brown area on Seb’s palm and traced over the green lines. Aiden lifted his leaf and held it beside Seb’s hand. They crowded over it, casting their shadows across it.
“They’re exactly the same shape. Look, the bulgy bits bulge in the same places.”
“How really weird,” was all Zach could say and then the bell went.
“You mustn’t tell anyone; swear you won’t!” Seb looked each boy in the eye until they nodded as he replaced his glove.
“But Seb, don’t you think we should ask someone – a grown up?” Aiden said.
A sudden bang against the window startled them all and a little brown and black figure butted against the pane, its leathery wings flapping, its clawed feet scratching against the glass.
“It’s another one of those starlings,” Zach said.
Aiden looked horrified. “That’s not a starling!”
“No, it isn’t,” Seb said, reaching into his bag and retrieving the scrunched up paper with the pictures of the noctule bat. “I think it’s one of these.” He showed the page to his friends who looked from it to the winged creature flapping frantically near Seb’s head. “Come on, we’re going to be late.” Seb stood, grabbed his bag and thrust the paper at Zach. “I printed this for you. Scarlet says it was one of these that flew onto my head at the reserve on Saturday.” He started making his way to the door.
Aiden gently replaced his leaf into his diary and then his bag. Zach followed Seb, the picture in his hand.
“Whatever they are, they seem to like you,” he said. “Come on Aiden, we’ll tell you the story on the way back,” and he began recounting the deer story and the bat incident.
At lunchtime they regrouped at the tree stumps. It was a fairly secluded part of the Year Nine playground and the other students playing on the main area paid no attention to them. They had been there only two or three minutes when Scarlet found them. She was dying to see the object Aiden had and within seconds Nat had joined them, gently ticking Scarlet off for pretending to go to the toilet.
Scarlet plonked onto the tree stump, nudging Aiden’s bottom along to make room for herself. She looked at Seb, who was standing, gazing at Nat and rubbing his hand.
“Come on Seb, we can trust Nat; she won’t tell a soul.”
“Tell a soul what? What is all this secrecy? Really, you can trust me.” Nat smiled.
Aiden burst in, his little voice growing with excitement. “I don’t even know what all the secrecy is. I found a leaf, then Seb shows me his hand and then Zach starts telling stories about deer and bats and squirrels. It’s so exciting!” The last was said with a high-pitched squeal that made the girls giggle.
Seb chuckled and nodded to Aiden. “It’s your leaf, Aiden – up to you if you show them or not.”
Aiden immediately opened the pages of his diary. The sight of the glimmering silver lines in the middle of the perfect oak leaf made Scarlet and Nat lean in closer. Scarlet stared at Seb. “Now show them your hand!”
“We’ve already seen it!” Zach said, smiling.
“I haven’t!” Nat stated, stepping towards Seb. “What about your hand?”
Seb pulled off his glove and held his palm up in front of her.
She sighed, “How lovely!”
It was hardly the response Seb had expected but he was pleased.
A screech from the woods beyond the fence broke into their little conclave and a small creature flew from the dense foliage of a nearby bush, flapping towards Seb. Zach leapt onto a small gap on the tree stump, reached his hand up and intercepted the winged attacker before it reached Seb. In the same fluid movement he hurled it back into the bush to the satisfying sound of a further screech.
“Life at upper school is certainly far less dull than middle school!” Nat grinned.
Aiden and Scarlet laughed. Seb felt happy. He was standing in the sunshine with a group of friends who turned everything that was happening into an exciting event. Looking out towards the woods he saw a silver figure near the bush that had produced the bat. It faced him, mouthing words he had no hope of hearing. Then he felt a warm hand lift his arm and a fingernail trace the lines on his palm. He turned and Nat’s eyes sparkled at him.
She smiled. “Do you hear anything, Seb?”
Seb was now only conscious of her touch on his skin. “No, I see— I mean, no.”
She looked puzzled. “But I thought you could hear it. You looked over to— ” She turned her face towards the woods. “I can hear something— ” She was still tracing the outline of the leaf on his palm. “I hear it often,” she whispered but was interrupted as Scarlet grabbed Seb’s wrist.
“It’s all really weird. Aiden, can I have the leaf?” she asked.
Aiden handed it to her and she placed it beside Seb’s hand.
“They look exactly the same – except for the size and colour, obviously.”
Aiden had his nose practically on Seb’s wrist, his brow furrowed. His shadow blocked the light until the breeze caught the leaf, lifting it into the sun. Now the light reflected off the silver pattern and directly onto the green lines in the centre of Seb’s hand. A flurry of sparks burst from Seb’s skin and he yelled in pain. Zach pushed Scarlet’s arm up, breaking the link between the leaf and Seb’s palm. But now the sparks were flying from his birthmark in a cascade of silver that reached the height of their shoulders. Zach clamped his fingers over Seb’s hand and in a second the shower of light was extinguished.
Seb’s knees buckled and, groaning, he slumped onto the tree stump. Scarlet grabbed his arm, supporting him but dropped the leaf as she did. Aiden caught it.
“Oh, look. Oh no.” He held the leaf up. In the centre were scorched gaps where the silver lines had been. As Aiden gripped the leaf it turned yellow, then brown, then fragmented, and the wind blew the pieces apart. They disintegrated and floated in a shower of dust into his face. Unable to avoid it, Aiden breathed in the trail of dust and sneezed. In moments all signs of the leaf had disappeared.
Nat knelt beside Seb. “Are you okay?” She lifted his hand and opened his fingers. “Did it burn you?”
Scarlet was going through the same process with Zach.
As Nat saw Seb’s hand she almost recoiled. “Look!”
Everyone, even Zach, who was nursing scorch marks on his own fingers, looked down at Seb’s palm. The outline of the leaf-shaped birthmark was clearly defined but now the criss-crossing lines had turned silver. They seemed to form part of his skin, like silver veins.
“This is getting really too weird!” Scarlet voiced what everyone was thinking.
A piercing whistle interrupted them and the squat figures of the West twins came striding across the playground. Their identical swaying gait and Miss West’s riotous hair whipping around her head gave a comical air to them as they approached. The looks on their faces, however, were anything but comical.
Scarlet pushed Seb’s hand down into his lap. He sat alone on the tree stump, trying not to faint.
Mr West’s squeaky voice came first, “What is going on?”
Seb could feel Miss West’s beady dark eyes on him.
Zach broke the silence. “A game, we were playing a game – coin spinning.” There was the sound of jingling as he produced a shiny fifty pence piece from his pocket.
Miss West spun on him, a sharp edge to her melodic voice, “Is that so, Master Orwell?” she snapped. “And that would account for the firework display would it?”
They were all astounded. Seb felt too weak to care but looked up at the worried faces of his friends.
“Empty your pockets!” Mr West squeaked.
Obediently they deposited the items from their pockets onto the other tree stumps. There wasn’t much to show: a few coins, a dirty pebble that Zach seemed to find interesting enough to keep, a couple of tissues – nothing more.
Miss West still stared at Seb. He kept his eyes on the items on the tree stumps.
“Master Thomas?” She stepped closer to him. “Your pockets please!”
Se
b, feeling sick to his stomach, managed to haul himself up. The two teachers didn’t seem to notice how pale he had become, or how wobbly on his feet he was. He dug into his pockets and produced an empty chocolate wrapper – nothing else.
Mr West frowned at the collection of items. Seb wondered if the next step would be to get them to empty their lunch bags.
“It is your lunch sitting now. Carry on.” Miss West barked.
Scarlet took the initiative. “Come on,” she said, retrieving the few coins that were hers and leading the way towards the cafeteria.
The teachers watched them go. If they noticed how unsteady Seb was as he walked away, they gave no indication.
In the cafeteria they found a table together. No one spoke, all too shocked to say anything. The colour had returned to Seb’s cheeks but he didn’t feel like eating. Aiden spent the time sniffing and blowing his nose which had turned bright red again. Before long, lunchtime was over and the normal lessons of the afternoon were under way.
Explorers
Monday night was Explorers night when Zach came to their house for tea so today he travelled home with them. As soon as they got in they dashed up to Seb’s room.
“We need to discuss what happened today,” Scarlet whispered.
“You’re being dramatic, Scarlet.” Zach laughed.
“It is dramatic!” She opened her eyes wide.
Taking his glove off, Seb rubbed his hand. The silver lines glimmered and Scarlet and Zach’s eyes were instantly drawn to them.
“Does it hurt?” Scarlet asked.
“No, it’s numb. I can’t feel a