THE FRIENDS
Miriam was upset. “It was so horrible,” she said, tears filling her huge grey eyes.
She was sitting with Alice, Sam, Fortuna and Jack (Jumping Jack) Juniper on the Green. Jumping Jack was a black boy; a thin streak of amazing, flashing, leaping energy and a mass of thick hair that stuck straight up from his head. He and Miriam had both been at the the Edge to see the No-Life Man and they’d both witnessed the terrible accident that had followed.
“See, Rasper couldn’t get the No-Life man out of the corn,” said Jack.
“He was being very frustrated,” added Miriam in her husky voice.
“So he got all the men from Workshop Way, you know, to build this wooden platform out over the corn where the No-Life Man was lying,” explained Jack, “And then two other men, you know, were put up t
