NOVEL: SPEAK BY LAURIE HALSE ANDERSON

EXTRACT 4

FINAL CUT

1 My tree needs something. I walk over to the desk and take a piece of brown paper and
2 a finger of chalk. Mr. Freeman talks about art galleries and I practice birds—little dashes
3 of color on paper. It's awkward with the bandage on my hand, but I keep trying. I draw
4 them without thinking—flight, flight, feather, wing. Water drips on the paper and the
5 birds bloom in the light, their feathers expanding promise.

6 IT happened. There is no avoiding it, no forgetting. No running away, or flying, or

7 burying, or hiding. Andy Evans raped me in August when I was drunk and too young to
8 know what was happening. It wasn't my fault. He hurt me. It wasn't my fault. And I'm not
9 going to let it kill me. I can grow.

10 I look at my homely sketch. It doesn't need anything. Even through the river in my eyes I
11 can see that. It isn't perfect and that makes it just right.

12 The last bell rings. Mr. Freeman comes to my table.

13 Mr. Freeman: "Time's up, Melinda. Are you ready?"

14
15 I hand over the picture. He takes it in his hands and studies it. I sniff again and wipe my
16 eyes on my arm. The bruises are vivid, but they will fade.

17 Mr. Freeman: "No crying in my studio. It ruins the supplies. Salt, you know, saline.
18 Etches like acid." He sits on the stool next to me and hands back my tree. "You get an
19 A+. You worked hard at this." He hands me the box of tissues. "You've been through a
20 lot, haven't you?"

21 The tears dissolve the last block of ice in my throat. I feel the frozen stillness melt down
22 through the inside of me, dripping shards of ice that vanish in a puddle of sunlight on the
23 stained floor. Words float up.

24 Me: "Let me tell you about it."

(316 WORDS)