Category: friendship

Causing Chaos Two

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The boys hid in the reeds watching through the mist. They were pretty certain the hunters had gone, but there was no guarantee that they would not return.

‘So what’s the plan?’

‘We need to get the shotgun cartridges.’

‘How do we know where they are?’

‘We don’t that’s why we have to go and have a look.’

‘So they might not even be in the hut, they could have taken them with them.’

Joseph and Andrew had been set another task, this time however it wasn’t part of the initiation it was part of what they did, causing chaos. Out on the lake there were a series of huts on stilts for the duck hunters. The lake wasn’t fenced so the boys could get to the hut without ‘trespassing’, but out in the open, on the lake, there was a high possibility of being spotted and perhaps shot at, deliberately or by accident.

‘Why do we need the cartridges anyway?’

‘Look it’s not our job to ask questions, you have to wait a few years before you can ask questions. Robin will have a plan.’

‘You think he has a gun?’ Joseph asked, Andrew paused letting the words bounce around in his head.

‘I don’t know’ he answered honestly, thinking about the repercussions of getting shot gun cartridges for a real gun. ‘That’s not for thinking abut now, we got to get what we have been told to get and then… Well then we think about the next…’ He trailed off.

Joseph frowned unsatisfied by the answer, but wasn’t brave enough to challenge any more. ‘Shall we swim?’

The boys took off their shirts, trousers and lowered themselves into the water. It was August, but the lake was still cold, the cold ran through their bodies as they tiptoed into the water, clay oozing up in-between their toes. Taking one last breath Andrew lowered his chest into the water and started swimming. Quietly Joseph followed.

It didn’t take them long to arrive at the hut, they circled the building weaving in and out of the pillars in the water looking for some steps up. The poles were slippery, coated in green slime, but at the back Joseph found some steps, he beckoned to Andrew and they hauled themselves onto the platform.

Shivering the two boys scanned the lake’s perimeter, the mist was thick and their movements seemed to have gone unnoticed. Andrew knelt down by the entrance, pressing his ear to the door checking for signs of activity inside. Joseph flicked his head toward Andrew as if to ask if he could hear anything. Andrew shook his head in response, stood clasped the handle, paused, twisted and burst into the room.

It was empty, well, uninhabited at least. There was a sigh of relief and the boys set to work looking for shotgun cartridges.

‘Anything?’ Joesph asked

‘It’s all fishing stuff, bait, rods, tins of meat, look at this’ Andrew held up a tin of smoked sardines, ‘this box is full, I think whoever comes here has a bit of an addiction. You?’

‘Nope, petrol cans, blankets and cooking stuff.’

‘Any shot guns?’ The boys laughed. ‘Joe hold on, come here.’ Andrew had pulled back an old tarpaulin revealing a crate. Joseph crossed the room.

‘What you got?’

‘Shot gun cartridges’ Andrew replied looking at his mate and then back to a red box with ammunition written on it and a drawing of shot gun cartridges. Joseph reached down picked it up and opened the lid.

‘Lara croft?’

Debate

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‘Watch them closely… and listen it’s a very interesting form of communication’

Jeremy was teaching his favourite class showing footage from the beginning of the digital age, it was a time when the power of internal conflict was not fully understood but was being used very effectively.

‘But it doesn’t make us any money’ Sasha demanded while pointing adamantly at the pool of ideas spread out across the table. ‘We need to focus on the sales in the bar.’

‘But it draws people into the bar in the first place, without the events we don’t attract as many people’

‘We do, the climbing attracts the people and we don’t have to have any investment in that, it’s here already’

Elizabeth laughed, but it was a sarcastic laugh, meant to impose her intellect. ‘We have invested thousands in the climbing’

‘And made money back’ Bernard added smartly.

‘Yea but times are changing.’ A row was simmering.

Jeremy stopped the tape and turned back to the class. ‘Okay can anyone tell me what what’s going on?’

Lucy raised her hand, ‘Yes Lucy’

‘Well the Co-op has made it’s money from the the climbers coming to the village and Elizabeth wants to diversify but Bernard thinks she is just spending the money made from the climbers on her own arts events.’

‘Great that is what’s happening on the face of things, but what is going on internally?’ The class took a collective breath, some bums shuffled in seats the eyes turned away from the professor back to their tablets. ‘Shall I continue?’ The class nodded in unison, Jeremy pressed play.

‘The main reason people keep coming back is not because of the climbing, it’s because of the people.’

‘You mean the climbers’

‘Shut up Bernard, stop being such a pig headed fool. The community is what makes it, you admit yourself that the parties and the bar create a cool atmosphere in the village.’

Bernard was quiet he agreed with her but wasn’t about to admit it. He just wanted more routes.

Elizabeth continued ‘If we want to keep the profits in the bar, we need to keep our audience hungry.’

Jeremy paused the tape again. ‘Okay internal conflict anyone?’

John raised his hand ‘The more they eat in the bar the more money they make?’ The class burst into laughter.

‘Very amusing John, can anyone expand on John’s words of wisdom?’

Joe put up his hand

‘Yes Joe’

‘Elizabeth wants the knowlege of the experiences in the bar to act like the social media frameworks.’

‘Good, quickly explain the social framework’

Joe paused for a moment… ‘You keep your audience by showing ‘the hero avatar’. Posts show your best life, so followers buy into you.’

‘Good so how is that playing out here?’

‘I am not sure if they are doing it digitally yet, but Elizabeth wants the the public to know about parties and art as the hero avatar. Perhaps she believes the diversification is more of a hook than just climbing.’

‘Okay good, that sounds like a hungry audience and what about the internal conflict? Yes Lucy.’

‘There are two, Bernards refusal to believe in Elizabeth’s art community makes her more adamant that it is right, Bernard effectively keeps her hungry. And the people coming to the village see or hear about the parties and climbing and want to be part of it.’

‘Great so what do we call that?’

The class answered in unison, ‘positive internal conflict and negative internal conflict.’

Causing Chaos

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‘So you want to be one of us?’ Robin announced after a long hiatus, Joseph nodded in reply. ‘Well it’s not that easy you know…’ Joseph didn’t flinch, kept control of his emotions and looked back into Robin’s eyes, not too fiercely, but enough to show he could stand his ground.

‘We can test him first’ Andrew chimed in.

‘Of course we’re gonna test him, everyone gets tested.’ Andrew looked away sheepishly. ‘You think you are up for that?’ he added talking to the new recruit.

Joseph looked up from the floor and nodded, ‘I am fast, what do I have to do?’

The crew nodded at each other. The boys were all sitting in the attic of the ruin at the top of the village, they had transformed it into a base for their crew and met each weekend to organise their next mission. Today was the induction of a new lad, Joseph, who had just arrived in town.

There was some chatter between the crew and after a few moments Joseph turned to the new boy.

‘Okay listen and listen good, I am only gonna say this once.’ Silence fell around the room. ‘First we gonna blindfold you and take you to the centre of town, you gotta find Mr Finlay’s shop and get into the attic, I’ll give you a clue, there is an old fire escape at the back, it’s not solid but if you are quick you’ll get up it.’ The boys all looked at each other, sly smiles emerging on their faces. ‘Then once you are up there you gotta open one of his old chests, I ain’t gonna tell which one you gotta go for, but you gotta find a skull, the bigger the better.’ Robin paused and signalled around the room with his eyes.

Joseph followed his gaze and saw seven or eight large unidentified skulls hanging on a rope high in the room. He hadn’t noticed them before. Robin continued.

‘Once you got the skull you gotta make you way through the alley ways and back to us, but watch out there maybe a few extra challenges on the way.’

Home

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They had been walking through the night and were tired, not only from the lack of sleep, but from the mental fatigue. Hopping from shadow to shadow had taken its toll and the two of them were ready to rest their eyes.

They had followed the gorge for the last few hours and as they rounded the bend they saw the entrance to the cave. James stopped turned to Tom and lowered his hand gently to the floor. Understanding the instruction Tom sank to the ground and crawled on his belly to the rock that James was using for cover.

James pointed at his eyes with a forked fore and middle finger and then pointed at the cave. At the entrance stood a fridge, some chairs stacked on top of each other, what looked like an electricity cable running to the apex of the roof and a beautifully tiled floor.

Tom shook his head and they shrank to the the ground and onto their backs staring up at the stars in the sky.

‘No way’ Tom said

‘I am shattered mate, I can’t keep going and the sun will come up soon, then what?’

‘It’s too dangerous, look at it people live there, it’s not like some abandoned goat shelter, people look like they have made a home there.’

‘Well what do you suggest then? We just keep walking until the sun comes up and we collapse on the road!’

‘James’ Tom said sternly ‘I am not trying to be shitty I am as tired as you are, but you heard what they said about bandits on this road, that, over there looks like bandit territory.’

‘Remember that sign we saw yesterday, with the shot gun holes in it.’ James rocked his head sideways in agreement, ‘well I for one don’t want to be used for target practice.’

James sighed and the pair turned from their eyes from sky back down to the cave.

‘Okay, well I am gonna sleep here then, I can’t go on anymore, you can take first watch.’

There was a loud crack like a stick being broken, then the sound of rocks falling towards them. James and Tom both sat up straight fatigue vanishing in an instance.

‘Were you asleep?’ James blurted out

‘No… yea… I don’t know.’ Tom replied panicking

‘For F*** Sake!’

More stones tumbled towards them and then a deep voice from above. What was shouted they could not comprehend, but they didn’t wait for the translation. The two boys leapt up and bolted down the mountain side. Slipping and sliding, hopping, jumping and falling they scrambled towards the cave. A shot rang out behind them.

‘Which way?’ Tom called out.

‘The cave’ James replied

Crack! another shot rang out

‘No way, the gorge, go downstream. We gotta get to the river. Go go go…’

The Bits In-between

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‘It’s pretty isn’t it?’ Clara said to Joe

Joe sat there staring at the lampposts not really thinking about the question.

‘The reflection, it’s pretty isn’t it?’ Clara reiterated just in case Joe hadn’t heard.

‘Yes’ Joe replied softly and then took his eyes from the water and looked at Clara, his heartbeat accelerating. He wanted to kiss her, he wanted to say something cheesy like not as pretty as you , but his throat was dry and he could only muster a low grunt. He cursed at himself cleared his throat and looked back at the ocean. Silence returned.

‘My father always said that good art should make your eye race around the image, following the lines. It’s a bit like a painting really isn’t it?’

Joe didn’t know what to say, he felt so awkward, why did he feel so uncomfortable? They were never uncomfortable, they were always together having fun, but now, now he realised he wanted to kiss her it was different, what if she didn’t want to kiss him? That would kill him, best not to try, he coached himself.

‘I like that, my eyes are definitely running around the lines.’ He cursed himself again, what was he talking about. His words sounded so stupid, just think normally, speak normally.

‘Hmmm’ Clara murmured an air of disapproval in her tone.

Joe leant back defeated, but as he placed his hand in the sand to support himself if fell on Clara’s. He flinched, but she did not withdraw, his heart sped up, their fingers interlocked, his breath quickened. Their palms twisted together and their eyes met. He sucked in some air and leant towards her. Their faces were now close he could feel her breath on on his cheek, their breathing accelerated and harmonised, their lips met, discomfort gone.