Billy Stone
Chapter 2

Copyright© 2014 by The Heartbreak Kid

There was of course near-pandemonium when it was discovered that Billy and Karen were missing. The police were called straight away and an alert was broadcast on the media. It was very quickly established that they weren't snatched, but went of their own free will.

The public search was hampered somewhat by the fact that no photographic records existed of either child, so there were only artists impressions taken from the descriptions given by the children's home staff, which although they were quite accurate, were nonetheless quite generalised.

Based on the fact that the children were so young and that they were on foot, an intensive search was carried out in the immediate area that they had been in when they had left; but unless they had subsequently been taken in by someone who wasn't saying, there were no confirmed sightings.

When they had left the home all Billy really knew instinctively, was that they must get away from people as soon as possible, and that both he and Karen could only walk so far on their little legs. They were both also quite tired, as neither of them had really had much sleep for a long time. He didn't have much sense of the local geography, but he knew that if he went in a certain direction they would come to the school that the minibus took them to in the morning: the one where normally they would have been heading anyway in a few days. He also remembered that they always passed a little wood on the way there and he had always wondered what it was like to explore, so that was the intended destination.

They trotted on, hand in hand: Karen was being very brave but she was starting to flag, but Billy gently urged her on, and defying the odds of probability, they got there. "Just a little bit further, Karen," he urged her for the umpteenth time that night. When finally they could go no further, they crawled into a dark space, where they lay on top of their bundles. Billy held her tight, stroked her hair and kissed her brow and they fell asleep.


They slept for a long time. Billy was awoken by the little girl stroking his cheek. His eyes fluttered open and he saw the familiar smiling face, no longer framed by the colourful knitted woollen hat she had been wearing.

"Billy, I'm hungry!" she whispered. The sun was filtering through their shelter: in the dark they had stumbled into a cave-like thicket, which might once have been the lair of a woodland creature, but for now would hide them quite well from anyone passing through the wood. There was just enough room for both children to sit upright.

Billy looked in his backpack and took out the packet of chocolate biscuits that he knew were favourites of Karen. There were also some potato chips which were now large crumbs, and the bottle of orange. He opened the packets for her and then unscrewed the bottle top which fizzed, but fortunately didn't overflow. When she had eaten a little he passed her the bottle. "—Just a mouthful, we have to make it last—"

They of course had no conception of the efforts that were being made to find them, but Billy knew that someone would be looking for them. They weren't that close to any paths through the wood, but as they lay quite quietly they heard some people go by. At one point they heard a dog snuffling quite near them, but it's owner called it away before it got too near. After several hours they both wanted a wee: Karen wouldn't go on her own, so Billy stood guard.

It was a bit boring with nothing to do, but even Karen appreciated that they had to keep quite still and quiet until it started to get dark again. The weather was still quite warm, so they didn't need coats on. Billy said that they should stay there for a little while, but not too long. But despite the unusual conditions they found themselves in, Karen felt loved, so she was happy.

Curled up together and warm, they slept a lot. Billy decided that they would stay another day and then move on in the same direction as they had been going before. They both ate little, but Billy always ate less than Karen. On the third night since they had run away, they left the shelter of the wood quite late at night, then they walked, with short breaks, until it just started to get light again, when they took whatever shelter from the road that they could find. Karen was tired and hungry, but such was her devotion to Billy that she just held his hand and trotted along beside him for as long as she could. For two days they did this, moving only at night, by which time they were well into the countryside were there was lots of cover and few people on foot. They chanced upon a row of four cottages and in the garden of one Billy recognised trees that he thought had apples, so while Karen stayed with their bundles, he carefully went to see, returning a little later with fruit to supplement their meagre diet.

They walked a little further before stopping to sleep again. When Karen awoke Billy gave her a nice big, rosy-red apple, which was much appreciated. He was sitting looking intently at something in the near distance.

"What you looking at?" He pointed.

"There's a little lake over there with an island. If we can get across the water, we can maybe stay there for ages." She looked at him and smiled. An adult might have thought of all sorts of objections, but Karen just said: "Okay, Billy!"

He spent the rest of the day looking and thinking: he was also an avid reader and he was trying to think of something that he might have read which would help him solve the puzzle. Billy had started swimming when he had started school, and he may not have been physically strong, but he was confident in the water and swum quite well: but as far as he knew Karen had never been to a pool; although the carers in the home had taken the children on several day trips to the seaside, where he and she happily frolicked at the sea's edge. So he could swim across—it didn't look far—but how to get Karen across safely and keep their precious belongings dry.

From what he could see from a distance, although it might technically have been called a lake, the island seemed to take up most of it, leaving a moat of water about twenty feet wide at its narrowest and about twice that elsewhere. There also seemed to be quite a lot of trees, which stopped him seeing the far side. He would have to go and look closer.

"Karen, I want to go and have a look when it gets darker: will you be all right here until I get back?"

"—I want to go with you, Billy," she said simply—not pleading, not insisting.

"All right—but there aren't many places to hide down there. We'll wait until it gets darker."


Distances can be deceptive, and in the half light it took them over an hour to get there. It was dark, but Billy had the torch which he'd taken from the children's home and which they'd used only sparingly since. They walked around the bank of the lake, looking for a place that they might enter the island, and preferably where it was quite close to the lake's edge as Billy might have to swim across several times.

"—There," he said, pointing, "Can you sit here and shine the torch at the gap, Karen: I have to see what's over there before we take anything across." Ideally he would have taken the torch with him, but he didn't want the little girl left on her own in the dark, and anyway, he couldn't think of a way to carry it without it getting wet. "Turn it off when I get across," he added. Stripping down to just his pants and his socks, he slowly got into the water; it was quite cold, but after a few minutes he got used to it.

Karen watched him swim slowly to the island, but it only took a couple of minutes and then he scrambled up onto the island, where he waved and she somewhat reluctantly turned the torch off. She then sat on the bank looking straight ahead at the place where he had vanished: her thoughts were only for her Billy's return. Fortunately the moon was out and shone quite brightly so it wasn't completely dark and she smiled when she saw him appear again.

After swimming back he sat shivering on the bank until he was ready to unwrap his clothes bundle, then he took off his wet pants and replaced them with dry, using others to dry himself.

"We'll sleep now and go across tomorrow." Retying his bundle, they quickly found some shelter, were there they cuddled up together to pass what was left of the night.

In the morning they ate sparingly once again. Billy looked cautiously around, and believing that they weren't easily within view of anyone, he decided that they should try and cross to the island in the daylight, as they had to get everything and themselves across the water, then find some sort of shelter. He wanted to get the clothes across first, so that Karen could get dry as soon as she was over, as he couldn't think of a way where she wouldn't get at least a bit wet. The days were still warm, too, which would help.

He knew that wood floated, so as soon as he got back over there, he could look for something to support the bundles and her; even if it took several goes. He told her what he intended to do, and that she should stay under cover for a while.

When he got back onto the island he was glad that he could see better. It was a largish grassy area in the centre, and the grass was quite tall and there were wild flowers. Because the island was ringed with trees, there were quite a lot of fallen branches, from which he thought they could make a good shelter. He found a fair-size branch which still had smaller sub branches attached to it: he thought that if Karen could climb onto it he could tow her across and the side branches would give it a bit of stability, like the outriggers on a canoe he'd seen in a book.

He dragged the heavy branch slowly over to where he had landed on the island and managed to launch it into the water, then holding onto it tightly, he swam back to the shore; it was as stable as he hoped it would be.

"Take your shoes off and your coat, Karen, but don't worry about getting wet. Then climb onto the log like you were sitting on the see saw and try and sit up straight and I'll pull you across."

When she sat on it, it sank a bit, but it never tipped over. Then when she was feeling secure, Billy handed her one of the bundles, then he towed her across. At the island he manoeuvred the branch so that he could safely take the bundle. With one across safely, and Karen reassured that she wasn't going to fall off, he towed her back to the bank, where he helped her on with his backpack and she held the second bundle up against her chest. With these safely disembarked, they went back for whatever was left.

After Billy had safely landed Karen, he dragged the branch out of the water again: after it had dried out under the sun, he planned on using it in their shelter. Karen sat on the grass and took off her wet clothes; as it was warm and her clothes were still bundled up, she happily walked around without any. Billy, too, took off his wet clothes, wrung the water out, then left them on the grass to dry a little. He told her to tread carefully, as they couldn't always see where they were walking, then they set about collecting materials for their new den.

 
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