On the Strawberry Moon - 15. Chapter 15

‘So, you’ve never been here before,’ Tom shouted over the noise.

‘I didn’t know you could get have a festival Carnivale this close to Christmas,’ shouted Robert back.

The gang were walking through the carnival, there was bright colours, games, sweet pops ups. Families and friends rushed around them playing the games of ‘Grab the fish’, ‘Dunk the Santa’ and even more. Some babies started crying while adults were drinking and laughing with each other. Children ran around screaming with balloons, chasing each other, weaving in between the adult groups.

Teenagers all walked in small groups.

Oscar caught Billy’s hand and pulled him to the rides.

‘Come on, guys,’ smiled Billy.

Jasper loved rides, the faster, the higher, the better. So, of course, Kalum had to love them too.

He stared up at the monster rides, hearing the high pitch screams and feeling the huge overwhelming rush through the air.

Maybe if he pretended that he needed the loo he could get out of it.

Jasper had already raced ahead with Sammy and Daz. If he was going to go, he needed to go now. Then feel Jasper’s wrath later.

‘Save my spot, guys, I’ll be back soon’ he grinned.

‘Hurry up or you’ll miss it dude!’ shouted Ronny.

‘Nervous bladder?’ laughed Billy.

‘I’ll just be two minutes!’ shouted Kalum.

After running off around the tents, he looked over his shoulder. He then slowly walked to the toilet, taking his time, looking around the tents, nearly tripping over children running under his feet. He left like a lanky giant sometimes with a spotty face.

‘Hey,’ Robert was suddenly beside him.

Kalum nearly tripped again and Robert laughed and caught him.

‘Still going to the bathroom, right?’ Robert asked, smiling.

‘I’ll get there.’

‘There’ll be a queue, you know? You sure you okay walking at this pace?’

‘I’ll get there.’

‘You couldn’t hold it for the ride?’

Before Robert could say anymore, Kalum turned to him and raised an eyebrow, ‘I see you’re not on the ride queue, either.’

‘It’s not my thing,’ shrugged Robert. ‘Guess it’s not yours either.’

Kalum smirked and looked away, ‘I love rides. Faster, higher, baby!’

Robert saw through the acting; he patted Kalum on the back. He then spotted a photo booth, ‘Hey.’

Kalum looked over to what Robert was referring to.

Robert grinned and nodded over to it. ‘I think the queue to the toilets is huge, this will take five minutes.’

Robert headed over.

No one around them was bothered by the photo booth; it sat alone in the grass. Kalum looked behind him, scanning the crowd, before rushing to join Robert.

Robert already slid into the slim booth. Kalum joined him and pulled the curtain shut. There was one stool, so they shared the seat, Kalum sitting on one side, Robert, the other.

‘So,’ Robert said, pressing the buttons. ‘It looks like this one, we can make the photos all weird, like different art styles.’

‘Comedic style like Spitting Image.’

‘Is that the one with the old gross puppets?’

The images came up of awful old droopy faces and they both burst out laughing.

‘Yup,’ laughed Kalum.

‘Okay, let’s do three, the old faces, the droopy ones.’

‘Love my long nose on that one,’ grinned Kalum.

‘Also, got to do just a normal boring one. Okay,’ Robert leaned back as the screen started counting.

He was slipping a little bit off his side of the stool.

Naturally, Kalum caught him, he put an arm around his waist and pulled him so they could sit together.

Kalum didn’t even think when his arm went around his waist like that. He did notice Robert had gone quiet as they grinned and pulled faces.

He also noticed that Robert has his colon on again, the perfumed scent that he and Jasper borrowed off him a while ago.

The smell made Kalum feel a little giddy and he couldn’t help the cheeky smiles that lit up his dimples.

It felt good those few moments of being close. Physically close. It warmed up Kalum. He never wanted to leave that booth or take his arm off Robert.

He could swear Robert was leaning into him more. It was probably just for balance though as the booth was small and the stool was tinier inside.

Kalum wished that when they would leave the booth that he could take Robert’s hand and hold it while they walked back to their friends. Imagine if he could.

***

‘You guys have got very weird traditions!’ yelled Robert.

‘I love the air on my chest!’ roared Ronny.

‘It’s just a rock climbing,’ smiled Tom, shaking his head.

‘It’s not even real climbing,’ called Sammy as she climbed over a large area of rocks. ‘Caves are so much fun, and it’s quieter this year too.’

‘Do you even look for much? Like glass stones or?’

It was late afternoon, a few days before new year. The awkward moments between Christmas and new year.

‘Rock climbing is climbing up,’ protested Daz as the gang marched against the heavy winds and rain peltering. ‘This just general climbing about.’

‘More like Cave exploring,’ laughed Billy.

The gang were exploring the jagger rocks on the beach, the cold wind was harsh on their faces even though they were wrapped up. They were planning to do a firepit on the beach later on.

Salt air was strong they could taste it on their damp skin.

‘Oooh, there’s some large ones over there!’ shouted Robert.

The gang rushed over, scraping their legs, to see the couple of caves he was pointing to. There were a few dog walkers on the beach and pebbles but barely anyone round that evening. It was normally like this after three pm.

‘I call the second cave hole,’ declared Ronny.

Sammy laughed and ran in ahead, unfazed by the dark unknown.

As the gang split off exploring the different cave holes, Jasper grinned and looked around his shoulder. He nodded at Kalum.

Kalum had that usual awful feeling creeping onto his skin but he looked around, noticing that everyone was adventuring away and laughing away.

He then followed his brother round the corner. There was a hidden cave hole, with a smaller entrance, something that would have been easily missed.

Jasper crawled inside and Kalum held in a reluctant sigh before following. The wet rocks were hard against Kalum’s hands. As they ventured further inside the kept, they had to weave in and out of looped rocks, and step over large pools of water.

Kalum could hear the gush of the sea coming in closer to them.

‘Think the tide is coming in quicker than we thought,’ said Kalum, his voice echoing round as he watched his brother go ahead of him.

Jasper didn’t respond and went round the corner. It was getting darker and Kalum followed.

A rumble occurred. The sides start to shake.

Kalum looked around for his brother. He eventually saw Jasper running past him.

Kalum tried to run after him but couldn’t go as fast over the rocks. Then Jasper turned around. He smiled. A very icy smile. He lifted his fist and banged the side of the shaking rocks.

Before Kalum could say anything the mud and rocks fells in front of him, piling up and completely walled him up.

Jasper was on the other side where the entrance was.

Kalum throat went tight.

‘Jasper?’ he barely croaked.

The silence replied back to him.

Kalum’s chest was hurting, he looked around, all he could see was rocks, mud, slim, water. Water. More water.

Kalum tapped his feet against the ground. That puddle wasn’t there before under his feet. He looked around and saw more puddles than before, and his eyes followed the water trail up; he saw the leaking sea coming in. Very little, but drip by drip. Squeaking out little spurts coming in.

Kalum’s heart sank, his chest in more pain now, he could barely catch his breath.

This was completely surreal.

Something switched on inside him, this raw feeling of pure panic completely took over his whole body. He was shaking with panicked energy.

He forced his voice out ‘help.’ He croaked.

It barely echoed back and the taste of his voice back in his mouth encouraged him to shout even louder, ‘Help! Anyone hear me? Help!’

‘Help!’ he kept shouting over and over, rushing around looking for any type of hole he could scrap himself out of to the surface above.

He heard some muffled noises.

‘Help!’ he shouted even louder, the sound screaming out of his chest.

‘Kalum?’

That was Robert. Robert’s voice. Kalum almost cried.

‘Here!’ he shouted

‘I can’t see you.’

‘Underneath, here, please help!’

Suddenly, he heard more rumbling, he stepped aside.

‘I’m trying to make a hole!’ shouted Robert.

Kalum stood aside even more and the light pierced through the ceiling. The mud and rocks crumbled and gave small hole. But it was big enough for Kalum to see Robert.

Both boys smiled at each other, relieved.

Before Kalum could say anything, he stepped forward and something heavy hit his head. Everything went fuzzy, heavy and dark. Robert’s voice became echoey as Kalum heard him screaming.