Warm summer days, lying outstretched on the grassy riverbank, arm dangling in the Cool clear water of the river Teme, reaching under, slowly stroking the underbelly of the plump trout.”Meyrick dreaming again,” shouted Mr Perkins, the schools headmaster as his cane slammed down on my desk. “Pay attention lad.” "Very sorry sir", I said as quickly as possible. “You will be boy, if I catch you daydreaming again, now where was I, let me see. Yes Mrs Graves, headmistress of the Girls school, has informed me, that some of you boys have been pulling faces at her girls; this will not be tolerated. And woe betide you all if I hear anymore complaints about this”. He once again slammed his cane down, as I sat as straight as possible in the chair trying desperately to look innocent. As the headmaster turned and walked back towards the front of the class, I turned and winked at Fred Richardson my best mate. But the smile on my face instantly disappeared, as I saw my Mam marching across the schoolyard, heading straight for the Main Door.

Reg Meyrick, that’s me, born Wednesday September 11th 1901, soon I will be eleven. I’m the Second eldest in my family, well not counting Mam and Dad, but that’s obvious isn’t it.. Now I got two other sisters, theirs Beatrice, she’s seven, and little Eva just a baby. Oh and a brother ,Tom, he’s a bit older he`s twelve, blooming nuisance always bossing me about. I have to sneak out of the house, quiet like, just to get some time on my own. One thing I don’t understand is that Mam is always saying, pity us children was ever born, we will drive her too her grave, but then next moment she says how she worries about us all. I tell you these grown ups is strange, I will never understand them. Now Dad he doesn’t say much, well not to me. He works as a linesman on the railway, says he will get me a job there soon. I hope it will be as a train driver, that would be great, then I would have lots of places to go, I’d see all sorts of things.

The fact that Dad has worked on the railway for over twenty years was in a way, the reason Ma was now marching towards the school with a face like thunder. Ma knocked on the school door. Mr Perkins, took her straight into his office, I could see them talking, and when he came back in to the classroom, I knew that I was in deep trouble. Meyrick he boomed get yourself outside, Schools over for you today. You lad, have let the whole school down, and when your mother, and the Station Master have finished with you, I shall have something to impress on you, I knew that what he would be impressing were the marks of his cane, but that was tomorrow, it was Mam I would have to face first. Of course, by now I knew what I was in trouble for. It was the mention of Station Master that had made that clear. Still Fred and me, we had a great laugh last night, now I was going to have to pay.

I’d better Explain, you see last night, it were a warm June evening, we went up to the old quarry in Kinsley wood, the one by the railway station to explore, it were Fred that first spotted that big adder, lying out on the rock, basking in the evening sun, “Cor come and look at this Reg, its a beauty,” we crept a bit closer, Fred picked up a big stick, and with a mighty swipe crushed the adders head with one blow. “Watch out, it will bite” I said “bleeding heck, Reg, it will have a job with no head” laughed Fred. Picking the snake up by its tail he flung it at me. Once we got confident we spent a few minutes throwing the snake at each other, but very soon got tired of that game. “Bet we sure could frighten someone with this Fred” I said, and then we hatched our plan.
We crept down to the railway station and towards the big wooden signal box. The platform was quiet, as it was still twenty minutes before the 6.15pm from Shrewsbury was due in. We carefully laid out the adder as if it was slithering up the wooden steps towards the signal box, then we hid behind the side fencing, and waited patently.

It was Harry Edwards, the apprentice, who first opened the green signal box door. Harry was just going to throw out the dregs from the teapot, before making a fresh brew, well you should have seen his face when he spotted the snake, went ghostly white he did, he slammed shut the door, then slowly the door eased open once again. Bill Giles the signalman crept out, Harry close behind, Bill had a shovel and Harry a broom, they slowly and cautiously advanced on the snake. Then suddenly they both lurched forward, shovel and broom striking out in unison. The adder never stood a chance as they hit it all ways. It was at about the same time as they realised that the adder was minus a head and had been long dead that we could no longer hold back are laughter, and we made a hasty run for it across the station yard, with Bill and Harry in hot pursuit. But with the fence and a few years between us they soon gave up the chase.

As we were running up station road we saw Ike Marsh, the railway Drayman, He had just finished his delivering the latest parcels that had arrived on the goods train, to various addresses in town and was just bringing the horse and dray back to the stables. Of course, that was my downfall, he knew my dad well, and immediately recognised me as Bill Meyricks boy. When he’d gone into work today, and heard all about the snake, he had told them he had seen me running from there last night. So as dad was working a good few miles up the line, the Stationmaster had been to see my mam, and now ma was marching me down to apologise to them all. The worse part was the walk down to the station, Mam kept telling me off all the time. After she had said the same thing for the eighth time, I had memorised her speech,. I just kept hoping she would forget the words.

To be honest when I got there it weren’t as bad as I thought, in fact as I was apologising, the men had a job to stop smiling about it, was the same when Dad got
home, he had a stern face and told me off, but I knew he thought it a good prank. Of course I told Fred I had been in loads of trouble, but courageously had held out and not told them my companion’s name. Well that would mean Fred owed me a real big favour, little known to me, it turned out it would not be very long before I would need to collect.

Of course I still had to face Mr Perkins, but that was tomorrow, another day, another adventure.

The End

Written by Keith Owen.2007
Based on a true handed down family story.