Chapter 6
He crossed back over the road and stood on the gravel. He cast his eyes over the shrubbery hoping to catch a glimpse of metal glinting in the afternoon sun. There was no such glint and with a heavy heart he started walking. Still, he kept his attention on the wild grass that grew abundantly on either side of the road. There was every chance that whoever had taken his bike was just playing a mean trick on him. Perhaps they wanted him to think it had been stolen and had dumped it further along. With that thought he realised that whoever had taken his bicycle might have also seen him on the rock. The shock of that realisation did an expert job of erasing his worries about a stolen bicycle. Suddenly the theft didn’t seem as catastrophic as the idea that someone might have seen him naked by the creek and may also be, at that very moment, relaying what they had seen to their friends.