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Welcome back, he said.
5: Liam
If he’d known the day was going to end with blood and fire, Liam would probably have got up earlier.
As it was he’d stayed in bed until after lunch, and only joined the others later in the afternoon. They’d gone down to the swings by the edge of the cricket field, as always. It was hot and there was nothing to do. The summer holidays were always like this. James was on one of the swings, creaking it back and forth while he scuffed his feet along the ground. Liam was stretched out on the dry grass, trying to set fire to a small pyramid of sticks. There were bees buzzing fatly in the foxgloves by the wall. There were wood pigeons crashing about in the horse chestnut trees. The groundsman was mowing the outfield, and the mower kept cutting out.
Then the girls turned up.
Liam saw James spit on one of his trainers and rub at a grass stain. Deepak was doing something discreet to his hair. They were all pretending they hadn’t noticed the girls.
One of the girls was Sophie, but the other one was new. They were walking all the way around the edge of the field, behind the pavilion and past the line of hawthorn trees at the top of the bank that dropped down to the river.
Sophie Hunter was in their year at school. She lived in a big house on the edge of the village. There were barns and stables and some holiday lets, as well as the actual house. The actual house had five bathrooms; Liam had counted them once. There weren’t even five people living there. It was pure madness.
They’d known Sophie all their lives, but lately she’d been ignoring them. She’d started wearing make-up on the school bus sometimes, and either her skirts had got shorter or her legs had got longer. Not that any of them had mentioned it, or even really noticed.
Why she was heading their way now was almost as interesting a question as who the other girl might be.
Liam’s skin was starting to itch from lying on the dry grass, but it was too late to move.
What’s up, doughnuts? Sophie said.
There’d been a reason she’d started calling them this, once. Now it had just stuck.
They all muttered hello, and looked like they were waiting for the girls to move on. Sophie introduced the other girl: Becky. Becky Shaw. She was staying in one of the barn conversions, apparently, and her family were around for a fortnight.
We were thinking about going swimming, Sophie said.
The boys nodded.
At the flooded quarry, in the woods, Becky said. I found a gap in the fence yesterday.
Sweet, James said, standing up. That was all it took to make a decision. We’ll go and get our stuff.
Liam gave up trying to light the fire, and got to his feet. Becky held out her hand to help him up. Her hand felt small but she was strong. He nodded thanks, ignoring the way James and Deepak were looking at him.
What’s that? Becky asked, pointing to a buzzard which had been quartering overhead for a while.
Golden eagle, said James.
Millennium Falcon, Liam said.
*
They met up at the market square about ten minutes later and walked towards the meadow behind Top Lane. The heat coming off the tarmac was making Liam dizzy. The girls were ignoring them and talking to each other.
The grass in the meadow was long but there was a flattened path running up the side. Thompson had brought his herd in for grazing and there was a deep smell of cowpat. And flies, lurching up from the ground in fat lazy clouds. They heard a pair of gunshots from high up on the moor.
None of them had actually swum in the quarry before. That was something the older teenagers did. It had been fenced off for years, and there were warning signs about the danger. People talked about how deep the water was, and how cold. People said it would be impossible to find your body, if you drowned.
People said a lot of things.
This wasn’t something they were going to discuss, Liam realised. They were going to walk up through the meadow, on to the moor and then down into the woods to the quarry. They were going to find the gap in the fence and jump in, never mind how deep or how cold the w
ater might be. It had just been decided.
They heard another pair of gunshots, and a baggy flock of crows lifted from the trees up ahead, spreading out in a line towards the church and the river.
