Jack jogged through the woods, with a map in one hand and a compass in the other. Joe ran alongside him, happy to let Jack do the map-reading. Charlie was with them too, lagging a bit behind. They were friends again.
Jack’s embarrassment yesterday hadn’t lasted long. He’d helped a girl called Chloe rescue a chick that had fallen out of its nest by the lake. Chloe had been given a Wildlife Welfare badge, and Jack had made a new friend. And Chloe had given him something to say ‘thank you’ – a compass.
Then Jack had made up with the boys over dinner in the evening. Joe and Charlie had let Jack have some of their chips and they had agreed Jack could choose the first activity for the next day. Jack had chosen orienteering.
Players were given a compass and a flimsy, clear plastic wallet containing a map and a clue sheet. The was marked with directions and symbols of things that players had to look out for, like tracks or hills. Players had to find their way through the woods between control points. Everyone got a slightly different route to follow, so that no one could just follow another group. Every control point had a special stamp to mark your sheet, to prove you had been there. Jack was enjoying himself. He getting into it too, though he couldn’t read a map for toffee. Charlie couldn’t see why you didn’t just use a map app instead of bothering with a compass and the clues.
The boys had done three control points so far. At first, Charlie had claimed the compass, but after a couple of times when he’d forgotten that the needle pointed two ways, and sent them in exactly the wrong direction, Jack used the compass Chloe had given him.
“Next control point should be dead ahead …” Jack said as he checked the compass.
They came to a clearing in the trees, which had a ditch with a wooden plank across it. Across the clearing there was a small cliff, and the dark opening of a cave. A girl called Fatima was hanging around outside it.
“That must be it,” Jack said. He had to hold the map wallet in both hands, because it was so flimsy. He tried to hold the map and the compass together so he could check the direction, but something was wrong. The dial was just spinning round, and for a moment it looked like there were five directions on it.
“Hey, Charlie – can you help check the direction?” Jack asked. “This thing’s bust.”
Charlie checked the official compass.
“Yup. We’re going the right way,” he reported. “This must be it.”
Jack called over to Fatima. “Is this the control point?”
“In the cave,” she called back.
“Cool,” said Joe. “Let’s go.”
He and Charlie ran across the plank. Jack started – and immediately stopped.
The plank went over a stream. Jack’s feet skidded to a halt as if they had a mind of their own. They did not rest of him. He knew it was stupid. The stream wouldn’t even come up to his knees. But when Jack tried to take a step forward his legs were wobbling.
“Oh, come on!” he muttered to himself. “I can do this!”
Whenever he felt the fear start to grip him, Jack thought of his five-metre badge. That badge proved he could do it, even though it had been the scariest experience of his life. But he hadn’t been back in the water since, and his fear had got worse and worse every year.
It was always the same. First his legs started wobbling. Then his stomach too. Then he started to feel short of breath.
Charlie and Joe hadn’t noticed anything yet. But Jack knew that in a couple of seconds they would realise he wasn’t there. They would look round.
If Jack didn’t want them to find out about his fear, that was how long he had to get across – a couple of seconds.
Jack forced his foot forward again onto the plank. Then he moved his other foot past it.
Now his stomach was wobbling.
And so was the plank.
And then so was Jack.
“Aargh!”
He flung his arms out on either side. In his panic, his sense of balance just left him.
Jack waved his arms and wiggled his hips, trying to get his balance back. The clearing, the plank, the stream – they were all swimming around him.
He made himself break into a run for the last bit.
But somehow his foot missed the plank altogether and he plunged head first into the stream.
The fall seemed to take forever. Jack could see the stream coming up to meet him. The water was clear and he could see the pebbles on the bottom. Jack yelled and flung his arms out to break his fall.
But his hands didn’t hit the bottom. He just kept going. Splash! Jack felt the water close over him and he just kept going down, deeper and deeper.
Finally, at last, he hit the bottom. His heartbeat pounded in his ears, and his lungs were bursting. He pushed with his feet and kicked as hard as he could upwards.
