by Fleur Ferris
‘Sierra loved it here,’ Rachel says. ‘I know this is where she’d want her ashes scattered.’
Rachel walks over to the fence.
‘Goodbye, my beautiful angel,’ she says. She gently shakes some of the ash from the urn and the breeze takes it. It swirls with the snow, floating, staying with us.
Rachel turns to me and passes the urn. I shake out some ash.
‘Goodbye.’ My voice cracks. ‘Best friends forever.’
Rachel holds the urn towards Mum. She takes it.
‘Be free,’ she whispers. The ash flies away from us with a small gust of wind.
Mum passes it to Callum. He holds it out and watches some ash blow away.
‘Forever young and beautiful,’ he says.
Rachel smiles and puts the urn back into her jacket. She’ll come back with Cassy and Dave later today to release the rest of Sierra’s ashes. They’re coming back to this place but they want it to be just them. Right now, we all sit, looking out at the mountains. Nothing is said. Rachel is first to go. Mum follows not long after, leaving Callum and me alone with our memories of Sierra.
‘Part of me doesn’t want to leave,’ I say. ‘I don’t want to leave her.’
‘She’s not here,’ Callum says. ‘She’s here.’ He taps my chest, over my heart. ‘She’s with you – a part of you, always.’
We sit for a while longer and then walk back to our skis and clip them on. I take my beanie off as we start down the mountain. Callum is in front. Neither of us is very good on the skis. We’re moving slowly, doing what the instructor said to do to wash off speed. My hair whips out behind me and cold air streams over my face and swirls around my neck. It’s cleansing, a release.
I hold my poles out to the sides and look up to the sky. I close my eyes and for a few seconds, there’s nothing but the sound of my skis sliding through snow and the feeling of icy air on my skin. I open my eyes, waver a bit on the skis and almost fall over. When I recover, I take a deep breath and let it go.
I miss Sierra every day and she’s never far from my thoughts. When I think of her, I laugh, I cry, I experience the full spectrum of emotions, but one thing always remains the same. I can’t change what happened and that is something that I have to learn to live with. Life is precious. And I will honour Sierra losing hers by not wasting mine. I’m going to follow my dreams and be more honest about my feelings. I’m going to worry less about the little things and, most importantly, I will allow myself to be happy. Happy to be alive, happy to be me.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I have so many people to thank. Firstly to my agent, Tara Wynne, for her editorial advice, ongoing support and for believing in me. To my publisher, Zoe Walton, and editor, Bronwyn O’Reilly, for making Risk the very best it can be. To all the team at Random House, thank you! To Roger Shaw, for reading everything I’ve ever sent. To Michelle Coleman, Julie Proudfoot, Rebecca James, Richard Duerden and Heather Hill whose input, guidance, advice and friendship is invaluable. Again to Rebecca James – thanks for supplying a dazzling quote for the cover. And again to Richard Duerden, who read countless drafts, introduced Risk to his school and used it as a class text, and to class 8D 2014 at IESG, who read Risk and gave feedback. Special mention to Emma Garcia Strid and Stina Berglund, who trial-read Risk before it went out to the whole class. Thanks to Anne and Natasha Brown for their inspiration and help with plotting, and to Luke Fabris, computer genius, who helped me research this book. To Lauren and Chloe Barone, for helping with the fine details. To the brilliant photographer, John White, who assisted with research. And thanks to those who read early drafts: Joan Torney, Megan Ferris, Luci Broadhurst, Olivia Watson, Ivy Wise, Rachel Broadhead, and to the fabulous women in my online writers group: Carol McDowall, Claire Vlattas, Elizabeth Williams, Sharon Landy and Giovana Vitola. To my parents, Joan and Lionel Torney, my in-laws, Kerry and Lynton Ferris, and my extended family for supporting me, always. Last, but certainly not least, thanks to David Ferris, who supports me in everything I do, and to our children, Zoe, Tia and Eve, who share me with all of this.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Fleur Ferris spent the first seventeen years of her life growing up on a farm in Patchewollock, northwest Victoria. She then moved twenty times in twenty years.
During this time, Fleur sometimes saw the darker side to life while working for a number of years as a police officer and a paramedic.
She now lives a more settled lifestyle on a rice farm in southern New South Wales, with her husband and three young children.
Fleur’s colourful and diverse background has given her unique insight into today’s society and an endless pool of experiences to draw from. When she isn’t weaving this through young adult fiction, reading or spending time with her family, you will find her with friends, talking about art, books and travel.
Risk is Fleur’s first novel for young adults.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted by any person or entity, including internet search engines or retailers, in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including printing, photocopying (except under the statutory exceptions provisions of the Australian Copyright Act 1968), recording, scanning or by any information storage and retrieval system without the prior written permission of Random House Australia. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.
Version 1.0
Risk
9780857986481
First published by Random House Australia in 2015
Copyright © Fleur Ferris, 2015
The moral right of the author has been asserted.
A Random House Australia book
Published by Random House Australia Pty Ltd
Level 3, 100 Pacific Highway, North Sydney NSW 2060
www.randomhouse.com.au
Random House Books is part of the Penguin Random House group of companies whose addresses can be found at global.penguinrandomhouse.com/offices.
National Library of Australia
Cataloguing-in-Publication entry
Creator: Ferris, Fleur, author
Title: Risk / Fleur Ferris
ISBN: 978 0 85798 648 1 (ebook)
Target audience: For young adults
Subjects: Online chat groups – fiction
Internet abduction – fiction
Suspense fiction
Dewey number: A823.4
Cover images © Hero Images/Getty Images; Ivakoleva/Shutterstock
Cover design by Christabella Designs
eBook production by Firstsource
This 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 persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Loved the book?
* * *
There’s so much more stuff to check out online
AUSTRALIAN READERS:
randomhouse.com.au/teens
NEW ZEALAND READERS:
randomhouse.co.nz/teens
* * *
