A Life Beyond by Mark Church (ebook reader web TXT) 📕

last time he was in the office being lectured by Mr Pole, the Headmaster, and all Daniel was looking at was the dancing mole on the side of his cheek,

'Moley Poley...ha-ha' they said at the same time, this was their nickname for the Headmaster, they both used to believe it grew bigger the angrier he got.

Their attention turned back to the task in hand as Harvey reminded him of what they needed to do, so Daniel, whose mind was forever on the go, was assessing the situation they were both in,

'So here's what we will do…' He started to relay the plan to Harvey, ' I'll cause a distraction somehow and when it's safe you then make a run for the door, make sure you hold it open so I can get through it too otherwise I'll get seen then you'll be for it!!!.

Harvey replied to Daniel’s order in his best army voice,

'Yes sir, Captain!!...Right then, are we going to do this?, I'm starting to feel like I need to get back to class and learn something the more we stand here. Ha-ha'.

So Daniel crouched down near to the open door of the office and he could hear the familiar sound of Mrs Catchpole, the school secretary, tapping away at her computer while singing gently under her breath so she couldn't be heard by anyone passing, the door to her office faced the exit of the school hence why she would need to be distracted by something to get her to face the other way so the boys could escape,

Daniel looked at Harvey and put his finger up to his lips,

'Shhhh' Letting Harvey know to be quiet so he could get to work, he took a small pebble out of his pocket, which he often collected them to keep, and slowly and quietly moved into position, pebble in hand, he was scouring the room to look for something that he could hit to cause a big enough distraction so they could run.

In the far corner of the room stood a huge metal filing cabinet which Daniel had seen and decided to use that to distract Mrs Catchpole, so he gestured to Harvey to get ready to run as he pulled his arm back and with a harder throw than was actually needed he released the pebble from his sweaty grasp and watched it fly across the room like it was in slow motion past the Secretary and straight towards the cabinet which it hit directly on the drawers with an almighty ‘DONNNGGGG’, Mrs Catchpole screeched in terror as the noise the cabinet made caused her to launch all the paperwork she had in her hand right up in the air which in turn made her lean back on her chair too far and over she went with a ‘CRASHHH’.

Daniel looked straight at Harvey who was totally oblivious to the carnage around him by now so he gave him a slap on the leg and mouthed,

'Now!!...Go!!', and with that Harvey leapt into action like a sprinter and ran at the front door which for normal people would be an easy task but this was Harvey who was rather a clumsy child, he tripped

over his own feet as he neared the door and instead of opening it silently he went crashing through it like a bull in a china shop head first which caused him to squeal,

'ARRGH' he cried as he felt the full force of the heavy door against his face as his momentum took him through to the outside and he collapsed in a heap of arms and legs with only his head holding the door open.

Mrs Catchpole was totally oblivious to the commotion that was happening outside of her office as she was in a state of confusion as to why she was lying on the office floor looking up at the ceiling with handfuls of paperwork all around her, she muttered angrily,

'Whatever is going on here??, I don't remember a thing, look at all this mess!!!...' she slowly got to her feet and surveyed the mess across the whole office as Daniel waited for the right time to make a break for it, so as Mrs Catchpole was busy facing the other way slowly picking up all the paperwork she had dropped then Daniel decided that was the right time to make his escape, and with that he turned on his heels and sprinted towards the door which Harvey was still holding open with his head and looking very dazed and confused as he felt a rush of wind coming past him and the next thing he knew he was being dragged away from off of the floor and around the corner of the building out of sight.

'AAAHHH...OWWW, Stop dragging me you blooming maniac!!' Harvey moaned as Daniel kept pulling him round to the side of the building until he thought they were safe hiding in a small recess in the school building

'Think you've broke my bum...' He carried on moaning with tears in his eyes as he stood up to survey the damage to his school clothes, his trousers had been ripped at the knees and round the back, his shirt was stained by the gravely floor, so he stood up and whacked Daniel hard on the arm and angrily said,

'You've ripped my clothes, why were you so rough?, These were my only pair of trousers, Mums gonna go mad now, she warned me not to damage these ones or I’ll have to wear my shorts instead!!'.

Daniel looked Harvey up and down and replied,

'Stop moaning mate, we’re out aren't we!!', and just as he said that he heard voices coming straight towards them, Daniel gestured to Harvey to be quiet as he was still ranting about the state of his clothes,

'Shhhh...there's someone coming' Daniel whispered as he slowly peered around the corner of the wall to see Mr Proctor the Deputy Headmaster and Mr Lint the Geography teacher walking towards where they were hiding, he was sure they would be found out as the recess wasn't very big and there was just enough room for the two boys to stand, so Daniel held Harvey back right up against the wall as they approached the opening,

Daniel was wishing so hard that they wouldn't be spotted, then Harvey noticed that Daniel was kind of chanting to himself, something he had never heard before, but Harvey was frozen solid to the spot unable to move or speak,

'Eramosa...Vin Sarmo Eramosa…' was the chant Harvey heard over and over again, he closed his eyes tight and looked away in the hope the boys wouldn't be seen, totally ignoring Daniel's chanting which he was now muttering under his breath, he was completely still by now almost as if they were part of the wall somehow as the two teachers stood directly in front of the boys still talking amongst themselves, then Mr Proctor turned round to face the boys where they were standing, but nothing.

There was no booming voice demanding they come out of the hiding place, no hint of any kind that they had been seen even though the teachers were staring right at them, then Mr Proctor and Mr Lint carried on towards the front of the school and Daniel seemed to unfreeze and peered out.

'What the heck was that all about mate??' Harvey quizzically asked.

'What do you mean?' Daniel replied as he looked at his friend who was staring at him in a way that he had never seen before, so Harvey carried on,

'Well, first of all why the heck didn't the teachers spot us! I was sure we were going to be seen. The next thing was you were chanting something over and over, it was like you weren't there at all!!'

Daniel looked totally puzzled as he tried to search his memory for anything that had just happened.

'I haven't got a clue what you’re on about mate, seriously I don't, I just remember holding you back then the teachers moving on, that's it!!'

'Well whatever it was I've never felt anything like it before, it was like we were….invisible or something' said Harvey as he and Daniel just stared at each other both as confused as each other.

Daniel then turned away from his friend to look out again to see if they could make a move,

'The coast is clear mate, let's go' he excitedly said as Daniel pulled at Harvey again and they made their way along the school building and off towards the path which led to the back gates of the school but as always someone was patrolling the one place that could mean huge trouble for the boys and their attempt to escape the school grounds for their weekly get together.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter Four

Freedom...sort of

 

 

The school gates were the only way out of the back of the school as any other entrance had been blocked off, They were surrounded by thorny shrubs and a collection of hedgerows quite different to normal hedges and the gates themselves were arch like and very regal looking and were always well maintained, suggesting that someone spent a lot of time down this way, with today being no exception.

So as the boys made their way towards the back gates of the school Harvey was still complaining about the state of his clothes and how his mum was going to ‘brain him’ then Daniel suddenly stopped dead in his tracks causing Harvey to walk straight into the back of him almost tripping them both over. Harvey piped up, now rubbing his nose which had slammed into the shoulder of Daniel.

'Owww, what did you stop like that for?, it's bad enough that you've destroyed my only pair of trousers, now I think I need to go to hosp….', his angry response was cut short by Daniel putting his hand over Harvey's mouth which was still going even though Daniel was covering it,

'Shhhh Harv...I can hear something round the corner'

So Daniel poked his head as close to the corner of the hedge they were standing by to see if he could spot where the noise was coming from,

'Oh great….' Daniel sighed as he turned to Harvey to tell him what he was seeing,

'Why did he have to be here at this time!!'

Harvey pulled Daniels hand away from his mouth and looking puzzled replied,

'Who's there?? I hope it's a doctor, think you've broke my nose as well as my bum!!', so Harvey slowly leant in front of Daniel to see who was blocking the boys exit out of the school grounds and looking dejected as he muttered,

'Fantastic...it's old man Twitcher, what's he doing here at this time??'

Daniel was just as bemused to see Mr Twitcher searching the bushes that run alongside the school gates, Mr Twitcher was Longmeads live in caretaker, he was rather a tall man with an extremely weathered looking face and he was always carrying his favourite poking stick which he used when searching the bushes for and children who had decided to try and leave before the end of the school day, alongside him as always was his faithful but rather oversized four legged companion Rollo who loved nothing more than sniffing out any children hiding from sight.

The caretaker loved nothing more than acting like the big hero whenever he managed to catch any children trying to escape so he could take complete credit, claiming that it was his ‘extensive army training’ that made him who he was (truth is he was never in the army, the story goes that he was thrown out of the army cadets on the first day because he was shouted at a lot and it upset him so he kept on crying until he got his mummy to pick him up).

He always muttered the same thing to himself whenever he was on ‘patrol’ as he put it, kind of stuck on a loop in his head,

'Today's the day, today's the day when Herman catches kids who stray…' he would mutter as Rollo let out a cross between a