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me, suddenly slowing and looking wary as he sees the man.
'You!' the man shouts at Andy. His voice makes me jump. I hide my sticky hand
behind me, as if it's brightly stained. 'What were you doing there with this
boy, eh? What were you doing?' he shouts, looking around. He puts his thumbs
between the shoulder straps of his rucksack and his jacket and sticks his
chest and chin out. 'Come on! What d'you think you were doing, eh? Answer me,
boy!'
'None of your business,' Andy says, but his voice is shaky. I can smell
something funny. I worry that it's coming from my sticky hand and I'm
frightened that the man will smell it.
'Don't you talk to me like that, boy!' the man yells, glancing round again. He
spits as he shouts.
'You've got no right being here,' Andy says, sounding frightened. 'This is
private property.'
'Oh, is it?' the man says. 'Private property, is it? And that gives you the
right to do dirty, perverted things, does it?'
'We-'
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'Shut it, laddie.' The man takes a step forward, looking over my head at Andy.
The man's so close I could touch him. I get that smell even stronger. Oh God,
he's bound to smell it now. I feel myself trying to shrink, cowering. The man
thumps himself in the chest with one finger. 'Well, let me tell you something,
sonny,' he tells Andy. 'I'm a policeman
.' He nods, drawing back and upright again. 'Aye,' he says, eyes narrowing.
'You may well look frightened, boy, because you're in deep bloody trouble.'
He looks down at me. 'Right; this way, come on!'
He takes a step away. I'm trembling, rooted to the spot. I glance back to see
Andy looking uncertain. The man grabs my arm and pulls me. 'I said come ,
boy!'
on
He drags me after him through the woods. I start crying and try to break away,
struggling weakly.
'Please, mister, we weren't doing anything!' I wail. 'We weren't doing
anything! Honest! We weren't doing anything, honest we weren't! Please! Please
let us go, please; please let us go, we won't do it again, honest; please,
please, please ... '
I look back through my tears at Andy, who's following, looking desperate and
uncertain, biting on one knuckle as he follows us through the bushes.
We're near the summit of the hill, deep in the bushes under the thin cover of
trees; the smell is very strong and my knees feel like the bones are gone. If
I wasn't being held up by the man's gripping hand hauling me through the ferns
I feel like I'd fall down.
'Leave him!' Andy shouts, and I think he's going to burst into tears like me.
He seemed so old a few minutes ago and now he's like a little kid again.
The man stops, whirls me round and holds me against his chest. He feels very
warm behind me and the smell is even stronger.
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Andy comes to within a couple of yards.
'Come here!' the man shouts. I can see spittle arc out from above me as he
shouts. Andy looks from him down to me; I can see his jaw trembling.
'Come here
!' the man screeches. Andy comes forward a couple of feet. 'Take off those
trousers!' he hisses at Andy. 'Go on; I saw you! I saw what you were doing!
Take off those trousers!'
Andy shakes his head, backing off.
I start to sob.
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The man shakes me. 'Right!' he says. He leans over me, puts his big fingers to
the zip of my jeans and starts trying to pull the zip down. I'm struggling and
howling but I can't get free. The smell is all around me; it's him; it's his
sweat, his smell.
'Leave him, you bastard!' Andy shouts. 'You're not a policeman!' I can't see
what Andy's doing because the man's body is in the way, but then Andy hits
into him, bowling him backwards and he shouts and I
wriggle away from them; I scramble off through the ferns on all fours and then
stop and look back and the man's got Andy, he's struggling with him, leaning
over him, folding him, pressing him down, and Andy's breathing hard, grunting,
trying to break free. 'Bastard! Leave me alone
! You're not a policeman! You're not a policeman!'
The man doesn't say anything; he pushes Andy down into the ferns, and gets a
hand free and punches
Andy in the face. Andy goes limp but then moves weakly; the man is breathing
very hard and when he looks at me his eyes are wide and staring. 'You!' he
gasps. 'You; just stay there! Stay there, d'you hear?'
I'm shaking so hard I can hardly see straight. Tears fill my eyes.
The man pulls Andy's trousers down; I can see Andy looking round groggily. His
gaze fastens on me.
'Help,' he croaks. 'Cameron ... help ... '
'Cameron, is it?' the man says, glancing at me and pulling down his own
trousers. 'Well, you just stay there, Cameron; you just stay there, right?'
I shake my head and back off.
'Cameron!' Andy wails; the man is struggling with his underpants as Andy tries
to get out from under him.
I'm stumbling backwards, almost falling; I have to turn to stop myself
tripping and the turn becomes a run and I can't stop myself, I just have to
escape; I race away through the woods, tears burning on my face, sobbing
hysterically, the breath whistling and whooping in and out of me, hot and
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