The Scrub

The first day of the school holidays was possibly more exciting than Christmas; 6 long weeks of nothing ahead of us and that, when you are 14, seems like forever.

It was going to be a hot one, already it was warm and there was not a cloud in the sky or a breath of air to cool the day. It was the perfect day to meet the gang up at the  ‘Scrub’. The Scrub was our place, it was a village green in the middle of our little housing estate – a patch of grass big enough for a kick-around or a game of cricket, the water in the pond clean enough for a swim and the trees tall enough to climb.

The doorbell rang, that would be Ian and his dog. I grabbed my cricket bat and my cap and ran to the front door. This is where the holidays really began.

We chatted animatedly as we walked slowly to the Scrub, Jo and Melissa were waiting for us at Jordan’s Corner, they smiled sweetly when they saw us.  This summer I was gonna make Mel my girlfriend if it was the last thing I did. This was the life, this was going to be the best summer ever and nothing could put a spanner in these works; or could it?

We stopped in our tracks at the sight that greeted us at the Scrub. Our mouths fell open, sentences were left dangling, unfinished. I think all of us were close to tears.  In contrast to our sudden freeze the Scrub was a hive of activity, men in yellow helmets were shouting to each other over the noise of JCBs and other building equipment.

‘What the fuck?’ Ian was the first to speak but no one answered him. Jeff joined us making our quartet a quintet, he looked like he’d seen a ghost, he nodded his greeting solemnly and we nodded back like patrons at a funeral.

For the next 6 weeks we were like nomads, trying to find a new base, the park, a range of bus shelters, the back lanes but nowhere seemed to replace the Scrub. Each day we walked past the old place and bemoanded the fact  that it was becoming more and more unrecognisable; the land had been cleared and a new housing estate was springing up.

 

On the last night of the school holidays we decided to meet at the Scrub, just for old times' sake. We managed to get onto the building site through a hole in the fence and sat on a wall of a new house drinking cheap cider from 2 litre bottles. Jo and I held hands. I know I’d set out for Mel but I'd ended up with Jo and I couldn’t be happier.  We were there till 2am, laughing, joking and using the walls of various houses as toilets. Despite our nomadic existence it had been a happy summer and that last night was the perfect end.

Years later I was invited to a colleague’s house and when I got there I realised that it was one of the new builds on the Scrub. Out of loyalty to the old gang I almost refused to go in but in the end I did. It was a perfectly pleasant evening, nice food, good wine but I couldn’t help notice that the place had a slight smell of piss.