The Roman and the Runaway

  On his second visit his neighbour asked: "How are things going with your mum and dad?"

  Luke just grunted in response.

  Mr Kelly frowned, hesitated for a moment, then said "As it's such a nice day, I was thinking about taking a hike over the Seven Sisters. It's a circular route that'll take about three hours. You can come along if you like."

  Luke really wasn't sure about this. He liked walking and had often hiked over the Downs with his mother in past summer holidays but there hadn't been much opportunity since the twins had been born a couple of years ago. And the idea of getting out of the village for three hours was definitely appealing but did he really want to spend it in the company of Mr Kelly, a person he barely knew? And a teacher, for goodness sake!

  "I won't be offended if you say ‘no'," smiled his neighbour, who seemed to possess particularly well-developed mind-reading skills. "I know you used to do quite a lot of hiking with Suzanne but if you'd rather not, that's fine. You can come and help me with the garden tomorrow."

  The memory of his long walks with his mother came back to Luke strongly at these words and he felt inexplicably emotional at the way things seemed to have changed so much since those days. "No, I mean, yes, I'll come. Please." Luke managed to twist his mouth into a smile.

  "Great. I'll fix us some sandwiches and you can go and check with your mum that it's OK."

  Luke dashed back home and was relieved to find his mother alone in the kitchen. He told her of the plan.

  "Really?" she laughed. "Well, nobody knows the walks round here better than Ned. He used to go on hikes with me and my brother when we were all teenagers. We used to tease him because he was always trying to get us interested in local history, when all we wanted to do was get away from our parents. He was the same, mind you: his dad was a nightmare and Ned wouldn't spend any time in that house if he could help it." She stopped and looked shrewdly at Luke. "I hope you'll be more polite to him than we were."

  "'Course I will, Mum," said Luke and he went back to Mr Kelly's house before she could reconsider.

  Mr Kelly was loading up a rucksack with foil-wrapped sandwiches and some bottled water when Luke came back into the kitchen. He picked up a well-used map and unfolded it on the kitchen table.

  "I used to know the countryside round here off by heart," he said, "but I haven't been back for so long that it might be wise to take the map with us." With his finger, he traced out the route he was planning to take so that Luke could see where they would be going. "We'll go out along the cliffs and then back through the woods. That way we'll be in the shade when it gets hotter this afternoon. It's about eight miles in all. D'you think you can cope with that?"

  It had been a long time since Luke had walked so far but he wasn't going to chicken out now. He hoped he wouldn't embarrass himself by collapsing from exhaustion half way round. "Think so," he replied.

  They headed out of the village together along farm tracks and footpaths, surrounded by ripening fields of wheat and then by the open grassiness of the South Downs. Soon they arrived at the abrupt edge where the rolling green hills became the cliffs of stark white chalk known as the Seven Sisters. Luke and Mr Kelly looked out over the blue waters of the English Channel. To the left was Belle Tout lighthouse, balanced on the brink of the high cliff known as Beachy Head. Mr Kelly told Luke how the lighthouse had been moved nearly twenty metres back from the edge of the cliff in 1999, to prevent it from falling into the sea.

  "Of course it had already been badly damaged in the Second World War," he added.

  "By the Germans?" asked Luke, trying to be polite by showing some interest.

  Mr Kelly laughed. "You'd think so wouldn't you? No, it was the Canadians."

  Luke's knowledge of history wasn't wonderful but even he was fairly sure that the Canadians weren't fighting against the British during World War Two. "How come?" he asked, getting intrigued, despite himself.

  "They had dummy wooden tanks lined up for artillery practice on the cliff top near Belle Tout," explained Mr Kelly. "They were supposed to be shooting at those but the lighthouse got hit, too. Sounds like they needed the practice."

  Luke laughed.

  "Have you ever walked along the base of the cliffs?" Mr Kelly asked him.

  "No."

  "We can't do it today, because the tide will be in soon but it's quite a good walk. Harder than this one, though and takes a lot longer. There's a German submarine down there, you know."

  "A whole submarine?"

  "No - just bits of one. Well, to be frank, they look like they could be any old bits of scrap metal. But it makes a good story."

  They walked on. Mr Kelly turned out to have a vast number of stories about the history and geography of the local area and seemed to be enjoying the opportunity of rediscovering his old haunts and sharing the stories with Luke. The time seemed to pass quickly, although by the time they got back to the village, Luke's leg muscles were complaining and his feet had stopped talking to him altogether.

  "How are you feeling?" asked his neighbour.

  "Honestly? Absolutely knackered," replied Luke, who was no longer feeling the need to be scrupulously polite to his new acquaintance. "But I think I'll be fit enough to come round and help in your garden tomorrow."

  Luke did do some more work for Ned Kelly in his garden that summer but both of them preferred the grander scale of nature laid out for them on the chalky hills and in the cool woodlands of the South Downs. They went out hiking two or three times a week. Mr Kelly showed Luke how to read a map and, after their first few walks, gave him the responsibility of navigating them home. Luke was surprised at how much he enjoyed the hikes they were taking and it wasn't long before he was thinking of his neighbour as 'Ned' rather than 'Mr Kelly'.

  The arguments between Luke and his parents were continuing to make their house an unpleasant place to be and it was always a relief to get out and spend some time away from them. And from his dad, in particular. Four weeks into the six-week break, Luke was brooding over yet another row with his father while he was out on one of his walks with Ned. His resentful thoughts about his dad reminded him of the way his mother had described Ned's troubled relationship with his own father. Luke felt comfortable enough now to be able question his neighbour about it.

  "What was your dad like?" he asked. "Mum said you didn't get on too well."

  Ned frowned and for a moment Luke thought he had said the wrong thing and that Ned wasn't going to answer. He was worried he shouldn't have mentioned it but, after a long pause, Ned replied. "I think I'll need some sustenance before I even try to address that subject," he said. "Let's have lunch."

  They sat down on the grassy slope of the hill and unwrapped their sandwiches. Ned ate some of his in silence then gave Luke a thoughtful look.

  "Since I've been back in the cottage," he began, "the thinness of the walls between our houses has become obvious and I can't help but be aware that there are some pretty major rows happening on your side of them."

  Luke lowered his gaze to his sandwich, embarrassed.

  "Which made me realise," continued Ned, "that your mother and her family must have been equally well aware of the major rows that used to happen in my house when I was around your age."

  At this, Luke's interest was aroused and he looked back up at Ned's face. Ned gave him a sad smile. "I don't want to bore you with my entire life history," he said, "but some of my experience then might be relevant for what you're going through now.

  "My father was over fifty when I was born and I don't think that large age gap helped us understand each other. He had been a trawlerman since he was fifteen and I hardly saw him when I was small: he was always out at sea. When I was ten, my mother died and he retired from work. We moved here and were thrown together, almost as strangers, and fairly quickly finding we had little in common.

  "Our relationship got worse, rather than better, as time went on. He couldn't see why I wanted to stay on at school and then, later, go to university. He thoug
ht a man should go out and get work as soon as possible." Ned ate another mouthful of sandwich before continuing. "We fought about it constantly.

  "I was miserable living here with him and my reaction (like yours the other week) was to run away from the situation. I had some very supportive teachers – this was at the school you've been going to - and they helped me get scholarships so that I could study overseas without my father's assistance. I left home to go to America when I was eighteen and I didn't come back here until after my father's death. Our relationship had deteriorated so much that he never even told me he was dying."

  Ned sighed and rubbed his forehead with his left hand. Luke noticed a white scar there.

  "Did he give you that scar?" Luke couldn't help asking.

  "Yes, his parting gift just before I left. Although that particular fight, to borrow your words, was mostly my own fault." Luke leaned forward, unable to disguise his keen interest in this story. Ned laughed.

  "Oh, it's not a very stirring tale, I assure you. I got home extremely late after a last evening out with my school friends before we all went our separate ways. I'd had a great time and a wonderful moonlit walk home." Ned stopped talking for a moment, apparently lost in the memory of that evening, then seemed to pull himself together again.

  "I was feeling buoyed up about being on the verge of leaving for America. I thought I could do anything and my common sense had been diluted with too much beer. So, when my father started on at me for getting back so late, I told him exactly what I thought of him."

  Luke's face screwed up and he winced in sympathy for Ned's eighteen-year-old self. Ned nodded in acknowledgment, "Yes, it was another one of those stupid decisions we were discussing." Ned put his hand up to his head again. "He knocked me down and I gashed my head on the hearth. I left for good a few days later and it's only recently I've felt able to spend any time in that house, even though he's been dead now for ten years. Don't let things get that bad between you and your father, Luke."

  *

  On a day when he and Ned had planned a hike, Kyle Dawson, one of Luke's school friends, rang to invite Luke to hang out in the nearby town with a gang of other boys from school. Up to now, Luke had been coming up with excuses for not seeing his friends but this time he thought he might be able to wangle the trip. He knew his dad wouldn't let him go, so he didn't bother asking either of his parents, continuing to let them think he was going off with Ned. He explained to Ned that he wouldn't be able to go on the hike but would walk with him as far as the bus stop on the main road and go into town instead. He didn't see any reason to lie to Ned about where he was going.

  The first part of his plan worked fine; Luke met up with his friends at the entrance to the pier of the seaside town. The pier stretched 300 metres out from the shoreline, over the sea, and was a favourite haunt for teenagers from miles around. Luke liked the way he could see the surface of the water through the gaps between the planks beneath his feet but the main attraction for him and his friends was the amusement arcade. As usual, they spent an hour or two feeding coins into the slot machines. Then, also as usual, they left the arcade considerably poorer and invested their remaining funds in stocks of hot dogs, hamburgers, chips and sugar-laced soft drinks to consume on the beach.

  "Where've you been all summer, Luke?" asked Kyle, licking spilt ketchup from his fingers. Heads turned in Luke's direction to hear his reply.

  "My parents have banned me from seeing you guys," Luke told them, going on to explain about the plan to send him to a new school. He was pleased at the expressions of outrage that greeted these revelations.

  "So how come you're here now?"

  "I sneaked out - they don't know I'm here."

  "Cool," said Kyle. "Oh, that reminds me." He dug into one of the pockets of his cargo pants and produced a packet of cigarettes and a lighter. "I lifted these from my old man's jacket this morning."

  Kyle passed around the cigarettes from his dad's packet and the boys lit them.

  "What you gonna do about this school thing?" Kyle's attention was back on Luke.

  Luke watched the smoke curling up from his cigarette. He had been giving this question some serious thought. "I'm going to prove to Dad that it won't make any difference. I'll make sure I do just as badly at the new school so he sees it's a waste of money. I'm thinking of getting myself expelled."

  His friends, who usually made a point of never being impressed by anything, were admiring of Luke's current and planned acts of defiance. They entertained themselves in a discussion of the most effective means of getting permanently excluded from school.

  Luke lay back on the pebbly beach, basking in the sunshine and in his friends' attention. This was where he belonged. He knew his parents' plans were wrong, however well-intentioned.

  It would have been a perfect day if Luke had not missed the last bus back to the village (there were only four each day). He was stranded in the town with no money left and no way of getting home apart from walking. Realising he was going to end up doing a hike after all, he walked the five miles back to the village. He was glad that it wasn't raining but wished that the day was not quite as hot and sunny as it was. As he approached the terraced row of cottages, footsore and grimy, he found himself hoping hard that Ned had gone for a longer walk than usual and that Mum and Dad had not seen him return without Luke.

  He opened the door to the cottage and immediately heard his father's voice, sounding angry, coming from the living room. When he heard Ned's voice replying to his dad he knew for certain that his illicit trip into town had been discovered. "Busted," he muttered to himself. His first instinct was to turn around and walk out of the house again. Unfortunately Elsie, one of his sisters, walked out of the kitchen and spotted him.

  "Lu-lu!" she shouted enthusiastically, pinpointing his location with deadly precision. The conversation in the living room stopped and was replaced by a pounding of heavy feet and the appearance of his dad in the doorway to the hall. Ned and Mum were right behind him. Luke snatched up Elsie in self-defence and blew a loud raspberry on her stomach, much to her delight.

  The adults appeared considerably less delighted. Mum swung down upon him, detached Elsie and took her off into the back garden with Molly, her twin, without saying a word to him. Luke was left alone with the two men. He was beyond caring about what his father thought of him but felt bad about having dragged Ned into this situation.

  "I'm sorry-" he began, talking to Ned but his father cut across him.

  "Just shut up, you disobedient little brat."

  Luke shut up. He wasn't sure what he'd been going to say anyway. His dad positioned himself next to the open front door and turned to Ned, looking embarrassed. "I'm sorry for the misunderstanding."

  Ned nodded at Luke's dad as he left and gave the teenager a look which said "I expected better of you than this," without the need for words. The likelihood of going on any more Downland walks seemed to be leaving the house along with Ned and Luke knew he had only himself to blame. At this rate, he wouldn't be able to leave the village again for the rest of the summer.

  Dad's embarrassment and anger were now vented at Luke, who was told, at length, exactly what his father thought of him for sneaking off without permission. Luke, who was tired and also now very conscious of the thinness of the cottage walls, did not shout back, so for once the lecture did not escalate into a full-blown row. Luke spent another evening in his bedroom, without supper and was forbidden to leave the house for the next seven days.

  It was a week of chores. Luke's dad seemed to think hard work would keep him out of trouble and he devised a plan of housework and maintenance jobs for Luke to undertake. While he was mowing the front lawn on the evening of his third day of confinement, Luke finally got the chance to talk to Ned. His neighbour drew up in his car and unloaded some bags of groceries. Luke stopped mowing and hurried over to apologise.

  "Look, Ned, I'm really sorry. I shouldn't have got you involved. It was so stupid."

  Ned rega
rded him with that serious look of his but said nothing. He began walking up the path to his own cottage.

  Luke followed him, words tumbling out of his mouth in a rush.

  "I'm grounded for a week but I really want to carry on hiking with you after that, if you'll let me.

  "Please," he added, with a note of desperation.

  "I'll think about it," Ned replied eventually, as they reached his front door. "But you'll need to ask your parents' permission, too." He shook his head. "It really was an incredibly thoughtless thing to do, Luke. As I said to you before, we all make stupid decisions sometimes. The important thing is…"

  "…not to repeat them," completed Luke. Ned gave Luke a small smile and took his shopping into the house, leaving Luke feeling slightly more cheerful. Until his father came outside to see why he'd stopped mowing the lawn, that is.

  He was allowed to go out on hikes again with Ned after his week of servitude. Luke suspected Mum had persuaded Dad to agree, as his father was still embarrassed about the whole affair and would have preferred to have stopped all of Luke's excursions. At first, Luke felt awkward about what had happened but Ned was as informative and easy-going as ever and soon he enjoyed the hikes as much as he had before.

  Luke never discussed the issue of his new school with Ned. For one thing, he didn't want to think about it and for another, he suspected Ned would be likely to side with his parents. He didn't want to have the same arguments out on the Downs that he was having within the walls of the cottage. Luke preferred to pretend that if he ignored it, the problem would go away.

  The last week of the summer was the worst. Ned had let his cottage out to holidaymakers again and returned to work, leaving Luke alone with his family and the realisation that he could no longer ignore the fact that he would be leaving for a new school in early September. Luke now wished he'd talked to Ned about the ways private boarding schools differed from state day schools. He regarded with bewilderment the piles of clothes and sports kit his mother had bought for him: he certainly seemed to need a lot more in the way of stuff.