From: Celia Beasley CeeceeB@gmail.com
Wednesday 1 June 7:09 PM
Alice, you were right. They found Adeline dead, just like the others.
From: Celia Beasley CeeceeB@gmail.com
Thursday 2 June 4:07 PM
Alice, Alice, where are you?
We didn’t have class for the first two periods today. We just sat outside on the cold bricks and watched ants scurry along, as if a girl from school hadn’t died at all and we talked and talked. There’s a lovely girl called Bella Bennett with big dimples. I’ve never spoken to her properly, but she let me sit next to her and we tried to think of things we could do for Adeline’s family, while we passed round jumbo boxes of tissues.
This afternoon the school brought in counsellors and they said that when we feel sad about Adeline we should clench our fists and hold them over our hearts to remember her. The rest of the day we had class but no one really concentrated, even the teachers.
Tonight, Cleo and I went down to Adeline’s missing poster at our tram stop and put a little bunch of flowers from our garden. There were heaps there already – like a floral tumour swelling around the pole. I feel sick about everything. Sick for Adeline, sick for her parents and sick for little Carmella and every one of her ball-fisted friends. We did capital punishment in Religion and Life with Mrs Burnetti. There was all this stuff about how killing people is not right, but how killing another person as a punishment doesn’t make that first killing right. We talked about how wrong it was to hang Saddam Hussein and kill Osama bin Laden and I agreed with it all, but when I saw Adeline’s mum on the news looking so little and so sad I wanted to ask her what she wanted to do to Adeline’s killer. I don’t think she’d have felt the same way as Mrs Burnetti. Because me? I’d want whoever did that to Adeline Taranto stir-fried, sliced and diced.
Dad leaves for Fiji tomorrow and I know this trip is important, but I really want him to stay here. With Grandma. And maybe even Andrew. I just want all my family together under the same roof. Dad’s trip feels wrong.
CC x
From: Alice King Alicekingofthejungle@gmail.com Thursday 2 June 6:53 PM
Hiya CC
I’m here – definitely haven’t gone anywhere. Just not coping with this Adeline stuff and not sleeping well either. Sorry I’m not much of a support. Feel like something’s wrong with me. Like I’m floating above my life instead of being in it. Feels like I’m not in my own body or something.
Gotta go and force my mouth to eat.
Alice xx
From: Celia Beasley CeeceeB@gmail.com
Friday 3 June 7:14 PM
Oh Alice. I hope everything’s all right up there. It’s not much better here. I had to do the chicken ad this afternoon and I think I did muck it up, but it was accidental. I just wasn’t in the mood to parade around in feathers. Mum felt the same way, I could tell. Her fringe was stringy where she pulls it straight. When the director said he might have to call us back after he’d seen the footage, because they might not use it, Mum didn’t even look the least bit cross. She just told him we’re all still shaken by the news about Adeline Taranto and he agreed. I mean, I was standing there in the same uniform as the most recent dead schoolgirl and he said his niece is also at Ashbourne in the same year. I bet even more people claim they know Adeline or her family now that she’s dead. That happens. Fame through grief, Dad calls it.
School was weird today, too. The police came to speak to us and mentioned all the things you’d expect. But the officer said the killer might also be someone who has connections to or perhaps works with teenagers. They think he’s very smart and might disappear for periods saying he’s on a business trip or holiday. Anyway, the officer said that anyone with information should come and see them afterwards as they’d set up this tent on the oval. After assembly, I hung around the front of the tent and listened in case there was anything new, but the policewoman looked bored and cold and kept texting all the time.
Dad left for Fiji this morning and I gave him the biggest hug I could muster and just wanted to hold him so I could anchor him to the floor. He said that in light of the lost girls, we have to be grateful for what we’ve got and that he’d be back as soon as possible. He then spotted Mum’s mobile bill on the bench, which was $182 over her cap, and freaked about what he’s got.
This afternoon, Mum had someone in to check the burglar alarm so it can be armed when we’re inside and she also had special locks attached to the front and back doors which are called deadlocks and I said that that wasn’t very reassuring. Mum frowned and said it was in poor taste to make jokes at this time.
Grandma arrives tonight. Can’t wait to see her.
x
PS I’m sorry, I just reread this and while I tried to avoid mentioning Adeline, I see I’ve done nothing but! I know it upsets you so I really hope you don’t mind too much.
From: Alice King Alicekingofthejungle@gmail.com
Saturday 4 June 2:21 PM
That’s cool, CC. I love your emails. Really.
Can’t talk now, though.
Later,
Ax
From: Celia Beasley CeeceeB@gmail.com
Saturday 4 June 3:02 PM
Hi Alice
I was SO relieved to hear from you even if it was only short. My imagination is in overdrive at the moment.
It was hard to sleep last night because the house makes lots of noises and every time it creaked I thought the Cocoon Killer was coming up the hall and I had to hold my breath and lie really flat. We put the fold-up bed in Cleo’s room so that I can sleep without Cleo’s feet in my face and we left the hall light on all night. Grandma said it looks just like her dorm at boarding school. Jaime’s sleeping in the spare room with Grandma because she said Grandma “needed company”.
Grandma keeps smoking inside because she’s too nervous to go out and Mum’s all grumpy because the smoke sticks to the carpet and hangs off the curtains. Even though Grandma doesn’t do the drawback, she still has a voice like a truckie.
Okay, let’s take a break and discuss some other non-Adeline things. Deep breath.
***intermission****
Well, the director of the chicken ad emailed last night and the shoot mustn’t have been as bad as I thought, because he said he LOVED it. He’s that kind of man. So I don’t have to film it again. It comes out in about three weeks – same week as Jaime’s play. Terrific.
Tonight, Jaime came in and started going through the stuff on my dresser (she does that when she’s bored). She saw the photo you sent me and asked who you were. I shrugged and then Jaime said I was a loser for having a photo of someone I didn’t know in my room, picked up my brand new blue nail polish and stormed out. But I still didn’t tell her who you were and I won’t. She takes everything she wants and that includes my friends.
I’m sorry, Alice. I think I’m going to have to sign off. Trying to stay upbeat when you’re actually feeling sad is really tiring.
Hugs.
xCC
From: Alice King Alicekingofthejungle@gmail.com
Saturday 4 June 8:38 PM
Celia
I feel like I’ve hardly written properly for ages. You must think I’ve fallen right off the face of the earth? It’s just that ever since I heard about Adeline being found I’ve really been struggling to see the point. I am completely haunted. And, I’ve been very angry with God, even if I don’t believe in him. What IS the point? Sorry for being absent, but:
- can’t get near a freaking computer these days, because everyone’s so obsessed with murdered teenagers that they’re always Googling or writing home
- can’t handle hearing one more thing about Adeline Taranto and her poor little blue body
- Sister Catherine threw a special mass to send prayers to Adeline’s family but I made a point of not swallowing my communion wafer
- instead, I put it in my sock
- afterwards I talked to God, and this is what I said, ‘God, I’m so angry with you. What kind of a God are you?’
- I’m glad you liked my ponytail surprise. It was a risky one. I too am now a beetle
- I was going to audition for the role of Yum-Yum in The Mikado but being numb isn’t exactly the best starting point for drama
- I would have definitely frozen like a fish finger in the audition, so I didn’t show
- I am really glad you didn’t muck up the chicken ad and that the director loved it. I guess if you’re going to be forced into doing something that you can’t totally sabotage then you might as well do it properly
- it seems there really is nothing you cannot do Miss Celia Bees Knees
- girls who don’t have a role in the play have to VOLUNTEER to help with costumes and make-up back stage. Tragic. I’ll be a slave to the stars. I bet I end up having to stuff Siobhan O’Connor’s back fat into a lace-up bodice
- did I mention being angry with God? I am very angry with God, CC
- you are the best friend a prisoner without a ponytail, a mother or a role in a play could ever have
- I’m scared that when you meet me you might not like me
- for the first time in ages I am glad I’m up here, but I’m scared, too. Scared for you and Cleo
- to be honest I’m not so scared for Jaime. Or Tess
- please be careful
- trust nobody
- and I mean NOBODY
- I will write more later, I promise
- as you can see, I’m not so newsy right now
Alice x
From: Celia Beasley CeeceeB@gmail.com
Sunday 5 June 4:57 PM
Hi Alice
I really do get why you’re upset. I can’t stop thinking about those girls and their cocoons, so I wrote a poem about it. I heard some crime specialists think the killer might be using Nabokov’s butterfly as a theme. Google it.
Please take care, Alice.
xCCB