Hot Summer (Part 2)

I sat nestled in a crook of an old oak tree, and nibbled on a corn beef sandwich I’d brought from home, and contemplated the morning events. It had ticked so many firsts for me, and I couldn’t get it out of my mind, still I wondered about it too. So many questions but in the end they boiled down to one thing really, would Jill and Mary ever play like that again?

After about an hour, and as I was just thinking they might not return today, when heard the familiar sound of girls voices, and soon Mary and Jill come into view. I hurriedly finished my last mouthful and started to climb down the thick branches. On touching down my heart sank to see Jill’s slightly younger cousins Tom and Lilly following along behind, not the I didn’t like them, I did, but I realise that this afternoon wouldn’t be the one I was hoping for.

“Hi Joe” the girls chorused as the touched down. “Hi” I forced a smile back, “So what’s the plan then?” I said. Mary gave me a sideway looks “Well we thought we’d go to the hollow and play this afternoon, Tom and Lilly haven’t been there before and they are only here for a few hours”. My brain ground thought her words trying to decipher any hidden meaning from her but to no avail. As we set off along the winding trial we chatted about something and nothing and it wasn’t long before we were at the hollows entrance and were we climbing haphazardly down the steep slops to the bottom.

From the outside the hollow was pretty invisible only a few gaps in the thick bushes offered access. Once the steep path had been tackled, and unlike the rest of the woods, the vegetation was sparser as the canopy of twisted trees cut out much of the light. It took a few moments for our eyes to adjust to the cool, dark interior. Scattered amongst the tree where flat topped boulders that we used for all manner of make believe things.

Tom said “Cool place, its not fair, we don’t have anything like this at home”, I smiled knowing he was right. Mary led the way to one corner of the hollow where it dipped down even deeper. Looking up past the near vertical sides, a mass of tree roots almost formed a cave. We called this place a dead man’s cave, because the heavy earth walls killed all the sound, making the whole place feel dead quiet. One of my favourite game to play here was climbing the twenty feet up the maze of tree routes, and I began showing off my climbing skills, trying to look as casual as I could before Mary announced we were going to play a game. In my mind now, words had been given a whole new meaning, and I felt my pulse quicken, before common sense prevailed. But, for once, I hadn’t misinterpreted her meaning as she continued “Ok you everyone got to promise, not to chicken out and not to tell” Lilly piped up “I can’t climb up there” pointing to me “no way”, Mary and Jill laughed “No its not a climbing game, nothing like that” Jill said. “No” Mary continued “No, it’s called models and photographers.”. Tom swung up on a tree root and said “Boring, boring, boring”. But Mary pressed on “Its not boring, anyway your probably too young and too chicken to play anyway”, Tom looked defiantly and shot “Am not”. “Ok, prove it and play” Jill said. Tom looked at me, and I nodded “Ok then, how do we play then?”. Mary smiled triumphantly and said “its simple, we each take turns to be the photographer and ” as she produced a dice from her pocket “the photographer rolls the dice, and the others all do too if they get higher than the photographer they are safe, if not then they are a model for that round”

Typical Mary, I thought complicated rules! I just wanted to get to the exciting bit, but Lilly was looking confused “What’s not safe about being a model?” she asked. Lilly despite her appearance, was very bright, in fact she was one of the brightest kids I knew. Dad said she would go to Oxford for sure when she was older. Mary fixed her with one of her looks; she didn’t like being questioned by anyone, let alone someone who she viewed as her junior, “Well Lilly, the photographer gets to set up the scene for the photos and the model….. well they have to do what there told”.