Page 40 of Our Secrets and Lies

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Sarah looked at the sign on Ollie’s door and shook her head.If you risk nothing, you gain nothing.She turned the handle and went in to wake up her son, but he wasn’t in his bed.

‘Where the feck are my glasses?’ Darren shouted, from their bedroom.

‘You left them in the bathroom,’ Sarah said.

‘They’re not there.’

‘Try the chest of drawers.’

‘I did.’

‘Have you seen Ollie?’ Sarah asked.

‘I thought he was still asleep.’

‘He’s not in his bed.’

Sarah went into Shannon’s room. Her sixteen-year-old was splayed across the bed, fast asleep. Clothes were strewn all over the floor.

Darren came up behind her. ‘Ollie’s not in his bed and it’s quiet. Jesus, what’s that nut-job up to now?’

They hurried downstairs. Ollie was nowhere to be seen. Sarah looked out of the kitchen window andsaw a small dark figure in front of a … fire!

‘Darren,’ she shouted. ‘He’s out the back.’

She ran outside and towards the flames. ‘What in the name of God, Ollie?’ she roared.

Behind her, dragging the hose, was Darren.

Ollie turned around, eyes shining. ‘I did it, Mum. It took a while, but I did it, just like Bear Grylls.’

Sarah dragged her ten-year-old son away from the flames. ‘Are youstone mad? You could have burnt yourself alive.’

The fire was six foot high and the flames had set the hedge alight. Cursing, Darren hosed down the blaze.

‘Ah, Dad, you’ve ruined it!’ Ollie shouted. ‘I wanted to roast these ants over it and eat them. Bear Grylls says they taste fine and are full of protein.’

Darren put the hose down. He was breathing heavily. ‘For the love of Jesus, will youstop listening to that fecker?’

Ollie’s face was black with smoke. ‘Bear Grylls is a legend,’ he said. ‘It took me an hour to get that fire going and now you’ve drowned it.’

‘I’ll drown you in a minute,’ Darren snapped.

Sarah put her hand on her son’s shoulder. ‘Ollie, we’ve told you a million times you can’t play with fire. You could get burnt or die. You have to stop with all this madness.’

‘It’s not mad, it’s survival. I’m learning how to survive in the wilderness.’

‘You’re lighting fires in the back garden of your house. We live in the centre of Dublin. It’s not the Amazon jungle,’ Darren roared. ‘If I hadn’t put that fire out the hedge would have gone up and the house and next door. How do you think Joe would like waking up to his house on fire? Why can’t you just play football,like normal ten-year-olds?’

‘Don’t listen to dream-stealers, that’s what Bear Grylls says, and you are a dream-stealer, Dad. One hundred per cent.’

‘Dream-stealer? Are you joking me? We’ve been to hospital five times with you in the last eight months since you saw that feckin’ eejit on YouTube and started trying to copy him.’

‘His dad let him sky-dive.’

‘Yes, Ollie, his dad did let him sky-dive,and then he nearly paralysed himself when his parachute ripped.’ Sarah hadbeen reading up on Bear Grylls to try to understand Ollie’s obsession and nip it in the bud before her son killed himself.

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