Wind Takes Half the Words

At Saltmarrow the wind came off the cliff and took half of Orla Benbow’s words before she reached the end of them, so she started again from the first, slower, one hand flat on the cold school wall. Twelve words, the same twelve, and no paper anywhere on her. A boy at the rail mouthed them after her and got the eighth wrong. She let it stand, made him say it again, and waited until he had it right.