Ruler of the Realm

Sixteen

Henry opened his eyes to find he was back on the road.

It wasn’t dark any longer, it was full daylight. He looked around, wondering how that had happened. The last thing he remembered, he’d been walking home late at night after spending time with Charlie. He’d stepped on to the verge to let a car go past and suddenly the car headlights blended into daylight. Which didn’t seem possible, yet here he was.

But where was here?

He looked around again. The road he was on seemed way out in the country. It meandered through a patchwork of small fields that didn’t look at all familiar.

The sun was shining.

How did he get here? Clearly he’d walked all the way past the turning to his home and out into the country. The spooky thing – the frightening thing if he was honest – was that he’d forgotten everything between the car approaching and now. That couldn’t be good. That had to be brain damage or something. Maybe the car hit him.

Henry stopped and cautiously felt himself all over. Nothing seemed to be broken and there was no sign of blood. All the same, a really bad jolt could affect your memory. He was fairly sure he’d heard about boxers going a bit funny after they’d been battered around the head. They got punchy and talked to themselves and probably couldn’t remember things.

The problem was he didn’t hurt. Not about the head and not anywhere. The side of his nose was a bit itchy, but that wasn’t something you’d get from a car knocking you down and mangling your head.

Where was he anyway? There was a wall coming up and a sign that said Stud Farm. There were stud farms in the district, but none of them particularly close to where he lived. When he walked past his turning, he’d obviously kept walking. And walking. And walking…

It was peculiar his legs didn’t hurt. He’d been walking all night.

The fear Henry felt sank to the level of a background ache. He didn’t know where he was. He didn’t know how he’d got here. Without very much emotion he realised he was going batty. He had to be going batty. First he saw fairies, then he got lost.

He turned round and started to walk back in what he hoped was the direction of home.