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

'Blimey...that was close mate..' Daniel said as he craned his neck slightly to look out of the hole in the bush to see if the coast was clear, but he had totally forgotten that he was still holding his hand over Harvey's mouth as his friend punched Daniel in the leg reminding him to let go.

'Owww...Sorry mate..I totally forgot about you' Daniel said as he took his hand away from his friends mouth.

'AAAHHH, OWWWWW, jeez that hurt!!!, look at the state of my hand, that blooming bee thingy has made it look fat where it stung me, it's all your fault, if anything happens to me because of this I'll brain you' an irritated and angry Harvey scolded his friend who was now laughing at Harvey and his ‘fat hand’ and pushed Harvey off his legs and said,

'Hahaha, look at it, it looks like a row of sausages now!!, any way stop whining, we haven't been caught have we??, it looks like we're in the clear, see nothing to worry about, no harm done'.

'NO HARM DONE!!!!' shouted Harvey as he looked at himself and how bedraggled he looked and continued his rant at Daniel,

'I've had my head bashed in by the door, ripped my only pair of trousers and new school shirt, broke my nose on your bony back, I've been dragged through a hedge backwards, literally and for real, almost mauled to death by the biggest most ferocious dog on earth and to top it all off I've been attacked by the scariest looking bee on the planet and now I have a hand like a pack of sausages…..and you say no harm done!!!!!.'

Daniel stifling his laughter now looked Harvey up and down and said

'Stop being a big baby and let's move, I'll lend you some of my clothes when we get home, no biggie mate, now come on let's go'.

And with that the boys made their way through the rest of the network of bushes so they didn't get spotted by anyone else, Harvey, still scolding Daniel because of the state of his clothes, was following Daniel as close as he could as Daniel kept pinging the branches of the bushes back so he hit Harvey in the face,

'OWW will you stop that, just you wait until we get out of here, your so for it!!'.

Daniel eventually stopped when they reached the end of the bushes and squeezed through the hole right near the gates and they popped out onto the school field,

'Right mate, we’re free now, just got to climb the gates and off into the woods we can go, totally had enough of that place'.

So Daniel starts to climb the gates, normally they are open but with Mr Twitcher not around to patrol them they have been locked,

Daniel makes easy work of the gates, scurrying up them like a professional mountain climber and pops over the top of the gates and makes his way down the other side and onto firm ground, Harvey on the other hand isn't as agile as Daniel and has a phobia of heights when it comes to climbing,

'Oh great!!!...' he mutters as he stares at the sheer size of the task in hand, the gates looming over him like a giant tree seemingly never ending in their pursuit of reaching up to the sky. Then as he gets his first foothold on the gate he feels the gate pushed backwards with force followed by a familiar noise,

'WOOF WOOF WOOF' barked an excited Bucksy as he jumped up at the gate causing Harvey to slip off and fall onto his backside on the grass.

Daniel was laughing so hard that he couldn't stand now and collapsed on the floor holding his stomach with laughter.

'Oh that's it laugh why don't you, I suppose you think that's funny..' Harvey growled in anger as Bucksy stood up on his hind legs at the gate wagging his tail at Harvey,

'Get away from me you blooming mutt, as if I'm not dirty enough as it is!!',

Daniel piped up as Harvey went to start climbing the gates again,

'Come here boy, let Harvey make a fool of himself again. Hahaha',

Bucksy ambled over to his owner and sat beside him watching, his head tilted to the side as Harvey made his way slowly up the gates, not sure what to make of his attempt at climbing, all the way up the gates Harvey was breathing fast and mumbling to himself,

'Don't look down, don't look down, and don’t look down!!'

Daniel on the other hand was now yawning away in sheer boredom, waiting for his friend to make it over the gates,

'Come on Harv…' Daniel said as he watched the slowest ascent ever seen, 'Get over while we still have daylight, I'm bored of waiting',

'I'll be over when I'm over' Harvey shouted,

'You know I can't stand heights, it's ok for you Mr ‘not scared of anything’, I'm scared of falling flat on my face and ending up in plaster, so shut up while I do this!!'

And finally Harvey made his way over the top of the gates and down the other side much to the delight of Daniel who was clapping and cheering him as he set his feet down on the pavement outside the gates.

'Finally!!!' Daniel said as Harvey dusted himself down and scowled in his direction, Bucksy ran at Harvey barking away in delight too,

'Get away from me Bucks, You didn't help much either' said Harvey as he pushed the dog away from him.

Bucksy always waited patiently for Daniel to come out of school and he always seemed to know where to wait for him but today he seemed a lot more pleased than normal to see the boys, he was constantly nudging Daniel as he stood there talking to Harvey.

'What is it Bucks??' Daniel said looking down at his pet who was gently pushing his nose into Daniel's hand as if to say ‘Come on let's go’.

'Well I suppose seeing as we’re now going to be in heaps of trouble we may as well go', A resigned look fell across Harvey's face as he realised they would both be in a lot of trouble if and when their parents found out about them skipping school.

So as the boys made their way along the back fence of the school and towards the woods which loomed large in the distance and was the boy's passage home Daniel turned towards the school for what seemed like a last look at school life then turned to Harvey with a determined look on his face and said,

'I can't wait to leave this place behind mate, I feel there's something else out there for me...sorry, us to look forward to but I can't quite put my finger on it at the minute',

'Yeah yeah mate, I understand, you’re just not a clever as me so you'll be flipping burgers in no time…Ha-ha' laughed Harvey as they walked further down the grassy path and into the entrance to the woods surrounding the school.

'Shut up Harv..' laughed Daniel as he put his arm around his best friend's shoulder and sighed as they carried on walking away from Longmeads.

'Can't wait to leave this place for good mate, come on we've got some serious playing to do!!!'.

And with that Daniel screamed 'HAHA' as he chased after Harvey down the winding grassy paths which led into the deepest part of the woods, Harvey seemingly running for his life and laughing loudly as Bucksy barked enthusiastically and wagged his tail as he bounded after both boys who were pretending to fight one another as they all disappeared into the distance and out of sight with only the odd muffled bark heard in the distance as the boy's disappeared from sight.

Chapter Five

The Calm Before the Storm

So the boy's finally came to the edge of the woods at the end of Mumbles Drive and reflected on the events of the day so far,

'Glad you talked me into going now Dan' said Harvey as he stopped and leant against a tree to have a rest, blowing out his rosy red cheeks as he spoke,

'Don't think I could have coped with another minute in there, it’s too nice out to be stuck in a classroom'.

'That's why I suggested going mate, have I ever been wrong before??' Daniel said as he raised his eyebrow in a kind of ‘if you tell me I'm wrong I'll bash you’ kind of way,

'Well there was that time when you got us thrown out of that shop near the school, pretending we were homeless just so you could get free food and drink!!!' Harvey reminded Daniel of how that had gone horribly wrong,

'I wasn't to know mum was going to walk in at the same time did I!!' Daniel replied,

'Any way you didn't warn me she was standing right behind me so that was your fault, I ended up grounded for two weeks thanks to you'

'Whatever…' Harvey said as the boys made their way along the road and close to Harvey's house which was surrounded by the largest hedgerow on the block with god knows what living in there,

Daniel then remembered that his mum was probably going to be in at home now,

'Cripes mate I totally forgot, mum will be in so I can't go home yet, she was supposed to be doing a half day at work, remember seeing it on the calendar before I left this morning', Harvey smugly replied to Daniel's plight,

'So you want to come in to my house until it's time for us to be home from school eh? Hmm what should I do?.

'Come on mate, don't be a div!!...you know I'll get grounded again if mum finds out', replied Daniel as he seemingly became more desperate in his plea.

'Look it's only for a few hours, me and Bucks need to keep our heads down for a bit, can't risk being spotted by the neighbours!!'

'I'm only joking mate, of course it's ok, Mum isn't back until late tonight and she's left money for me to get a pizza' Harvey smiled as he opened the gate to let Daniel in closely followed by Bucksy who was covered in twigs and leaves as he ran past them and into the safety of the front porch and flopped down panting away with his tongue hanging out of the side of his mouth,

'What's wrong with him??' Harvey asked quizzically

'Who knows, he disappeared for a bit when we were messing around in the woods, probably chasing his shadow again'.

The boy's entered the house to be greeted by the smell of mums nasty smelling air freshener which she seemed to like but Harvey thought the smelt like old wet dog and sweaty feet,

'She's put them air freshener thingy’s out again!!!' Harvey moaned as he walked in holding his nose,

'Quick get the windows open Dan…', and with that Harvey launched the air fresheners into the front garden through the open front door, even Bucksy didn't dare enter the house as they were so strong, he went and hid at the end of the porch until the smell had gone.

Eventually Bucksy sneaked into the house and plonked himself down on the cold floor behind the boys who were thinking of what to do with the rest of the day.

'So what are we going to do then Dan?? Said Harvey,

'Well I think first get some food as I'm starving here, feel like I'm wasting away!!' laughed Daniel as he grabbed at his stomach in a way to suggest he was in pain, 'Come on Harv let's go see what's in your cupboar……..',

But before he could finish his sentence Daniel started sniffing the air and then a look of sheer horror spread across his face,

'Oh my god, what's that smell??, It smells like nasty old shoes mixed with rotten eggs and cabbage!!!',

Harvey then started to screw his face up as the awful smell slipped deep into the back of his nostrils’

'Urrgh, that's awful!!!. Was that you?' Harvey quizzically asked Daniel

'No it blooming well wasn't!!....' He replied