We Fight Dragons (Volume 1, Chapter 4) 'Huzzah!'
The next morning, Jam woke feeling a lot better. Mum was in the kitchen and Jam wandered over to her with bleary-eyes and gave her a hug, and they touched foreheads for a moment.
‘Morning, sleepy-head. Eggs and spinach are ready. There were only a couple of strawberries left in the garden…’ she paused to look at him with a raised eyebrow, ‘I think the snails got into them yesterday?’ It was a question, not a statement.
‘Yeah, sorry Mum. I get hungry at school.’
‘I understand. You’re growing fast. Next time please let me know if you take the last ones, so I can replant and buy some from the shops.’
Jam was eating eggs and spinach when Dad came to breakfast wearing his overalls and the leather belt with his stone-cutting tools. Dad and Mum touched foreheads for a moment and Dad stole the opportunity to kiss Mum playfully on both cheeks. Then he roughed up Jam’s hair and the two of them touched foreheads.
‘I have to go two towns across for a job,’ Dad explained. ‘Likely won’t be back until after dark. So you look after your mother, alright? Anything she needs done.’ Jam nodded with a mouthful of egg. ‘What about you? Got a busy day?’
Jam hurriedly swallowed. ‘Um, it’s a Tuesday so we have morning-class, then English and Writing until lunch, and then sport in the afternoon.’
‘Sounds fun. Anyway… how is your hand?’ Both parents looked his way, discretely enough that Jam didn’t notice.
‘Um, feeling better.’ Jam checked it out. ‘Looks fine.’ He didn’t think that it was unusual for such a serious injury to heal so quickly.
After breakfast Mum and Dad offered Jam a lift to school, but he decided to walk so that he could catch up with his friends. He spotted them at their regular place on the main street, up from the train station. As he joined the group he slapped right-hands with each of them, how they often saw their fathers do.
Everyone was keen to know if Jam had gotten into further trouble after Shirate. Jam told them that him and his dad were goign to fix it on the weekend. Jam was just glad that he didn’t have to go to the cat-lady’s house on his own.
All during Break, and well into Lunch the boys endured listening to Emma tell everyone within earshot about how she had gone to a restaurant in the city that night. Jam was starting to get exasperated about how much she was making out of it.
‘That is it! I’m sick of this. I’m going to the city!’
‘When?’ asked Oli and Zach in unison.
‘After school,’ Jam proclaimed without hesitation, although he was making everything up on the spot.
‘But… do your parents know?’ As usual, Rollo was the most concerned.
‘No. I’ll tell them I am going BMX’ing. Who’s in?’
Oli and Tobes were keen. Zach required a little persuading. Rollo took a lot of persuading, and had to be talked out of alerting their parents, but ultimately the others got him to come along by promising to be back before dark.
To seal the deal they formed a circle and put their hands in the centre, and when everyone was committed they yelled ‘Huzzah!’ They had adopted the custom after Mr Kirk had spent a whole period to explain how it had been used by a bunch of famous writers and playwrights. The girls at the school thought it was ‘weird’ but the boys still did it.
After school they split up to get their bikes. Mum was already home when Jam got there. He wolfed down the chicken sandwich that she had waiting for him, and garbled something vague about BMX riding around the fields. ‘Be home for dinner,’ was her response.
The boys rode west towards the trees that blocked the view of the motorway. They hid their bikes and carefully made their way to the train station using every possible bush and parked car along the way for cover.
They waited until the train arrived and then silently ran onto the platform, dashed into the front carriage and ducked down. Only after the town was out of sight did they break out in laughs of relief. They rarely did anything they kept secret from their parents.
They were still full of giddy excitement when the train arrived in the city. As they approached the central station the advertisements along the track announced that they were entering an exotic, metropolitan world, full of new possibilities.
Their school travel-passes got them off the platform and into the ticketing and announcements area. There were at least a hundred kids in different school uniforms milling around and catching trains home. There were newsagents, and the boys spent half an hour looking at the latest BMX magazines, eventually pooling enough money to buy one to share around. They also bought some hot potato chips and sat on one of the station seats eating and all trying to read the magazine at the same time.
Jam sat on the edge of the group. He was more interested in watching the people than in trying to catch glimpses of the magazine. He knew that he’d get a turn.
‘What uniform is that?’ he heard a girl ask from behind them. Jam turned and saw a blonde girl who was around his age. She was shadowed by a friend with dark hair who lurked beside her.
‘Um, we call it Black-and-Green. It’s a private academy.’
‘Sounds posh!’
‘Not really. The city wouldn’t build a school closer to our town, so the parents set it up. It’s mainly just for locals.' He noticed their grey and white uniforms. ‘Which school do you go to?’
‘Urbridge High,’ said the blonde girl as if he should know what that was. ‘My name is Zar. This is Mels.’ Mels nodded in agreement with her name.
‘My name is Jamie. But everyone calls me Jam.’
‘That’s a sweet name,’ Zar teased him.
‘Very funny! Never heard that before!’ Jam teased back. ‘Um, do you two catch the train together every day?’
‘Yeah, I take the south line to get here.’
‘What’s it like? School in the city? I bet it’s amazing.’
Zar was pleased that someone found her every-day so exciting. ‘It’s not bad. But what brings you to the city?’
‘Well, we… kinda snuck off… after school.’
‘Ah! So you snuck out of the house did you? I do that when I get bored.’
Jam was struggling with the concept that anyone in the city could get bored, when a rude voice interrupted them.
‘Who is this loser you’re talking to, Zar?’ asked a boy who looked as big as Tobes. He also had a couple of friends with him, and they all looked like they were a year older.
‘This is Jamie. He’s from the country.’
‘Get-lost, Jamie. You’re in my seat.’
‘Jamie, this is Niles. He can be a pig!’ exclaimed Zar. Niles ignored her.
‘I said, get-lost!’ he repeated at Jam. One of Nile’s mates grabbed and snatched the BMX magazine out of Oli’s hands. ‘Awh, look at that, you like riding little bikes do you? Must be boring in the country.’
To be threatened and bullied out of nowhere was a shock, but it only took Jam a moment to understand that Niles was trying to provoke some kind of reaction.
‘Oi!’ yelled Oli. ‘Give that back!’ In a flash he and Tobes were on their feet. The other boys were bigger and older, but Oli and Tobes were angry, and Jam joined them. Only Zach and Rollo kept sitting.
‘Niles! You’re being a prat…’ Zar tried to stand up, but Niles pushed her back down. He wasn’t trying to hurt her, but she winced as she hit the seat.
Jam heard a noise like water flooding a pipe, and it was rushing through his ears. His vision swam, and instead of seeing Niles he thought he saw a red rag flapping in the wind. The sight enraged him. The vision disappeared as quickly as it had come, but the feeling remained. He felt like he was growing bigger and stronger with each passing second.
Ignorant to any threat, Niles looked at him and taunted. ‘Yeah, what are you gonna do, you little runt?’
As if on auto-pilot, like it was a dream, Jam he took half a step forward and slammed a side kick into Niles stomach. Time stood still as he watched Niles’ body tumble through the air, and skid off the floor tiles, laying winded on the ground.
Everyone was in shocked silence until Rollo made the decision for them. ‘Lets get out of here!’
As his friends bolted for their platform, Jam snatched the BMX magazine from the hands of the thief, who took one look at Jam and threw up his hands. The boys ran past the barrier, onto their platform, and were relieved to find their train waiting to depart.
As the train pulled out of the city, the boys all looked at Jam.
‘Bloody hell!’ said Tobes. ‘That was some kick!’
Jam laughed, the tension in his body relaxing into nervous energy. His insides felt normal again.
They talked about the encounter the whole way back to Blacken Green, and in each re-telling it got slightly more exaggerated and awesome. At some point Jam wondered about what had happened to Zar and her friend.
When the train arrived at their station Jam got the shock of his life. His Dad was standing there, arms crossed, looking extremely upset.
‘Dad. How did you…’
‘No, Jam. That’s not what’s important. Tell me, are any of you hurt?’
‘No, Mr Wood,’ Rollo assured him.
‘Is anyone else hurt?’
Jam was confused. Why would Dad ask that? How could he know what had happened? Jam didn’t know how but he was sure that his Dad had an idea.
‘I… kicked this boy. But, it was because he hurt this girl, see, and…’ Jam felt his excuse going down the drain even as he spoke it.
‘Does anyone want to confirm this story? Raise your hand?’
Slowly, all of his friends raised their hands, murmuring similar justifications as they did.
‘All right then. I’m sure your parents will talk to you and say what they want to say. For now, go get your bikes and take them home.’
The bikes! Of course, Dad must have seen them!
‘Jam, ride straight home, do you understand?’
Jam nodded, too upset to find the right words.
When he got home both Mum and Dad were waiting for him, and wanted to know everything that had happened. It felt unfair.
‘But I wasn’t the one bullying people!’ Jam pleaded.
Dad sighed. ‘I know. I know. It’s hard to know when to act. It’s even harder to know how to act. I’m not saying that what you did was entirely wrong.’
‘You were in the city,’ Mum continued. ‘And if anything had happened to you we would have no way of knowing.’ Jam noticed his mother shot a quick look at his father as she said this. ‘You were already at risk… and then you took another one. David, I think we should just end the day.’
His Dad shook his head. ‘No. Not today. We can’t.’
‘Are you sure, dear?’ Mum looked disappointed.
‘I’m sure. Not today.’
Jam’s frustration got the better of him. ‘I don’t understand! And there’s something you’re not telling me. You always go on about honesty, but…’
‘Jamie!’ his Dad interrupted sternly. ‘This is not about us. This is about what you did. We are not as concerned that you went into the city, as we are with the fact that you did it without telling us. I did the same sort of things when I was your age. The problem is… that you don’t know how to control your own strength. Not yet.’
The worst thing was, Jam knew that Dad was right. He remembered the roaring in his ears before he attacked. The urge to strike out had been uncontrollable.
‘Why don’t we just have dinner then?’ Mum suggested, trying to bring a sense of calm and normality.
‘I'm not hungry!’ Jam snapped at her irritably.
‘Jamie, you know that’s unfair on me. You need time to think about where you made the wrong decisions. After school, you are grounded for a week!’ said Mum. Dad nodded, backing up Mum decisively.
Grounded! Jamie felt like lightning that had been tethered the ground, unable to escape.
Meanwhile, far away in the city, something else knew what Jam had done, and was stirring.
It had grown as it had fed for over a thousand years, and where it was once feared, it had been slowly forgotten and allowed to prosper.
That afternoon, deep in its lair, it had felt a threat that it thought had disappeared from the world...
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