Luca's Game
Calico Rae crouched on the damp earth and listened to the honeybees crisscross over her head. Leaf-covered sunflower stems blocked her path in all directions. She brushed away a curl from her dark-lashed eyes and steadied her breath. Luca must be close. This time she would beat her brother.
Edging to the right, she found a ditch cut from a tractor’s tread. It offered an easy passage forward, so she took it, keeping low. Cool mud squished between her bare toes as the track veered left, then right, before getting swallowed up in the undergrowth.
As she paused to consider her next move, a flock of goldfinches whirled up into the grey-blue Norfolk sky some distance from her. That must be him, on the move, nearby. But where?
She stretched up on tiptoes to get a better view, but the sunflowers still towered above her. So, keeping as quiet as possible, she bent her legs, and sprang up into the air.
For the briefest moment she hung suspended, almost floating, as the whole immensity of the sunflower field revealed itself — thousands upon thousands of spiral seed-heads surrounded by golden petals. The blanket of yellow flowers was only broken by an ancient oak tree jutting out of a hill in the middle of the field. That oak tree was her finish line.
Just before gravity hauled her back down to the dirt, she spotted a flash of movement in the distance. Luca’s unmistakable black quiff was zigzagging towards the oak tree from the opposite end of the field. He was closer than her. No time left for thinking. All Calico could do was put her head down and run.
Thick-furred stems bent and snapped as she batted them out of her path. Her feet pounded forwards, her arms flailing, until she broke into sunlight at the bottom of the hill. Using her fingers to claw at the turf, she dragged herself up the slope. An awkward stumble, and she was on her knees. Without slowing, she crawled upwards, until, at last, the oak tree was in sight. She flung her arms around its trunk and hugged it as if it were a long-lost friend.
There was no sign of Luca anywhere, but that didn’t matter. Wherever her brother had got to, she had won! About to scream out in triumph, she caught her voice abruptly, remembering she was meant to stay quiet. Instead, she punched her fists into the air and danced a jig like a champion boxer winning a fight.
Her celebrations finally exhausted, she slumped down between two thick tree roots that formed a natural throne. After brushing the dirt for her knees and shorts, she took in the glorious view of the sunflower fields. In the distance, she could see Cowslip Cottage, her uncle’s thatched brown-stone farmhouse. The place she had just raced from. The place where she and Luca were trapped with their parents for the whole of the summer.
From nowhere, she heard a familiar deep voice.
‘Guess who?’
She looked up to see her brother perched on one of the high branches of the oak tree. He flashed a relaxed, white-toothed smile as she glared up at him. He wasn't panting, or even red-faced, as if he had been relaxing in the bow of the tree for hours.
‘Luca!’ Calico slapped her palms against two gnarled roots. ‘How do you always do that?’
‘Do what?’ he asked.
‘Always get your way, no matter how hard I try.’
‘What can I say, Cali? My legs grew.’ To illustrate the point, he swung his gangly legs back and forth above her.
‘Your legs haven’t grown as much as your head,’ Calico hissed back. She grabbed a nearby twig and tossed it at her brother but it didn’t even reach his sneakers.
‘Even this massive tree started as an acorn, you know. You’ll grow one day too.’ To emphasise his point, Luca grabbed a handful of acorns and showered them down on his sister. ‘Seriously, this tree’s probably been growing for a thousand years.’
Calico’s eyes widened. It didn’t seem possible that anything could live so long. ‘A thousand years? No way.’
‘There's an easy way to prove it. Count the rings,’ Luca said. He thudded down beside Calico then started making an engine motor noise with his lips. From behind his back, he pulled out an imaginary chainsaw. Rather than aim towards the tree, he started to lower his arms down over Calico, as if sawing her torso in two. ‘Is that nine rings I see inside you, Cali, or ten?’ he asked, laughing maniacally.
‘Hey! You know I’m eleven,’ Calico squealed as her brother pretended to slice through her ankles. Through fits of giggles, she begged him to stop. ‘Please Luca, Mum and Dad might hear!’
With those words, her brother stopped at once. They had made a pact earlier that morning to not let their parents know they had sneaked outside to play.
‘All quiet at Cowslip Cottage for once. Only time they don’t argue is when they’re asleep,’ Luca observed.
A few weeks ago, their mother had announced they were all going to spend the summer holidays at their uncle’s farmhouse. At the time, their dad hadn’t objected and so the whole family had descended on Cowslip Cottage. But since then, the arguments between their parents seemed never-ending.
‘Do you think they’ll ever stop–’ Calico’s voice trailed off, sounding more fragile than she wanted, maybe because she already sensed a truth about her parents. She let out a soft sigh. The summer had just begun and she was already wishing it was over.
Lost in her thoughts, it took her a while to notice her brother was leaning over a small, murky puddle nestled between the oak tree’s roots. Following his gaze, she saw a half-submerged honeybee trying to escape the water. The desperate flap of its wings was sending ripples out across the puddle’s surface.
Instinctively, Calico pulled back. What was it with Luca’s weird obsession with bees? One of her first memories was him sliding open a matchbox to reveal a living bee hidden inside it. She got stung that day, and she didn’t want that to ever happen again.
‘That bee’s trapped in the water. Just like we’re trapped here,’ she said.
Without lifting his eyes, Luca lowered his voice. ‘Listen,’ he said. ‘She’s a worker bee. From Uncle Kevin’s beehives. Landed here by mistake. Now, she can’t get out. She’s going to drown in that puddle.’
Calico puzzled at the strange way her brother was talking. ‘Why can’t you just get it out?’ she asked. Luca ignored her question, apparently content to just sit and watch the bee struggle.
After a few seconds of waiting, Calico picked up a twig and leaned forwards, intending to nudge the bee to safety. But before she could reach it, Luca’s hand shot out and grabbed her wrist.
‘Don’t!’ he said abruptly. ‘We can’t interfere. It’s nature.’
‘I was just–‘ Calico objected but Luca seemed deadly serious. He only released her arm because she promised to leave the honeybee alone. Together, they both watched as the bee continued trying to escape. Luca’s lips occasionally twitched, as if he were whispering to himself. Eventually, the beat of the bee’s wings began to slow, its energy fading.
Calico couldn’t bare it anymore. She dived forward and, with a blunt fingernail, she bumped the bee to the edge of the puddle. Luca protested but she managed to block him long enough to let the bee clamber on to dry ground. Freed from the water, the bee ruffled its wings and quickly took to the air.
Luca’s face was a mixture of shock and frustration. ‘That wasn’t meant to happen,’ he moaned. ‘Trust you to meddle with things.’
‘We couldn’t just let it drown. Not when it was so easy to help,’ Calico said.
Frustrated, her brother got to his feet and began to trudge down the hill.
‘Where are you going?’
‘Doesn’t matter,’ he replied, without stopping.
‘You can’t just leave me here!’
Luca sighed. ‘Come on then, if you’re coming.’ He walked with long strides through the sunflower field, with Calico taking twice as many steps to keep up with him.
‘So, what’s the plan?’ she asked.
‘It’s a surprise,’ he replied, flashing his eyebrows.
Calico pondered this for a moment, then made a guess. ‘No, Luca. Not Little Trappton. Please.’
Luca paused. ‘The village is the only place near here. Why not go visit?’
‘Because it’s BORING,’ she wailed. ‘Everybody there is so old.’
‘Well, what else can we do? It’s not like we’re in—’
‘Let me guess! Not like in America.’ Calico rolled her eyes. ‘If Dad even once took me over there, then I’d know, wouldn’t I?’
‘Maybe when you’re a bit older. . .’ He started walking again. ‘You know, Dad’s different when we’re in America. Like he’s happier.’
Calico puffed out her cheeks as she chased behind him. ‘Soon you won’t even sound English anymore. You’ll be all American.’
‘The funny thing is, when people hear my accent over there, they don’t realise I’m English. They think I’m Australian.’
‘Oh, you meet people out there, do you? Girlfriends?’
Her brother shook his head but she could see a flush of crimson creep onto his skin. He was a fifteen-year-old boy, after all.
‘Well, try not to forget about me while you and Dad travel the world.’ She folded her arms in annoyance.
‘Hey, I actually did forget something, Cali. I bought you a present.’ Luca dug deep into his pocket and pulled out two brown leather bracelets. He put on a southern drawl as if he were a cowboy. ‘They’re made of genuine cowhide.’
Calico untangled the two bracelets and slipped one over her wrist. At first, it seemed too big, but Luca showed her how to twist it round so it wouldn't slide off her hand. He looked deep into her eyes.
‘If we both wear these bracelets, we can remember we’re in this together. You and me against the world, okay. It doesn’t matter what happens with Mum and Dad.’
Calico tried to smile, but when she found she couldn’t she gave her brother a tight hug instead.
‘Okay, man-of-the-world,’ she teased. ‘What else can we do today? Anything but Little Trappton? What about something from America?’
Luca considered for a moment and then, as if inspiration had struck, he changed course and began to weave through the sunflowers.
‘Right then, sad-sack,’ he said. ‘There is a sort of game I learned in the States. A secret game. And I guarantee it will not be boring.’
They both emerged not far from Cowslip Cottage. Luca checked his bearings and then guided them towards two rows of wooden beehives.
‘We’re not supposed to be back here,’ Calico called out but her brother continued towards the hives. He walked cautiously between the two rows then gestured for his sister to come and join him.
‘It’s only a game,’ he reassured her.
Reluctantly, Calico moved forwards, trying her best to dodge the honeybees as they streaked back and forth from the hives to the sunflower field. She felt sure that at any moment one of the bees would find a way under her t-shirt or get tangled in her curls.
‘Thought this was meant to be fun,’ she muttered as she reached her brother.
Luca raised both his hands, letting the leather bracelet slip down his wrist. He uncurled his fingers and turned his palms to face his sister. Tentatively, Calico lifted her own hands and pressed them flat against her brother’s. She felt an odd sensation of resistance in the space formed by their arms, like two magnets pushing away from each other. Luca’s game must be some kind of silly dare. After losing the race to the oak tree, there was no way she was going to let him beat her again.
Luca closed his eyes, inhaled deeply, then let a long, slow breath. Calico matched the gentle pace of his breathing and soon their chests began to rise and fall in unison. She noticed that every time they took a breath in, the humming from the beehives seemed to grow a little louder. And as they breathed out, the hum softened.
In. Louder. Out. Softer.
The calming drone of the bees became so relaxing that Calico let her eyes gradually close. The pressure from Luca's palms increased and although his hands were much larger than hers, she pushed back against them, determined to match his strength.
A high-pitched buzzing came from behind her. It was faint at first, like a violin playing a melody over the rhythms of an orchestra. The buzz grew steadily closer and louder until it passed by her left ear, before moving in front of her and into the space formed by their arms.
Then the buzz stopped.
Calico flicked open her eyes to see a single honeybee hovering between her and Luca. Although its wings were beating, the bee did not move, as if it were being held in place by invisible string.
His eyes still closed, Luca whispered, ‘Take a closer look at her.’
Transfixed, Calico leaned forward and studied the bee. Its two compound eyes, each with a thousand tiny lenses, regarded her. Its yellow and black striped abdomen appeared soft enough to stroke, with pollen covered legs hanging beneath it. And last, at its rear end, she saw the worryingly sharp needlepoint of the bee’s stinger.
As Calico tried to shake the thought of the stinger from her mind, she heard a second high-pitched buzz. Another bee flew into the space between their arms and positioned itself directly above the first. As soon as it was in position, it also froze.
A subtle smile spread across Luca's lips as a third bee joined, then a fourth and a fifth. More bees arrived from the hives and some began forming a second tower. Soon there were two neat columns of bees hovering patiently, side-by-side.
‘How?’ Calico murmured, her mind swirling with the wonder of Luca’s strange magic. Somehow, the bees were doing what he wanted them to do, like he was the director of a film and they were his actors.
‘Now watch this,’ Luca said.
The two towers of bees began to twist around each other, spiralling upwards in an exquisite dance. Calico stared in astonishment as the pace increased, the bees rotating around each other faster and faster until they blurred together in a miniature tornado of yellow and black.
Right then, from the direction of Cowslip Cottage came a distant shout — their mother’s voice. Calico couldn't make out the exact words, but she immediately knew from the tone that her parents must be arguing again.
‘Focus on the bees,’ Luca insisted.
In front of her, the bee towers seemed to be losing their elegant shape. Calico tried to block out the sound of her mum’s voice. Two bees collided and tumbled downwards, while others spilled out from between their arms.
‘Luca,’ she said, a nervous edge to her voice. Her brother squeezed his eyes tighter shut in a desperate effort of concentration. The volume of the bees' drone increased, their movements becoming more and more chaotic. Once again, Calico heard her mother scream, and this time her father shouted back in response.
Just then, a lone bee landed on Calico’s bare neck. She tried to pull her hands away from Luca’s, but somehow they wouldn’t separate, as if they were glued together.
‘Please, Luca. Make it stop!’
The buzz of the bees intensified with every second that passed, but still the noise wasn’t enough to drown out their parent’s fighting. The bees movements grew ever more erratic and out of control. Some were slamming into each other as more continued to join from the hives. Soon, they were surrounded by a cloud of the insects.
Luca's eyes snapped opened, dilated and bewildered. ‘The bees. They won't listen to me.’
‘What can we do?’ Calico shouted.
‘Break the circle,’ he said through gritted teeth. They both tried to pull themselves apart, but their hands refused to separate.
The lone bee on Calico’s neck crept up past her cheek. She shook her head, twisting it from side to side, trying to get the insect off. As the bee reached the lobe of her ear, she could hear the sharp whine of it’s wings. She blew at it from the corner of her mouth but the bee continued to crawl towards her ear hole.
‘Luca!’ she cried out.
With a roar, her brother finally forced his hands to separate from hers. And as he did so, the whirlwind of bees exploded around them, scattering out in all directions.
‘I’m so sorry, Cali,’ Luca whispered.
Calico looked up at her brother for a moment, confused, before a blast of pain burst through her eardrum.
