The Thorn Island Adventure

by Fleur Hitchcock

  By the time they’d crossed, the beech tree was just visible, but more as a shadow than a silhouette. Aiden stepped back on to the firm ground. “Now we just need to find our meeting spot in the woods.”

  Ava grabbed Bella and ran the other way. On purpose.

  She knew she had to lead the woman away. She also knew that every minute the lighthouse would light the whole landscape like a search beam.

  But Ava had run out of pebbles. And now she was wondering if it had been such a good idea to go it alone.

  Every time the lighthouse beam crossed the landscape Ava threw herself to the ground. Every time it swung past, Ava ran on. Bella, on the other hand, raced back and forth across the path, catching the light from time to time and managing to seem like three dogs.

  Below, to the right, the sea swashed on to the shingle of Brandy Cove and, Ava hoped, kept clear of the cave. The awful thought that the Black Diamond, Grandpa’s pride and joy, could be swept out on to the rocks made her run faster.

  But as she ran so did the woman behind her. Step for step.

  Faster! thought Ava, picking up speed and risking a change in direction, away from the coastal path and across an open stretch of field. She sprinted as hard as she’d ever run. In the distance lights were appearing in the village. Up to the left the farmhouse had a light on in the kitchen, but it was a long way. She would have to stop for breath; she couldn’t keep it up for much longer. Desperate for a rest, she paused behind a clump of thistles, listening and gulping air. She couldn’t hear anyone, but that didn’t mean they weren’t following her.

  Putting her fingers to her lips she let out a long whistle, which she hoped was very much like a screech owl.

  A distant answer came: another screech owl or Josh?

  She tried again – this time a double call.

  And the double call came back. Definitely Josh.

  Ahead of her Bella shot off up the hill and vanished into the dark. Ava followed, homing in on her brother’s very poor imitation of an owl.

  “I’m scared,” said George, following Aiden through the trees.

  “Don’t worry,” Aiden said, trying to sound really normal. “We’re fine – we just need a particular place.”

  In truth, he was nervous himself, but he wasn’t going to let George down. It was a little scary in the coppice; the moonlight cast such deep shadows behind the trees. Things crunched under his socked foot, and they weren’t all leaves and twigs. Something was snuffling over to their right. A hedgehog perhaps? Or something bigger? Also, the thing that worried him most was that “the place” seemed to have disappeared. Last summer they’d built a den, but now it wasn’t there. Or he’d got it all wrong and he was in a different part of the woods. The problem was that it was dark when they’d begun running, and he’d never been one hundred per cent sure of where he was.

  “Let’s take a moment to get our bearings,” he said, listening out for the sea and realising that he could no longer hear it. They were quite a long way into the woods then.

  “OK.” George moved closer to him. “Can I hold your hand?” he asked.

  “Of course,” said Aiden. He reached out in the darkness and felt George’s small cold hand. “So, George,” he said ridiculously cheerfully, “what we’re looking for is a really big tree – bigger than all the others.”

  Aiden felt George twist round to look at the dark sky.

  “But I can’t see,” he said. “It’s too dark.”

  “Tell you what,” Aiden said, “let’s get to the field edge and maybe we can spot it from there. OK?”

  Pushing through some scratchy undergrowth Aiden headed towards what he thought was a patch of moonlit grass. They broke through the scrub and stopped, just before they trod in what was actually a dew pond. “Whoops!” he said. “I might not…”

  The lighthouse flashed again and he realised that it was no longer behind them, but firmly on their right. Somehow he’d gone astray. He tried to remember where the woods ended and the fields began, but although the map was perfectly clear in his head, the actual landscape appeared to have changed. This was frustrating – he ALWAYS knew where he was. Being lost was an utterly new experience.

  “Are we lost?” asked George in a tiny voice.

  “Not lost,” said Aiden. “Just…”

  He didn’t finish his sentence. He didn’t want to lie, but then he didn’t want to scare the little boy any more than was needed and also he didn’t really think he was lost, not really, so much as unsure.

  “I think we need a plan.”

  “What plan?” George’s voice sounded more scared than ever.

  “Well…” Aiden reached into his pockets. He had a phone, with no signal, but a light – and some soggy mints. “What have you got in your pockets?”

  He heard George’s jeans rattle. “A marble, a ’lastic band, my stretchy reflector sleeve thing.”

  “What stretchy reflector thing is that?” asked Aiden.

  “This.” George pulled something out of his pocket. Aiden couldn’t see it at first, but when the lighthouse beam swept across them George’s hand flashed green.

  “My mum makes me wear it when I go on my bicycle, but I don’t go on my bicycle because I fell off, but it’s really good if you pull it straight – you can use it to pick up beetles.”

  George handed it to Aiden. “A reflector strip? That’s brilliant,” said Aiden. “I’m sure we could use that.” For a moment they stood in the owl-quiet dark while Aiden thought. “Let’s see if we can find a tree to climb.”

  It took them ten minutes to find a large tree that had fallen at a gentle angle against another tree.

  “Here,” said Aiden, lifting George on to the bottom of the sloping trunk. “Try climbing up here.”

  “I’m scared,” said George. “I’m not allowed to climb trees.”

  “It’s fine. Hold my hand,” said Aiden, gripping George’s damp paw.

  “My mum says I can’t. And I haven’t got any shoes on.”

  “Oh,” said Aiden, forming a dim view of George’s mum. “Well, she’s not here right now, and I want you to, and you don’t need shoes, so…”

  George made an odd sound, which Aiden decided was a yes and they walked up the trunk. George held tight to Aiden’s hand, and with a little slipping and sliding, they clambered into the branches of the other, upright, tree.

  Soon they were out of the complete darkness and, as they rose, Aiden began to make sense of the landscape. There was the lighthouse, in front of it the cliffs, and in the distance the village. To the right the cliff edge was marked by the black balloons of bushes, and beyond that the sea was almost completely dark, but with strips of silver and flecks of white where the moonlight fell on the water. A boat with a searchlight was combing the bay. Was it looking for them?

  Perhaps they should have stayed at the bottom of the cliff.

  At least he’d have had Ava with him.

  “OK there, George?”

  “Can we go to sleep up here? I’m tired.”

  “For five minutes,” said Aiden.

  He wondered if they were safe to let the lighthouse beam fall on George’s reflective strip. He couldn’t see anyone from the gang. He couldn’t hear anyone. And he needed the others. He let the beam swing by twice, and then, on the third time, he held up the strip, waving it, hoping very much that his cousins, and only his cousins, were watching.

  Twenty minutes later, Aiden was higher in the branches. George was wedged in a V-shaped branch below him.

  “It’s all right, George,” he said to the possibly sleeping bundle below him. “The others are coming.” There were indeed people coming, but they were coming from the lighthouse. Someone was searching the undergrowth near the tiny car park, and another one shone a light over the fields.

  They were coming closer.

  “Where are you Ava?” he muttered.

  Over to the left he thought he could see some movement along the lane behind the lighthouse, but his night vision
was so poor he couldn’t be sure.

  George stirred below him. “I want my mum.”

  Aiden thought for a moment. “We’re going to play a game. We’re going to see if we can run really, really fast back towards the sea. What do you think – could you beat me there?”

  There was a long silence and a sigh. “I s’pose so. But we’ve already done this once,” whined George.

  “I know, but sometimes to avoid being caught you have to do things that you’ve done before,” whispered Aiden, really hoping that George’s voice didn’t travel too far.

  They crept down from the tree into the undergrowth, and as fast as he dared, he led George back towards the cliff .

  George stopped suddenly. “What’s that?”

  “Where?”

  “There, by my foot.”

  Aiden looked down. “It’s a glow-worm, George. They come out at night in the summer.”

  “Are they electric?” asked George far too loudly.

  “No, they’re photoluminescent beetles,” replied Aiden, realising that there would now be a string of questions that he didn’t have time for and probably didn’t know the answers to.

  “Why are they called worms if they’re beetles?”

  “Because,” said Aiden, desperately trying to find the path in the blackness. “Look, there’s another one.”

  George crouched and reached out to pick it up.

  “No – don’t do that. They’re precious and need to stay put.”

  “Oh,” came George’s disappointed reply.

  There was shouting over by the lighthouse and it didn’t sound much like his cousins. Scrambling back down the cliff seemed the best of their options. They might get the attention of that boat with the searchlight, but failing that they could hide in the cave. Even swim to Drake’s Bay if necessary, but being trapped in the woods didn’t feel safe anymore.

  Crossing the bog the second time seemed to take forever.

  “Can we stop, please?” said George. “My feet hurt.”

  Aiden only had one trainer and he remembered that George had none. Feeling suddenly guilty, he hoisted George on to his back and carried him piggyback along the path.

  They passed more glow-worms and the scent of wild honeysuckle.

  Aiden paused and listened. The hillside was alive with sounds: crickets, snuffling things, owls, and now he could hear the sea pounding against the cliff at the bottom. It occurred to him that the tide might have come right in, in which case they wouldn’t have a beach to go to. They’d be trapped on the footpath.

  He crept on, George becoming heavier with every step.

  Distantly a helicopter began to fly back and forth across the entrance to the bay. Aiden was glad it was so far away– the last thing they needed was to be lit up from the sky.

  Crouching low, Aiden followed the path until they were right by the top of the cliff. Huge black bushes surrounded them – anyone could be hiding in them, but Aiden had no choice but to go forward. He looked around, wondering if his cousins would find them. Five would be better than two. You couldn’t grab five children. Not easily.

  “You’re going to have to get down now,” said Aiden. “I don’t think I can go along the path carrying you.”

  George slipped round Aiden’s back and landed softly on the nibbled grass. “Is this going to be scary?”

  “It’ll be fine,” Aiden lied.

  They’d gone about twenty metres down when Aiden heard someone crashing along the coastal path from the direction of the village.

  “Quick! Down!” he hissed, pulling George under a blackthorn bush. It caught in Aiden’s hair and his T-shirt and spiked him in the back, but he kept quiet and put his hand over George’s mouth.

  He held his breath and George held his, and they waited.

  The first pair of feet passed him and then the second, then a wet nose thrust its way into the bushes and started to lick his face.

  “Bella!” exclaimed Aiden.

  Josh screamed.

  “Aiden?” said Ava. “Is that you?”

  “Yes!” he said, laughing with relief as he struggled on to the path. “Me and George. Whoa – we’re glad to see you.”

  “Phew!” said Chloe.

  “I’m hungry,” said George.

  “I was trying to get back to the shore,” said Aiden. “There’s a boat down there with searchlights.”

  “Leather Woman’s at the top of the cliff, though,” said Chloe. “We had to crawl through the bushes to get here and Bella made such a racket, I don’t think we can get past that way.”

  “We could run back into the woods,” said Josh. “Build a fire – set up a diversion.”

  Aiden sighed. “We’re too tired for any of that.”

  “We’ll hide in the top cave,” said Ava, heading over to what appeared to be a precipice.

  “I’m tired. I’m going to sleep on this,” said George to himself, patting an anthill, though no one was listening. “Or this,” he said, prodding a tussock with his toe.

  The others were silent, concentrating on picking their way through the lunar landscape of the moonlit cliff and down the perilous path on the other side. Twenty metres further down, Ava suddenly disappeared into deep shadow.

  Josh paused and followed suit.

  Chloe led George into the shadow and, bringing up the rear, Aiden checked that no one was following them before ducking and entering the blackness too.

  Using her phone, Ava lit up the interior of the cave. On the floor lay a few smashed eggshells, and growing from the walls, samphire, but no dead seagulls, no dead fish and a platform of sandstone that was almost like a bench. It smelled of the sea and dripped like a sea cave, but they were well above the tideline.

  “Wow!” said Josh. “I never knew this was here. How come you know about it, sis?”

  “Grandma Primrose, wasn’t it? When we were little?”

  Aiden nodded and pointed at the ceiling. “She wanted to show us stalactites. See?”

  Ava shone her phone at the long formations of rock hanging above their heads. The shadows were long and strange. Bella trotted to the mouth of the cave and sat down outside.

  Aiden sagged to the bench and Chloe sat next to him, opening the backpack. “There’s some curry in here. You two could share it,” she said, handing the tub to Aiden.

  “Grandpa Edward’s curry? Oh, wow!” said Aiden, ripping off the lid and offering it to George.

  “Food!” said George. “Who are you?”

  “Chloe,” said Chloe. “And you must be George.” She handed him a cheese sandwich to eat alongside the curry.

  “Aw, thanks, Chloe,” said Aiden. “So what did you tell Grandma and Grandpa?”

  “I told them that you and Ava were lost. They’re looking for the Black Diamond – with the coastguard.”

  “Oh!” said Aiden. “That must be the helicopter then. Did they know Ava was back?”

  Chloe shook her head. “Grandpa went with the coastguard, Grandma stayed at home in case either of you came back, and we were supposed to look along the coast – which is when we found Ava.”

  “I tried to stop her telling anyone,” said Josh. “I was quite sure you had it sorted.”

  “I had to – you might have drifted out to sea and been lost forever,” said Chloe.

  “We nearly were,” said Ava, stuffing a cheese sandwich in her mouth and following it with some chocolate.

  “Who’s that?” asked George, pointing at Josh.

  “I’m Josh,” said Josh, sitting on the other side of George. “Now, would you like crisps or a chocolate eclair?”

  When Josh woke a little before dawn he found his sister and Bella sitting on guard at the entrance of the cave – fast asleep.

  He watched the light grow, the pitch black giving way to grey. Shapes emerged from the darkness and resolved into houses. The horizon appeared with the faintest hint of gold.

  A bird began to sing somewhere in the scrub. Just because, Josh thought, it could.
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br />   He searched around for something to burn and found dried grass and twigs that had blown up into the cave, and he set about making a fire. It wasn’t that he really needed the warmth and they didn’t have anything to cook; it was just that to do the whole caveman thing he felt he needed a fire in a cave – even if all he had to roast was a dried apricot.

  Next he set about making a spark. Except all he could find was limestone and sand, neither of which gave the slightest glint of fire. He tried to remember the other ways of making fire. A stick and a flat piece of wood. He could make a bow perhaps.

  He left the cave and wandered up the path. It was still quite dark, and he was so intent on searching for the right kind of stick that he didn’t realise how far he’d gone.

  “Whoa.” He stopped at the top of the path, just short of stepping out on to the cropped grass that surrounded the lighthouse. He dropped to all fours and was about to crawl back when he heard a voice.

  It was Leather Woman. Talking to someone.

  He crawled round a bush until he could almost see.

  “They’re here somewhere.”

  “What do you mean?” said a man’s voice. Josh didn’t know whose it was, but it didn’t sound like Dalmatian Man or Red Vest.

  “Nearby – really close,” said the woman.

  “There’s no sign of them in the village. I’d know,” said the man. “We could just make a run for it. Forget the whole thing.”

  “Too much money at stake. We’ll get the boy – and get Stig to deal with the others. They’re only kids.”

  “If you think so.”

  “I do.”

  Then there was silence before the woman spoke. “I’ve been out here all night – no one’s been past, and I’d know. They have to be in those woods, or…”

  Her voice faded. Josh risked lifting his head but he couldn’t see anything.