Seven for a Secret Never to be Told

To Mia it seemed like minutes before anything happened but it could have been seconds. She blinked away a snowflake and the mist began to rise. At the same time the frosty grass began to recede and instead of snowflakes a flurry of white dandelion seeds twirled about pushed by a light, warm breeze. The sun became too bright to look at. The field was visible again in all its beauty and the sawing hum of the crickets and melodic song of the sky larks filled the air.

Mia and Safi looked around anxiously.

‘Nan, where’s Bobby?’ Mia’s Nan had already started to walk into the field.

‘I’m hoping he’s at the bather.’ She started to run across the field. Mia and Safi overtook her and ran ahead.

At the willow copse Mia could see Bobby sat on the ground. He was leant against a tree stump and had his back to them. He wasn’t moving. Mia and Safi ran down the slope and cautiously approached the old man.

‘Don’t just stand there, come and give me a hand.’ Mia and Safi rushed forward.

‘You’re OK,’ Mia cried with relief. Safi and Mia pulled him to his feet. Mia’s Nan arrived and rushed over to help them.

‘Oh thank goodness. You had us worried there for a minute.’ Bobby took some deep breaths and shook his head in disbelief.

‘I never thought the day would come…I…I’ He held on to Mia’s Nan. ‘I’m feeling a bit giddy Mrs Page.’

’Well I’m not surprised. I’ll tell you what let’s sit you down again and call an ambulance. Have a proper ride back to the home. All the other old folk will be looking out of their windows saying ‘that Mr Bassett only went and did a runner and they’ve brought him back in an ambulance.’ They’ll be talking about you for weeks.’ They carefully helped Bobby sit down again. ‘Mia, Safi, you stay here with Bobby. I’ve left my phone in the car, I’ll be back in a minute.’ And she was gone.

Mia and Safi sat down next to Bobby.

‘Did you kids put those stones around the edge of the bather?’ Safi nodded.

‘That’s when we found Tommy’s magpie token.’

‘Tommy likes those stones. Says it makes the place special.’

‘What was Tommy like?’ asked Mia.

‘Well, do you know the story of the boy who cried wolf?’ They nodded. ‘That was our Tommy…he just cried wolf one time too many.’

‘Did he leave the tokens in my bedroom and in Saf’s pencil case? Only I thought I saw him, in the storm, here in the field the night I found them.’ Bobby nodded gently.

‘And…’ Safi hesitated. ‘…and…why did he come back?’

‘To give me a chance to put things right…He knows how sorry I am. But it gave him a chance to put things right too. He was sorry for what he did. That’s why he couldn’t rest,’ he sighed. ‘That’s enough. No more talking about this. Let this have peace now.’ Safi nodded.

‘I just have one more thing to ask,’ said Mia. Bobby gave her a look of resignation. ‘I kept hearing a child crying in the night. I was wondering…Was that you? Crying for your brother and the terrible secret you had to keep? Almost as if the horror of what had happened captured your sobbing in the very air around the bather.’ Bobby looked down and slowly nodded.

‘I cried a lot of tears. But that’s over now. Let this be the end of it.’ Mia and Safi silently acknowledged his words. Mia noticed how the stones they’d placed around the bather gleamed in the sun as if newly washed.

‘What was it like here when you were growing up Bobby?’ asked Safi.

‘Oh…we didn’t have a care in the world. There was a rail line with an old skip thing on it from when this was a brick works and we used to get in it and bang along the track and prise open canisters dumped by the Americans during the war filled with petroleum and God knows what else. Truth is we could have killed ourselves a dozen different ways…’ Bobby told them about his childhood, the first time he’d talked about it since he’d been a child and Mia and Safi sat and listened to the stories until the ambulance came.

That evening Mia sat in the garden with her Nan and Safi as the copper burnished sun melted into a dazzling red and orange horizon. A magpie landed on the roof of the shed, shattering the peace with its noisy chatter. They watched as it preened and strutted for a moment and then swooping down from the tree a second magpie joined it. The playful ‘chakka chakka’ chatter of the magpies made Mia smile. She looked at her Nan.

‘Two for joy,’ she said.

Epilogue

Bobby Bassett recovered well after his strange experience at the bather and became good friends with Miss Jaggers. Mia’s Nan invited them for dinner several times and Bobby entertained them with stories about the mischief he and Bernard got up to when they were boys.

The only mystery left was the disappearance of the magpie tokens. Bobby had taken them with him the afternoon he’d gone to the bather but he had no idea what happened to them. The only one left was his own and he gave it to the children as a keepsake.

As for Mia and Safi they didn’t spend much time together during the summer because Mia’s mum took some leave from the army and she and Mia went to Greece to splash about in the sea and build sandcastles. Safi went to stay with his aunty in Cornwall and did the same thing. But as the holidays came to an end Mia’s mum had to go back to the army and Safi returned from Cornwall.

A few days before the new term started Safi and his mum visited Mia and her Nan.

‘Thanks for coming round,’ Mia said.

‘My mum brought your Nan some beans from our allotment.’

‘Yum….’ said Mia pulling a face to show she didn’t mean ‘yum’ at all.

‘Better than eggs!’ said Safi. Mia noticed a letter in his hand but before she could say anything Safi asked.

‘Did you see Warriors of Albion this week?’

‘YES…I bet you loved the magical battle between the witch of Sardeeni and the Black Queen?’ Mia was getting excited and they both said together…

’THAT CROWN!’

‘All those amazing jewels and the golden flowers. Wow. Just wow. Wouldn’t you love one just like it?’

‘It’s a bit girly for me,’ said Safi.

‘It was fabulous. I thought it would fall off the Black Queen’s head it was so big. I wonder how she kept it on.’

‘Well…’ said Safi no longer able to contain himself. He flourished the letter he’d been holding. ‘We could always ask her?’ Mia was puzzled.

‘What do you mean?’

‘Do you remember me telling you about a competition I was going to enter to win a day on the Warriors of Albion film set?’ Realisation dawned on Mia.

‘You mean…you mean…’

‘Yes. I won!’ he screamed with excitement. ‘We’re going to the studio to watch them film a scene for the next series, we’re going to have lunch with the cast and stay in a posh hotel….’ They held onto each other’s shoulders screeching and laughing and jumping up and down.

‘Let’s tell Nan.’ Mia grabbed Safi’s arm and dragged him into the garden.

Darkness was falling quickly and the sawing hum of the crickets filled the air. There were no more secrets and the future was just around the corner waiting for two excited and noisy children to jump into it.

THE END