by Paul Moxham
Leaving the storehouse, the children walked out into the open. “I wonder why Quigley liked this island so much,” Sarah said.
“Maybe there are some caves. There must be something to explore,” Will replied. “After all, Quigley did say that he came here several times and loved it.”
Amy looked up at the sky. “We’d better get back to camp. I don’t want to be here when darkness falls.”
“Me neither,” Sarah replied as she followed her sister towards the campsite.
On the way back, the girls collected some heather to put under their sleeping bags while the boys gathered some dry sticks to use as firewood.
~
As night set in, the boys started a fire. Soon, the dry wood started to crackle and, every now and then, the flames would flare up and light up the surrounding area just that little bit more.
“That was a delicious meal,” Amy said as she finished eating the soup that had been heated up on the fire.
Will handed out the steaming cups. “Here’s some hot cocoa to wash it all down.”
As Amy sipped her drink, she glanced up at the dark sky. All that could be seen was a full moon. “What about the curse?” she asked, turning towards the others who, like her, were sitting next to the fire.
Joe looked up at the sky and saw the moon. “It does look like a full moon, but I wouldn’t worry. Just because some old guy said something—”
“But he was right about the church,” Sarah interrupted.
Will looked at the girls. “Quigley is getting old, and with old age some people tend to forget things and mix fact with fiction. So, just because he was right about the church doesn’t mean that he was right about the ghost. We all know that ghosts don’t exist.”
“If you’re scared—” Joe said.
“I’m not scared,” Amy interrupted. She looked at Sarah. “Are you?”
“No,” Sarah replied, putting on a brave face.
“Now that we’ve got that settled, who wants to play a game of snap?” Will said.
~
The moon was high in the sky when Sarah, awakened by a strange noise, sat up. She listened intently but didn’t hear anything. She started to lie back down, but then heard the noise once again. She sat back up and shook her sister. “Amy, wake up.”
“Go back to sleep,” Amy mumbled, half asleep.
Suddenly, both girls heard a ghostly laugh. Amy, now fully awake, sat up. “The boys. They must be playing a trick on us to make us scared.”
“You don’t think it’s a real ghost?” Sarah asked.
“Of course not. I’ll show you.” Amy crawled to the end of the tent. She glanced over at the boy’s tent and saw a light flickering. “There, I told you. They’re both awake.”
Amy suddenly grinned. “Why don’t we make some noises and scare the boys?”
Sarah smiled. “Okay.”
The two girls crawled out of the tent and over to the boys tent. Then, when they were right outside the flap, Amy and Sarah started making ghostly noises.
“This is Jeremiah Jones, and I’m coming to get you,” Amy said in the ghostliest voice that she could think of. She tapped on the tent. “I’m a coming, I’m a coming, I’m a coming.”
Sarah reached forward and started to open the flap on the tent.
Both girls nearly burst out laughing as they heard the scared voices of the boys as they whispered amongst themselves.
Amy got a stick and poked it through the tent flap. “I’m a…” Suddenly the stick was grabbed from the inside and she fell forward into the tent. When she sat up, she saw the grinning faces of the boys in front of her.
“Did you really think you could fool us?” Will said.
“We weren’t scared one bit,” Joe stated.
“I heard you whispering to yourselves,” Sarah said, entering the tent.
“We were play acting. Isn’t that right?” Joe said, looking at Will.
Will nodded. “Of course. We had to act as though we were scared. But did you really think we could be scared by a bunch of ghostly noises?”
“Why did you try it on us then?” Sarah asked.
Joe frowned. “What are you talking about?”
Amy stared at the boys. “The first lot of noises. They were you, right?”
Suddenly, a loud ghostly sound broke the silence. Everyone yelled out in fright. Sarah scrambled inside the tent and pulled the flap closed. They all huddled at the back of the tent, cramped and scared. As the seconds passed and they heard no more noises, the boys started to relax.
“There’s no such thing as ghosts, so why are we getting all worked up?” Joe said.
“Then what made that noise?” Amy asked.
“Some kind of animal,” Will stated with more confidence than he actually felt.
Sarah froze at the sound of more noises. “What kind of animal?”
A ghostly voice suddenly yelled out. “I am Jeremiah Jones, and you are on my island. And tonight is a full moon.”
The children looked at each other. “It must be someone playing a trick on us,” Joe said.
“What about Quigley?” Amy said.
“Of course!” Will said. “Though, how did he know we were going to Rocky Island?”
“I don’t know, but I’m going to see if there’s a face with this voice.” Joe took his torch and crawled to the flap. He glanced back. “Are you coming or not?”
All four of them crawled out of the tent and stood up on the grass as the noises stopped. In front of them were the dying embers of the fire. It was a clear sky and the full moon shone brightly.
No one could be seen. No animal and no person.
Joe shone the torch from side to side. “Whatever it was, they must…” He paused as the torchlight picked up a ghostly figure.
The children froze. He, if it was a he, was dressed in a flowing white cape.
The ghost yelled out. “I am Jeremiah Jones. If you are not gone by midnight tomorrow, I will come and put a curse on you that will last forever. So get off my island!”
Suddenly, there was a puff of smoke that covered the area. When it drifted away, the ghost was no longer there.
Chapter 6: A Puzzle
“Where did he go?” Joe hurried forward and shone the torch around. No one could be seen.
The children listened for the next few moments, but nothing could be heard.
“I want to go home tomorrow,” Sarah wailed.
“Wait!” Joe said. “Just because something that looked like a ghost—”
“He was a ghost,” Sarah interrupted. “Did we hear him come? No. Did we hear him go? No. If you think I am going to stay any longer on this island—”
“Just because you’re scared—” Joe shouted.
“Hold on everyone,” Will interrupted. “Let’s just all calm down. Why don’t we go back to sleep, try to get a good rest, and talk in the morning? There’s nothing we can do tonight, so let’s think our decision over.”
“Well, okay,” Sarah said.
~
The sun shone brightly and the seagulls were circling overhead the next morning as the children ate breakfast. Even a few rabbits could be seen hopping around on the grass.
After finishing off a tin of peaches, Sarah glanced around at everyone. “When are we going to leave?”
“Why don’t we have a vote?” Joe suggested. “Put your hand up if you want to stay.” He and Will raised their hands. “Okay, and now put up your hand if you want to go.”
Amy and Sarah put up their hands.
Joe stared down at the fire. “Ghosts do not exist, full stop.”
“Well, whatever thing we saw last night, it looked pretty real to me,” Sarah protested.
“Me too,” Amy said.
“What if it was a person dressed up?” Joe suggested. “Just suppose that someone dressed up and pretended to be that religious fellow to scare us off this island.”
“And why would they do that?” Amy questioned.
“I don’t kn
ow,” Joe confessed. “But I want to find out.”
Amy glanced at Sarah, then back at Joe. “I’ll give you until noon to prove your theory, okay?”
Joe looked at Will. “If that ghost is a fake, we’ll be able to find some evidence.”
Will nodded. “Let’s go and search.”
The children headed to the church which was where the boys wanted to search first. Upon reaching the ruin, they split up and searched the area, looking for anything that might indicate that there was someone else on the island. But they couldn’t find anything.
“There doesn’t seem to be anything here,” Amy said as she stood in front of the church.
“But I’m telling you,” Joe said, “there are no such things as…” He paused as he heard a ghostly wail.
Then, a moment later a ghostly voice shouted out. “Why are you still here?”
Will looked around but he couldn’t see anyone. He entered the church, but as the voice shouted out again, he realised it wasn’t coming from there. Stepping out, he followed the others to the storehouse.
Amy shouted out as she saw a white figure in front of the lone window near the roof of the building. “Look!”
The others peered up but couldn’t see anything. As the ghostly voice fell silent, they questioned Amy.
“What did you see?” Joe asked.
“Something white. It was someone or something,” Amy stammered. She had gone a bit pale.
“Did you see a face?” Will said.
Amy shook her head. “It was too quick. But there was nothing human about it.” She pointed to the window. “It was right there.”
Leaving the girls standing outside, the boys entered the storehouse and looked up. “What do you think?” Joe whispered.
Will looked up at the rotting timber roof above them, but no one could be seen. However, there was one spot directly next to the window that had not rotted away, and it was possible someone could have been hiding there. Will walked further into the building as he tried to find a ladder. But none could be seen.
“If we had a ladder,” Joe said, “we could place it up against that end.” He pointed to the left hand corner of the storehouse.
The ghost yelled out again. “Come midnight and you will be cursed forever! Get off my island! This is my last warning!”
Joe turned to Will. “Let’s get back to the girls before they get too scared.” As they headed back, he spotted something on the ground. He picked it up. It was a cigarette butt. One that had not been there for long. He showed it to Will. “Look.”
A grin spread across Will’s face. “Gosh! It must be a person up there.”
“But how do we prove it?” Joe asked.
“I’ve got a plan. Just follow my lead.” Will led the way out of the storehouse and found the girls huddled together behind a rock.
“Did you find anything?” Sarah asked.
Will shook his head. “No, let’s go home.”
“I never want to come here again,” Joe said.
Amy looked shocked. “What? But you just said—”
“I was wrong,” Joe interrupted. “Come on, let’s go. Just standing here is giving me the creeps.”
As the two boys hurried towards the hill, Amy shot a glance at Sarah. “What just happened?”
“I don’t know,” Sarah replied, “but I’m happy to be going back. Come on, last one to reach the boys has to make lunch.” She sprinted off after the boys.
~
By the time the children arrived back at the campsite, the girls knew the story behind the boy’s weird actions as they had told them everything.
The girls may have been scared by a ghost, but if it was a person, which the boys were certain it was, that meant that someone was trying to scare them away. And, if someone was trying to scare them away they probably had something to hide.
“The man might still be watching us,” Will said, “so we have to pretend we’re leaving the island.”
“And then what?” Amy asked.
“We’ll row around the island until we find another place to hide the boat,” Will said. “Then, after we have set up camp somewhere else, we’ll see if we can find out what’s going on.”
The children packed up their stuff and headed down the path to the beach. After they had put everything on board, they set off.
Will and Joe took the oars while the girls kept a lookout. They didn’t want to hoist the sail since they would be going close to dangerous rocks and, if the sail was up, the boat would only go the way of the wind, and thus might smash against the rocks.
There were a few tense moments as the boys rowed out of the inlet, but soon they were out on calm water.
Will stopped rowing for a moment and scanned the horizon as the Lazy Lucy bobbed to and fro on the water. “We’ll head left. There should be fewer rocks on the side closest to the mainland, but keep your eyes open.”
“For rocks or the ghost?” Joe asked.
“For both,” Will replied grimly. He steered the Lazy Lucy towards the mainland. “Most likely, the person is camped on the other side of the island where we haven’t been yet. So we shouldn’t go too far.”
“What about here?” Sarah asked as she pointed towards the shore.
Will looked over and saw a small section of sand and, next to it, a half-flooded cave. An idea crept into his mind. “Yes, that might work.”
“What do you mean?” Joe asked.
Will glanced at his watch. “It’s high tide now, and that cave looks deep enough to sail into.”
“But if it’s high tide now, what happens at low tide?” Amy questioned.
“Well, the Lazy Lucy would be beached on the sand. But that will be okay. We just need to keep her out of view of anyone on this island.” Will peered towards the sharp rocks that bordered the cave. “It’s going to be tight, but I think we can just squeeze in there.”
Amy moved up to the front of the boat. “I’ll be the lookout out front.”
There was a ring of rocks around the cave, with only one opening. It was going to be touch and go. And they had to be fast. Any slowdown on speed and the boat would drift to the left or right, which would put it on course for the rocks.
The four children shouted out to one another as the Lazy Lucy headed towards the frothing waters.
“All clear this side!” Sarah shouted.
“You’re fine to go straight ahead,” Amy yelled.
“Let’s do it.” Will pulled as hard as he could on the oars.
The Lazy Lucy surged forward as it bobbed up and down on the waves, getting closer and closer to the opening. Closer, closer, and closer, and then they were through.
“Yes!” Sarah yelled, happy. She turned to Will and smiled.
Suddenly, the boat groaned, and the sound of breaking of wood filled the air. Sarah glanced down and saw that a rock had torn a small hole in the side of the boat.
“Oh no!” Sarah shouted. “There’s a hole in the boat! We’re all going to drown!”
Chapter 7: The Disappearing Man
Joe stared as water started pouring in the Lazy Lucy. “Blow! What are we going to do?”
“Just hold on and pray that we don’t hit anything else,” Will yelled. Along with Joe, he rowed towards the cave and, a few moments later, the sailboat was successfully hidden from the outside.
This was one problem solved, but they still had another problem to deal with, which was the water still pouring into the boat.
Will hurried into the cabin and glanced around for something with which to bail out the water that was already filling the bottom of the small room. It would soon reach the tins of food that were tucked inside the little cupboard. This wasn’t so much of a problem since they were waterproof, but not so for the tents, books, and clothes that were just above the food.
Will grabbed two plastic bowls and hurried back. He handed them to the girls. “Get to work.” He turned to Joe. “Come with me.”
As the girls set to work getting as much of the w
ater out as possible, the boys removed everything from the cabin and put it on the roof. The water slowly rose higher and higher. Soon, all of the children’s shoes were soaking wet.
As Will finished removing everything from the cabin, he realised that the boat was no longer sinking. He quickly grabbed one of the poles from the tent and poked it into the water beside the boat.
He grinned as the pole struck bottom roughly two feet down. “Hey! The sand’s just below us.” He looked over at the girls who were still furiously tossing the water out. “You can stop now.”
“What? Why?” Amy asked.
“The water will keep on coming in until the level in the boat is at the same level in the cave. And we’ve moved all the stuff out of harms way, so come and join us.” Will walked over to the cabin and climbed up onto the roof.
The others quickly followed and, for the next minute or two, they watched the water slowly rise. As Will had predicted, once the water had risen to the same level as in the cave, it stopped flowing in.
“So, what do we do now?” Sarah asked.
“Well, we can wait for the water to go down, or we can jump in now and dry ourselves out by the beach,” Will said.
“How deep did you say it was?” Amy questioned.
“Well, it was two feet at one point, but it could be deeper or shallower somewhere else.” Will looked down at the foaming water. “I’ll test it.” After rolling up his trousers, he climbed down into the boat.
Climbing over the side, he lowered himself into the water. He smiled as the water went only as far as his knees. “Looks good here. I’ll see how it is getting to the sand.”
The others watched as Will slowly walked through the water and saw that it gradually became shallower. Within half a minute, he was on the dry sand. He turned and walked back through the water. “Deepest part is the start. Just walk where I walked. There’s no telling what will happen to you if you stray offline, so stay straight.”
Following Will’s advice, the others waded into the water. Before long, and without any trouble, all four of them were sitting on the hot sand. However, the tents and other essentials had to be collected and so, leaving their shoes to dry in the sun, they headed back into the water.