The water moved quickly past their bare feet, shooting down through the eroded ‘V’ shaped crevice and around the bend and out of their site. Thomas was the first one to put his feet into the clear water; he flinched slightly but tried not to let Kate see.
‘Is it cold?’ Kate asked.
Thomas wondered if she had noticed the slight hunching of his shoulders when he had put his left and then right foot into the water.
‘No, it’s fine once you’re in,’ he replied telling her only a half truth.
‘Are you sure? It looks like it would be cold.’
Thomas sighed and said, ‘How can you tell that it’s cold by looking at it? Put your foot in and you’ll know soon enough!’
Kate watched the water flow by a little longer. It was quite a lot of water, she didn’t know where it came from but knew that it started off cold and got warmer the further it went downstream. Usually it was warmer than this in July, the water as well as the weather, after being so warm in bed only an hour ago, the idea of putting her foot into water now sent shivers all through her body.
A splashing noise suddenly sounded, Kate could see Thomas running towards her with large amounts of water flying up all around him, drenching his pants and threatening to drench her too. Gathering all the courage she could muster she put a foot into the water.
She almost screamed at the chilliness of the icy water but managed to suppress it.
‘I... I’m in. Don’t splash me!’ Kate said in a commanding voice, if not with a little stutter due to the water’s cold grip.
The other foot went in and she was now getting use to the cold. She walked around a little and decided that it wasn’t that bad after all, just a little cool maybe.
Thomas was up the stream a little further away from Kate where an old branch had become wedged across the fast flowing water, which had created a small dam and a pool that was deep enough so that the water almost reached his knees.
On the other side of the damn, where the water toppled over the top of the branch and downwards, it had created another small pool that was about half as deep as the dam. Kate was behind him with a stick and was poking the bottom of the bubbling water to see how deep the little pool went.
‘It’s not deep, you can go in there,’ Thomas said and then bravely stepped into the pool of water to show her that it was safe.
Kate, not yet 11, was younger than her cousin of 13. They had been friends from when they were only little. Playing whenever their parents took the long drive to either of their homes. Kate lived in Chicago with her mother and father and her older sister. Her older sister had been friends with Thomas for a few years as well but now that she was 16 she had out grown him.
Thomas was an only child, brought up by both parents in the rural district of Dwight, south from Chicago off route 66. Having four lots of cousins to play with, some in Dwight, he was not short of playing companions, however.
It was Dwight where the two played now. Even though the area was rural, Thomas’s parents lived in a regular sized home adjacent to the paddocks. The farmers of the immediate area were happy enough to let the children play in their paddocks as much as they wanted, as long as they didn’t get into too much mischief.
Thomas had known a stream was nearby and had found it while he had been out riding on his aging dirt bike, now that Kate was here he was thinking they could do something fun with it today.
‘We should make our own dam!’ Thomas said feeling very excited at the prospect.
Kate was still young and adventurous enough to think it was a good idea as well, even if it did involve playing in the water and mud, and so said that she could help him.
‘You find some mud and stuff and I’ll get some large rocks to make a wall,’ Thomas said while looking for a suitable place to start.
‘Okay,’ Kate said enthusiastically.
They both wandered off looking for what they could. Thomas was only able to find a few smaller rocks, so decided he would try and gather up clay clumps that could possibly be just as good for building the wall.
The first one he picked up crumbled in his hands. The sun had been quite strong the last week and was sapping all the moisture from the ground. Thomas found another one but experienced the same problem. He looked over to where his cousin was to see if she was fairing any better.
She had found an area next to the stream where it wasn’t so wet that the mud dribbled between her fingers, but also not so hard that it couldn’t be picked it up. Her pile of mud was growing but at a very slow pace. It was barely three handfuls and they were her handfuls – small ones – so it was going to be long going.
A wind blew up and lifted his cousin’s skirt over her head so that he could see her underwear and her bare back. He stay staring at her while she kept digging, seeming to not care about what her skirt was doing.
Eventually she stood upright and let her dress fall to where it should have been. She looked over at Thomas and saw him looking at her.
Oblivious to what Thomas had been staring at, she said, ‘I’ve got a little bit of mud here I guess, but I don’t know if it’s going to help much.’
Thomas stopped staring and looked back at what he was doing. His mind pressed him to think about what he had just seen as hormones stirred. The image of his cousin’s underwear and bare skin sat as a still picture in his mind, a few seconds ticked by and he was finally able to dismiss it. He was 13 and becoming more aware of what happened with a boy and a girl and the feelings he got when he saw a girl that he liked. None of those feelings were there when he saw his cousin. It wasn’t because she wasn’t pretty enough, because he believed she was, it was just that she didn’t give him the funny tummy feeling he would usually get.
Not that it mattered, he knew cousin’s weren’t allowed to marry, same as a brother and sister. Plus he liked the way things were right now; she was a friend, someone he could play in the water and mud with, and Kate didn’t care if she got dirty.
Her older sister had always liked this sort of thing as well, but not anymore.
‘I can’t get any good rocks around here. It’s hopeless!’ Thomas yelled to Kate while still searching.
They both walked around a little more and found their way to a small patch of grass near where the stream funneled into a narrow but deep part of the stream. Thomas bent down and tried to pickup some mud since it was a soft soil rather than clay. A clump of dirt and roots and a small tuft of grass came up in his hands.
He held it up for Kate to see with an exasperated look. Thomas was ready to give up. ‘It’s getting close to lunch time anyway, probably,’ Thomas said looking up at the sky as if he were able to tell the time from the position of the sun.
‘I don’t think it’s that late,’ Kate said and then also tried to pull up a clump of dirt.
She lent back as she pulled on the side of the creek bed and almost fell backwards as it came up in her hands. It was a sizable amount of dirt and grass she held. She offered it over to Thomas who took it in his own hands.
They both walked over to the area where they had decided to dam the water and put down the almost square chunk of earth with grass sprouting healthily out of the top. Instantly the water pushed around the clump but did not wash over it and also did not push it down the stream.
‘Yes!’ Thomas called out, shooting his fist into the air.
Kate giggled and held her dirty hands up to her face. She realised then that she had left dirt on her chin and quickly tried to rub it off. She didn’t usually mind getting muddy, but she still didn’t want anything on her face in case she grew to be as pretty as her older sister.
Boys liked to see a girl’s face when they were pretty, that’s what her sister had said. She also said that they liked it when you wore tight tops. She didn’t know why exactly but it was certainly something to do with breasts, although she guessed she would understand that when she got breasts as well.
They both went over to the grass patch and began to pull up more of the grass and dirt. They kept at the gruelling work for the next hour, although at one stage Kate lost interest and went for a walk up the stream for a little way only to be followed by Thomas shortly after.
Once Thomas had gone to join Kate and saw that she was looking out over the other paddocks from up top of the ridge of the stream, he decided to stand next to her. They both stood there quietly for a while. Thomas couldn’t see what Kate was looking at exactly but tried to anyway.
After a few moments and becoming bored at just staring, Thomas said, ‘I was only able to pull up another five clumps and two of them were pretty crappy. I think we need to come back with some tools from my dad’s shed.’
‘Okay, although it will have to be tomorrow. I heard my parents talking about all of us going out somewhere this afternoon. We won’t be back until late. We’re having dinner in town. Also, I think we might be seeing a movie.’
Oh, cool. I hope it’s Thor! It looks cool!’ Thomas said enthusiastically.
Kate giggled, and her hands went to her mouth again as she did so, dirtying her face once more. She wiped her face afterwards and they wandered off along the paddock back home.
‘Hey, you wanna go the long way?’ Thomas asked?
‘Sure,’ Kate replied wanting to walk around the fields forever if she were only allowed to.
She had thought about what it would be like to live in the country. She had even stayed over at her cousin’s house a few times for a week. It wasn’t far so her parents didn’t mind taking a trip down to Dwight two weekends in a row.
Her uncle and aunt were great. They always let her and Thomas do whatever they wanted. Thomas had told Kate that it was because he was an only child. She wondered how that mattered but had not thought on it further.
‘There is one other thing,’ Thomas said as they were walking across the paddock. ‘They sometimes let the bull out in this paddock to run around. Usually it’s after lunch, but sometimes it’s earlier. If we see the bull we have to run to that tree up there and then down to the fence over there, okay?’
‘Oh, okay,’ Kate said trying not to show her fear to Thomas.
‘I’ve done it before. He’s never caught me, you just have to run as fast you can, okay?’
Again Kate said okay, feeling only a little assured that Thomas had been in this situation before. She didn’t like the idea of outrunning a bull, but still, it may be fun because it was just a little dangerous.
‘Oh no, it’s here. You see up there?’ Thomas said pointing off into the distance.
‘Kate had barely a moment to look before Thomas yelled at her, ‘Run!’
Thomas ran and was well ahead before Kate had begun running herself. Her legs pumped as hard as they would go but Thomas was well ahead of her and getting further away. She didn’t yell out or cry, she just ran – her lungs were burning already.
Thomas had only just reached the tree that they were running to when Kate was ten feet from him, she began to feel better that Thomas would be with her for the rest of the way, but then he was off again, running down the hill towards the fence – which was twice as far as the distance to the tree. Thankfully it was downhill.
Kate reached the tree and looked around for the bull but saw nothing close by. She didn’t pause for more than a few seconds before she started her run down the grassy slope to where Thomas was, already halfway to the fence.
No matter how hard she ran and no matter how much she concentrated on running quicker, Thomas got further and further away. Panic started to set in and then worsened when she saw Thomas look back and wave her on in a hurried motion. She didn’t dare look around the paddock in case the bull was charging them.
She reached the fence, of which Thomas was already over the other side, and then he told her to hurry but to also watch out for the electric wire.
‘Where... how do I put my foot in the right place to get over!’ Kate yelled at Thomas hysterically.
Thomas laughed at this but then covered up his smile and showed Kate what to do. Finally she was over the fence and safe. She turned and saw only green grass in every direction. Where was the bull? she wondered.
As if Thomas had heard her silent question, Thomas said, ‘The bull didn’t even move he’s still over the other side of the hill. I don’t know if he saw us or not but he didn’t come for us anyway.’
‘Oh, I didn’t even see him,’ Kate said.
‘Well we’ll see if we can see him again tomorrow,’ Thomas replied and then started walking back up the stone road to his home.
On their way they kicked stones and talked about what tools they would need for tomorrow and if maybe they should take lunch with them next time, especially since they would probably be working there for a while.
Once back at Thomas’s they both went in and cleaned up. Both of them wondering what movie they would see tonight and then how much fun they would have tomorrow.
Thomas pushed his father’s shovel easily into the grassy earth and sectioned off a square chunk. He then slid the shovel underneath the dirt cutting off the grass roots so he could lift it up without it clinging to the ground.
He had created over ten of the square patches of earth, all good sized. Kate was assembling the dam with the pieces of earth across the stream and had no trouble deflecting the water the way they had agreed. Thomas created another square clump by slicing into the earth four times and again lifting it up.
He was getting tired. He had been working at this for the last two hours or more. As he dug each clump up he would have to walk it over to Kate but only if she was ready for another one, or otherwise take it to the holding area away from the water and grass until she called out to him.
‘The water’s going to just go over the top when we get to the side of the cliff,’ Kate said pointing to the clay walled edge of the creek.
Thomas looked at where he had been digging up the grass clumps in a straight line parallel to the stream and suddenly got an idea.
‘I know, I can connect the stream to my little track down here, that will stop the water from building up on your dam, then when we’ve finished building it we can block off this track of mine. You can build it double or even triple in height! Thomas said with glee. ‘And then we can create a little pathway for the water to follow when we let it out of the damn!’
Kate laughed and said,’ I buzz making the track for the water to follow when we let it out!’
Thomas shrugged but smiled back. He was the man so he had to do all the big work anyway, he thought. Although he would have still liked doing the track as well. Kate would let him help later, he realised.
It was an hour later when Thomas said he was going to take a break and eat some of his lunch. Kate was busy at work, although barely completing the third level of her dam let alone starting her track for the river to follow.
It was only after Thomas had washed his hands and began walking up to the top of the creek ridge that Kate called out to him. ‘Hey, where are you going?’
Thomas mimed eating with his hand and mouth and then turned and kept climbing upwards.
Kate put another grass clump down and then washed her hands realising she was hungry as well. She walked over to the picnic basket that Thomas’s mother had made up for them and took out a ham, cheese and tomato sandwich for herself.
Suddenly a shriek sounded from Thomas from up on top of the ridge and he sounded scared, Kate had never heard him sound afraid of anything.
‘Kate, Kate! Look, look!
Kate wondered if it was the bull that had come down to drink the water, although how it was going to get down the slope she wasn’t sure. It took some time to get to the top of the ridge because she was moving hesitantly in case it was indeed the bull, but she saw nothing.
‘What?’ she asked, now wondering if he was just playing another one of his tricks.
‘That, there! Can’t you see it? Look!’ he said sounding annoyed.
Kate sighed and looked to where his finger pointed. Then she saw it.
‘Is that someone there?’ she asked suddenly horrified.
‘It is, I think. I’m going to go closer. You coming? Thomas asked.
‘I, I guess,’ Kate replied, still unsure if she actually was going to follow.
Thomas walked the distance to where a person lay on the ground. As Thomas got closer it was apparent that this person was lying face down. He was also wearing a blue uniform and had a gun in his hand.
‘I think it’s a policeman,’ Thomas called, but did not look back to see if Kate had followed. Then to the man on the ground, ‘Are you okay, err, mister?’
He didn’t stir. Thomas wondered now if he was dead. He took a step back and bumped straight into Kate. Her face was expressionless, at least from what Thomas could see of her since she had let her long her down to cover her face.
Thomas walked around the body and kept walking.
‘Where are you going?’ Kate called out after him once she had found her voice.
‘I think I see lights,’ he said back to her.
He kept walking so he could see more of the paddock further down the hill and what he saw looked like a scene from a movie. There were three police cars, all with doors open, two other cars and a van. And there were more people lying down on the ground. No one was standing.
Suddenly he fell backwards after feeling something hard hit him. He landed on his back with a soft grunt. He couldn’t breath for a moment and wondered if he would ever breath again. He panicked and started to call out for his mum as tears welled in his eyes.
Then he heard a voice scream and wondered if it was from a dream, ‘Thomas!’
Kate was at his side looking down at him. Somehow he had begun breathing again, he just couldn’t remember why or what had allowed him to start. Kate was crying. He could see now.
He touched the part on his body that was sore and felt something warm and sticky. It was probably just mud, he decided. Then his hand came away and he saw it was red.
Thomas tried to get up but felt dizzy on each attempt. His dad would be angry about him hurting himself, his dad had seemed a little unsure of whether to let he and his cousin have his tools. Although, Thomas hadn’t actually hurt himself with the tools at least. He now just wanted to go to sleep.
‘Get mum,’ Thomas said with slurred speech to Kate hoping that only his mum would come and not his dad. Maybe his dad wouldn’t even need to find out about him being hurt.
Kate dashed off without another word but still crying as she navigated the sloping creek bed back to the track that would lead her to Thomas’s home. Thomas closed his eyes. The sun was not warming him like it usually did. He felt so cold. And suddenly he was floating in a blackness not knowing where he was or how he got there.
Author’s note: Yes, that’s the end. However, I have written a part 2 just for kicks Coming soon :)
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