“Why don’t you just leave the stuff here?” he asks, looking at the carrier bag I’m holding. “You heard what Nan said,” I reply. “The gift has to be left at the entrance to the cave.” Josh shakes his head and folds his arms. “I’m not going with you,” he says. I see that I’m going to have to do this alone. My legs feel heavy as I make myself walk into the clearing. The sun is hot, making me sweat. As I get close to the cave opening it seems like a giant mouth ready to swallow me whole. Once I reach the entrance I place the bag just inside. My heart thumps as I spin around and race back to Josh. “Let’s get out of here!” As we race in and out of the trees, I hope that the gift will be enough. Illustration 7: Ella putting a carrier bag of gifts in the quarry/cave mouth. Josh hangs back, afraid. I didn’t know what to leave and so in the end I chose a small silver bracelet, a bar of chocolate and a bottle of sherry. I’m going to have some explaining to do when Mum notices they’re missing.
