Seven for a Secret Never to be Told

Mia was happy it was Friday. It had been a cold, dark winter but now the evenings were getting lighter and today the sun was shining. Safi was coming to tea after school which meant they could take Bear to play in the field behind Mia’s house.

Mia waited outside Safi’s classroom after the bell had rung. The door was propped open and Mia could see Safi talking to another boy by the patio door on the other side of the room. Safi pointed to the playground and Mia could hear him explaining the short cut to the hall. Safi turned round and saw her.

‘I was just showing him the quick way to the hall,’ said Safi, but the boy had already disappeared so they emptied their lockers and were soon stepping into the afternoon sunshine. The smell of newly cut grass filled the air. They began walking home. Mia’s Nan was going to meet them half way.

The walk home always took a long time. There were several ponds that could only be accessed by narrow dirt tracks through straggly trees and hedges of bracken. They made a den and jumped across the stream and got wet feet pretending to escape from the Witch of Sardeeni through the horse’s field. They were collecting logs to make a dam across the brook when they heard Bear barking and looked up to see Mia’s Nan walking towards them. She had a kind face which broke into a ready smile when she saw them. She was quite tall, taller even than Safi’s dad and had wild, curly white hair that bounced around her shoulders.

‘What’s for tea?’ asked Safi as they were going down the back lane to the cottage.

‘Well Mia tells me you like eggs, so omelette tonight.’ Safi’s face fell.

‘She’s joking,’ Mia laughed. ‘We’ve got pizza, haven’t we Nan?’

‘Yes with cans of cola and ice cream.’ Safi’s face lit up.

They dropped off their school bags and went to play in the back meadow with Bear. Mia’s Nan watched them from the upstairs window. She was making some curtains and from her sewing table she could see them clearly.

The back field was higher than the surrounding land and Mia remembered that years ago it had been used for dumping household waste. Now it was a green meadow with clumps of nettles and blackberry thicket hedges. Curiously in the corner of the field there was a steep slope and Mia and Safi ran down it to the small copse of tangled willow trees at the bottom. The trees were twisted and just right for climbing. There was a dead tree trunk laying in the middle and they dared each other to run across it.

‘Let’s make this our special place,’ said Safi. ‘I like it here. We could collect stones and put them around the top of the slope. Look there are loads here.’ So they began picking up the bigger stones and placing them around the rim of the slope so that they formed a circle and marked the place as their own. It was hard work. Mia was thirsty and was going to suggest they went back when Bear started barking.

‘Look, even Bear’s having fun,’ said Safi. Bear was digging around some bricks and barking with excitement. ‘What’s he doing?’ They went over to see what Bear was digging at.

‘That’s a badger’s set,’ Mia said. She felt quite proud of herself for knowing what a badger’s set was. Safi looked puzzled. ‘It’s where a badger lives,’ she explained, ‘they dig really big holes and have tunnels under the ground.’ Safi stiffened and looked down. ‘Don’t worry…’ Mia continued, ‘…see these bricks in the hole. The farmer probably did that to make the badgers go away.’

‘That’s sad,’ sighed Safi.

‘Nan said badgers have diseases that cows can catch.’

‘What’s Bear after then?’ Mia pushed Bear gently away and Safi brushed at the soil where Bear had been digging.

‘Look there, what’s that?’ asked Mia seeing something in the ground. Safi pulled a small, round, flat object from the pile of dirt. It was about the size of a jammy dodger biscuit. At that very moment a dark shadow fell over them. Mia felt as if someone had walked up behind her. She turned her head to look but no one was there, just a big cloud drifting in front of the setting sun.

‘What’s wrong?’ Safi asked. Mia looked at him and shivered.

‘Nothing,’ she shrugged, ‘just the sun playing tricks.’ Bear leapt up the stony bank to the ridge and ran around the edge and the sun came out from behind the cloud and lit up the disc of wood in Safi’s hand.

‘What do you think it is?’ asked Mia, prodding it with her finger.

‘Don’t know. Let’s go back to your Nans and clean it off.’ He added, ‘I hope dinner’s ready I’m starving.’ They climbed up the slope and when they were at the top Mia looked across the field but there was no one there.