Chapter 5 Earthquake

Chapter – 5

Earthquake

The next day we had our first adventure. After the morning’s breakfast, the old woman warned us that a news had been broadcasted in the morning, warning the residence of King’s Rocks that some seismic activity had been detected under their island and they feared that it was a volcano, a underwater volcano. She told us that we should not go near the sea today as the waves were abnormally rough. At this Bill said (shivering due fright) that we should just go for a walk on the cliffs today. Soon enough we were stumbling along the (unusually) sandy path that was on the cliff with Poll (the parrot in the last chapter) randomly sitting on our shoulders and sometimes flying on ahead. Suddenly, we saw the Rex marching down the cliff we were climbing, we had to cross. We couldn’t let that happen, he hadn’t seen us yet and we hoped he wouldn’t till our vacation here. I spotted a little house on one edge of the cliff and got the bright idea of hiding behind it as there was space about 1 meter behind it. We all cramped up behind the house just as we heard the marching of the Rex passing by us. Jack heard it first (not the marching of the Rex), it was a deep rumbling noise which grew louder and louder till the ground beneath us began to shake, but no it didn’t stop at that, no, definitely not it grew bigger and bigger. And Bill screamed,” EARTHQUAKE!” And just and that moment, the ground beneath me gave way and I caught the end of my pants in a root projecting from the cliff. I was hanging upside down with just my pants saving me from bashing on the rocks below. I had worn a bigger pair of pants than my size and they were coming off! I fainted. All I knew that when I woke up, the Rex was looming up on me and saying,” Ah, he’s all right.” I soon spotted Jack, Bill and Martha. I remember asking them,” Am I dead?”   

Chapter - 4 Surprise

Chapter – 4

Surprise

When I had lost all hope, Martha suddenly spotted a key in the door and turned it. The door opened, we all gasped, Jack said,” The wind must have slammed it and some sort of automatic mechanism must have locked it too. We all went to the breakfast table in high spirits which were soon to be downed. On the other end of the room, a huge table was placed and near it, the Rex! You can hardly imagine the bad feeling which was creeping into us and making us realize that our first holiday was spoiled! We were so surprised that we didn’t notice the bird which had knocked us down earlier, suddenly flew into the room and sat on a sort of ledge on the ceiling. But we had to notice something when the old woman also appeared in the room brandishing a rolling pin, evidently in pursuit of the bird, accidently charged into us and we all sat into a heap on the floor. She said,” Bad bird, you knock guest down.” We all were amazed in the superlative degree when we saw what sort of bird it was. It is really very difficult to define, so I have posted its picture here.

You can see more amazed we were as we saw that its beak was tied by a thread. So that solved the mystery of the bird not eating any of the food it carried away. Martha said,” We must help it, otherwise it will starve to death.” And she said again, holding up a bit of carrot,” Here, here Polly, we won’t hurt you, take it, it’s for you.” We all were still due to one more amazement as the parrot bent down and tried to take up the carrot. As he bent down, Martha deftly opened the thread that bound his beak. And from that day onwards, that parrot never left us!

Chapter - 3 The Witch on the Broom

Chapter - 3

The Witch on the Broom

When we reached the inn father had planned for us to stay, I exclaimed,” Hey, is that our inn? I hope it is!” And I had a reason for saying it too, for the name of the inn was ‘The Witch on the Broom’. “There’s the broom. Wonder where the witch is?” said Jack, pointing to an old and disused broom on one corner of the building. We all had now entered the inn and Bill whispered,” Look! There’s the witch!” We all gasped, for indeed a old woman (or witch, we never knew which) who looked like a witch stood behind a counter on the far end of the room we were in. She had been informed that we were coming, so she had been ready for us. We soon checked in without difficulty. Our room was not very spacious, but had a wonderful view over the sea.

          It was now time for breakfast. We all went down and were suddenly bowled over by a type of paradise bird, you know, the one with colored feathers and all. We were astounded as we sat on the on the stairs just looking where the bird had disappeared. Suddenly a apologetic voice came from below and the witch was seen to be coming up. She said,” Oh sorry, it was the bird that has been troubling us for about a week. It carries of some of our food, but I have found all our food in our backyard. I wonder why it was uneaten. You go on down now. I will check if your things are right.” We went on down and were again astounded as the door which was in front of us slammed shut! I went to it tried its handle. “We are locked in. Thank goodness mother and father went on ahead. Now what will we do, what will we do?”

Chapter - 2 King's Rocks

Chapter – 2

King’s Rocks

By the time we reached the next big town (Lorton), Bill had fallen asleep and the three of us were trying to get the bitter taste of spinach out of our mouths. Only us awake three were eager to get to the airport because we had heard that aero planes have on laid waitress services and they also have chocolate which was our greatest desire for the moment. Suddenly Jack shouted,” Hey, I see an aero plane!” We all eagerly looked out of the window and Bill, who had now awakened, promptly fell on our feet.

         We all were all soon hailed by a voice as the car came to a stop outside the airport,” Yoo-hoo, hi there Jonasons. Going on a vacation, me too, me too!” We all children were sort of, thunderstruck because that voice was Rex’s, Rex is about 40 years old but he still behaves like a girl to us, only. As some of you might know, the Rex was our next door neighbor whom we all detested and surprisingly, he liked us, and the thought that we all were not going to see him for a month was lovely, but he was coming on a vacation. But, there was still hope, because he might not be going to Lakshadweep as we were. We were all very careful as we stepped out of the car, because none of us wanted to suddenly come up face-to-face with the Rex.

          We arrived at Lakshadweep. The voyage itself needs a story, only it can’t have one. The three of us who had eaten spinach were all heartily sick and had to spend most time in the bathroom. Bill, who was not in the least sick, scampered up and down the gallery of the plane and had disturbed most of the passengers, in the end, he had to be provided with a chocolate from father in order to calm him down.

          When we arrived at Lakshadweep islands, we couldn’t spot the Rex anywhere, much to our relief. When we arrived, I found that the island we landed upon, was called, King’s Rock, and Bill could be heard to say, ”What! Does that name mean that a King, a great king, here only owned one solitary rock?” Oh yes, I could see that we were going to have a little fun here, oh yes!