Escape from Home (Chapter 4)

The car looked old and dirty.  ‘I’m really not sure about this’ Thomas was thinking.  ‘I need to find out if he really is a policeman.  Hmmm, I need to catch him out in someway.’ 

‘Excuse me Mr. Officer’

‘Yes?’ the policeman said as he wiped his runny nose with his sleeve.

‘What unit are you a part of?’

‘What unit?’

‘Yes, what police station do you come from?’

‘Oh, I see!  Yes, of course – unit!  I come from the one down the road of course!’

‘The one down the road?’

‘Yes, the one down the road!’

‘Well, what is it called?’  Thomas asked.

'What’s it called?  Er… er… you mean you don’t know the name of your local police department son?’

‘No, I’m afraid I don’t’

‘Ah, well let me fill you in.  It’s called ‘Lower Park’ police department.’

Now Thomas knew something was up.  It wasn’t called ‘Lower Park’ police department.  Yes, there was a police station near Lower Park, but Thomas knew it was called ‘North Side Police Department’ as he had been there only two weeks before on his school trip.  Thomas now knew that this man was not a real police officer at all – he was an imposter.  Now he had to think of a plan to get away.

[Chapter 5]

Escape from Home (Chapter 3)

Thomas stopped and looked round at the face of this policeman.  He had chubby cheeks, which were rosy and red.  He looked a bit flustered.  ‘I really need to get going!’  Thomas protested. 

‘But where are you going lad?’

‘To find my mum, she’s just down here somewhere…’

‘Oh, I see.  So you want to find your mum.  You want to go back home do you?’

‘Er, yes…’ said Thomas, knowing that wasn’t the truth because he had actually run away from home.

The policeman sneezed ‘Achoo!!’

‘Are you okay sir?’  Thomas asked.

‘Yes I’m fine.  Now, you don’t want to go back home do you.’

‘What do you mean?’ asked Thomas.

‘You’ve run away haven’t you.’

‘Er… er…’  How did he know that? Thomas thought to himself.

‘Yes, yes I have.’

‘Well we can’t have you running away now – we need to get you back home.  Come along with me now and I’ll drive you back.’

Thomas was told never to go somewhere with a stranger, but this was different of course, it was a policeman.  But there was something odd about him.  His policeman badge had a crack in it.  And under the crack the badge looked thin.  Not thick and heavy like the police badges Thomas had seen on his school trip to the police station.  All the officers there had solid metal badges on their jumpers.  And there was a hole in the policeman’s sleeve.  ‘I thought policemen had to look their absolute smartest at all times.’  He then looked down at the policeman’s shoes.  ‘Dirty shoes?  They look like they haven’t been cleaned for weeks!  But I thought they had to polish them every day?’

Something was not adding up here.

‘Well come on then lad, let’s get to it.’

‘Erm… okay then’ Thomas said reluctantly.  Thomas then followed the policeman to his car.

[Chapter 4]

Escape from Home (Chapter 2)

Before he knew it, he was all the way at the end of his road, far away from his home.  He walked up the road and came to a bush.  He stopped at the bush because something caught his attention.  A small brown sniffing thing moving around.  ‘Hello?’ said Thomas.  The sniffing thing suddenly disappeared into the leaves.  Thomas stuck his hand in and ‘GRUFFF!’  The loud noise threw Thomas back down to the floor in surprise! 

‘Ouch!’ said Thomas as he landed on the hard pavement.  The head of a curious dog peeped out of the bush.  ‘Oh, it’s just a dog.  You gave me quite a scare you know!  You should be careful who you bark at!’  The dog tilted it’s head to one side, trying to make sense of what this boy was saying. 

‘Well, the truth is… I’ve run away from home.  Yep, no body wants me there anymore, so I’ve left them.’  The dog came out of the bush and started sniffing Thomas’s feet.  ‘Are you listening to what I’m saying?’  Thomas then noticed the sun shining on the dog’s silver collar tag.  ‘Bruno’ it said.  ‘Your name is Bruno.  Hello Bruno.’  Bruno seemed to show a smile.  ‘Have you run away from home too?  Maybe we could be friends.  It can be quite scary out here on your own.’

Just then, a police car raced past Thomas and Bruno at high speed with it’s sirens on full blast.  ‘WA-OOO WA-OOO WA-OOO!’

‘Wow, must be some robbers on the loose!  Come on Bruno, let’s go and see if we can help!’  Thomas ran up the road as Bruno followed behind.  ‘Can you see anything yet?’  Thomas puffed to Bruno.  Bruno didn’t reply but carried on as they ran round the corner.  And there, up a narrow alley Thomas spotted the blue flashing lights reflecting off the brick wall.  ‘They must be up there Bruno, come on!’

As Thomas and Bruno turned to corner to go up the alley Thomas noticed a policeman and a tall man talking.  The policeman was a short stubby gentleman who had to look up when speaking to the tall man who had a short beard and dark glasses.  The tall man was holding a brown bottle and only had one sleeve on his black jacket.

‘What do you think they are talking about Bruno?’  Thomas took another step forward to get a better view, but as he did he stepped on a twig, which broke making a loud enough noise for the policeman and the tall man to look over.

‘Oi!’ shouted the man in the sleeveless jacket, ‘Come here!’  Thomas turned and ran at top speed in the opposite direction.  He was told never to talk to strangers and even though there was a policeman, something did not seem right about this at all.

Thomas looked behind him to see Bruno following along with the bearded man.  ‘Ahh!’ Thomas thought to himself ‘He’s gonna catch me!’  But then, Thomas seemed to be away from them.  ‘We’ve lost them Bruno.  But where are we now?’  Thomas and Bruno found themselves in the middle of the park, the one that his mother told him never to go to alone.

‘Bruno, this isn’t good.  I’m not supposed to come here on my own.  Well, actually, I’m not on my own am I?  I’m here with you!’  Thomas chuckled to himself at his own cleverness then started walking towards the swings.  He was just about to sit down when a hand landed on his shoulder and a voice followed ‘Hello boy!’

Ah!  It was the policeman, the short stubby one whom Thomas was rather suspicious of.  ‘What are you doing out here on your own?’  Thomas froze momentarily, then quickly thought of something to say.  ‘Well, I’m not here on my own actually, I’m here with my dog.’

‘That mutt is yours is it?’

‘Yes, his name is Bruno.  And my mum is on her way, I just ran off ahead of her.’

‘You did, did you?’

Thomas was not sure whether he was managing to fool the policeman or not. 

‘Well, I’d better go find my mum now.’  Thomas walked past the policeman to get away when the policeman grabbed his arm.  ‘Not so quick lad.’

[Chapter 3]

Escape from Home (Chapter 1)

Thomas woke up very early in the morning.  He got out of his bed and dragged his red and green stripy duvet down the stairs and into the lounge.  No one else was up yet, and he should not have been up either, but he wanted to watch cartoons on the television.  His favourite one started at 5am.

Thomas started watching, making sure no lights were on and the door was shut.  But then, all of a sudden, BANG!!  The television exploded!  Mum and Dad jumped out of bed and came running down the stairs.  They discovered the television smoking like a burning tower block and their son, Thomas, hidden under his duvet.  Dad pulled the duvet off Thomas and shouted, ‘Thomas!  What have you done?’  Thomas was scared, he looked at his Dad, then his Mum, and he burst into tears. 

‘You silly boy!’ shouted his father. 

‘Come on dear, I’m sure it was an accident’ said mother.  ‘Thomas, what were you doing down here?’

‘I… I…’ but Thomas could not get his words out as he was still choked up. 

‘That’s it, no more television for this family and no more toys for you for the rest of this week,’ said his father.

‘But…’

‘No ‘buts’ Thomas, now go to your room!’

Thomas ran upstairs, so upset.  It was not his fault.  He decided he did not want to stay in this house anymore.  ‘Nobody really wants me here – I’m going to run away’ he decided.   So Thomas gathered some belongings in his rucksack, he set it on his back, and then he crept out of his window and ran down the road.  

[Chapter 2]