Phoenix (18 page)

B
randon came for me at dawn and I drifted through days.

Sharon Rohr heard that Laura, Jim and I were moving out of Ellerton, and visited our house before we left. She said that Zak’s burns had healed and he would soon be back in school.

‘Thank you,’ she told me, and our own deep wounds continued to heal.

Zoey heard through her dad that Michael Rohr was definitely sticking around for a while.

I didn’t care. I was drifting, sinking, letting go of the world.

‘Brandon sold his Harley,’ Hannah told me. ‘He bought a plane ticket to Europe.’

I nodded. Maybe it would help him, but really, no – he and I both knew that. I didn’t try to see him before he left.

Danny Kors found Oscar and Nathan Thorne holed up in the fisherman’s shack at Forest Lake. His ‘clean up Ellerton’ campaign was making real progress. People started to relax.

Henry Jardine drove out to Foxton and nailed planks of wood across the barn door to keep out intruders. Kids camped out at Government Bridge undisturbed.

After Brandon brought me home from Foxton that Friday morning, I didn’t step outdoors until the day we moved house.

Our new porch overlooked the lake. The water was smooth and sky blue.

Still I was sinking beneath its surface and nothing would stop me.

I feel I’m drowning. I go down in the clear, cold water
without a struggle – this time no one holds me under, I am
letting myself sink. Above me bubbles rise to the surface and
beyond that is a bright, quivering light that must be the sun.
It’s far away. My hair spreads like weeds, my legs and arms
are weightless, water all around. My eyes are wide open,
staring at the light.

A current catches me and turns me face down, staring into
darkness. It plunges me deeper, twists me again until I glimpse
the dappled, liquid light further and further above me.

And suddenly, without knowing why, I strike out. I forge
upwards, my arms cleaving the icy water, its whisper in my
ears. I kick and fight back.

I choose life.

‘I want you to take this.’ Michael Rohr showed up at our new house with the picture he’d once shown me of Brandon and Phoenix. ‘It belongs with you.’

I took it and put it in my bedside drawer.

Who needs a picture on show when you have memories like mine to bear you up and carry you through life?

Any time, any place?
I ask, gazing out across the glittering lake.

A breeze disturbs its silver surface.
In a heartbeat,
Phoenix promises.

What would your dream cast be if
Beautiful
Dead
was made into a film?

My dream cast for a film version of
Beautiful Dead
Would be any of the main actors from the
Harry Potter
and
Twilight
films – why not aim for the very biggest stars?! I also wish Johnny Depp was still nineteen years old, so he could play Phoenix!

What songs would be on a
Beautiful Dead
soundtrack?

I have an idea that the soundtrack should be made up of songs from the top female vocalist – not mainstream, but more edgy artists like Laura Marling. You can see a whole
Beautiful Dead
playlist on my Facebook page
www.beautifuldead.com

Which character do you most relate to in the series?

I’m closest in character to Darina in the books, mainly in the way she always feels a bit on `the edge of things, a bit misunderstood, but very focused and determined. I’m not as brave as she is, obviously.

If you could invite 5 people to dinner who would you invite?

Top of my list for ideal dinner guests are Marilyn Monroe, Shakespeare, Catherine Earnshaw from
Wuthering Heights,
John Lennon and Atticus Finch from
To Kill A Mocking Bird.
They don’t have to be alive or real, do they?

Where is your favourite place to write?

I can only write in one place and no other –  it’s my first storey office overlooking a river and a wooded hillside. No other room will do.

Who is your favourite author and why?

Favourite author is so hard – this time I’ll choose one who is alive – it’s Annie Proulx, who wrote the short story
Brokeback Mountain
which they turned into a great film. Everything she writes is strong and disturbing.

What advice would you give to aspiring young writers?

People who really want to write don’t need my advice. They’re driven by some inner compulsion. It turns out right if they stick to the truth of their imaginations.

What book do you wish you had written?

A book I totally admire is
The Kite Runner
by Khaled Hosseini. I wish I could write something so moving and powerful and true.

How does it feel when you see your books in a bookshop?

When I see my own book on a bookshop shelf I have a mixed reaction. There’s a big temptation to position it so that customers can see it more easily, but there’s also an unexpected panic and a need to run and hide!

Tell us one thing your readers won’t already know about you.

I once fell off a horse high on a mountain with no other riders around. My horse didn’t run off – he stayed and waited for me to get back on my feet, thank heavens. Not many people know that!

What projects are you working on next?

I’ve moved onto a new project called Dark Angel – about a shape-shifting, powerful, demonic character intent on destroying the lives of young lovers by drawing them into a dark, alternative reality. He’s an angel, but not the kind you’d want to meet …

Follow Eden Maguire at
www.beautifuldead.com

Look out for

A stunning new book from Eden Maguire
Coming soon in 2011

Dare to believe in a fallen angel.

His mission?

To tear young lovers from each others’ arms
…

Tania’s heart belongs to Orlando.

Nothing can rip them apart.

Until the seduction begins in a flurry of glamour and magic, music and parties all orchestrated by the mysterious and mesmerising Zoran, an iconic rock star who has retired to a remote ranch in the nearby mounains. And there Tania meets the dark side.

Can she resist temptation?