The Swiss Family RobinZOM (Book 2) (15 page)

Lightfoot followed the carrot in Jack’s hand like a moth to a flame, pulling the cart behind him with ease along the beach at a gentle trot. Five yards from the bridge Francis passed the carrot to Jack, who ran along the bridge. Without even breaking stride, Lightfoot followed.

About ten yards from the hill, Jack passed the carrot to Ernest, who powered up the incline, running as fast as his long legs could carry him. Lightfoot gained on Ernest until he got halfway up the incline, when the cart’s weight started to pull him back. But Lightfoot never stopped, and by the time he got to the top, he drew up alongside Ernest.

“He won again,” Ernest said, shaking his head and handing the carrot over. “The things creatures do for a little gratification. It escapes reason.”

“Wait till you get a girlfriend,” Liz said. “Then we’ll hear what you say on the subject.”

Francis and Jack appeared over the ridge, both still a little out of breath.

“Ernest does have a girlfriend,” Fritz said, nodding to Nips, who sat on Jack’s head. “She’s a bit shy, but then who wouldn’t be, dating Ernest?”

“Nips isn’t a girl!” Jack said, pushing Fritz.

Nips grinned, wide and toothy.

“But she does have a beautiful smile,” Liz said.

Ernest rolled his eyes.

“I cannot believe I’m related to you all,” he said.

Lightfoot nuzzled Jack, usually the chief carrot bearer.

“Where do you want these panels, Dad?” Fritz said.

“With the others is fine,” Bill said. “I could do with a hand putting this one in place.”

Jack took Lightfoot out of his harness and put a new one on him. He led him forward. The vines tautened and the panel rose up into the air with the aid of winches and pulleys. Bill and Fritz guided the panel down into place.

“Stop there!” Bill said, moving the panel slightly. “Okay, lower it.”

Bill and Fritz pushed the panel forward onto the protruding wedges.

“Hold it there a minute,” Bill said.

He bent down and affixed the bolts.

“Okay,” Bill said. “Let it go.”

The vines grew lax as the panel was released. This was the third panel, making one wall. Liz ascended the ladder and hugged Bill.

“One wall,” she said. “Three more to go.”

“Five more, technically,” Bill said. “You’re forgetting the roof and floor.”

“After twenty years, this will be the first house we own without a mortgage,” Liz said.

Bill smiled.

“Not too bad, is it?” he said.

“Not too bad at all,” Liz said.

Bill’s smile faded, and his eyes moved to the side. He frowned.

“Excuse me,” he said. “There’s, uh, something I need to check on.”

Bill descended the ladder and rounded the treehouse. The goats in their pen ambled over to see what was up. Bill counted the tally marks on the tree trunk they kept as a reminder of their incarceration on the island. By counting the days they could work out the date.

“September fourth,” Bill said. “September fifth… September…”

His eyes widened.

“It’s our anniversary in four days…” he said.

The eldest goat
meh
ed with a big smug smile on her face.

Bill hammered the thorns into the wood. He sat his tool down on a branch and pulled the beams of wood together, straightening them. He held them together with one hand and reached for the hammer with the other. His hand found empty air. He peered over but couldn’t locate it. He looked down at the clearing floor. It wasn’t there either.

“Jack?” Bill said. “Is that you playing around?”

Jack poked his head up from under the floor Bill was assembling.

“What was that?” he said.

“My hammer,” Bill said. “Did you take it?”

“No, why?” Jack said.

“I just put it down and now it’s gone,” Bill said. “Did Nips take it?”

“No, he’s been with me the whole time.” Jack’s eyes widened. “Dad, look out!”

Bill instinctively ducked his head. Something fell, not more than a couple of inches from Bill’s shoulder, and struck the ground, breaking the stone it smacked into.

Bill looked up. A long-tailed squirrel monkey grinned and clucked its tongue at Bill, whooping like it had committed the best practical joke in history.

“Think it’s funny, do you?” Bill said.

The squirrel monkey nodded its head as if it understood, performing a funky little dance, and then hung by one hand from a tree limb. Jack handed the hammer up to Bill.

“Bloody monkeys,” Bill said. He looked up at the squirrel monkey. “You’re lucky we’re related.”

Bill held the beams of wood together and reached for the thorns he kept in a leaf pouch at his side. But the pouch was no longer there. He frowned, and then looked up at the monkey. It held the pouch in one hand and fished out a thorn. It bit the thorn, and shrieked with pain.

“Serves you right,” Bill said.

The squirrel monkey turned the pouch upside down, letting them spill over the ground.

“Cheeky little fellow isn’t he?” Jack said.

“Yes,” Bill said. “Reminds me of a cheeky little monkey I know.”

Bill waved at the squirrel monkey to scram. It waved back, hooting at Bill, before taking off into the trees.

“Father,” Fritz said. “We’ve got a problem. One of the pulleys has got tangled up in the tree leaves.”

Bill peered up. A vine was wrapped around a high bough of the tree, the panel twisted in mid-air.

“I could climb up there and work it free,” Jack said.

“It must be sixty feet up,” Bill said.

Jack shrugged.

“No taller than the clock tower in Churcerne,” he said.

“You climbed the clock tower?” Bill said.

Jack’s eyes moved to the side.

“Uh…” he said.

Bill turned to Liz, who smiled around her bamboo cup of water. Bill pursed his lips.

“All right,” he said.

Jack blinked in surprise.

“All right?” he said.

“Go ahead,” Bill said. “If you think you can do it.”

Jack beamed and dropped his share of the vines. He ran at the tree, Nips perched on his shoulder, coiled up like a spring, and as Jack reached the wide bark of the tree, Nips sprung three feet up the tree, tiny claws finding invisible crevices.

Jack was not much slower as he pulled himself up. Bill was reminded of a spider climbing a wall with no more difficulty than if it was walking along the ground, as if the rules of gravity didn’t apply to it.

Bill’s palms grew sweaty. Ernest, Fritz, Liz and Francis all watched Jack with equal awe. Jack got halfway up before he slowed down and carefully assessed his situation. He jumped and his foot caught a small ledge Bill could hardly make out. It snapped beneath Jack’s weight, but his hands had found a branch, and he pulled himself up onto it.

Out the corner of his eye Bill could see Liz’s hands covering her face in fear, but to her credit she didn’t make a sound.

Jack walked across the narrow branch with his arms out to the side, Nips just ahead of him, performing the same routine. Then Nips hopped down, caught the branch, and swung underhand. Bill’s heart beat like a drum.

The branch began to dip under Jack’s weight. Jack didn’t seem concerned. He knelt down and pulled the pulley free of the ensnared leaves. Jack stood up, bracing himself on a neighbouring tree’s branch and kicked at the pulley. The vines attached to Lightfoot tightened as the pulley came free.

“All right!” Jack said. “It’s free!”

“That has got to be the most awesome thing I have ever seen,” Fritz said.

“Ditto,” Ernest said, slack-jawed.

“Don’t tell Jack I said that,” Fritz said.

“Only if you don’t tell him I agreed with you,” Ernest said.

Jack descended the tree just as easily as he had ascended it and re-joined them, none the worse for wear. Fritz and Ernest looked at Jack with newfound respect.

“Saw your little slip there with the snapped foothold,” Fritz said.

Bill smiled and shook his head. Liz grinned at him.

Bill stood on a make-shift ladder and guided the final panel into place. Jack, on the roof, removed the vines.

“All right,” he said, “take it up.”

Liz joined Bill in the treehouse, complete with four walls, roof and floor.

“Wow,” she said. “It’s big.”

“It needs to be,” Bill said.

“It was hard to imagine when it was just the floor,” Liz said. “It’s really coming together now.”

“Yeah,” Bill said. “Won’t be long before we move in.”

Liz wrapped her arms around Bill, who smiled and then looked out a porthole window at the sun hovering low in the sky. He broke from Liz.

“I’ve got to be somewhere,” Bill said.

“You’ve ‘been somewhere’ three nights in a row,” Liz said. “Should I be worried?”

“Only if I come back with lipstick on my collar,” Bill said.

He kissed Liz on the forehead and left. Liz frowned and bit her lip. She approached Fritz, Ernest, Jack and Francis, who were all crowded around something on the other side of the clearing. When Jack saw her, Fritz and Ernest rushed over to her, standing shoulder to shoulder as if they were hiding something.

“What are you up to?” Liz said.

“Nothing,” Fritz and Ernest said at the same time. They shared a glance.

It was suspicious, but Liz decided not to pry.

“It’s your father and my anniversary tomorrow,” Liz said. “Can you drop a not-so-subtle hint reminding him?”

“I think you’ve done enough of that yourself already,” Ernest said.

“I don’t think you need to warn him,” Fritz said with a smile.

“What do you mean?” Liz said.

“Oh no,” Fritz said. “I’m not telling you anything.”

“He’s been working on something for me?” Liz said. “Fritz, tell me. This is important.”

Fritz’s smile faded as he realised she was being serious.

“Yes,” he said. “He’s been working on something. But I can’t tell you anything more except that you’re going to like it.”

“Okay,” Liz said.

Her frown relaxed, but her face was still lined with concern.

Bill and Liz sanded down the table top using the bark from an unknown tree, leaving it smooth to the touch. It was unrecognisable as the table Fritz had brought off The Red Flag. The scorched emblem on the underside had been removed. It sat in the middle of the tree house, the centrepiece to the whole home.

The kitchen tops were equally well-sanded. Cutlery, plates, and kitchen utensils all had a home, and now so did the Robinsons.

Outside, pots bubbled and popped, filling the treehouse with the aroma of boiling vegetables. Over another fire was the roasting carcass of a small pig Ernest’s traps had ensnared.

A cool breeze blew through the open door and out through the large window on the other side. The goats made soft
meh
ing noises – of satisfaction, Liz thought. She knew how they felt.

“You’ve done a great job here, Bill,” Liz said.

Bill looked around at the treehouse and smiled humbly.

“It’s not too bad, is it,” he said.

“Thank you,” Liz said.

“Don’t thank me,” Bill said. “We all pitched in. It wouldn’t have been possible if we hadn’t all worked together.”

“You were the mastermind,” Liz said.

Bill snorted.

“Some mastermind,” he said. “Nailing a few pieces of wood together.”

Liz laid her hand on the wispy golden hairs on his forearm.

“Really, Bill,” she said. “Thank you.”

“You’re very welcome,” Bill said.

“We’d better get washed up for dinner,” Liz said.

Bill glanced out the door. The boys were busy with something across the way.

“Are you sure?” Bill said, wrapping his arms around Liz’s waist. “We have a few minutes…”

“You’re an animal,” Liz said.

“No wonder you find me irresistible,” Bill said. He kissed Liz on the nape of the neck. “I promise to be gentle.”

“Maybe for dessert,” Liz said.

“I’ll make sure to save room,” Bill said.

The pots bubbled and the fat from the meat dripped into the fire with a hiss.

“It’s done,” Liz said. “Boys, dinner’s ready.”

They came walking over. They were arranged in a line, hands behind their backs.

“Before we eat, we’ve got something to show you,” Jack said.

Ernest jabbed Jack in the ribs.

“Don’t spoil the surprise!” he said.

“I’m not!” Jack said. “I wasn’t going to tell them we made a-”

Ernest jabbed Jack in the ribs again.

“What’s all this about?” Bill said.

“We made something for you, for the treehouse,” Jack said. “And for your anniversary tomorrow. Kind of an all-in-one gift.”

“A small piece of home,” Fritz said.

The boys turned and revealed a large handsome flat slice of tree trunk. In it was carved the outline of Switzerland, and inside that, the outline of the island. Written across the middle in a flowing font was ‘Falcon’s Nest’.

“That’s beautiful!” Liz said. “My beautiful little boys. It must have taken ages!”

She kissed each of them on the cheek.

“Thank you so much!” she said. “We’ll put it up outside the treehouse.”

Bill ran his finger along the indentations.

“I wondered where my chisel went,” he said. “I thought the monkeys had taken it. You’ve all done a wonderful job. Just the finishing touch we need. Let’s lean it against the treehouse, see how it looks, shall we?”

Bill took it from them and leaned it to the right of the ladder.

“Fantastic,” he said, appraising it.

The boys fell into their seats at the dining table. The boys salivated, watching with relish as Liz put the plates and bowls of food in the centre. Bill poured a little of the potato-based alcohol beverage he’d made into each of their cups.

“Bill, not Jack and Francis!” Liz said.

“Just half a mouthful,” Bill said.

Bill picked up his goblet – silver and encrusted with jewels and a vicious-looking skull. Fritz looked at it.

“Why do I feel like we’re about to carry out a blood ritual?” he said.

“I quite like it,” Bill said, taking a swig from it. “As I’m sure you boys know, it’s been six months since we came to this island. It’s been a struggle, but we’ve finally made it. We belong to this island now, and it to us. We no longer have to struggle. There are things we may not experience again for a while, but now, at least, we can survive in moderate comfort.”

He raised his goblet.

“A toast,” he said. “To your mother for this delicious meal we’re about to receive, and to all of you for all your hard work and dedication. It hasn’t been easy, I know. But now, finally, we might be able to live in peace.”

They all took a swig and dug into the meal.

“Don’t eat too much,” Liz said. “I made some fruit pies for dessert.”

“But you can have any other dessert you’re hungry for too,” Bill said.

Bill and Liz shared a look. Liz flushed.

“We’ve explored most of the island now,” Fritz said. “We just have the farthest corner to check out. It’ll take us a couple of hours to get there, look around, and then another couple of hours to come back. I thought we’d go after dinner, let you two be alone for your anniversary.”

“That’s kind of you,” Bill said. “But don’t get into any trouble.”

“Don’t worry,” Fritz said, rolling his eyes. “We won’t.”