Time to call it quits........

AGIA.....AGIIIAAAA....Here boy! then there was silence, I'd listen intently as the last of my voice would echo back at me, standing in a half perched stance with my hands cupped around my ears, centred on the crossroads at Belgrove east ferry,  Placed squarely between Sean Hollands farm and Dinny sheehans facing our house at the bottom of the hill!  The hill my Father used to use to start the car! And  usually because of the stillness of the nights it wouldn't take long to recognise the change in the air, hearing Agia approaching across damp fields  at great speed, his heavy paws, bigger than most could be heard and then felt through the ground! I was wondering had i dreamt him, Was I just imagining the sound?  Out of desperation and anguish for the absence of a young boys companion, Nay friend...Possibly BEST FRIEND!     It had been two days now, Not like him to be gone so long...   I sat...whistled called again,,,and nothing!
We waited at the pitch cold crossroads being harassed by the fairies as they flew just out of view, some bold enough to chance a touch of our hair causing me to flail my arms wildly, This was usually enough to drive them off!  They would disappear making a bee line for the  Oak  tree  bordering Butlers farm, A huge tree that seemed to unfairly dominate the evening skyline!  A tree that is believed  to have sucked in daylight, More likely it just easily blocked  out the light due to its size, But yes the nights drew  in quicker because of that tree!
 As  the wind had picked up   hearing anything  was going to be tough! And the lads decided it was late and perhaps time to consider giving up the search for the night,  I think they sensed perhaps it was a fruitless search, Here were four young boys on the hunt for a dog that was in dog years anyway, Older than us combined! The truth be known Dogs that went missing in the country side usually suffered a cruel but similar fate at the hands of a local farmer, Something I think they silently suspected but were reluctant to suggest!....And I was thankful for that.
I did what my friend later told me was very dangerous, I made my way to the woods on Butlers land...Their first objection was that its not safe what with the ferocious dog  Jet,  Agia  knew jet personally, He had had a few gladiatorial schrimishes with him since we lived there,I'm not sure who had won because usually I would turn and run at the very start of these battles for fear that if Agia were to somehow lose, Jet might then turn his attentions to me! He was a competent foe, Jet, black as his name would suggest, Unusually long white fangs that he had no problem bearing, Yes we had had several encounters in the past and I suspected we may yet have more! I hoped!! Not that that worried me right now,  it was there next move that chilled my spine....Daavvve...Their Orange men! theeiiir kiinnng billies boys!
Gotta say, totally lost on me,  Other than I knew they were refering to the Butlers form of religion...I had lived in the States for the formative years, so i knew nothing of
"Orange king billy" Or Protestants either! The only reference I had heard back home was the term, White Anglo Saxon Protestants..Or wasps for short, Not nice...But not too defamatory! No it was in that ghostly tone that boys use on you as its getting dark and you've committed to the chase in the woods And you get that sinking feeling when you realise that they are actually heading home now!! Ya that's where the chill in my spine began! When I realised I was alone...
As I reluctantly pushed on through the woods I could still hear the lads screaming like Banshees, But they were too far away to have an ill effect, Until eventually and quite comically they started singing By the rivers of Babylon by Boney M? I Think! How weird now...but different times then, I guess,
And until I could hear them no more I was relatively safe, I don't know how that logic works as they were too far away to hear me not alone to help! But for me it worked!
I immediately became aware of more fairies swooping down using their sonar clicks to pass inches over my head, I don't know why we called them fairies and not Bats, Probably just some childish remark spoken then repeated by another and both laying claim to it as it seemed to quite please a girl in their company, So it stuck!
I continued deeper in until to be honest it was pitch black and I could see very little, Only as the moon on occasions was freed of its embrace  by the clouds that seemed to be running across the night sky, Through the shards of moon light that flashed through the trees I could I thought make out a figure of a person in front of me and then there were two, three,ten....too many to count! They were making their way towards me arms extended, Shuffling, Moaning... My eyes closed involuntarily clamped shut, I couldn't,t open them even if I wanted too, My feet were stuck to the muddy ground, I couldn't run The chills literally ran the lenght of my spine finishing in my hair line on the back of my neck like boney fingers..........
Isn't the child's imagination a glorious thing, Of course when I did manage to open my eyes I realised I was alone, Time to call it quits for the night, As two days of missing in action was turning to three I made my way home out of the woods through the ploughed field that led to a gap in the hedge directly opposite my front door, The closer I got the more secure I felt, As I placed my foot on the wall with the intention of jumping past the nettles on the road side, I looked down and my heart sank...... My search was over...............