Stealing the Stars

Alex entered the room, the children knew they should still be asleep, but the arrival of their Uncle the night before was too exciting and the anticipation of fun and games too much to keep their eyes closed.

‘What is going on here you little ratbags.’ Uncle Alex teased the children. There was some little giggling coming from under the duvet. ‘Are there two little thieves hiding from their Uncle under there?’ Alex moved towards the bed where two small children were hiding.

‘We not thieves’ came a muffled denial and then a head popped out, ‘you are a thief’ said Sarah

‘Yea you are a thief’ confirmed her younger brother.

‘I am not’ Uncle Alex replied before jumping on the bed to wrestle the two children. After a few minutes of rough and tumble Sarah’s brother pipped up.

‘Why did you call us thieves?’

Uncle Alex pointed to the jar by the side of the bed filled up with fairy lights. ‘Look, there is the evidence’

Sarah and her brother looked at each other puzzled.

‘You two have been stealing the stars’

Escape

They pulled off the main road and followed the maze of circular single lanes, desperate to get to the station before the last fumes of diesel burnt off. The yellow light had been glaring at them for the last 30 minutes and the relief was palatable when they saw the red Cepsa sign.

They didn’t have long, Darren jumped out of the car, pulled his hat down to cover his eyes and shouted ‘Full’ at the attendant. Half running, half walking he entered the shop to pay. Moments later he returned to see Andy starring into the middle distance.

‘What? It’s them?’ He said, there was a moment of silence between them, Darren’s heart started to beat ten to the dozen, he followed Andy’s gaze expecting to see a line of Police cars, but he could see nothing of the kind.

‘No…’ Andy said slowly… ‘Look at that fucking sunset… Wow’

Adventure Starts Early

‘It’s like fishing, you put the maggot on the hook, the fish tries to eat the maggot and gets a little surprise’

‘And then?’

‘Well, the bike is like the maggot, they will come running down the path, see the bike and then come looking for us up the hill.’

‘So we are telling them where we are, that’s stupid’

‘Well that’s what you think, but you are wrong. We will see them coming up the hill and then when they get into the boulder field we will double back and run back down the path, easy peasy.’

There was a pause as the plan settled in Joe’s mind. He nodded his head in agreement but still had questions. ‘What about the bike?’

Jacob hadn’t thought about the bike ‘ummm… the lock’s pretty solid we will come back for it later.’

‘Later.’

Crackkkk… A loud snap echoed through the forest.

‘Quick get down, they are coming.’

‘Buuuut…’

‘No buts get down.’

‘But my bike.’