Jack and Poppy came racing through the back door beaming and bumping and throwing their school bags in a heap. And just as mum was about to say something like, “Kids, do you know a better place for those bags?” Jack asked, “Mum. Can we go up the hill?”
Well, mum was just about to say something like, “Right now? Before you’ve had some of my delicious muffins?” but before she could Poppy said, “Please, mum! All the class is going up there. Now. And our teacher is going too. And Jemimah’s mum.” “Parent help,” Jack explained. And before mum could say something like, “Well, that sounds all good …” Jack went on, “And there’ll be dress ups.”
Well, before mum could even think what to say about dress ups, Jack and Poppy had given her the biggest ‘Thank you!’ hug, and were running out through the gate, along the footpath and onto the hill.
They soon spotted the other kids. There were lots and lots of them. Like, everyone from school, it seemed. And they were moving up and up the hill in big groups, hurrying and stumbling and wiggling, all going towards the ‘S’ place.
The ‘S’ place had been called that for a long long time. For as long as any of the kids could remember. It was a wide and grassy and flat. With tall trees around the edge and a gap on one side where you could see out over the whole town, almost. There was the school. There was Jack and Poppy’s home. And Mrs Threadbare’s next door.
The ‘S’ place was where the teacher and parents and kids came to play the ‘S’ game.
Jack said it was called the ‘S’ game because the game was all about escaping, and that’s how you spell ‘escape’. S-C-A-P-E. Poppy said that wasn’t the way to spell ‘escape’, but Jack just said ‘Whatever’.
They kept climbing. The others were up there now, getting ready to play the game. Jack looked up and wanted to know why the teacher was wearing a tall hat with long red feather poking out and rummaging inside a big sack. Poppy said, “It’s the dress-ups.”
She was right. When they arrived their teacher was pulling out crazy trousers and too-big tops and floppy hats. So many! Everyone was laughing and trying on caps and shirts and baggy pants and the boys were asking “Are there any pirate swords?” and the girls were hoping there might be a beautiful princess dress that would fit them. Poppy thought this was too stereotypical, but Jack said he liked swords.
Even the parent help was getting dressed up. Poppy’s friend’s mum was pulling on a yellow banana suit. She had to wiggle and jiggle and struggle, though, because the suit was long and thin and she wasn’t like that.
Soon everyone was dressed and ready and their teacher said, “Right-o. I think you’ve all played the ‘S’ game before?” The kids nodded. “Today there’ll be two people,” the teacher went on. “They’ll try to escape. And everyone else will try to stop them getting away. Right?”
Everyone said, ‘Yes’ in a big loud shout.
“And the two people to try and escape will be Jack and Poppy,” she said turning to Jack and Poppy with a big smile. “That be OK?” They grinned and said they were good with that. So the teacher said, “Thank you. Go up and wait in the ‘S’ centre now and we’ll follow you soon.”
It was just a little bit further up so Jack and Poppy scurried and panted and puffed and were soon there.
The ‘S’ centre was wide and flat and empty. Jack and Poppy had grabbed some things from the dress up bag and they dumped them down in the middle.
Jack had brought a sword. Poppy had a long flowing dress made of lots and lots of thin material. “This dress material might make something,” she said. Jack nodded, but he was waving his sword around and thinking about pirate treasure.
Then suddenly the other kids arrived and joined them. They were laughing and yelling and pushing and they made a big circle around the edge of the ‘S’ centre. Like a human fence. Jack and Poppy were trapped inside. Someone shouted, “You can’t escape us, Jack!” And then all the kids started to move. Around they went, around in a big, fat circle. Everyone was shouting and yahooing and grinning. There was no way Jack and Poppy could possibly break through!
But Jack had an idea. “Poppy,” he said in a big loud whisper. “We can dig a tunnel. Let’s dig a tunnel, under the kids, and run through it and escape!”
Poppy thought they would have to dig quick. So immediately she rolled up her sleeves and the two of them got to work. Jack dug and hacked with his sword. As the dirt came up out of the ground Poppy pushed and cleared it away.
And there was a hole! And it got bigger! But it wasn’t a tunnel. And it was happening slowly. Too slowly. Poppy looked up. By now the kids were closer and shouting and laughing and getting louder and saying Jack and her didn’t have a chance.
Jack stopped and said, “Poppy, this isn’t going to work. We don’t have enough time to dig a real tunnel.” And Poppy said it had been a great idea but now they needed another one.
That was true. She and Jack stood up. The circle of their friends was really close now. And getting nearer and nearer. The shouting and laughing was so loud it was deafening. They had to do something: something fast and clever. But what?
And just when they thought they had completely run out of ideas, a smart idea popped into Jack’s head. He shouted, “Poppy! A rope!”
Right away Poppy knew what he was thinking. “Jack,” she said, “that’s genius.” She picked up the long dress. Jack grinned a big grin and reached for his sword.
In no time they were slicing and cutting up the long foldy dress and before you could say, “This-might-work!” they’d made a rope.
Jack glanced up above the yelling circle of kids. There was a tree. It would be perfect! He took careful aim and with a terrific heave he threw their rope high up at the tree. And it worked! The end of the rope wrapped around a thick branch. Poppy gave it a pull. It was tight. Their rope would hold! And she and Jack put their hands on the rope and held on really firmly and pushed hard as they could.
Wheeee! Up and up they swung. Faster and faster they went. Up over the top of the laughing noisy circle of friends. High into the air. Up over the tree. Out across the side of the hill. Jack was grinning the biggest grin ever. “Poppy,” he yelled, “this is flying!” And Poppy was grinning too and she gave a thumbs up. And next they were coming down. Down and down in a long, slow, gentle glide. Then ‘plop’, they landed in soft grass and tumbled and plopped in a roly poly heap.
“Jack,” Poppy chuckled, “we did that!” And they helped each other up and then started running. Away from the kids they went. Down the hill, speeding and flying. Through the long grass and the spiky dry weeds and things. Down to the bottom, along the footpath, through their gate and into the back door.
“Mum! We did it!” Jack said in a panting and puffing voice. And Poppy explained how they’d made their daring escape. “We were nearly caught, mum,” she said, “but we got away!”
And mum smiled. “Sounds like you had just-in-time escape. Like Jesus. When he was very small his family had to escape.” Poppy said she knew that story. From their Bible stories at bedtime. Jack nodded too. He said, “They had a very close escape.”
Mum agreed. Then she smiled. She said, “Talking of ‘escaping’, would you two like to have some muffins that have just escaped from my oven?” And Jack and Poppy threw themselves around mum and said they wouldn’t let her escape until they had got some of those escaped muffins. Because they knew mum’s muffins were so delicious.