Buried Alive! (10 page)

Kelly ripped Theresa's dress off and made her dive down into the pool.

‘Wheee! She likes it, see. She's a great swimmer. Find me some oysters, please, I want some pearls.'

‘You don't get pearls in every oyster. They're very rare. Though of course you can farm oysters and have cultivated pearls—'

‘Tim,' Kelly interrupted. ‘Do you want to be a school teacher when you grow up?'

‘Why?'

‘Because you don't half
act
like one sometimes.'

‘Oh,' I said.

‘Ooooooooh!' said Kelly.

I blinked at her. I wondered if she was mocking me. Or playing the fool with Theresa? She scooped her troll out of the little pool and was holding her at arm's length.

‘Help! Look what's in her
hair
!' Kelly yelled.

I looked. Then I laughed.

‘Oh Kelly. It's just a weeny little crab. Theresa used her hair like a fishing net.'

‘Get it
off
her. She doesn't like it,' Kelly said urgently, waggling Theresa frantically.

‘Hold her still then. Come here.' I held the little wet troll doll and gently untangled the tiny crab from her long purple locks.

‘
Yuck!
' said Kelly, snatching Theresa back and combing her hair with her fingers. ‘Poor
poor
poor
Theresa – under mega-attack from a sea monster!'

‘It's only a baby crab, Kelly. Nothing to be scared of,' I said, letting the crab scuttle up my arm.

‘
I'm
not afraid of it. Theresa is. It practically bit her head off. Ugh, put it back in the water.'

I popped the little crab back into his swimming pool. He paddled out of sight, probably very relieved.

‘That's it, you go back to Mummy Crab,' I said.

‘
Mummy?
' said Kelly.

She started climbing higher very quickly. I climbed too. I was getting the knack of it now and leapt from rock to rock almost as if I were Super-Tim himself. I felt great (though a bit guilty about Biscuits).

‘Wow!' said Kelly, from up above. ‘There's an even better beach the other side of these rocks. A little cove.'

It took me a minute or two to get up to the top. Then I saw the beach for myself. It was fantastic, a miniature bay of soft white sand circled by tall cliffs.

‘Maybe no-one's ever spotted it before,' said Kelly. ‘It looks like you can only reach it by going over the rocks from our beach. Hey, let's
get right down there and make it
ours
. We can call it Kelly-and-Tim beach. Come on!'

‘Well. Hadn't we better get Biscuits too?'

‘No!'

‘It's not really fair if we go off without him.'

‘He's the one that went off, not us.'

‘Yes, but—'

‘Look, if we go all the way back to get him and then have to climb back all over the rocks, it'll take forever. Let's just slip down to the beach and claim it – and
then
we'll go back and make friends with him if we must, OK?'

‘OK,' I said.

‘Great,' said Kelly. She was immediately off like a mountain goat down the other side of the rocks to the perfect private beach.

‘Kelly,
wait
. I can't go as fast. And it's all difficult and slippery. Suppose we can't get back up?'

‘Of course we'll be able to,' Kelly said, leaping a long way down.

She landed lightly on a flat rock, but it wasn't wedged securely. It wobbled. Kelly wobbled too, but leapt again before she fell. She landed on another lower rock, safely – but only just.

‘Kelly! Do be careful. If you slip and break your leg how could I possibly carry you all the way back?' I protested.

‘You're such a worryguts, Tim. I'm not
going
to slip,' Kelly shouted.

She leapt.

She landed.

She slipped – and fell.

I screamed.

She grabbed another rock, hung there, stretched one leg to another rock, steadied herself, edged downwards, and stood properly on her two tough feet.

‘Kelly! Are you OK?'

‘I'm fine.'

‘I thought you were going to fall all the way down.'

‘I didn't fall at all. I slid that bit on purpose,' Kelly insisted.

But when we both got down to the soft sand I saw a great gash on Kelly's leg.

‘You're bleeding!'

‘It's nothing,' said Kelly, dabbing her leg impatiently. ‘Hey, isn't this beach fantastic? Aren't you pleased I discovered it for you?'

‘It's a deep cut, Kelly. You must clean it.'

‘Oh Tim, stop fussing. I'm always getting cuts. They're usually far far worse than that. I climbed over a wall with all this broken glass stuck on top once. Look!' Kelly lifted her T-shirt and showed a zig-zag scar across her tummy.

‘Gosh!' I said, very impressed.

‘I used to kid the guys in my class it was like a zip and I could shove my hand straight into my stomach.'

‘You couldn't, could you?'

‘No!'

‘Well anyway, you ought to go paddling. The sea's salty. It's very healing. My dad had a boil on his bottom once, and he sat in a basin of salty water.'

Kelly snorted with laughter. So did I. We laughed so much we nearly fell over on the sand.

‘What a place to have a boil!' said Kelly. ‘OK, OK. I'll paddle, just to keep you happy.'

We both paddled. Kelly winced a bit as the water washed over her leg but she didn't complain.

‘You're ever so brave, Kelly,' I said.

Kelly beamed at me. A wave splashed high and she jumped to stop her shorts getting wet. Soon we were both holding hands and jumping every wave. We got wet after all but it didn't really matter. Little droplets of water on my eyelashes made me see rainbows everywhere.

‘This is our beach, right? We're the only ones who can come here,' said Kelly. ‘Let's stake it out as
ours
.'

She searched the sands until she found a big stick. She went near the water's edge where the sand was firm and wrote a message in spiky capital letters.

KELLY-AND-TIM BEACH. PRIVATE. KEEP OUT.

Then she bent over and started drawing a big heart. Well, it was meant to be a heart but it went a bit wobbly and lop-sided. She wrote K L T inside.

‘What's it say?' I said. ‘Klut? Klot?'

‘You're the clot,' said Kelly, pink from bending over. ‘It says Kelly Loves Tim. Right?'

‘Oh. Right,' I said.

‘
Well?
' said Kelly. She held out the stick.

Obediently I drew my own heart and put T L K inside.

‘Right!' said Kelly. She came up very close. ‘Shut your eyes!' she commanded.

I did as I was told. I felt this quick dab on my cheek. I
think
she kissed me. But when I opened my eyes she'd already darted right across the sand towards the rocks.

BISCUITS WAS VERY
huffy indeed when Kelly and I climbed back onto the ordinary beach. I kept telling him this and telling him that but he wouldn't answer. I tried cracking some of our extra-funny jokes but he wouldn't even smile.

Kelly absolutely fell about laughing and said ‘Oh Tim, you are
funny
.'

Biscuits became even less friendly. He chatted to Kelly's little brother Dean instead. He helped him finish a giant tube of Smarties and in return he built Dean a little boat in the sand just big enough for him to sit in. He encouraged Dean to hold the empty Smarties packet up to his eye like a telescope.

It was a very
basic
boat.

‘Shall we make it into a proper boat?' I
suggested. ‘What sort of boat do you want it to be? Is it a rowing boat or a sailing boat or maybe a big ocean-going liner?'

‘I bet you've done a special project on blooming boats,' said Biscuits. ‘It's just a little sand boat for Dean, OK?'

‘Yeah. It's my boat, not your boat,' said Dean.

‘Leave the little boys with their soppy boats and come and swim, Tim,' said Kelly, trying to pull me away.

I dithered, desperate to keep in with both Biscuits and Kelly. Eventually we all went in for a swim. Kelly's mum's boyfriend Dave even dangled Keanu in up to his ankles.

Kelly was a seriously super swimmer, much better than Biscuits or me. She showed off rather a lot, and kept challenging us to races. She won every time. Biscuits stopped competing. He lay on his back and practised spouting like a whale. I tried too but I couldn't get the knack of spouting. The water went in instead of out and I had a major choking fit. I retreated to the shallows after that and hung around, getting a bit shivery.

I was even more shivery by the time we'd all got out and got dressed.

‘We all need to run about and get warm,' said Dad. ‘I know. French cricket!'

But luckily my mum and Kelly's mum came back from their trip to the market just then and they'd bought
hot dogs
. They were only lukewarm dogs actually, but they still tasted great, and it stopped Dad banging on about cricket. Even Biscuits cheered up a little – but he looked anxious after he'd eaten his hot dog in three great big bites.

‘That's not
lunch
, is it?' he said.

Mum sighed. ‘You and your stomach, Biscuits,' she said. But she was in a very good mood after her trip out. She had lots of carrier bags full of shoes and tops and trousers and underwear. She also had
another
carrier full of food.

‘Picnic,' she said.

‘Is it for us lot too?' said Kelly.

‘No Kelly, you know we said we'd find a nice pub with a garden,' said Kelly's mum, trying a new T-shirt on Dave. It had a rude message on it. She'd bought him some new underpants too with an even
ruder
message.

Kelly's mum and Kelly's mum's boyfriend Dave tried to get my mum and dad to go to the pub too. My mum said they were welcome to share our picnic on the beach if they wanted. She seemed much friendlier with Kelly's mum now – though she frowned at Kelly's mum's boyfriend Dave's new naughty underpants.

‘There might not be enough picnic to go round,' said Biscuits.

He was very relieved when Kelly's mum and Kelly's mum's boyfriend Dave and Kelly herself and Dean and Keanu all went off to the pub while we stayed on the beach. Kelly wanted to go to the pub for pizza and chips but she was very cross to leave us behind. Well . . .
me
.

‘I can come back to see Tim after lunch, can't I?' she said.

‘We'll see, pet. We might go on a fishing trip or something,' said Kelly's mum's boyfriend Dave.

‘Well, can't Tim come too?' said Kelly.

‘He doesn't like fishing,' said Biscuits.

Kelly pulled a face and made a fuss. We could still hear her complaining and arguing halfway down the beach.

‘That kiddie isn't half a little madam,' said Mum, dealing out paper plates and little packs of sandwiches.

‘She's a sparky little thing though. A cracking swimmer,' said Dad.