Free Checkmate by Malorie Blackman Page A

snogging? Yuk! How can anyone like putting their lips against someone else's? Very unhygienic. Germs galore! Nana Meggie said that you and Mum were best friends and in love for ever. That's really soppy. I asked Mum if she still loves you but she just looked away. She doesn't answer that question any more. Mum doesn't like to talk about you. I think she misses you too much. I'm going to stop writing now. My arm is getting tired. I've written loads. I hope I get a gold star for this letter. D'you think Mr Brewster will give me a gold star? Maybe I should take out the bit about Mr Brewster shouting at me. I think I'll leave it in. After all, it did happen. I'm not making it up. Nana Meggie is helping me with my spellings so hopefully this letter will be one of the best ones in my class. I bet it's the longest. I do hope I get a star. Mummy will be happy if I get a star. Maybe she'll hug me if I get a star. My arm's really aching now.
    Bye, Daddy. See you in heaven one day.
    Love,
    Rose

sixteen. Rose is 9

    Hello, Daddy,
    I was thinking about you a lot today. I wish I had a photo of you but Mum says she doesn't have any. And Nana Meggie said that she had loads but she put them all in a box and now she can't remember where she put it. I offered to help Nana Meggie search through the house for it but she said it'll turn up one day. I want it to turn up today. I want to see you. Very much. Nana Meggie says you didn't like to have your photo taken anyway. I wish you did. It'd be so cool to see how much I look like you. I want to see how much my eyes or my nose or my lips or my forehead or the shape of my face look like yours. What were you like on the inside? I wonder about that a lot. I don't mean what your blood and your heart and your liver looked like. They probably looked like everyone else's. I mean deep on the inside, the bit that sometimes shows itself and sometimes doesn't. I know you liked the outdoors, you loved trees and flowers and nature and stuff. I guess that's why you became a gardener. And I guess that's why you wanted to call me Rose. Mum says that was your idea. I must admit, I didn't like my name until Mum told me it came from you. I guess that's why she calls me Rose instead of Callie Rose, so that you can almost be with us. You must love being in heaven. I bet it's got lots of fields and flowers and sunshine. Perfect for gardeners. I miss you, Daddy. Very much. Mummy doesn't believe me when I say that.
    'You can't miss something you've never had,' she told me. (Have I wrote that right? Mummy said whenever I write down what someone says, I have to put speech marks around the bits that they say and start each person's bit on a new line. I don't suppose you'll mind much if it's wrong.)
    Daddy, I do miss you. I'll write again soon. You're not my homework any more but I like writing – especially to you. It makes me feel like we're talking – or at least I'm talking and you're listening. I really feel like you're looking over my shoulder or you're in my head or my heart, listening. Nana Jasmine said I can have one of her tidy boxes, the velvety one. I'm going to keep my letters to you and all my other precious things in it. And no one can see them except you because it's got a key. (Don't worry, I'll keep the key in a safe place.) I'm not going to write every day – only when I feel like it. I hope that's OK – because like I said, you're not homework any more. But I will keep talking to you because I love you.
    Toodles, Daddy.
    Love,
    Rose

seventeen. Sephy

    The night held a silence that only really ocurred in the early hours of the morning. I could hear a police siren somewhere out there in the distance but the sound was easy to block out. I glanced through the window up at the stars, trying to find the familiar ones which Callum had taught me to look out for. I was in Sonny's house, in a downstairs room that had been turned into a mini-studio. Sonny sat at the keyboard across from me as we tried to put the