Garden Hopping
No one had ever made it past house number twelve. The cul-de-sac was 150 metres long and had
fifteen houses, all detached bar one semi-detached. Beginners to the group were expected to reach
house number five as standard, as the first four houses were separated by only
a 1 metre high wall and occupied by young couples who didn’t care about kids
playing games – they probably garden hopped too in their childhood. After number five it began to get difficult…
House number six was surrounded by fir
trees; number seven had Rex the Alsatian dog; number eight had a 2 metre wall topped
by sharp pebbles; while numbers nine and ten were semi-detached and it was nearly
impossible to sneak under their lounge window, climb the in-between wall and
not get caught by the occupants. Number eleven had gravel, which crunched under
footing and gave away your presence and number twelve; well, number twelve had
Mr Gregg – a grumpy OAP housebound and permanently sofa-bound in his front
room, with one eye on the television and one eye always on the street. Mr Gregg would spot the kids garden hopping as
they came round the bend of the cul-de-sac and he’d always be ready with his
window open and phone at hand threatening to call the police if they climbed
over his wall. The rules were simple:
you lost if you got caught. In most
cases, the occupant would knock on their window and tell you to get lost and in
extreme cases they came outside and told you to get lost.
Jack was the newcomer to the group; his
family had just moved into number fourteen two weeks ago but he’d quickly made
friends with the six other children on the street, who often played street
football, knock-a-door run, Lurky or manhunt.
Saturday afternoon, 3pm was the chosen time for garden hopping and the
group assembled. There was Jack,
Melanie, Alice, Joseph, Michael and Eloise.
Joseph was the tallest and oldest which made him the default group
leader. Jack hadn’t hopped yet but it
was his turn this week and he was nervous.
He had done a knock-a-door run on number four a few days ago, but the
usually pleasant man was furious and had bellowed to the street: “Don’t ever
knock on this door again. Grow up!” Plus, Melanie, an experienced hopper of ten
runs, had hopped last week and only made it to number nine. Joseph was the only one to make it to number
eleven, Mr Gregg had threatened the police and then told Joseph’s parents, who
took it seriously in front of Mr Gregg but then laughed it off in private.
“It’s your
first time, so take it easy. Be careful
with the wall going over number three into four, it’s a bit loose. We’ll be watching from the binoculars. Take this, if you get caught throw it in the
garden and pretend you were looking for it,” said Joseph.
Joseph
handed Jack a bouncy ball. They mixed
the objects up from time to time: a tennis ball, foam plane, Nerf ball. It just gave a bit of leeway and an excuse as
to why the kids were in the garden; of course, the adults knew better. Everyone was good friends in the group and
the leader, Joseph, was a very funny guy - a clown, a joker. There were no bad bones or intentions in any
of the six kids, they just wanted to play.
The worst thing they had done as a group was a knock-a-door run on
number thirteen, occupied by an elderly lady.
They’d felt bad afterwards, especially when she had answered the door
using her walking frame for support. It
was time for Jack’s hop; he fancied Eloise and wanted to make a good
impression, he was determined to at least make it past Rex.
Jack stood
at the top of the cul-de-sac and walked around to the main street, ready to hop
the first wall. The others watched
on. Jack had on his best trainers, Nike
Air, for ultimate stealth. Hopping the
first wall, Jack crouched low, around the car in the driveway and up to the
front door. The door was wooden; some of the ones on the
cul-de-sac had window panes. The front
lounge, like all the houses, had an outward extending bay window but a good one
metre space below it under which to crawl.
Moving quickly, Jack cleared the first five houses no problem but that
was to be expected. Now it got tricky: Number
six was surrounded by 4 metre high fir trees which blocked out the neighbours’
view of the first floor of the house.
Jack crouched behind the wall between house numbers five and six;
previous hoppers had forced a narrow gap in the branches but it was still
tight. The fir trees were relentless in
their growth, even after last week’s hops, and there was no easy way through
other than Jack to stomp down the thin leaves and branches and suffer
scratching to his arms and face. Jack
ploughed through the tree, more bothered about the cobwebs and avoiding cat poo
than receiving scratches; he then bolting quickly through to the other end of the
garden, forcing a way through those trees and over into number seven and
Rex.
Rex was a
friendly dog but didn’t take kindly to his territory being invaded. His kennel was at the back of the driveway so
there was a five second window to jump off the wall, run past the window and up
and over the big 2 metre wall leading to number eight. The group often played with Rex on the
street, he was their unofficial security dog against the occasional bigger kids
that sometimes came down from the rival cul-de-sac a few streets away. Rex didn’t bite, but he barked, a lot. Last week, Eloise wasn’t fast enough to climb
the 2 metre wall – as she was the shortest of the group – and Rex had caught up
with her. Playfully placing his paws on
her and barking like crazy, thinking she had come to play. Eloise had been trapped by Rex on the ground;
luckily she was carrying a tennis ball which she threw on the grass when the
occupants came out. Her punishment:
taking Rex for a walk and playing fetch for the rest of the afternoon.
Jack hadn’t played with Rex yet; he
was a new scent and desperately didn’t want to get caught. Jack saw Rex in his kennel, busy chewing on a
bone, and he made his move. As soon as
Jack landed on the driveway, Rex barked and pursued him. Spurred on by a new boost of adrenaline, Jack
bolted past the house and launched himself over the wall leading into house
number eight, not even checking if anyone was around first. The occupants of house number seven were
alerted by Rex barking profusely and came out to investigate. Crucially,
though, as Jack was hidden from view and behind the car in number eight’s
driveway, his garden hop was still legal under the group’s rules. As long as there was no eye contact, knocking
on the window or verbal telling off, everything else was fair game. The sharp pebbles lining the top of the wall
for house number eight had left gross indentations on Jack’s palms, but apart
from that the house was easy enough and now he arrived at house numbers nine
and ten – the semi-detached houses and the ones responsible for the most garden
hop failures. It was hard to hop the
small wall in between the two bay windows and not get caught. It was Saturday
afternoon so the lounge was always likely to be occupied. But Jack had a plan: he went to the back door
of number nine and knocked on it. He
then sneaked back up the driveway and to the front door; upon hearing the back
door open Jack then made his move under the bay window and over the wall into
number ten, whose curtains were partially closed. A quick up and over into number eleven – he
had done it! His run was now a highly
respectable garden hop - especially for a first time effort - and Jack relaxed,
wondering if this was his lucky day and if he could make it all the way
round. The group had watched Jack from
the top of the street, using and sharing a pair of Joseph’s dad’s
binoculars.
Number eleven was simple except for
the gravel. Jack took long, reaching
strides to minimise his footing and the noise but it was still noisy and
obvious to the occupants someone was in the driveway. The homeowner appeared at the bay window and
looked around, he hadn’t yet spotted Jack lying on his belly directly
underneath the window sill. Jack army
crawled and round to the corner of the house, but there was a side gate
preventing an easy escape down the side.
It was this side gate that had unstuck Joseph as well. It was impossible to hop over the wall
without Mr Gregg seeing you, as his sofa was always positioned directly in
view. Not only that, but Mr Gregg also
had a side gate. There was absolutely no
space to hop the wall without being in view of Mr Gregg’s window.
Mr Gregg, who had spotted Jack at the
semi-detached houses, now furiously banged on his window.
“Don’t you dare come into my
garden! I have my phone with me, I’ll
call the police. You’ll be locked up,”
shouted Mr Gregg.
Scared, Jack
sprinted across the gravel shouting sorry and then back to the top of the
street. The group cheered and
congratulated him on an exceptional garden hop.
“Unless Mr
Gregg dies, we’ll never make it past his house,” said Jack.
“You did
well,” said Eloise.
“I want another go, I have an idea
this time,” said Jack.
“It’s Melanie’s turn next. You’ll have to wait until it comes round to
you again,” said Joseph.
That week at school all Jack could
think about was how to garden hop. He
desperately wanted to make the full lap and impress Eloise. The only rules were to not get caught, but
they didn’t say anything about garden hopping around the back garden instead of
the front. If Jack garden hopped through
the front gardens for house numbers one to eight, he could then garden hop
round the back for the semi-detached houses of nine and ten, carry on round the
back of number eleven and twelve and emerge in front for number thirteen. Jack would then avoid the prying eyes of Mr
Gregg and be successful. Back gardens
were trickier, though, mainly because of taller fences, bigger trees and more
windows to be spotted from. People
didn’t mind someone sneaking past their front, more exposed garden, but their
back gardens were more private places and naturally Jack expected them to react
more angrily on a clear invasion of their privacy. Plus, the kids clearly couldn’t use their
lost ball excuse as they simply had no business being there.
Saturday morning had arrived and Jack was up
for his turn again. In a previous garden
hop that morning by Joseph, he had forgotten his own earlier advice given to
Jack the week before and clumsily knocked part of the wall down between numbers
three and four. The brick had fallen on Joseph’s foot and, despite trying to
soldier on he limped back up the street defeated. Jack began his garden hop and upon reaching
the broken wall, he even moved the bricks back into position to cover up the
evidence of any wrongdoings by the group.
Jack had worn a long-sleeve shirt this time to reduce the scratching by
the trees at number six, and he expected he’d have a bit of forcing his way
through gardens to do. He also left his
best trainers at home this time, expecting to be covered in soil and dirty by
the end of the hop.
Rex was asleep in his kennel and
didn’t even notice Jack this time. A
quick hop over the high walls of number eight and it was time for Operation:
Back Garden Hop. Before he started,
Jack had discussed it with the group and they gave the OK. But warned him he would likely be in serious
trouble with his parents if he got caught in the back garden. The excuse of a lost ball just didn’t fly in
the back gardens, the kids simply had no reason to be there other than plain
trespassing.
Jack sneaked
around the back of number nine and into their garden. Staying low beneath the kitchen and back
window, Jack climbed the fence panel and over into number ten’s back
garden. Fortunately, their curtains were
closed but Jack panicked when he didn’t see an easy way into number
eleven. There was no fence, only an
extended garage with an un-climbable pebble dashed wall. There was, however, a monkey tree at the back
of the garden and Jack made his way to it, clambering through the bushes and
avoiding the grass. Jack climbed the
tree; the branches were perfect to climb and he was now level with the slates
of the garage roof. There was no easy
way to get across other than hoping no one saw him, so Jack went for it. From the tree, to the garage roof and then
lowering himself down onto the soil in the garden of number eleven. He was glad it was autumn and the plants were
in full bloom from a summer of rain. The
vegetation masked his body, but he waited anyway for a minute. If anyone had
seen him on the garage roof, they would surely come out now and tell him off. No one came.
Jack had gotten away with it and smiled.
It was an easy hop over into Mr Gregg’s back garden, which was an
overgrown shambles and the whole group could have hidden there safely. Coming back round the front of number
thirteen, the group were amazed to see Jack.
Houses fourteen and fifteen were easy to finish, being Jack’s house and
Joseph’s. Jack had done it. The group applauded.
Now the next challenge: garden
hopping the rival cul-de-sac a few streets away.
