THE BOY WHO CRIED WOLF

Josh Turner from Austin, Texas

The egg landed with a splat on the truck window. ‘Bullseye,’ grinned my buddy Dave*. Hiding in the shadows, as the car drove past, we could see the driver gesticulating furiously.

It was 31 October 1990 – Halloween – and I was 15 years old. Me and Dave had been egging cars, for fun, on the other side of town. That’s Taylor, a small rural town, not far from Austin, Texas, in the USA.

Well, it was Halloween, you’re allowed to pull pranks on people, right?

‘What time is it?’ I asked Dave now.

‘Midnight,’ he replied.

‘Oh no,’ I groaned. My curfew was 11pm. My mom was going to be