Cry of a Seagull by Monica Dickens Page A

watching, one ear back and one ear forward. ‘When the admiral gets aboard, he’s going to find someone there who’s a bigger ass than he is.’
    He opened the gate of the field and went in. He took off his broad belt with the death’s head buckle that Lynette had given him, and put it round the neck of the donkey, who followed him patiently out of the field.
    The donkey in the sea
! What were they going to do to this poor animal? Rose thought it was awful, but Lynette thought it was hilarious, and having quite recovered her spirits, helped to push the donkey down the narrow gangplank and on to the deck of the boat.
    Evil and Victor went with him on to the yacht, and Evil took the belt off the donkey’s neck and put it back on himself, with an arrogant hitch of his tight black jeans. He strutted about the deck, giving orders in a plummy voice, and saying, ‘Put that man in irons,’ and the others on the dock, for a laugh, untied the ropes that held the boat and pretended they were going to push it off. They pulled the gangplank up on to the dock, so that Victor and Evil, yelling blue murder, had to jump for it.
    They were all in fits of laughter, fooling about, pushing and shoving each other, and making daft jokes, while the donkey stood leaning against the side of the cabin with its head down.
    â€˜Looks a bit seasick, don’t he?’
    The white lifebelt hanging on the boat’s rail was painted with the name ‘Princess Vicky’. To have a boat called after you! But Lynette didn’t want to be awed. She pointed to the lifebelt and shrieked, ‘Princess Sicky! Yuck, yuck!’ and they all rolled about and bent over the edge of the dock, making disgusting vomiting noises.
    â€˜Let’s really give them a shock!’ Lynette, who was wildly excited, wanted to throw the mooring ropes back on to the deck and let the boat go out to sea, but to Rose’s relief, the others decided that was too dodgy. And all of a sudden, Evil was bored with it, so the others had to be bored with it too.
    They refastened the ropes by giving them a couple of turns round each bollard, although Rose was trying desperately to make Lynette’s fingers do the half hitches that Vicky had tied so expertly.
    Giggling about what the toffee-noses would think when they came back and found the donkey, the whole gang hared across the car park, jammed on their helmets, jumped on their bikes, roared the engines and swerved off down the lane and on to the main road.
    There was a roaring in Rose’s ears when she came back from this journey and found herself leaning against the white gate, with the wood behind her and the hotel in front, its turrets and chimneys and gables silhouetted darkly against the night sky.
    She shook her head to clear it and swung round, but the wood was empty and silent. No blurred yellow lanternlight moved among the trees. No one was waiting there.
    Had they ever been? Her own wood and garden and the back of the hotel looked so familiar and innocent that it was hard to imagine the danger that had lurked there. But now there was a danger that was new and immediate. The donkey struggling in the sea must be the donkey that had been dragged on to the boat. Had he jumped or fallen overboard and been swept out to sea? Would the sloppily-tied ropes come loose, and the boat drift away from the dock with the outgoing tide?
    Had all this happened already, or was it something that was going to happen next month, next week, tomorrow? Safely in her own room without waking anyone, Rose lay on her back in bed, staring at the ceiling as if it were a screen on which she could see answers. She thought of one. She could go to the marina and see if the donkey was still in the little field. Brilliant. She turned over and made her brilliant brain go blank and fell instantly asleep.
    There was a film on in Newcome that Rose and Ben both wanted to see, and Mr Kelly agreed to drop them off at