Free The True Tale of the Monster Billy Dean by David Almond

closer.
    “Iyv sene you wen you sleep William. Ive cum in with yor mam in the ded of nite & lookd down on you as you dreamd. Ive lookd down as you turnd in yor bed and opend yor eyes for a moment as sleepers often do. So maybe you saw me in what you thort wer dremes. Do you remember enything of me?”
    I trembl as she aproaches.
    “Do you Billy?” says Mam. “Anser Missus Malone, son.”
    I look bak at Missus Malone. Yes thers sumthin like her alredy in me. Sum imaj or sum memry. Payl fays cold eyes & jetblak hare.
    “I d-dont . . .” I say.
    “Of cors you dont.” She prods my sholder with her stik. She leans down to me & I feel her cold breth fall acros me. “But as wel as lookin down on you in resent yers I was also with you at the very start William Dean. I was ther 13 years ago wen you wer a sloppy thing a tiny bluddy screemin thing. I was ther on the day of doom.”
    She poynts at my fays with the stik and trases the shayp of a fase in the air with it.
    “And look at you now” she says. “William Dean on the day of his second birth. William Dean becomin all growed up. Thers much to lern & much to do. We all hav work for you to lern & do. The butcha yor mother & me. Blinkbonnys waytin for you. Dont let us down. Wil you let us down? Say no Missus Malone I wont let you down.”
    I look at Mam. She nods.
    “N-no Missus M-Malone” I say. “I w-wont l-let . . .”
    “Good boy” she ansers. “Now the butcha & I wil go & leev you both in peese for now. You hav much to becom accustomd to.”
    She steps towards the owtside dore & opens it. I see the sky so huje & brite. I see Blinkbonnys smithereens. I see the world of things that I dont recognyz or no. The things I hav no words for yet but the things that I wil cum to no & naym so wel. My hed reels & reels agen.
    “Blinkbonny” I wisper. “Blinkbonny. Blinkbonny.”
    The butcha laffs.
    “Yes thats its name” he says. “And yes the stayt of it is dredful & yes all kinds of horras & evils are to be fownd in it. But ther are meny wunders too & they lie in wayt for you yung Billy Dean!”
    And he lifts me from my chair & holds me in his arms agenst his massiv chest. And Mam cums to him and is held agenst him too.
    “A boy born in Blinkbonny!” he says. “O what a joyful day this is.”
    And then the 2 of them are gon & Mam cliks shut the dore agen.
    “What a lucky woman is this Veronica” she says “to have frends lyk Mr McCaufrey & Missus Malone & to hav this lovely boy named Billy Dean.”

Next dawn we stand together at the windo & we lissen to the birds the way they sing owt for exitement as the lite cums bak the way they screech & tweet & hawk & call & make that lovely sownd thats bene sung owt each mornin sins the start of tym.
    “Even here in Blinkbonny,” she says. “Even in the ruins & the wayst they sing.”
    She draws aside the curtan. I am mor redy for Blinkbonny now. She giyds my eyes & tels them what they see. She tells me thats a shattad howse & thats a borded hows & thats whats left of a lovly cottaj & thats a warl thats farlen down & thats a plase wer a hows wons was & they ar weeds & that is grass & thats a tree & thats a rode & thats a hole & thats the smoke from a smolderin fyr & thats a ruin & thats bene smashd & thats bene bashd & thats bene left to rack & ruin & look at how its all in smithereens & it was all suppowsd to be fixd up it was all suppowsd to be so different now & what a dredful dredful shaym it is.
    I try to mayk the things I see match up with the words she speaks. I feel Blinkbonny begin to enter me. And I am dazzld by the sky that has no end to it & by the numba of things that lie owt ther. I watch the way the breez moves through the rubbl & lifts the dust & how it blows the foliaj of the trees that gro up through the ruwins.
    I lissen to the lovely nayms of things & I speak them owt along with her & feel them dancin on my tung & movin on the air & singin in my brane.
    I say the word Blinkbonny tym & tym & tym