The hammer rang once. A spark jumped off the anvil and did not go out. It waited. They followed.

It rolled into the print shop and settled on the big black press. Every Friday at four, Brightfield School's paper went to print on that press. Danya was the editor this term. He was twelve, and he took it very seriously.

The press was old. One of its iron arms had been mended with a bolted plate, and on the plate someone had scratched a tiny hammer.

The door banged open. Bran burst in, scarf flying.

"Everybody's saying it!" said Bran. "They're shutting the park fountain down. For ever!"

"Says who?" asked Danya.

"The whole school knows!" said Bran. "Ask anyone, they'll tell you."

Beto was the newest reporter. He grabbed a pencil.

He had already asked around at lunch. Nine people had said the same thing.

"Nine people can't be wrong!" said Bran, reading over his shoulder.

Beto wrote in big letters: FOUNTAIN CLOSING FOREVER.

A magpie in a little press vest hopped onto the desk and cocked her head at the page. Her name was Source.

"Who would actually know this?" said Source. "And who told you?"

"Nine people," said Beto.

"Nine people told you," said Source. "But who told them? Let's walk it back."

Beto put the pencil down.

On Tuesday, Source and Beto went round the playground with a notebook. They asked each of the nine the same question. Who told you?

A boy said his sister. His sister said her friend. Her friend said a girl in Year Five. And the Year Five girl said her cousin.

Every road ended in the same place. One cousin had walked past the fountain on Sunday and seen it was dry.

"Nine voices, one mouth," said Source. "That's one source, not nine. And she saw a dry fountain. She didn't see anyone shutting it."

Bran scratched his head. "But everybody's saying it."

"Everybody's saying what one person said," said Beto slowly.

On Wednesday an octopus with SIFT cards on her belt slid into the chair by the computer. Her name was Verify.

"Open four tabs, never one," said Verify. "Stop. Then look around it."

A photo of the dry fountain was going round. It looked very sad and very empty.

"This photo has no date," said Verify. "It could be from last year."

"What does the parks office say?" she asked.

Nobody knew. So Beto wrote them an email, and Danya checked his spelling.

On Thursday an answer came back. The fountain is drained for scheduled cleaning, Thursday to Saturday.

STOP. It is 3:40 on Friday.

You have nine students who heard it from one cousin. One photo of a dry fountain, date unknown. One email from the parks office that says "scheduled cleaning."

Print, hold, or kill?

Decide before you turn the page.

Danya looked at the three pieces on the desk. Bran watched him. So did Beto.

"How do we know the fountain is closing for ever?" said Danya. "We don't. Nobody does. One person saw it dry."

He crossed out FOUNTAIN CLOSING FOREVER. Beto winced, then nodded.

"We hold the rumour," said Danya. "But there's a smaller story that is true."

He wrote a new headline: FOUNTAIN DRY FOR CLEANING, SAYS PARKS OFFICE.

Under it Beto wrote what the office said, and where the rumour had started, without anyone's name.

At four o'clock the press thumped and rolled. The front page came out warm. Danya kept the first copy. It was the first of the term's four.

On Saturday evening, the fountain was running again.

Back on the Green

The spark dimmed to a warm dot and settled back on the anvil. The Green was just the Green again.

On Monday someone said there would be no school trip this year. Beto didn't argue and didn't believe it yet.

"Who told you?" he asked. "And who told them?"