Sal

by Mick Kitson

  I said ‘Is there a loch for fishing by you?’

  She said ‘Away up, above me and over. It is about two kilometres from my camp. A small loch. It is called Loch of Dudgeon. There is also a river at the bottom of my valley and I have a burn just next to me for water.’

  ‘What if we get seen going there, over the moor and Magna Bra?’

  ‘You have head torches – we go at night!’

  I thought about it again and Peppa said ‘Let’s go Sal. We can go tonight.’

  I said ‘It’s a long way Peppa. And we have to carry all the stuff.’

  She said ‘I know.’

  I got my map out of the rucksack and worked out where Ingrid was. It was still far from houses or tracks but only about two miles from a main road. There were no tracks or footpaths marked leading to the little valley from the road and it all looked like dense woods between her and the road. I showed her the map and she showed me about where she was. The loch was at the top of her valley in the high ground where it rose up and led to Magna Bra one way and then onto moor and a chain of small lochs the other way.

  I said ‘Can we get food there?’

  Ingrid said ‘I have food. Much food. I go to the town once a month. I walk and get rice and flour and butter and jam. I can make bread. I have a stone bread oven.’

  Peppa said ‘Jam Sal!’

  So I said okay, and Ingrid said we should go once it got dark but we needed to pack up and clear all the bender and not leave any traces that we’d been there. So Peppa and I packed everything in the rucksack and I pulled all the branches off the bender and got the tarp down and pulled the umbrella apart and hid all the branches off in the wood.

  We hid all the spruce in the bushes and pulled all the poles down from the bender. I zipped all our wet stuff into a pocket in the rucksack and we buried all the rubbish like cans and plastic bags. Peppa packed her stuff into the backpack and took her books and the pile of rabbit fur she’d tried to make a hat out of.

  We sat round the fire until it started to get dark and I left the solar charger out in a patch of sun by the burn to charge the batteries for the head torches.

  There wasn’t any moon, and after it got dark we put the fire out with dirt and then kicked the ashes all over to hide where it was.There was nothing left of our camp when we started off up through the woods along the burn, only some bent twigs and flattened bits of grass.

  Ingrid went in front with a head torch and Peppa went in the middle with the other one and I came behind and followed Peppa’s light. Ingrid walked quite slow and she jigged up and down when she walked and she chattered to herself in German.

  It was slow and hard going up through our woods and then we had to climb the big slope up to the moor at the top. Ingrid just kept going slow. Sometimes she looked back at us and went ‘Come!’

  When we got onto the moor we stopped and I put the rucksack down and Peppa sat on her backpack. Ingrid gave us water from her water bottle and we ate some belVitas.

  It was darker than black on the moor.When we switched off the head torches the sky was huge over us and all pricked with stars and the more you stared the more you could see lines and swirls of them. In the middle it swirled away like water down a plug with all the stars getting tinier and tinier and fainter and fainter in a curling cloud. There were too many. Too many stars and planets in every direction and it made me feel swirly-headed looking at them. Ingrid stood looking up and held her hands up above her head and said ‘It is the thing we will never know.’

  I got the same feeling when I saw pictures of big crowds in Russia or China or Malaysia or Brazil on the internet and you saw how big cities were and how many people there were in the world. Or the feeling on a bus looking at people’s houses going by and thinking there were all those people in the world and you would never know them or speak to them or even see them and they would never know you. It’s a funny feeling like being scared and happy at the same time.

  Ingrid didn’t seem to need a compass and she just went straight out across the moor and our feet made a swishing sound going over the heather. In some places it was haggy and there were wee troughs full of wet peat and in some places we squelched over sphagnum moss. Peppa kept going well and it was me who was puffing following her and the round beam from her head torch dancing on the heather or on Ingrid’s back.

  The ground was starting to rise more as we went on and soon we were climbing again and Ingrid said ‘We go through the stones . . .’ A bit further on we stopped again. We were on a flat and in the torch beam you could see the stones poking up out of the heather. Peppa spun round and lit up the whole circle of them, most were shorter than me and some were long and lying on their sides. They were different shapes, some with pointy tops and some were round or like triangles and they were all silver grey and gold with lichen patches. We rested right in the middle of them and I got Peppa’s head torch and counted twenty-four going right round us. It was silent and the dark was pushing in from the sky.

  Ingrid stood right in the middle with her hands held up and she was talking to herself again in German with her eyes closed. Then she said ‘I ask for blessing on us and keep us safe.’

  Peppa was giggling and when I shone the head torch on her she was making the loony sign with her finger by her temple. I said ‘Don’t Peppa.’

  Ingrid shouted ‘Come’ and we went on following her away from the stones and right across the moor top where the ground was mostly flat but slightly going down and we had the swish of us on the heather again.

  We stopped three more times for water and belVitas and a rest. We’d been going hours and I was wondering where we were and thought I’d get the map out when I heard Ingrid say ‘Here are my woods.’

  And we plunged into a thick wood on a tiny thin path between the trees. It was more oak and hazel and alder than our woods. It was lower too, we’d dropped a good bit since the moor top and the stone circle. Ingrid kept on slow and steady and kept calling back ‘Not far now little girls’ and started going down a steep bank on the path which was a deer path because I could see tracks in the mud.We dropped and dropped and then we were on a flat bit that ran along the river and you could hear the water bubbling and swishing through the trees. Peppa complained her trainers were rubbing and I had to stop and get the first aid kit out of the rucksack and put a fabric plaster over her heel. The wood was lovely and quiet with just the sound of the little river and the breeze in the trees.

  We climbed up again through the trees on another deer path and then we came to a kind of step sticking out over the bank and Ingrid said ‘My camp!’

  Her bender was along away from the edge and it was bigger than ours with an arch door and a green cloth hanging down over it. Next to it was a big drying rack made of logs stacked with wood. It had a roof made from spruce branches and then next to that was a stone dome made of rocks like a drystane dyke. In front of the bender was a fireplace made from rocks with a tripod over it and a big black kettle hanging and over the fireplace was a shelter like mine thatched with spruce. It was a good camp.

  Peppa ran round looking at everything and shouted ‘Sal!’ and went over past the bender and there was a little burn running out of the rocks above making a waterfall into a wee pool. Behind the camp the slope went up with big rocks and birch and rowan trees growing out of it and clumps of dying bluebell leaves and brambles all twined in amongst the rocks.

  Ingrid was lighting the fire and she called ‘Do you like it?’ and Peppa said ‘It’s brilliant. Can you swim in the wee pool?’

  Ingrid said ‘I wash in it and use it for water and I wash clothes in it. In summer you can sit in it to stay cool.’

  I got my compass out and sat by Ingrid’s fire. The camp faced south, good for sun and shelter from a north wind. I couldn’t wait for morning so I could see the view down from it into the wood towards the river which you could still hear tinkling rushing. Nobody would find you here.

  Peppa sat by the fire which was going now and felt lov
ely and lit up the camp around us and Ingrid said ‘I have bread and cheese’ and went into her bender.

  Peppa said ‘They won’t find us here Sal.’

  I said ‘No. We’ll need to see what it’s like round here in the morning. But it’s better than where we were. Not so close to tracks or roads.’

  Peppa said ‘Ingrid’s mad.’

  I said ‘I know. But she’s nice and she likes us.’

  Ingrid came back with three plates and big hunks of bread and butter and big pieces of cheese and a jar of pickle. She said ‘Eat’ and we did. I was really hungry and the bread was lovely and soft and tasted of smoke. The cheese was sharp and salty and it was lovely with pickle on it.We didn’t talk for ages and Peppa ate everything really quick and Ingrid said ‘Do you like an apple?’ and Peppa said ‘Aye.’

  Then Ingrid said ‘You sleep in my bender and I sleep here by the fire to watch.’ And she jumped up and went into the bender and dragged out a big rush mat and a sleeping bag and a blanket. She laid the mat out along by the fire and got into the sleeping bag and pulled the blanket over her and sat up and said ‘Warm here.’

  Peppa said ‘Ingrid how did you find us? How did you find where we were?’

  And Ingrid said ‘I smelled your fire. I can smell very well. I was up on the moor on my walk and I smelled your fire. And I knew it was going out and getting low so I came to look. And I saw you little girl asleep and the fire going out.’

  I’d been wondering that too. Ingrid pointed to her nose. ‘I can smell things a long way. I can smell if dogs are near and I can smell cars and sometimes people coming if the wind is right. I can smell rain coming and snow. I have a very good nose.’

  Peppa said ‘You wouldn’t want to smell one of Sal’s farts’ and Ingrid said ‘I don’t mind farts. We all fart. I fart a lot.’

  ‘So does Sal’ Peppa said.

  I said ‘Did you smell the polis car today?’ and she said ‘No. Wind was wrong way. Now I need to sleep.’

  She lay down in her sleeping bag and we banked up wood on the fire for her and then went into her bender.

  She had a platform bed like ours with spruce branches on it. On some big flat rocks she had blankets and quilts and eiderdowns all neatly folded up and there were plastic boxes with lids on. She had a hanging rail made of stripped poles and on it were clothes and jackets and dresses all hanging off hangers like in a wardrobe. One was a Chinese silk jacket with dragons and fir trees and fish all embroidered on it in red and gold thread. She also had loads of pairs of boots all lined up round the edge of the bender, some were long riding boots, there were Dr Martens, long blue leather lace-up boots, walking boots, Converse boots and two pairs of big army boots.

  Peppa said ‘She likes her boots.’

  We got out our sleeping bags and blankets and slept on the bed and it was warm and comfortable. I was so tired I couldn’t stay awake to tell Peppa stuff and she was asleep quick too.

  Chapter Ten

  Camp

  Things were good with Ingrid. We had food and I hunted in the woods. There were Pheasants in her woods which means there was a shoot somewhere because Pheasants are not native to Scotland and are introduced so rich people can pay farmers to shoot them. And they are really easy to shoot. They make loads of noise and they can’t stay in camouflage and they sometimes just sit there while you line up the sight on them. Anyone can hit a Pheasant. I could probably have got one with the slingshot. I got two on the first day we were at Ingrid’s bit.

  Peppa and Ingrid stayed in the camp and washed some clothes and hung them to dry and then Ingrid started trying to make the rabbit skins Peppa had sewn into a proper hat for her. It was getting colder but the sun was out in the day and it was frosty at night. Peppa read her book and Ingrid sat by the fire and cut the skins up and measured bits of them round Peppa’s head and then started sewing them.While she was doing this she started teaching Peppa German words and first she had to teach Peppa all the German swear words. She didn’t mind and even though she was old she thought it was normal to teach Peppa how to say fuck and wanker and arsehole in German. She said ‘These are the most interesting words in a language. They are not bad words they are just words.’ And Peppa asked her how to say bollocks and balls and cock.

  When I got back with the Pheasants Peppa told me that ‘Popantz’ is the German for bogey and bra in German is ‘Büstenhalter’ which means bust holder and cock was ‘Schwanz’. I plucked the Pheasants and Ingrid said to keep the long tail feathers to make decorations but she called them ‘decoratives’.

  I gutted them and then we put salt on them and roasted them over the fire on sticks. Ingrid cooked rice in the big kettle and we had rice and roast Pheasant. Afterwards Ingrid got apples from a box she kept them in all wrapped in tissue paper and they were red and sweet.

  Ingrid said ‘Tomorrow we make you a bender. I need my bender soon because it will snow in perhaps two days’ time.’

  The next day we got up early in the frost and I went off and cut saplings for our bender. We built it just up from Ingrid’s so the doorway was close to the fire. I used rocks to make three plinths and then cut more poles to make our bed. I had to climb up above the camp to find spruce and while I was doing that Ingrid and Peppa started lashing the saplings together with paracord.

  I had to go right up into the woods where I could see the dark green tops of spruce and I found about eight big ones amongst the other trees. I cut bundles of branches and lashed them together with two ends of paracord and then used it as a handle to drag them back down. We tied the tarp over the top of the frame and then wedged the spruce boughs over it in layers from the top down. I had to go and get branches twice more because we thatched it right to the ground and then put rocks on the ends of the branches on the ground to keep them down and make it windproof. We made a nice big arched doorway and I could almost stand up inside the new bender. Then Ingrid got us to pile dry leaves all around the outside walls and pile leaves on top for more insulation. It smelled lovely inside of spruce and dry leaves and we put spruce branches on the bed and all over the floor for a carpet.

  Ingrid made candles out of birch bark rolled tight and pine resin she got from Scots pine trees. She also made waterproof bowls and a jug from birch bark with pine resin melted on the joints to make them watertight. She had a big tin of the resin she tapped from the trees and she warmed it up and showed us how well it burned. She said you could use it for glue and sticking wood together and it was also an antiseptic, an anti-inflammatory and it kills bacteria in wounds so you could use it to make dressings.

  We made bread with the flour and dried yeast and salt and butter and kneaded it all in a big metal bowl Ingrid had. She showed us what to do and how to leave it for an hour by the fire to rise. Then we kneaded it again with more flour and Ingrid made a big flat ball of the dough and we put it on a flat rock and waited another hour. Ingrid lit her oven. It was a big dome made from rocks all put together in a circle and it had a thick flat rock on the top. There was a little doorway and Ingrid lit sticks and dry grass inside from an ember and when it was going she piled in wood and sticks and it smoked and blazed inside. There was a big flat rock on the floor and when the fire had burned down and was charcoal and hot embers she brushed all the ash to the sides and scooped up the dough on a slate and then pushed it over onto the flat rock.

  The bread was brown and gold when it came out and me and Peppa ate it while it was still hot and Ingrid melted cheese on hers and had cheese on toast.

  Just when Ingrid said it would, it started snowing and that night we all sat by the fire with blankets round us while the snow came down and the fire made it look yellow and orange. We had bread and cheese and tea with sugar but no milk. Peppa told us the story of Kidnapped so far.

  The boy was called Davy and the story happened in 1751 and his uncle didn’t want him to inherit his big house after his father had died even though he was the one who should’ve got it. So the uncle tried to kill him first by tricking him
into climbing a big stone staircase with stairs missing over a big drop onto rock in the pitch dark. He was only saved by lightning when he saw where the missing stairs were and realised his uncle was trying to kill him.

  Then the uncle got him to go to Edinburgh to see a lawyer but tricked him into getting on a boat and paid the captain to knock Davy out and kidnap him and take him to America where he would be a slave. I said I thought only black people from Africa got taken to America to be slaves but Peppa said it said in the book that Scottish people got sent too. So that’s something I learned.

  Anyway, on the ship the captain and the mate and the other bloke are drunk all the time and torture a boy called Ransom to death and Davy has to go and serve them food and brandy. And then they go into fog and they run down a small boat, and on the boat is a Highland man called Alan Breck Stewart who says he is a king and is carrying loads of money for his chief and he speaks in Scots words. The captain, who is bad even though Davy thought he was good when he met him in Edinburgh, and the other men who drink all the time, plan to kill Alan and take all his money and Davy overhears them making a plot and so he makes friends with Alan and they have a big fight in a place called the roundhouse on the ship and Davy kills a sailor with a gun and they stab Mr Shaun who was the one who killed the boy and he dies too.

  And then Peppa said ‘What’s a whig?’

  Ingrid said ‘Hair, for your head if your own hair falls out.’

  And Peppa said ‘No. It’s W-H-I-G. What is it Sal?’

  But I didn’t know and I wished I had Wikipedia. Peppa said ‘Anyway, Alan Stewart said whigs have got long faces.’ And Ingrid and me looked at each other and we both frowned and shrugged.

  I said to Peppa ‘How old is Davy?’ and Peppa said she thought he was thirteen or fourteen.

  And I said ‘He killed someone.’ And Peppa said ‘Aye’ and he did, defending Alan in the roundhouse.