Free My Friend Walter by Michael Morpurgo Page A

there’s nothing else for it. Only way to pay the bank back is to sell up, but we’ll need to sell everything.’
    â€˜Not everything,’ said Will.
    â€˜Everything,’ Father snapped, standing up suddenly. ‘Cows, sheep, bullocks, machinery. And Sally, she’ll have to go too.’
    â€˜But how are we going to farm without any animals, without any tractors?’ I asked.
    â€˜We aren’t going to farm,’ said Father. ‘Not any more.’
    â€˜Well anyway, we’ve still got the house, haven’t we?’ said Will.
    Father turned on us. ‘Don’t you understand, Will? We’ve got to go. We’ve got to leave the house as well. It belongs to the landlord, to Mr Watts, same as the farm does. If we can’t pay the rent, and we can’t, he’ll want us out. We’re six months overdue with the rent already and the bank won’t let us have any more money.
Now
do you understand?’
    â€˜You mean we can’t even live here any more?’ I said, and as I said it I understood at last the whole terrible truth. So that had been the reason for Father’s black moods, for his long, deep silences of recent weeks. That was why Mother and Father were shouting at each other in the kitchen that evening. ‘We mustn’t say a word about it to Gran,’ said Mother. ‘She mustn’t know yet, not until she’s completely better.We’ve somehow got to tell her so it doesn’t upset her too much.’
    â€˜But where are we going to live?’ said Will, his eyes full of tears. ‘Where are we going to go? We’ve always lived here.’
    â€˜Over twenty years I’ve farmed this land, Will,’ said Father. ‘We’ll just have to find somewhere else, that’s all.’
    â€˜Another farm?’ said Will brightening a bit.
    Father shook his head. ‘You need money to run a farm and I’m not borrowing it. What we make on the sale of the animals and machinery will just about pay off the bank. I’m never borrowing another penny, not as long as I live.’
    â€˜I told Aunty Ellie this might happen,’ said Mother, ‘and she said right away we could go and live with her, just till we’ve sorted things out a bit. She’s got plenty of room. Perhaps it’ll be a blessing after all. You never can tell. As Gran says, “every cloud has a silver lining”.’
    â€˜I know,’ said Will who was beginning to cry openly now. ‘And there’s a light at the end of every tunnel.’ And he rushed out of the hay barn. Father went after him.
    â€˜I think your father’s more upset for Will than he isfor himself,’ said Mother standing up and brushing the hay off her skirt.
    â€˜How long before we’ve got to go?’ I asked.
    â€˜The solicitor says we’ve got to be out by Michaelmas, and that’s less than two months away. There’ll be a lot to do, Bessie dear, and perhaps that’s just as well. Come on, young lady.’ And she took my hand and we went outside into the sunlight.
    â€˜What will Father do?’ I asked.
    â€˜He’ll find a job somewhere, I suppose,’ said Mother.
    â€˜What if he can’t?’
    â€˜Then I’ll find a job,’ said Mother.
    â€˜But what if you can’t find a job?’
    â€˜What if? What if?’ Mother said. ‘We’ll manage, you’ll see. We always have, haven’t we? Let’s just ride out this storm Bess, before we face the next one.’
    Hadn’t someone else talked to me of storms ahead? Is this what Walter had meant? Is this what he was warning me about? But how could he possibly have known this was going to happen? Why did he have to talk in riddles?
    â€˜Not a word to Gran now, remember?’ was the last thing Mother said to me before we went back into the house.
    Within a day or two Gran was sent off to stay with Aunty Ellie. It would be