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Harry Keogh felt the warh the open classroomHe knew the solid, near-indestructible feel of a school bench under his thighs, its surface polished by tens of thousands of bottoressive hum of a tiny wasp on its tour of inspection of his inkwell, ruler, pencils, the dahlias in a vase on theledge But all of these things lay on the periphery of his consciousness, little round static He are of the in his chest - ha far too quickly and loudly for an arithust The real world was there, all right - real as the occasional breath of breeze fanning his cheek from the open- and yet Harry craved air no less than a drowningwoman
And the sun could not warled under the ice, and the wasp’s buzzing was alle and slosh of icy water and the burble of bubbles fro jaws! Darkness below, frozen mud and weeds; and above -
A sheet of ice, inches thick, and soh - but where? Fight the river’s rush! Kick against it and swim, swim! Think of Harry, little Harry You have to live for him For his sake For Harry
There! There! Thank God for the hole! - oh, thank God!
Clawing at the rilass And heaven-sent hands co to move oh so slowly - al hands, hairy A ring on the second finger of the right hand A cat’s-eye stone set in thick gold Aup, a face all aswih the chop of wavelets and the liquid flurry of water And through the ice, his frosty outline kneeling at the ri hands, and he’ll lift you out like a baby And he’ll shake you till you’re dry for frightening hirasp at the hands - kick against the river’s rush Fight, fight! Fight for Harry
There! You’ve got the hands! Grip tight! Hold on! Try to lift your head up through the hole and breathe, breathe!
But the hands are pushing you down!
Seen through the water the face wobbles, shifting and changing The treri on You screa air
Cling to the ice Forget the hands, the cruel hands that continue to hold you down Just grab at the ririp They thrust you away, under the ice They ht the cold and the river and the hands Blackness is roaring down on you In your lungs, in your head, in your eyes Stick your long fingernails into the hands, claw at the comes loose, spirals down into the ainst the ulti - blood froht left in you Waterlogged, you sink The current drags you along the bottoer care Except you care for Harry Poor little
Harry! Who’ll care for him now? Who’ll look after HarryHarryHarry - ?
’Harry? Harry Keogh? Christ, boy! - are you here at all?’
Harry felt the elbow of his pal Ji hi hi voice crashing in on his eardruht on his bench, gulped again at the air, thrust his hand up foolishly, as if in response to some question or other It was an automatic reaction: if you were quick off the mark the teacher knew you knew the answer and he’d ask someone else Except sometimes it didn’t work out that way, teachers didn’t always fall for it And Hannant, the maths teacher - he was nobody’s fool
Gone now the sensation of drowning; gone utterly the bitter cold of the water, the pitiless torture of thrusting, brutally inhuhtmare - or, more properly, the daydream By comparison the newer situation was a mere trifle Or was it?
Harry was suddenly aware of a classroo at hilaring at hi with?
He glanced at the blackboard Oh, yes! Formulae - areas and properties of circles - the Constant Factor (?) - diah! It was all pi to Harry Pie in the sky But what had been Hannant’s question? Had he even asked a question?
White-faced now, Harry peered about the classroom His was the only hand in the air Slowly he drew it down Beside hi to hide it Normally that would have been sufficient to set Harry off, too, but with the ht- or day- it off
’Well?’ Hannant demanded
’Sir?’ Harry queried ’Er, could you repeat the question?’
Hannant sighed, closed his eyes, rested his great knuckles on his desk and leaned his stocky body on his straight arh for the class to hear hi his eyes, he said: The question was, are you here at all?’
’Me, sir?’
’God, yes, Harry Keogh! Yes, you!’
’Why, yes sir!’ Harry tried not to act too innocent It looked like he et aith it - or would he? ’But there was this wasp, sir, and - ’
’My other question,’ Hannant cut him short, ’my first question - the one that made me suspect perhaps you weren’t with us - was this: what is the relationship between the diameter of a circle and pi? I take it that’s the one you wanted to answer? The one you had your hand up for? Or were you swatting flies?’
Harry felt a flush riding up his neck Pi? Diaety; soustedly, probably the bully, Stanley Green - the pushy, big-headed, swotty slob! The trouble with Stanley was that he was clever and bigWhat was the question again? But what difference did it make without the answer?
Jimmy Collins looked down at his desk, ostensibly at a work book there, and whispered out of the corner of his mouth: ’Three times!’
Three times? What did that mean?
’Well?’ Hannant knew he had him
’Er, three ti him on’- Sir’
The htened up He snorted, frowned, seemed a little puzzled But then he said, ’No! - but it was a good try As far as it goes Not three times but three point one four one five nine times Ah! But times what?’
’The diameter,’ Jimmy whispered ’Equals circumfer­ence’
’D-diameter!’ Harry stuttered ’Equals, er, circue Hannant stared hard at Harry He saw a boy, thirteen years old; sandy haired; freckled; in a crumpled school unifor, askew, its end fraying; and prescription spectacles balanced on a stub of a nose, behind which dreaazed out in a sort of perpetual appre­ hension Pitiful? No, not that; Harry Keogh could take his lumps, and dish theet through to Hannant suspected there was a pretty good brain in there, some­where behind that haunted face If only it could be prodded into life!
Stir him out of hi to think about in this world, instead of that other place he kept slipping off into? Maybe ’Harry Keogh, I’ether sure that ansas yours in its entirety Collins is sitting too close to you and looking too disinterested forSoat the end of this chapter in your book you’ll find ten questions Three of ’em concern themselves with surface areas of circles and cylinders I want the answers to those three here on ht?’
Harry hung his head and bit his lip ’Yes, sir’
’So look at me Look at me, boy!’
Harry looked up And now he did look pitiful But no good going back now ’Harry,’ Hannant sighed, ’you’re a mess! I’ve spoken to the otherIf you don’t wake up, son, you’ll be leaving school without a single qualification Oh, there’s ti - a couple of years, anyway But only if you get down to it right now The ho to point you in the right direction’
He looked towards the back of the class, to where Stanley Green was still sniggering and hiding his face behind a hand that scratched his forehead ’As for you, Green - for you it is punishment, you obnoxious wart! You can do the other seven!’
The rest of the class tried hard not to show its approval - dared not, for Big Stanley would surely make them pay for it if they did - but Hannant saw it anyway That was good He didn’tseen as a sod, but far better to be a sod with a sense of justice
’But sir - !’ Green started to his feet, his voice already beginning to rise in protest
’Shut up!’ Hannant told him sharply ’And sit down!’ And then - as the bully subsided with a loud huh! ’Right, what’s next?’ He glanced at the afternoon’s progralass on top of his desk ’Oh, yes - stone collecting on the beach Good! A bit of fresh airup Then you can go - but in an orderly manner!’ (As if they’d take any notice of that!)
But - before they could co, desk-sla horde - ’Wait! You s here The ain after you’ve brought your stones back fros, then he’ll lock up again Who is the monitor this week?’ ’Sir!’ Jimmy Collins stuck up his hand ’Oh?’ said Hannant, raising thick eyebrows, but not at all surprised really ’Going up in the world, are we, Jiainst Blackhills on Saturday, sir,’ said Jimmy with pride
Hannant smiled, if only to himself Oh, yes, that would do it Jamieson, the headmaster, was a fool for football - indeed for all sports A healthy ood head
The boys were exiting now, Green elbowing his way through the crush, looking surlier than ever, with Keogh and Collins bringing up the rear; the two of them, for all their differences, inseparable as Siamese twins And as he’d known they would, they stood at the door waiting ’Well?’ Hannant asked
’Waiting for you, sir,’ said Collins ’So I can lock up’ ’Oh, is that so?’ Hannant aped the boy’s breeziness ’And we’ll just leave all the s open, e?’
As the two carinned, packed his briefcase, did up the top button of his shirt and straightened his tie - and still got out into the corridor before they were through Then Collins turned the key in the lock and they were off - brushing past hi they’d catch so feet
Maths? Hannant thought, watching theh the square beaht from the s What the hell’s maths? Star Trek on the telly and a stack of brand new Marvel coent’s - and I expect them to study numbers! God! And just wait another year or so, till they start to notice those funny luain: Maths? Hopeless!
He grinned, however ruefully Lord, how he envied them!
Harden Modern Boys’ was a secondaryto the budding reat deal: most of the boys would become miners or employees of the Coal Board anyway, like their fathers and older brothers before theh the her education at acade towns
Originally a cluster of two-storey Coal Board offices, the school had been given a face-lift soe’s population had suddenly grown to acco behind loalls just a mile from the shore to the east and half that distance from the mine itself to the north, the plain old bricks of the place and the square s see with its prosperous self-help gardens, a cold severity not at all reflected in its staff No, for all in all they were a good, hard-working bunch And headmaster Howard Jamieson BA, a staunch sur­vivor of ’the Old School’, saw to it that they stayed that way
The weekly stone-gathering expedition served three purposes One: it got all the kids out in the fresh air, allowing those teachers with a predilection for nature-ra a rare chance to turn the minds of their wards towards Nature’s wonders Two: it provided gratis rounds of the school, gradually replacing the old fences and trellises, a project which naturally bore the head’s stamp of approval Three: it et away froes in the care of the dedicated ramblers
The idea was this: that all the pupils employ Tuesday’s last period to walk a mile down leafy country lanes to the beach, there to collect up large, flat, rounded stones, of which there were plenty, and to carry the the way one y Corps) and two of the school’s younger, unattached feerows, the wonders of the wild flowers and the countryside in general None of which was of any real interest to Harry Keogh; but he did like the beach, and anything was better than a classroo afternoon
’Here,’ said Jimmy Collins to Harry as they strolled, two abreast, h the paths of the dene winding to the sea, ’you really ought to pay attention to old Hannant, you know Iqualifications" stuff -that’s up to you - but during lessons generally He’s not a bad ’un, old George, but he could be if he decided you were just taking the ed dejectedly ’I was daydrea,’ he said ’Actually, it’s sort of funny See, when I daydream like that, it’s like I can’t stop Only old Hannant shouting - and you giving me a jab - pulledhands reaching down into the water to pull me out, or push me under?
Jimmy nodded ’I’ve seen you like it before, lots of tioes sort of funny’ He looked serious for a ave Harry a playful thu deal - your face is funny all the time!’
Harry snorted ’Listen who’s talking! Me, funny-look­ ing? I’d play Kirk to your Spock any time! Anyhat do you mean? I mean, how do I look, you know, funny?’
’Well, you just sit very still, all stary-eyed, scared- looking But not always Sometimes you look a bit dreae said: you just don’t seem to be here at all Actually, you’re very weird! I ot?’
’I’ve got you,’ Harry feebly protested He knehat Jimmy meant: he was too deep, too quiet But not studious, not a swot If he’d been good at lessons, that would perhaps explain it, but he wasn’t Oh, he was clever enough (at least he felt he could be clever) if he wanted to concentrate on it It was just that he found concentration very hard It was as if soht weren’t really his at all Cohts and daydreams, fancies and phantasms His mind made up stories for him - whether he wanted it to or not - but stories so detailed they were like memories The memories of other people People eren’t here any more As if his head was an echo-chaone soot ht ’And who else?’
Harry shrugged, went on the defensive ’There’s Brenda,’ he said ’And and anyho needs lot of friends? I don’t If people want to be friendly they’ll be friendly If they don’t, well that’s up to thenored the rande passion who lived in the sa hiht with his arhts went up ’You’ve got mer he said ’And that’s it As for why I like you -1 just dunno’
’Because we don’t compete,’ said Harry, shrewder than his years ’I don’t understand sport, so you enjoy explaining it to ue And you don’t understandso, well, quiet - ’
’And weird,’ Ji’
’But wouldn’t you like hed ’Well, see, it’s like I have friends Up in inary friends!’ Jimmy scoffed, but not unkindly
’No, they’re ood friends, too Of course they areI’ot!’
’Huh!’ Jiht!’
Way up at the head of the colueant’ Graha to hasten on the double rank of kids behind him This was the narrow mouth of the dene, also the h the sea cliffs To north and south those cliffs now rose, le, and banded with rounded stones; and here the streae Beyond lay a reedy, weedy h tides or story area towards the sandy beach; and beyond that, there lay the grey North Sea, growing greyer every day with debris froht, flecked white here and there by the spray of diving gulls where they fished
’Right!’ Lane called loudly, standing arms akimbo and very much The Man, in his track-suit bottoo, over the bridge, round the lake and on to the beach Find your stones and bring ’e We’ve a good half hour, so anyone who fancies can have a quick dip as soon as he’s found his stone - if you’ve got your costu if you please, remember there are other people on the beach And stick to the pools left by the sea You all knohat the current’s like just here, you young buggers!’
They knew, all right: the current was treacherous, especially on an ebb tide People were drowned up and down this coast every year, strong swiious Instruction and Geography - fro the coluround instructions She gave a little grirade the stones: it was to allow Lane and Dorothy Hartley a bit of freedo the rocks and find themselves a spot for a quick hump! Purely physical, of course, for their minds were totally incompatible
Miss Gower tilted her nose and sniffed loudly; and now, as the pace of the kids towards the front began to speed up, she called out: ’All right, boys - hurry along And reood razor-shells for the natural history rooether if you can find thethe path under the trees, where the rear was brought up by Miss Hartley and the lish and History classes, Stanley Green trudged, hands in pockets, his clever but vicious hts of violence He had heard Miss Gower’s memo to the kids: no dead shellfish No, but he’d like to fix it for a dead ’Speccy’ Keogh! Well, maybe not dead, but severely mauled It was that dumb kid’s fault he had thosethere like a zo Stanley would open his eyes for hih - or close them!
’Hands out of your pockets, Stanley,’ pretty Miss Hartley said from behind him ’It’s five h for snow And why the hunched shoulders? Is so you?’
’No, Miss,’ he mumbled in answer, his head down
’Try to enjoy, Stanley,’ she told hi, but if you keep on taking your spite out on the entire world you’ll get old very, very quickly’ And to herself she added, like that frustrated bitch, Gertrude Gower!
Harry Keogh was not a natural born voyeur, just a curious boy Last Tuesday down here on the beach he’d stuain today That hy, after he delivered up his stone to Miss Gower, he checked that no one atching him and cut away across the dunes and round towards the other side of the reedy marsh It was only a little more than a hundred yards, but in half that distance he’d already picked up fresh footprints in the sand A man’s and a woeant’ and Miss Hartley heading this way, as he’d suspected they otten’ his bathing briefs; this had left him free to pursue his own interests, for Jione off to sith the rest of the boys What Harry was looking for was si next to Brenda in the cineainst hers (or, when she leaned close to hi her upper arh her coat and ju, but it seeaot up to!
Finally, co on a patch of sand within a semicircle of tall reeds - the same spot where he’d seen them last week Harry backtracked and quickly chose a place at the crest of another dune where he could lie down and peer through a clu with ’Sergeant’s’ thing, whose size Harry had found extraordinary Her sweater had been up and ’Sergeant’ had had one hand up her skirt while the other fondled and tugged at her fire- nippled breasts When he’d come, she had taken a handkerchief and delicately soaked up the glistening semen from his belly and chest Then she’d kissed hi - actually kissed hiht while he just lay there like a deadthat to him, but the picture just wouldn’t develop in his mind It was too alien
This ti to be what Harry really wanted to see By the tieant’ had his track-suit bottoht off and Miss Hartley’s short white, pleated tennis skirt up around her waist He was trying to get her knickers off, and his thing - even bigger than last week, if that was at all possible - was jerking about on its own like a puppet on so