‘Here,’ she said, standing up suddenly. ‘Put-that-down.’ Her accent was funny, especially when she said words like ‘down’.
Daniel grinned back at her and wielded the fork, taking one step towards her and then another, the tip of the fork raised towards her face. Again, she didn’t back away from him.
Daniel felt a sudden jolt as his pelvis was smacked into his spinal column. He dropped the fork and then it came again. The goat rammed him a second time in the lower back and he went forward, falling on top of the fork, face into the mud. He got up right away and spun around, fists tight and ready for a fight. The goat lowered his head, so that Daniel could see the fine brown horns.
‘No, Danny,’ she said, taking him by the elbow and pulling him back. ‘Don’t! He’ll go through you like you wouldn’t believe. The old goat’s got a soft spot for me. He wouldn’t have liked what you did there. Just leave him, now. You get gored with one of those horns and that’ll be the end of you.’
Daniel allowed himself to be pulled away. He walked towards the house, moving sideways so that he was facing the goat. As he reached the doorstep, he stuck his tongue out at Hector. The goat charged again and Daniel ran into the house.
Minnie told Daniel to get washed and get ready to go out. He did as she asked, while she stood in the kitchen, washing the eggs and repacking them.
He washed his face in the bathroom and brushed his teeth, then crept to his bedroom. The egg was still whole in his pocket and he put it in the drawer by his bedside. He sat it on a glove and placed three socks around it, like a nest, to warm it, closed the drawer and was about to start downstairs, when, as an afterthought, he went back into the room and took his mother’s necklace from under his pillow and placed that in the nest too, right beside the egg. He checked his back and buttocks for scratches from the goat’s horns. He had grazes on both palms from when he fell.
Minnie was winding a pink woollen scarf around her neck. She was still wearing the same grey skirt and boots that she had worn the day before. On top of her long cardigan, she put on a green coat. It was too tight for her to button up, and so she went out like that, with it open and the pink scarf swinging.
Minnie said they were going to register Daniel at the local school and then they would buy him some new school clothes.
‘We’ll walk,’ she said, as they passed her car. It was a dark red Renault with spiders’ webs strung across the right-hand wing mirror. ‘Need to show you the way to school anyway, don’t I?’
Daniel shrugged and followed her.
‘I hate school,’ he told her. ‘I’ll only get kicked out. I always get kicked out.’
‘Well, if you have that attitude, I’m not surprised.’
‘You what?’
‘Think positively. If you do, you might just be surprised.’
‘Like think about me mam getting better and then she will?’
Minnie didn’t say anything. He was a pace behind her.
‘I wished that for years anyway and it never ’appened.’
‘Being positive’s different to wishing. What you’re talking about is just wishing.’
It was fifty feet from her house before they reached a proper path. Minnie told him it was a twenty-minute walk to school.
First they walked through estates, then a park, then a field with cows in it. As they walked, Minnie told Daniel about Brampton, although he told her he didn’t care. He wouldn’t be staying long.
Brampton was just two miles south of Hadrian’s Wall, she told him. When he said he had never heard of the wall, she said she would take him one day. It was ten miles to Carlisle and fifty-five miles to Newcastle.
Fifty-five miles, Daniel thought as he walked behind her.
‘You all right there, pet?’ she asked. ‘You’re looking right down in the mouth today.’
‘M’all right.’
‘What is it you like to do? Not used to boys, so I’m not. You’ll need to keep me up to date. What is it you like, eh? Football?’
‘I dunno,’ he said.
They passed the park and Daniel turned to look at the swings. There was a heavy-set man alone on one of them, letting his foot gently rock him.
‘Want to have a shot? We’ve got time, you know?’
‘That bloke’s there,’ he said, squinting at the sun which was now high in the sky.
‘That’s just Billy Harper. Billy’ll not bother you. He loves them swings. Always has. He’s all right. Wouldn’t hurt a fly. Around here, pet, everyone knows everyone else. It’s the worst thing about the place, you’ll find out. But the good thing is once you have everyone’s measure you’ve nothing to fear. There’s no secrets in Brampton.’
Daniel thought about that: no secrets and everyone knowing your measure. He knew small places. He’d been put in a few of them, when his mam was sick. He didn’t like small places. He liked Newcastle. He wanted to live in London. He didn’t like people knowing his measure.
As if she had heard his thoughts, she said, ‘So you like Newcastle then?’
‘Aye,’ he said.
‘Would you like to live there again?’
‘I want to live in London.’
‘My, really? London, I think that’s a fine idea. I loved it there. If you grow up and move to London, what do you think you’ll be?’
‘I’ll be a pickpocket.’
Daniel thought she might tell him off then, but she turned and gave him a little push with her elbow. ‘Like Fagin, you mean?’
‘What’s that?’
‘Haven’t you seen Oliver Twist?’
‘Maybe. Aye, I think so.’
‘There’s an old man in that – pickpocket – comes to bad end.’
Daniel kicked at some stones. A cow turned in her path and moved towards him. Daniel jumped a little and skipped behind Minnie.
She laughed. ‘Och, lad, cows’ll not ’arm you. It’s the bulls you got to watch for. You’ll learn.’
‘How can you tell if it’s a cow or a bull?’
‘Well, lucky you. You’re here in Brampton. A town full of farmers – you can find out the answer.’
‘But that’s a cow, is it?’
‘It is.’
‘An old cow like you.’
She turned to him on the path, stopped walking and looked at him. She was out of breath a little and her cheeks were red. The light in her eyes had gone again. Daniel’s heart began to beat very fast, the way it did when he used to come home to his mam’s after being away. His heart would thump as he touched the door handle, not knowing what he would find behind the door.
‘Have I insulted you since you’ve been here?’
He looked at her, with his lips just parted.
‘Have I?’
He shook his head.
‘Speak up.’
‘You haven’t.’
‘All I ask is a similar courtesy. Do you understand?’
He nodded.
‘And while we’re at it, you know your time is soon up with that butterfly.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘I said you could have it for a few days, but now I need it back. This evening, when you wash your face and brush your teeth, I want you to return it, do you understand?’
He nodded again, but her back was turned.
‘I said do you understand?’
‘Yes,’ he said, louder than he had meant.
‘Good,’ she said. ‘I’m glad we understand each other. Now let’s forget it.’
He followed her along the path, watching her boots in the grass and noticing that the back of her skirt was splashed with mud. His arms felt funny and he shook them to get the bad feeling out of them.
‘Look!’ she said to him, stopping and pointing at the sky. ‘Do you see it?’
‘What?’
‘A kestrel! See it with the pointed wings and long tail?’