The Grasshopper's Child (17 page)

‘He's our
mate!
' wailed Andy, jumping around. ‘Leave him
alone!
'

John groaned in despair, flapping his hands, totally demoralised.

Cyril was praying—

Then the girls arrived. Challon and Brook had known Joe Florence all their lives. They might have been able to reach him through the red mist, but the three of them had biked madly from the Garden House. Brook, who wasn't supposed to ‘exert herself', had hit her limit and beyond. She crawled out of the thorns, tried to stand and immediately crumpled to the ground. Challon had to look out for Brook. Which left only Heidi: who launched herself without hesitation at the big goon's broad back. Knees gripping his ribs, she wound his topknot in one fist and hauled, while clawing at a meaty earlobe with the nails of her other hand and screaming, ‘
LAY OFF! LAY OFF!
' at the top of her voice.

Joe, this girl's voice shrieking at him, assailed by horrific pain, could not shake her loose: not unless he stopped destroying Clancy for a moment—

Heidi dropped to the ground. Clancy collapsed too.

‘What did you do that for?' demanded Joe, sobered and nursing his ear. ‘You had NO RIGHT! Whoever you are. You don't understand the meaning of a FAIR FIGHT—'

‘I SAW NO FAIR FIGHT' yelled Heidi, still fired up. ‘I SAW SOMETHING THAT HAD TO BE STOPPED, and all I did was STOP YOU.'

Jo had been at the Blue Anchor, washing up and having a political discussion with Tanya, who boarded there, when she got the Mayday call. By the time she managed to reach the scene, all was quiet. Everyone, including her stupid Godzilla of a twin, was sitting in a circle on the turf beside the gangling, shambling birds-nest Tower.

Joe struggled with what Heidi had done. ‘You're crazy. What if I'd had a knife?'

Heidi was struggling with her mad act herself. She shrugged. ‘I knew you didn't. Or Clancy would've been getting stabbed up.'

‘Will someone tell me what this “tower” is about,' mumbled Clancy, counting his teeth with his tongue; surprised to find they were still in his head. ‘I don't get it. Usually, when guys run away from Ag. Camp, don't they try
not
to be noticed?'

‘You stay away from your home town, too,' said Jo, bitterly. ‘And you don't ask your sister to smuggle out food to you, when the Learning Centre Manager's parked in your mum's very pub. But I can't talk to them. Joe's thicker than two short planks, and worse he doesn't know it, and Bryan worships the ground the big idiot treads on.'

‘It's not stupid,' said Bryan. ‘It's a wrecking trap for pirates. Like in the olden days.'

‘
Pirates?
' Clancy snorted. ‘Well, yohoho. Are we in Disneyland?'

‘There are pirates, don't you worry. Unlike some people,' said Joe, glaring at Clancy, ‘
We
didn't bunk off the Call-up because we're afraid of hard work. We've returned to defend our own against the dirty rotten filthy buccaneers.
Someone's
got to do something.'

The Mehilhoc Exempt Teens fell silent then. They looked at the turf, they looked at the sky, they looked everywhere except at each other, and nobody spoke. The Hooded Boy had pulled down his hood, hiding his battered face. ‘I think you may genuinely have saved my life,' he said quietly to Heidi. ‘That was insane, what you did.'

‘I know. I was lucky to get away with it. Are you okay?'

‘More or less.'

‘Well, I'm Sam,' announced the middle-sized tower-builder at last. ‘I was bunking with Bryan at Junior Ag. Camp, when Joe came to bust him out. It's short for
Samedi
.'

‘That's a great name,' said Heidi. ‘What was it like, at the Ag.Camp?'

‘
Terrible
,' growled Joe. ‘They're all terrible. It's slave labour. The whole of Lincolnshire is one big multi-storey mycel-house, full of kids doing work machines should do, night and day—'

‘I actually think it's cool,' remarked Challon, looking up and squinting. ‘The Tower, I mean. Pity we can't burn it on Bonfire Night.'

John had a grievance with Andy. ‘Why was Heidi in the Mayday loop when you called for help? That's not fair. She's only lived here a few weeks. I had to wait
much
longer.' He didn't mention the absence of George and Sorrel: that was understood.

‘She bunks at the
proper
Big House,' explained Andy. ‘And she's urban, she knows about fights. You saw her. So that's why. But you're okay too, despite your dad's funguses.'

Belonging

Think about your place

In this big round ball of lives

Flying through Outer Space

Like a Multi-coloured Prize

Think about the dive and dart

Of your trembling bright thread

Bound with All, right from the Start

From when you're born until you're dead.

14: The Cop In The Woods

The Exempt Teens headed off in different directions to avoid drawing attention to the Tower. Brook, Challon and Heidi took to the woods: Challon and Heidi wheeling their own bikes, and taking turns with Brook's. The April wood was magical. Glittering showers of birdsong fell on them; new leaves glowed in the afternoon sunlight. Milky-yellow primroses clustered by the track; starry windflowers, and a few unfurling bluebells, nodded under the trees. The Bad Dream Cat was going to be okay. She'd just rescued Clancy and had a huge bonding experience with the Teens. Heidi ought to have been feeling really good. Instead she felt more and more uneasy, and Brook and Challon's carefully natural conversation sounded more and more false—

What had the tower-builders been talking about?
What
‘buccaneers'? Why did everybody get struck dumb, when Joe Florence said
Someone's got to do something—?

‘It's probably like schools used to be,' said Brook. ‘Some camps are bad, some are average, some are okay, and some are really great.'

‘And you can make your own luck,' added Challon. ‘Honestly, they're kidding themselves. Nobody's chasing them. Who'd want Big Joe on their work team? The truth is, Heidi, Jo's mum's had a text from the Ag. Camp Office, saying her boys were absent, and
if
she was concerned
, she ought to report them missing. She hasn't. And nothing's happened.'

‘So they're safe where they are?' said Heidi. ‘Apart from the, er, the pirates?'

‘Yeah, but better not say anything,' said Brook. ‘I mean, not to anyone.'

‘I won't.'

The trail led uphill, and it was a long, slow climb. Brook had insisted she was fine when they left the Tower: they soon knew they shouldn't have listened to her. She stopped talking. Her pale face became as grim as if she was struggling up Everest.

‘Let's have a rest,' suggested Challon. ‘Pouf! I'm absolutely bushed—'

‘No you're not,' snapped Brook. ‘Don't stop for me, I'd rather get on. We'll be on the flat soon, then it's hardly half a mile to the Fiveways Post, and after that it's all downhill.'

‘But why don't we get your mum to come and pick us up, anyway? She always has a
bit
of charge spare, the van can handle these tracks, and I'm sure she wouldn't mind.'

‘Because we're out of WiMax cover here, idiot. It's a gap. Did you forget that?'

‘What if one of us takes a bike, and calls Mrs Healey where there's signal?' offered Heidi.

‘I'd be good for that, and you guys could wait here. Which way do I go?'

‘That would be great, Heidi,' said Challon at once. ‘You carry on up this, to a T junction. Turn right, carry on to the Fiveways Post. Then take the half-right,
not
the sharp right. You'll have signal as soon as you start heading downhill—' She stopped, looking at Heidi suspiciously. ‘You'll be all right? You do know, roughly, where we are, don't you?'

‘Er, No. No idea. All these trees look the same. But if you tell me again, slowly—'

Chall and Brook stared, as if they couldn't believe anyone could be so stupid. ‘Let's get on with it,' said Brook, wearily. ‘It won't help if Heidi ends up lost. I'm just tired, I'm not going to drop dead.'

Heidi walked in front with two bikes, feeling terrible. She wanted to race off and save the day, but she really
didn't
know where she was, and all these trees
did
look the same—

Except there was something different, up ahead.

‘There's a Traveller van,' she announced, quietly. ‘By the track. There's a man. He's
looking
at us—'

‘Can't be,' said Challon. ‘We don't get Travellers, apart from Andy's mum.'

But Heidi was right. Soon the van was clearly visible. The tall man Heidi had seen, watching their approach through a screen of leaves, sat by his campfire, feet up on a stump.

A thin stream of blue smoke rose from the flames.

Travellers were unfairly persecuted by the Empire, though nobody seemed to know why. But that didn't mean they were innocent; not all of them. It was a lonely place. A little child's long ago, bewildered fear crept under Heidi's skin. Brook was ready to drop. Was it safe to ask for help? Challon's eyes said
no
. But Brook made the decision herself, stumbling off the trail and sitting down as if she was falling down, on a log by the fire.

‘Afternoon mister,' said Heidi.

‘Afternoon yourselves,' said the van man. ‘Fancy a cuppa? Your mate looks all in.'

‘That would be great,' said Heidi, since there was no help for it. ‘Thanks.'

‘Take milk? I only have Condensed.'

‘Condensed is
good
,' whispered Brook.

The man stood up: he was very tall. He disappeared into the van, and rattled around. A laden tin tray got shoved out onto the top step, but the man didn't reappear. Heidi shrugged, and went to fetch it. There was a hunk of glorious fresh bread, and a pat of butter in a burdock leaf. Thick Condensed Milk in a can, and a jar of jam. The brew, black and sweet, had been poured for them into two handle-less mugs and a chipped highball glass.

‘Strengthening Mixture,' said Challon, adding a generous slug of Condensed to one of the mugs, for Brook. ‘Just what you need.'

The tall man reappeared and sat on a different stump; keeping his distance. He wasn't young, he wasn't old. His skin was the ruddy brown of a white guy who's lived a lot outdoors; crinkled around the sharp blue eyes that studied them from under the peak of a greasy old flat cap.

‘Get her to eat something. Spoon or two of jam. It's Greengage, best eating plum in the world. Maybe you other two'll tackle some with bread and butter.'

‘I'm okay,' said Brook, looking better. ‘Thanks, Mister. I really am.'

‘You'll do in a bit,' said Mr Tactful. ‘You just got an energy crash.'

Heidi sipped her brew. The van's back wheels had been removed, replaced by chocks of wood, and it was filthy. But under the dirt, and despite the mobility problems, she could tell it was not your average crock. And there was something
funny
about that little chimney—

‘You on your own here, Mister?' asked Challon.

‘As you see,' replied the van-man, easily. ‘Passing through.'

‘Don't go in the fenced woods, okay? The landowners here don't like trespassers.'

‘Thanks for that. I'll watch out.'

The tea was good, the bread and butter and jam sheer luxury. The van man wished them a good evening and the girls walked on: Chall pushing two bikes this time, Heidi pushing one. They reached the Fiveways Post, and turned half right. Soon Heidi realised this was the track that led past the back gate of the Garden House. They were almost home, and they'd been completely silent, as if the van man had put a spell on them, since they stopped for tea.

As soon as the Garden House was in sight. Brook took out her phone. ‘I'll get mum now, might as well. D'you want a lift to yours, Chall?'

‘I won't wait,' said Heidi. ‘See you soon: I'm late for making their dinner.'

She hopped on her bike. When she'd dumped it in the shed and checked all was well in the kitchen she came out again to lock the back gate. Chall and Brook were still there, waiting for Brook's mum. They were talking urgently, heads close together.

She couldn't hear a word, but she knew what they were saying.

Cop
.

That helpful Traveller, with his sneakily disguised van, was some kind of copper. It was written all over him. Heidi had been thinking the exact same thing herself, but she was inner-city girl. How come Chall and Brook had the radar? Heidi shut the gate, locked it and returned indoors, more uneasy than ever. Why were her country friends afraid of a cop?

She wondered if they'd noticed the other,
really
weird thing about him.