Immediately, I could see there was someone headed along the driveway towards the tennis courts, a small will-o’-the-wisp light was wavering in the distance. The moon was high and bright and provided some light, but I still couldn’t see who it was, but I wanted to know why they were heading that way on their own in the dead of night. I knew my boots would make too much noise on the gravel so I hopped into the flower meadow to my right, which was now full and blooming; I could at least duck down into it if whoever it was decided to turn around and look.
I made it all the way to the end of the drive, making sure I followed the light the entire way, never once taking my eyes off the tall figure. They turned left down the back of the tennis courts – where no one ever went because it was full of debris, old fencing and bits of wood dumped by the bushes. I stayed as close as I could to the light in front of me. The moon was now behind the tennis court wall and I would have to use my senses and go as slowly as I could. Once I had navigated my way past the bits of wood, I leant against the wall to the tennis court and felt my way along to the end where the ground became bushes. I could just about make out a small gap in the hedgerow, which I imagined would eventually lead onto Brian’s field. I wasn’t sure who had gone in there and I wasn’t sure that if I followed, I wouldn’t bump headfirst into them. I moved to the very edge of the tennis court wall, where the wall ended and there was a small gap between the wall and the tennis court. I ducked into it, trying to think my next move through. I had come all this way and I wanted, no needed, to know who had gone into that gap. I had surprised myself that I had managed to come out this far, but I knew I had my Millwall brick and my torch, both of which I could use as weapons, before running away as fast as I could if I had to.
As I contemplated what to do, I heard the footsteps on bracken and saw the light from the torch coming through the bushes. I stumbled back further into the gap between the hedgerow and the tennis court wall, crouching down just as the figure came walking out of the bushes. And this time, I could see who it was. The light from their torch reflected back onto them from the bushes behind them, just enough so that I could make out Ava’s face.
I waited until Ava had rounded the corner and was back on the gravel driveway, making her way back up to the main house. Then I took out my torch and slipped into the gap in the hedgerow Ava had come out of.
Inside, I could see a small clearing, but as I shone my torch around, I couldn’t see any evidence of what Ava would have come in here for. Until suddenly the torch light caught on a bright red object to the far right, where the clearing curved round further. If you did not know this place was here, you certainly would not stumble upon it. I walked tentatively to the right, following the torch beam until I could see what it had captured in its stream of light. There was a bush and then a small hollow, a gap big enough to army crawl into. I bent down and looked through it. I could see a tree trunk, and all around it, various trinkets and objects that looked like some sort of shrine. There was just enough room for me to squeeze in, so Ava must have been lying down to get in there. As I fell to my knees and edged myself into the gap, I could see an array of curious objects: a glass gem, a small wooden doll – that was barely a doll, it looked ancient – a snow globe and a few other objects all lined around the trunk. The one that had caught my eye was the red object that I could now see was a large red dice. I sat and looked at the objects, trying to piece together the puzzle, for it seemed there was indeed a puzzle here to be solved, but my mind could not bring it all together. I sat looking at the objects and I naturally began counting them. All together there were fourteen trinkets. Perhaps they were prizes, but for what? The only relevance I could think of was age. My age, which was fourteen, but more importantly, Caitlin’s age. She turned fourteen today. And these items looked like small gifts, one for each year of her life.
The cold air must have finally got to me, as I felt a shiver run down my spine. I edged backwards out of the gap and into the clearing, then I turned off my torch and felt my way back out of the hedge into the small awkward path between the tennis court
