I was walking along the road, and just as I passed the bank, three men ran out with stockings over their faces. I knew at once they were robbers but I didn’t expect them to grab hold of me and put me in the car which had a fourth man in. “This kid’ll do fer ransom.”
“Okay, let’s get going,” said another member of the gang. The car started up and drove away, moving very fast.
After a short time the car came screeching to a halt and I was taken out between two burly me and shoved inside a backstreet house.
“Hey Jake, looky here. We got the money, and a kid that’ll help us get more money, what d’ya’ think, eh Jake?”
“The money’s okay but I don’t know about the kid, I suppose. What’s yer name kid?”
“Fred Bloggs,” I bravely replied.
“You watch it, or I’ll clip yer,” said Jake.
“Away then,” I said, making a run for the door, but one of the gang stood at the door so I couldn’t get through, so I made a dash for the next door I saw and I ended up in the cupboard. “Rats!” I thought to myself as I heard the rattle of the key in the door, “This always happens to me.” I sat down until my eyes grew accustomed to the dark and I saw I was in the food cupboard. “At least I won’t starve.” I said out loud.
“Hey kid, you wanna change yer mind? If you don’t, I’m coming to get yer.” yelled in Jake.
“How much will you give me, Jake?” I yelled back.
“That does it. Gus, go and get ‘im out. I’ll give ‘im what for!”
“Righto, skip,” came Gus’ voice.
I waited to hear the rattle of the key in the door, then I flattened myself against the wall next to the door. When Gus opened the door, I dashed out straight into the arms of a man who I hadn’t seen before.
“Lovely catch, Roy. That’s the kid I was telling you about. What d’you think of him?” said Jake.
“Pretty tough, I kinda like him.”
After staring at Roy for a long time, I could see that I liked him as well.
Next morning I woke up very early and rose from my place on the settee and crept past Roy who was lying on the floor and quietly turned the key. Once outside I slammed the door as hard as I could and ran as fast as I could down the street, but to my horror I saw two of the gang walking down the street. I turned round and saw Roy coming out of the door. I decided to try and get past Roy, but he caught hold of me, but to my surprise he whispered, “I’ll tackle those two. You go back along the other way, right?”
“R-right,” I stammered. “What’s the matter? Don’t you like being a crook?”
“I never have done, I was forced into this by Jake. You run along now, see you.”
“See you,” I replied, but my curiosity got the better of me and I followed him at a safe distance.
Suddenly, one of the men drew a gun and took aim at Roy. The other man tried to stop him, but the man with the gun hit him and the man fell to the ground. Roy was now running and as he ran he shouted, “Don’t do it Sharky, you’ll regret it!”
“Aw shaddup! I never did like you.” And as Sharky said this he pulled the trigger. There came a loud bang, followed by a yell from Roy as he fell clutching his face. I ran to look at Roy, choking back my tears as I ran.
When I reached him, he murmured, “Tell Jake, Rectus Pos Ravigatos.*” I looked up at Sharky as he stood there dumbfounded, woken from his drunken stupidity, then he turned and ran but the other man had recovered and leapt on Sharky and brought him down to the ground with a thud.
Jake and the other members of the gang has been woken by the gun shot and had come running out to see what it was all about. He saw Roy on the floor and asked me what had happened, but I didn’t answer him, I just said, “Rectus Pos Ravigatos, that’s what Roy told me to tell you.”
“Rectus Pos Ravigatos!” Jake yelled, “Sheesh, we gotta leave this country.”
I was rather taken aback by everyone’s reaction to those words and I quite forget to ask what it meant.
The next few hours were filled with packing for Jake’s gang and I hadn’t seen them looking so worried since I had arrived. Suddenly we all heard the ‘ee-aw’ of a police car and there was a mad rush for the back door and I was the only one left when a big policeman walked in. He asked me what has happened and where was everyone and I replied “I don’t know, I only said ‘Rectus Pos Ravigatos’ and there was panic.”
“Oh-ho,” said the policeman, “Well I’d better take you home. Go and get in the car.”
A few minutes later I was reunited with my Mam and Dad and I told them over and over again of my hair raising experience.
* I don’t know what it means, but it adds tension to the story.
Teacher’s Comments
7/10
Quite a good story but it’s rather long and your handwriting has deteriorated.
(c) M. Robert Gibson
First written April 1975
School exercise.
Don’t forget, it was written by a schoolboy.
It is published here for purely selfish vanity reasons.
M. Robert Gibson 