Here’s the introduction to Beyond the Wall as it appears in Fankle Six – Crossing Borders. Hope you like it…

Beyond the Wall

Copyright Alan Clark

That wall stretched for ever when I was seven. Brick after red brick towered above us like the perimeter of some giant’s fortress, and stretched the length of the road from Connell Avenue to Downs Crescent. As any child who lived on my street knew that was as wide as the Universe. None of us were allowed beyond those boundaries, our parents warning us away from the dragons and monsters that resided there.

We could see the top of the wall from our bedrooms, but a mash up of branches and vines obscured our vision of the property behind. We would stand on tip-toes and peer with scrunched up eyes over our window sills, searching for the slightest clue as to what lay beyond. It was a futile game, one we could never win, but it was fun.

One day my brother Jake and I were playing in our front garden when our adventures took us across the road. We found ourselves next to the massive wooden gate that was the only break in the wall’s defences. “What does the sign say?” Jake asked.