Read Online Shoes for Anthony by Emma Kennedy - Free Book Online Page B

over me. Ade and the others were jumping and cheering. I instinctively flinched as if I would get caught up in the wheels like a mouse picked off by the kite, adrenalin coursing through me, and in a heartbeat, it was gone, flying away over the valley to join the formation and find its prey in other lands: beautiful, graceful, deadly.
    â€˜
Wish me luck as you wave me goodbye!
’ sang Bozo, jumping up and down.
    â€˜
Cheerio, here I go on my way!
’ we all sang out, exhilarated.
    The lone Mosquito cut across the sky, leaving plumes of billowing clouds in its trail. Ripples, murmurs, then gone, swallowed into the black.
    â€˜That,’ said Ade, his eyes wide and staring, ‘is the toppest thing that’s ever happened in the whole of my life.’
    And as we stared after it, the smell of aviation fuel in our nostrils, I knew, more than ever, that I never wanted the war to end.
    â€˜What time do you call this?’ said Bopa, as I slumped onto the floor in front of the fire. ‘What did I tell you, Em? Feral.’
    â€˜I heard about you boys mucking up the Home Guard tonight,’ said Mam. ‘Emrys is fuming.’
    â€˜Where is he?’ I said, half getting up to avoid a clouting.
    â€˜Up the waterworks, on bivouac,’ said Alwyn, who was sitting polishing a pair of shoes. ‘If you’re lucky, he might have forgotten when he comes back tomorrow. I doubt it, though. Best stick a book down the back of your pants.’
    Bethan appeared in the doorway into the kitchen. She was carrying a tray with a teapot and a few mugs. ‘Gonna listen to
Appointment with Fear
, Ant?’ she said, placing the tray down. ‘It’s starting in a minute.’
    â€˜Oh, I hate that show,’ said Bopa, ‘gives me the willies. I don’t think it’s right or natural to be so obsessed with dark matters. It’s positively ghoulish.’
    Father, who was sitting in his armchair reading a paper, took out his pocket watch and looked at the time. ‘Turn the wireless on, boy.’
    I got up. The wireless was set high on a set of drawers. It was an old one, saved after a clear-out from another neighbour who’d died. Her daughter already had a wireless, so she’d given it to Mam. ‘A Mosquito went right over our heads up by the Big Stone, Father,’ I said, switching it on. ‘Not high up. Right low, like. Almost so you could touch it.’
    â€˜Oh,
newl
,’ said Alwyn, curling his lip. ‘You’re making that up.’
    â€˜Am not. Right over the top of us. Came from nowhere.’ I stood, waiting for Father to respond, but he didn’t lift his eyes from the paper.
    â€˜Came from nowhere? Like someone else, eh, Bethan?’ Bopa shot my sister a knowing look.
    â€˜The front of him,’ said Mam, unpicking wool from an old jumper. ‘Coming round here after what he did.’
    â€˜He’s got some brass,’ said Bopa, folding her arms. ‘I’ll give him that. You need to mind yourself, Bethan. You’re not stepping out. The wolves will gather until you pick a beau. Mark my words.’
    I looked over towards Bethan. Her cheeks were flushing. Behind me, lone bells began to sound. ‘
Appointment with Fear
,’ said a low, sonorous voice. ‘
This is your storyteller. The Man in Black. Here again to bring you another … placid evening.
’
    â€˜Ugh,’ said Bopa. ‘Let’s sit in the back kitchen. I can’t bear to listen to it. Gives me chills. I went round to Anne Evans. Found out everything. Come on, we can have another brew.’
    Mam stood up and followed her.
    â€˜Turn the lights down, Ant,’ said Alwyn. ‘All spooky, like.’
    I reached over Mam’s chair and turned down the gas lamp that was on the table next to it, so that the only light in the room came from the flickering embers in the hearth.
    â€˜
Loss of memory
,’ the voice rang out. ‘
The