The Turn of a Page

Chapter 22

Chapter 22

            Baz sat me down and went to chat, almost silently, to Charlie who obviously was sat by Ashley. I sat there, thinking to myself about how I had told him and the way he had taken it; to be honest, he had taken it much better than I thought he would have done. The one thing that was still confusing me was that he said we were visiting some relatives on this camping trip. Now, he either meant his relatives or he meant his and the other’s relatives, which to me did not make any sense whatsoever. Oh well, I thought to myself, I would just have to wait and find out exactly what he was on about. I only had to wait another two and a half weeks.

*****

            As I didn’t know where we were going or what we would be doing, I had Baz help me with packing. He said that I should bring trainers and older clothes that I probably didn’t mind getting a bit muddy or dirty. But just to be on the safe side, I packed a few nice tops and my best set of jeans.

            ‘Are you two packed yet?!’ called up Derek from downstairs.

            Baz shouted down to him similarly. ‘Yeh, just making sure I haven’t forgotten anything. You don’t mind the drive do you, Kez?’ he added to me.

            ‘No, but I can always let you drive for a bit if my feet start hurting.’

            We then carted our suitcases down the stairs and locking our doors behind us.

            In the car, travelling on some random country narrow road in the countryside after about four hours of driving, I was sat dazing away in my own passenger seat wondering when we will stop. With Baz driving, I felt comfortable enough to play some music to relax me more.

            ‘Nearly there, Kerry. I know you’re tired, so am I. But we also need to put the tents up, in the middle of the field.’

            ‘Why the middle again?’ I asked for about the third time.

            ‘Because there’s a line of territory that we can’t cross which covers a certain section of the field. We could camp on it but... well it’s just not a good idea.’

            ‘Right, I still don’t get what’s going on but I’ll be patient and wait.’

            We pulled up into the small car park outside what looked like a farm house, and we stepped out of the car with some well needed stretches. Letting the boys unpack the tents and unfold them, I went for a little wander up to the field.

            ‘Kerry, I wouldn’t go nearer to the trees if I were you,’ he warned.

            Looking down at my feet, I saw a fainter green line running parallel to where I had been walking, I took a few paces away from it and saw that it extended from one end of the field (near the gate) to the other end at the top. Looking up, I saw the beginning of a large forest (or I imagined that it was a large forest).

            Dragging the tents up carefully, we all chipped in to erecting all three of them. Derek, Kev, Toby and Charlie were all sharing a double podded tent between them, while Baz and I had a single podded tent for us. The third tent was for Sharlene and Ashley, who insisted they didn’t share with any of the boys; exactly why they had come along I didn’t know, but I knew better than to ask questions and sound like I was jealous or annoyed. I was very happy when I found out I wasn’t the only female on this mysterious trip.