The Toymaster's Castle

Chapter Thirty-Six - Silver

After another week, we were gradually pulling things together on our little island home.

The piles of stuff in the barn had been sorted out and tidied away. We'd manage to stuff most of it down in the cellar and some of it had gone in the tool shed that the guys had built between our new washhouse and the goat pen and chicken shed that they'd moved down here from up by Rambo. Looking after the creatures was an extra job for us ladies but the eggs and milk were definitely very welcome.

The only thing that was still in the barn was four large trunks that contained ammunition. We didn't really know what to do with them. We needed to keep the stuff safe but nobody was awfully keen on having that much explosive in the house with them.

We also had the beginnings of a respectable woodpile. The marines had, indeed, picked a calm day and paddled a raft that was both made of and carrying firewood down here. I'd assumed that they would land the thing by the jetty and carry the wood along the road in our little Land Rover but, instead, they'd chosen to paddle it round the southern tip of the island so that they could land it in our little bay. Then they'd hauled the wood up to the lighthouse using a cable car type system that they'd made with a couple of ropes.

And I got the distinct impression that this was the sort of thing the lads would have done for fun. They were even talking about building a couple of rafts and having a race, next time.

Not that I minded, of course. Our woodpile was growing nicely and that was all I cared about!

We were producing a couple of solid meals a day plus a snack at lunchtime and not working our way through our supplies anything like as fast as I had feared. By my estimate, about half our food was coming from what we could forage. And the guys were talking about putting in a vegetable plot next spring - apparently, we were too late for it this year.

And, even though the mountain of washing wasn't getting any smaller, it wasn't getting any bigger either.

The stock organising was more or less out of the way so I got to enjoy some of the other jobs. I even ventured into the nursery school one day and it wasn't quite as terrible as I'd imagined. I spent most of the time playing with Emily and a boy called Bobby - though some of the playing involved counting and letters so you might call it teaching, I suppose.

Then, a week after our last visit, Daniel, George and I went back to town.

For the first time, the harbourmaster wasn't waiting for us when we arrived and we felt a bit worried about leaving our skiff there without anyone to keep an eye on it. But we didn't really have any choice. We certainly had no intention of leaving anyone behind with it.

There were no kids around in the playground and somebody had ripped all the wooden slats off the benches - for firewood, I guess. Then, when we made it into town, there was nobody to be seen. But, somehow, you could tell that there were still people about - you could feel their eyes on you. It was really pretty uncomfortable.

And everything seemed to be breaking down. There were more smashed windows... and all the cars had been broken into. "It looks as if they're almost ready for us," Daniel said as we made our way up the still and silent High Street.

The security guard was waiting outside the supermarket again but he must have recognised us because he opened the door for us.

And, this time, George waited outside with him as Daniel and I went on in.

"Good morning, Tony," Daniel said in what I recognised as his 'professional voice'.

"Morning," Tony replied.

"I would like to make some purchases but I've used up my supply of cash. I thought you might be interested in these." He showed the shopkeeper a couple of coins.