by Lewis, Gill
‘I can see her,’ cried Iona.
I opened my eyes and squinted into the sunlight. There was a silhouette of a bird in the distance, like the shape small children draw seagulls. But it wasn’t a seagull. It was bigger than that, much bigger.
The bird flew closer and banked in the air, showing the white of its belly and barred wing and tail feathers. I looked through the binoculars.
‘It’s definitely an osprey,’ I said.
‘Of course it is,’ said Iona. ‘Come on, let’s get a closer look.’
We ran down the hillside towards the wooded shores of the loch.
Iona was already darting through the trees ahead of me. When I pulled myself up into the oak tree, Iona was sitting on the wooden crates, her eyes shining. ‘Look, he’s spotted her,’ she said.
I looked across at the eyrie. The male was perched on the top, his wings held slightly open showing the white underneath. He suddenly lifted up into the sky carrying a fish. Up he flew, higher and higher. We could hear his high pitched cry, ‘Kee … kee … kee.’ Then he swooped and dived, plummeting downwards, the fish held in his talons. He was a blur against the wooded hillside, faster and faster towards the water, until he pulled out of his dive and flew high in the air once more. The female soared in circles above, watching.
‘He’s sky-dancing,’ said Iona with a grin. ‘He’s trying to impress her.’
The male did his spectacular high dive trick again, but this time pulled up from his dive and flew to the eyrie with the fish.
We watched the female circle lower and lower until she landed on a tree next to him. She clung on to a branch as it swayed beneath her, inspecting the eyrie. I held my breath.
But she suddenly flapped her wings and flew off over the trees behind us and was gone.
‘She’s not impressed,’ I said.
I focused my binoculars on the male osprey. I almost laughed. If a bird could look totally let down, he did then. The feathers on his head were all ruffled and he kept looking at his fish as if it was all the fish’s fault.
‘Here she comes again,’ whispered Iona.
The female swooped in, low and wide, and landed right on the eyrie. She paced around the edge and pulled a few sticks into place as though it wasn’t quite to her liking. Then she pulled the fish away from the male and started tearing off chunks of flesh.
Iona leaned into me and nudged me. ‘Look, she likes him.’
I nodded, and for some reason felt my face burn bright red.
CHAPTER 7
I sprinkled brown sugar onto my porridge and watched it melt into sticky golden pools.
‘That’ll rot your teeth,’ said Dad. He sprinkled salt and a small lump of butter on his own porridge and swirled it round. He looked tired and grumpy. I guessed he’d been up in the night checking the ewes that were due to lamb.
‘You were late coming back from football yesterday,’ said Dad. He flicked through a farming magazine beside him. ‘Graham and I could’ve done with some help.’
I wanted to tell them I was up on the hills watching an osprey come back. I was bursting to tell them we had ospreys nesting here, on our farm. But it was a secret, Iona’s and my secret. We’d promised to tell no one.
Graham poured a cup of tea and laughed. ‘He wasn’t playing football yesterday. He was up on the hill flapping round like a wee birdie. I saw him with a girl up there.’ He turned to me. ‘Your girlfriend, is she?’
I hit him on the arm and tea spilled across the table.
‘Och! Grow up, you two, for heaven’s sake,’ said Mum. ‘Graham, you’re old enough to know better.’ She mopped the tea from the table and sat back in the rocker chair warming her feet on the cooking range. ‘Which girl’s this?’
Graham raised his eyebrows. ‘It looked like Mad Old McNair’s granddaughter to me.’
‘I heard she was back,’ said Mum.
‘Fiona McNair’s child?’ said Dad. He turned to Mum. ‘You were at school with Fiona, weren’t you?’
Mum nodded. ‘Aye, that was a while ago. There’s a lot of water gone under the bridge since then.’
‘Rob hates the McNairs,’ I said. ‘He says Iona’s mum stole from his dad and ruined his business. Is it true?’
Mum started clearing the table. ‘It’s true that a lot of money went missing the day Fiona left,’ she sighed. ‘But truth be told, Rob’s dad was never much of a businessman anyway.’
‘He was trying to build an adventure park,’ said Dad, ‘bike trails through the forest, and high wire stuff in the trees. It was losing money before Fiona worked there.’
‘She’s a dancer, isn’t she?’ I said. ‘That’s what Iona says. She’s in the big shows down in London.’
Mum and Dad exchanged glances and Dad went back to reading his magazine. ‘Well, I haven’t heard from her for a while,’ said Mum. ‘But I heard she did a bit of dancing.’
Graham gave a snort of laughter.
Dad glared at him. ‘Haven’t you got sheep to feed?’
Graham reached for his coat and gave me a slap on the back. ‘Off to school now,’ he grinned. ‘Don’t be late.’
It wasn’t fair. Graham was eighteen. He’d finished school and was back on the farm where he’d always wanted to be. Mum and Dad even let him live in the cottage up the track which had been Granda’s before he died. Graham said he needed his own space. I didn’t think Mum should cook his meals and wash all his clothes too.
‘What’s she like?’ asked Mum.
‘Who, Iona?’ I said. I shrugged my shoulders. ‘How should I know?’
I whizzed into school as the bell rang. It was Monday morning and I was late. I pushed my bike into the rack next to Rob’s and raced to the classroom. The rest of the class were already in their seats. The teacher gave me a hard stare and tapped her watch as I sat down next to Rob and Euan.
‘What happened to you on Friday?’ whispered Euan. ‘You didn’t get home for hours after we left you. Mum made me tell her where we’d been.’
It seemed ages ago, although it was only three days.
‘I was checking on sheep,’ I lied.
‘You’ll never guess who’s in our class,’ said Rob. His face was dark, like thunder. He nodded to the tables at the front of the class. ‘It’s her.’
At that moment Iona turned round. It was as if she could feel us looking at her. She looked strangely out of place in the classroom, in her grey uniform and blue fleece. Her hair was tied in a ponytail, but thick clumps and tangles stuck out at the back. She smiled at me, but I looked away.
‘Nutter,’ said Rob.
Our teacher introduced Iona, but most of the class knew of her. At least they knew her grandad, and that was enough to set some of the girls off giggling.
At lunch-break I saw Iona alone. She sat on the far wall of the playground staring out over the fields. I joined a group from my class trading cards.
‘She forgot her lunch,’ said Ruth. ‘She won’t tell the teachers though.’
‘Look at the state of her,’ said Sarah. ‘I don’t see why she should be allowed to wear trainers when no one else can.’
Ruth spread her cards out on the table. ‘I heard her ma’s locked up in a mental home.’
Sarah picked a card and swapped it for one of hers. ‘Mum said to have nothing to do with her.’
‘Why?’ I asked.
‘Cos she’s a nutter,’ said Rob. ‘You’ve seen that yourself.’
I saved a sandwich for Iona, but didn’t get a chance to give it to her until afternoon class. The teacher let Iona pick someone to work with in the library for our class project on recycling, and she picked me.
‘Thanks,’ said Iona. She wolfed the sandwich down and wiped the crumbs from her chin.
We sat in the corner of the library and spread out books in front of us.
No one else was in there. The sun poured through the big side windows.
‘Look at this book,’ said Iona.
She sat down next to me and opened
a large book on Scottish wildlife and started flicking through the pages. ‘You’ve got a pine-marten den on your farm, did you know?’
I leaned across to look at the picture of the creature sitting in the branch of a tree. Its long brown body looked part-cat, part-weasel. I’d only caught a glimpse of a pine-marten once before, just its face peering above an old fallen trunk. It had turned and disappeared into the undergrowth showing a last view of its bushy tail. I flicked over to another page. Iona seemed to know more about my farm than I did.
‘I’ve seen golden eagles before,’ I said.
‘Really?’ said Iona. ‘I’ve never seen one of them.’
‘Last year, I saw them. On the other side of the hill,’ I said. ‘We’ll look for them.’
Iona smiled. ‘I’d like that.’
I leaned across Iona to point to a photo of red deer, ‘And we’ve got those … ’
‘Callum!’
I jumped. I hadn’t heard the library door open. Rob was standing behind us, staring at me. I leapt to my feet.
‘Time to pack up,’ said Rob. He scowled at Iona.
Iona went back to flicking through her book.
I ignored her and started putting books away on the shelves.
‘Come on,’ said Rob, ‘it’s home time. Let her do the rest.’
I followed Rob out through the door and into the playground. We pulled our bikes from the rack and pushed them out past the mums and dads waiting at the school gates. Mad Old McNair was standing on the other side of the road, a stooped figure in a long brown coat. As we cycled past, I noticed striped pyjamas flap against his bare legs.
‘Race you,’ said Rob.
I pedalled like mad behind Rob up the hill out of the village. When we got to the top of the hill, I glanced back down the road. The village lay sprawled out like a map beneath us, the bright green of the playing field dotted with a few sheep, the village hall and the shop and the stone cottages.
The school playground had emptied, and cars were winding their way along the narrow roads. A stooped figure shuffled slowly along the south road out of the village. A smaller figure behind him turned to look up and waved.
‘Come on,’ said Rob. ‘What are you waiting for?’
I didn’t wave back.
Instead, I turned my bike down the steep descent of Shepherd’s Lane, my wheels following in Rob’s tyre tracks all the way.
CHAPTER 8
The next morning Rob was waiting for me at the bottom of our farm track with a great fat grin on his face. ‘Well, what d’you reckon?’ he said.
I looked at his new mountain bike, shining black and silver.
‘Jammy,’ I said. ‘I forgot it was your birthday today.’
‘I couldn’t believe Dad got me this one,’ Rob said. ‘It’s a top model. Front and rear disc brakes, Shimano gears, front suspension forks, it’s got the lot. And look at this.’ He pointed to a small oval panel clipped to the frame. ‘It’s a bike computer. My auntie got it for me. It tells my speed, altitude, distance travelled … it does everything.’
I pushed off on my own bike. ‘Bet it doesn’t make you faster,’ I yelled.
I raced away. I loved mornings like this, bright sunlight on the potholed puddles. We were fairly level on the flat, but Rob pulled away from me in Shepherd’s Lane, up through the rough tracks. My tyres couldn’t grip the loose stones, and I had to get off and push my bike the rest of the way.
Rob was wiping the mud off his alloy wheels and talking to Euan when I reached the bike shed. Iona was hovering nearby, but I pretended I hadn’t seen her.
‘Are you coming round tonight?’ Rob asked us. ‘Mum’s cooking pizzas.’
‘I’ve got a cool new DVD I’ll bring,’ said Euan.
Rob rolled his eyes. ‘Let me guess, “A Hundred Places to go Fly-Fishing Before You Die”.’
‘It’s “Extreme Fishing”, actually,’ said Euan. ‘It’s got sharks and barracudas.’
‘Save it for another day,’ said Rob. ‘I can’t take the excitement.’
I shouldered my bag and walked with Rob and Euan across the wet playground to the far wall. Rob took out his homework and copied some of Euan’s answers, scrawling them down on his worksheets. Iona was leaning against the wall not far from us, watching me. The bell rang and children started to move towards their classrooms.
‘Come on,’ said Euan, ‘we’ve got class.’
Rob stuffed his homework in his bag and we hurried up the ramp to the classroom. I was at the door when Iona called me back.
‘What does she want?’ Rob frowned.
I shrugged my shoulders. ‘I’ll catch you up.’ I turned to Iona.
‘You coming to the loch after school?’ she asked.
‘I can’t,’ I said. ‘It’s Rob’s birthday.’
‘Doesn’t matter.’ She smiled and passed me a large envelope. ‘I did this for you last night.’
I could see Rob watching us from the window.
‘Thanks, Iona,’ I mumbled. I stuffed it in my bag.
‘Aren’t you going to look inside?’ she said.
‘Later,’ I said. ‘Come on, we’re late.’
I walked to the back of the room and slung my bag on the table with Rob and Euan. The teacher wasn’t in the class yet, so I took my homework out of my bag and walked up through the aisle between the tables to place it on the teacher’s desk.
When I got back to my chair, Euan and Rob were crowded over my bag. They’d pulled out the envelope and opened it and were looking at a painting on a piece of paper.
‘Very romantic,’ said Euan with a grin.
I looked at the paper. Iona had painted two ospreys. One was sitting in the nest and the other was flying, wings outspread, bringing a fish. She had signed it: ‘To Callum, from Iona. xxx.’
‘She’s always watching you,’ said Rob. ‘I reckon she fancies you!’
‘Does not,’ I mumbled.
‘Look at all these kisses,’ said Rob.
I wished he’d just shut up. Iona was looking at us now.
‘Her grandad came down to the shop in his night-shirt last week,’ said Euan. ‘Night-shirt and slippers, that’s all he had on.’
Rob looked across my shoulder to where Iona was sitting.
‘Right nutters, the pair of them,’ he said. ‘Should be banged up in a mental home.’ He held up the picture in full view. The rest of the class was listening now. Some of the girls laughed. Rob’s voice was crystal sharp, loud and clear. ‘Right nutters. What d’you reckon, Callum?’
I could see Iona watching me from under her fringe of red hair. I could feel her eyes burning into me.
The whole class was watching.
I looked down at my shoes, where mud had hardened into a thick brown shell. ‘Yeah, right pair of nutters,’ I said.
CHAPTER 9
I pushed the front wheel of my bike out to the edge. The earth crumbled beneath the tyre sending small stones skittering down the steep gulley. In winter, it had been a torrent of water from the hills but now it was a vertical drop of mud and stone.
‘Death Drop,’ Rob grinned. ‘Wipe-Out Alley.’ He pushed the buttons on the tiny panel of his bike computer. ‘It’ll record it all,’ he said, ‘gradient, speed, cadence … everything.’
I gripped my handlebars, blood pumping in my ears.
‘Ready?’ Rob’s face lit up with his maniac smile.
I nodded.
Rob fiddled with the camera fixed to his helmet. ‘I’ll come after you on my bike. Don’t knock me off. I nicked this action-cam from my dad. He doesn’t know I’ve got it.’
I stared into the abyss below me. If all went OK I’d level out on the flat and shoot up the bank the far side.
‘OK,’ said Rob. ‘Five … ’
Why am I doing this?
‘Four … ’
I’m going to die.
‘Three … ’
I can’t …
‘Two … ’
I CAN’T!
‘One … ’
Do it.
‘Go … ’
The ground was gone.
I was flying … falling. Down, down, down. Lean back, lean back, my mind screamed. I hit ground, grit and stone spraying from my back wheel where it jammed and jarred into the deep running grooves of the gulley, twisting metal spokes as my front wheel slammed onto a hummock of grass and lurched me forward, flying through the air. Over and over and over, tumbling in a whirl of legs, arms, and bike, plummeting downwards past a blur of mud and stones and heather, over and over and over, all the way down the waterfall gulley to the rutted track below. I landed upsidedown in a heap of heather to see Rob fly up over the bank, perform a perfect half spin in the air and disappear the other side.
There was silence followed by a loud splash.
‘Watch what you’re bloody doing,’ shouted Euan’s voice.
‘You were in the way,’ Rob yelled back.
I lay there listening to them argue. I moved my legs and arms. It didn’t feel as if I had any broken bones and it didn’t look as though Rob or Euan were going to come and find out either. I hobbled up the bank to see Rob and Euan sprawling in the shallows of the river.
Euan gave Rob’s bike a kick. ‘You could’ve broke my rod, you bloody idiot.’
Rob picked his bike up and dragged it to the bank, laughing. ‘Good one, Callum! I got it all on camera.’
‘An’ you’ve scared off all the fish,’ shouted Euan. ‘I won’t catch anything with you mucking about.’
‘Sure you’re using the right fly?’ shouted Rob, pulling some chocolate from his bag.
Euan turned to glare at him. ‘As if you’d know,’ he said.
I pushed my bike over to Rob.
‘Guess how long till he tells us he’s the fly fishing champion,’ I grinned.
‘I heard that,’ shouted Euan. ‘I didn’t get the junior fly fishing cup for nothing, you know!’
‘Catch … ’ yelled Rob and he threw Euan a chocolate bar. ‘ … it might be the only thing you do catch today.’