A Life Beyond by Mark Church (e book reader txt) 📖

'Oh that's just great!!, well done you idiot, don't think I’m going to pick all these up, Get back here now and clean this up', Lillie shouted in a fit of rage as she raced out of her room in hot pursuit of her brother who was already halfway down the stairs.

As Daniel ran into the kitchen to hide away from the whirlwind of rage heading his way he was greeted by the sweet soft female voice of his mother who called out to him. 'Good morning my baby boy, how are you doing today?.' Daniel stopped dead in his tracks and answered back to the woman who was standing in the way and hurriedly wiping her face as she looked like she had been crying.

'Mum, I.....', he stopped what he was going to say and looked at his mum and knew something was troubling her,

'What’s the matter?, mum I can tell you've been crying again, it's not the first time I’ve seen you upset, I hear you in your room sometimes and I can hear you crying and I want to come in but I daren't, if we can help then please tell us what we can do, we don't want to see you upset anymore' Daniel's mum's eyes looked heavy and swollen slightly as she answered back in the soft way in which she spoke,

'I'm fine my beautiful son, I’m just having one of those mornings, I’ll be fine I promise you. So...',

Daniel's mum's face broke into a smile as she gazed upon Daniel standing in front of her, looking like a face she knew from her past, hiding whatever pain she was feeling behind her smile,

'What's going on with you two then?, it sounded like a herd of elephants up there a minute ago and then you fly down the stairs, what have you and your sister been fighting about now?'.

Lillie stormed down the stairs and into the kitchen like a tornado on its path of destruction and started moaning about what Daniel had done to her room and how it wasn't fair that she had to tidy it up when it was her brother who had wrecked all her things.

'Well..' said Stephanie, the children’s mum, ' Don't worry about that now, I will have to sort it out later when you two get your bums off to school but first you need breakfast...so sit down at the table and I’ll get your breakfast ready'.

So they sat down together at the table and were chatting about what was going on at school when all of a sudden Bucksy appeared at the doorway, his head still stuck in Daniel's pyjama bottoms, he managed to clatter into the chair that Daniel was sitting on and let out a yelp as his nose connected with the chair leg.

'Bucksy!!...' scowled Daniel as he looked down to be greeted by the ever inquisitive nose of his dog poking up in the air, sniffing at the smell of breakfast.

'What are you doing now?, there's no food for you so go and lie down please'.

And with that Bucksy made his way round the kitchen still bumping into everything in sight and yelping every time he hit a new piece of furniture.

Lillie answered back to Daniel with a scathing tone,

'Sometimes I wonder about that dog of yours, you two seem to have the same amount of brain cells between you'

'Shut up Lillie..' said Daniel as he scowled at his sister who was poking her tongue out at him, trying to goad Daniel into a reaction which he responded as she expected.

'You're just jealous that he actually likes me and doesn't pretend to be my friend like the stupid friends you have at school'.

Stephanie threw them both a look that would stop a rampaging bull dead in its tracks and warned them both.

'If you both don’t stop arguing I’ll bang your heads together and you will both be grounded for a VERY long time, do you hear me?'

The children both looked at each other surprised at their mum's reaction, she never said anything like that before as she continued,

'Now please just eat up and finish getting ready for school, this sort of behaviour isn't what I need at the min.....',

Stephanie stopped halfway through what she was going to say so she didn't go too far but Daniel had already picked up on what his mum was trying to say.

'I knew something was up mum, so why are you so upset lately ' he asked in a quizzical way,

Stephanie looked up at Daniel, smiled then carefully thinking about what to say, replied to her increasingly anxious son who seemed to be just as upset that his mum was feeling this way, 'I wish I could tell you my boy but it's nothing you can help with, it's something I need to sort out on my own, even I don’t know what it is at the minute, I just need some time to think that’s all',

And with that she got up from the table and walked out of the kitchen leaving Lillie and Daniel each with a puzzled look on their faces as they both tried to make sense of what their mum had just said.

Daniel decided to break the eerie silence that had descended on the kitchen, he turned to his sister and muttered,

'See I told you something was up the other day and now look what you've done, you had to come downstairs and be a tell-tale didn't you, it's all YOUR fault she's upset now'.

'MY FAULT??...' Lillie replied angrily ' YOU were the one who started all this, you just kept going on at her with all your questions didn't you, no wonder she's stormed off you blooming idiot!!, I’m going to finish getting ready for school so hurry up or we'll both be late, and get that stupid mutt of yours out of the kitchen before he hurts someone'.

Daniel bent down to help Bucksy remove the pyjama bottoms from his nose and head and muttered to himself,

'I'll give her 'stupid mutt'....' as he led Bucksy out of the kitchen and let him out into the garden.

Daniel stood by the back door thinking about his mum and what she had said to him, all the while watching as Bucksy chased a lone crisp packet round the garden which was causing him to bark in excitement.

Daniel then decided he would get to the bottom of why his mum was so upset lately but first he would have to make the long boring walk to the place he hated most, Longmeads High School, the walk was made more enjoyable as Bucksy always joined him on his way to school, (Bucksy always seemed to know how to get back home and always greeted Daniel at the same place every day without fail... strange how he always knew where to be!!!!).

Chapter Two

School Days

The walk to Longmeads High School was one that Daniel enjoyed as he normally got to meet his best friend along the way, Harvey Jones, the only friend that Daniel really got on with at school, they had both started school at the same time so Daniel knew he could rely on his friend to have fun with when they were at school and as they both lived in the same street, they were always at each other’s houses and generally spent most days in each other’s company.

The walk to school took them through the woods close to Daniel's house which was at the end of Mumbles Drive, which was situated in the sleepy town of Lullington Mulch, it was a beautiful part of the country and was a quiet but generally sunny place to live, full of endless green fields and the most stunning wooded areas this side of the country which were filled with the sound of all sorts of animals who were existing in this strangely special place. So Daniel was finally ready and as it was as hot a day as normal he left his school blazer at home and made his way out of the front door to start the walk into school as he done every week day but not before shouting out to his sister,

'Lillie, I'm leaving for school now, hurry up or you'll be late'.

Lillie stopped drying her hair to answer back to Daniel who was waiting for a reply,

'Ok, I'm just finishing up here, you go on ahead and I'll meet you on the way...oh and please don't bunk off again, you're lucky I haven't told mum about the last three times you've been caught......'.

Daniel quietly shut the front door with his sister still nattering on in the background and snuck off out of the front door and as usual he was joined by Bucksy who was wagging his tail so fast he could almost take off. Bucksy loved the walk in with Daniel and Harvey as it meant them taking a path through the woods next to the house where they lived which was filled with all sorts of smells that caused Bucksy to run on ahead and bark at whatever had caught his attention this time.

They boys were always out together getting up to mischief and generally being kids but today there was no sign of Harvey as Daniel made his way along the road alone wondering where his friend had got to,

'Hey Bucks…' said Daniel 'wonder where Harv has got to, haven't heard his whiney voice yet!!', Bucksy barked in a way as if he was answering Daniel's question until he noticed a stick on the floor in front of him which took away his attention.

Daniel picked up the stick he saw sitting on the ground in front of his dog and got ready to throw it for Bucksy to chase as he usually done, barking away at the top of his voice so Daniel would know he was ready to fetch it for him.

'Go on Bucks....fetch it, good boy', and off his dog would run sniffing out the stick that Daniel had just thrown which he duly brought back and dropped it at his master's feet ready for him to throw out into the distance again, this time Daniel didn't hold back and launched the stick as far as he could which landed right into a clump of bushes ahead of them, then followed a strange whining noise that started coming from deep within the bush which then started to shake as if something was behind them.

Bucksy stopped dead in his tracks and waited for Daniel to catch up and he turned his head as if to say 'Wait here'.

Daniel said to Bucksy 'what is that sound??? Go on boy have a look but be careful', and with that his dog set of ever so carefully like a lioness stalking its prey until he came to the shaking bush and slowly stooped down as if ready to pounce. Then, like an Olympic athlete, Bucksy launched himself into the bush, 'Grrrrr...' Bucksy growled as he had grabbed hold of something in his mouth.

'Ahhhh get this blooming dog off me!!!' the reply came as Bucksy slowly pulled out a leg from the bushes, followed by the second leg and eventually the rest of what looked like a scared young boy who was now covered in dirt and yelping in pain as he was pulled further out into the open, Bucksy finally let go and started barking at the muddied face looking up at him from the floor, it was Harvey looking rather angry at his friend who was doubled over laughing at him as he started pulling bits of twig out of his hair,

'Stop laughing Daniel!!, it's not funny is it?? Just look at the state of me' Harvey cried out as he surveyed the state of his coat and trousers which were muddied up from his trip through the bushes.

Daniel, still sniggering at the sight of his best friend being dragged through the bushes, had to ask the question about what was going on,

'So Harvey,