Up to Something

                Kelly can’t live, she says, without her friends around her. The good news is it takes her about five minutes to find a whole bunch of new friends.

                Me, I couldn’t see the point in making friends. We were only staying with Nan for a week. I was busy trying out my new camera anyway.

I thought Kelly might like a few photos to remember her new friends by.

                The girls were hanging out by the church-yard wall. I crept through the grave-yard, using the wall for cover. I hoped they wouldn’t see me but they did.

I heard Kelly say, “Take no notice. He’s just my little brother.”

They went on chatting.

I didn’t think I was doing anything wrong. I thought she wanted me to take some photos of them, right?

No one was more shocked than me when one of them yelled, “He’s got a camera!”

She shouted so loud it nearly split my ear-drums.

                Then panic broke loose. Ooh! Shock horror! Like they were a bunch of D-list celebs and I was going to get their picture in the papers.

“Were you taking pictures of us?” said

Kelly.

“No,” I said. “OK. Yes. Maybe. What if I was?”

“Give me that!” She held out her hand for the camera.

“No way!” I said. And I nipped off as fast as I could, zigzag among the grave-stones, and legged it back to Nan’s.

“Were you spying on us?” said Kelly while we were waiting for our take-away curry to come that evening.

“Spying on you?” I said. “When?”

                “This afternoon. By the church-yard wall. Were you listening to what we were saying?”

“No,” I said. “Why?”

“No reason,” said Kelly.

She was up to something. I can always tell.

I said to Mr Frost next day, “Kelly’s up to something.”

                “Oh, yes,” he said. “She’s up to something.” He looked up at the circle of stones on the hill. “Kelly and her friends don’t believe the story,” he said.

“About the stones, you mean?” I said. “But it is just a story, isn’t it? Do you believe it?”

                He chewed his gums for a bit. Then he said, “I believe it’s better to be safe than sorry. Some people just have to learn the hard way.”

                He picked up his spade and started digging again. Nan said he was making a trench for runner beans. It looked to me spookier than that. It was more like he was digging a grave.

I’d be glad when this holiday was over.

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