The Hive Weekly · beta · free

Barty's Gone Missing!

Episode 1: Goodbye, Screens

Aden is off to Nana's village for the whole summer — no Wi-Fi, lots of stars, and a bored morning that leads to a brand-new friend.

🪨 Find Barty! He's hiding in every picture.

Page 1

Aden lived in the city, high up in a tall block of flats. When the summer holidays came, he wanted just one thing: cartoons from morning till night. A little tablet. Then more cartoons.
Aden sits alone on the floor of a city flat, lit blue by the television.

Page 2

Mum and Dad lean down to Aden in the kitchen, smiling.

MumWe've got news!

DadThis summer we're going to Nana and Grandpa's village.

Aden looks shocked.

AdenThe village? For how long?

Mum opens her arms wide; Aden's shoulders slump.

MumA whole month!

Aden…a WHOLE month?

Page 3

Dad loads the car while Aden hugs his tablet.

AdenDoes Nana have Wi-Fi?

DadNana has chickens.

Outside the window, the buildings melted away. Green, yellow and sky-blue smudges took their place.
Through the car window, the city melts into fields.
Aden looks out of the open car window, the tablet forgotten beside him.
The city heat stayed behind. A cool wind that smelled of earth filled the car.

Page 4

At the end of the road, in the shade of a huge mulberry tree, stood a little stone house.
Nana and Grandpa open their arms at the door of a stone house under a mulberry tree.

NanaThere's our boy!

Nana hugs Aden while Grandpa ruffles his hair.

GrandpaLook how you've grown!

Page 5

Aden holds his tablet up high in the farmyard at dusk, looking for a signal.

AdenNo signal. None. At ALL.

Grandpa, holding a lantern, beckons Aden into the dark.

GrandpaCome. I'll show you the best screen in the whole village.

Page 6

What surprised Aden most that first night was the quiet. No horns, no sirens. Just crickets, a faraway dog, whispering leaves… and a sky where someone seemed to have scattered the stars by the handful.
Aden gazes up at a sky full of stars beside a lantern.

AdenWoooow.

Page 7

Aden sprawls bored on the doorstep while Nana hangs the washing.

AdenNaaana… there's NOTHING to do here.

NanaNothing? Then go and find something.

In the vegetable garden, Aden notices a smooth round stone.
Aden holds up the smooth stone to the light.
It was perfectly smooth. Perfectly round. Perfectly… plain.

Page 8

Aden paints the stone under the mulberry tree while Nana watches.
The painted stone smiles up from the table.

AdenYou need a name…

AdenBarty! You're Barty.

And that is how Aden found his first friend in the village: small, round and smiling… and, as it turned out, very, VERY good at hide-and-seek.
At sunset, Aden and his painted stone sit side by side on the doorstep.