Seven for a Secret Never to be Told

After they’d raided the cake tin Mia’s Nan decided to hide a spare key in the shed just in case the back door key went missing again. Mia started downloading and printing animal pictures for a school project and Bear did what Bear did best, - ate his tea and fell asleep on the settee.

After a Chinese Chow Mein pot noodle and a large bowl of salt and vinegar crisps Mia began doing the jobs she would normally do on history group night. She put the cups on the tray and laid some shortbread biscuits on the willow patterned plate. She was just searching for the custard creams when there was a knock on the door.

‘You’re early Mary.’ She heard her Nan say.

‘Ah…I wanted to see Mia.’ Miss Jaggers walked through to the back room. She held up an email she’d printed out and exclaimed.

‘They’re all dead, my dear! This is an email from my brother Bernard in Spain. He says all the boys in your photograph are dead but for him and poor old Bobby Bassett.’ Mia’s Nan went to put the kettle on while Miss Jaggers seated herself on an old wicker chair. Her brother had sent her a list of the boy’s names and this corresponded with the names that Safi and Mia had got from the photograph at school.

Mia’s mind was alive with thoughts. Upstairs in a pencil case in her back pack were five magpie tokens. She didn’t even begin to understand how they’d come into her possession. The initials on the tokens were the initials of the dead boys in the photo. She knew for sure that someone was trying to tell her something, whether for good or ill, she just had to work out what they were trying to say and what she was meant to do.

‘And the token? What about that? Did your brother recognise it?’

‘Indeed he did. He has one too apparently.’ She’d forgotten her glasses and squinted at the email. ‘You’d better read it Mia, we’ll be here all day if you wait for me.’ She handed the paper to Mia who began to read.

’The magpie talisman was an emblem for a club that me and the lads started. We called ourselves ‘the Magpie Club’ because that’s what local folk called us. ‘Magpies’, because we used to scavenge through the rubbish that was dumped in the brick work’s field after the Second World War. Magpies like to steal shiny things, but us boys liked to steal wood for camp fires and broken bits of weaponry and engines disposed of by the American army camp just up the road. It was a great time to be a boy, we’d laze around the bather messing around on a swing made from an old Jeep tyre and a coil of towing rope.’

‘Each boy had to make his own magpie talisman and mark it with his initial. We made them from willow because it was easy to carve. We looked out for each other and had a fine, old time.’

‘Well that’s odd,’ said Mia’s Nan. She quickly explained what had happened earlier with the key, holding out her hand with the newly found ring glittering on her finger. ‘The Magpie Club scavenged for goodies to play with and a real magpie scavenged my key and ring. That’s what I call a coincidence!’

‘No such thing as coincidence,’ said Miss Jaggers. ‘This magpie malarkey, well it sounds like the universe is trying to tell you something.’ Mia didn’t really know what she meant by that, but she did know that what Miss Jaggers’ brother had told them was really important. The strange experiences she and Safi had were linked to the boys of the Magpie Club and she had to find out what they meant.

Mia’s Nan handed Miss Jaggers a cup of tea. Mia scanned the next paragraph on Miss Jaggers’ brother’s email. It was something about a recent illness and some hospital tests.

‘I’ll just pop that away,’ said Miss Jaggers reaching for the email, but Bear suddenly came bounding in and knocked her tea out of her hand. Mia’s Nan ordered Bear into his bed and fetched kitchen roll and a mop. Miss Jaggers went out to the bathroom to sponge the tea from her pale blue trousers before it stained. Mia peeked at the rest of the letter from Miss Jaggers’ brother. At the bottom was a paragraph that seemed important even though Miss Jaggers had not mentioned it. Mia quickly read...

’It’s lovely to remember our fine childhood Sis, we didn’t have much money but we were happy. It’s been many years since I thought about the old days, my only regret is what happened on the day of poor little Tommy Bassett’s death. It’s been a burden to me but even now I can’t break my promise to the other lads. We’ll take the secret to our graves.

Your loving big brother Bernie’

A cold chill ran down Mia’s spine. Tommy Bassett had died as a child and there was something about his death that the boys of the Magpie Club wanted to keep secret. So much so that they made a pact with each other to make sure it stayed secret. Mia read it again. Tears pricked at her eyes and her whole body felt frozen to the bone. What happened on the day of Tommy Bassett’s death? What promise did the boys make to each other? One way or another Mia knew she had to find out. There was no turning back.