The Students of Barrenmoor Ridge

by Jackson Marsh

  The table was laid before he realised he’d done it. He’d even set out mats and napkins, cruet and glasses before Gary returned, blowing on his hands.

  ‘It’s a bit parky in there,’ he said as he came into the kitchen. ‘But it’ll be right in an hour.’

  Liam had no idea of the time and when he looked, was surprised to see it was dark outside.

  ‘They’re back,’ Gary said.

  His ears were tuned to familiar sounds Liam couldn’t hear. There was only the hum of the fan oven and the rain once again drumming the roof. Closer to home, he could also hear his heart thumping in his ears, and he took a couple of deep breaths.

  ‘I’ll go and give a hand,’ Gary said. ‘Can you watch the peas?’

  Unable to speak for fear of giving away his anxiety, Liam nodded and positioned himself by the cooker. From there, he was able to see across the counter to the sitting room door, and he waited with growing trepidation.

  What do you say to someone you want to be more than friends with who you left bundled in a sleeping bag on his own?

  Don’t make a fuss, he thought. Cass wasn’t the sort of guy who appreciated being fussed over. Liam should just say hi, as if nothing had happened, like he did when Cass arrived at the front door on a Saturday, carrying his oboe, ready to play.

  ‘Chill out,’ he whispered when he heard the Land Rover clatter to a halt.

  It was easier said than done. Apart from everything else, he was standing in another man’s house as if he lived there and had only vague recollections of its owner. From what he remembered from last night, John was older and abrupt. Probably pissed off at Liam’s stupidity, he expected to face someone bristling with anger and reminded himself of where he had left his things so he could prepare for a quick exit.

  The sitting-room door opened, but it wasn’t John who entered. Casper poked his head in as if unsure what to do. His face was drawn, and his hair was messed up where he had taken off his hat. He had taken in most of the room before he noticed Liam.

  ‘Hello,’ he said, nodding once before continuing his inspection.

  ‘Hi.’ Liam swallowed. ‘You can come in.’

  ‘Oh, right.’ Casper stepped into the room wearing Liam’s jumper and a pair of tightly fitting leggings. ‘The other two are just coming,’ he said, closing the door. ‘Putting their gear away.’

  ‘Okay.’ Surely there was something better to say than okay? ‘How are you?’ There was definitely something better to ask.

  ‘Yeah, fine,’ Casper said, hovering. ‘You?’

  ‘Yeah. Fine.’

  Casper had brought awkwardness, and a chasm of silence opened in the few feet between them. Since the day they had met, they had never run out of things to say to each other. Their daily conversations started on first sight, were only interrupted by lessons, and resumed the moment they met after class. Usually inseparable, they were now divided by Liam’s incompetence.

  ‘You can sit down,’ he flustered. ‘They’re nice people.’

  It sounded as if he was insinuating that Casper wasn’t.

  ‘No, I’ll stand,’ Casper said, and turned his back.

  Eighteen

  The awkward silence persisted as Liam stood watching the stove and Casper stood by the sofa staring at the framed photos of mountaineers. The rain intensified as if trying to fill the stilted stillness and give them something to talk about, but even when it hammered on the tiles, neither boy commented. Liam was wondering how long he could endure the torture when John appeared carrying two rucksacks.

  Putting them down beside Casper, he took his monitor from one and told him to sit. ‘I Just want to check,’ he said, and attached the thermometer to Casper’s finger. Resting the machine on the sofa arm, he said something about putting clothes in the wash and brought the other bag into the kitchen. Liam noticed it was his own.

  ‘Shall I put that in the bedroom?’ he asked, getting in the way as John came into the kitchen.

  ‘No, you’re okay. Go and sit down,’ was all John said as he crouched at the washing machine.

  Gary appeared, shut the door and glanced at the dining table.

  ‘Nice,’ he said, and then to Casper, ‘How are you doing?’

  ‘Yeah, all good.’

  Gary picked up the monitor and read the screen before unclipping it and winding in the wires.

  ‘Aye, you are,’ he said. ‘Nearly back to normal.’

  ‘One of the paramedics gave him a quick once over,’ John called across. ‘All okay, but Casper? I suggest a bath after you’ve eaten. I’ll find you something else to wear.’

  ‘Thanks, I’ll pay you back.’

  ‘I don’t see how you can,’ John smiled. ‘So we won’t worry about that. How long will dinner be?’

  ‘Ten minutes.’ Gary was spooning gravy granules into a jug.

  John left to get changed, Gary pottered in the kitchen, and Casper remained staring at the walls while all Liam could think to do was stand at the table straightening knives hoping that someone would speak.

  Eventually, Gary did and told Liam to sit while he waited. As it was the second time of being asked, and because he felt he was taking advantage of the hospitality, Liam did as instructed, and sat at the other end of the sofa.

  ‘Good to see you’re okay,’ he said when Casper glanced across.

  ‘Yeah. You too.’

  The rain performed its drumroll on the roof, and behind them, the kettle began to boil.

  ‘I was worried.’

  ‘I know why I went outside,’ Casper said. ‘Someone was trying to steal the… bags.’ He accented the word ‘bags’, reminding Liam that they had promised not to mention the drugs. Liam understood and nodded. ‘Looks like they got away with it. Was it that guy you just found?’

  ‘Don’t know. But if it was, the bag wasn’t with him.’

  ‘Oh.’

  The kettle began to judder, and thunder grumbled in the distance. The sound of the fan oven increased, and Gary coughed away steam as he took out the pie. All mundane, background noises that usually went unnoticed, but they stood out that evening because Liam had words in his head he had to get out, and yet there was no way to say them. He wasn’t alone with Casper, it was awkward to start speaking about what he felt with Gary in the room even though Gary had told him what to say. They were in someone else’s house, Liam was acutely aware of his manners, and that they were guests. Among his cluttered thoughts was a burning desire to turn to Casper and just say the three words.

  He couldn’t.

  It was too farfetched. Too soppy even for him, and besides, Casper was distracted by one of John’s books, and there had been no build-up. The words would come out of the blue and fall redundant on the carpet. Casper would probably ask him why he had to be difficult, or say, ‘Oh, yeah, okay,’ or something equally as noncommittal, and then Liam would feel even more of an idiot.

  He gave up on the idea when John reappeared, Gary announced dinner was ready, and the chance to speak was lost.

  As they gathered at the table, Liam suffered the usual confusion over not knowing where to sit when invited to eat with strangers, but John removed it by telling him to sit opposite Casper. As John opened a bottle of wine, Gary broke the ice by putting the pie dish in the centre of the table.

  ‘Help yourselves, no ceremony,’ he said reaching across the table to shake Casper’s hand. ‘I was preoccupied before. Hi.’

  ‘You’re both welcome to be here,’ John said as he began dividing the pie with a fish slice. ‘We don’t often have guests, so it makes a change. If you want to phone your parents, feel free. The mobile signal’s rubbish up here, but there’s a landline.’

  ‘Oh, thanks,’ Liam said. ‘They’re not expecting us back until after the weekend, but we can phone from
the station tomorrow and let them know we’ll be coming back early, yeah, Cass?’

  Casper looked up sharply. ‘Will we?’

  ‘I didn’t think you’d want to carry on.’

  ‘Oh. Whatever you want.’ At John’s prompting, Casper held out his plate to be served and studied it as he spoke to Liam. ‘Depends on the weather, but if you want to…’

  His voice trailed off, leaving behind a wider chasm of awkwardness worse than the one Liam had felt in the tent. It was filled by a worried glance from Gary followed by a question.

  ‘You wanted to go to Ribblehead, didn’t you?’ he asked. ‘I’m sure you said that’s where you were heading.’

  ‘We were,’ Liam admitted. ‘But after last night… I don’t think we should.’

  ‘The weather will be clear by tomorrow,’ John said. ‘The ground may be a bit damp, but the forecast is for clear and cold. I can map you an easy path, but, if you don’t mind me asking, why there? Any particular reason.’

  For the first time since they sat, Casper looked at Liam. His eyes were narrower than usual, making it impossible to see their colour and judge what he was thinking. His expression gave nothing away and yet pressured Liam to speak.

  ‘It’s a long story.’ Liam put down his plate, wondering if he should wait to be offered vegetables or help himself. The others were looking at him now, but he didn’t feel like offering an explanation. ‘We’ll be out of your way tomorrow,’ he said instead. ‘Sorry we intruded.’

  ‘Ah, get away with you, man,’ Gary grinned. ‘Like John says, you’re welcome. Makes a nice change.’

  ‘Absolutely,’ John agreed. Having served everyone, he sat and waved his hands at the table. ‘I’ve done my bit. Take what you want.’

  As if demonstrating the way forward, Gary dug into the bowl of peas and passed the spoon to Liam beside him. ‘So,’ he said, reaching for the gravy. ‘Where did you two meet?’

  Liam had already told him this and waited for Casper to answer, but Cass was more interested in eating and didn’t even look up.

  ‘At school,’ Liam said and gave them a summary of their first meeting.

  ‘I have no musical bones in my body,’ the older man said when Liam’s story petered out. ‘Always admired anyone who can get a decent sound out of any instrument.’

  ‘Same here,’ Gary agreed. ‘I’ve got no talents at all.’

  ‘Oh, I don’t know,’ John grinned across the table. ‘I can think of a few.’

  ‘Don’t be dirty.’

  To cover his blushes, Liam asked, ‘What about you two?’

  ‘We first saw each other in the café,’ Gary told him. ‘I’d been eying him up for a couple of years before we actually spoke.’

  ‘A couple of years?’

  ‘Well, a couple of times over a year or so.’

  ‘I used to come up for the climbing,’ John clarified. ‘I was living down south, but a good friend of mine lives not too far away. Sally and I were working on a high-altitude project…’

  ‘Planning to summit Everest,’ Gary chipped in as if it was nothing.

  ‘Yes, but it sounds daft to say that you come to Yorkshire to prepare for eight thousand meters. Anyway, that’s what I was doing, unaware that this one was spying on me over his caver’s breakfast.’

  ‘I wasn’t spying, and it was a Coke.’

  ‘We didn’t actually meet until a while later.’

  ‘What happened?’ Casper asked. ‘I mean, how did you get talking?’

  ‘You want to tell the story?’ Gary asked.

  John sighed as though he’d told it a hundred times, but it was in good humour. ‘Gary was in trouble up the fell,’ he said. ‘And I was called out to get him off.’

  ‘And he’s been getting me off ever since,’ Gary added with a cheeky wink to Casper who immediately glared at his dinner as if he wanted it to eat him.

  ‘Anyway,’ John said, ‘leaving my dirty-minded husband aside for a while, tell me more about you, Liam. Casper and I chatted on the way down, but I’ve not properly met you.’

  ‘There’s not much to know,’ Liam said. ‘Come from Dover, always lived there with my dad, go to the local grammar, and that’s it.’

  ‘Oh, really?’ Casper looked at him sharply, and his tone of voice was shocking. It even made Gary pause his fork halfway to his mouth. ‘That’s it?’

  ‘What else is there?’ Liam was confused by his friend’s annoyance.

  Casper put down his cutlery and turned to John. ‘He could be a concert pianist,’ he said, and when Liam tried to protest, told him to shush. ‘He has the talent for sure…’

  ‘But not the inclination.’ Liam didn’t want to be a concert pianist, and he wasn’t sure if Casper was proud of him or taking the piss.

  ‘But he’s lazy.’

  ‘Hey!’

  ‘He’d rather spend his time accompanying me than working on solos,’ Casper continued undaunted. ‘His music teacher keeps pushing him, but he holds back.’

  ‘Not true,’ Liam protested. ‘And Casper’s one to talk. He studies with the oboe soloist from the Philharmonic. She teaches him during her spare time because she believes in his talent even if he doesn’t.’

  ‘I do it for fun.’ Casper was still talking to John rather than Liam. ‘My real interest lies in science.’

  ‘Where it’s wasted.’ If Casper was going to criticise, Liam could retaliate in the same way. ‘He’s got far more to offer than being a chemist, but he’s ruled by his mother.’

  ‘I am not.’

  ‘She wants him to be a pharmacist,’ Liam ignored him. ‘Apparently, they make a lot of money in Greece.’

  ‘Not a lot, but it’s a good job.’

  ‘You’re going back to Greece?’ Gary asked. Again, he knew this, and Liam wondered why he’d brought up the subject.

  Casper sipped his wine.

  ‘Apparently.’ Liam couldn’t disguise his annoyance.

  ‘For university?’ Gary asked.

  ‘Maybe after the army.’

  ‘Another waste of his talent.’

  ‘Yeah, alright, Lee.’ Casper’s irritation matched Liam’s. ‘It has to be done. There’s nothing I can do.’

  ‘Apart from delaying it until you’ve finished Uni here,’ Liam said pointedly.

  ‘That’s up to me.’

  ‘That’s up to your mother, if you ask me.’

  ‘Well, I didn’t, and I don’t have to ask you.’

  John and Gary exchanged uneasy glances.

  ‘Benny,’ John said out of the blue, distracting Liam from what he was about to say next—which wasn’t anything polite. ‘What was Benny what’s-his-name doing up Fellborough in a storm?’

  ‘Your guess is as good as mine,’ Gary said.

  ‘He was in the café.’ Casper put down his wine glass, and when he realised his hosts were waiting for more, and Liam was biting his tongue, he added, ‘I talked to him yesterday… Was it yesterday? The morning we set off.’

  ‘Was he alone?’ Gary asked.

  ‘No. He was with someone else.’

  Liam remembered the two guys, one large and bullish, the other, shorter, but just as unattractive. ‘Was that who you just saved?’

  Gary said it was one of a notorious pair, but was more interested in Casper’s story. ‘What did you talk about?’

  ‘You’d said something in the pub about leaving a route,’ Casper continued. ‘So I told him where we were going. They sounded local, and everyone in there looked like they knew what they were doing. I thought I might get some tips on where to camp.’

  ‘Ha!’ Gary laughed. ‘The only advice you’d get from Benny and Mark is where to score drugs.’

  From the corner of his eye, Liam saw Casper react and
knew he was being stared at. Despite their promise of silence, the drugs in the rucksack were now relevant, and Liam felt he should say something. To do so, however, would break his promise.

  ‘Drugs?’ Casper asked, trying to sound innocent, but failing.

  ‘Aye,’ Gary nodded. ‘But I doubt they get them from up the fell, so I still can’t work out what he was doing there.’

  ‘Did you see who it was at the tent?’ John asked, and when Liam glanced, he was looking directly at Casper.

  Casper shook his head.

  ‘You think Benny was at Adam’s Ridge?’ Gary was perplexed. ‘Why?’

  ‘To reclaim a rucksack?’ John suggested, reading Casper’s expression. ‘Just an idea.’

  Liam was also staring directly at Casper, and when their eyes met, he knew Casper was thinking the same thing; should he break his promise, or should he stay silent? One voice in Liam’s head told him that they had done nothing wrong and any information they had could be of use. Another voice warned him that if he told Casper it was okay to speak, John would know they had been hiding the truth. Either way, in time, it could come back on them, and they might be accused of withholding evidence, or whatever charge it might be, and this man, Benny, had almost died. It was wrong to keep quiet, but it was just as wrong to betray Casper’s confidence.

  ‘Hang on,’ Gary said, waving his fork as he filtered John’s insinuation. ‘You think these guys took Benny’s bag by mistake and he went up to get it back?’

  ‘If I was going to explore that possibility,’ John said, ‘I would suggest that it was more likely Mark Ward’s bag, and there was something in it he wanted. Maybe they were both there. They woke Casper, he went to investigate, one of them knocked him out, and being the numbskulls they are, got lost on the way back. Of course, that scenario only works if there was something worth risking the trek for.’ When Casper didn’t reply, he said, ‘But that’s just one idea.’

  Casper drew in a breath and avoided eye contact, but Liam knew what he was about to say and leapt in before he could begin.