Dreaming of Amelia (44 page)

EVIDENCE OF TOBIAS MAZZERATI

Toby:
I'm sitting in the rain, feeling kinda dumb, and I sense something — turn around and there's a girl running. I recognise her. It's Lydia. She was coming from the gate and it seemed like she was heading straight for me at first, but then I realised she was cutting across the grass, towards the dense stand of trees further in.

I couldn't figure out why she was running — all I could see in that direction was trees and rain. But there was something urgent in the way she was running, like someone was in trouble, or something was seriously wrong. She was flying towards it, so I started running too.

EVIDENCE OF EMILY THOMPSON

Emily:
I stopped the car with a screech of brakes and a crash of mud-splattered water, got out into the rain, opened my umbrella, and tried to see what was going on. I could see Lydia running towards the trees. And there was Toby, running after Lydia — he'd come from another direction.

But whatever it was that Lydia had seen — well, I had no idea how she could have seen it. The rain was so heavy it was like looking into a wave.

I started running anyway.

EVIDENCE OF LYDIA JAACKSON-OBERMAN

Mr Botherit:
Lydia. What was it you saw from the car window?

Lydia:
Amelia.

Mr Botherit:
And you ran towards her?

Lydia:
She was in trouble.

Mr Botherit:
Trouble?

Lydia:
Right.

EVIDENCE OF EMILY THOMPSON

Emily:
As I got closer, there was a huge blast of thunder — the kind you feel deep inside you, the kind that makes everything shake — and an instant flash of lightning. And in that moment, I saw everything. Lydia was still running, Toby was overtaking her, and they were both screaming and shouting. I couldn't hear what they were saying over the thunder and rain, I could just see their mouths.

But the person they were running towards was Amelia. In that flash of bright light, I could see the colour of her hair. She was facing away from us, standing on a log, with a white stretch of rope above her.

EVIDENCE OF TOBIAS MAZZERATI

Toby:
I could hear Lydia screaming Amelia's name, but Amelia wasn't turning. Then Lydia started shouting that she had a message—and shouting the message itself. It felt important that Amelia hear it, so I shouted it too.

Mr Botherit:
What was the message?

Toby:
I haven't given up on you. Please don't give up on me.

[
Long pause
]

Mr Botherit:
But by then it was too late.

EVIDENCE OF EMILY THOMPSON

Emily:
They were so close to Amelia, and she still wasn't moving — turning around — anything — Toby got there first and his arms were reaching up to her. And he was shouting something — and then something strange happened.

EVIDENCE OF LYDIA JAACKSON-OBERMAN

Lydia:
I don't know what happened. I was running and running, but it felt like I couldn't get any closer. It was panic, I guess — my body wasn't going as fast as my mind wanted. I saw that Toby was almost at her side, and then, well, is it possible for rain to literally fill the air? Because that's what happened. For a few seconds, there was a whitewash.

I couldn't see or hear or breathe or move. It was terrifying.

EVIDENCE OF EMILY THOMPSON

Emily:
It was like drowning. Like I wasn't looking at a wave any more, I was
in
the wave. Everything went white and the noise was like exploding static.

Then there was another violent clap of thunder and the
rain was just heavy again — more lightning, and I got a glimpse of Toby standing close to Amelia, holding her — and then Toby was walking towards me, and Amelia was in his arms.

Her eyes were closed.

This time I knew that I wouldn't be able to save a life, even if I tried.

I went and put my umbrella over them, and we all walked together to the entrance to the park.

EVIDENCE OF TOBIAS MAZZERATI

Toby:
I don't know. It's gone. That memory's gone, I mean. One moment I'm running and shouting, the next I'm walking in the rain and she's in my arms. Lydia called an ambulance. People came running out of houses near the park. Somebody asked if it was lightning.

EVIDENCE OF LYDIA JAACKSON-OBERMAN

Lydia:
Riley turned up at the hospital eventually. He said he'd heard on the car radio — on the news, I mean — that Amelia had been struck by lightning.

Mr Botherit:
You realise that late last night Riley turned himself into the police and was arrested and charged with assault, amongst other things?

Lydia:
Okay.

Mr Botherit:
Lydia, we know that the man you and Riley went to see was Patrick O'Doherty, Amelia's stepfather. We know that Riley left him unconscious on the floor. And that he then drove away in your car, presumably intending to flee.

Lydia:
Okay.

Mr Botherit:
Look, I realise this is a very difficult time. But you helped Riley commit a crime — it seems he hasn't mentioned
your role to the police, or you might be under arrest yourself. Is there anything you can say to explain this? Any of this?

Lydia:
No.

Mr Botherit
(quietly)
:
Lydia, why do
you
think Amelia . . . Why do you think she went to the heritage park yesterday, instead of to her English exam?

Lydia:
Because of me. I was her friend. The day before the exam, she told me a secret she'd never told anyone before. She trusted me. And then she found out that I'd already betrayed her.

EVIDENCE OF EMILY THOMPSON

Emily:
It was my fault. She was having that secret romance with Toby, and I let Riley know about it. I could tell that Riley was angry with her yesterday, and I could see she was heartbroken. And that's why it happened. Most things this year have been my fault, but this is the worst of them. Obviously.

EVIDENCE OF TOBIAS MAZZERATI

Mr Botherit:
I suppose it's your fault that Amelia went to the park yesterday.

[
Brief pause
]

Toby:
Why would it be my fault?

Mr Botherit
(gently)
:
Toby, we know you were having a secret romance with Amelia.

Toby:
A secret romance with Amelia. (
laughs softly
) In my dreams.

Dear Bill,

You asked us to find out what happened on Wednesday.

There is simply no clear answer to that question. We have done our best to piece it together — using a lot of guesswork — and, with that qualification in mind, I will tell you what we think.

First: Riley.

It seems that, directly after the exam, Riley learned something about Amelia's stepfather that made him angry. Lydia most likely shared this information with him. Riley went straight to the stepfather and attacked him. He intended to flee in Lydia's car, but news of Amelia's accident reached him and he returned, and turned himself in.

Now, I assume you got my message the other day, letting you know of a recent disturbing discovery: we had been asking around (discreetly) about Riley's criminal history for a couple of weeks, and a Brookfield sports teacher let me know the truth — that Riley had, in fact, committed a very violent offence.

That sports teacher was ready to tell me the truth when I asked — he'd been keeping it confidential these last years
— and just as quick to declare that Riley is a ‘lost cause'. Yet we wanted to trust Riley, to believe his claims that he has reformed. Thus, the only steps we took were to warn Riley's close friends (Patricia Aganovic called around on Tuesday night), and, of course, to notify you.

It now seems tragically clear that we were wrong: Riley is violent and dangerous — as that sports teacher said, ‘a lost cause'.

Riley has been released into the care of his foster mother, pending trial. Here I might point out that the foster mother has always seemed to us a decent, honest person, and she spoke in Riley's defence last night.

Apparently (the foster mother said), Riley has been very upset lately by the departure of the other foster child in his household. A baby girl, Chloe, was moved back to her biological parents on the last Thursday of term. Obviously, this does not excuse his outburst, and, given his record, he is almost certainly facing prison time.

Which brings me to Amelia — this is difficult to write about.

All that we know for sure is that she missed her exam to go to the Castle Hill Heritage Park. While she was there, something happened which caused her heart to stop. Her system went into multiple organ failure — essentially, it shut down. It seems she was already in a weak, malnourished and exhausted state, so she did not have the strength to fight.

The hospital confirms that they do not expect her to recover. Even if she regains consciousness, the brain damage will most likely be substantial.

What the hospital
cannot
tell us, however, is exactly what happened. You will have heard the rumours that she was struck by lightning — witnesses near the heritage park apparently drew this conclusion when they saw a girl being
carried out of the park in the midst of an electrical storm. Also, Emily and Lydia both refer to a strange sensation as of a ‘whitewash', and perhaps this is consistent with a lightning strike?

The hospital, however, can find no evidence of any such thing.

The alternative, and more likely, explanation is that Amelia went to the park with the intention of harming herself. This is obviously very upsetting, but I think we need to face it. It seems that she may have felt betrayed by friends, and that her troubled relationship with Riley was disturbing her. Her physical condition suggests she had been suffering from profound depression — and Emily, at least, recalls glimpsing a rope.

Again, however, and to be blunt: the hospital says there is no evidence of attempted suicide by hanging.

Our conclusion is that Amelia did intend to take her own life, and most likely suffered some kind of depressive breakdown.

We are all profoundly saddened by the way things have turned out for our first scholarship winners.

We hope that this account is helpful.

Yours,

Chris

 

Rob and Chris,

How exactly did we not know the truth about Riley's violent past? I did get your memo on this, and was livid. Too busy to follow up though — all this might have been avoided if I had.

Also, this is the first I've heard that Riley lives with a foster family — what else do we not know about this boy?

As for Amelia — the ‘breakdown' theory is flimsy and, frankly, not my preference.

Depressed and suicidal? Then why did nobody at Ashbury notice and take appropriate preemptive action? If you get my drift, we'd end up taking the fall. (Although, I take it she lives in some kind of a hostel? So presumably her family are not making trouble?)

Official line will be: struck by lightning.

Cheers,

Bill

PS Delete this email.

Dear Amelia,

I hear there are giant jellyfish in the Arctic, tentacles longer than train carriages.

Haystacks fly over cities in whirlwinds, and fish, frogs and turtles rain on towns.

There are spaces of perfect nothing that they call black holes.

Nothing's impossible — that's what you think I'm trying to say.

But I'm not.

There are things that
are
impossible — unimaginable, even — and here they are: that I broke you. Betrayed you. Said I'd given up on you. Sent you flying to a park in a thunderstorm.

That I've been wrong about you all along — saw something in your face each time you faded to your past, when the opposite was true.

That all this time you've been lost and that I won't get a second chance to find you.

Amelia, your name is a song. It's a name that can't be spoken without smiling or crying, without casting both shadow and light. But there are too many places to hide or get lost in a name like Amelia.