The field could be anything
they wanted it to be. It could be a football pitch, a lonesome prairie, an
alien planet, an unexplored jungle, a battlefield; it could change from day to
day, or even hour to hour. But whatever the field was, the small copse of
hawthorn trees was always the camp.
Adam sat on the lowest branch
of the biggest tree. He liked to be there early, before Gary and Simon. He
liked to have the quiet time, time to think of what they would play that day.
He wondered why it always seemed to fall to him to decide what they would play.
He had grown tired of trying to think up new games as the long summer holiday
had dragged along. Now it was almost over, he found it hard to think back to
where all the time had gone.
The worst time for him had
been the one week he had been on his own, when Gary and Simon had been away on
holiday. Adam sometimes wished he had a brother, someone to play with all the
time. Although, Gary and Simon always seemed to be arguing and fighting.
Adam glanced up. All around
the camp were tall plants with red flowers. About this time every year the
flowers seemed to turn into cotton wool - or something like cotton wool - which
blew everywhere, even into his mouth. It tasted horrible and his mother always
moaned about the amount of the stuff that stuck to his clothes. He had once
asked his mother what the huge red-flowered plants were called. "They're
just weeds," she had said, and turned back to her washing-up.
Adam could hear the sounds of
argument coming through the long grass. He stood up on the branch and held on
to the trunk of the tree. He could see Gary's head as it bobbed through the
grass. Occasionally, the head would stop and turn. Adam could see the grass
parting for Simon, but he was too small to be seen above it. Adam sighed and
sat back down on the branch, hoping that the argument would wear itself out
before too long. He hated it when Gary and Simon were sulking at each other all
day. He changed his mind about wanting a brother to play with.
"It was mine, and you
broke it." Gary sat down under the tree. Simon had been crying, Adam could
see the grey muddy tracks down Simon's cheeks as he stood, uncertainly, at the
edge of the camp. Simon wiped his nose on the sleeve of his shirt and sat down
opposite Gary, well out of his reach.
"What are we going to do
today then?" Adam said.
"I don't care as long as
he doesn't play," Gary said.
Adam thought about asking
what had happened. He decided he did not really care. He was tired of getting
involved in their constant disputes. He would be going to the junior school at
the end of the holiday. He began to wish that he would find some new friends
there, friends without brothers.
"Let's explore the
jungle," Adam said, jumping down from the branch.
"I'm not exploring with
him." Gary crossed his arms.
Adam turned to look away from
them. "There was this man, an explorer, he was called Stanley - I think.
He found this other man: Livingson, who was lost in the jungle. He'd been
captured by cannibals, but he escaped and Stanley rescued him."
"What was his name,
Stanley what?" Gary said.
"I don't think he had
another name," Adam said doubtfully.
"Knife," Simon said
quietly. "I heard our Dad talking about Stanley Knife. I asked Dad who he
was, but Dad just laughed."
"Don't be stupid, knife
isn't a name," Gary said.
"Anyway," Adam said
to Gary. "If you be this Liverson, then we can come and rescue you."
Gary was silent for a moment.
"Yeah, right then," he said and got to his feet. He turned to Simon.
"I think the cannibals are going to capture you, and eat you." He
laughed and ran off into the long grass.
Simon smiled weakly at Adam
and began to trace lines in the loose dirt with a stick. "I hate having a
big brother sometimes, everything is always my fault. Anyway," he smiled
again, "I bet it was knife."
Adam nodded and looked away.
He thought the whole thing was typical of grown-ups; they never answered your
questions properly. They were either too busy or they said they didn't know.
Adam wondered what was the point of being grown-up if you did not know the
answer to everything. He decided that when he grew up he would know the answer
to every question in the whole world.
"Come on then, let's go
and rescue Liverson," Adam said.
"Are you Stanley
Knife?"
"Yes, I suppose
so."
"Who am I then?"
"You're, ...you're his
faithful servant," Adam tried to think of a suitable name for a servant.
"Passport Two."
"Passport Two?"
That's even sillier than Stanley Knife." Simon laughed.
"It's the name of the
servant of someone who went all around the world in a balloon. They made a film
of it," Adam said defiantly. "Come on."
Simon followed Adam out into
the field. "I'm not going to get eaten, I don't care what he says."
Adam and Simon wandered
through the thick jungle, fighting savage natives and ferocious wild animals.
Stanley Knife was wounded in the arm by a poisonous spear and Passport Two was
mauled by a man-eating tiger, but they bravely struggled on in their desperate
mission to rescue Liverson, despite the overwhelming odds against them.
Suddenly, they burst into a
clearing. The long grass had been flattened, as if by a huge roller. In the
centre of the clearing was something black.
"Careful, it might be a
Tranquilliser spider," Passport Two whispered.
Stanley Knife drew his sword
and crept slowly up to the deadly spider. Before it had a chance to leap on
him, Stanley sliced it in half. "It's a pair of tights. Look," Adam
pushed at the black nylon heap with his toe.
"Why would someone leave
them here," Gary said looking around.
"Perhaps there's been a
murder," Adam said. "Look, it looks like they were fighting and
squashed the grass down flat."
Simon looked around
nervously. "There's no body and there's no blood," he said with
relief. "Anyway, why would he need to take her tights off to kill
her?"
"I dunno," Adam
said. "But on the telly, when they talk about murders, they always say
they found some bits of clothes and things."
"Look, what's
this?" Simon poked at something on the ground with his stick.
"It's a balloon."
"I know that, but what
is that stuff in it?"
Adam screwed up his face in
disgust. "Looks like someone's blown their nose in it."
Simon turned away. Adam
looked down at the pale pink balloon. It looked like it could be blown up quite
big. He moved closer, the stuff inside did look a bit like snot. But, he
decided, it looked more like the stuff snails made their shiny tracks with. He
thought it was probably something - some sort of trap - people used to catch
snails and slugs. His Granddad was always complaining about how the snails and
slugs ate all the cabbages on his allotment. Adam had decided he quite liked
snails and slugs because of that, and he secretly hoped there would be a plague
of them and they would eat all the cabbage in the world.
Adam looked carefully at the
balloon. He was relieved to see that the snail, or slug, had escaped. He
wondered if it was something he could ask his Mom or Dad about. There were some
things he could not ask about; things that made his mother's face go red and
her voice go strange. "Rude things" and things that he would
"understand when you are older", things like why there were girls and
boys and why they had different toilets at school.
But the biggest rude thing
had been the day Gary, Simon and Adam had found a magazine, which seemed to
contain nothing but pictures of ladies without any clothes on. They had puzzled
over the magazine for several hours. There were pictures of women, standing in
fields and on beaches, with no clothes on throwing balls to each other, or just
smiling at the camera. But there were no cartoons or stories; none that made
any sense anyway.
Adam had decided to take the
magazine home to ask his Mother about it. But he only just managed to hold the
magazine up to show her, before it was snatched out of his hand and ripped to
shreds. His Mother called it rude, disgusting and - strangely to Adam - filth.
He knew that showing, what was called, his private parts to anyone except
doctors and nurses was rude, but the ladies in the pictures had not looked
filthy to Adam. They had looked clean, shiny even, with nice bright smiles. He
wondered how anyone could be called filthy when they were photographed in the
bath or in the sea, like the women in some of the pictures. There had even been
a part of the magazine called Bathing Beauties.
Adam and Simon left the small
clearing without looking back. They turned onto a small path.
Gary ran up to them.
"Come here," he whispered, "and be quiet."
Adam and Simon looked at each
other in puzzlement, but followed Gary, trying to be as silent as possible.
Gary led them to a small hedge; he crouched down and pointed through the hedge.
Adam and Simon crept up beside Gary and looked through the hedge.
A girl, somewhere around
Adam's age, with long, dark red hair, was sitting at the edge of the field. In
front of her, a row of dolls lay on the grass. The girl had a toy stethoscope
around her neck. She crawled along in front of the row of dolls checking each
one with the stethoscope. Adam and Gary looked at each other and nodded.
The boys burst through the
hedge, and stood in a rough semi-circle around the girl. She looked up at them.
"We are cannibals,"
Adam said. "And we have captured you."
The girl looked at each of
the three boys in turn. She nodded and stood up. "I'm Florence Nightgown,
a nurse," she said.
"Don't try to run, there
is no escape," Gary said, stepping closer to the girl. She shrugged and
nodded again.
Adam and Gary looked at each
other and stood either side of the girl. Adam reached out to grab her arm, but
found himself unwilling to touch the bright pink wool of her cardigan.
"Put your hands behind
your back, so we can tie you up," Adam said quietly. "Please."
Florence Nightgown submitted
to the orders of her cruel captors, knowing escape was impossible. Simon led
the way, followed by Gary, who kept turning back to check the captive was still
there. Adam brought up the rear. As the girl was about to step through the
break in the hedge, she turned and looked back at the patients in her hospital.
"You're all dead," she said to the dolls.
Adam thought about stabbing
all the patients with his spear, but decided against it. She had said they were
all dead, and she was a nurse, so she should know.
The cannibals arrived back at
their village.
The prisoner stood in the
centre of the copse, looking around.
"Is this your camp?" she said.
"Silence!" Gary
shouted. "We will ask ze questions."
"You said you was
cannibals," the girl said. "That's Germans that is. Nasties."
She made to scratch her nose with one hand, but remembered they were supposed
to be tied behind her back. She rapidly put the hand back behind her.
"Anyway, what are cannibals?"
"They're savages,"
Adam said.
"They eat people,"
Gary said, leering forward at her.
"How?"
"We're going to cook
you.... In a big pot," Adam said. He turned to Simon. "Get the fire
ready, ...er, ...Mabingo."
"Right."
"You're supposed to say:
'Yes Banana.'"
"What?"
"It's what cannibals
call their chief," Adam said authoritatively. He had a sudden thought,
which made him shiver. He glanced up at Florence, and then down at the ground
by his feet. "You'll, ...you'll have to take your clothes off, so we can
cook you," he said quietly, half-looking towards the girl.
"No, that's not
fair."
"Is," Gary said.
"Anyway, if you are
proper cannibals you wouldn't have any clothes on anyway. I heard it at Sunday
school, naked savages. If cannibals is savages, and naked is having no clothes
on, so there."
The three boys looked at each
other, Simon shrugged, but Adam could see that Gary was sharing the same
excitement as he was. It was something that made him feel hot and cold at the
same time, shivery and sweaty.
"We could be Germans and
you could be a spy, we could torture you," Gary said to the girl.
"I'm a nurse," the
girl said. "You could be my patients. I could examine you."
"That's a girl's game,
I'm not playing that," Simon said with disgust. Adam and Gary looked down
at their feet. Adam thought the game might be soppy, but he rather liked the
idea of being examined by the girl, as long as she didn't check his hair for
nits.
"All right then,"
Adam said. "But we are going to capture the spy first."
"No," the girl
said. "Anyway, I ought to be going home, it's nearly dinner time."
Adam could feel it slipping
away from him. He looked over at Gary. Gary shrugged. "All right then,"
Adam said to the girl.
"Right, you are all
German soldiers... and I'm the nurse, Florence Nightgown. You've all been
wounded and I'm making sure you are all right enough to go back to the
war."
The boys nodded, Simon looked
away in disgust, but lined up beside Gary as the nurse ordered him to. Nurse
Nightgown walked slowly along the line of wounded soldiers, taking their wrists
between her fingers for a moment, then nodding. Adam tingled all along his arm
as the warm fingers touched his wrist. Nurse Nightgown gave a brisk nod and
pulled out her stethoscope.
"Gerroff, that
tickles," Simon said pulling his shirt back down. Reluctantly, he touched
his left arm when the nurse asked him where his wound was. She prodded and
poked at the arm and then pronounced him fit. Simon nodded and turned away.
Gary's head wound was also pronounced healed.
"Now Herr captain. Where
is your wound?"
"It's my leg," Adam
said.
"Show me."
Adam felt hot, he heard Gary
laugh but did not look up. Adam let his trousers drop. The nurse looked up at
him. Adam slowly pulled his underpants down as well. The nurse looked down at
him; she nodded slowly and turned to the other two boys.
"I need to check you two
as well," The nurse said briskly. Gary and Simon looked at each other.
"Why?" Simon said.
"Do as you are told, or
I will have you shot!"
"No," Simon said.
"We will, if you
will," Gary said.
"You're scared!"
The nurse said triumphantly.
"I'm not, it's just not
fair," Gary said.
The nurse looked over at Adam.
He stood there, with his trousers and pants around his ankles, and smiled at
her.
"He's not scared,"
the nurse said to the two brothers, and pointed at Adam. The brothers shook
their heads. There was silence for a moment.
"All right, ...but you two
go first," the nurse said.
The brothers slowly began to
unfasten their trousers. They waited for a moment until the nurse lifted up her
skirt. Adam felt a shiver of excitement. His back felt cold and damp. He could
feel a trickle of sweat run down his back as he stared at the pale pink pants.
He felt excited, but also a little disappointed. It looked as though there was
nothing there, nothing under her pants.
Gary and Simon pulled down
their trousers and their pants. The nurse nodded in satisfaction.
"Now you," Gary
said.
Nurse Nightgown tutted, and
tucking the hem of her skirt under her chin, took both sides of her pants in
her hands. Adam gulped; he could see Gary tense out of the corner of his eye.
The girl pulled down her pants. Then she immediately pulled them back up. All
Adam could recall was a flash of pale flesh.
"That's not fair."
Gary pulled his trousers back up.
"I'm not playing any
more either." Simon pulled his trousers back up. "I didn't want to
play with a girl anyway." He picked up a long stick, then walked off into
the long grass slashing at the tall red flowers.
"Come on, show us
properly," Gary said.
"Let me examine you
first."
"Only if you promise to
show us, afterwards," Adam said.
The girl looked at Adam for what
seemed to be ages. She smiled and nodded. "All right, I promise."
The nurse walked up to Gary and nodded.
"Right, you are all right." She stood in front of Adam and shook her
head. Adam could hardly bear the touch of her warm fingers as she examined him.
She seemed to spend ages examining him, tutting professionally, but all too
soon it was over.
"You promised,"
Gary said.
"Oh, ...all right,"
the girl said. Adam thought she sounded like his Mother when she finally caved
in to his demands for sweets or a comic.
The skirt was lifted once
more, and held under the chin. After a quick glance around, the pale pink pants
were pulled down. This time they stayed down.
Adam was amazed at the neat
simplicity of it, a smooth slit. It made him feel as though he wanted to touch
it, hold it in the palm of his hand. He was sure it would be warm and soft,
like some small animal, but at the same time smooth and silky. Adam reached
out.
"I've got to go."
She pulled up her pants, let her skirt fall and was gone, just a flutter in the
long grass.
Adam and Gary pulled up their
trousers in silence, without looking at each other. They stood uncertainly in
the small shady clearing beneath the hawthorn trees, each waiting for the other
to speak.
"Whatever you do, don't
tell your Mom or Dad," Adam said.
"Why not?"
"Because it is probably
rude, and you know what grown-ups can be like about things like that."
Gary nodded. "I suppose
I should go. We are supposed to be back in time for dinner."
Adam nodded in return.
"Make sure Simon doesn't say anything either."
"I will."
"Promise?"
"Yeah, I promise."
Adam watched Gary walk away.
He thought about going home, but he didn't want to leave the camp. It felt
different; different in the same way that his trousers and pants felt wrong in
the way they fitted him. He could still almost feel those warm fingers as she
touched him. Adam sighed and turned for home.
Adam ate his sandwich and
drank his juice as fast as he could, eager to get back to the camp. He took a
packet of crisps from the cupboard on his way out, shouting: "Bye,"
to his Mother as he ran through the open back door. He heard her shout
something to him, but he couldn't make out what she had said.
He ate the crisps as he
walked down to Gary and Simon's house, dropping the empty packet as he knocked
on the back door. It flew open, and their Mother glared down at him. Adam took
a step backwards.
"They are not coming out
again today. That was a very rude thing you did. I suppose it was all your
idea. I'm going to tell your Mother all about it, so you can just look out. You
are a dirty-minded little boy!" The door slammed.
Adam stood for a moment,
shivering in shock. Then he shrugged at the closed door and turned to walk
away. There was a knock on the window. Adam turned. Gary was trying to mouth
something through the window.
"Simon told her when I
hit him for taking my car." Gary was dragged from the window, and the net
curtain dropped. Adam walked away, head down, wondering what his Mother, or
worse - his Father, would say, and do to
him, once they found out.
There was only one place to
go when he was in that much trouble. Adam walked into the camp with his head
down, watching his shoes kicking up the dust.
"Hello."
Adam looked up; the girl was
sitting up in his tree, on his branch. She smiled. Adam didn't feel angry that
she was sitting on his branch. He smiled back.
"Where are the other
two?"
"They couldn't
come," he replied.
The girl jumped down from the
branch. "I'm Florence Nightgown; the nurse."
Adam smiled and nodded.
"If you want you could
be a doctor... next, after that."
"Yeah, all right."
END.