Chapter 1
I was out playing with my mate Kevin. We were in the woods behind his house. Suddenly something caught my eye on the ground. It was an egg. A whole egg.
"Look at this Kev," I said. Kev came over. "Its whole. Must have dropped out of a nest." It was light blue with brown spots. Kev looked for another. "I doubt you'll find one." I said, "I'm keeping this."
"Aw wish I'd found it." Said Kevin.
"I wonder why it dropped. Birds make nests so that shouldn't happen don't they."
"I suppose it's the season for birds to lay eggs." Said Kevin.
"Remember biology. The cuckoo lays its egg in the nests of other birds. Then it pushes the original egg out. I bet that's what's happened to this little bugger." I said.
"Yes you're right. I've got a book at home about birds eggs, we can find out which bird it's from." Lets go back home and have a look." Said Kevin.
We went back to his house. No one was home. Kevin fished out the book and we leafed through it on the kitchen table. It looked like a Sparrow's egg athough there were a lot of similar eggs. "Cool." I said. It's a sparrow's egg.
"Yeah. Wish I had one. "
I had an idea. "Well you know the old quarry. Seagulls nest there why don't we go and get one each?"
"Yeah," said Kevin. "We could go like at night time and use a rope from the top."
"Let's go next Friday night. I'll call for you say at 4am.
"Ok James," said Kevin. "We'll do it." Kevin was beaming.
It was a very early cold frosty morning when I left home. I looked at my watch, 4am. The Moon was out giving the street a soft glow. My friend Kevin lived in the next road. There was nobody around as I walked down my street. A couple of security lights were triggered as I went past. I walked up to his house. I didn't ring the bell. I threw some small stones at his bedroom window. I was about to throw more when his head appeared. He put his finger to his lips and pointed downstairs. I waited in the freezing cold for him to come out. It seemed ages but I guess it was only a few minutes. He opened the door and stepped out, closing it softly behind him.
"All right Kevin," I whispered. When he turned towards me. He had a rope slung over his arm like me.
"All right James," he replied. Stepping forward to stand by me.
"Let's go then," I said. I noticed he was carrying a bag. "What's that then," I said, pointing to it.
"I've got an egg box and a flask of tea." He grinned.
"I've got a small box lined with tissue in my pocket." I padded the righthand pocket of my fleece. We set off down the road. It was very dark even with the moon. A milk float trundled past us. I checked my watch, it said 4.20am. It wasn't far to the old quarry and we were there in half an hour. There was an old wire fence barring our way but I pulled part of it back so we could shuffle through. The grass on this side was very long. And there was a lot of bushes and weeds hindering our progress. We passed a sign which said 'Trespassers will be Prosecuted'. Then another said 'Danger Quarry Face'. We ignored both. We got to the edge of the quarry and carefully peered over. It looked quite a long way down to the ground.
"200 feet at least," said Kevin.
"I'd say nearer 250 feet," I said. The chalky face looked dim in the moonlight.
