Fast Fiction: Vincent And Us
Vincent leads two young friends on a madcap scramble down into a quarry. There is a shout, a splash... Richard Mallinson's short story contains surprses.
One day Vincent said that we should go to the old quarry and we did. It never occurred to us not to. Nor to tell anyone where we were going.
At the quarry we peered over the rim and saw the water at the bottom, shining in the sun.
‘Let’s go down,’ said Vincent and we began to do so, cautiously.
There were few handholds or footholds.
Tim said ‘I’m going back.’
‘Don’t be a coward,’ Vincent shouted but Tim went all the same.
I continued to go down. Then I saw that there was a sheer drop near the bottom and the water now looked cold, dark and deep.
Vincent had stopped and was staring down. I called to him that we ought to go back but there was no reply.
I began to scramble up and then I heard a shout and a splash. I didn’t look down until I reached the top.
‘He’s fallen in,’ said Tim calmly, ‘but I think he can swim.’
We went back to the village.
‘Where is he?’ cried Vincent’s mother. She had the kind of figure boys gape at and it seemed to be a long time before we told her.
*
‘When I got there he was at the top, covered in wet clay,’ Vincent’s mother said to anyone who cared to listen, including my mum and dad and Tim’s.
The she added with a smile, ‘The other two boys had rushed back to me to raise the alarm as fast as they could - and you should have seen their faces.’
The darling woman then told my mum and dad and Tim’s, standing there in the street, that they ought to be proud of us.
As, of course, they were.
