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THE CARAVAN—TATE’S HOLIDAY PARK

AUGUST 17, 2010

The woods, Frankie said. Tonight. Cora’s first time! You up for it?

I dunno, I said, because I keep having nightmares about it. Don’t get why Frankie isn’t more scared.

So Frankie went: OK, Cora, just you and me. So I said I’d go. Know it’s childish but I didn’t want them going without me.

The local kids pick shrooms in Tome woods, Cora said. Then went off on some story about how she took them at a festival this one time. YAWN.

Frankie got all excited. Let’s find some! Then I won’t care so much that the twins cleaned out my stash.

Cora was like, well I don’t know if you’ll find them this time of year. Frankie was annoyed by that, you could tell. She’s like that when she wants something. No, she said, we’ll find some.

It was just getting dark when we went into the woods but I brought Mum’s little keyring torch this time. We walked past Grandfa’s study—he was in there on the phone, looking serious.

As we headed deeper into the trees Frankie showed us a photo on her mobile (the new iPhone... so cool!!) so we knew what we were looking for. It sounds stupid but I really wanted to find some mushrooms, like that would prove something. Cora said she was going for a pee. I got super focused, poking around with a stick. When I looked up Frankie was gone, too. I shouted but no one answered. All I could hear were owls calling high up in the branches.

Actually cried a bit. Just knew they’d done it on purpose. That they were probably hiding somewhere, laughing at me. I was scared. And lost. Whenever I thought I’d found the right path I kept coming to a dead end: bushes, a stream I’d never seen before. Finally I found a different path and followed it till I came to a clearing and I realized it was the one with the stones and that tree in it, with all the “eyes.” And then I saw the mushrooms. Just like the photo Frankie showed me, under a pile of old dead leaves. They were pale next to the dark soil and with the moonlight coming through the trees it looked like they were glowing. It felt like finding that fossil on the beach at the beginning of the summer. Like somehow they found me? These little brownish pointed caps, almost cute looking. Like a kid’s drawing, not like something that could send you on a crazy trip.

Had this really intense feeling of being watched then. How you can just feel someone’s eyes on you? I shone my torch around. Thought I saw something move in the shadows. Someone? This dark figure, crouched over, half-hidden behind a trunk. Something glinting, like eyes caught in the beam. Maybe an animal... a badger or something? Looked bigger than a badger though.

I was properly scared then. Just wanted to get out of there. I started running.

That’s when I heard music. This old-timey melody, all crackly like it was playing through a gramophone. A creepy, high-pitched man’s voice singing the words. Then I realized it was that old kids’ song “The Teddy Bears’ Picnic.” You wouldn’t think a nursery rhyme could sound so sinister. But there in the dark woods it did. It seemed like it was coming from every direction, following me through the trees.