, and it sounded like air escaping a corpse. It was uncomfortable.

 

‘There weren’t any footprints were there?’

 

‘I wa’ jocking.’

 

‘I know kid, I know.’ He put his arm around Joshua and led him back to the camp. Elliot had put some sausages over the fire and they took it in turns to go for a walk to go through their ‘morning routine’. Elliot signed a quite lengthy plan to Joshua, who nodded and then fed it back to Zach. They would meet again in 3 days, same spot, and feedback what they knew.

 

They went their separate ways, not sure if they were happy or sad. Joshua knew that balance was fragile, but it seemed that it was going to be a while before the other two got used to it.

 

***

 

Elliot was sat at the dinner table that night, and his parents were having a very dull conversation.

 

‘…But then I told him that we wouldn’t shift that stock, not with the new regulations coming into effect in the spring.’ His father moved some food to his mouth, stopped, and then spoke again, ‘I mean, what can be so important that you would jeopardise everything WE have worked for? Huh? Jack’s an asshole …’scuse my French’ He continued to chew.

 

‘Well honey, I told you only a few months ago they are under appreciating you. Maybe this is the sign for you to move on?’ His father grunted as they ate. Elliot had been moving his peas and broccoli around the plate, occasionally poking his meatloaf. His mother looked over, her eyes were hazel and they twinkled underneath the kitchen strip light. ‘Sweetheart, you’ve barely touched your food, you ok.’

 

Elliot stared at both of them, and then signed, ‘Mum, I am just not feeling to great, can I go up to my room?’ His mother shot her arm out, the back of her hand against his forehead.

 

‘Well honey you don’t have a fever, which is good, you go on up to bed darlin’.’ And with that, Elliot woke up from the stupor he was in and went upstairs. It was still a good hour before the kite came up, he had been making a mental note of when it appeared every night. There seemed to be a certain movement from the lake area through to the clearing and as he sat in his room, eyes trained on the area, he saw something, a flash of long blonde hair. It wasn’t a boy who was doing it, but a girl, of this he was certain. And then the kite came up.

 

He tried to think of all the blonde girls at school, but there were so many, it was Massachusetts, not Nairobi! Then the phone rang.

 

***

 

Emery picked up the phone and dialled Elliot’s number, it had escaped both his and Joshua’s attention that they hadn’t told him about the initials. After a few rings, Elliot’s mother answered.

 

‘Hello 5552, Armstrong residence, Helen speaking.’

 

‘Hello Mrs Armstrong, can I talk to Elliot please, it’s his friend Emery Jack.’

 

‘If you are his friend Emery Jack, you would know that the phone isn’t exactly used by him so much.’

 

‘Sorry Mrs Armstrong, I understand that, but I need to tell him something.’

 

‘Ok, I didn’t mind to bite your head off, one minute.’ Emery heard Mrs Armstrong yelling at the bottom of the stairs, ‘Elliot, some boy called Emery Jack is on the phone. Says he wants to talk.’ Elliot picked it up and stamped on the floor, he heard his mother hang up.

 

The silence was pronounced as Emery waited, and then he remembered he wasn’t going to hear Elliot say hello first. ‘Oh hey Elliot, you there?’ He heard two distinct taps. ‘Cool, cool, this is like code. Two taps for yes?’ tap tap ‘one tap for no?’ tap tap.

 

‘Well look dude, I forgot something to tell you.’ Emery then fed back about the initials and Elliot, for a split second stopped. It was only for a minute, but it felt like forever, as if he was calculating a very big sum in his head. He then just tapped twice.

 

‘So you on for tonight?’ tap tap.

 

‘Any luck seeing if it was Lou Ann?’ tap tap.

 

‘Right I shall see you there in 1 hour.’

 

***

 

When they got there, they didn’t know what to expect. What they saw was beyond belief. Emery stood, mouth a-gog, Elliot confused, and Joshua just stood there, crying as if he was in space, with out a sound.

 

The kite was floating above them, the tea light candle blinking in it. Underneath it, Lou Ann Jones was dancing with herself, a small boombox playing a song that none of them new. As she twirled round, they thought they saw something, a ghost, a young , blonde boy, but it was gone as soon as soon as they saw it. They each caught each others eye, as if to reassure themselves that they weren’t seeing things.

 

In the darkness, with the moon light slipping through the branches, the scene felt otherworldly. They felt like were intruding on a funeral, intruding on something special and sacred. The guilt they felt for their prying soon disappeared though, replaced by something else. A hollow, warm glow that filled them totally which confused and excited them in equal measure. Finally, after what must have been 20 minutes, Emery walked up to her. The silence Joshua felt was echoed in Elliot.  Emery didn’t say a word, just put his arms around her and danced with her. The others watched their new god, their Odysseus twirl and swoop, dance and smile at her. They saw his mouth move, quietly, and as they broke away he increased in volume. Elliot heard, and Joshua smiled as Elliot began signing what he was saying.

 

‘Now you tell your sister to say hi to my friend Elliot y’hear.’

 

***

 

The cusp of winter was upon them, the cold creeping into their bones. Emery Jack, looking at Joshua, said quietly, ‘She really loved your brother you know.’ Joshua nodded. They were walking away from the school yard, and all the trees that had shed their autumn leaves and were skeletons against the grey sky. They looked back and saw Elliot sat in the field, Sally Ann was walking over to him, and as they turned they saw Lou Ann approach Emery Jack. Joshua thought to him self if anyone would fall for him.

 

They would.

 

***

 

Elliot was sat, he wasn’t too fussed by the cold, and when he heard the footsteps, he didn’t bother to look up. The shadow fell across him and he still didn’t look up. It was only when she spoke did he look up,

 

‘Elliot…’ Sally Ann  said. Elliot looked up so fast he almost cricked his neck.

 

‘Sally Ann’ he thought, and she heard him by looking into his eyes and his smile.