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Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: Worcs
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The Green Man of Ellingham - Chapter One
Chapter One of my second childrens novel, any thoughts greatly appreciated.
One. Elly
At three thirty, the normally quiet streets of Ellingham became a sea of scarlet and grey cascading through the town, as the High School emptied, ten minutes later the sea had dwindled to a trickle as the last few stragglers made their way home.
The last one of all was Elly Barrett, she had taken as much time as possible emptying her locker and unchaining her bike, Elly always tried to be at the back of the Crowd and draw as little attention to herself as possible. For some reason people thought she was a bit strange, and while most of them just ignored her or sniggered at her behind her back, some of them took great delight in tormenting her at every opportunity.
As Elly wheeled her bike along she heard the clang of the sweetshop bell, three boys spilled onto the pavement, two of them were stuffing crisps into their fat faces as fast as they could, the third was trying to look cool and was flicking his long black fringe out of his eyes whilst scanning the High Street for pretty girls to impress.
His name was Nicholas King, although he preferred Nick, and his dad was on the Council, they lived in the biggest house in the town and there were rumours that Councilor King was planning to run in the forthcoming local elections and become a Member of Parliament, people even whispered that he had ambitions to become Prime Minister one day.
Elly felt her stomach lurch, of all the people she wanted to avoid, Nick was the worst, he went out of his way to tease her and generally make her life a misery. She hated him with his silly hair and his rich parents, the very thought of him made her skin crawl.
Nick thought he owned Ellingham High School and took great delight in bullying other students he felt were beneath him. Nick saw Elly and his face lit up; he grinned and winked at Sam and Baz his crisp-eating sidekicks.
“Oi Olive!” Nick shouted, “you really need to get Popeye to give you some of his spinach, you need building up! If you turned sideways you’d disappear!”
Elly ignored Nick and started to get on her bicycle, Nick grabbed the handlebars.
“Olive! You’re not leaving so soon?” Nick turned to Sam and Baz.
“Lads, where are your manners? You haven’t offered Olive any of your crisps!”
Sam and Baz looked stupidly at their empty packets; the idea of giving away anything to someone else seemed totally beyond their grasp.
Nick scowled, “maybe,” he said, talking very slowly as if he were addressing a small child, “maybe Olive would like the packets as a souvenir…”
Silly smiles spreading across their pudgy faces Sam and Baz wiped their crisp packets over Elly’s face and hair smearing her with grease and bits of crushed crisp.
“Get off me you idiots!” yelled Elly trying to push Sam and Baz away, there was a crash as Elly’s bike fell over and lay on its side, the front wheel looking ominously twisted.
“Oops!” said Nick sarcastically, “It just slipped out of my hands.”
“You think you’re so big and clever don’t you?” fumed Elly whilst trying to straighten the wheel, “You’re pathetic! You make me sick!”
“Temper, temper!” smirked Nick, “if you carry on like this you’ll end up as batty as that weird mother of yours.”
“My mum isn’t weird; she’s just sticking up for what she believes in. I suppose YOU think Donald Clifford should be allowed to just tear down Ellingham Forest and have no-one stand in his way?”
Nick stared at Elly for a moment, a strange expression on his face, he wasn’t
smirking any more. Elly felt confused, she’d been sure Nick would be the first one to back up Clifford’s plans, but instead he looked almost scared.
“Are we playing football or not?”whined Baz, who was getting bored, “Mum’ll kill me if I’m late for tea.” Sam nodded in agreement.
“Yeah, sure. Nothing here worth hanging around for, let’s go,” said Nick, and slinging their school bags over their shoulders, the three boys headed off in the direction of the local park.
Elly picked up her mangled bike and stared at the retreating back of Nick, she’d hit a nerve somehow when she mentioned Donald Clifford, but what? What was the great, invincible Nicholas King so afraid of?
Struggling a bit because of the damaged front wheel, Elly made her way home.
*
When she got there she found her Nan watching a News Report on the television, Donald Clifford’s face filled the screen; he was a large, florid man with snake-like eyes. A female reporter’s voice said “Controversial plans to build a quarry on Bodmin Hill have today been granted the planning permission they required. Clifford Developments, headed by the property tycoon and well known entrepreneur Donald Clifford, will start work on the new quarry immediately according to a press-release issued today. Our correspondent Ben Jones is at the scene now and can bring us a live up-date, Ben, what’s happening there now?”
The picture on the screen changed to show people waving placards and shouting “SAVE OUR FOREST!” in unison. In front of them stood Ben Jones, the reporter, holding a large microphone.
“Well Cathy, I can tell you there are a lot of angry people here today, as you can probably tell from the noise behind me, I have the person who’s organised this protest, Mrs Rita Barrett, here with me now. Mrs Barrett, what are your feelings now that Mr Clifford has got his planning permission? Is the fight over?”
“No, certainly not! We will fight this every inch of the way. This is ancient woodland, some of these trees are seven hundred years old and they should be protected for future generations, no-one has the right to come and tear them down,” said a slim woman of about thirty-five. And with that Mrs Barrett ran over to a large oak tree, several of the other protestors dropped their placards and helped her climb up into the branches. A length of chain appeared out of a backpack and was passed up to Mrs Barrett; she wound it around herself several times and then around the tree, securing it with a large padlock.
“COME ON CLIFFORD!” shouted Mrs Barrett; “DO YOUR WORST!”
The crowd of protestors cheered and waved their placards furiously and then began chanting: “RITA, RITA, RITA …”
Ben Jones, the reporter, struggling to make himself heard over the shouting, spoke to camera again. “Well Cathy, things are certainly hotting up here in Ellingham forest, we will of course keep you up to date on any other developments; but for the moment it’s back to the studio…”
Elly was still standing in the doorway of the living room staring at the television. Nan picked up the remote controller and pushed the off button, the screen went blank.
“Well Elly, your mother’s certainly done it this time; your father is going to be furious!”
“Well, it’s not really up to dad anymore is it? Mum’s only been like this since he ran off with his secretary,” said Elly dumping her bag on the floor.
“Not strictly true,” said Nan. “Us Barrett women have always been considered a little odd; just because I prefer to make my own herbal medicines rather than buying then in the chemist some people have made rude comments, I know for a fact that Mrs Jenkins crosses the road to avoid me!.”
“But mum’s not really weird is she?” said Elly, “It’s not right that someone like Clifford can just come along and tear down our forest, just because he’s rich doesn’t give him the right to do exactly what he likes, does it?”
“No, of course not,” said Nan. “But Donald Clifford has never bothered much with ethics or what is the right thing, he’s only interested in what will benefit him, and make him richer or more powerful. Clifford is a dangerous man to cross; he’s stepped on more than just fingers on his way to the top. I’m worried your mum has just put herself right in his firing line, I hope she knows what she’s dealing with.”
As Elly began to ask Nan what she meant, the doorbell rang.
“I’ll get it,” said Elly. She opened the front door to find her dad and his girlfriend, Suzanne, standing there.
“Hello Elly, you get more grown-up every time I see you,” said Suzanne.
“I wish I could say the same about you,” muttered Elly, trying not to stare at Suzanne’s heavily swollen stomach. “How much longer till it’s due?” she forced herself to ask, trying very hard to be pleasant.
“Two months, as you know very well,” said Dad, “really Elly, Suzanne and I have made every effort to make you feel involved in this pregnancy, why do you insist on being difficult?”
“I thought I was being nice, I won’t bother in future,” said Elly, “what do you want anyway?”
Suzanne looked embarrassed and Dad cleared his throat before speaking.
“I need to see your mum, is she in? There’s some paperwork that she needs to sign.”
“Mum’s out, I don’t know when she’ll be back.” Elly began to close the door but her dad grabbed it and held it open.
“Is Joyce in? I really do need to get this sorted out,” said Dad urgently.
Elly reluctantly let her dad and Suzanne into the house and led the way into the living room where Nan was sitting knitting, when she saw them she put down her knitting and struggled to her feet.
“Bill, Suzanne, how lovely to see you both,” said Nan.
Nan fussed around Suzanne making sure she was settled comfortably in one of the squashy armchairs before turning her attention to Elly’s dad.
“Now Bill, Rita isn’t here, can I help at all?” said Nan.
“Well, it’s a little awkward,” began Dad, looking meaningfully at Elly, “Rita has some paperwork, in fact, she’s had it for several weeks, and, eh, it needs to be signed. It needs to be signed straight away; I don’t know why she’s been hanging onto it for…”
“Hang on!” interrupted Elly, as a horrible thought popped into her head, “You’re talking about divorce papers aren’t you? You and mum are getting divorced!”
“I thought you’d realise that’s what was going to happen Elly, Mum and I aren’t together anymore, you know that, you know I’m with Suzanne, you know we’re having a baby,” said Dad, “I want to marry Suzanne, and that means divorcing your Mum. I’m sorry Elly…”
“No you’re not,” shouted Elly, “you don’t care about me at all; all you’re interested in is your new girlfriend and her precious baby!”
Elly ran out of the living room and upstairs, she paused outside her bedroom and then slammed the door shut, she wanted them to think she was in her room but instead she sat down on the top stair, out of sight of the hallway. Elly was certain her dad would be coming after her any minute, to apologise and tell her how much he loved her really. But the minutes ticked by and her dad did not come after her, instead Elly could hear the murmur of voices coming from the living room.
After ten minutes the living room door finally opened and Elly’s heart lifted, at last dad was coming to see her. But it was Nan, Suzanne and her dad who came into the hallway, now they were just below her Elly could hear their conversation.
“You do look peaky Suzanne, have you been taking that tonic I made up for you?” asked Nan.
“Well, it tasted a bit funny. I wasn’t sure that it was doing me any good…” replied Suzanne.
“Nonsense dear, of course it was doing you good. That tonic is an old family recipe, twelve generations that’s been handed down. Now you let me know when you start to get your first twinges, once things are underway I’ll make you some raspberry leaf tea, it speeds up labour you know,” said Nan.
“I feel a bit strange,” said Suzanne, “do you mind if we go home now? I think I’ve overdone it a bit today”
Elly heard her dad fussing around Suzanne; he wasn’t going to leave without
saying goodbye to her, was he? But then she heard the front door close, Elly ran over to the landing window and watched as her dad helped Suzanne into their car, closed the door and then got in himself.
Elly flew down the stairs and opened the front door, but dad and Suzanne had already gone, Elly caught a glimpse of their car as it turned the corner at the top of the road.
Nan came into the hallway and tried to give Elly a hug; but Elly pushed her away and ran back upstairs. This time she really did go into her bedroom, slamming the door before throwing herself onto her bed. Bitter, hot tears streamed down her face and she had to stuff her pillow into her mouth to stop herself from screaming out loud, her stomach ached with despair and Elly felt the most alone she had ever felt in her life.
*
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