Four

Part 3: Summer

Summer

June arrived in a blaze of glorious sunshine.

Aunt Kate had come running back on the evening I stole the keys; in a tizzy, she dived under the couch while exclaiming she'd lost some change that was in her pocket. I gave the performance of my life, and she left frustrated but sure of my innocence; which she shattered somewhat that evening by exposing herself as a blatant liar.

The keys remained hidden in a shallow grave next to our mossy stump, ready to unlock Neegan Farm when the time was right. Meanwhile, Gavin and I skipped home from school in sweltering heat, a whole six weeks of freedom from school ahead of us. Bliss.

One bright sun shiny morning while I was getting ready to meet Gavin in the woods, Mum asked me out of the blue, "Why don't you have any friends?" I was surprised by the question and replied with, "But I do Mum, Gavin's my friend." Her reply was laced with concern. "I mean girlfriends. Girls your age should mix with other girls. A boy and girl of your ages, spending so much time together, it doesn't feel right." I became irritated and raised my voice a little, "But there's nothing wrong with it Mum. What's wrong with two teenagers getting on well together? I just don't understand Mum. Why do you have a problem with me and Gavin, always keeping your eye on us?" I began to cry tears of frustration. Gavin and I were meeting daily at the mossy stump in secret and I just couldn't grasp why my Mother seemed to be discouraging our friendship.

Mum changed her tone when she saw my tears. She sat me down on the couch, wiped my face, and said, "I'm sorry darling. You're right, there is nothing wrong with it at all. It's only good company, and God knows, you need company of your own age."

Mum gave our friendship her blessing.

......

Gavin and I almost collided as we ran excitedly towards each other. I got in first with, "Gavin, Mum's Ok with us being together now..." He interrupted me abruptly, "Pickle, this is much more important, we're going in now. I've been spying all morning and the Neegan brothers have just left on their tractor; the old woman's in the piggery." He said this while hurriedly digging at the ground.

Gavin retrieved the keys to Neegan Farm and wiped them clean, "Go get the balaclavas, we're ready to rumble."

Gavin took my hand and we ran through the sun-dappled woods, both aware that this was it. I had an inherent feeling that our lives were about to change, our childhood about to come to some kind of an abrupt end.

We went straight in, via the front door. I took off my balaclava and scanned the front hall of Neegan farm. It was all ours, we were free to explore and discover.

It was a grand house indeed and as clean as a new pin. We entered the large drawing room first and walked around it, observing its grandeur with awe. I was struck by a large framed photograph of a couple on their wedding day; they looked like movie stars, "This must be their parents, they were killed. Gosh, they were beautiful." I said to Gavin. "Is this the geyser that killed himself?" he asked, bringing over a small-framed photo.

I stared at the picture. The young, fresh faced Charlie Neegan: smiling, tall and proud, dressed in black robes and holding a rolled up piece of paper in both hands. As I looked at this handsome young man, the image of his self-slain corpse lying grotesquely in blood reddened snow returned to my head, causing me to drop the framed picture. The glass shattered into thousands of tiny fragments, glistening like dusty diamonds on the dark wooden floor.

I looked at the broken image and instinctively said out loud, "You killed yourself for a reason, didn't you Charlie?" Half hoping for someone to give me an answer.