The Pirate and The Piper

We Clean Up A Lot Of Coconuts

We Clean Up A Lot Of Coconuts

On the morning of the third day, the wind had finally died down and only some light rain was left. By the afternoon, the sky was blue again.

The hurricane had left behind quite a mess. All of the king's precious flowers had been blown apart or pounded into the ground by the rain. I couldn't imagine how he felt.

The strangest sight by far was the coconuts that had been pounded into the walls of a garden shed, going so far as to break the lock on the door. Kade used the tip of his sword to pry one out of the wooden wall, and there was a splintery wooden hole there. I wasn't sure what had happened to the wood that had been there before the coconut—it had to have gone somewhere, right?

The head gardener told us to leave the shed, it had been need of replacement for a while anyway. In reality, I think he was as mystified by the missing wood as I was.

By the end of the day, reports were flooding in of damage on all the other islands that were part of the Pirate Nation. Whole towns had been leveled by the hurricane.

By the end of that week, the king had called a council, just as Iekika said he would. The council said there was nothing they could do to help, since all of their countries were still reeling from the aftermath, too.

Somehow, an old notebook of Alika's had ended up in the garden. Pages were torn out of it, covered in poems he had written. Some of them were quite scary, considering what we'd just been through.

I Am the Storm, one was titled.

I am the wind that tears through your closed eyelids

While you lie awake and try to sleep

I am the Dark of Night that suffocates you

When your darkest hour is already dark enough without me

I am the storm that tears you apart

You will regret not having

A place for me in your heart

It almost sounded like it had been written about the hurricane that had just passed. I wasn't sure why he'd capitalized night, but he'd done the same thing in his suicide note, so maybe it was just something he had liked to do.

Or maybe it's something more. I decided to look into it.