Read Taken Away for Free Online

‘I haven’t a clue what you’re talking about.’ Something about his tone made me stop arsing around. He was studying me carefully. ‘I don’t remember saying anything in the kitchen,’ he said. ‘All I know is one minute I was guzzling food like a starvin’ Bangladeshi and the next minute, Dad’s hovering over me and you’re telling him I had an asthma attack.’
    I sat slowly onto the edge of the bed. ‘Dad said Dee had been up all night with bad dreams,’ I said. This lit a small flare of recollection in Dom’s eyes. ‘She thought a man was going to take her away,’ I said, ‘to take you away.’
    A muscle in Dom’s face twitched. He jerked forward. For a minute I thought we were going to repeat the whole kitchen scene again. But then he just sat back, his eyes thoughtful, his hand on the shark’s tooth that had become a permanent fixture around his neck.
    I had a bad dream last night,’ he said softly. ‘
    I nodded. ‘So did I. Can you remember yours?’
    He shook his head. ‘Tell you what, though, what you said just now . . . about the man? It scared me, Pat. Really . . . my heart’s pounding. But I don’t know why.’
    We sat deep in thought for a while. ‘I think I dreamt about soldiers,’ I said quietly.
    â€˜Yeah?’
    â€˜Yeah. Soldiers in mud. Like that stupid film the night . . . last week.’
    I couldn’t bring myself to say which night we’d been watching that film. We both went quiet.
    Then Dom cleared his throat. ‘Jesus,’ he said, ‘that film was boring as shite, wasn’t it? World War I wasn’t half as good as World War II.’
    He grinned and I grinned back. What else was there to do? Last night had been freaky, one of those freaky nights where everything seems weird and off kilter. But now? Now, the morning sun was pouring through the window, there was a whole gansey-load of birds singing their heads off in the bare branches of the apple trees and everything was just so bloody normal .
    I stood up and reached a hand out to pull Dom to his feet. ‘C’mon. Let’s explore.’
    As he stood, he gasped and bent double at the waist for a moment, his face turning a delightful shade of green.
    â€˜Jesus, Pat. How much did we just eat ?’
    I groaned quietly as we crept down the stairs. ‘God, I know. I’m full as a frog. If I don’t fart or burp soon I’ll burst.’
    Dom gawfed, and I slapped him on the back of the head with a hiss. ‘Shut up, you eejit. You’ll wake Ma.’
    We headed out the back, through the garden filled with sand, past Dad’s car and through the shuttered amusements. We’d told Dad we were heading up around the headland and back down the harbour. He said he wanted us back for one o’clock. ‘Don’t take any chances, you two. If there’s trouble, just walk away. You’re not with your cousins now.’ As we were leaving, he gave Dom a troubled look. ‘Don’t get cold, Dominick.’ Dom had sighed and nodded without turning around. He whacked me as soon as we were out of sight.
    The day was blinding after the rain, the sun reflecting off a million puddles and hanging droplets. We cut straight onto the beach, jumped down off the grass wall and headed left towards the headland and the Martello tower. The tide was out, the great expanse of the flats stretching away in ripples of sand and water all the way to the island. The wind was wicked coming in off the sea and we huddled into our jackets, pulling the collars up to our ears and raising our voices to be heard. We had our usual conversation about taking a chance on walking out to the island: the dangers of quicksand, the possibilities of sharks and seal pups.
    I don’t know what it was that changed Dom’s mind about the beach and made him take the harbour road. All I know is we were halfway to