Jamie Can Fly! (Chapter 4)

It would have been hard for Jamie to explain to anyone exactly how it happened.  All he could remember was that one moment he was staring at this huge noisy crowd who were being led by Tank in their cruel cheering and excitement.  Then, as he stared at them, he felt upset, scared and angry all at the same time.  He took a deep breath, closed his eyes and clenched his fists so hard he could feel his own fingernails pressing into the skin of his hands.  It was only moments after he did this that Jamie realised the crowd had gone completely silent.  He slowly opened his eyes to find out why this was and that was the moment he discovered he was no longer strapped to the bottom of the lamp post, but he was now looking down on the crowd of bemused faces.

            Jamie could only stare in amazement as the rope became loose and slipped from his body then landed in a heap on the ground below.  By this point he had risen up past the very lamp on the post he had been bound to only moments before.  His body then stopped and hovered as he stretched his arms out in an attempt to balance himself in mid-air.  Jamie could not believe what was happening to him, neither could any of the children below.  There was a deathly hush as the crowd waited to see what would happen next.  Jamie then felt the urge to point his finger out in front of him.  As he did so his whole body flew forward at great speed then quickly came to a halt as he moved both his hands to his sides, the way you might do if you were trying to stop yourself from falling over.  Again he hovered.  He was now next to the leaves at the top of a tall tree on the other side of the road.  Almost all of the children stared with their mouths wide open as they gazed in wonder.  Then, a small boy from the class below Jamie’s shouted out, ‘Jamie can fly!’

There was a short pause, then the crowd burst into a loud chorus of cheering, clapping and whistling.  The noise was even greater than it had been before and this time it was for Jamie rather than against him.  The only people who were not cheering were Tank and Vern who still looked completely baffled.  Even Eric was cheering until Tank clipped him round the ear disapprovingly. 

A huge grin formed on Jamie’s face as the reality of the moment sunk in, ‘I can fly!’ he said.  He then pointed back in the direction of the lamp post and stopped himself once more above the crowd who continued to watch with thrilled expressions upon their faces.

            Jamie looked down at Eric, Vern and Tank.  He noticed the tub of itching powder was no longer in Tank’s hands, but was now lying sideways on the ground a few metres behind him.  (Tank had dropped the itching powder the moment Jamie flew for the first time.)  Jamie’s eyebrows then raised and his grin became even wider as he realised he had the perfect idea!

[Chapter 5]

Jamie Can Fly! (Chapter 3)

Jamie began to wander through the fields in somewhat of a daze.  He kept repeating the words of the caterpillar, ‘I’m down low, you’re down low, who’s to know who won’t be low… up high, in the sky, you don’t know why, but you can fly…’

            He continued to drift along in a dreamy state until, eventually, Jamie found himself back at the wall at the end of the alleyway.  He surprised himself, as he had not planned to make his way back just yet.  ‘Oh well!  I’m sure Eric, Tank and Vern will be in school by now and safely out of harms way,’ he thought.  Jamie then pulled his body up and over the wall.  He landed on the concrete ground with a heavy thud.  Then he stood up, dusted himself off and walked down the alleyway.

As he looked ahead, Jamie noticed groups of school children walking away from the school.  ‘That’s strange,’ he thought, ‘why are they walking away from school?  We don’t have any school trips today?’

As he neared the end of the alleyway he caught a glimpse of the clock which mounted the front of the school building.  ‘3:25!’ he gasped.  ‘It can’t be!  I’ve only be gone a short while.’  But the streams of school children heading out of the gates and towards their homes indicated that the clock was, in fact, correct.  Jamie had completely lost track of time.

Suddenly Jamie found himself flat on the ground.  Someone had pushed him from behind and before he turned to look at them he heard their terrible voice, ‘So, you thought you could get away from us did you?’  Tank stood triumphantly over Jamie who turned to see the large thug standing in front of the sun, creating an intimidating silhouette.  All Jamie could do was grimace as he realised there was no getting away this time.  Eric and Vern had positioned themselves on either side of him, kneeling on his wrists to pin him to the floor.

            Many of the school children stopped to watch, making sure they kept their distance, so as not to get involved – they knew what these thugs were capable of.

            ‘Get ‘im up and over to that lamp post!’ demanded Tank.

            The two boys grabbed each of Jamie’s arms and yanked him to his feet, nearly dislocating his shoulders as they did so.  They continued to pull him by his arms with his toes scraping along the road as they crossed the street and made their way to the lamp post.  Tank marched behind them with an evil grin on his face.  He loved the attention of the on looking children who watched, wondering what would happen next.

              Jamie felt helpless as Eric and Vern began to tie a thick cord of rope around him and the lamp post.  It was not long before he was fully bound, unable to move.  As the two nasty boys stepped back to join their leader, Tank re-produced the tub of itching powder.  By this point there was a big crowd gathered around.  Children were whispering things to each other, such as, ‘Is he really going to use that?’ and, ‘That Jamie is in for it now!’ and, ‘I’m glad I’m not him!’

            Tank turned his back on Jamie and faced the crowd, ‘My fellow people!  Behold the itching powder!’  The crowd of children stared in wonder as Tank held the tub of itching powder high above his head.  ‘This powder is to be used on young boys who have been know to act like little girls.  We have found just the person – this disgusting thing here!’ he stepped aside and pointed to Jamie who felt more humiliation and shame than ever before as the crowd laughed at Tank’s woeful description of him.

            Eric and Vern then began to chant, ‘Make him itch!  Make him itch!  Make him itch!’  The crowd joined in the chant, pumping their fists in the air whilst doing so.  Before long Jamie could hear nothing but a wall of sound chanting such horrible words directed towards him. 

            Tank turned to Jamie and whispered into his ear, ‘See what I mean?  There’s no escaping this time you little twerp!’

            Jamie could only wish he had remained in that field till nightfall.  There seemed to be no hope of getting away now. 

The sound of the crowd was becoming louder and louder as the excitement of the occasion rose.  Children from other schools joined the ever-growing mass of spectators.  Eric and Vern had huge grins on their faces, as did Tank.  This was their biggest stunt yet, and would surely seal their reputation as three of the most terrifying and fearsome boys in town.  Tank held the tub of itching powder up to the crowd once again.  They cheered as it rose, just the way a crowd would cheer when a football team lifts the FA cup trophy.  Tank grinned as if it were the happiest day of his life.  His eyes closed as he held up the tub.  The cheering became louder, and louder and louder… then it stopped.

Tank thought he had suddenly gone deaf with all the noise, but no, he had not.  He opened his eyes to see the faces of the crowd looking shocked, as if they had just seen a ghost.  Tank was confused as he noticed all the faces no longer looking at him but slowly looking upwards as though they were following something.  Tank felt a tug on his jacket.  He turned to Eric and snapped, ‘What is it?  Why are you pullin’ my sleeve?’

Eric looked pale as he stuttered his reply, ‘J… J… Jamie…’

‘Yes, Jamie!  What about him?’

‘He’s… he’s… he’s…’

‘He’s what?  Come on, out with it!  Eric, you’re such a…’ Tank’s jaw then hung wide open as he turned around to see that Jamie was no longer where he had been.  Jamie was half way up the lamp post!

[Chapter 4]

A book recommendation - Too Much Trouble

'Too Much Trouble' is a brilliant new book from Tom Avery which follows the story of two young brothers, Emmanuel and Prince.  On the run, and with little food or money, they get themselves caught up in things most of us would do well to steer clear of!

I was completely gripped by this story, full of thrills and suspense, set in the city of London.  I love the way it explores difficult issues and focuses on some interesting relationships.

This book was the winner of the Frances Lincoln Diverse Voices award and is a real page turner that you won't want to put down!

Jamie Can Fly! (Chapter 2)

It felt wonderfully peaceful in the field as Jamie looked around to see the maize blowing ever so slightly in the gentle breeze.  There were just a few clouds passing overhead with the morning sun resting on Jamie’s face.  He was on his own now and he liked it.

            ‘Pssst!’

            ‘What was that?’ said Jamie as he flinched at the surprise of an unexpected noise.

            ‘Pssst!  Oi, down ‘ere!’

            Jamie looked down to see where this strange voice was coming from.

            ‘That’s it, over ‘ere!’

            Jamie suddenly noticed a tiny green caterpillar on the ground, by his foot, staring directly at him.

            ‘W… was that you?’ Jamie cautiously asked the small insect.

            ‘Course it was me!  I don’t see anyone else round ‘ere.  Do you?’

            ‘Well no, I don’t.’  Jamie replied.

            ‘Fantastic then!  Just you and me eh?’

            ‘Yes, I suppose it is.’ said Jamie, who was not quite sure whether or not he was dreaming.

            ‘Clifton’s my name.  And yours is…?’

            ‘Jamie.  My name is Jamie.’

            ‘Well then Jamie, tell me – do you like secrets?’

            ‘Yes, sometimes I suppose.’

            ‘Well, you’re gonna love this one!’ said Clifton as he stood up tall on his hind legs.  ‘I’m down low, you’re down low, who’s to know who won’t be low!’

            Jamie looked baffled, ‘What sort of a secret is that?’

            ‘Only the best of secrets, that’s what it is!’

            ‘But I don’t understand it?’

            ‘That’s the beauty of it my friend!  Who’s to understand the wonderful mysteries of life?  Not me, and certainly not you.  But you just gotta trust ‘em, if you know what I mean?’ said Clifton.

            ‘I’m not sure I do know what you mean,’ Jamie responded.

            ‘Well, if you don’t always wanna be low, then where are you gonna go?’

            ‘...up high?’ Jamie replied.

            ‘Up high!  In the sky!  You don’t know why?  But you can fly!’ with those words Clifton leapt up high above the maize then landed far off in the distance.

            ‘WAIT!’ shouted Jamie.  ‘Where are you going?  What does it mean?  I don’t understand?’  But there was no reply this time.  Just like that, the tiny caterpillar had vanished leaving Jamie standing alone, once again, in the field.

[Chapter 3]

A book recommendation - James and the Giant Peach

Today is Roald Dahl day and this year marks 50 years since 'James and the Giant Peach' was first published!  And what a great tale it is.  I re-read this classic story only a couple of weeks ago and I could

taste the juiciness of the peach as James and his companions travelled inside it.

If you have never read this I would encourage you to pop down to your library or local bookstore and get yourself a copy.  It's a delightful journey of unusual creatures and mysterious goings-on in the skies above. 

Let this book take your imagination far away to where peaches are huge and insects are entertaining!

A note from Nev...

I am very excited to see that 20 top children's authors and bloggers will be taking part in an online storytelling adventure courtesy of The Bath Festival Of Children's Literature. 

I love to see creative people working together and what a way to do it!  Starting yesterday and concluding on 16th October an original story will be told by 20 different authors working together.  Each writer will add a chapter to the story and everyone else (like you and me) get to see the story unfold before us.  

The first chapter of the story can be found on the Bath Festival of Children's Literature blog.  From there you can follow the links as the story moves from blog to blog every other day.

I hope you enjoy it - I know I will!

Jamie Can Fly! (Chapter 1)

PROLOGUE

‘Give me the juice!’ demanded the great big thug of a boy.

            ‘I won’t do it!’ retorted Jamie bravely.

            ‘Then I’ll squeeze it in your face!’ the nasty boy replied as he lunged forward to grab Jamie’s hand, which held the carton of apple juice.  The drink burst through the straw and went all over Jamie, whilst the brute moved out of the way quick enough to avoid getting a single drop on himself.

            ‘Ha ha!  Look who got himself wet!’ cackled the boy.

            ‘Yeah!  He needs a baby bottle!’ said one of the other two boys.

            Jamie was not going to cry, but he was angry and upset.

CHAPTER 1

Jamie lived with his uncle George who was a nice enough man, but was always very busy at work in his study.  He spent all day doing things that Jamie could not even begin to understand.  But Jamie did not mind, he was happy getting on with things that he enjoyed, such as drawing, making models out of lollypop sticks and playing adventure games in the garden.  But one thing Jamie did not enjoy was walking to school.

            Everyday Jamie walked to and from school and everyday, without fail, Jamie encountered three very horrible and nasty boys.  One was a small scrawny chap called Eric.  He had mousy brown hair, freckles and long dirty fingernails.  Then there was Vern who was the tallest of the three.  He had a big jaw, an army haircut and wore a pair of round glasses.  But the worst of the three was Tank – a large ginger haired thug who picked his nose and made life miserable for nice young boys like Jamie.

            It made Jamie furious to be picked on and laughed at everyday.  The stinky boys would push him over; rip his t-shirts; steal his lunch then throw it at him; burst his drinks; pull off his shoes; put worms down his trousers and many, many more atrocious things. 

As you can imagine, this made life extremely unpleasant for the poor young boy.  Some days he tried to disguise himself by wearing a big hat and sunglasses.  But this had the reverse effect and caused the boys to notice him all the more.  On another day he took a powerful water pistol ready to fire the three of them as he ran past.  But Vern used his long arms to whisk the weapon from his hands.  It was Jamie who ended up soaking wet that afternoon.
            Whatever he tried, Jamie could not avoid the malicious behaviour of the loathsome trio.
            About a week after the water pistol incident Jamie was on his way to school and wondering what horrible episode he would have to face today.  As he came to the end of the road and turned the corner, he looked ahead of him and could see his school but none of the nasty boys.  ‘They must be late today!’  Jamie said to himself cheerfully.  He started to skip forward relieved at the thought of a morning free from torment.

After he had completed just a couple of skips he heard a familiar voice shout from behind him, ‘Oi!  Where do you think you’re skipping off to you sissy girl?’
            Jamie turned round to see Tank, Vern and Eric running towards him at great speed.  Jamie was, in fact, a fast runner too.  He thought he might be able to outrun them to the school.  But Vern had extremely long legs, which meant that one step for him was the same as two for Jamie. 

Before he knew it Jamie’s shirt collar was in the grasp of Vern’s hand.  Eric then appeared in front of Jamie with a wicked grin on his freckly face.  ‘Thought you could run did ya?  Well this’ll teach ya to try and outsmart us!’ said Eric as he produced a large tub of itching powder.  ‘This is going down your shirt and your socks and your pants!’
            Vern let out a nasty giggle as Tank grabbed the itching powder and elbowed Eric out of the way.  ‘Move you little runt!’
           Eric looked somewhat annoyed as the leader of the pack took control. 

            Jamie bravely stared at Tank as he was spoken to, ‘You need to learn that you’ll never get away from us.  You’re a gift to us Jamie.  We are always happy to see you because it means we can try our experiments on you!’

The other two boys chuckled as Tank continued with his speech, ‘Now, there’s no need to struggle.  We just need to tie you to that lamp post over there so that you won’t try any funny business as we cover you with this special powder.’

Jamie’s heart was thumping and his mind was racing thinking about how horrible this was going to be for him.  He would be covered in itching powder without the ability to use his arms to scratch himself.  He could not face the thought of it.  Then, something welled up inside of him as his face turned red and he let out a huge, ‘ROOAAAARRRRR!!!’

He screamed so loudly Vern let go of his collar and jumped back in shock.  Jamie took the split-second chance to make a run for it.  He pushed past Tank and Eric and raced down a narrow alleyway to his right.  He heard the voices of the three boys bouncing off the walls as they shouted at him, ‘Come back here you little worm!  You are dead when we catch you!’ 
            But they did not catch him.  Jamie ran faster than he ever had done before in his life.  As he reached the end of the alleyway he clambered up a wall and leaped down into a hedge on the other side.  He continued at great speed through a garden before jumping over a fence, which led into the local fields.  He kept going, jumping and leaping over fences and stiles.  Eventually he came to a maize field.  He ran right into the middle of it before he stopped and crouched down low. 
            It took him a few moments to catch his breath before he carefully poked his head up to see if they had followed him.  There was no sight of the boys.  Jamie realised that although they were nasty they were also very lazy too.  Instead of giving a long chase they would rather wait for their next opportunity to catch him.

[Chapter 2]

A book recommendation - The Oswain Tales

I have recently been working my way through The Oswain Tales - a fantastic series of children's adventure novels by author John Houghton.  If you have ever read and enjoyed books such as the Narnia series then I'm sure you will like these.

Peter, Sarah and Andrew are three ordinary children caught up in an adventure that proves to be far from ordinary.  Join them as they travel to another world where they fight against evil forces with their new found friends.

What I enjoy about these books is the way many unusual characters come together to fight with or against one another.  John Houghton, the author, has a wonderful imagination and is able to quickly draw you into this delightful world of mystery and adventure.

I still have the final book (Feldrog's Sting) to read and am very much looking forward to sitting down with a cup of tea and losing myself in it!

The Weirdoes

Edward and John were best friends.

They didn’t live too far away from each other, in fact, a short ride on their bikes and they could meet at the park mid-way between both of their homes.  The boys enjoyed hanging out and playing together.  They played ‘it’ in the park and they had bike races round the block.   

But what they liked to do the most was to dress up!

            John would go to Edward’s house because Edward had the most wonderful and exciting fancy dress box.  They would open the box together and pull out the most wild and wonderful pieces of costume.  Now, of course, most children would put on pieces of costume that would create the desired character, like a patch and a bandanna for a pirate or a helmet and truncheon for a policeman.  But these boys were not interested in the ‘known’; they enjoyed creating the ‘unknown’.  They would dress up as ‘Weirdoes’, which meant putting on whatever they wanted to create the most bizarre characters.

And when they became the Weirdoes they would enter Weirdo World!

Where do Weirdoes live?  Well they live on ‘Laundry Mountain’ of course!

 

But the Weirdoes would have to leave ‘Laundry Mountain’ to go hunting for food.  So off they would go, into Weirdo land, exploring.  They looked high.  They looked low.  They even searched each other… just to make sure!  Eventually they would come across Weirdo cave, which contained the most wonderful variety of Weirdo foods.  The ingredients would all come out, then be mixed together to make the perfect Weirdo meal – mm mmm! 

Then they would continue on their quest for adventure. Weirdoes just love to climb. 

 

So when they discovered the tallest tree in Weirdo land they were up it before any other creature in the land!  And when they were at the top they would just sit and gaze out into the unknown that lay before their Weirdo eyes.

Darkness was the time Weirdoes did not understand, so when it approached they would make their way back to the Weirdo cabin.  They climbed in and were not seen again until the next time Edward and John decided to let them out.