Free All Sorts of Possible by Rupert Wallis Page B

didn’t say a word. ‘But I wouldn’t know what to do if it’s all too much.’
    ‘You’d know better than anyone else.’
    Bennett’s lips purred as he blew out a breath.
    ‘I’m still the same Daniel you’ve always known. The one you met in nursery who tried to eat your socks. I’ll be OK if you come with me.’
    Bennett dipped his toe into the puddle beside them and as Daniel watched the ripples it was like he was back underground. He thought he heard running water and he clutched his arms around him as
a cloud passed over the sun. And Bennett noticed that Daniel was suddenly somewhere else.
    ‘Prove it then,’ he said and stepped into the puddle. The water was barely five centimetres deep. He held out his hands to Daniel. ‘It’s just a puddle.’
    ‘I know.’
    ‘So come on in, the water’s divine.’
    Daniel propped his bike against the wall. Closed his eyes. He took a big step and felt the water sucking round his trainers as he stepped into the puddle. When he looked again, Bennett was
staring back, holding on to his hands.
    ‘I’m supposed to go home for some sort of family food “thing” in an hour or so. Lunch? You know it?’
    ‘Yeah, sure,’ said Daniel in a rush, feeling embarrassed to have asked at all. ‘I understand. That’s fine.’
    ‘
So-o-o
, in a roundabout way, I guess what I’m asking is, will there be food on this expedition of yours?’ Bennett grinned.
    Daniel smiled back. ‘There can be.’
    ‘I like crisps. And would there be fizzy drinks?’
    ‘Yeah, if you want.’
    ‘Well then, I can’t say no, can I?’
    The longer they stood in the cold water, the more Daniel could feel it pressing round the edges of his feet, like the puddle was trying to suck him down somewhere deep. When Bennett let go of
his hands, Daniel wobbled and his friend grabbed on to his shoulder until all the ripples around them had vanished.
    ‘I’m sorry I wasn’t here when it happened,’ said Bennett, lighting another cigarette and taking a drag.
    ‘That’s OK,’ said Daniel. ‘You were on holiday. You weren’t to know what was going to happen.’
    ‘No one ever does, do they?’ said Bennett and he glanced over at the traffic going past them as if waiting to be proved right. ‘You’re sure though? You’re not upset
with me?’
    Daniel didn’t know what to say, so he nodded. He looked down at the puddle. Saw his reflection smiling back. ‘I’m just glad you’re here now.’
    ‘I prefer salt and vinegar by the way,’ said Bennett. ‘And Diet Coke. At least a couple of cans.’
    Daniel frowned and then he grinned when he realized what Bennett was talking about and stuck his hands in the pockets of his shorts, making the change inside them clink. Bennett’s lips lit
up in a smile too, as if the two of them were connected by an invisible current to which only they were wired.

28
    They rode to the train station on their bikes and over the concourse through unamused looks to the ticket machines where they each bought a return, which the barriers swallowed
and spewed back out to let them through.
    The platform for the local stops was tucked away from the mainline. A single track, with two rails smoothed syrupy and golden, and between them slender-necked weeds growing out of the grey
ballast between the sleepers. Pigeons shuttled back and forth across the wooden struts in the eaves above them, cooing as they went. Wary of the smack of bird shit on the platform, they walked
further down and found a bench and sat soaking up the sun, staring through orange lids.
    ‘We could go anywhere we wanted,’ said Bennett with a mouth full of salt and vinegar crisps.
    ‘We could.’
    The two boys stepped off the train with their ears ringing because all the windows had been open. Even so, the carriage had still felt like an oven.
    The platform was made of plain concrete with its edge striped yellow. There wasn’t even a bench. Daniel watched the two carriages disappear round the bend