In the Bag Read Online Free

and a navy blue sweatshirt. But then something else catches his eye. ‘Holy shit,’ he says.
    ‘What?’
    But before he has a chance to answer, I catch a glimpse of what it is in the moonlight. Money. Loads of it. Banknotes. Fives and tens and twenties and fifties.
    ‘Unbelievable,’ Ash says. ‘Fucking hell. We’re rich!’ He takes a fifty out of the bag and gives it a kiss.
    I shake my head. ‘This is mental,’ I say. But I don’t say anything more cos I’m not sure what to say. There are a million things I can think of, but right now I’m not sure which is the right one.
    ‘There must be thousands in here,’ Ash says, staring into the bag, picking up handfuls of cash, then letting them drop back in.
    I nod my head. ‘Whose is it? Has it got a name?’
    Ash looks at the bag. There’s a name tag on it. He turns it over and leans in close to read it. ‘Nope,’ he says. ‘Nothing written on it.’ He lets go of the tag.
    ‘What kind of idiot drops a bag full of money and doesn’t notice?’ I say.
    Ash shakes his head. ‘I dunno. A rich one, I guess.’
    ‘What shall we do with it?’
    Ash stands and stares at the bag with a grin on his face.
    ‘We could take it to the police,’ I say.
    Ash looks at me. He screws his face up, like he’s thinking about it. ‘You serious? Now?’ he says. ‘It’s the middle of the bloody night. The police station’s closed.’
    ‘There’ll be someone on duty, though, won’t there?’ I say.
    Ash shrugs. ‘Even if there is, we’ve been drinking. They’ll smell it on us,’ he says. ‘They’ll take the bag off us and then get our parents to come and pick us up.’
    I sigh. I guess he’s right. ‘So what do we do, then?’
    ‘Easy. Take it home.’
    ‘We can’t do that – it isn’t ours. That’s stealing.’
    Ash shrugs. ‘No, we’d just be looking after it. We wouldn’t be taking it or anything.’ He pauses and looks around at the forest, as though whoever the bag belongs to is gonna turn up and take the money any second. ‘ Anyway, we can’t just leave it here, can we? Someone else would find it and keep it.’
    I don’t say anything for a bit. I’m thinking. I sigh. ‘OK. We’ll take it to yours. I don’t want it in my house. And only till the morning, though, till we decide what to do with it.’
    Ash puts the clothes back in the bag and zips it up. He gets to his feet. ‘Come on then,’ he says. ‘Let’s get it back to mine before someone else takes it.’
     
    About ten minutes later we turn on to Ash’s road. There was no sign of anyone on the way back through the woods. No one looking for a bag stuffed full of cash. No one staggering around dripping with blood, looking like they’d been in an accident, either.
    Ash’s house is on the road next to mine. The road’s totally silent and still and dark as we pedal down it. All the houses have their curtains drawn. All the lights are off. We turn into Ash’s drive and gently put our bikes down in the little patch of garden out front. We don’t say a word as we walk up the steps to his house. Instead we look all around us, just in case someone’s watching. I feel bad, like we’re doing something really awful, like we’re criminals. My heart’s thumping against my ribcage. My hands are sweaty. I want to get inside Ash’s house quick before someone sees us and the bag. It feels like we’re stealing, even though we’re not really.
    Ash looks at me. Then he puts his hands in his jeans pockets and takes out his keys. He’s silent. He slides the key really carefully into the lock and twists it. He steps inside the house, looks around, listens for any sound. He pokes his head round the lounge door to check no one’s there. Then he turns and beckons. I look around me and step quietly into the house.
    Ash pushes the front door shut ever so quietly and locks it behind us. The hallway’s dark. He looks at me and points over to the stairs. I nod and let him go first, tiptoeing