The Fire Bay Adventure

by Fleur Hitchcock

  “They?” asked the policeman, taking off his cap and rubbing the top of his head. “There was more than one?”

  “Frogwoman,” said Chloe.

  “Frogwoman?” asked the policeman, scribbling frantically. “Who is Frogwoman? Can you describe her?”

  “She looked like a frog and was selling phones,” said Josh.

  “And Grandma bought one,” said Chloe.

  “And where does Grandma live?” asked the policeman gazing at the muddle in his notebook.

  “Up at Clifftopper Farm,” said Chloe.

  Pearl pointed up the hill. The policeman nodded. “I know it,” he said.

  “But why?” asked Aiden. “Why do you want to know?”

  “Because of the fires,” said the policeman. “We believe, or rather the fire officer believes, that they’re connected.”

  “Did the people at the post office buy one?” asked Chloe.

  “They did – and it was upstairs when the fire started.”

  “I knew it!” said Josh.

  “You knew it?” chorused Aiden, Ava and Chloe.

  “You were the one who was going to buy one!” said Ava.

  “Well, I’m glad I didn’t. Now we know that they’re—” Ava glared at her brother. And a small silence grew larger.

  The policeman stared at them. “I’ve got a feeling that you lot know a whole bunch more than you’re telling me.”

  Josh was all for heading back to the farm through the secret tunnel, but the others persuaded the policeman that he needed to visit Jasmine’s house before meeting Grandma. It didn’t take terribly long to walk up to the caravan park but Josh was starving, tired, and covered in sheep poo.

  “Well, now what?” he asked, waving his arm at the neat line of chalets that stretched all the way up the gentle slope. “How do we know which one she lives in?”

  “Knock on doors,” said the policeman, heading off to the first one in the line. “Start off at the other end, kids – someone’ll know her.”

  Letting out a long and extra noisy sigh, Josh followed Chloe up the steps of one of the chalets. It was wooden and neat and had little wellington boots planted with flowers all round the shiny red front door, which nobody answered.

  “Next one,” said Chloe, all chirpy and VERY annoying.

  The next one was obviously not occupied. It was boarded up with grubby windows. Josh didn’t even bother to climb the steps.

  “Come on, Josh,” said Chloe. “This is important!”

  With a groan Josh marched up the next set of steps and banged on the door. Inside, he heard someone shout, and then footsteps ran to the door and it was opened by Jasmine. Seeing Josh, she immediately frowned.

  Josh frowned back.

  Jasmine frowned harder.

  “We’ve found her!” Chloe shouted to the others.

  Josh screwed up his face into the frowniest frown he could muster.

  “Hello!” said Jasmine’s mum over her daughter’s head. “You’re the boy from the beach!”

  “I am,” said Josh, and shot Jasmine’s mum his most dazzling smile. “And you’re the people who bought the last VR set.”

  “Oh, was it the last?” said Jasmine’s mum. “I didn’t know – but we can’t make it work anyway. I tried ringing to complain, but I can’t get through on the number on the box”

  “It doesn’t work?” said Josh, suddenly feeling a whole lot less cross. “Brilliant!”

  Jasmine scowled.

  Josh punched the air, danced a little jig and stuck his tongue out at the world in general. “Justice” was the word that ran through his head. Natural justice.

  After the policeman had spoken with Jasmine and her mum and taken the VR away, and they had all trudged back to the farm, the policeman sat down with Grandma. She took out the box and the phone and laid them down on the kitchen table. “See?” said Grandma. “All very shiny and new.”

  The policeman examined everything, and then looked at the box, peeling up the corner of the Xarca label and examining underneath. “I’m very sorry to tell you, but I think this is a fake.”

  “Oh no! I’ve been had! Oh, Edward – I’m an idiot.”

  Grandpa Edward beamed and began to pour sugar into a saucepan. “Don’t worry, Primrose. Could happen to anyone.”

  “I’m afraid, madam, you have been had,” said the policeman, pulling out his notebook. “Could you describe the woman you bought it from?” he asked.

  Josh pulled the sugar bowl over and stirred shapes into the white grains.

  “She was wearing green and had … blonde hair – oh, Josh, you talked to her.”

  “Yeah, Frogwoman,” said Josh, wishing that he didn’t have to keep on saying it. Surely the policeman had got the message by now. The woman was froggy.

  “Did she look anything like this?” asked the policeman, tapping his phone and holding up a picture of three people.

  All the cousins peered at the tiny photo. “That’s her!” shouted Josh. “And that’s Mushroom-head.”

  “Yeah, I agree,” said Ava. “That’s her, but the rest of us never saw him – not even—” Josh kicked her under the table. There was no way he wanted Grandma to find out about them sneaking off in the van. She would send them home, and then he’d never get to go down the secret tunnel.

  Ava glared at him and he glared back. “We overheard them,” said Ava.

  “How d’you mean?” asked the policeman.

  “Um.” Ava looked around frantically.

  “At the market,” said Chloe. “We overheard them at the market – on their phones. Talking about another shipment coming in today. Another hundred and fifty, wasn’t it?”

  “Where?” asked the policeman.

  “Dunno,” replied Ava. “Josh talked over that bit.”

  “How did you overhear them if you never saw them?” asked Grandma, staring hard at Ava.

  Which was when Josh tipped the sugar bowl across the table, leaned over to correct it and upset a vase of flowers, which shot icy water all over his sister.

  “Sorry,” he said, dabbing at the table with a tea towel and making it worse. “So sorry.”

  Once she’d got over the shock, Ava smiled at him. So did Chloe. Aiden didn’t even seem to have noticed. “Can I see that?” he asked, taking off his glasses and looking closely at the picture. “I’ve seen this man too,” he said, pointing at the third man in the photo. “I just don’t know where.”

  Grandpa had made toffee apples. “To walk to the bonfire with,” he said. The toffee apples sat on a piece of greaseproof paper. The sugar pooled across it like glass. Josh snapped one off first and the rest of them followed. Even Grandma had one. They were delicious – sharp apple bitten through the crunchy golden layer of toffee, which cracked perfectly. The best Chloe had ever had, and everything would have been just fine if she could stop feeling guilty that they hadn’t told the policeman everything. Because Ava and Josh had sneaked off in the van it didn’t feel right to say anything about the way they’d overheard the conversation about the shipment. Still, perhaps it didn’t matter. They had no idea when or where it was due in. It might be nowhere near Drake’s Bay. It might not happen.

  “Have you asked Grandma about carrying the barrel yet?” Chloe asked Ava.

  Ava shook her head. Chloe saw her look anxiously at Grandma, who was putting on a second pair of socks and trying to stop Bella from eating her toffee apple.

  “Not sure I’m flavour of the month – she knows we didn’t overhear them at the market. She knows we’re lying,” she whispered. “She might say no.”

  “I’m sure she’ll say yes,” Chloe said.

  “Now would be a good time to ask,” said Aiden.

  “What do you want to ask me?” said Grandma, chipping sugar from the countertop.

  “Um, Grandma,” said Ava, her voice rather higher than usual, thought Chloe. “How d’you feel about me carrying a barrel this evening?”

  Chloe looked across at Grandpa. He was nodding as if it
would be perfectly fine.

  Grandma looked up from her socks. “Ah, Pearl asked you – she asked me too. Thing is, do you want to? You don’t feel you have to, you know, to prove something? To look brave – we all know you’re brave.”

  Ava wrinkled up her nose. “Prove something? No – I just want to run through the village with a flaming barrel on my head – I mean, who wouldn’t?”

  “OK then.” Grandma picked at Ava’s braids. “Make sure you wear a hoodie, with the hood up, OK? I’d hate to end up sending you back to your parents with no hair on your head.”

  “You mean I can?”

  “Of course. If your grandfather agrees, I think you’re perfectly capable of doing the barrel run.”

  “Yay!” said Ava, doing a little jump and running upstairs to find something to tie her hair with.

  “It’s completely unfair,” said Josh.

  Everyone ignored him.

  “And put on your old jeans and trainers,” yelled Grandma up the stairs. “You don’t want to ruin your clothes!”

  Ava reappeared in record time, wearing a grubby green sweatshirt of Grandpa’s.

  “Ready?” asked Aiden, putting Bella on her lead, and all of them set off in the twilight, out of the farm and down the lane to the village. Ava walked alongside Chloe, an extra bounce in her step. Grandma and Grandpa walked at the front. People joined them as they neared the village, flowing out of the houses, until it became a procession with some carrying flaming torches and others snapping glow sticks.

  Overhead, a sliver of moon hung in the sky and distant lights glittered further out at sea. People in the crowd murmured, their voices subdued, but somehow the air tingled with anticipation. To Chloe, there was something magical about it.

  “Oooh, isn’t it lovely?” said Ava.

  “Aren’t you scared?” asked Chloe.

  “Little bit,” whispered Ava. “But don’t tell Josh.”

  “I am so looking forward to this!” said Josh. “Although they’ve made a major mistake not letting me carry a barrel! Church?”

  “Hmm,” said Aiden. “Yes, church.” Chloe could see that in spite of the excitement, Aiden was distracted.

  “What is it?” she asked.

  “It’s really annoying. I recognise the woman in the pictures the policeman showed us,” he said. “She was definitely the person who was selling the phones. But why do I recognise the third person who isn’t the mushroom-head man with the VR sets? I don’t get it.”

  “I don’t know,” said Chloe, thinking that Aiden was right to be bothered. “But it’s the police’s problem now. Let’s just enjoy Ava carrying a barrel and watch the fireworks. Look!”

  They were level with the church, where a massive crowd had formed. There was lots of cheering and laughing and shouting and people brandishing their flaming torches.

  A huge cluster of barrels stood just inside the church, and Jake was rolling them out, one at a time.

  “Ah – here she is – been waiting for you. C’mon Ava, love,” said Pearl, beckoning her from the crowd.

  “Go on,” Aiden said, smiling in encouragement, and Ava stepped forwards, horribly aware of everyone staring at her.

  “What do I do?” she muttered quietly to Pearl.

  “S’all right, it’ll be like riding a bike, you’ll get it as soon as you do it.”

  Ava wasn’t quite so sure that carrying a flaming barrel on your head was at all like riding a bike. In fact, all the confidence she’d had five minutes earlier had utterly deserted her. Everyone standing by a barrel was about a foot taller than her and looked like they knew what they were doing.

  And there were flames, loads of flames. At the moment they were on sticks, but there was a load of gloopy tar and a huge ladle, and Jake was bashing the tops of the barrels in and slopping tar around the insides.

  “Here,” said Pearl, handing her an enormous pair of what looked like oven gloves. “They’ll keep your arms and hands from burning.”

  “OK,” said Ava, sliding the huge mittens on to her hands.

  “And this hat, it’ll keep your head safe.”

  Pearl handed her a grubby white woven hood thing. Ava put it on and the world went quiet. It covered her head and shoulders. Now she didn’t know what she was doing and she couldn’t hear properly.

  To her left, Jake was climbing on to a barrel, and he began addressing the crowd.

  “Welcome to the Drake’s Bay Fire Festival. Now, everybody – this is real fire. We expect everyone to take care, and only designated barrel carriers may go near the barrels. We have a fire officer here to make sure.”

  A woman in a red boiler suit stepped forward. People cheered. Ava was quite pleased to see the fire officer. She wondered where the fire extinguisher was.

  “You know what the carriers must do!” A great shout went up from the crowd and Bella joined in, barking. “We will light the barrels, and then, carrying them on their heads, the runners will take the barrels to light the bonfire at Fire Bay! Step forward, first three fire carriers!”

  Three men in white shirts with white hat things stepped out of the gloom. Ava hung back. There was no way she wanted to be the first runner – not without watching someone else first. It wasn’t like she didn’t know what would happen, but she’d never paid much attention to the details.

  The crowd cheered.

  “So, are you ready to run?”

  “Aye, we are!” they shouted.

  There was more cheering and shouting and general laughter while the fire officer went round and checked their mittens, hats and jackets and tucked them into each other. She gave Jake a thumbs up. It briefly occurred to Ava that being a barrel runner was a complete fashion disaster, but it was nearly dark, and wearing all this stuff, no one would ever recognise her.

  “Time for the fire!” yelled Pearl, and she lit the first barrel. For a second nothing happened, then the flames licked around the tarry inside and small sparks began to fly as the wood beneath caught.

  “First?” yelled Jake, and a white-jacketed figure hoisted the barrel up to his shoulder and swung round so that sparks scattered the crowd.

  Jake lit the second and the third, and helped the carriers position them on their heads. Flames licked over the strange white mittens and, crackling, the barrels mushroomed into full flame.

  There was laughing and the crowd parted to leave room for the first three barrel carriers to reach the high street.

  “Run!” shouted the people. “Run!”

  Ava stood with her mouth open, watching as the first barrel runners vanished down the high street, spewing fire over the crowd, which melted like butter in front of them. Hooting followed them as they ran and half of the people disappeared.

  “This is insane,” she muttered.

  “Still wanna do it?” said Pearl next to her.

  “Definitely,” said Ava.

  “Next!” shouted Jake.

  Ava stepped forward.

  Jake chose a smaller barrel and knocked the top out of it. “Ready?” He looked up at her as he slopped the tar around the inside.

  She nodded. For just a second she thought about saying no, but she knew she’d really regret it if she did. Checking her braids were tucked under the hood, she crouched by the barrel as Pearl lit it. The flames took hold really quickly and although it was small it still produced a lot of sparks.

  “Go!” said Jake. “Run fast – it’s small, it’ll burn through quicker!”

  “What?” said Ava.

  “Just go!” shouted Pearl.

  Using the ridiculous mittens, Ava hoisted the flaming barrel on her head and, running like a turtle, turned towards the church gate. From under the hood she saw Grandma and Grandpa cheering, and then she began to run, passing Chloe and Bella first, the flames darting all around her head.

  “Ow!” she shouted to no one as the heat from the barrel began to make its way through the gloves.

  She sped up as she turned into the high street, running down past the post off
ice, her shoes bouncing off the cobbles. She nearly slipped as she dodged the postbox, and had to slow down to avoid people standing in the street.

  “Run! Run!” yelled the crowds alongside.

  “Get out of the way then!” she shouted back.

  Space opened in front of her as the street widened and the harbour came into sight. Water. Lots of water.

  “Run! Ava, run!” yelled someone next to her.

  “Josh you idiot!” she shouted at him, her words vanishing in the crowd.

  She kicked harder, dodging the first barrel runners who had stopped to do something that produced clouds of sparks in front of the hotel. Her hands were now really hot, and she wondered if she was going to manage the whole distance.

  “You’re in the lead!” shouted Josh.

  Under her feet, the ground turned from tarmac to shingle. It was harder to run on but the bonfire was in sight. Willing herself over the pebbles, she headed for the small crowd waiting by the heap.

  “Put it there!” yelled a woman, pointing at a small gap at the foot of the pile of wood.

  And Ava lifted the flaming barrel from her head and threw it into the bonfire.

  As Chloe watched Ava prepare to run with the barrel, she turned to Josh and Aiden. “I think the gang are here,” she said very quietly. “I’m sure I spotted the woman in the crowd, but I don’t want to worry Ava before she runs.”

  “Have you seen Mushroom-head?” asked Josh.

  Chloe shook her head. “No, but I might have seen the other man from the picture. I’m not sure. He was here a second ago, fiddling with the barrels. If it’s the same person.”

  “Are there any police here?” asked Aiden.

  They looked around. “Fire officers, but no police people,” said Chloe. “But there’s definitely something going on with these barrels.” Chloe took Bella and wandered casually over to the barrel mountain.

  “We should tell Ava,” said Josh, watching Chloe count.

  “Better start running then,” said Aiden, as Ava charged out of the churchyard.

  He began neck and neck with Josh. They raced each other, feet skimming over the tarmac, leaping on and off the pavements, everything around them a whirl of sparks and shouts and flames.