The Summer That Changed Everything

"This summer holiday, be careful. Stay away from canals and be careful crossing the roads. Enjoy yourself but watch out for dangers." Mr Hook repeated that speech every year just before the six week summer holiday. No one ever paid attention, anyway we were carefree seven year olds and the last thing on our minds was dangers. Every child in the assembly hall sat watching the clock impatiently, we were itching to go home and start the best six weeks of our lives. The sunshine shone brightly through the gigantic Victorian windows as the hand of the clock ticked slowly towards 3pm.
Just as time knew we could no longer take it, the clock struck 3pm and the bell rang loudly. This was it. The start of six weeks of fun, sleeping in and long lazy summer days. No teachers and no maths class. Pure heaven for any seven year old. As the bell rang, every child in the hall stood up simultaneously and ran to their class. We grabbed our bags and ran down the stairs as if our lives depended on leaving Echo Falls Primary School as quickly as possible.
I waved bye to my classmates as I walked home with my mother and told my best friend Darren Harvey that I would see him later on that day. He always came to my estate to play and I knew that day would be no different.
As I had predicted Darren was outside of my block of flats waiting for me. He had a huge grin on his face. I looked at him and smiled. Darren was the cutest 6 year old I knew. He had brown mousy hair, which was always untidy, and a small round button nose. He had the biggest, brightest blue eyes I had ever seen that shone like blue stars and a smile to light up anyone's day. I reminded him of what Mr Hook had said in our assembly. We both laughed out loud.
"Dangers? We laugh in the face of danger, ha ha ha. What dangers could there possibly be?" Darren said laughing.
"Other than the danger of having too much fun and eating ice cream," I said agreeing.
Darren introduced me to his new friends; they were much older than us and made me feel uneasy. I could not quite put my finger on it, but there was something weird about them being friends with Darren. I shook my head and realised it was nothing. Darren went off with the older boys as I ran upstairs to my house.
I remember waking up everyday at twelve in the afternoon, I lay back in my bed and took a deep breath. I had already gone through fourteen days of sleeping until twelve and it felt good. I still had another twenty eight days left and I was going to spend every one of those days with Darren. I scratched my back and walked to the bathroom. I thought Darren would be round soon so I decided to get dressed. It was three o'clock and Darren still had not turned up which was odd. I thought about where he might be and figured he wouldn't be coming round today and went to play on my balcony with my neighbours.
"TIFFANY! TIFFANY! Come now!" My mother was screaming my name at the top of her voice. What had I done now? I wondered. On no, I'm in trouble. I thought about hiding, running to my neighbour's house, but I knew better. She would get me eventually. I walked slowly into my house and towards my mother's room.
"Look at that." She pointed at the television screen.
"Seven year old Darryl Harvey has been missing since yesterday evening." A smartly dressed newsreader read from a piece of paper. His voice was cold and hollow. There was no feeling, no sympathy. Darren's school picture flashed up on the screen. They weren't talking about my Darren, the reader called him Darryl plus he got the age wrong too. They were mistaken. I looked hard at my mother and burst out laughing.
"Mum, is this some kind of sick joke?"
"Tiffany, this is serious. Darren's missing, his parents have no idea where he is."
I refused to believe it, Darren was fine. What a stupid mistake to make, I thought.
As the day ended, I crawled into bed. Darren's school picture was lodged into my brain. I closed my eyes and all I could see was those blue eyes. They were watching me, staring hard. Just as I finally got to sleep, a flashing yellow light coming through my bedroom window woke me up. I climbed out of bed and watched as a helicopter flew over my house. Deep down I knew why it was there. It was searching for Darren. I tried to convince myself that it was looking for another child but I couldn't. I ran to the toilet, locked the door and burst into tears. It was the first time the realisation that Darren was missing had hit me.
The next day, my mum took me to the local park to take my mind of Darren. Everybody was talking about seven year old Darryl who had gone missing.
"Darren," I screamed, "his name is Darren and he's six not seven."
"Well, the newsreader said he was seven years old," commented my friend Frankie.
"The newsreader doesn't know him the way I do. He's not seven for a couple more weeks so shut up."
I spent the next few days in a daze. I was still in denial but I couldn't escape it. Everywhere I turned reminded me of Darren. I wanted to tell him that I missed him but he wasn't there. How was I going to go back to school without Darren around?
One night, my mum sat me down. Darren's body had been found in the local canal. The Police had come to the conclusion that he had been playing on a discarded fridge that they found and because he couldn't swim, his body went under. I knew the older boys had something to do with it. Darren would never have taken those risks. To think we both dismissed Mr Hook's warning. We laughed in the face of danger, but danger had come back for us. It was punishing us for not taking it serious.
My mother and I decided to visit Darren's family. They lived in a small cottage behind my block of flats. Their small country cottage was a stark contrast to my huge city block of flats. The living room wall was covered with pictures of Darren. As Darren's mum talked about missing him, I held his newborn baby brother. I looked deep at his face and into his blue eyes, the same eyes as Darren's. I looked at his small button nose and at his perfectly formed smile. He would never know the Darren I knew.
The day of the funeral came and I wasn't allowed to go because I was too young. My mum looked after Darren's two little sisters, Chloe and Samantha because they were also too young. I knew the funeral was my last chance to say goodbye and I was denied it. One teacher from my school went which angered me more. She didn't know Darren but I did. So why wasn't I allowed to go? I looked at Chloe and Samantha. They were oblivious to what was happening. I wished I were too. But my brain was full of images of Darren's last hours. I wondered what his body looked like before he was cremated. Was he scared and lonely? Was God looking after him in Heaven? The funeral was on the last weekend of the summer holiday, the following week I was back to school.
The best six weeks of my life had turned into the worst. Everyday had been a complete nightmare and that was just the beginning. I walked to school in complete silence. When I reached the assembly hall, everybody sat in silence. Nobody was excitedly discussing their holiday as usual.
"There was a great tragedy this summer holiday." Mr Hook's voice was as cold and hollow as the newsreaders. Everybody in the hall looked at each other. We knew he was talking about Darren.
Mr Hook continued, "We will miss him dearly..."
The hall exploded with noise. People were shouting and talking loudly while Mr Hook was trying to pay tribute. I wanted to scream. My heart was racing and my palms were sweating. Did these children have no respect? Darren was dead and they couldn't even be quiet for two minutes. Who the hell did they think they were? After assembly, my classmates and I walked to our classroom in silence. We knew the class would never be the same again without Darren.
Four years passed before I ever confronted the canal, which stole Darren's life away. Standing over the wall that surrounded the canal, I looked into the green, opaque water. This was where Darren spent his last day, I thought. I threw a stone and watched how the waves rippled. The canal was full of rubbish, old cookers, litter and weeds. There was no sign of life. I looked up at the cloudless blue sky, this was my chance to say goodbye.
"Darren," I shouted at the sky, "I miss you. I'm sorry for not appreciating you and I love you forever." This was it, I thought. I smiled at the canal and walked home, I had finally let Darren go.