Chapter 7: Bill and Barry Go Climbing

Wednesday morning Bill and Barry met up on their bikes ready to cycle to the quarry. They planned to climb down into the quarry, explore more of the bottom of the quarry as they got side-tracked last time. Then they would have their lunch in the cave they had found. After that nothing had been arranged.

The Quarry wasn’t far away, they soon arrived, pushed their bikes out of sight amongst some trees, then padlocked them to the trunk. Walking through the woods towards the quarry, they discussed common interests like how often they had fired themselves after last watching the video and what they had dreamt about most when doing it. Barry told Bill how lucky he was to have it.

They reached the top of the cliff they were going to climb down. It was fairly steep, but there were lots of ledges big enough to stand on, so it wasn’t a dangerous climb as long as you were careful. Neither of them where stupid enough to mess about when climbing so there was no real danger. Accidents of course can happen to anyone at any time.

They sat for a while in the sun on the rock ledge at the very top. The sun was warm and the rock beneath them had absorbed some of the suns heat too, so it was a comfortable spot. They chatted for ages. Although they hadn’t known each other long, they had become firm friends finding they had many similar interests. Not to mention of course, the video and associated pleasures.

Eventually they stirred and started climbing down the cliff face. It took them about half an hour to reach the bottom, after which, they had a look in the cave they had found last time. From there they went and explored the bottom of the quarry.

Years ago, stone had been mined here for the local Town hall front and other similar buildings. It had a short branch line running into it from the nearby railway to move the blocks of stone. The railway track had long since gone. Even the railway it had branched from had disappeared in the infamous days of Dr Beeching.

Barry wanted to try and trace the rail bed, so they walked over to the far side. Barry had looked up some old maps, so he knew the line had left the quarry from the far side. However, before they got halfway across, Barry’s railway enthusiast’s eye had located the old track bed.

He pointed it out to Bill who said, ‘Now you’ve pointed it out I can see it, but I’d never have spotted it otherwise, how could you tell?’ Barry pointed out the now faint but still visible straight lines visible if you knew what to look for. ‘There are no straight lines in nature,’ Barry told him. ‘If you see a straight line, you know it’s man-made.’

Bill now took great delight in tracing the track bed as the moved across the quarry. Sure enough, when they followed it to the far wall of the quarry, you could easily see where the cutting that had taken the line out of the quarry, had been filled in.

When they turned to walk back, Bill noticed there was someone else climbing down where they had climbed. They stood and watched for a moment or two. It was too far away to judge his age, but they could see that he was climbing much slower than them.

Returning their gaze to the floor, they soon spotted where there had been a junction with another line turning off towards a different part of the quarry. Barry said, they would have moved the line as they progressed so the train could get as near to the mined stone as possible.

Just after they decided they had seen everything so they would head back to the cave, they walked through a small grassy area. Bill wouldn’t have noticed it, but Barry’s keen eye spotted a lump of rusty metal almost grown over. He knelt down fished his pen knife out and scraped all the grass off it. Bill came over to have a look. ‘What is it?’ he asked. ‘That’s a chair,’ Barry told him. ‘It’s fastened to the sleeper and the rail line sits in it.’ Bill went to lift it up but although he managed to lift it a little, he put it down right away, it was too heavy to carry far.

Barry said, ‘I might bring my bike down next time and take it home as a souvenir.’ ‘Are you allowed to do that?’ Bill asked. ‘I don’t know,’ Barry said, ‘But that has sat there for at least sixty years. We’re probably the first people to see it in several decades and if I hadn’t uncovered it, no one would ever have seen it again, so I doubt if anyone would be bothered.’

He put the grass back over it to keep it hidden, then they carried on across the quarry. By now the climber had disappeared. As they got closer, they could see the mouth of the cave and the patch of grass they had sat on last time.

They settled themselves down in the sun on the grass and shared their butties between them. A few minutes later an older lad came out of the cave, stopping surprised to see them there.

‘Hi,’ he said, ‘I’ve just been exploring the cave, do you mind if I sit here too?’ They looked at each other, then Bill said, ‘No of course not. I’m Bill, this is Barry.’ ‘I’m Roger,’ he told them and shook hands with them both. Then he looked at Bill and said, ‘I’ve seen you before, don’t you go to my school?’

They discovered that Roger was sixteen and went to Bills school. ‘I’ve only recently moved to the area,’ Roger told them, ‘My dad got moved with his job. We only arrived six weeks ago so I don’t really know anyone yet.’

He opened his pack of food too, so they all chatted as they ate. Roger told them that he didn’t mix easily so he was really pleased to have met them. They asked him howe he came to be in the quarry. ‘I came exploring the woods a few weeks back,’ he told them. ‘I found the quarry over the far side, so I came down the path. When I came over this side and saw the cliff, I climbed out rather than go back the way I came.’

‘I always find it harder climbing down than climbing up,’ he told them, ‘So I decided next time I came I’d climb down. So today I did. It took me a while, but at least I did it.’

‘We only met here a couple of weeks ago,’ Barry told him, ‘We had both been climbing on our own up till then, but it’s much nicer having a friend with you.’ Roger looked wistful, ‘Yes it’s nice to have friends.’ They sat and chatted generally, discovering amongst other things that Roger didn’t have a girlfriend. ‘Did you have one where you used to live?’ Barry asked him. He looked a bit embarrassed, ‘No,’ he said, ‘I’m a bit on the shy side and I’m even worse with girls.’

‘Neither of us have one yet,’ Bill told him. Barry laughed, ‘Up to last week I’m not sure I would have known what to do if I did have one,’ he said. Then realising what he had just said, he was thinking what to say when Roger asked, ‘What happened last week?’

Barry looked at Bill, swallowed then said, ‘A mate got hold of a porn movie and let me see some of it. My sex education quadrupled on the spot.’ Roger said, ‘Wow, you’re so lucky I’ve always wanted to see one, I’ve never even seen a still picture of a women’s bits.’

‘How did you persuade him to show it you?’ Barry glanced at Bill who nodded. ‘Well, he had been given it on the promise that he never let it out of his sight, so if he wanted to let anyone see it, they had to watch it with him.’ ‘You’d have to be very comfortable with each other to do that,’ Roger said, ‘Thinking of how worked up you’d get. How did you convince him?’

‘Well,’ Barry said, ‘He gave me a massage to relax me, then I took my top off and he did some more, then by the time we had finished relaxing we felt so at ease with each other that when we watched it later, it didn’t matter how much we got worked up, we weren’t bothered about each other seeing how worked up we were.’

‘That sounds great,’ Roger said, ‘Not just being able to watch the video, but having a friend you can feel that much at ease with. That must be something really special.’ ‘I hadn’t thought of it like that,’ Barry said, ‘Yes you’re right, it does make your friendship extra special. I must remember to tell him next time I see him.’

‘How did you feel at the start of the massage?’ Roger asked, ‘Were you embarrassed?’ ‘A little,’ Barry admitted, ‘But he was so good at it I soon felt at ease, plus it felt nice too. If I ever have to vet anyone to see it, I’m sure I will be able to do it just as well.’

‘You mean you can approve someone to watch it,’ Roger said sounding excited. ‘Well yes,’ Barry told him, ‘But if he passed muster, it would mean he would have to watch it with both of us.’ Roger asked, ‘So three people would be watching it and getting worked up all at the same time.’ Barry nodded. ‘How would you feel about that?’ he asked.