THE WOODEN SWORDS CHAPTER 8. - FINDING THE RIGHT PLACE

- We need a headquarters.

- What’s that, Alex?

- You know our base, a fortress, a castle.

- We have a base!

- Where?

- Our houses!

- Our houses can’t be the headquarters, Ralph!

- Why not! We have food there.

We were in Adam’s backyard after school again and his mum had just finished baking some cinnamon biscuits and had put out a plateful for us. I loved cinnamon because it always reminded me of Christmas.

- We have an enemy now and they should never know where we live! Haven’t you ever seen those movies where the baddy finds out where the good guy lives? His house is usually blown up.

- They know where the candy shop is! They won’t blow that up, will they?

- No Ralph, they are cowboys and they only have guns and horses.

- Some cowboys use dynamite to blow up the safe and rob the bank.

- Ok, we can try to find out if they have any dynamite. We need to get prepared because the big battle is coming!

- We don’t know that. They might want peace.

- They don’t, Timmy!

- How do you know? I will be the Ambassador of Switzerland and I will go to have peace talks with them.

- You can’t have talks with the enemy!

- Why not?

- If they disrespect chocolate cake, then they won’t respect you! And because they are the enemy!

Timmy said that he needed sometime to think about the situation, so I turned to Adam, George and Ralph.

- What do you guys think?

- Why you always ask them?

- Because Ralph is second-in-command and George has a new sword, Anne!

- Ok, but what about Adam?

- Adam is the best fighter. He is always first in the fight and he scares the enemy when he shouts ‘Beggars!’

- BEGGARS!

- Don’t shout, Adam!

- Sorry, Mum!

- But Alex, I have a computer!

- Yes, but you are the secret weapon!

- I don't want to be a secret.

- Every gang needs a secret weapon.

- I know! Because you are our secret weapon you need a disguise like superheroes have during the day. You can be…err…Chief of Maps!

- Wow! Chief of Maps! What do they do?

- They are in charge of keeping the maps up-to-date and discussing any plans that involve the map.

- Hey, Perry! I am Chief of Maps!

- That’s not fair! What am I then? I want to be something.

- I’m the Ambassador of Switzerland.

I didn’t like it when we started arguing, especially now when we were supposed to be planning a battle against hundreds of cowboys.

OK, George is Weapons Master because he has the newest sword. Perry is the Protector of the Map because you have to make sure that nobody steals it from Anne, and James is…

- Who ate all the biscuits?

- You all looked so busy and it was pity nobody was eating them.

- My mum baked them for all of us, Ralph!

- James, you can be in charge of guarding the sweets and biscuits from Ralph.

- That’s not fair!

- Shut up, Ralph!

I suddenly remembered we were meant to be discussing our headquarters in preparation for the battle.

- I know the best hiding place in the world that could be used for our base!

- If it is the best hiding place in the world, how come you found it?

- My dad showed it to me.

- How come he found the best hiding place in the world? If you and your dad know where it is, then other people do too.

I didn't know how to answer, so I decided to ignore Ralph's questions.

- Forget it then!

- Where is it?

- I'm not telling you.

Anne coughed and we looked at her.

- Hey, I know the perfect place for a headquarters. My dad took Perry and me there a few weeks ago, plus it is even on our map.

Anne pointed at a tiny park at the end of Ocean Street, near Indian Street.

How could I have forgotten this park? We all used to play there when we were much younger and Mum still takes my sister there now. It was a small place with a sandpit in one corner, three baby swings, a small slide and a new miniature wooden fort. We decided to go there immediately and check it out.

There wasn’t a fort when my dad used to bring me here, but seeing the swings I remembered how much I used to love this place. Dad would push me higher and higher, as I would try to touch the sky with my feet, but now I know that is impossible without a spaceship. My little sister tries to do exactly the same. Kids, they think that they can touch the sky!

- Is the fort big enough for all eight of us?

- A-ha! I don’t think Ralph will fit through the doorway.

- Shut up, James! We can make our headquarters there and we can bring chocolates and cakes and biscuits from the candy shop, which is not very far from here.

- Can we put curtains?

- NO!

- Why not?

- Anne, in all those films have you ever seen a castle with curtains?

- Yes I have!

- No you haven’t! Perry, has she seen a film that has a castle with curtains?

- I don’t know. I don’t think so. I’m not sure. Some castles do have those huge mats on the walls.

- Tapastries!

It seems as though Timmy had finished S and had started on T.

- Anyway, it is so stupid to have curtains in a castle.

Apart from the curtains idea, the wooden fort would make a good base for our battle plans and it even had turrets like the castle in the book my parents had bought me.

- HEY! YOU KIDS!

We all turned to look at where the shouting was coming from. It was an old man wearing overalls and he looked angry.

- Don’t they teach you kids how to read at school? The sign says the park is for under-7s only and you kids are definitely older than that.

Nobody had spotted the sign in our excitement and we all felt embarrassed because of the man’s shouting; I felt stupid because it was really my fault as leader. We all climbed off the fort and walked silently past the old man in overalls. We were all disappointed at losing our castle so quickly and it wasn’t even in a battle. After a few minutes of walking in silence, Anne sighed loudly.

- We can’t have curtains now.

- Shut up! We were never going to have curtains!

- It doesn’t matter now, we have lost our headquarters. What are we going to do now?

There was more silence as we all thought about our problem and how we could solve it.

- I know! We could build a treehouse!

I remembered a photograph of my dad and uncle as kids in a frame in our house. It shows Dad climbing a rope ladder and my uncle waving from a window in the treehouse that Grandad had built for them.

- All we need is a tree and some wood!

- And nails, a hammer and a saw.

- And a ladder.

- Where are we going to get all that from?

- I have a treehouse.

- My dad might be able to help us with some materials.

- I said that I have a treehouse.

- We need the right tree. I have a great one in my garden we could use.

- I have a treehouse in my garden already.

- What are you talking about Timmy?

- I have a treehouse. My dad built it for me last summer, but I call it the Swiss Embassy.

- Why didn’t you ever tell anybody before?

- Nobody ever asked and the Swiss don’t like to boast.

- Timmy!

- What? What have I said?

- Can we see it, Timmy?

- If you want, but I don’t know if…

- Don’t know what?

- Errr, if Ralph will fit up there.

- Grrrr, SHUT UP!!!