The abandoned factory had been beckoning to Peter for a while and, although Alan was against the idea of going there, Peter insisted. According to Alan there were more lucrative ways to make money, but Peter was more interested in the thrill of it. He was backed up by David who would do anything for a dare. Once they were there Alan wanted to break in and see if there was anything inside worth taking. But Peter had persuaded him to go up onto the rooftop so they could collect some lead and bag it up to sell.
As soon as Peter stepped over the ledge and stood on top of the roof, he felt a surge of adrenalin. He straightened up and looked around him, surveying the surrounding streets with amazement. They had taken on a new perspective from this position, and he stared in wonder at the twinkling lights that ran in sequence down the darkened streets, bathing the buildings with a luminous glow.
‘Wow! This is fuckin’ brilliant,’ he said to his friends who had followed him onto the roof.
Peter walked across the rooftop, his arms outstretched, enjoying the sensation of the wind caressing his body and ruffling his hair. He felt powerful, almighty; his senses heightened by the thrill of the forbidden. It was a sharp contrast to how he felt at home where he was always on his guard because of his father’s temper.
‘Come on, let’s get the lead,’ said Alan. ‘That’s what we’ve come for.’
‘What’s the rush?’ said David who was now copying Peter’s actions. ‘Nobody’s gonna see us up here.’
‘We’ll get the lead first then you two can dick about as much as you like while I check if there’s a way in. I wouldn’t mind seeing if there’s owt inside worth nicking.’
Alan took out a roll of plastic bin bags from the pocket of his parka and handed Peter and David one each. For a few minutes they remained on one side of the rooftop collecting the lead that was in abundance.
It wasn’t long before David became bored though and he put down his bag, stood up then ran along the rooftop, his arms outstretched once more. Peter laughed and, after several seconds, decided to join him. He strained in the dark to see where David had got to and spotted his outline further along the lengthy roof. Peter was running towards him when he heard the sound of smashing glass. Then David disappeared.
‘What the fuck?’ he said.
‘Where’s Dave?’ asked Alan, straightening up.
‘He was over there,’ said Peter. ‘Come on, we’d better see what’s happened.’
‘Hang on! Don’t rush. There’s skylights on this roof.’
Peter’s excitement turned to fear as they walked across the rooftop, desperate to find out what had happened to their friend. Then they spotted something. About two thirds of the way along the roof, and in the approximate area where they had last seen David, they noticed a skylight that was broken.
Peter approached cautiously, aware of what must have happened but not wanting to acknowledge it. He crept to the edge of the skylight and peered inside the gloomy, deserted factory. In the dark it was just about possible to spot the still form of David sprawled out on the floor below.
‘Fuck! He’s had it,’ he said.
‘Hang on, let me have a look,’ said Alan. He joined Peter at the edge of the skylight and gazed downwards. ‘David! David, are you OK?’ he shouted but there was no answer.
‘Shit! What are we gonna do?’ said Peter. ‘He might have snuffed it.’
‘Shut up. He might not. We’ll have to check.’
Peter stared inquisitively at Alan, ‘How we gonna do that? We’ll never get down there. We haven’t got any rope or anything.’
‘We’ll have to get in through a window, like I wanted to do in the first fuckin’ place! It was you that told us to go onto the roof to get some lead.’
Peter kept silent. He knew Alan was right. They shouldn’t have gone up onto the roof, then this wouldn’t have happened. He followed Alan back across the rooftop until they found a drainpipe and made their way down the factory wall.
Alan led the way until they came nearer to the area where David had fallen. He smashed a pane of glass and Peter followed him as he climbed through the broken window and made his way inside the factory. They landed in a room on the outer periphery of the building.
Looking around the deserted room, Peter had an eerie sensation and he shivered involuntarily. In the gloom he could see used documents scattered across the floor; the only signs of former occupancy. The musty smell of abandonment met him.
Alan marched to the door and pulled it open, kicking the discarded paperwork aside. He had now speeded up in his quest to locate David. When he stopped dead, Peter knew he had found him, and he could feel his heart beating erratically. He sidled up beside Alan, his breathing now ragged and his hands clenched tightly.
Peter watched Alan kneel down beside David and call his name. His voice echoed in the cavernous interior of the factory. There was blood. Loads of it! Most of it sprang from the back of David’s head. And his limbs were twisted as though he’d broken several bones on impact with the ground. David didn’t respond. He just lay there, motionless and damaged.
Peter gasped as Alan lifted one of David’s hands and felt his wrist for a pulse.
‘He’s alive,’ he said, and Peter let out a sigh of relief.
‘How we gonna get him out?’
Alan didn’t reply for several seconds. Instead he gazed around him. ‘We’re not,’ he said. ‘It’s too risky. He’s too badly injured.’
‘But we can’t leave him like that.’
‘No, we won’t. We’ll make a run for it then call an ambulance.’
‘But what if it doesn’t get here?’
‘It will. We can keep watch to make sure.’
Peter gazed at him open-mouthed.
‘It’s the best way,’ said Alan. ‘We can’t risk getting caught, and they’ll know what to do with him.’
‘But what if the police ask who he was with? He might tell them.’
‘Don’t worry; he won’t.’
Peter couldn’t think of a better option so they left the factory and found a phone box nearby. Then they had a tense wait, seeking cover behind a parked van while they watched first the ambulance, then the police, arrive. It seemed to take forever until the ambulance men finally lifted David from the building. Once they were satisfied that they had done all they could, Peter and Alan made their way home.
They’d had a fruitless night and the bags of lead lay abandoned on the rooftop. With all the worry about David, even Alan had forgotten to collect them.
*
Adele was in her room trying to study while her parents were having yet another of their endless rows. She tried to tune it out but it was impossible, and she felt her heartbeat speed up as her father’s voice took on an increasingly aggressive tone.
She gazed at the bedside clock, toying with the idea of going to the library. Twenty to nine; it was too late. She was relieved in a way because her trips to the library were still filled with trepidation following the previous visit when David and his friends had attacked and intimidated her on her way home.
After several more minutes she gave up on study and attempted to read. Even that was difficult, especially when she heard a door slam and her father’s voice at the bottom of the stairs complaining about Peter’s whereabouts.
Then she heard him shout, ‘That lad’s bleedin’ useless and you know it! And she’s not much better. She should be out at fuckin’ work, not scrounging off us to do bleedin’ A levels. What’s she need them for anyway?’
Adele didn’t hear her mother’s response. She tensed, expecting him to mount the stairs and confront her, but then it went silent. Still, it took a while before her erratic heartbeat returned to normal. As well as being fearful, she was angry. Why did he begrudge her an education? Her friends’ parents didn’t have a problem with them staying on at school.
Then a thought occurred to her, which brought a brief smile to her face; her father was still out of work and yet he was calling her a scrounger. The irony of the situation was completely lost on him.
After reading for over an hour she drifted off to sleep, but her sleep was fitful and she woke up with a start at ten past one in the morning following a bad dream. As she glanced at the clock she wondered whether Peter was home yet and decided to check his room. He wasn’t there and the bed was cold.
She returned to bed, dreading the following day when her father was bound to tackle Peter about where he had been. Her father had been so moody since he had been out of work and the last thing she needed was for Peter to annoy him. She knew too well that with her father in his current frame of mind anything could happen.