The Recruit

30. Camp

The new shelter was quite cosy once you got used to the wind blasting the outside. Ash's sleeping bag rested on a foam camping mattress. He couldn't get comfortable. Misty snored. Ash shouted at her twice. The third time, Misty said she'd punch him if he woke her up again. Ash stuck a pillow over his head.

Ash woke at 3 a.m., busting for a pee. He was used to walking two steps to his bathroom at CHERUB. It was tougher here. He couldn't find his torch, so he had to put on jeans in the dark, then make his way blindly through the main part of the hut, stepping around Cathy who was sprawled over a futon. Ash felt for the door, where all the wellies were lined up. He wasn't sure which pair was his, so he stuck on the first pair he found and stepped into the blackness.

There were portable toilets on site, but Ash couldn't find them in the dark so he wandered into the nearest group of trees. He wiped mud off his hands on to his trousers, undid his jeans, and started to piss. Something shrieked and brushed against his leg. Ash jolted. He was peeing on one of the chickens that roamed around camp.

He turned away, but that was into the wind, so his urine got blown all over his jeans. Ash stumbled back, tripped over the hysterical chicken and hit the mud. There was no way to get clean. He wondered why this type of thing never happened to spies in films.

Misty was up, and she'd slept fine. She stuck her foot over Ash's face to wake him up.

"Shower day, Benjamin," Misty said. Ash burst into life.

"Get that stink off my face," Ash said, pushing Misty's foot away. "Who's Benjamin?"

"You are, stupid," Misty whispered.

"Sorry," Ash gasped, realising where he was. "I must remember that."

"There's a rota for hot water," Misty said. "You get one shower a week. Friday is boys."

"One shower a week?" Ash said. "With all this mud."

"How do you think I feel? I've got to wait four days and I don't exactly smell great now."

Cathy showed him where the wash hut was. It was narrow, with a reservoir of rainwater on the roof. Every morning a gas boiler heated enough water to run the showers for ten minutes. If you missed out, you stank for another week. Ash dashed to the shower hut and stripped. There were eight boys under the water, sharing bars of soggy white soap and messing about. Mums stood outside, telling the little ones to get a move on. The water was barely warm. Ash rubbed soap in his hair as the hot ran out. The others knew better and scrambled off. Ash had to rinse with a bucket of freezing rainwater. He sprinted back to Cathy's hut wearing wellies and a big towel.

Cathy was cooking bacon and eggs on a portable gas stove. It smelled good and there was plenty of it.

"Do you kids drink coffee?" Cathy asked. "It's all I've got."

Ash didn't care what it was as long as it was warm. He drank two cups and stuffed down four rashers of bacon and two runny fried eggs, mopping the yolk off his plate with white bread.

"I've got to go enrol Benjamin in school," Cathy said. 'Then I'll go to Tesco. Anything you two want?"

"Mars bars," Ash said. "What about enrolling Destiny?"

"After you went to bed I met this guy Scargill," Misty said. "He said he'd try and fix me a job at Green Brooke."

Ash was impressed Misty had made such a fast attachment to Scargill. He was also miffed that she'd got out of school.

"I guess you'll start school on Monday, Benjamin," Cathy said. "Friday night here is usually a laugh. Everyone turns up after dark. We build a bonfire and play music and stuff."