Like This, for Ever

at one time fishing boats or dredgers, were moored to the bank. Tied up to them were four smaller boats and, in the third line along, five boats that were smaller still. To get to his granddad’s boat in the third row, the children would have to creep across the ones in between.
    ‘It’s the yellow one with two masts,’ Barney said. ‘We should go in two groups, tread quietly and not talk. I’ll go first. Who wants to come with me?’
    Sam was looking nervously across the line of boats. Dim light shone from several of them. ‘Why can’t we all go together?’ he said.
    ‘Because you lot can’t keep from talking. All of us together will sound like a herd of elephants, someone will hear us and that’ll be the end of it,’ said Barney.
    ‘He’s right,’ said Jorge. ‘I’ll come last. Barney, you go with Sam and Harvey, Lloyd and Hatty will follow. If anyone comes, I’ll crow like a cockerel and you can all hide.’
    A second, whilst what Jorge had just said sank in.
    ‘Crow like a cockerel?’ said Lloyd. ‘Won’t that be a bit obvious? I don’t see any chickens round here.’
    ‘Hoot like an owl then,’ said Jorge. ‘Whatever.’
    Barney, Harvey and Sam climbed down the ladder on to the first houseboat. The rain was falling faster and the air was punctuated by thousands of plopping noises. As they made their way around the deck, which could hardly be seen beneath the pots and planters, the sound of a Saturday-evening quiz show drifted out towards them.
    ‘They have TV?’ whispered Sam, as he followed Barney over the guardrail and on to the next boat.
    Barney had been looking carefully at the cabin windows of the middle boat. The curtains weren’t closed and no light shone from below. He nodded at Sam. ‘A lot of them have their own generators,’ he said. ‘No mains power, though.’
    ‘What about gas?’ asked Sam.
    What was this? A lesson in domestic utilities?
    ‘Calor,’ he said, hoping that would be the end of it. ‘Comes in bottles.’
    ‘What’s with all the plants?’
    Barney raised his eyes to the night sky. ‘They don’t have any gardens.’
    A couple of seconds’ silence while Sam thought about that one. Then, ‘Neither do we, but we don’t cover our veranda with plants.’
    ‘Sssh!’
    ‘What?’
    Barney put his finger to his lips. He dropped into a squat and peered into the water. It was about five or six feet deep, he judged,and getting deeper every second. It was also moving very fast, not smoothly the way it would in the main river, but sloshing backwards and forwards, swirling and slopping. It was noisy, and yet there’d been something that wasn’t quite …
    ‘What?’ Sam was looking left and right, and making rude gestures to the group still waiting up on the wall. For crying out loud!
    ‘Listen,’ Barney mouthed.
    A few seconds of silence, then, ‘Can’t hear anything,’ said Sam.
    Barney got to his feet. It had probably been nothing.
    ‘What?’ asked Harvey as they set off again, treading carefully around the front deck of the middle boat. ‘What did you hear?’
    ‘I thought there was something in the water. Probably just a bird feeding.’
    The light grew fainter and the streets of Deptford began to feel a long way away. Barney tried to ignore the uncomfortable feeling in his stomach. The splashing sound he’d heard had been too loud to be a bird, even supposing they were still feeding in the dark.
    When they reached the side deck, they could look down on to the yellow yacht in front of them, which seemed smaller and at the same time neater than Barney remembered. He turned back to signal to the others. He had to hope that Lloyd and Hatty would be quieter than he, Harvey and Sam had been. The next two children climbed down the ladder and began making their way towards them.
    ‘What a pair of dorks,’ muttered Sam.
    Lloyd and Hatty were scuttling along the deck of the first boat at a slow run, bent double, glancing to left and right like commandos. At least they were moving quietly, though, and they weren’t stopping to talk. Lightly, they jumped on to the middle boat and ran round to join Barney and the others.
    ‘This place is freaking me out,’ said Hatty in a low whisper when they were close enough. ‘Why’s it have to be so dark?’
    ‘It’s private land, so the Council don’t put in streetlights,’ said Barney. ‘And we’re a long way from the road. Just watch what you’re doing. If you fall in here we might not be able