Chapters (61)
- Cover
- One
- Two
- Three
- Four
- Five
- Six
- Seven
- Eight
- Nine
- Ten
- Eleven
- Twelve
- Thirteen
- Fourteen
- Fifteen
- Sixteen
- Seventeen
- Eighteen
- Nineteen
- Twenty
- Twenty-One
- Twenty-Two
- Twenty-Three
- Twenty-Four
- Twenty-Five
- Twenty-Six
- Twenty-Seven
- Twenty-Eight
- Twenty-Nine
- Thirty
- Thirty-One
- Thirty-Two
- Thirty-Three
- Thirty-Four
- Thirty-Five
- Thirty-Six
- Thirty-Seven
- Thirty-Eight
- Thirty-Nine
- Forty
- Forty-One
- Forty-Two
- Forty-Three
- Forty-Four
- Forty-Five
- Forty-Six
- Forty-Seven
- Forty-Eight
- Forty-Nine
- Fifty
- Fifty-One
- Fifty-Two
- Fifty-Three
- Fifty-Four
- Fifty-Five
- Fifty-Six
- Fifty-Seven
- Fifty-Eight
- Acknowledgements
- About the author
He could now move. The fifth former jerked like a busted rabbit when he first fell asleep. His stone eyes had seen the jerks, which were a long time ago now. His feet touched the floor, the boards were quiet beneath him, they liked him. His bed was the tenth from the door. There were four rows of twelve beds. The fifth former’s bed was on the right side of the dorm. On the left side of the dorm was the sixth former’s bed, he wasn’t there, they had exams, and without Captain Edmund they did what they wanted to. Some fifth formers had tried the same, but the sixth formers told them off, he’d seen it. He smiled as he remembered. He wondered if the fifth formers would change into sixth formers, it didn’t seem possible. If he pretended the fifth former wasn’t there as he walked past his bed, he wouldn’t wake up. It worked again. Now he just had to be silent and listen for sixth formers going to bed. He knew if he said ‘toilet’ timidly, the sixth former wouldn’t say anything, not a fifth former though, they would carry on as if you were stealing their chickens.
He reached the end of the corridor. The bursar’s office was on the right and to the left, double doors led to the bitumen paths. Outside those doors he could make it to the edge of the building and look into the quadrangle and then he could run across the gap to the administration building that held Captain Edmund’s old room. No one was allowed to go up the stairs in that building anymore. Everyone was talking about what could have happened to Captain Edmund: some said they knew, and they knew who did it; some said they knew who had the bullet but it was a secret and they couldn’t tell; and some said there wasn’t a bullet because really Captain Edmund hung himself. The best was that Captain Edmund dropped dead trying to beat the record of holding the rifle above his head while his pants were down. Some said he had put his baton up his own bum, that was the fifth former that had told the second formers that and the second formers knew that to be a lie because no one would put anything up their own bum.