The Child Garden by Catriona McPherson Read Free Book Online Page A

weren’t that worried at first. We thought he must have woken up and gone back to the house. We thought maybe he wasn’t feeling well. We’d all been eating sausages we’d cooked in the fire, black on the outside and raw in the middle. So anyway, we packed up and headed back. And then when we were crossing the bridge by the Tarzan swing—do you know where I mean? Where the river’s cut down really deep and there’s sort of cliffs on either side?”
    â€œI think so,” I said. “There’s no Tarzan swing now, but a little wooden footbridge with arches at either end?”
    â€œThat’s it. We put those arches up. Naismith loved a bit of woodwork.”
    â€œSo that’s where it was?”
    â€œYeah. We were crossing the footbridge and Scarlet—Skinny McInnes—started screaming and pointing and we all looked over the side and there he was. Face-down. You could hardly see his head at all with his hair so black like it was and his legs were sunk down, not floating out behind him. So it was just his anorak—he had this really minging orange anorak—and he was turning round and round and round in the current, must have been turning like that for hours.”
    â€œAnd his brother saw him like that?” I said. I remembered Alan Best from primary school. He was the only one in our class who got Mad magazine and he used to lend it out to the other boys for sweets and marbles.
    â€œYeah,” said Stig. “He climbed over the side onto the ledge, but Van grabbed him in time.”
    â€œVan the bully?” I said. “What’s his real name?”
    â€œVan’s real name? Something like Douglas or Dougall,” said Stig. “Anyway, we ran back to the house and after that, it was chaos. Pure hell. The girls were all hysterical. Bezzo was just sitting in the corner with his arms round his shoulders, rocking. Miss Naismith started out like a zombie and then, when she realised what deep shit she was in, she started screaming at us. And she kept trying to phone people and not getting them or not getting the numbers right, because it was like six o’clock on a Wednesday morning and where would anyone be? I don’t even know who she was calling except that it wasn’t the Bests, because the police did that later—when they finally got in. The gates were padlocked and they couldn’t get through. In the end, one of them had to get out and jog all the way up the drive, then Miss Naismith had to calm down enough to find the keys. Anyway, it was bad.
    â€œAnd the scariest thing of all was … We were just kids, right? But none of the adults were … they didn’t … they were all so angry .”
    â€œThey were scared too.”
    He nodded. “I know that now. Naismith must have been terrified. She told so many lies trying to cover her arse. Said she had been out to see that we were all right, asked if we wanted to stay or come in, and that we’d elected to stay out. She said we were all covering for each other, trying to blame her. No one believed her, but she went into orbit with it anyway. Said she’d been out not just once but twice . The first time to ask if we were okay and the second time to persuade us all to come back because she was worried about us and couldn’t sleep.” He laughed and shook his head, remembering. “Twelve of us all saying the same thing and she just stuck with her story.”
    â€œIt does sound traumatic,” I said. “But—” I bit my lip.
    â€œYeah,” said Stig. “I know. But . There’s no glitches. So far the story makes sense, right?”
    â€œKind of. Sorry.”
    â€œSo here goes. The reason I woke up, when I was covered in dew and it was like diamonds? Something woke me. I heard a car, Glo. A car door slammed and the engine started and it drove away. Roared away. There was someone there that night. Someone who didn’t