Deep Water Read Online Free Page A

switched off the waves with God-like authority. ‘Another advantage is it can be rolled up, and taken anywhere.’
    ‘Like a gigantic swiss roll,’ said Leo. ‘You should call it Swiss Roll, dad.’
    Peter clapped him on the back. ‘Perhaps I will.’
    After wave experiments with three model lorries nose-to-tail on the bridge, they went downstairs to sample the best tea the hotel could provide. Shortly before they left for Paddington, Justin went to the gents. Peter hugged his son.
    ‘A bit of advice, Leo. Don’t be too impressed with Justin because his dad’s a pilot. It may sound big-headed, but scientists win wars, not heroes.’
    ‘I don’t care about his dad. Justin’s more daring than anyone.’
    ‘What does he do?’ asked Andrea, uneasily.
    ‘I can’t say. I’m really sorry, mum. But he stuck up for me in a fight, and we both got our heads shoved in the whitewash bucket.’
    ‘By other boys?’ gulped Andrea.
    ‘Of course.’
    ‘I bet you looked a fright,’ chortled Peter, suddenly aware of Andrea’s confusion. ‘They mark the football pitch with whitewash. Just horseplay, darling.’
    Peter came down with the boys in the hotel’s only working lift. Standing by her husband, Andrea noticed Leo slip his hand into his father’s without Justin seeing. Instead of embracing his son again andcausing him embarrassment, Peter ruffled his hair as they parted.
    In the cab on the way to Paddington, Leo murmured , ‘I love the leathery smell of taxis.’ After that, neither boy spoke for a long time. Andrea suspected that, if Peter were in her place now, he would know exactly what to say to them. After a few moments of panic, she asked whether they could remember exactly how they met. A howl of laughter greeted her question.
    ‘We were on “big stairs”, waiting for Spud to give us the whacks,’ explained Leo.
    ‘What had you done, sweetheart?’ She had a fluttery feeling in her chest.
    ‘Talking after lights out. Anyway Justin told me to wait for him afterwards because he knew a way to stop your bum hurting.’
    ‘I got him jumping up and down on the beds in Drake dorm – the way the Masai do, really high.’
    ‘They’re a tribe in Kenya, mum.’
    ‘Didn’t you hate being hit?’
    ‘We loved it, Mrs Pauling,’ said Justin. ‘Spud goes puce and grunts as if it’s killing him. It’s a laugh!’
    Leo said sympathetically to his mother, ‘He’s joking . We don’t really love it. We have to shake his hand when he’s finished. No one likes that.’
    ‘Dead right,’ agreed Justin. ‘But unlike some squits, we don’t snivel.’
    The thought of Leo being hit by a red-faced, grunting man made Andrea feel sick. Suddenly, the boys became gloomy, as if her reaction had opened their eyes to the truth of their situation. To lightentheir mood, Andrea asked them about their teachers’ nicknames. This had them laughing again, and Justin asked her whether the girls she taught called her Mrs Appauling.
    ‘Of course they do,’ she admitted. ‘Do boys call Leo “Appauling”?’
    ‘They don’t use long words.’
    ‘At all?’ she asked, with deliberate seriousness.
    ‘I meant they don’t use long words for nicknames ,’ Justin replied patiently, as if she could not help being stupid.
    As their train gathered speed, the howl of a distant siren reached them in their blacked-out compartment , soon followed by the drone of bombers. Both boys groaned their disappointment at having missed a raid. But the next time Andrea looked at Justin, his face was fretful. Was he imagining his father swooping down from the clouds to intercept?
    Outside the sky would be dark, with searchlights flickering. Leo also seemed sad; but just then he turned to Justin and asked him what he thought Spud (their headmaster?) had been doing during half-term. At once they were giggling again.
    *
    Three months later, during the Christmas holidays, Peter read in the papers that Justin’s father had been killed. When he told