William & Zach by Jack

William and Zach were going berry picking and they were warned not to eat the poisonous ones. They set of to find some berries to eat, then the boys noticed a man, but he was going faster than usual, his legs were going in circles.

It was a bike Zach pointed out, then Will said to Zach, “What is a bike?” and then Zach told Will everything he knew about bikes. Then the two went rushing back to Tom’s house and he had a surprise for Will, it was his own personal bike then Will was about to get on it but then Tom stopped him and started to screw on stabilizers.

“You need to learn how to use it before you can go on,” said Tom quickly.

“But I know how to use one Zach told me,” exclaimed Will.

“Then show me,” said Tom, so then Will hoped on the bike and began to pedal, but then he found himself on the road and started speeding down.

“I can’t stop,” said Willie hurriedly.

“Use your brakes!” exclaimed Tom, then Will hit the brakes as hard as he could, then Will leapt forward.

“I can’t watch,” said Zach as Willie launched into the air and went head first into the pavement. 

“You alright boy,” said Tom.

“I’ll live,” said Will and they all laughed.

“Should be getting on with your berry picking,” said Tom so they both left and went on berry picking and hopefully not getting poisoned. 

So then Will and Zach went to go and pick some berries, but little did they know that they had just hit the jackpot.   

The Encounter of the Sand Soldier by Maddie

The next morning, Tom came up the stairs to see Willie reading [or looking at the pictures] the comic book Tom had given him. “Willie it’s time to get ready but first come and have breakfast. We can have some blackberries you picked yesterday.”

“Yes, Mister Tom I will come after I have got dressed.”

“Okay I will boil a cup of tea for both of us.”

Five minutes later, Tom and Willie were sat at the table eating breakfast when they were interrupted. “Hello, William, Mr Oakley. I was just wondering if William would like to go for a walk?” asked Zach.

“Please Mister Tom?” replied Willie.

“It’s up to you but if you’re going take Sam with you please!”

“Yeah.”

And, with that Willie got up, grabbed Sam’s lead and headed for the front door. Sam chased Willie excitedly and waited until Willie had put the lead on.

Then Zach, Willie and Sam began their journey around Little Weirwold. They only walked for ten minutes when they halted. Willie looked left and saw a lane he had never seen before. It looked abandoned. Zach prompted him to carry on so they did until they reached the end. The lane opened out to three different lanes shooting out. Then Zach finally said,” Let’s go left it looks promising.”

“Okay, I guess.” Sam ran in front of them but suddenly stopped. The lane they had just been walking on had expanded into a muddy field. Willie had second thoughts about the field.” Come on we have no other options.” Willie didn’t answer because Zach took two steps out into the field and began to sink. Soon, Zach was losing his balance so working as a team Sam and Willie tried to pull him up but then Sam fell in! What was Willie going to do?

He began to search the area and could hear Zach screaming and Sam yelping. Suddenly, Willie found two long sticks on the floor and reached them out towards them. Sam gripped on and using all his strength he pulled Sam out. Now, Zach was all under except for his face and hands. Quickly, Sam and Willie tried as fast as they could to pull him out. Sam tugged at Willie as hard as he could and it worked! Zach was free!

Five minutes past and they finally made their way back to the different paths. After finding which path it was they heard an explosion. Over the hedges they could see an aeroplane’s wing and knew that it was crashed.

As fast as they could they reached the town centre. In the distance they could see George, Edward, Michael, Carrie and Ginnie all talking. Zach, Willie and Sam ran as fast as they could until they reached them.

“Hey, guys this plane crashed near where we were standing but it is in quick sand. We need your help!” Zach said panting. At first everyone stared at him but they suddenly started running. Somehow Zach had restored some energy and led them straight there. While Willie and Sam were walking miles behind.

Once they reached the plane they could tell a faint shadow of a person. Michael and Edward had been carrying a long, wide wooden plank so they could climb to the broken plane.

Everyone carefully helped,” We need to hurry up because plane and the plank is already sinking!” shouted Edward quite stressed. So, Edward and Michael went to the plane [climbing] as fast as they could. Out of the shadows a small uniformed man appeared. He had lots of scrapes, cuts and bruises.

Two minutes later they had got the injured man to the rest of the group. Zach and William led the way when Zach had a brilliant idea. “Why don’t we take him back to Dr and Nancy!” Everyone soon agreed and in a matter of minutes they were there.

“Hello, Zach!” said Dr and Nancy.

“Wo have we got here?” Dr looked confused.

“This is a soldier whose plane crashed in quick sand! He has lots of cuts and scrapes. So we were wondering if you could help him?”

“How do you know he’s not a spy?” Dr replied.

“Because he definitely had a British plane!”

“Come here young man,” and Dr beckoned him to go to him.

“And what is your name?”

“My name is Jeff Wright and I have crashed my plane and the boy’s right I am one hundred percent British.” Dr started wiping his wounds and scrapes while Nancy gave the rest of them a biscuit and juice while they waited.

Finally, after a good hour Dr had finished examining and putting bandages on him. Then Zach asked pleadingly,” He has nowhere else to go and he will probably starve or die out there in the wilderness. So please can he stay here if he wants to?” Dr looked at Jeff then he said, “I guess he could stay here but only if Jeff wants to.”

“Yeah thanks for some shelter while my wounds heal!” replied Jeff.

Zach and Willie's Adventure by Stuart

There was a knock on the door, “Willie, Zacharias is here!” Tom shouted. 

“You can call me Zach,” he replied. 

Willie was so excited to play with Zach again; he still couldn’t believe that he had a friend to play with. 

Willie and Zach were playing tig and also playing fetch with the dog. Suddenly, Zach had an idea, he could teach Willie how to ride a bike. He went to get two bikes, one for him and one for William. “Its proper easy,” Zach said, but Willie wasn’t too sure about that considering that he had never been on one before.

“In a few seconds Willie is going to sit on a bike for the first time,” Zach said in a commentator’s voice, “5 4 3 2 1, and he’s on. He hasn’t pushed the pedals yet, but he likes it so far.” Zach held onto the back of the bike while Willie rode. 

He was having the time of his life. Then, Zach let go, “Am I doing well?” Willie asked.

“You’re doing great,” said a voice in the distance. Willie turned around and saw Zach at the other side of the field, but instead of losing concentration or falling, he stayed on and loved it. 

Zach got onto his bike and said, “Follow me,” so that’s what Willie did. “Remember about those German spies’ that disguised themselves as us?” Zach asked. 

“Yeah,” Willie replied.

“I think that’s one of them, lets follow him.” Zach whispered. They abandoned their bikes and left a leaf trail so they could find their way back.

A few hours passed, and it was getting dark, “I think we should go back,” Zach said and Willie nodded. They went back to their leaf trail, it was working until it just faded and disappeared. They kept going until they got to these three paths and didn’t know what to do. Instead of trying to go for a lucky guess, they chose the dumb idea and followed the spy some more. It was getting darker by the minute but the boys were only focused on the spy. He was strolling into this strange field, “Where is he goi…” Zach was interrupted by a loud sound of a helicopter that the man hopped in. “I knew he was a sp…” Zach was interrupted by Willie this time.

“He works as a medic in the war.”

They were heading back to the three paths completely forgetting about the leaf trail. As soon as they put one foot forward they heard rustling in the leaves. They looked and saw bushes moving so they went to investigate. They approached the bush to see there was nothing there. Then, it was just pitch black for them. 

They woke up with a bag over their head and were tied up wriggling for their lives. They screamed but duct tape was on their mouths. They heard a strange voice say, “Look who has finally woken up.” The kidnappers took the bag off of Willie and Zach’s head. They were 11 year olds, that had kidnapped Willie and Zach. Willie was trying to talk so they finally took the duct tape off. “Where is Zach?”  Willie shouted.

“Oh that other wimp, bring him through!” and there Zach was, all tied up.

It was getting late so the 11 year olds were getting tired so they went to sleep in a locked up room. Zach was getting so worried but Willie remembered what his dad taught him if anything like this happened so he did it. They twisted the chairs around and shuffled closer to each other. He rubbed his rope against Zach’s and boom the rope broke. Willie untied his feet and then untied zach.    

Zach and Willie/Back to London by Samuel

“Mrs Little I don’t feel very well!” shouted Zach to his carer. Mrs Little rushed downstairs but only to see Zach with his eyes closed. She tried to wake him up, but she just couldn’t so then at that moment she realised that he was in a coma, so she took the big risk and took him to London, so Zach could go into proper care at a proper hospital with proper doctors because Mrs Little is only a nurse and she needs more than one person with her, at least that’s what she says anyway. Zach was then wheeled into the hospital ward and straight away they watched his heartbeat and fortunately he was still alive, it’s just he was in a light coma that would go on for one week. 

A week had then gone, and the air raid sirens had gone off so Zach with his legs feeling like jelly rushed to the train station and got the last train to Little Weirwold forgetting about his carer. When he finally got there, he had just remembered that he had left Mrs Little and he felt that guilty that he started crying in the middle of the train station. With tears still in his eyes, Zach headed over to Thomas Oakley’s house where his only friend William Beech (Willie for short) was staying. He then knocked on the door and explained everything that happened to Willie and Tom “Well yee best come inside then” said Tom, “Go play with Willie in the front room doesn’t matter if yee make a mess needs a wash anyway.”

William and Zach's Adventure by Olivia D

They were walking in the woods but suddenly realised they were lost. They couldn’t find the way back so Willie said, “Find some sticks and I’ll find something useful to use.” After a while they got everything they needed.

Zach heard a noise. Like something was eating. like a bear or something. He followed the noise and a bear jumped out of the bush. Zach was terrified, so he ran to Willie. The bear was still chasing him, he warned Willie there’s a bear coming, meanwhile, they both climbed the tree and the bear came. It was looking around, but he saw nothing so he slowly walked away.

Willie tried to climb down the tree, but he fell off it and got his arm injured. Zach climbed down the tree and said. “Are you okay?” 

“I think I sprained it or something,” he replied.

“Ah okay.” 

Willie sat at the side of the tree and took a rest. Meanwhile, Zach tried to put the fire on, but it took him a couple of minutes. “Finally, the fire is on.” He’d put his arms closer to the fire to keep him warm and then he fell asleep.

The next day, Zach woke up and went to look for some food like; blueberries, strawberries and other different kind of things.  He came back, and he saw Willie had woken up and said, “Good morning.” 

He replied, “Oh Good morning.” He gave Willie some blueberries.

After they ate the blueberries Zach said, “Anyways, how’s your arm?” 

“It’s all better now,” Willie replied. He got up with Zach, and they started to walk to the field. 

Suddenly a plane crashed so the boys’ ran to the pilot to help him.

Zach tried to open the door, but it was jammed! Willie backed away and kicked the door. The pilot fainted. Willie said, “Zach back away, I’ll get the pilot out.” So, he did what he said. He went outside with the pilot.

He laid him on the ground then Willie went to a lake close by to get some water. Because if someone faints get some water pour some on their face and you can save their life (Well it sometimes works.) He came back with some water. He poured some water on the pilot’s face and he woke up. He took a deep breath and started breathing. He said, “You saved my life! Thank you very much!” 

“Your welcome,” they both said.

Zach went closer to the pilot and said, “Umm, can you maybe take us back home?” All of a sudden, BOOM a loud noise came from the plane. All of the plane bits came everywhere pieces were broken so the pilot said, “Umm I guess not but, I can call a helicopter to bring us back home,” he smiled.

(Couple hours later)

“There it is!” He pointed at the helicopter. A ladder came down and they all climbed it.” Thank you very much!” Willie and Zach said at the same time.

It took them a couple of hours to take them home. The helicopter finally landed. They both got off it and went back to their homes. Willie and Zach thought to themselves, “Well that was the biggest adventure I had.”

They both opened the door and told everyone what had happened. Tom said, “At least you’re at home, all safe and sound.” He hugged them back.

William and Zach’s Adventure by Olivia W

In the morning, Zach dragged himself off to Mr. Tom’s house, so they could do some fun activities. As he arrived at Mr. Tom’s house Zach noticed that William was waiting outside for him. Zach asked himself if he brought his gas mask he answered with a, “Yes of course I brought it.” And then he ran off to William.

“What do you want to do?” asked Willie as he stared at Zach.

“Do you have any bikes?” questioned Zach. As he saw that Willie shook his head, Zach looked around and noticed that Mrs. Fletcher lives next to them and she has her sons two bikes. Zach tells Willie to follow him as he ran towards Mrs. Fletcher’s house. Zach waits for Willie to catch up as he stands in front of her door, Zach knocks on the door twice and then he moves back.

“Good morning Mrs. Fletcher, would we be able to use your two sons’ bikes please?” Zach said politely.

“Of course, Zach,” said Mrs. Fletcher, she pointed them to where they were.

“They’re over there,” she said to them.

“Thank you,” he said as he walked towards them with Willie by his side.

“No problem and have a safe trip boys,” she said as she closed the door.

“We will.” Zach and Willie answered as they both got a bike and started walking off to Mr. Tom’s house to tell him what they were going to do.

They walked out of Mr. Tom’s house and they both sat on their bikes, Zach looked back at Willie, “Do you need any help?” asked Zach.

“Yeah I’ve never rode a bike before,” Willie said nervously. Zach jumped off his bike and leaned it on a wall, he walked towards Willie and he helped him onto the bike, Zach showed William how to ride the bike and when Willie felt confident Zach let go of him and Willie started riding off, Zach jumped onto his bike and started riding fast as he could so he could catch up with Willie.

As they were riding past, Zach saw a plane that had just crashed into a field full of horses. They stopped by the gate of the field and they ran in, so the horses wouldn’t run away into the distance. They walked towards the group of horses and Zach started to calm them down while William walked towards the plane.

“What would have caused this to happen?” said Willie.

“I don’t know who and why, but I only know that something bad might happen,” Zach said in a serious tone.

“We should start heading back and tell Mr. Tom what happened.”

“Yeah we should.”

Willie and Zach walk back to the gate and they shut it and go on their bikes and they head to Mr. Tom’s house.

When they arrived they give the bikes back to Mrs. Fletcher. They walked back to Mr. Tom’s house and as they walked in they both shouted,

“MR. TOM!”

Mr. Tom ran down stairs panicking and he stopped at the bottom step and he stared at them.

“A plane crashed at the field where the horses are,” said Zach.

Mr. Tom put his shoes on and ran outside to the field and Willie and Zach ran after him.

When they arrived at the field Mr. Tom ran towards the plane and he walked inside, a couple minutes later Mr. Tom pulled out two men who were unconscious…

The Pilot by Maya

Tom walked into Willie’s room. He was once again surprised that Willie actually slept in the bed, yet the bed was soaking wet. Tom took a deep sigh and tried to wake Willie up.

Willie, Tom and Sammy were soon down stairs drinking tea and scrubbing the wet bed sheets. Just then, someone bashed on the door. Mr Tom went to answer it. Behind the ancient, crooked, wooden door stood Zach with his red top and green braces, the same as the day before. “Would Willie like to go cycling and then maybe go down to the lake?”  

“I think he would love that, Wouldn’t ya Willie?” 

Willie nodded his head. He wasn’t quite sure what a river was, yet he said nothing.

Zach sat by the table, downstairs while Willie went to get changed. Willie felt quite excited yet slightly scared because he had no idea of what a lake was. He imagined it as the miniature pond that Mr Tom kept in his garden as a decoration.

Once Willie had finished getting changed from his wet pyjamas, he walked down the stairs slowly. Zach and Mr Tom were chatting quietly. It seemed like they were talking about Willie. “How’s Willie getting on?” asked Zach.

“Yer, e’s doin’ fine,” whispered Tom. 

For a minute or two there was complete silence throughout the house. The two of them were sat in silence. Zach then took a loud slurp of his tea to break the silence yet it only made it more awkward. 

Willie was still sat on the stairs, listening to the silent conversation. 

Suddenly there was a loud creak on the stairs due to Willie’s fidgeting. The pair of them turned around and saw Willie crouching down on the crooked stairs. “It’s probably best that yer be off.” 

Zach nodded in agreement.

They opened the creaky, ancient door. 

They headed to Mrs Fletcher’s house because she promised that the two boys could borrow Michael’s and George’s old bikes. Zach wanted to show Willie his favourite cycle path. 

They both cycled through the small village of Little Wierwold. They went past the shops that Willie had visited the first day in Little Wierwold. Then they came up to the post office then the village centre. Soon enough they were already cycling through meadows and fields. Zach pointed out the path. The path was a cobbled way surrounded by an evergreen forest and beautiful foxgloves. The smell of freshly mown grass was sensational. 

Soon after they were riding along a small stream. Before they knew it, they were at the lake that Zach kept going on about. When Willie saw that it was deep water, he panicked. “I’ll drown!” shouted Willie “I’ve never swam in my life.”                                                              “You’ll be fine,” said Zach.

7.5 - The best worst adventure by Grace N

“I is going out to town to get yer some more bacon, you coming?”

“Mr. Oakley,” replied Zach, “can me and Will go out in the forest and explore while you are gone?” Willie looked bland.

“Well err… I suppose so, but don’t go getting yerself lost now

“No Mr. Oakley.”

“No Mister Tom,” agreed Willie.

They both went upstairs into Willie’s bedroom.

“I’m going to bring my bike, want me to ask Mrs. Fletcher if you can borrow one of her boys’ old bikes?”

“Uuhh…no thanks, I don’t know how to ride a bike.” Everything went silent for a minute.

“Well then what do you- oh yeah! You said you like drawing right? So, I will be right back with a sketchpad.” Willie stayed still waiting for Zach.

A few minutes later Zach came back with a pencil, rubber, sharpener, sketchpad and a small, blue fluffy pencil case. “Put the thing in this pencil case, then you won’t lose it.” Willie nodded and did what he said.

They go outside and round the back of the house, they see Sammy through Tom’s bedroom window. Zach grabs his bike, which he was hiding in a ditch. Then they start heading for the forest. “This is going to be so fun!” exclaimed Zach.                 “Yea,” replied Willie running after Zach. They eventually got to the forest.

“Hey Will, you should have a go riding, I think you will enjoy it.”

“Oh uhh…well ok then,” said Willie nervously.

Zach wheeled his bike over to Willie’s feet, “Here, have a go.”

Willie sat on the seat, he started peddling, “I’m doing it,” he thought. Suddenly he lost his balance and went tumbling to the ground.

“Will! You ok?!” shouted Zach.

Willie got up quickly, “I’m fine…”

They carried on walking, “I’m sorry I broke your bike…”

“It’s not your fault! I keep telling you that, it is not your fault!!”

“ok.”

“You have a big bruise on your leg, you sure you’re ok?” said Zach feeling very concerned.

“That’s not…” Willie stopped himself. Nobody had really ever cared before…

“alright then let’s keep going.”

They kept on going through the forest, the bike was still where it fell. “Uh oh….”

“What is it?”

“A river, there’s no way to cross it but…swim.”

Willie looked shocked, he took a step back. Zach went in the water first and looked back at Willie, “come on then, let’s go, swimming is fun! It’s not cold.”

Willie got in one foot at a time. “Ewwwww... I think I stepped in mud! Well at least I hope in this situation it is!!”

“Will?” Zach looked behind him. “WILL!” He saw Willie lying face down in the water, lifeless. Zach grabbed his hand and pulled him to the other end of the lake. He started doing compressions and mouth to mouth, finally, Willie woke up, he started coughing. “WILL WHAT DID YOU DO? HOW CAN YOU DROWN IN A METRE DEEP LAKE?!”

“Sorry…” Willie whispered. They started laughing and Zach helped Willie up.

“It’s getting quite late…maybe we should like, find a tree to sleep in?”

“Ok,” said Willie.

Zach pointed to a big tree. “Come on lets go, I’m presuming since you cannot swim, you probably can’t climb trees, so I will give you a boost.”

Willie nodded.

They got to the tree and Zach gave him a boost. Then Zach started climbing, “I am pretty good at climbing, not trying to gloat though.”

“I think Mister Tom will be mad at me for being gone so long.”

“I’ve known Tom Oakley for a while now and I know he will only be worried about you, trust me.”

“ok…”

“Get some sleep Willie, we deserve it.”

They started laughing again, “Goodnight.”

“Night,”

They drifted off.

Suddenly Willie jumped, (which made Zach jump.) “What is it Will?”

“I saw something, it was grey, German soldiers wear grey.”

It could’ve been anything, like a squirrel, or a- “

“A wolf?”

“Wolves do not come here…Plus they hunt in packs.”

“I am goin to try and go back to sleep,” whispered Willie.

“Same,” replied Zach.

                                                                         

Learning to ride a bike – William and Zach, by Courtney

The next morning, Mr. Tom went upstairs to wake up William but he was already up and dressed. They both went downstairs to drink some tea and eat breakfast. A few minutes after they had done, there was a knock on the wooden door. Mr. Tom walked away from the tub of heated water that he was washing the dirty dishes in and made his way to the wooden door. The door was knocked on again but this time it was louder, “I’m coming; I’m coming,” he muttered grumpily to himself.

The door had been swung open before the person could knock again.

“Hi Mr. Tom,” the visitor said to him. It was Zach.

Mr. Tom replied with, “What do you want?” as he looked down on the little boy.

“Is it ok if William comes out to play I want to teach him how to ride a bike on the field,” Zach said very confidently.

Mr. Tom looked back and called, “William, come here someone is here to play with you!”

William rushed to the front door. He was pretty surprised that someone actually came back to play with him. No-one ever liked him or said they did. Sometimes they would lie and say that they liked him but then never talked to him again or tried to avoid him.

“Ok you can go and have some fun,” he said to them.

“Ok, thank you Mr. Tom,” William replied politely.

William and Zack started walking to the field together, “but be back soon ok, it’s going to’ start getting’ dark soon,” Mr. Tom said just loud enough so they could hear him.

After about 7 minutes they finally got to the fence on the side of the field border.

Zach started to untie something from the fence.

“What’s that?!” William said in shock and confusion.

 “You’ve never seen a bike before…?” he questioned him.

“You ride it, do you want to learn how to?” he said with a big smile.

William was a bit scared of the bike.

“I-I would love to learn how to use it and I have never seen the bike….”

He looked at his shoes feeling embarrassed and tearing up. Feeling bad Zach was bright red, “I-its f-fine just don’t cry please…...,” he said trying to comfort him.

He got onto the bike and started to ride it around him in circles, “Look,” he said hoping it would cheer him up.

Willie wiped his eyes and smiled, “I wasn’t crying of sadness.”

“You weren’t?”  Zach said in relief.

“N-no I was j-just thinking about how you are such a good friend and that you actually came back to play with me today like you said you would…” he said with also a bright red face. Willie was thinking, ‘Why am I saying how I feel, I don’t think he wants to hear.’  

Zack was blushing and said, “W-well off course I would why wouldn’t I come back?” Zach turned away from him.

“Ok do you want to start to learn how to ride the bike then?”

“Can you stand on one leg and not fall over?”

“I-I don’t know I’ve never tried it…” Willie said to him.

“Try,” he said confidently.

William stood on one leg and after 7 seconds he fell onto the field.

“Good for a first try!” he said in shock he said this to make him feel better, 7 seconds isn’t that good but I can’t tell him that.

“R-really!” he said proudly.

“Here…” he held Williams hands.

“Try again.”

Zach’s hands felt so soft. As he was telling him tips William just about managed to hear them because he was wondering how he kept his hands soft.

Once again William stood on one leg and after a few minutes on each leg to warm up he let William hold on to his shoulders for about 20 more minutes. When William was holding his shoulders, he felt the jacket he was wearing it was almost as soft as his hands.

“Ok now try without my help,” he said to William.

He tried on his own and held it for 1 minute and 12 seconds although he was quite wobbly.

“Would you like to try the bike now?” Zach asked William.

“Sure,” he said.

Zach showed William all of the stuff he needed to know like how to stop, how to go and how to turn left and right.

He helped William get on to the bike.

“I will hold the side of the bike so you don’t tip over, ok,” he said to him.

William felt more comfortable that he heard that Zach will hold the bike for extra balance support.

“When you are ready you can start pushing the peddles on the bike.”

“Ok,” William replied.

He started to push the peddles and not long later her was moving quite fast.

 

“If he gets faster I will haft to let go…” he thought.

“but would he trust me still…?”

“Zach” William said.

“Yeah William.”

“You can let go now,” he shouted to make sure he could hear him.

Zach let go and William was doing fine.

An Extraordinary Adventure by Clara

“Will! How would you like to walk around Little Weirwold today and explore the area?” Zach ran up to Willie and excitably cried.

“Erm…alright,” Willie muttered.

“Or…I could teach you how to cycle! I could borrow Mrs Fletcher’s bikes. Let’s go and ask her now!”

“I need to get my gas mask,” Willie mumbled.

“You don’t need that! There won’t be an air raid. We will be completely fine.” Zach reassured Willie.

“O-OK.” The pair walked to Mrs Fletcher’s house, which was only down the road, and by the time they arrived, Willie’s legs were aching after walking around the blackberry-picking field all day yesterday.

Mrs Fletcher was in the back garden. Hanging up wet pieces of clothing along a line that stretched from either side of the garden. Zach coughed to signal his presence. Mrs Fletcher turned to face Willie and Zach and exclaimed, “Ah! Hello, boys. Excuse me. I was just letting some clothes dry.”

“Hello, Mrs Fletcher! Willie and I were wondering if you had any bicycles you could kindly let us borrow?” Zach beamed, his curly hair tumbling over his eyes.

“Why, yes, I have! You can borrow George and David’s bikes if you want. They have grown out of them, and I think my older one’s bikes will be too big for you two.” Mrs Fletcher led them to a large door. Bracing her muscles, she lifted it straight up into the roof, revealing a room cluttered with bikes, boxes and broken toys. “There you go, boys,” Mrs Fletcher gestured to the closest two bikes, “They should be in a fine condition.”

A few minutes later, Willie and Zach were walking around an empty street, bikes beside them. Willie’s bicycle kept falling down until Zach told him, “No, don’t tip it away from you, keep it straight up.” By the time they t had reached an empty cobbled road far away from the village, Willie’s entire body was aching. “Watch me, Will.” Zach instructed, hopping onto the bike and pushing his legs onto the pedals. Willie watched as Zach turned the handlebars to switch directions. Willie tried to mimic Zach, but his legs could not reach the pedals. “It’s alright, I’m sure Mrs Fletcher won’t mind if we change how low the pedals are.” Willie found what Zach did next very confusing. First, Zach twisted a knob to the right of the pedals, and, after that, he lifted the pedals straight up the bicycle. Standing back to consider the placement of the pedals, he cheerfully exclaimed, “There! Now try that, Will.” Willie anxiously clambered onto the bike, not wanting to cause trouble for Zach, the first friend he had ever had. However, he found that the pedals now fit perfectly. Feeling happy, Willie tried to mimic Zach’s demonstration, only to fall off the bike again, adding another injury to his collection on his body.

This continued for a couple of hours, until Zach, frustrated at how Willie still could not even learn the basics of bicycle riding, exasperatedly sighed, “Maybe we should stop with this for today? I know, we could cloud gaze in the field next to us!” Wheeling the bikes through a gate to a green field filled with wildflowers every colour of the rainbow. Willie was reluctant, thinking of the worms in the grass but was fascinated by the clouds that swirled in abstract patterns above his head. “Look, that one’s like a rabbit!” Willie remarked.

“I think it looks like a dolphin,” Zach replied.

“What’s a dolphin?”

“It’s a thing that lives in the sea. It looks like a shark, but it has a round fin on its back and it makes these adorable clicking noises.”

“Have you been to the seaside, Zach?”

“I’ve lived there for a few months a couple of times.”

“What does the sea look like?”

“It’s blue and shimmery most of the time, but on sunny days it can look green, and on cloudy days it can look grey. I love going to the beach and building sandcastles.”

“What are sandcastles?”

“They are miniature castles made out of sand. You use a bucket and fill it with wet sand and when you turn the bucket upside-down, the sand slides out and makes a cylinder. You can do this a few times and it looks so spectacular when it’s done.”

“What’s that thing in the air?”

“That’s-That’s an aeroplane. It looks awfully low to the ground. It’s getting lower- look!” The plane swerved and whirled until it landed on the ground with a sudden CRASH!

The boys sprang up and ran up to the plane wreckage. Inside was a man with brown hair and brown eyes. He looked like he was only eighteen or nineteen. “Are you injured?” asked Zach, helping the man out of the cockpit.

“No, I-I think I’m fine. My leg just hurts a little.”

“I’m staying with a doctor. I’ll help you over there,” Zach said,” Willie, could you take both the bicycles back?” Willie nodded, a little worried about how he would carry two bikes. Luckily, Willie was feeling well-rested after lying down in the field, so he was able to take the bikes back. At Dr Little and Nancy’s house, Zach and Willie were told that he man was in good hands, and that they should return the bikes to Mrs Fletcher.

A few minutes later, the boys were in Mrs Fletcher’s garden. They knocked on the back door and asked for Mrs Fletcher to open the garage door. While they were putting the bikes away, Mrs Fletcher asked them, “So, did you have a good day?” Zach replied, “Yes, it was great. We saved a pilot from a plane. Could we have the bikes again tomorrow?”

“Yes, of course you can.” As Mrs Fletcher walked back inside, she muttered to herself, “Boys and their imagination. Saving a pilot, indeed.”

That evening, Tom read Willie a Bible story and another ‘Just So’ story. Willie yawned as he got ready for bed.