by Ruth Thomas
Nathan sprawled on the ground, and wept.
‘You lost it!’
Nathan did not deny the awful truth.
‘You did. You lost your coat. You lost all your money!’
‘I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry—’
‘Oh shut up!’
‘What?’
‘Shut up keeping on saying you’re sorry. It’s all right, you can have half mine.’
‘What!’
‘You heard. You can have half mine. I’ll get it now.’
She turned to go, but Nathan stopped her. ‘Wait a minute.’
‘Don’t you want it?’
Nathan’s whole self was a tumult of feelings he couldn’t define, and couldn’t express. Shame, gratitude, affection – all churning around together inside him.
‘You keep it for me, Ju,’ he said humbly.
It was the only spoken thanks she got, but she knew what he meant.
The big man had taken his car, and gone straight to the police station in Minehead.
‘There was all this money in the lining,’ he said, handing over the coat and the bundle of notes. ‘The kid went off on his bike. I couldn’t have caught him.’
‘And the money’s not yours, you say, sir?’
‘Oh no, I wouldn’t ever leave that much in the boat.’
‘He must have been scared, to leave all that money behind.’
‘I didn’t bully him,’ said the big man.
‘I’m sure you didn’t, sir,’ said the police officer, feeling pretty sure he had. ‘I meant – it looks as though the boy had no right to the money, wherever it did come from.’
He was examining the coat as he spoke. The inked-in name at the neck was so faint it was almost illegible. The policeman took it closer to the light. ‘Looks like an “N”, and something “BOURNE”. No, “BROWN”. Wait a minute – by George, it is! It’s “NATHAN BROWNE”! Well thank you very much, sir, for bringing this in. Looks like you’ve helped us find one of those London kids that’ve been missing from home – nearly a month now. You didn’t see where he went on his cycle, you say?’
The big man shrugged. ‘Back towards Porlock is all I can tell you.’
‘Right. We’ll get a police car over there straight away. Excuse me.’
In Porlock there were plenty of people who remembered, when pressed to try, a small black boy on a bicycle loaded with camping equipment, going up towards the moor. On two occasions he was alone, the police learned, but at the first sighting he had been with a much taller child. A white girl, or it might have been a white boy. It was hard to tell these days, wasn’t it, with both sexes wearing the same sort of clothes.
17
Hunted
Next morning Nathan said he would have to go back to Porlock, since there was hardly any food left. Julia was worried that the man from the boat might see Nathan if he went back to Porlock, but Nathan pointed out that the boat was at Porlock Weir, not Porlock town itself, and he didn’t think there was much danger.
He had another worry, a private one. Suppose the man from the boat had found the money in the lining of that anorak – he might have taken the money to the police. He might have taken the anorak to the police, with ‘Nathan Browne’ written inside it. On the other hand, he most likely kept the money for himself. Almost certainly he kept the money for himself, so there was nothing to worry about, after all.
Julia went with Nathan up to the road, and as it was such a lovely morning she thought she would like to go with him, just a little way. ‘Let me ride on your carrier, Nathan,’ she begged. ‘I can walk back, no problem.’
So they wobbled, two on a bike, towards the turning on to the Exford road.
‘This is all right, isn’t it, Ju,’ said Nathan, beginning to feel happy again.
‘Stop!’ said Julia, in sudden alarm.
Nathan stopped. They straddled the bike, their feet on the road. ‘What’s the matter?’ said Nathan.
‘Look!’
‘What? I can’t see nothing.’
‘Over there – on the other road.’ Julia’s sharp eyes had picked out the car crawling along the skyline. ‘Oh Nathan, I think it’s a police car.’
‘Are you sure?’
‘I think so. I think I can see that light thing on top.’
‘It might not be a police car, it might be a ordinary car.’
‘Why’s it going so slow then? They’re looking for something.’
‘Us!’
‘Do you think so? Oh I’m frightened, I’m frightened, what we going to do?’
‘Get back to the camp,’ said Nathan.
‘Yeah let’s do that quick. They can’t see the camp from the road.’
Back in the valley with the great silent slopes all around, the children felt momentarily safe.
‘Perhaps it wasn’t a police car after all,’ said Julia.
‘It was,’ said Nathan, accepting the bitter truth.
‘How do you know? You couldn’t see it even.’
‘My coat,’ said Nathan.
‘Oh I know what you mean – with the money in it!’
‘And my name in the neck.’
‘That man must have took your coat to the police station, Nathan.’
‘Why didn’t he just keep the money? I would have.’
‘Anyway, the police won’t find us here, will they?’
‘Oh yes they will.’
‘They will?’ she echoed him, terrified.
‘They’ll see the river like we did. They’ll come down, and look for the tents.’
‘We’ll pack them up,’ said Julia, running on trembling legs to do it.
‘No,’ said Nathan, ‘there might not be time. Let’s just hide.’
‘Where?’ Julia looked round in fear. ‘Where can we go, so the police won’t find us?’
‘I dunno. What about the wood?’
‘Won’t they find us in the wood?’ said Julia. ‘Won’t they look?’
‘I dunno. If they see we left the camp, maybe they’ll think we’ve gone. Gone away.’
‘Oh yes – perhaps they will think that, Nathan. Let’s go quick, quick, before they come.’
‘We can watch what happens.’
‘Yes, yes.’
‘Where you going?’ said Nathan.
‘To get the money.’
‘Oh yeah. . . . Leave your bike, Ju. We can’t use the bikes. We can’t go on the road.’
‘But we got to hide the bikes. If they see the bikes they won’t think we’re gone away, will they!’
‘Yeah, that’s right. That’s right, I didn’t think of that. . . . Where you going now?’
‘My coat. And the biscuits.’
They dragged the bicycles up the slope. ‘I can’t push,’ said Julia. ‘My legs are all shaking.’
‘Try,’ said Nathan. ‘We nearly there.’
They reached the cover of the wood, and hid the bicycles in the thick undergrowth. They lay with twigs scratching their arms and faces, peering through tickly foliage into the valley.
‘I hope the police didn’t see us on the road,’ said Julia, fearfully.
‘Nah – they’d have been here by now.’
‘How did they know we was on the moor? How do they know we got tents?’
‘Easy. They asked questions in the shops, didn’t they. Somebody told them we got camping things, didn’t they. Somebody saw us going up the hill.’
Of course! She could have worked that one out for herself if she hadn’t been so flustered. She waited for her heart to stop thumping, and her breath to stop coming in such painful gasps, and her chest to stop hurting from the panic. ‘Nathan,’ she said at last, ‘what are we going to do?’
‘Hide, of course, till the police go away.’
‘But after that, what are we going to do? Now they know about the camp?’
Nathan said nothing.
‘What, Nathan? . . . What we going to do?’
Nathan hesitated. He didn’t want t
o say it. His dream was so fragile, he didn’t want to expose it to the pitiless light of day. ‘I have got a sort of idea.’
‘Tell me.’
‘Nah – you wouldn’t like it.’
‘Tell me, I said.’
‘I don’t think you’d want to do it.’
‘Tell me what it is, and I’ll tell you if I want to do it.’
Nathan took a deep breath. ‘All right. You remember when we was in Watchet?’
‘Where the cave was? And the bus to go to – where was it? – Taunton?’
‘Yeah, and the harbour. Remember the harbour?’
‘What about it?’
‘Remember that big ship that was going to Norway?’
‘No.’
‘Well I remember it.’
‘So?’
‘Let’s stow away on that ship, and go to Norway!’
There – it was out! The dream he had nursed all these weeks. Born of his reading, nourished by his imagination, and launched now by reason of the dire peril they were in.
Julia turned to look at him, her face aghast. ‘You must be mad!’
Well, he’d expected her to say that. ‘I knew you wouldn’t like it.’
‘Stow away on a ship? Us?’
‘We done it on the caravan. That was all right.’
Julia considered. ‘The ship might not be there any more.’
‘Then we get another one. We wait till there is one. There will be one though, I just know there will.’
Julia dropped her head on to her arms. Everything was moving so fast. The little bit of security she had enjoyed in the tent this past couple of weeks had suddenly vanished, dissolved into thin air. And in its place, what? ‘I don’t want to go to Norway,’ she said, in a very small voice.
‘It might be nice when we get there.’
‘But it won’t work, they’ll just send us back.’
‘They might not. There might be a way. Let’s just try it, Ju, eh? Eh?’
Julia chewed a piece of grass, gazing sadly down at the little camp. ‘I wish they’d leave us alone . . . What’s it like at Norway, Nathan?’
‘Don’t you remember? Mr Abbot told us about it when we was in his class. It’s all mountains, with snow on them, and forests.’
‘Is it cold?’
‘We can buy warm clothes.’
Cold. And discomfort. And terrifying, unknown perils. And all the while there was a cosy little flat in London with a warm bed, and the television, and three square meals a day.
‘I want to go home,’ said Julia.
‘What?’
‘I want to go home. I don’t want to go on no ship, I want to go home.’
‘What about they going to put you away? And your mum’s going to beat you?’
‘I don’t believe they going to put me away. And I don’t believe my mum’s going to beat me either. Well, not hard. I think she just said that, I don’t think she meant it. I want to go home.’
She was serious. Nathan struggled with himself. ‘Go on then.’
‘What do you mean, go on?’
‘Go down in the camp and wait for the police They’ll take you home.’
‘Ain’t you coming?’
‘No, I said. I’m going on the ship. I always wanted to go on a ship. This is my best chance.’
Julia turned a piteous face towards him. ‘But I’m scared to go without you. I’m scared to go down there and wait for the police all by myself.’
‘Well, you’ll have to, won’t you.’
‘But what will they do to me, Nathan?’
‘That’s your problem,’ said Nathan, roughly. ‘I’m going – before they come.’
He started to wriggle out of the hiding place, suddenly terrified that the police would arrive, and Julia would announce herself thus forcing him to join her anyway.
‘Don’t leave me,’ wailed Julia. ‘Don’t leave me, Nathan!’
Nathan dragged his bicycle out of the undergrowth and charged out of the wood on to the wide open slope. He bumped his way over the uneven ground, and Julia with her bicycle followed behind. ‘Wait for me, wait for me, Nathan!’ Parallel with the stream they ran, until it curved out of sight of the camp, and fear lent strength to both the children. Nathan was terrified of losing his chance, and Julia was terrified of losing Nathan.
They were heading away from the road, deeper into the moor. Nathan knew where he was going. He knew this little part of the moor quite well – he had wandered it enough times during the peaceful days. He was going where the police would have no reason to search unless they had seen him running. Julia could come or not, as she pleased, but anyway he would be safe.
As long as Julia didn’t tell. But Julia could still tell. She could, couldn’t she! She could go back and tell them which way he went! Nathan turned and shouted at her, ‘Are you coming, then?’
Julia staggered towards him, the brief surge of energy almost exhausted. ‘Course I am.’ It was all she had breath to say.
‘All the way? On the ship?’
‘Yes, yes I am! Wait for me, Nathan.’
He hesitated, still unsure.
‘Why did you run away from me?’ said Julia.
‘I thought you was going to tell.’
‘What!’ She was amazed, and deeply hurt, that he could think it.
‘Well, you wanted to go home, didn’t you?’
‘But I wouldn’t tell of you, Nathan I wouldn’t tell of you.’
Her sincerity was transparent. Nathan felt mean and ashamed. ‘Come on,’ he said, holding her bicycle too to make up for it. They went up, and over, and round, and down, and they hid in a valley where the slopes were all wooded, a valley which Nathan thought perhaps only he knew about. Where no one had ever been before.
The police had found the camp. Touring the road above in their car, they had seen the little stream. The tents were not visible from the road, but the stream was. This was a most likely place for two runaway children to set up camp. The two police officers left their car, and scrambled down to the valley to investigate.
They were delighted to find the children’s camp, but disappointed that it was so evidently abandoned. They radioed their colleagues to look out for two kids on bikes, almost certainly heading west, since otherwise they would have already been spotted.
Then the police searched the valley quite throughly, because of course you never knew, the kids might still be in the area, hiding. They searched the wood where the children had been, and although there was some evidence of recent disturbance, that might have been yesterday, or early this morning, and anyway the wood was bound to appear disturbed, since the children had clearly been gathering their fuel there. In any case, it was empty now.
The police settled themselves in the wood, because it was such an excellent look-out post from which to watch the camp. You never knew, the children might return for the rest of their stuff, or even to take up residence again if they thought the coast was clear. You never could tell how kids’ minds might work. They could be cunning as weasels one minute, and incredibly naive the next.
So far, so good. The children were safe, but making no progress, and Watchet was a long way away.
‘I wonder if they found our camp yet. . . . Nathan – how we going to get to Watchet?’
‘I dunno. I haven’t worked that out yet.’
‘We can’t ride on the road, can we? There’s probably a load of police cars on the moor.’
‘You’re right there. Probably hundreds. All talking to each other, with their radios, and their walkie-talkies.’
‘Nathan, why did we bring the bikes to this wood then?’
‘Why? . . . Oh yeah . . . I dunno. I didn’t think. Did you think?’
‘No, I just followed you. . . . We could use them, you know.’
‘On the road?’
‘After it’s dark.’
‘Oh yeah – shall we wait till it’s dark then, Ju?’
‘I can’t think of nothing else, can you?’
‘It’s the best idea.’
They played I-Spy, to make the time go by, but it got boring after a while, and Julia wished she had brought The Dawn of Love, so that she could practise her reading. The afternoon dragged on.
‘I’m hungry,’ said Julia, sadly.
‘There’s the biscuits. You did bring them with you, didn’t you?’
‘In my pocket, but I’m thirsty too. Is there a river here, Nathan?’
‘I don’t think so.’
‘I wish it was time to go. Nathan, do you think you can find the way to the road?’
‘Yes.’
‘In the dark?’
‘I think I can.’
‘Perhaps the moon will shine.’
‘Ju, we don’t want the moon to shine.’
‘Oh yeah – that’s right.’
‘Ju, I forgot to say, my bike’s got another puncture from all them thorns. Look, the tyre’s flat as a pancake?’
‘We’ll have to both ride on mine then.’
‘All right, we’ll do that.’
‘Are we going to ride our bike all the way to Watchet though?’
‘We rode all the way to here.’
‘But not in one night. It’s too far.’
‘We’ll have to hide in the day then, and ride again the next night. It’ll be fun.’
It did not sound like fun. To Julia, it sounded inexpressibly dreary and uncomfortable. ‘What are we going to drink?’ she asked, but Nathan could not tell her.
When it came, the night was wonderfully black. The clouds had obligingly covered the sky, just when they were wanted for once, blotting out moonlight and starlight. With the instincts of one of his cats Nathan navigated the way to the road, and they were glad they had brought only one bicycle. One between them was quite enough to manage, in the dark.
Once on the road, they felt more confident. Nathan pedalled, and Julia rode on the carrier. She was looking out for police cars, but there were no cars at all, at first. The little car without lights parked on the edge of the road was almost invisible until they were level with it.
‘Go – go fast, fast,’ Julia shouted suddenly, at Nathan.
He pedalled hard, head down. ‘What’s the matter?’
‘A police car. It was – back there!’
‘I didn’t see nothing.’
‘It was all dark. Do you think they seen us? Why ain’t they chasing us?’