mustn't be killed either. That would be murder. I had to do something only slightly mean. A slightly mean punishment. I had to get my own back for all the insults my classmates had flung at me all those years. I had to do something to pay back the Principal for all those silly lines, and extra homework assignments he had given me.

I walked across a bridge.

That's when things started to go wrong.

A car swerved to miss a dog, and the dog knocked a cyclist. The cyclist hit me and I swung my school bag as I fell backwards. I let go! It fell into the river and floated away.

Now I was in trouble. All my class mates. And the Principal. Floating down the river. They might drown! I'd be arrested for mass murder! The electric chair. Shot. Something worse!

I ran after them.

The river was quite slow, but the bag stayed in the middle. It floated quite well. I hoped it wasn't filling with water.

Then the match boxes started to come out. One by one. Bobbing along near the bag. All twenty three of them. And the red one.

I ran along the side of the river. I had to cross roads. Go round people. Get through road-works. It was pretty hectic. The boxes were all out of the bag now, spreading out along the middle of me river. Some of them were sinking. I had to wade in and catch them.

Mum wouldn't have wanted to see me then. I was up to my waist in water. If I'd been as tall as my class mates the water would have come up to my knees. But I was short. Everything was higher and taller for me.

I gathered the boxes. Twenty one, twenty two, twenty three. One missing.

Where was it?

I saw a huge dog chasing a stick. A man threw the stick into the river. The dog jumped in and swam to get it. The dog saw the missing match box and grabbed it with its mouth.

Then I realized which box it was. The red one. The dog had the Principal in its mouth!

"Drop it boy!" I called, "Come on, there's a good dog!"