Then suddenly I wasn’t on land any more. Sarge had pushed me into the boat. He got in next to me, grabbed the oars and started to row.

‘What are we doing, Sarge?’

I knew he wasn’t going to answer. Not with his face the way it was. He was muttering under his breath too, something about death and bones. He kept repeating it over and over again. Death and bones. That’s all it was. Death and Bones. I wanted to make him stop, get him to focus on our mission. He’d been so happy yesterday, all excited about what was to come. But last night when I walked past his room on my way to bed I saw that he was reading that book, the one with the squiggly words. He always goes strange after he’s read that book, like he’s in the worst mood ever, and now he was back to muttering to himself. But I didn’t dare say anything, not while he was like that. Instead I sat holding on to the side of the boat and watched as he steered it into the centre of the lake.

He let go of the oars then and I looked up at him. The next thing I knew his hands were round my neck. I went to scream but my voice was trapped in my throat. I tried to prise his hands off but he was too strong. Then, suddenly, he picked me up and threw me into the water.

I tried to grab hold of the side of the boat but he kept pushing it away from me. I could feel my head going under the water. I kicked my arms and legs until I came up but soon the water was back over my head. I was going to drown. I was sure of it. But why wasn’t Sarge helping me?

‘Please, Sarge,’ I gasped, spluttering and coughing up water. ‘Please!’

But he didn’t answer. He just sat in the boat and stared at me as I flapped my arms and tried to keep my head from going under again. Then suddenly he put his arms out towards me. I lifted mine up for him to take but instead he grabbed me by the collar of my uniform and plunged me under the water. Within seconds he’d lifted my head out again. But then he repeated it again and again and again. I couldn’t breathe. I swear I thought I was going to die. I couldn’t scream or beg him to stop because every time I came up for air he’d plunge me under again. I don’t know how long this went on for but just when I thought I couldn’t take it any more, he stopped.

I held on to the boat trying to breathe, no idea what would happen next. Then he looked at me like he’d just woken up from a dream. All of a sudden he was Sarge again. ‘Come on, love,’ he said, his voice calm and normal. And he lifted me out of the water into the boat.