Tiger Moth

by Suzi Moore

  I just looked down at the ground and shook my head.

  ‘Are you going to stop talking now?’ she asked me with a grin.

  For some reason it made me stop and I just stared back at her angrily.

  ‘Haribos?’ she said, holding out the packet, and I don’t know why, but I just snatched the whole bag off her, threw it as far as I could.

  ‘I already said I don’t want any of your stupid sweets, ALICE! FOR GOD’S SAKE!’ I shouted at her.

  I thought she’d run away or something, but she didn’t. So I decided that I didn’t actually want to be with anyone at all and I walked away from her, off the path and out of sight. Actually, I almost slipped out of sight because the marshes were really muddy. I could hear Alice shouting my name and when I turned back I could see the bay curving back towards the village, and I could just make out the back of our cottage and my bedroom window.

  I ran up the steps of a little wooden bridge, but as I reached the other side my foot sort of slipped and I went flying forward. I went flying, flying, landing kind of on my knees, and when I pulled myself up I saw it. At first I had no clue what I was looking at because it just looked like a sort of gravestone. I must have been staring at it for ages when I heard Alice catch up with me, and when she saw what I was staring at she looked a bit worried.

  I turned back to the stone and read the sign that was next to it.

  On October 29th 1942 US Air Force Liberator Bomber lost in fog clipped the hill at Bossington and crashed on these marshes killing seven out of the eight crew members.

  ‘Dad says they were real war heroes,’ Alice whispered.

  I read the names.

  I read the names again and that was when I felt something. I read the names out loud and I heard my dad shouting for me. His little yellow plane flashed in front of my eyes and I felt like I was falling. I saw the tiny pots of paint and the model that we had tried to make together. I saw Dad laughing when he saw I’d stuck the wing of an F14 on to a Harrier. I saw Dad’s plane as it hit the ground that day. I saw him carving the roast chicken and having a sneaky slice before we all sat down. I saw the yellow and orange flames. I saw him wink at me when he pretended he’d forgotten Mum’s birthday, but he’d actually hidden the beautiful necklace inside her box of cereal. I saw him grab my skateboard and show me how not to fall off. I saw the ambulance arriving at the airfield and the firemen racing towards the flames. I saw Dad as he ate one of Mum’s terrible mince pies and pretended that it was nice. I saw his face upside down as we both did backflips off the boat. I saw his plane explode as the flames reached the fuel tank. I felt his huge hands round my waist as he lifted me up to put the little robin on top of the Christmas tree. The prickle of his face against mine. The smell of the outdoors on his skin. His widest smile and the little chip on his front tooth. The sound of his deep voice as he read me bedtime stories which he always used to change. He’d always change the names so that I was in the story. ‘This is our story,’ he’d tell me, ‘and we can make it into anything we want.’

  I looked up at the sign once again. Sole survivor. One of them had made it. I suddenly dropped down to my knees. I felt the cool marsh mud on my skin and, with a heaving swell of pain that pressed down on my chest, I cried. I cried for the first time and I didn’t ever think I would stop.

  35

  Alice

  Zack looked up at me and I watched the tears roll down his cheeks. I saw his body shake.

  ‘I’ll never be like Dad,’ he sobbed.

  I saw his hands clench at the muddy ground and I knew what I had to do. I turned round and ran back to Dad and Jane. They had stopped on the far side of the little wooden bridge and were chatting. I could see Dad was laughing at something Jane had just said, and I knew that by the time I had finished he would not be smiling or laughing at all. I had to do it, I told myself. I had to tell my dad the amazing thing that Zack had done, even if it meant telling him I had almost drowned like his brother, Kirran and Spice. I had to tell the truth even if it meant telling Mum and Dad that the reason I had got so poorly wasn’t just because I’d been for a swim, but because I’d tried to swim round the headland.

  I just knew I had to tell the truth, but as I reached them I started to slow down. What would he say? What would he do? I walked slowly across the bridge and waited. I opened my mouth to speak, but the words got stuck. I felt my heart beat faster and faster, and in the end I stayed sort of stuck on the middle of the bridge, stuck halfway between speaking and not speaking.

  I turned my head back in the direction of Zack and I thought of him kneeling in the mud. I thought of him crying like I’d never seen anyone cry, so I turned back to Dad and told him as quickly and simply as I could.

  Dad stared. Jane stared and for a moment I was terrified.

  ‘You did what?’ Dad said, walking towards me. ‘You did what?’ he said, looking puzzled.

  ‘I didn’t mean to. I hadn’t meant to. Please don’t be mad,’ I begged.

  ‘You tried to swim round the headland?’ he said, kneeling in front of me, and then I whispered into his ear. I told my dad the truth. I told him mine and Zack’s secret and he looked more shocked than he ever had. I looked up at Jane and I told her too.

  ‘He did what?’ I watched her and Dad suddenly look at each other and shake their heads.

  We all sort of ran across the marshes together and, when we finally got to Zack, Jane was running so fast she sort of skidded the last bit and got covered in marsh mud. Zack was exactly where I had left him. His face was red and swollen, and his whole body kind of jerked back and forth as the last of his tears left his body. Jane walked over and knelt down beside him.

  ‘I’m not brave, M . . . M . . . Mum,’ he sobbed. ‘I’m scared. I’ll never be as brave as D . . . Dad,’ he cried and she helped him to his feet. He seemed to sort of crumple into her arms and his whole body seemed to shrink in towards her so that Zack looked like a tiny little child, and it made me feel so sad I tugged on Dad’s sleeve and looked up at him as if to say, ‘Do something, make it better.’

  ‘Zack,’ my dad said slowly. ‘Zack Ethan Drake,’ he said, taking my hand and walking over to them.

  Zack’s red and tear-stained face turned to us and when I looked at my dad I could see that there was a tear running down his cheek too. ‘Zack Ethan Drake,’ he said softly. ‘Did you save my daughter’s life?’

  Zack’s eyes darted to mine with a look of fear and almost anger, but I smiled back and willed him to tell the truth. He looked up at my dad and slowly nodded.

  ‘Well, Zack, I’d say that you are just about the bravest person I have ever met.’

  And he was.

  36

  Zack

  I think Alice is probably my best friend, but I haven’t decided yet. She keeps telling me that I’m her best friend so it might be true.

  The night before my first day at school I lay awake for ages. I’ll probably get beaten up. I’ll probably trip over in front of everyone or do something stupid. In the end I got out of bed and went downstairs, but Mum was still up. She was sitting at the table with a towel wrapped round her head and a kind of magazine with lots of pictures of women with strange-looking hair. Great, I thought, Mum’s hair will be, like, pink or something and she’ll wear one of those crazy dresses she always wears.

  I went back upstairs and knelt down beside the bed. I scrabbled around under it until my hands reached the corner of the photograph frame that I’d kicked under the bed when I was really cross. I grabbed at it with my hand and when I pulled it out I kind of smiled. Dad. Dad, why did you let Mum wear such stupid clothes? It made me laugh a bit and I put the photograph frame on the table by my bed and climbed in. This time I fell asleep straight away and I dreamt of mountains that were sort of purple and a beach with silver sand.

  And in the morning I got the biggest shock. Firstly my new school blazer actually has two inside pockets and Mum did not look like Mum. Her hair wasn’t pink or red or orange or white-blonde.
It wasn’t sticking up in every direction or had a million flowery hairclips in it. It was black, like mine, and it was combed so it looked really normal. I stared at her for ages. She wasn’t wearing her board shorts, a flowery dress or those sparkly tops she sometimes does. She had on a plain, bog-standard, very dull, but so not embarrassing pair of navy trousers and a navy jacket too.

  For the first time my mum actually looked like a grown-up.

  ‘Well?’ she said, looking more nervous than me.

  ‘You look really nice,’ I said.

  The next thing that happened was a mixture of massively scary and kind of OK. When I got to school, I felt so sick that I really thought I was going to throw up. I had to go to the Headmaster’s office and meet the person who was going to be my ‘mentor’.

  ‘At Somerset Vale,’ he said, peering over his desk at me, ‘we always assign a new pupil to an older pupil so one of the Year Eleven boys will be your mentor.’

  I had to wait at the reception for what felt like forever. I watched all the other new pupils shuffle into school and that’s when I saw that everyone looked like me. Everyone looked scared. I watched a boy who was going to be in my year as he was introduced to a scary-looking mentor, but as soon as the Head turned away the mentor kind of shoved the boy in the back and my heart sank. I think I was just staring at my shoes when I heard a really deep voice say my name.

  I guess I expected to see a big man or something, but it was a boy.

  ‘Come on then,’ he said.

  I slowly stood up and followed him down the corridor. I waited for the punch or the kick or something, and then he stopped by a drinks fountain and turned to look at me.

  ‘Did you really swim round the headland to Culver then?’ he said. I stared back at him and tried to think what the right answer would be. I opened my mouth to speak, but the words didn’t come and he laughed. ‘I’d be well scared, I reckon. I wouldn’t have the guts to do that.’ And when he saw my confused-looking face he put his arm round my shoulder and said, ‘My nan knows everything, mate. She’s Pippa, from the post office? I swear she’s got some kind of special hearing and she has eyes in the back of her head.’

  I didn’t get punched. I didn’t get kicked and nothing bad happened at all, although my mum waved at me once and I had to ignore her.

  It made me think of what George had said to me. ‘Nothing is ever as bad as it seems.’ And he was right.

  37

  Alice

  Today is September 7th and it is my dad’s birthday. Yesterday it rained all day so he went fishing with Zack. They packed the car up with all sorts of fishing rods and a picnic that Mum had made, and I waved them off on the driveway.

  ‘Bring a salmon home for supper!’ Mum shouted and we went inside to make him his birthday cake while Becky Boo slept in a little basket on the kitchen table. And later that day, as I was feeding my sister, my mum took a telephone call that went on for ages. I heard her say, ‘Oh yes, Jane, what a great idea and why don’t they all stay here?’ I asked her about it at bedtime, but she just smiled and said, ‘Something fun. You’ll enjoy it.’

  After Dad opened his presents, he went outside to the terrace. ‘I’ve got something I need to do,’ he said, taking a toolbox with him, and shortly after that I heard voices outside that I didn’t recognise. I raced across the hallway to the spiral staircase and peered out of the little window on to the driveway. There was Zack, his mum, a taller woman, two girls and a dog. It had to be Otter!

  The girl with the red hair was the loudest and she was marching up to the front door as though she lived here. And, as though she could sense me looking down, she looked up at the window and waved. I’d never seen anyone with an eyepatch before and I ran back down the stairs to the front door. Standing there with presents in their arms was a woman with curly red hair, a shy-looking girl with short brown hair and the loud one.

  ‘I’m Lexi,’ she said loudly. ‘Happy birthday!’

  The other girl sort of sighed and rolled her eyes. ‘Er, Lexi, it’s her dad’s birthday, remember.’ They both kind of laughed and I did too.

  ‘Oh yes, sorry, Mum said. I forgot.’ She twirled a strand of curly hair round her finger and laughed nervously. ‘I’m always forgetting things.’

  Just then the gorgeous brown dog reappeared with Zack and his mum.

  ‘He needed a wee. Alice, this is Otter.’ Zack pulled the lead tighter and immediately Otter sat down at his feet. ‘Lexi’s been teaching him new stuff. Watch.’ He unhooked the lead, pointed to the ground and I watched as Otter rolled over on to his back.

  Jane laughed. ‘Looks like Otter has been at dog-training school, Lexi.’

  Then the other girl spoke for the first time. ‘Well, it took us about eight goes to get him to do that and he chewed right through my schoolbag afterwards.’ Zack laughed and the four of us raced through the garden to the tree house where we stayed until it was time for lunch.

  George was the last to arrive and I watched Mum, Dad and Jane hug him tightly and, after we’d eaten, him and Dad sat on my uncle’s special bench and chatted until it was getting dark. It was only then that I saw what my dad had needed his toolbox for; it was only when I went back outside to get my jumper that I saw what he had done. Carved into the back of the wooden bench were two names: Thomas Edward Richardson and Kirran Moore.

  We had to go up to the attic to find the really big tent because the one that Lexi and Eddie had brought had a massive hole in it. Dad, George and Zack put it up and in the end George said there was enough room for a football team to camp out in, let alone four children and a dog. The four of us watched the sky nervously. It had to be a clear sky if we were going to do it. We peered out from our tent and I could feel Zack grinning as the biggest moon lit up the garden so brightly it was as though someone had switched the lights on.

  ‘Are you ready then?’ Dad said.

  ‘It’s going to be chilly,’ Jane said nervously, but I thought the air felt as warm as on a summer’s day.

  Mum said later that she could hear the sound of us all giggling from the house and I think she really must have because Lexi is probably one of the funniest people I have ever met. We used our torches on the footpath, and when Eddie said she couldn’t see properly Lexi laughed and said, ‘Yeah, try doing it wearing an eyepatch.’

  When we got to the little ledge, I saw that it wasn’t a little ledge any more. The gap that we used to jump across had been fixed. Instead of a gaping hole there was a wooden step and when I shone my torch down I saw the words that had been carved into it: One, two, three, jump! Even the really tricky bits had been made easier and when I looked up at Dad he smiled.

  ‘Well, if we’re going to be coming down here all the time, I thought I’d best make it as safe as possible,’ he said.

  Have you ever swum in the moonlight? Have you ever dived under blackened sea and seen the moon shine down through the silvery waters? It feels like you’re swimming through another world. We were careful not to go too far, and my dad was with us the whole time, watching, but we had so much fun splashing around in the sea. We dived again and again under the water, until we were all getting cold, and then the four of us ran back to the shore and wrapped ourselves up in the warmest, softest towels. But before I left the beach I found a stick and drew upon the sand:

  Alice Lexi Eddie Zack

  The Famous Four!

  It was properly autumn when we drove up the hill to George’s house, but it wasn’t really cold at all, even though it was late October. As we arrived at the big glass house, I could see Zack was already there with his mum. Otter too. Zack got him back a little while ago because his mum spoke to Pippa who said she’d come and see him during the day. So Lexi and Hannah, who were looking after him, brought Otter back which made Zack really happy.

  ‘I went out in that one last week,’ Zack told me, pointing to a little silver sports car. ‘And me and George had to change the tyre on the way back, look,’ he said, holding out a bruised hand where h
e’d hit his thumb with a spanner.

  He showed me the car that he’d slept in and the motorbike and sidecar, but my eyes kept going back to the plane.

  ‘Are you ready?’ I asked.

  ‘Ready as I’ll ever be,’ he said, looking excited. ‘Black Mountains.’ He pointed out of the open door and towards the sea. ‘That’s where we’re headed.’

  I watched him race out of the building to George and I went over to Mum, Dad and Rebecca. I looked down into her pram and pulled one of the faces I know will make her laugh and she did.

  ‘Have you wished him luck?’ my mum asked and I ran over to the plane.

  ‘Zack! Zack!’ I shouted as he climbed the steps into the tiny cockpit. ‘Good luck, Zack!’ I shouted as George fastened his seat belt. ‘You’re the bravest,’ I called as the engines roared into life, and Zack grinned back at me and shouted something, but I couldn’t hear him.

  As the little plane started to move, he pointed at his chest and shouted down again.

  ‘Me tiger! You moth!’

  38

  Zack

  The night we had our moonlight swim was amazing. I didn’t tell Alice, but when we first got down to the beach I was a bit scared of swimming in the blackish-looking water. Even though the sky was lit up with the biggest moon I have ever seen, I was a bit nervous of swimming in water that was so dark. But when I watched Alice tear off her dressing gown and race for the water I knew it would be all right and afterwards Mum told me that Dad would have been terrified of swimming in the dark too.

  When Mum said that Hannah, Lexi and her friend Eddie were coming to visit, I groaned, remembering how annoying they were last time. But when they arrived and brought Otter I hugged him tightly.

  ‘Surprise!’ Mum said and I kissed her cheek. What was even more surprising is that Otter has learnt a few new tricks from Eddie and Lexi, but he still chews stuff. I wasn’t sure I really wanted to camp out with a bunch of girls, but I think I’m realising that girls can be pretty cool too. And Eddie has this really weird memory which I think is the coolest thing ever. She can remember everything she reads. Not just a little bit, everything.