AllFreeNovel
Share Us
‘That’s a nice idea,’ Matt said. ‘Why don’t you send a message to mummy on a boat?’
‘Because it’s littering. Mummy wouldn’t like it.’ Oliver had a peculiar little whine to his voice which should have made Amy feel sorry for him, but somehow didn’t.
‘It’s not exactly littering. Paper like this is organic, and it will break down in the water and wash away to nothing, so I think, this once, mummy wouldn’t have minded,’ his dad said.
‘No, she would. She would!’ His voice was trembling. ‘Mummy wouldn’t like it. I don’t want to!’
‘That’s so stupid —’ Harry started to say, but Amy cut him short.
‘That’s fine, you don’t have to if you don’t want to,’ she said, trying to forestall a scene. ‘You’re right, I suppose it is a kind of littering. We’ve finished now, anyway, and it’s starting to rain.’ She looked with envy at their expensive-looking hiking boots and their waterproof coats which seemed to be repelling the drizzle rather than absorbing it, as hers was. ‘Are you off for a hike?’
‘We’re coming home. We didn’t get very far, did we Oliver?’
‘I don’t like it. I’m cold and wet. Mummy never liked walking when it’s wet, we always went to the Pencil Museum and the chocolate shop when it rained.’
Amy looked up at the leaden sky, and thought she and Mrs. Sutherland could have been friends after all.
‘We can’t do that every day,’ said Matt. ‘I thought we might try something different this time. Look, Harry’s happy outside in the rain.’
‘You know what they say, Oliver. There’s no such thing as the wrong kind of weather, only the wrong kind of clothes!’ Amy tried to sound like her mother, even though her own outdoor clothes were clearly the wrong kind. She was getting chilly herself; although the rain wasn’t heavy it was constant, and her hair was bedraggled and clinging in strands to her face. Oliver looked at her as if she’d suggested climbing Scafell in heavy snow.
‘Come on Oliver, do you want to come and skim stones? Mam can skim them half-way across the tarn!’ Harry said.
‘My mummy could’ve skimmed them all the way across if she’d wanted to,’ Oliver said petulantly.
‘Oliver, I don’t think that’s necessarily quite true,’ Matt said.
‘It is!’ His bottom lip began to wobble. ‘It really is.’
‘Whatever,’ said Harry nonchalantly. ‘Come on, let’s go skimming stones!’
Oliver looked up at him and nodded. ‘Okay, wait for me!’
The pair of them ran off in the direction of the little stony beach.
‘Watch where you’re throwing them!’ Amy called after them as they disappeared, and she and Matt followed behind.
It was inevitable. No more than two stones had been skimmed and Amy and Matt had not yet reached the shore when a cry went up.
‘He hit me! Daddy, Harry hit me with a stone.’
They ran the rest of the way, to find Oliver in floods of tears and Harry looking sulky.
‘What have you done now, Harry?’ Amy was mortified.
‘It was an accident!’ Harry insisted. ‘He walked in front of me when I was throwing.’
‘I did not! He hit me hard as with a stone. He did it on purpose. I don’t like skimming stones,’ wailed Oliver.
‘Harry! What did I tell you about being nice to Oliver? Please say sorry.’ Amy couldn’t look at Matt; she was practically shaking with embarrassment. Even though it was an accident, Harry could have tried harder not to let it happen.
‘Sorry, Oliver,’ Harry muttered, looking at the ground. ‘It wasn’t on purpose, and it wasn’t even very hard.’
‘Right, I think it’s time we went back to the campsite, give you some quiet time. Let Oliver stay here and play with his dad for a while.’
‘I don’t want to stay here,’ piped up Oliver. ‘I don’t like it here. I want to go back to the proper campsite, the one we went to with Mummy.’
‘I’m sorry, Oliver, we can’t go back there. There were no spaces left.’
