What We Saw (2 page)

‘I don’t know why you bother going through and organising your pad like that,’ Adam said.

I shrugged. ‘I just like structuring things, I guess. Maybe you should try it some time.’

Adam scoffed and continued scrawling things down on the pad in front of him. ‘My way works fine. Wouldn’t have solved the rabbit case if it wasn’t for my notes.’

I raised my eyebrows. We did solve the case of the missing rabbits a few days ago with help from his pad. It turned out Mrs. Dawson from two caravans down had been pinching them to give to her daughter as a present. Martin, the campsite owner, soon got full wind of this when my cousin and I delivered our full report, and Mrs. Dawson got a slap on the wrist. The case was a success and probably our proudest moment so far. Deep down, though, I wished for something more.

That was our problem. Every little mystery we had solved in the last week seemed to spur us on to solve another. And that’s how we met Donald Stanton. He helped us solve our mysteries, and he understood us.

I finished with writing my mysteries for the day and turned to Adam, who had fallen asleep on the spot. It had been tough for him lately but he seemed to be doing alright. We had to keep an eye on him, Gran said. Make sure he’s okay. It must have been tough for all of them.

I went out into the kitchen area, tiptoeing across the padded floor. My gran slept stretched across the warm brown sofa, which spiralled all around the outside of the room under the window. Granddad sat upright, reading the paper. Four digestive biscuits sat to his side, untouched. Usually he would forget about them and fall asleep. Gran usually took the opportunity to pinch them after she broke her sleeping façade. He probably thought he’d eaten them, but perhaps he was keeping up the comedy. Feeding our imagination. That was, of course, if Carla didn’t get to them first. She slept on a pillow in front of a fan heater.

I poured myself a glass of strawberry milkshake. When I added the milk, it smelled a little like the inside of toenails, but it didn’t matter much to me. The strawberry would mask that.

‘I’m off to bed now, Granddad,’ I called.

He turned from his paper and nodded. ‘Night, son, sleep well. Anything you and Adam fancy doing tomorrow?’

I edged towards my bedroom door and moved further away from the living area and the warmth of the fan heater. ‘Oh, I’ll ask him. But we’ll probably just end up solving mysteries or something. Go meet up with Emily at our den.’

‘Okay, well let us know if you fancy it.’ Granddad paused. ‘Is he… okay?’

‘I dunno, I mean—well, I think so yeah. Nothing serious. You okay?’

Granddad stopped rustling his papers together. ‘Good lad, good lad. I’ll grab you both a chocolate bar from the shop tomorrow morning. It’ll go alright with your toast. Night, kid.’

I smiled.
Selective deafness.
Now I knew what my gran meant. Granddad buried his head in the paper and took a bite out of his digestive.

Chapter Two

I woke to the sound of tapping at the door. At first I thought it was a seagull on the roof, but I realised it was coming from outside. I looked over at Adam, who snored into his pillow. My eyes felt sticky, although I was getting used to being woken up at this hour by now. Getting up early became a routine after we’d met Emily, but I didn’t mind too much. I got up, in my PJ top and red bottoms, and peeked round my bedroom door. Emily stood at the door, squinting round the room to catch a glance of movement, like a tracking system on a boat. I didn’t know if I should be embarrassed about her seeing me in my childish pyjamas, while Adam lay all manly in his dark boxers, or annoyed that she’d arrived so early again. It was as if she couldn’t wait to get out of bed and away from her caravan and her parents. She finally caught sight of me and waved her arms at the handle, gesturing for me to open the door. My granddad’s blue Citroen was nowhere to be seen, so it must have been between seven and eight—his dedicated newspaper trip hour.

I plodded over to the door and pretended to unlock it. Emily grabbed the handle and struggled to turn it. She laughed and frowned before curling her bottom lip like a baby without its dummy. I turned the key and opened up.

‘You’re such an idiot sometimes. Nice PJs, though,’ she said.

‘Thanks. About the PJs, I mean. Not the idiot part.’

I felt my cheeks warm up.
‘About the PJs’
. I knew she’d notice the PJs. And there was me trying to be funny. What was I thinking?

She leaned against the side of the door like a cat rubbing up to a person’s leg. ‘So, Mr. O’Donnell, have you got any mysteries for me to solve today?’

‘At 7 in the morning? Only mystery is how you manage to pull yourself out of bed at that time.’

She giggled before giving me a playful tap on my side.
Quite a good line for me.
I was glad she approved. I nodded my head and laughed back.

Emily always seemed to be playful. A strand of her light brown hair dangled in front of her eyes as the tip of her tongue poked through the little gap in her front teeth. She was quite tall for her age and skinny, like me. I guess we were a good match in that sense.

‘And where’s your cousin today? Not still sleeping, surely?’ Emily asked.

‘Yeah, he—’

I was interrupted by the sight of my cousin, still half-naked, behind Emily. He was preparing to make her jump. He tickled her sides and let out the roar of a monster.

‘Agh! Adam, you absolute idiot! One day I’m gonna get you back, I promise.’ She tickled him back with that grin plastered across her face.

Sneaking up on her through the back door.
Great
. I was nothing but Emily’s distraction now that she had Adam to focus on. I wish I could get away with being mean to girls. Whenever I was mean to girls, I got my name on the board and two ticks next to it. I sat up on my knees in front of Heather Grimshaw once in Year 3, just to see what happened. The class was not comfortable with a rebellious Liam O’Donnell. I got shouted at and ended up running across the playground into my mum’s arms in tears. I couldn’t cope with that sort of guilt. I remember being so disappointed in front of my mum and dad. They taught me to be good and friendly.

We invited Emily in for breakfast. After some debating with Adam, I decided on Coco Pops. He won the only pack of Coco Pops Crunchers through a game of Rock-Paper-Scissors.
Maybe I’ll get to try them next time
. Still, breakfast was a bit of a disaster anyway. I remembered the milk from last night and decided to eat my cereal dry, which Adam did regardless. While we ate, we talked about mysteries we’d encountered. Adam said he’d seen a boy with a chainsaw the other day, convincing him that there was some sort of planned murder on the horizon. Emily said she’d seen the same boy cutting trees and suggested that Martin, the campsite owner, had hired him to do some work. I still thought it might all be a cover for his murderous ways.

‘Morning, boys, and oh—you okay, Emily?’ asked Gran. She appeared around the corner with rollers curling through her hair. Her sticky slippers clicked against the padded floor, emitting a satisfying pop, like bubble-gum.

‘I’m good, thanks, Mrs. O’Donnell,’ Emily said.

‘Well it’s lovely to have you for breakfa—aga-eurgh! Who on Earth left this milk in this fridge in this state?’ The milk slurped over Gran’s Weetabix like the nasty thick custard they gave us with our school dinners. ‘I tell you, boys, your granddad is in big trouble when he gets home. Bloody wind-up merchant, that man.’

Granddad’s car did arrive, and he was in trouble, but he gave Adam and me a chocolate bar anyway, which was always a nice treat. I handed mine to Emily in a moment of genius.

‘Aw, thanks, you absolute cutie!’

Adam’s face sunk towards his cereal, his eyes twitching between the two of us. I winked over at him. Maybe being mean wasn’t always the way, after all. Carla sniffed at the slush of the smelly Weetabix before turning away. It must have been bad if even Carla ignored it.

‘So, what’s the plan for today?’ Adam asked, turning to look at me.

‘Well, I figure we could go down to the beach for a bit,’ I said. ‘See if Mr Rogers is still collecting those fossils.’

Emily leaned in to stare into my eyes. ‘Oh yeah, what do you reckon that’s all about?’

I cleared my throat and turned my eyes back towards the table.

‘How cool would it be if he’s trying to reincarnate a dinosaur and build his own Jurassic Park or something?’ Adam asked.

I sniggered. ‘Come on, Adam, how old are you?’

Adam curled his eyebrows upwards. ‘Old enough not to be wearing baby PJs. I thought you were twelve?’

Emily covered her mouth with her hand and looked back at the table.

I smiled and tried to brush his comments away. ‘You little fool. What are you like? Anyway, we’ve got to ask Donald about the caves later.’

Adam’s eyes widened. ‘Oh yeah! Do you reckon he’ll take us, Liam? Like, last time we went, it was so good. Bit too scary for girls, though.’ Adam crept his hand across the table towards Emily like a spider. She brushed his hand away and grinned at me.

‘Do, um, you reckon you’ll be able to come?’ I asked. I knew it was a long shot.

Emily scratched at the side of her head and played with her hair, diverting her eyes. ‘Well, I—I’ll have to ask my parents. But they’re out right now.’

Adam rolled his eyes upwards. ‘When are your parents ever in?’

‘They just like to go shopping a lot,’ she said. She looked back up at me and smiled. ‘Boring adult stuff.’

Adam jumped up and wandered towards the bedroom to put some clothes on. ‘I bet they’re always shopping,’ he shouted. ‘Gran says they’re probably rich.’

Emily frowned and turned back to me as Adam disappeared into the bedroom. It was a good thing that Gran and Granddad had left the room, or Adam would be in trouble for being rude.

‘Surprised you haven’t got out of those PJs yet,’ Emily said.

I blushed. It sounded like something someone on a Bond film would say, although I don’t think she meant it that way. ‘Yeah, I… they are a bit daft aren’t they?’

Emily giggled. ‘They’re cute. Ignore your cuz, he’s only messing around.’

We stared at each other for a moment. My stomach jittered.

‘Liam, have you put some of your ballstranglers in my drawer?’ Adam shouted.

Emily and I laughed before I headed into my room to get changed.

*

We headed to the den after we’d put the finishing touches on our action plan. The walk down through the caravan site always seemed to be a little weird. The old couple at the top of our road always sat in the window, looking down and smiling at us.

‘What d’you think they’re looking at, Liam?’ Adam asked.

I shrugged and rolled my eyes. ‘They’re always looking. They’re being friendly. No point bothering with them.’

‘Weird how they gave me that Easter egg though,’ Adam said. ‘I mean, it’s not even Easter.’

We went through the gate and down across the wasteground. Adam jolted towards the middle like a cheetah closing in on his prey. He picked up the biggest rock he could carry and flung it at the piece of congregated steel.

The rock collided with the middle of the steel. Another day that he’d managed to hit the bull’s-eye. Adam pointed his thumbs at his back, jumping around like a football player celebrating a winning finish.

‘You’re such an idiot sometimes, Adam,’ Emily said.

‘You’re just jealous of my stone throwing skills. Betcha couldn’t hit the same spot I’ve hit every day.’

Emily sniggered. ‘Rubbish, there’s marks all over that thing.’

Adam looked towards me with those piercing eyes and that mischievous smile. I begged him in my head.
Don’t make me throw. Not in front of her.

‘That’s not me. Those marks are all of Lanky’s shots.’ Adam pointed over at me.

My stomach sank. I tried to smile, but only managed to clench my teeth together. ‘That’s not true,’ I said.

Adam’s grin extended. ‘Then prove it.’

What an idiot. I couldn’t back out now. It would make me look even more of a fool. I’d probably miss, but if I gave up, I’d get teased for it even more. If I tried, at least I had a chance. Fumbling around for a stone, I pretended I knew what I was doing.
How much skill did it really take to throw a rock at a piece of junk?

Adam hopped on top of a rock and held his hands in front of his mouth like he was speaking into a microphone. ‘Okay, ladies and gentleman, prepare to see the champion of the losers of stone throwing beat his all-time record of missing the steel completely.’ Adam pretended to broadcast in a bad American accent.

Prepare to see a rock slip out of my hand and right into your face
.

I lined myself up, and Adam hopped down with a commentator’s swagger and pointed to the spot I had to hit.

‘One rock, one chance. Win, and I’ll do a forfeit for the day. Lose, and I’ll make sure Gran gives you extra sprouts when we get in later,’ Adam said.

How hard could it be? Emily watched on, fingers in her mouth.

I arched my back and felt the weight of the rock leave my body. It chimed as it crashed against the surface, hitting just left of centre.

Adam looked surprised and struggled for words as Emily clapped and cheered. I found an extra spring in my step as I walked towards the steel, but tried to keep my face straight, as if hitting shots this well were a normality for me.

‘Not bad for a loser… but, you snooze, you lose,’ Adam said, before jumping towards me and boxing me like a punch bag.

‘Actually, I didn’t think it was such a bad throw myself.’

None of us had noticed Donald in the background, approaching from the grey steps.

Adam jolted round. ‘You scared me then, Donald!’

He’d make a really good spy, infiltrating army bases and discovering secrets about alien technology of the future. If he sneaked up on us this well, he’d have no problems with bigger missions. Maybe he could teach us to do the same and be as good as he was. He was a great teacher, and Adam, Emily and I could be his three agents.

‘You shouldn’t throw stones at someone else’s property, kids. You know this,’ he said.