Scout Stories: Bruised Beginnings

A Cat Of Many Colours

At first, Keefe thought he might be dreaming. All that running made falling asleep easy. The flickering light behind his closed eyes was constant and erratic. It was like walking in and out of the shadow of buildings while the sun hung low.

Then there was noise. Something was crackling and moving. Everyone else should have been sleeping. It was the middle of the night. Noise didn't make any sense. Something popped. This noise was what started to wake him. He squirmed and turned in his bed, trying to block it out. Warmth spread across the back of his scalp.

It stank. His rolled onto his back, and the warmth hit the side of face. It was a horrible smell. Keefe opened his eyes. It smelled terrible. Like burning hair. Like burning...

He turned to the source of the line, blinking against the brightness for a moment. He stared for a moment before he realised what he was looking at. Then his eyes widened and he opened his mouth to scream.

"FIRE!"

Keir sat up in bed while Keefe jumped up and opened their bedroom door.

"What's wrong?" asked Keir.

"FIRE!" Keefe called into the rest of the house.

Keir's blanket wasn't on his bed. It was thrown on the floor in a crumbled-up ball. It was also aflame.

Keir jumped up on top of his bed and pointed at it.

"HOW DID THAT HAPPEN?" he asked.

"HOW SHOULD I KNOW?" asked Keefe. "IT'S YOUR BLANKET."

The fire was getting dangerously close to Keir's bed. He ran to the end of his mattress and jumped off onto the floor. Their parents ran into the room.

"WHAT IS ALL THIS-FIRE! FIRE!"

Keefe could do nothing but look at his mother. Honestly, the woman never listened to a word he said. His father ran back out to the kitchen, no doubt to try and find something to out it.

"I got it," said Peigi. She ran into the room with a bucket-which she threw at the flames.

The flames went out with a hiss and the room filled with smoke. They all ran out of the room, coughing and complaining.

Oisín stood before Keefe and Keir and crossed his arms.

"What happened?" he asked.

"I woke up and it was on fire," said Keefe. He could tell by the old man's smirk that he didn't believe him.

"It magically caught fire by itself?" he asked. "You weren't mucking around with your lamp?"

"No!" said Keefe. "My lamp was out ages. Go in and touch the wick if you don't believe me. It'll be cold."

"I'm not going back into all that smoke to tell me what I already know," he said.

"You could have burnt the house down!" said his father.

"Never mind the house," snapped his mother. "He could have hurt someone. What if the flames got to your brother before you managed to wake him?"

"I know you're angry at us right now," said his father, "but that doesn't cut it as an excuse."

"That's not it!" said Keefe.

His mother sighed.

"Then why? Why do this?"

Keefe blinked rapidly and looked from one face to the next. He opened his mouth to say something but no words came out. His chest was tingling and he wasn't sure that it was because of the smoke. He put up his hands and then let them drop.

It was a couple of moments of tense silence before he managed to speak again.

"I didn't do it. I didn't do anything. I was asleep."

Oisín walked over to the window and looked outside.

"It looks like the sun is rising. I don't see any of us getting any more sleep tonight anyway," he said. "We might as well stay up and get an early start on the crops."

Keefe stood in silence while his family started their day around him. He could still smell the wet, burn wool and the smoke. His mother called him for dinner but he wasn't hungry. He didn't exactly feel like being around someone who called him a liar either. He shook his head and walked out of the house.

Once outside she saw a brown cat watching him from on top of the house. Keefe glared at it and marched on.

Peigi ran after him. He didn't say anything to her when she caught up with him but kept walking.

"Did you do it?" she asked. "Were you messing around?"

He shook his head.

"Like I'd be that stupid," he said.

She nodded and matched his pace.

"Why do they think your mad at them?" she asked. "It's the first I heard of it."

Keefe shook his head.

"Same as always. They want me to do something and I don't want to do it."

"Yeah but you never get that ma-"

"-I don't want to talk about it."

Peigi was so surprised by his tone that she actually shut up. They walked some more in silence.

"Good thinking," he said eventually. "Getting that bucket and everything. The rest of us ran around like headless chickens but you did something. So...well done."

Peigi stopped walking looked at the floor.

"I was as panicked as everyone."

"What do you mean?" he asked.

Peigi glanced back towards the house. She furrowed his eyes and bit her cheek.

"What?" asked Keefe again.

"Follow me," she said.

Then she led him to one of the narrower alleyways in the town. She checked both ends of the alley to make that they were alone before coming back to stand with him.

"So what's going on?" he asked.

"I picked that bucket up..." she said.

"And?"

"It was empty."

"What?"

Peigi held out her hand and a tiny cloud began to form over it. Then the tiny cloud began to rain. She met Keefe's horrified eyes with a slow, shaky, uncertain smile.

"Looks like I got my wish," she said.

Note: Why would Keefe be upset with his parents? What set fire to the blanket? 

Who will leave comments and votes? Ah, the mysteries continue.

Seriously though, thanks for taking the time to read.