I mostly kept bad things from Kenny, but that was when I thought there was no point making him worried or sad. Now I had to let him know that we were in trouble.

And then I heard Tina barking again. She was still at the top of the cliff, going frantic. And then the barking stopped and I heard her small feet scrabbling at the cliff.

“Kenny,” I said. “I think Tina’s going to—”

But she already had. Somehow, she had found a way down, with no more fuss than if she’d just run down the stairs at home.

She came up to my face and sniffed, and then went to my legs and sniffed again. And then she came beside me, turned around and lay down, her body warm against me.

Twelve

Twelve

So there we were, the three of us, by the side of the stream that had turned into a river, raging with white water, in the near dark, in the middle of absolutely nowhere. And I hurt so much I thought I was going to vomit.

“You look … not good,” Kenny said.

“Why did you come down, Kenny?” I groaned after a couple of seconds – seconds I spent trying not to scream.

“I couldn’t leave you here on your own,” Kenny replied. “What would Dad say?”

I was still lying twisted on the rocks. I managed to sit up, but the pain made me whine and whimper like a whipped dog. It was even darker down here, almost full‑night, so I could hardly see Kenny.

“Kenny, you need to go and get help,” I finally gasped.

“No! I’ll help you. We can … I’ll carry you! It’ll be a piece of piss. Dad says he’s done farts that weigh more than you do.”

That made me laugh – I remembered Dad saying it when he swung me round as a kid. I couldn’t believe that Kenny remembered it, too. It’s funny what stuck in his head. But my laugh turned into a spluttering cough as the pain surged and raged again.

“You can’t carry me, Kenny. I’m bigger now, and my legs hurt too much. You’ve got to climb back up there. Can you do it?”

Kenny looked back up the side of the gorge. “I can try, but it’s very slidy,” he said. “You can slide down, but you can’t slide up.”

“Have a go,” I said. “You’ve got to be like Spiderman. But be careful. Then get to the road, fast as you can, and wave down a car. It’s the countryside. People are nice. They’ll stop. Tell them what’s happened. Tell them they need to call for help. Police and ambulance.”

“But I don’t want to leave you by yourself.”

“I’ve got Tina for company.”