THE END

(And here it is, the final piece for the Port Brokeferry project, and we can discover who this Col is that Mad Martin seeks after and why he is so elusive... and in my head another couple of Port Brokeferry things are percolating so it might be that this is just the beginning! If you have been following this 'story' then you'll remember that each new day in Port Brokeferry has begun with an 'official' document of some description... and so we end on the same, which rounds the whole thing off kind of neatly.)

OLD NEWS

(Below is reproduced a newspaper article pertaining to events that happened in Port Brokeferry’s not too distant past, though there are many in Port Brokeferry who do not now remember all that was said in the article and some who have never known. Those there are who cut out the article and have kept it in the back of a drawer in the kitchen, or tucked away in a box up in the attic space, and they only rarely rediscover the yellowing newsprint and read it now as one who reads fiction, not really believing that the people referred to in the article are real. One there is who keeps it in the glove compartment of his red Ford Fiesta, but he does not live in Port Brokeferry any more.)

A MOMENT OF MADNESS

In a small sleepy fishing village called Port Brokeferry situated on the north-west coast, there was a moment of madness last Sunday, when two teenage boys were involved in a high school caper that turned into catastrophe.

The boys, Colin Galbraith (16), and Martin Stuart (15), had both been drinking. It was late and the boys were still out, even though they were expected at school the next morning. A third boy, Athol Stuart (16), no relation, was with them until shortly before the incident, but he had not been drinking. He said they were ‘quite far gone with the drink’ and were at that ‘silly stage where everything is funny and a good idea’. They had earlier played ‘chap door run’ at some of the houses on the front, and they’d pulled flowers out of one of the gardens, and scattered the contents of a rubbish bin along the main street.

Athol Stuart had then said ‘enough was enough’ and ‘no harm done’ and that they ‘should call it a night’. But they had not yet finished. One of the boys had the idea to turn back time. He proposed that they wind the hands of the village clock back a few hours. They also thought that would justify their lateness the next day at school. There is a clock high on the wall of The Victoria Hotel on Port Brokeferry’s main street. Athol Stuart left at this point, declaring their plan nothing but ‘madness’.

Colin Galbraith and Martin Stuart managed to somehow procure a ladder from the garden of a local handyman and it fell to Martin to climb up to the clock. Athol Stuart afterwards said ‘Martin was always trying to prove himself, being the younger of the three, and Colin was always setting him tasks. Dares, really. And Martin always wanted to be the hero.’

Martin Stuart was successful in altering the time on the Victoria Hotel clock, but then he must have lost his balance and he fell from a height of around twenty feet. He landed awkwardly on the flagstone pavement and took a serious knock to his head that rendered him unconscious. It is thought that Colin Galbraith took fright and fled the scene, though Athol Stuart says that could not be, that something must have happened, for the three boys were the closest of friends.

The body of Martin Stuart was discovered by Athol Stuart when, with an attack of conscience, he thought better of leaving the two inebriated teenagers by themselves and returned to the main street.

A Doctor Kerr accompanied Martin Stuart to the hospital. It is not yet known what the full extent of the teenager's injuries might be, and Athol Stuart and Colin Galbraith are said to be helping the police with their enquiries.