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child garden
werenât that worried at first. We thought he must have woken up and gone back to the house. We thought maybe he wasnât feeling well. Weâd all been eating sausages weâd 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 swingâdo you know where I mean? Where the riverâs cut down really deep and thereâs sort of cliffs on either side?â
âI think so,â I said. âThereâs no Tarzan swing now, but a little wooden footbridge with arches at either end?â
âThatâs it. We put those arches up. Naismith loved a bit of woodwork.â
âSo thatâs where it was?â
âYeah. We were crossing the footbridge and ScarletâSkinny McInnesâstarted 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 anorakâhe had this really minging orange anorakâand he was turning round and round and round in the current, must have been turning like that for hours.â
âAnd his brother saw him like that?â 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.
âYeah,â said Stig. âHe climbed over the side onto the ledge, but Van grabbed him in time.â
âVan the bully?â I said. âWhatâs his real name?â
âVanâs real name? Something like Douglas or Dougall,â said Stig. âAnyway, 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 oâclock on a Wednesday morning and where would anyone be? I donât even know who she was calling except that it wasnât the Bests, because the police did that laterâwhen they finally got in. The gates were padlocked and they couldnât 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.
âAnd the scariest thing of all was ⦠We were just kids, right? But none of the adults were ⦠they didnât ⦠they were all so angry .â
âThey were scared too.â
He nodded. âI 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 weâd 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 sheâd 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 couldnât sleep.â He laughed and shook his head, remembering. âTwelve of us all saying the same thing and she just stuck with her story.â
âIt does sound traumatic,â I said. âButââ I bit my lip.
âYeah,â said Stig. âI know. But . Thereâs no glitches. So far the story makes sense, right?â
âKind of. Sorry.â
âSo 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 didnât