Reflections

"Can't you see it, Jonny?" she pleaded, as Jonathan looked closer into the water. Ready to dismiss this as a childish prank, he suddenly noticed something out of the corner of his eye, or at least thought for a moment that he had. But as he stared down at the surface of the gushing stream, the rain came down even heavier and the image in the water disappeared into bubbles. He started laughing then and moved closer to Sarah who was already starting to feel disappointed that he had not confirmed her sighting.

"Oh Sarah, you silly girl, it was only your own reflection in the ripply water that you saw." Jonathan looked again into the stream and just for a split second, thought that he saw three reflections in the distorted surface of the water. Rubbing his eyes, he turned away from the stream and said nothing of his suspicion to Sarah. They both left the bridge and started running back towards the farmhouse, already quite soaked from the continuing rain that had spoiled yet another day.

That night, stars were visible in parts of the blackened sky, and Jonathan had a plan. He had been awake on his bed for hours with a succession of peculiar visions of the image he had thought he had seen in the turbulent waters of the stream earlier in the day, flooding through his mind. Finally, he decided that he really couldn't have seen anything except his and Sarah's reflections and dismissed the incident, for the time being at least.

Instead, he returned to mulling over an idea that he had hatched the previous day that would enable him to get into the carnival, in spite of his Uncle's wishes. Not being over confident that his plan would succeed, he decided to wait longer than was really necessary, to guarantee that his guardians were well asleep.

When he had decided that the time was right, he lifted himself carefully out of the pre-war bed (that always creaked like a cellar door from a Hammer horror movie at the slightest movement) as quietly as he possibly could.

He thought back to the time when he was seven years old; the cold night when he tried to run away from home after being punished quite severely for hiding a live frog in his teacher's lunch box. In his mind's eye he could see the events as clear as day: his mother standing above him with a cane stick, striking him each time she believed he lied about the frog incident. And no, he didn't know that Mrs Sunderland had a heart complaint; and yes, of course he was sorry that she was in hospital.

Remembering also, how Billy Robinson had said he would get him. Billy, walking out of the Headmasters office with that evil smirk on his face and Jonathan knowing that he had been blamed for the incident; knowing too, that he would have to carry the blame in spite of his innocence. After all, Billy was Billy and there was still too many years of school to come. What else could he have done?

He subconsciously rubbed the scars on his buttocks as he tried to put all the unsavoury memories to the back of his mind. This time it would be his idea and he was prepared to suffer the consequences. Jonathan reasoned that if his parents thought he was bad, then why not balance the books?

In the daggers of occasional moonlight that penetrated the clouds, Jonathan quickly dressed, steeling himself for what he had decided to do.

He was still zipping his parka when he left his room and crept into the next to awaken his sister. Sarah, being two years younger than her brother, didn't appreciate being woken up in the middle of the night.