The Team and the Move (Team books Book 3)

by S G Read

  With no news by the following Saturday and no need to look at other houses, the two boys made their way to the tree house to meet with the rest of the team. The ladder was already up when they reached the tree house and they climbed up to find the rest of the team there. By now everyone knew all about Stuart’s move.

  'Anything to report?' Stuart asked when he sat in his place.

  Ben raised an arm.

  'Yes Ben?'

  'My brother said he don’t mind running us out there if we pay for the petrol but some of us work on Saturdays.' Ben answered.

  'How many of you work on Saturdays?' Stuart asked, expecting one or two.

  Every hand went up with the exception of his. His jaw dropped.

  'Some of you aren’t thirteen yet!' He complained.

  'Yeah but some of us can say we are and get believed.' Sherman replied.

  'What about you J.C.?' Stuart asked.

  'Working at my dad’s place.' J.C. answered.

  Stuart knew by experience what it was like to be on the bad side of your father and conceded that it was still work and therefore, not to be taken lightly.

  'So it looks like me and Stevey can explore on the Saturday when we move and you lot can invade us on the Sunday, as long as it’s all right with my mum and dad.'

  They all nodded in agreement, even Stevey who had raised his arm. He only had his paper round now as the butcher had a new butcher’s boy and he knew he could get round the paper round problem. Talk turned to school and Simon had his say about Peter Candler, the boy who terrorised the school with his large friend. The boys who went to other schools were glad they did not go to the same school as Simon, Simon spent the whole of all break times hiding to make sure Candler or his goliath did not see him. As a rule lessons were uninterrupted but not all the time!

  'Do you wish we were in the jungle again?' C.J asked.

  'No way!' J.C. declared. 'My bum was so hot when I was ill, I was ready to die!' J.C. had contracted dysentery in the jungle but Stuart had been able to help him get over it.

  'Yeah but after that, when we were a team and beat old José!' C. J. continued.

  'Yes that was neat!' Simon declared. 'When I dropped the log and that bloke flew up in the air, then I let it fall all the way down onto the other bloke and the man up in the air fell on another one!'

  They all laughed, they could now that they were safe. Then they were literally fighting for their lives against men, who held no value for the life of a small boy!

  'It’s sad really.' Toby said, not correcting anyone for a change. 'I don’t miss Millie but we should start playing again, now that we are a team and all that!' Toby had been their striker. The Millie he spoke of was their manager Milton Miller who had been bitten by a snake trying to save Stevey. The same snake had bitten Stevey but Millie died whereas Stevey recovered again with Stuart’s help.

  'We start on the Sunday we move then!' Stuart declared. 'There is a bit of land next to the house and we are trying to buy it but even if we don’t get it we’ll train on it!'

  'I don’t believe how quick they put houses on our old pitch!' Colin Stone complained.

  'Yeah we were only gone for a couple of months!' Sherman agreed.

  'Maybe Millie knew about the houses and that’s why he was quitting.' John Taylor declared.

  'It’s retiring.' Toby corrected. 'Managers retire.'

  'Or get the sack!' Simon added.

  'Are asked to resign.' Toby replied.

  'But they get the sack if they refuse to resign!' Simon said triumphantly.

  'Getting back to the present.' Stuart said patiently. 'Stevey and me-'

  'Stevey and I.' Toby corrected.

  'Stevey and me, will check it out on the Saturday we move, we might even start clearing it!' Stuart said less patiently, making sure Toby did not interrupt again. 'Now any other business?'

  They talked about other things, then they split up to go home, Stevey went home with Stuart as his mother was working and the flat would be empty. As usual, Wendy tried to force as much food into him as she could, just to make sure he did not go hungry. Then they played on Stuart’s computer until Pat called for Stevey. Pat stopped for coffee as she usually did to give the two boys time to "finish up".

  The house had no board outside to say that it was sold and things moved too slowly for Stuart. He wanted to move tomorrow. The weeks dragged by with little or no movement, mainly due to the solicitors milking it for all they could get out of it, then one day the letter came! The completion date, Saturday June the twelfth. He looked at his mother’s calendar and checked for the end of term, they broke up for the summer holidays on Friday the eighteenth of June. His spirit soared, his mother was bound to keep him home for that week as it was so near the end of term.

  Now there are firms which will pack up your belongings for you, load them into their van and take them to your new house without you lifting a finger but Wendy did not want anyone packing up her things but her. Consequently the boxes arrived, not cardboard but tea chests, the real McCoy. Wendy slowly pack things into the tea chests while David was at work and Stuart was at school, which meant the house slowly emptied and the garage slowly filled with full tea chests. Stuart’s room emptied, including the book he had taken to Florida which now sported a bullet hole right through it. It was his trophy, his memory of the time in the jungle. The day Wendy packed it he noticed it was gone!

  'Mum!' He yelled down the stairs, fearing the worst. 'Where’s my book?'

  'Which one?' Wendy yelled back.

  'The one with the hole in it!'

  'I packed it today.' Wendy called from the bottom of the stairs. 'Don’t worry, I made sure it was well protected! That book means as much to me as it does to you!'

  Stuart breathed a sigh of relief. 'Thanks mum.' He looked round the room, it was bare apart from his bed and his desk with the computer on it. The state of his room brought home how close they were to the day they were moving. He chose to walk round the house looking in all the rooms, the spare room was empty and spotless. He closed the door quickly, to make sure he did not make it dirty. All the rooms were the same, the only things in them were what they would need up until the move. He found Wendy in the kitchen.

  'It’s like a ghost house mum!' He said excitedly.

  'It does echo a bit now.' Wendy admitted. 'But I’d rather have it this way than let a clumsy removal man break something I hold dear!'

  'Are they all clumsy then?'

  Wendy laughed 'probably not but I am taking no chances, after our last move.'

  'What when we came here?'

  Wendy nodded.

  'Did they break lots then?'

  'No, not lots, just things I wanted to keep.'

  'Like what?'

  'Like that ashtray you made at primary school.'

  'That bent bit of clay?'

  'That ashtray.' Wendy replied. 'Made by your own fair hands.'

  'But that was horrible! I was glad we got rid of it!'

  'But we didn’t. I glued it back together, all those little bits. It took ages.'

  'You didn’t!'

  'No I didn’t but you’re missing the point.' Wendy declared. 'You made it for me and I wanted to keep it for ever.'

  'That doesn’t make any sense, it was awful.'

  'What if you had been eaten by that snake when you were in the jungle? It would be one of the things I could keep to remember you!'

  'It was Si who was nearly eaten by the snake but we turned the tables and ate the snake.'

  'So I have been told but not by you, I might add, I had to wait and it was Ben who told me in the end but I had to force it out of him!'

  Stuart knew where this was leading. 'I have homework to do.' He said as a reason to escape.

  'Do your homework then but we’ll talk afterwards.'

  Stuart scampered up the stairs but not to do his fictitious homework.

  Chapter 2

  The day of the move came. Stuart had not slept much that night an
d was forced out of his bed at the ungodly hour of six in the morning, much to his annoyance. It was worse when he found Stevey already helping to load things on the removal van. Stevey was bright and cheery and it soon rubbed off on Stuart. It was hard work loading the van and after a meal break they drove off with the van following. They did not wait for the van as the removal men knew where to go and David had to go out of his way to collect the keys to the new house.

  The excitement grew as they neared the new house, Stuart could picture them out on the grass playing football but when they turned into the drive he had a shock. Nature had started to take over and instead of long grass to contend with there were shrubs of various sizes. In his usual way he turned it into an advantage.

  'We won’t have to put up any goal posts if those trees are in the right place.' He declared.

  'We will just have to make the pitch to suit them until we have cleared it enough to make our own goal posts!' Stevey added.

  They were out of the car as soon as it stopped and stood waiting for David by the front door. David opened it to let them in but insisted on carrying Wendy over the threshold, ignoring her complaints. The boys ran from room to room to remind them what it was like, then when they had explored inside they explored the garden, what there was of it. Soon they were by the fence by the side of the house looking out into the field.

  'Going to be a lot of work!' Stevey said quietly.

  'A lot of work.' Stuart conceded. 'But that bit there should do for today!' He pointed to a patch of grass with two saplings just looking like goal posts.

  They ran indoors for tools but without the van, there were no tools and they were told in no uncertain terms, that unloading came first, everything else second! As they had to wait, they took the ball from the car and they all kicked about in the street waiting for the van to arrive, even Wendy. When the van turned into the end of the road, there was a ragged cheer and then all they did was carry boxes into the house and dumped them where Wendy had earmarked them for. David put the beds together as soon as they were upstairs, as he assumed he would not feel like it later. As soon as he put the beds together Wendy put the duvets and mattress covers on them. She would have gladly laid down on one and slept but there was more work to be done. Slowly the van emptied, by then the kitchen was up and running. She produced tea, coffee, toast and biscuits to keep everyone going. The van drivers left after a final cup of coffee and they were alone in their new house. As it was still light outside Stuart and Stevey took the ball and started clearing the ground until they had enough room to kick the ball about, that would do until tomorrow when their help would arrive. Although there were four bedrooms Stevey’s bed was erected in the same room as Stuart but there was to be no talking into the night, they were both sound asleep in minutes.

  Stuart opened his eyes when he heard his name.

  'What’s up?' He asked wiping the sleep out of his eyes.

  'They’re here!' Stevey declared from the window.

  Stuart was beside him immediately to watch the rest of the Minton team emerge from Charlie’s little van.

  'How do they all get in there?' Stuart asked as he dressed hurriedly.

  'It’s easy, you just have to put the right boy in the right place.' Stevey replied. 'You ought to see them when they have the bikes in there!'

  'They don’t?'

  'How do you think we kept tabs on Billy the porter when he was ill-treating you? Mind you the most we managed was four bikes and the rest of us but if I’m already here then they might get another bike in there.'

  They scampered downstairs to meet them and Ben’s older brother Charlie. Wendy served up breakfast for all and then Ben’s brother left promising to return at seven o’clock with the warning to Ben that they ought to be ready or it will cost him more money!

  'How can you afford to pay him?' Stuart whispered.

  'I’ve still got a few hundred dollar bills from the plane crash, he can pay them into his bank and when it’s all used up I give him another one!' Ben whispered back. 'When it’s all gone we’ll have to share the cost.'

  Stuart nodded, it sounded right, putting the drug money to good use.

  After breakfast they worked hard clearing the ground, until the pitch was declared as big as it was going to get today and football took over, the two saplings as one goal and two bags as the other. They stopped to eat a Sunday roast, then tried to play football afterwards, not an easy task but they stuck to it.

  Stuart watched them go in the evening, feeling a little sad but Stevey was still here, although Stuart did not know why. He went in search of his father and found him in the garage, still unpacking boxes.

  'When is Stevey going home dad?'

  'Not for a while Stuart, he seems to have gone down with the flu.'

  A smile lit up Stuart’s face. 'What about me?'

  'Yes, it seems very contagious!'

  Stuart threw his arms round his father and they fell on the floor but David did not mind. When Stuart found Wendy he gave her a big hug.

  'Don’t give me your flu young man!' She said slyly.

  They watched television together in the new house for the first time and it felt like home, as a family they were working together, as the boys had to in the jungle.

  'So what did the snake taste like?' Wendy asked during the adverts.

  Stuart looked at Stevey, who looked back and shrugged.

  'Like Python!' They said in chorus.

  'Definitely not like chicken!' Stuart added.

  Monday morning arrived with David working in the garage to get things back to normal. The boys kicked about on their new pitch but soon tired of it and walked off to explore the rest of the strip of land. As they walked away from the new house the trees were thicker as though they had been there longer. They walked until they came to a large wire fence with razor wire on the top. They looked at it with the idea of climbing over it but decided against. With forward motion stopped they turned right and started to follow the fence, down toward the main road which was some way off. Suddenly in front of them was a pond and they could see the fence had stopped at the start of the pond. Here was their way through, all they had to do was to cross the pond! They walked right round the pond in hopes of finding a way past the wire but both sides it was far enough into the pond to make them wade through the water and as they had no idea how deep it was, they turned that idea down. Their only option was to build something to cross the pond with! They reached the road without finding a way in and walked back to the house. They looked in the garage but it was a new house and there was nothing laying about spare. Stuart found his father in the attic.

  'We’re just going for a walk dad.' He said from the hatch.

  'Okay but don’t be late home and stay away from the shopping center as you have flu!'

  'Okay dad.'

  They walked down the road to the end. Here the road joined another road, left went to the main through road which lead to the shopping center, and right went somewhere else!

  'Looks like we go this way.' Stuart declared and turned right, Stevey followed him.

  They walked for half an hour until they saw a door leaning up against a fence. A door which would make a good raft! Their first thought was to take it but as they were new here, they thought it might be better not to rile the locals! Stuart walked up to the house and rang the bell with Stevey behind him like a shadow. An elderly woman opened it.

  'What can I do for you two young men?' She asked pleasantly.

  'We were wondering if you needed that door.' Stuart replied, pointing at the door as he spoke.

  'Not at all. My nephew was coming to take it to the tip for me but that was two weeks ago.' She explained.

  'Can we have it then?'

  'Help yourselves, but mind, it is heavy.'

  They waved and walked to the door. A few seconds later, with one either end, they walked away, carrying the door. After five minute they stopped for a rest. They rested ten times on the way back, the last being at the
top of their road. A boy saw them and made fun of them when he saw them but they were in no position to give as good as they got, as they needed the door. Had they been free to run, they would have been answered back and been ready to leg it, as he was bigger and older than them.

  'That’s good!' Stuart grumped. 'The first one I meet is a-' He was lost for a word to describe him. 'Well one of them!' He pointed to the house where the boy had gone.

  They walked on, not stopping this time to save face, just in case the boy was watching. They put the door in the garage and as they walked out the side door they met David walking in.

  'I was just coming to find you to, food’s ready.' David affirmed.

  After they had eaten they carried the door across to the pond but when they put it into the water, in a place they knew it was shallow, it was almost under the water. They could see that if they both got on it, the door would disappear under the water and so would they! They dragged it out of the water and walked back to the house.

  'Dad.' Stuart said tentatively, when he found his father still sitting at the table, this time with a glass of wine.

  'I know that "dad", I hear that when you want something.' David replied.

  'Got it in one dad, we need something to make our raft float better.'

  'Raft. I take it you have found a pond?' David said putting two and two together. 'Is that what the door was for?'

  'You saw that?' Stuart asked.

  'I saw you struggling up the road with it and then take it across the new football pitch. What you need are some buoyancy aids but the thing you do before you move is to get rid of anything that you don’t want. That includes plastic bottles to use as buoyancy aids.'

  Stuart’s face fell. He knew it was the truth as he had put some things in the bin for his mother. 'Looks like we have to go scavenging tomorrow!' He directed at Stevey. 'Tonight we can get the computer running!'

  'It’s all ready to go.' David declared. 'I assumed it would be wanted sooner rather than later.'