High Moor (2 page)

"I'm sorry, Frank, but something's come up and I can't do it. Don't send me anything else for the next month, either. I won't be around."

"What the fuck could be so important that you'd risk losing your contract with us?"

"It's personal. Family business. I have to go back home."

24th February 1986. High Moor. 14:35.

David climbed the wooden fence and turned to his two friends. “Keep up you two. This'll take all day at this rate.”

Behind him, Michael and John struggled with the wooden boards and rope. David, being the oldest at eleven years old, and the leader of their little group, carried the tools stolen from his father’s workshop in a blue plastic sports bag.

John stumbled and almost dropped his end of the board. “I still don’t see why we had to go all the way out here. It's bloody miles away.” Michael grunted his agreement.

David sat on the fence and waited for the younger boys to catch up. “John, what happened to the tree house?”

John reached David's side and put down the boards and rope. "Malcolm Harrison and his dickhead mates trashed it and stole all our stuff.”

“Right and, Michael, what happened to the camp we built on the waste ground by the pub?”

Michael wiped the sweat from his forehead. “Malcolm fucking Harrison and his mates trashed it and stole all our stuff.”

David reached across and ruffled Michael's hair. "Well done. So now you know why we're heading off into the woods. We need to build this year's camp somewhere that prick won't find it. You two are thick as pig shit, I swear. Mike, sometimes I think you were adopted or something.”

Michael grinned at his older brother. “Fuck you, tosspot. At least I'm not half monkey”.

John climbed onto the fence and sat beside David. “Malcolm Harrison is half arse monkey.”

David took out a pack of cigarettes and handed one each to John and Michael. “What’s the other half?”

Michael thought about this for a moment. “Arse ferret?”

John lit his cigarette and passed the lighter to Michael. “So he’s half monkey, half ferret and all big fat arse?”

David and Michael snorted with laughter. The mental image the description conjured up fit Malcolm perfectly.

Michael stopped laughing and frowned. “Wait, I have a serious question.”

David rolled his eyes. “What?”

“Which one’s his Mam?”

John chuckled. “Have you seen her? She's definitely the arse.”

David laughed and got down from the fence. "Come on, you two. Finish your fags and let's get moving. We need to get the camp finished and get back before dinner tonight."

John and Michael took a long drag from their cigarettes, flicked the ends onto the track and ground them into the dirt with their feet. Then they picked up the building materials and followed David across the fields.

The sun beat down with uncharacteristic warmth. It was the first really nice day of the year. The winter snow had only melted a week before, and traces were still visible on the hills. Apart from the chill in the wind, the day could have been mistaken for a summer afternoon, instead of a day in late February.

With the two-week Easter Holiday just over a month away, the long days away from school and the adventures that awaited them were at the front of their minds. The first job of the year was to set up their new base of operations, away from the prying eyes of adults and the attentions of Malcolm and his gang.

They arrived at the small brook that bordered the woodlands. The site of their camp lay in the deeper parts of the forest, beyond where the broad-leaved trees gave way to towering pines.

John looked at the flowing water, and then turned to David. “How are we going to get these across?”

David slapped himself across the forehead. “Duh! How do you think, dipshit? We make a bridge with the planks, get across and then pull them over. Do I have to think of everything?”

The boys laid the planks across the stream and rested them on the opposite bank, and then David and John made their way across.

Michael looked at the wobbling boards and shook his head. “I don’t want to.”

John walked back to the water's edge. “Come on, Mike, you big girl. It's easy.”

David joined John and looked at his brother with a mocking smile on his face. “Our Marie could do it. Maybe we should leave you at home next time and bring her if you are going to be a baby.”

Michael looked at the planks and his face creased in concentration. He put one foot on the wood and tested his weight, then made his way across.

The plank bowed as he reached the half way point. He overcompensated for the sudden movement and slipped from the board, backwards into the stream.

David and John’s laughter stopped short when Michael, up to his waist in the cold water, began to cry. David jumped from the riverbank to help his younger brother up.

“I’m soaked. I’m gonna get KILLED!”

“Let’s get this stuff to the camp and I’ll make a fire to dry you off. Mam will be alright.”

Michael wiped his nose on his sleeve. “It’s not me mam I'm worried about.” He and David exchanged looks, and for a moment an uneasy silence settled over the boys. Then David grinned.

“I’ll tell Mam we had a water fight with the hose and that it’s all my fault.”

Michael thought about this and came to the conclusion that it was an acceptable lie, which did wonders for his mood. The boys picked up their burdens and continued on their way.

David turned his head to look at his brother. “You realise that you were just sitting in all the piss and shit from the new housing estate? It all empties into the beck about a mile upstream. Still, you always smell like you just pissed your pants, so I don’t think anyone will notice.”

Michael smiled at his brother. “Fuck you, monkey boy. They only smell like that 'cos they're your hand-me-downs.”

Once under the canopy of the trees, the day lost its warmth and Michael complained about the cold while they trudged through the woods. Water oozed from his trainers, making a squelching sound and leaving a trail of wet footprints on the forest floor.

They walked for ten minutes before they came to their marker, a small piece of yellow plastic nailed to the sap laden trunk of a pine tree. The boys left the path and walked for a few minutes more until they came to another yellow marker, at which point they turned to their right and made their way through the bracken until they arrived at the site of their new camp.

While David and John had been working on the camp for the past few weekends, it was the first time that Michael had seen their new base. He'd been grounded by his parents for an incident involving fireworks, dog excrement, and the local vicar that had not ended well.

He looked up at the tree house and his mouth dropped open in awe. “Wow."

Tree house was too small a word to describe what stood before them. On one of the tall pine trees stood two platforms, one at fifteen feet from the forest floor and the other at thirty five feet. A makeshift ladder of wooden boards nailed to the tree trunk was the only way up.

The actual tree house was on an adjacent oak tree. The top of the trunk had been destroyed by a lightning strike years before, leaving a flat area. The branches then grew up around the flattened area like a cage. It was here the boys built a solid wooden floor, doorway and walls, using the natural growth as a framework. Only the roof remained incomplete.

Michael walked around the base of the tree, looking for a ladder. When he found no obvious means of getting into the tree house, he turned to the other two boys and frowned in confusion.

“How do you get in?”

David looked at John and then grinned at his little brother.

“That’s the best part.”

David and John each picked up a coil of rope and headed to the trees. John climbed the wooden ladder, while David wrapped the rope around himself, from his shoulders to his waist, and shimmied up the side of the oak. Michael stood on the ground and watched his best friend and brother ascend into the canopy, his wet clothes forgotten.

As John reached the highest platform, David scrambled onto the base of the tree house through a large gap in the wall.

David nodded to John. “OK. Do it.”

John threw the coil of rope across the gap between the trees. David stretched his arm out, but the rope caught on a branch and dangled just out of David’s reach.

John grabbed the rope and reeled it back. "Bollocks. Sorry, Dave. You ready?"

David nodded and John threw the rope again. This time, David caught it, and both boys tied the ends off on their respective trees.

John finished his knot and tested it, then yelled across to David. “Knew there was a reason I joined the Boy Scouts.”

David checked his knot. “Well, it sure as hell wasn’t to do Bob-a-Job. If Mitchell thinks I am going round, scrounging for his pocket this Easter, he can fuck right off.”

John climbed down to the lower platform, while David gathered up the second rope.

He tied his end off, next to the first and hurled the remainder across the gap to John. “Catch.”

John reached for the unravelling coils and almost slipped from the platform, but managed to grab the rope with one hand and use the other to steady himself. He tied the rope around the trunk of the tree at head height, and double checked his knot. Ropes now extended out from the tree house to the two platforms to form a triangle.

Michael shivered in his wet clothes. “I still don’t get it? What are you doing?"

David gave his brother a knowing smile. “Watch and learn.”

He reached into the bag and produced a strange piece of metal. The metal was bent into the shape of an omega symbol, to form two hand holds, with a large loop in between. The hand grips and the centre of the loop were wrapped with over an inch of heavy silver tape.

Michael realised what David and John were planning, and his mouth hung open in amazement. “No way. You're not fucking serious?”

David hooked the metal over the rope, leaned back and allowed his weight to be supported, then lifted his feet up.

The boy rocketed down the taut line, screaming as he went. "GET IN!" He traversed the distance between the two trees in seconds and came to rest on the lower platform, next to John.

"You get in the same way. You climb to the top platform and slide down into the tree house. We have a grip each, so even if those dickheads find the place, they won't be able to get in."

Michael was, for a change, silent. He looked up at his older brother in awe.

John grabbed the makeshift metal slide from David. "My go." He ran to the tree and climbed up to the higher level with the metal handle tucked into the back of his jeans.

Michael found his voice again. "This summer is going to be great."

His brother winked at him. "I told you it was worth the walk. This year is going to be the best year ever."

Neither of the other boys disagreed.

***

The sun sat low in the sky, its light casting an orange glow on the forest floor, when David hammered in the last nail.

He stood back and admired his work, then turned to John and Michael, who were carving their names into the walls with their knives. “Finished.”

The camp was, at this stage, nothing more than a wooden box with the two ropes suspended from the wide entrance, but that didn't matter. It was finished, and it was theirs.

John looked at his watch and groaned. “We better get going. It’s going to be dark soon, and me mam and dad will have a fit if I miss dinner.”

Michael and David exchanged worried glances.

“What time is dinner?” said Michael.

David frowned. “Six on the dot. What time is it now, John?”

“Quarter to.”

Michael grabbed his metal hoop and hooked it over the rope. "We are so dead. We're gonna have to leg it all the way back." Michael launched himself into space and shot along the zip line, with John and David close behind.

They ran through the darkening woodlands, towards the path.

John came alongside David and gasped. “How are we gonna get across the river? We don’t have a bridge anymore.”

“We’re going to have to take the long way around. We’ll nick some more wood from the building site tomorrow and make a permanent bridge.”