The morning after Monkey Man broke our tent, the Authorities arrived. Back then I didn’t know about them. I knew about cops and stuff, I just didn’t know I was supposed to be scared of them.
At first, when I heard them outside the tent, I thought they were the men from the night before.
‘Hello? Anyone in there?’
I gave Ma a dig but she just groaned. Then the zip on the tent started opening so I kicked Ma. She said, ‘What?’ like she was real annoyed with me for waking her up.
But the Authorities had heard too and they said, ‘Come on out here.’
Ma woke up properly then. She sat up and yelled, ‘Hold on a sec!’ Then she gave me her egg-sucking face and said, ‘It’s the coppers. Not a word out of you.’
She threw off her sleeping bag and crawled over to the zip and stuck her head out. ‘Morning,’ she said.
I could see two sets of legs outside. Both wearing navy trousers. One was crouching down and he was wearing a neon yellow jacket. He used a stick or something to hold back the zipper so he could see past Ma. He saw me, and he nodded and then he stood up.
Ma crawled out and she stood up too.
‘Bit of a party here last night?’ one of the coppers asked.
‘Was there?’ Ma said. ‘Oh yeah, think there were some lads messing around here last night. They’re gone now, though.’
‘Is that right?’ one of the coppers said. ‘Living here, are you?’
I saw Ma move from one leg to the other. ‘Ah no. Just camped here last night,’ which was a lie. We’d been there for weeks.
No one said anything for a while. I heard Ma sniffing and one of the policemen walking around, kicking cans. Finally the one beside Ma said, ‘How long have you been living here?’
‘We’re not living here. Just the one night, that’s all.’ Ma sniffed again and shoved her hands in her pockets. ‘Went for a swim and camped last night. She’s mad for the camping, so she is, and the weather was good so we stayed. Bit of an adventure, ye know?’
‘Right,’ he said but you could tell he didn’t believe her. ‘So where are you living, if it’s not here?’ I heard the other one kick a can again. And that’s when Ma gave them Gran’s address.
‘Is that right?’ he said. ‘Sure I’ll give you a lift back there, then.’
‘Ah, no need. We’ll walk,’ Ma said. ‘It’s a nice morning. Might take a swim first.’
The coppers were quiet for a while. I heard them shuffle around. Ma walked away from the tent too and they talked, but I couldn’t hear what they were saying.
Then she was back and one of the coppers said, ‘Right. Well, I don’t want to see you back here tonight, all right?’
‘Yeah, ’course,’ Ma said.
When they were gone, Ma stuck her head back inside and said, ‘Time to go.’
We packed up her rucksack but we left the empty cans and water bottles and broken tent where they were and started walking back to the road.
I kept asking Ma if we really were going back to Gran’s. She wouldn’t answer. But then we got on a bus that crossed the whole city. I didn’t know where we were going. But I knew it was nowhere near Gran’s.
So I stopped asking.