One autumn weekend, four friends went walking in the mountains in northern Spain.
Only three came home.
Tom Riley disappeared on the second day. The police searched for him for two weeks. They used dogs and helicopters but found nothing.
There was nobody. After some time, everyone believed Tom was dead.
Everyone except his mother.
Eight years later, on a Thursday evening, Tom came back.
Adam was sitting in a local pub when the door opened. A tall, thin man walked in. Adam knew him immediately.
Tom looked older. His face was thinner and there was a scar on his hand, but it was him.
“Tom?”
Tom turned and smiled.
“Hello, Adam.”
Adam slowly stood up. For eight years, he had believed his friend was dead.
“Where have you been?”
Tom looked around. Everyone was watching.
“It’s a long story.”
The next morning, Tom spoke to the police. He said he had fallen during the walk and hurt his head. A farmer found him two days later.
But Tom had decided not to return home. He said he had been young, angry and unhappy. He worked in Spain, Portugal and France and stayed away from social media.
People thought his story was strange but possible. His mother was simply happy he was alive.
Adam wanted to be happy too.
But something worried him.
Three days later, Tom came to Adam’s house. They sat in the garden with two beers and talked about the past.
“Remember our hotel in Spain?” Tom asked. “You broke the bathroom door.”
Adam frowned.
“That wasn’t me. It was Ben.”
Tom smiled. “Eight years. You forget things.”
Later, Tom said it had rained on their first day in the mountains. Adam clearly remembered the hot sun.
Small mistakes, he thought.
Then Tom asked, “Do you still see Ben?”
“Sometimes.”
“He never came back to look for me, did he?”
Adam stared at him.
“What do you mean?”
“After the police stopped searching. You came back alone.”
Adam felt cold.
Two weeks after the search ended, Adam had secretly returned to Spain. For three days, he walked around the mountain calling Tom’s name.
Only Ben knew.
“How do you know?” Adam asked.
“I saw you.”
Adam put down his beer.
“You saw me?”
“Yes.”
“I called your name for three days!”
“I know.”
“You heard me?”
Tom nodded.
Adam stood up. “Why didn’t you answer?”
Tom was silent.
“Because of Ben.”
On the morning Tom disappeared, he and Ben had argued. Adam remembered the argument, but he had walked away.
“What happened?” Adam asked.
“I pushed Ben. He pushed me back. I fell and hit my head.”
“So it was an accident?”
“Yes.”
“Then why did you disappear?”
“I was angry. I wanted Ben to think he had killed me.”
Adam stared at him.
“And your mother?”
Tom looked away.
“I didn’t think about her. Later, I wanted to come home, but I was ashamed.”
For eight years, Ben had also lived with what happened. He visited Tom’s mother every week and helped her whenever he could.
“So why come back now?” Adam asked.
Tom took a wedding invitation from his pocket.
Ben and Laura. Saturday, 17 June.
“Ben is getting married?”
“Yes. And he invited my mother.”
“What are you going to do?”
“Talk to him.”
That evening, Adam called Ben.
No answer.
At eleven, he drove to Ben’s house. Ben’s car was outside and the front door was open.
Adam entered.
“Ben?”
There was broken glass on the kitchen floor.
Then he heard voices in the garden.
Tom and Ben were standing near the back gate. Tom was holding an old photograph of the four friends in Spain.
“I thought you were dead,” Ben said.
“I know.”
“For eight years, I thought I killed you.”
Tom looked down.
“I’m sorry.”
“You’re sorry?”
Ben grabbed Tom’s shirt.
Adam ran between them.
“Stop!”
For a moment, nobody moved.
Then Ben let go.
“You can’t come back and make everything right,” he said.
“I know,” Tom replied.
He put the old photograph on the table and walked away.
Adam watched him disappear through the gate.
Eight years ago, Tom had disappeared because he wanted Ben to suffer.
But as Adam watched him leave, he understood something.
Tom had punished himself too.
Coming back could not return the eight years they had all lost.
📒 Key vocabulary
- scar – a mark left on the skin after a cut or injury has healed
- hurt (hurt, hurt, hurt) – to cause pain or to feel pain
- frowned (frown, frowned, frowned) – make a serious or unhappy expression by moving the eyebrows together
- stared (stare, stared, stared) – look at someone or something for a long time
- nodded (nod, nodded, nodded) – move the head up and down to show agreement or understanding
- argued (argue, argued, argued) – speak angrily because you disagree with someone
- argument – an angry discussion between people
- hit (hit, hit, hit) – touch someone or something hard and with force
- ashamed – feeling bad or embarrassed because of something you did
- wedding – a ceremony where two people get married
- let go (let go, let go, let go) – stop holding someone or something
- gate – a door in a fence or wall that you can open and close
- punished (punish, punished, punished) – make someone suffer because they did something wrong
🤔 Comprehension quiz
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