This is the secret diary of Robert Oakes
DO NOT READ UNTIL 2065
The first morning, this morning, I got out of my warm bed into the chilly air and hastily put on my new school uniform. I took my new blue wash bag to the washroom and cleaned my teeth. I found my hat and gloves and made my way down to the bike shed where my father had deposited my second-hand bicycle, which he’d bought for twelve pounds and we’d transported on top of our car. I knew my way to the school because I could see it across the river, rising forbiddingly out of the sodden moor. A few new boys from my dorm and the dorm below, looking as fearful as I felt, also gathered their bicycles. In the dim, dawn light, we pedalled past the old cotton mill towards the humpback bridge and into a terrifying new world. My mother’s
