I Was Here Extract
Content
I Was Here CS6 3rd.indd 3
02/12/2014 14:45
First published in Great Britain in 2015 by Simon and Schuster UK Ltd
A CBS COMPANY
Copyright © 2015 Gayle Forman, Inc
This book is copyright under the Berne Convention.
No reproduction without permission.
All rights reserved.
The right of Gayle Forman to be identified as the author of this work
has been asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and
78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988.
“Fireflies,” performed by Bishop Allen, used with permission
from Justin Rice and Christian Rudder courtesy of Superhyper/ASCAP
“Firefly,” performed by Heavens to Betsy, used with permission
from Corin Tucker courtesy of Red Self Music/ASCAP
1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2
Simon & Schuster UK Ltd
1st Floor
222 Gray’s Inn Road
London WC1X 8HB
www.simonandschuster.co.uk
Simon & Schuster Australia, Sydney
Simon & Schuster India, New Delhi
A CIP catalogue record for this book
is available from the British Library.
PB ISBN: 978-1-47112-439-6
EBOOK ISBN: 978-1-47112-440-2
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and
incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are
used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual people living or
dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
Printed and bound by CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon, CR0 4YY
I Was Here CS6 3rd.indd 4
02/12/2014 14:45
1
The day after Meg died, I received this letter:
I regret to inform you that I have had to take my own life.
This decision has been a long time coming, and was mine
alone to make. I know it will cause you pain, and for that I am
sorry, but please know that I needed to end my own pain.
This has nothing to do with you and everything to do with
me. It’s not your fault.
Meg
She emailed copies of the letter to her parents and to me, and
to the Tacoma police department, along with another note informing them which motel she was at, which room she was in,
what poison she had ingested, and how her body should be
safely handled. On the pillow at the motel room was another
note—instructing the maid to call the police and not touch her
body—along with a fifty-dollar tip.
She sent the emails on a time delay. So that she would be
long gone by the time we received them.
1
I Was Here CS6 3rd.indd 1
02/12/2014 14:45
Of course, I didn’t know any of that until later. So when I
first read Meg’s email on the computer at our town’s public library, I thought it had to be some kind of joke. Or a hoax. I
called Meg, and when she didn’t answer, I called her parents.
“Did you get Meg’s email?” I asked them.
“What email?”
2
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2
There are memorial services. And there are vigils. And then
there are prayer circles. It gets hard to keep them straight. At the
vigils, you hold candles, but sometimes you do that at the prayer
circles. At the memorial services, people talk, though what is
there to say?
It was bad enough she had to die. On purpose. But for subjecting me to all of this, I could kill her.
“Cody, are you ready?” Tricia calls.
It is late on a Thursday afternoon, and we are going to the
fifth service in the past month. This one is a candlelight vigil. I
think.
I emerge from my bedroom. My mother is zipping up the
black cocktail dress she picked up from the Goodwill after Meg
died. She’s been using it as her funeral dress, but I’m sure that
once this blows over, it’ll go into rotation as a going-out dress.
She looks hot in it. Like so many people in town, mourning becomes her.
“Why aren’t you dressed?” she asks.
“All my nice clothes are dirty.”
3
I Was Here CS6 3rd.indd 3
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“What nice clothes?”
“Fine, all my vaguely funereal clothes are dirty.”
“Dirty never stopped you before.”
We glare at each other. When I was eight, Tricia announced
I was old enough to do my own laundry. I hate doing laundry.
You can see where this leads.
“I don’t get why we have to go to another one,” I say.
“Because the town needs to process.”
“Cheese needs to process. The town needs to find another
drama to distract itself with.”
There are fifteen hundred and seventy-four people in our
town, according to the fading sign on the highway. “Fifteen hundred and seventy-three,” Meg said when she escaped to college
in Tacoma on a full scholarship last fall. “Fifteen hundred and
seventy-two when you come to Seattle and we get our apartment
together,” she’d added.
It remains stuck at fifteen hundred and seventy-three now,
and I suspect it’ll stay there until someone else is born or dies.
Most people don’t leave. Even when Tammy Henthoff and Matt
Parner left their respective spouses to run off together—the gossip that was the hottest news before Meg—they moved to an RV
park on the edge of town.
“Do I have to go?” I’m not sure why I bother to ask her this.
Tricia is my mother, but she’s not an authority in that way. I
know I have to go, and I know why. For Joe and Sue.
They’re Meg’s parents. Or they were. I keep stumbling over
the verb tenses. Do you cease being someone’s parents because
they died? Because they died on purpose?
4
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Joe and Sue look blasted into heartbreak, the hollows under
their eyes so deep, I don’t see how they’ll ever go away. And it’s
for them I find my least stinky dress and put it on. I get ready to
sing. Again.
Amazing Grace. How Vile the Sound.
5
I Was Here CS6 3rd.indd 5
02/12/2014 14:45
02/12/2014 14:45
First published in Great Britain in 2015 by Simon and Schuster UK Ltd
A CBS COMPANY
Copyright © 2015 Gayle Forman, Inc
This book is copyright under the Berne Convention.
No reproduction without permission.
All rights reserved.
The right of Gayle Forman to be identified as the author of this work
has been asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and
78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988.
“Fireflies,” performed by Bishop Allen, used with permission
from Justin Rice and Christian Rudder courtesy of Superhyper/ASCAP
“Firefly,” performed by Heavens to Betsy, used with permission
from Corin Tucker courtesy of Red Self Music/ASCAP
1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2
Simon & Schuster UK Ltd
1st Floor
222 Gray’s Inn Road
London WC1X 8HB
www.simonandschuster.co.uk
Simon & Schuster Australia, Sydney
Simon & Schuster India, New Delhi
A CIP catalogue record for this book
is available from the British Library.
PB ISBN: 978-1-47112-439-6
EBOOK ISBN: 978-1-47112-440-2
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and
incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are
used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual people living or
dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
Printed and bound by CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon, CR0 4YY
I Was Here CS6 3rd.indd 4
02/12/2014 14:45
1
The day after Meg died, I received this letter:
I regret to inform you that I have had to take my own life.
This decision has been a long time coming, and was mine
alone to make. I know it will cause you pain, and for that I am
sorry, but please know that I needed to end my own pain.
This has nothing to do with you and everything to do with
me. It’s not your fault.
Meg
She emailed copies of the letter to her parents and to me, and
to the Tacoma police department, along with another note informing them which motel she was at, which room she was in,
what poison she had ingested, and how her body should be
safely handled. On the pillow at the motel room was another
note—instructing the maid to call the police and not touch her
body—along with a fifty-dollar tip.
She sent the emails on a time delay. So that she would be
long gone by the time we received them.
1
I Was Here CS6 3rd.indd 1
02/12/2014 14:45
Of course, I didn’t know any of that until later. So when I
first read Meg’s email on the computer at our town’s public library, I thought it had to be some kind of joke. Or a hoax. I
called Meg, and when she didn’t answer, I called her parents.
“Did you get Meg’s email?” I asked them.
“What email?”
2
I Was Here CS6 3rd.indd 2
02/12/2014 14:45
2
There are memorial services. And there are vigils. And then
there are prayer circles. It gets hard to keep them straight. At the
vigils, you hold candles, but sometimes you do that at the prayer
circles. At the memorial services, people talk, though what is
there to say?
It was bad enough she had to die. On purpose. But for subjecting me to all of this, I could kill her.
“Cody, are you ready?” Tricia calls.
It is late on a Thursday afternoon, and we are going to the
fifth service in the past month. This one is a candlelight vigil. I
think.
I emerge from my bedroom. My mother is zipping up the
black cocktail dress she picked up from the Goodwill after Meg
died. She’s been using it as her funeral dress, but I’m sure that
once this blows over, it’ll go into rotation as a going-out dress.
She looks hot in it. Like so many people in town, mourning becomes her.
“Why aren’t you dressed?” she asks.
“All my nice clothes are dirty.”
3
I Was Here CS6 3rd.indd 3
02/12/2014 14:45
“What nice clothes?”
“Fine, all my vaguely funereal clothes are dirty.”
“Dirty never stopped you before.”
We glare at each other. When I was eight, Tricia announced
I was old enough to do my own laundry. I hate doing laundry.
You can see where this leads.
“I don’t get why we have to go to another one,” I say.
“Because the town needs to process.”
“Cheese needs to process. The town needs to find another
drama to distract itself with.”
There are fifteen hundred and seventy-four people in our
town, according to the fading sign on the highway. “Fifteen hundred and seventy-three,” Meg said when she escaped to college
in Tacoma on a full scholarship last fall. “Fifteen hundred and
seventy-two when you come to Seattle and we get our apartment
together,” she’d added.
It remains stuck at fifteen hundred and seventy-three now,
and I suspect it’ll stay there until someone else is born or dies.
Most people don’t leave. Even when Tammy Henthoff and Matt
Parner left their respective spouses to run off together—the gossip that was the hottest news before Meg—they moved to an RV
park on the edge of town.
“Do I have to go?” I’m not sure why I bother to ask her this.
Tricia is my mother, but she’s not an authority in that way. I
know I have to go, and I know why. For Joe and Sue.
They’re Meg’s parents. Or they were. I keep stumbling over
the verb tenses. Do you cease being someone’s parents because
they died? Because they died on purpose?
4
I Was Here CS6 3rd.indd 4
02/12/2014 14:45
Joe and Sue look blasted into heartbreak, the hollows under
their eyes so deep, I don’t see how they’ll ever go away. And it’s
for them I find my least stinky dress and put it on. I get ready to
sing. Again.
Amazing Grace. How Vile the Sound.
5
I Was Here CS6 3rd.indd 5
02/12/2014 14:45
