'It's a bad idea to burn your ancestors'
Jasper is Bone Boy, an obsessive fossil hunter.
He unearths a spectacular Jurassic 'Dragon Fish' fossil which befriends him in the spirit world.
Bone Boy discovers that The 'Grand Council of Fossil Elders'...
Pedalling up a wet Kentish Town High St to school, things seemed so normal.
The bicycle lane was still blocked with delivery trucks, pushing me into heavy traffic.
The 78 bus almost knocked me off as it passed aggressively, way too close. I coughed on the cloud of its foul diesel fumes.
Mc D's was on my right, full of the white van crew, students and office drones munching Mc Muffins and sipping coffee.
Next, Kentish Town station. The usual throng of smartly dressed commuters picking up their Metro paper as they poured in.
How could it be that life was carrying on as normal?
Maybe this is how it feels just before a bomb goes off, utterly normal and then BOOM!
Waiting for the green traffic light, my mind flooded and my heart raced. And it wasn't just because I was still pretty feeble after my time in hospital.
In my mind's eye, abandoned cars were blocking the road. Shop windows smashed, glass everywhere. I saw filthy people in rags rummaging through piles of stinking rubbish.
Thick black smoke rose from a burning bus. The sound of shouting and screaming filling the air. Like a Hollywood apocalypse movie.
I shook my head. The lights turned green, and I pedalled on.
The images dispersed, but I was left with a nauseous feeling in my stomach as I dismounted at the school gate.
It felt good to be coming back to school. Not just coz I almost died, but during Covid, it had felt so crap to be stuck home for months fighting for broadband with Adam, learning over Zoom and missing everyone.
Dismounting at the gate, I locked my bike and helmet, brushing the road grit off my new trousers.
I put my head down and walked briskly towards my class room. A few Year 12 boys were playing football, their groupies, mobiles in hand, chatting.
A big part of me thought it was ridiculous being forced back.
How is studying bloody boring World War 1 poetry, future reflexive French verbs, or triga bollocking nometry going to help when the shit hits the fan!
I tell you what was on my mind and it wasn't my GCSE's.
How are we going to get to Gran's fast when the shit hits the fan?
How will we survive when there's no food in the supermarkets?
And what about Mum? She will not do a thing till it's too late.
I guess we'd have to dig up Gran's garden and grow veggies. There're the chickens, sure. We're gonna have to stock up on dry stuff like rice and pasta right now and store it safely.
Gran's still got Grandpa's fishing rods in the garage. There are plenty of Mackerel in the summer, Skate and Sea Bass out there off the Jurassic coast.
We'll probably have to forage for edible seaweed. We'd find a way to get by.
The crap started five minutes after I got to my classroom.
"What happened to you, bone boy, where you was?" asked Jefferies.
"What happened to your head bone boy?" said Peters, pointing to the dressing over my head wound.
"Oh that. I had an accident, was knocked unconscious by a rockfall. Out cold for a couple of days in hospital. I'm fine now," I explained.
They nodded. Even looked impressed.
"So fossil hunting is more exciting than I thought. Cool." said Jefferies.
He turned to the others, ignoring me. Result!
Oh shit, Draper's coming over. He sat on the corner of a desk opposite me."Shame you weren't killed, Stein. And all for what, a pile of useless fish bones? You sure live life on the edge, bone boy!" he smirked.
"Leave him alone Alan. He's just come out of hospital, give him a break." Jefferies protecting me? That was unusual.
"Sure, I'll give him a break", said Draper. "I'll break his head properly next time."
"Look," I said with a slight sneer, "Ichthyosaurs are not fish, Draper. They're not fish bones, they're Jurassic marine dinosaur bones. There's a difference."
"Do you think I give a shit, bone boy? They are just a pile of old useless junk. I hope you are embarrassed to have the world know what a pathetic character you truly are. Living with your weird hippy Daddy, going on your stupid little fossil hunts."
I said nothing, just kept looking at his muddy scuffed shoes. I dug deep into my pocket and held my lucky ammonite charm, rubbing the ridges of it between finger and thumb, waiting for it all to blow over.
Casually, he lifted his filthy left foot and ran the muddy sole down my trouser leg.
"Fuck you Draper" I roared.
I grabbed his long greasy hair with both hands and brought him down hard, forehead first. The thud on the wooden floor was satisfying. He screamed. The class was in uproar. "Fight fight, fight!" they chanted.
Having got this far, I didn't quite know what to do next, except hold his head down with the side of his face pressed to the floor with all my weight on him.
He struggled and moaned. "Never fuck with me again, understand Draper." I said. "Understand?"
Again he tried to wriggle free. "Get off me, boney boy" was the best he could do.
"If you ever insult me, my dad or anyone else in my family, or anything about me, you'll get more of the same. Do you understand Draper?"
He tried to nod a sideways nod. His face was contorted into a gargoyle, his mouth open like a fish, cheek pressed against the floor.
"Say It, say you promise in front of everyone." I tightened my grip.
"I promise Jasper, I promise. Now get off me."
"Get off him Jasper" I looked up, Ambar was pulling at my shoulder.
"Good one Jasper. Nice one. That'll learn him. A fight first morning of school, cool!" someone said behind me.
So I eased off, got up off him and sat back down. I brushed the mud off my trousers. I felt my racing heart pounding against my rib cage. I felt great!
Draper slowly gathered himself together and, without even looking back, silently left the room.
Ambar stared at me in silence for a few seconds, nodding thoughtfully like a toy doggy on the back shelf of a car.
I liked Ambar.
I smiled.
The day was about to get a lot worse.
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