In Thunder's Pocket: Part 2

By JOAN AIKEN

The train began moving again. I flipped my jacket back into the rack and was about to sit down when a voice from behind me made me start someone had come into the carriage from the corridor side.

"Hey, that was pretty neat!" said the boy who had come in.He took off his own rain-spotted jacket and slung it up into the rack beside mine.

It was the same colour. Then he sat down where the fat woman had been. He was about my size, brown-haired and freckled. He wore jeans, trainers and a t-shirt. He gave me a calm look.

"Where are you going?" he asked.

"St Boan," I said.

"And don't I just wish I wasn't!"

"Thunder's Pocket. Oh. But why? You been there before?"

"No, never,' I said. "Why do you call it Thunder's Pocket?"'

"That's what the locals call it. Because they get such a lot of thunder storms. On account of how the land lies a steep hill running down to a narrow harbour. Storms get trapped, you see, they go round and round."

"I see."

"Why don't you want to go there?" he said.

"It's not a bad place. Apart from the storms."

Publisher: Random House

Price: $14.95

Age group: 8 + years