Rating: 3/5
When lonesome Barney stumbled across the chalk pit in the dump near his Grandmother’s house, his curiosity overcame at whether or not the ground would give way and make one fall in if one stood at its edge. He did so, and found that the rumour was actually correct; but realised that there were no rumours about what was down there – at the bottom of that vast, rock pit. And he found what he (unexpectedly) least expected to find.
A boy. Or was it a boy? Maybe it was some kind of cave-dweller. Maybe it was even a man; it was bigger than Barney, anyway. Was it a caveman, perhaps? It certainly looked like one. It was dressed in just one loose rabbit-skin tied round the hips, and its hair was matted and tangled, and its face and skin were filthy with soil-dirt and other grime. When Barney asked its name, it said, ‘Stig.’
But that was all that it said. The rest of its speech was just occasional grunts, shouts, and noises. Sometimes it only grinned and nodded if it wanted to say something. But Barney understood him. Barney was Stig’s friend and Stig was Barney’s friend – they got along like it, too.
One dark night, shortly after Christmas and still the time of year when Barney would see Stig every morning until lunch, and lunch until evening, Barney couldn’t sleep. He was asleep, but, thanks to his grandmother (he grumpily thought), she had awoken him when she had gone to bed herself a minute before, and he was too hot, too grumpy, too awake to be able to sleep again.
When Barney crept out of the house, his sister Lou saw him out of her bedroom window. She opened it, and whisper-shouted out, ‘Oh, Barney, Granny awoke me by accident while she was going to her bedroom, and I will never get back to sleep at this rate! Barney, do tell me where you are going!’
Barney simply said, ‘T’see Stig.’
Lou, who did not believe in Barney’s new friend, wanted to see for herself whether Stig was real or not; so she said, ‘Barney, do let me come too! I will be dreadfully quick – oh, ‘d’better take Dinah too, shouldn’t I…’ and her voice trailed off as she disappeared from the window to dress and get the dog.
Read this to find out what happens on Barney and Lou’s midnight adventure…