Out of the Ashes by Michael Morpurgo

Author:Michael Morpurgo [Morpurgo, Michael]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781447227793
Publisher: Pan Macmillan UK

I rang home this evening and asked Mum how things were. She sounded strange, a bit distant. She said she was missing me, they both were, that Dad had just come in from checking the animals and they were all fine. But the wind was still blowing the smoke from Mr Bailey’s farm all around the house. It was a good thing I was away, she said. Little Josh was fine. Ruby too. I wasn’t to worry about anything.

Monday, March 12th

I can’t put into words what I feel. There are no words black enough to say what I’ve got to say.

We were having supper when the phone rang. Auntie Liz answered it. I knew right away something was wrong, and I knew from the moment she looked at me exactly what it was. She handed me the phone. Mum was trying not to cry as she told me. She hadn’t wanted to worry me about it yesterday, she said, but the vet had been called in yesterday morning. Dad had found blisters on the feet of one of our sows, Jessica, and was worried about a couple of sheep that were limping badly. Tests had confirmed it. We had foot and mouth disease on the farm. There was an ‘A’ notice on the farm gate which meant no one was allowed in or out except the vets and the slaughterers. The animals would be put down tomorrow. So I’d have to stay with Auntie Liz until it was all over. It would be the best place for me, she said.

When I asked how Dad was, she said he was very calm, as if he’d been expecting it all along. She said she’d phone again tomorrow, and that she loved me. I don’t remember the last time she said that to me. She sounded almost like a different person.

I’ve been sitting here on the bed in a daze ever since. Not crying. I can’t cry. It’s me who’s done this, it must be. I brought the infection back with me from Mr Bailey’s farm. Ruby or Bobs or me, but whichever of us it was, it had been my doing, my fault. I had sentenced our animals to death. Big Josh is sitting beside me holding my hand and he’s looking so sad. I feel like he’s taking the sadness out of me and into himself, leaving me numb inside. They’re going to kill them all – Jemima, Jessica, Hector, Primrose, all Dad’s cows, all his pigs, all his sheep, and Little Josh.

P.S. Auntie Liz put on a video, to help take my mind off things, she said. Seven Days in Tibet with Brad Pitt. She’d chosen it specially because she knows how much I love Brad Pitt. I sat looking at the screen, but not seeing. All I could think of the whole way through was Little Josh, and tomorrow.

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