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    Swan Song
    Swan Song
    Swan Song
    Ebook68 pages50 minutes

    Swan Song

    By Gill Lewis

    4/5

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    About this ebook

    Award-winning author Gill Lewis explores the redemptive power of nature for struggling young people in this touching tale.

    Excluded from school, Dylan is forced to move to a tiny village in Wales where his grandad lives.

    With no Xbox or internet, life is looking pretty bleak, but when Grandad takes Dylan out on his boat to see the whooper swans, things begin to change.

    Out on the water, free from all the pressure he’s been under, Dylan begins to feel like himself again. But when the swans’ habitat is threatened and tragedy strikes at home, can Dylan keep going when it feels like everything is slipping out of control again?

    A profoundly moving novel on the redemptive, healing power of nature from bestseller Gill Lewis.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins UK
    Release dateFeb 4, 2021
    ISBN9781800900301
    Swan Song
    Author

    Gill Lewis

    Gill Lewis spent much of her childhood in the garden, where she ran a small zoo and a veterinary hospital for creepy-crawlies, mice, and birds. When she grew up, she became a real vet and a writer for children. She lives in Somerset, England, and writes from a tree house in the company of squirrels. She is the author of the Puppy Academy books.

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      Book preview

      Swan Song - Gill Lewis

      I’m waiting for an angel.

      My angel.

      I even have a long white feather from one of her wings. It’s so bright that it seems to glow with its own light.

      It sounds a bit crazy, I know. I’m sitting here on the edge of the marsh watching the sky, waiting for her to come back to me. The sky is so big here. This is where the river meets the sea. Beyond the marsh are green fields dotted with sheep, and beyond those are the distant mountains.

      I’ve been watching for days, but this evening there’s a cold north wind. It feels as if winter is on its way. The trees are losing their leaves, and the setting sun is turning the sky and the big watery marsh to gold.

      It’s the perfect evening. I know she’ll arrive tonight.

      I suppose she’s not really an angel. Not in the way people think about angels. But she is one to me.

      She changed my life.

      She saved me.

      It’s a long story. But it’s true.

      It all started a year ago, when I was kicked out of school.

      Chapter 1

      Is there anything you’d like to say before you go? said the head teacher.

      We were in his office with Asim, Asim’s mother, my mum and me.

      I stared at the trophy cabinet behind him full of gold and silver cups. His walls were decorated with pupils’ artwork, and on the table was a whole book of newspaper cuttings about all the great things that pupils from the school had done. I didn’t fit in there. I wasn’t a team player, as I was often told. I was letting the school down. I was letting everyone else down. I was letting myself down. I was a let-down. A failure. A fail.

      I didn’t want to say anything.

      Dylan, said the head teacher again, is there anything you want to say to Asim before you go? Do you want to say sorry?

      I looked over at Asim, at his black eye and the stitches above his eyebrow where I’d punched him. Some sticky tape held his broken glasses together.

      No, I mumbled. He deserved it.

      Well, I think that says it all, said the head teacher as he stood up. I think we all know what is in everyone’s best interests.

      Mum sniffed, and I could see she was crying. I felt mad with her for crying. I pushed my chair back, got up and walked to the door. I saw Asim’s mum put her arms around my mum and hug her.

      I looked at the head teacher, and he shook his head slowly at me. He didn’t say another thing.

      I had been expelled.

      Permanently excluded.

      I turned and walked out of the school and didn’t look back.

      *

      I got in the car and just stared out of the window. It was a grey day. A no-colour day. One of those days so grey, the whole city seems like it’s in black and white.

      Mum started the car up and pulled away from the school. I wasn’t going back there again. Ever again. I’d got through Year Seven and into Year Eight, and I’d been kicked out before half-term. Maybe I should have been angry or scared, or even happy that it was all over. I should have felt something. But in truth, I didn’t feel anything at all.

      Well, that’s it then, said Mum.

      I had nothing to say, and we drove home.

      Mum pulled into the drive, and I walked into the house after her. There were boxes and bags in the hallway that hadn’t been there before.

      What’s going on? I said.

      Mum turned to look at me. We can’t stay here. If I can’t work, I can’t pay the rent.

      I frowned at her. What are you talking about?

      Mum shook her head. How can I work if you’re not at school?

      Just go to work, I said. I’m fine.

      You have no idea, do you? snapped Mum. "I can’t leave you on your own. I have to find a way

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