The Trees by Ali Shaw

Author:Ali Shaw
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
ISBN: 9781408862261
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2015-12-14T18:23:09+00:00

5

Heart of the Forest

‘Hey! Mr Thomas!’

Adrien had just finished another day of teaching and was heading back towards the tent, when Nora skipped alongside him and tugged at his sleeve.

‘What is it?’ he asked, stifling a yawn. He hadn’t slept well during the night, having dreamed of giant, chairlike trees with beckoning branches. He wasn’t sure he had enough energy to keep up with Nora right now.

‘I’ve got a secret,’ she declared.

‘Good. Better not tell me, then. You have to keep secrets. That’s the whole point of having them.’

Nora folded her arms and her skip turned into a strut. ‘That’s really boring. Especially when this secret is about you.’

‘Me?’

‘To do with you.’

‘Is that so?’

He had heard this kind of thing before, and considered it a good sign now. Playgrounds were rumour mills and children believed all kinds of stories. In his time he had been an ex-spy, a bomb-maker on the run from the cops and, perhaps most disconcerting, a former cardinal. If the kids from the deckchair classroom were making up tall tales, it only served to show how comfortable they were becoming in their makeshift school.

‘So?’ demanded Nora.

‘So what?’

‘Don’t you want to know my secret?’

‘Like I said, if you tell me it won’t be a secret any more.’

She folded her arms. ‘There’s a mad lady living on the beach.’

Adrien frowned. He wasn’t sure what that had to do with him. ‘It’s not nice to call people mad, Nora.’

‘But that’s what she is. All the kids say so.’

‘Kids say a lot of things, believe me.’

Nora looked suddenly infuriated. She kicked at a shell, and it scudded away over the pebbles. ‘This mad lady has seen the same little people you have.’

‘Hang on a minute,’ said Adrien, suddenly all ears. ‘Hang on . . . what exactly are you talking about?’

‘The ones made out of sticks.’

‘How . . . how on earth do you know about them?’

‘I overheard Hannah telling it to my daddy.’ Nora blushed, but the blush left her as quick as it came. ‘Well? Will you let me take you to her, or won’t you?’

Nora’s mad lady lived in a camper van, at the farthest reach of the bay. It was parked facing the sea, beside the high-tide line where the shingle dropped steep as a kerb. If it drove just a few more yards it would be carried away when the waves came in. The afternoon was dull, and the beach brought only beige to the grey sea and sky. Even the paint on the camper van’s chassis, which must once have been olive or tan, had long since faded out of colour. Its curtains were drawn shut behind closed windows, but beside it stood a young woman with a hoe, the blade of which clattered and jumped when she tugged it through the shingle.

‘Is that her?’ whispered Adrien, giving Nora a nudge.

‘Don’t think so. Everybody says she’s much older.’

‘Hello!’ called Adrien as they approached. ‘Good afternoon!’

The young woman was tall and thin, with dark hair as straight as the tool she was using.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.