The Felixstowe
Scribblers Writeathon.
(Hazel: Part One.)
14 August 2019.
The children were walking along the beach together.
Jeremy kept running up and down the sand dunes whilst his sister kept a steady
course, her eyes searching the ground for pretty or unusual shells or pebbles.
The children were living nearby in their mother's holiday cottage for the whole
of the summer holidays. They were used to being here as they came every summer
holidays.
Jeremy ran until he was alongside his sister. 'Hey
Beth are you okay, you are very quiet this evening?'
Beth lifted her eyes from the ground as she put a
handful of treasures in her pocket.
'I am okay’ she said. 'I was just thinking how
different it is without Jane'.
'I know, I miss her too. We have to go on though
Beth and remember the good times. It was dreadful what happened to her. We will
hold her in our hearts forever'. He put his arm around his older sister and she
smiled at him.
'Thanks Jez, I am so grateful to have you as my
brother'.
He took hold of her hand and they continued their
walk along the beach. The sun was setting, the sky and the sea had turned a
fiery red and the large globe of the sun was still visible on the horizon. The
children stood and watched in awe as the globe slowly started to sink away.
They were still holding hands, each glad to be with the other. As they carried
on walking Beth noticed something else on the beach. It was coming towards them
very fast.
'What on Earth is that? ‘said Beth.
'It looks like a horse, a horse on fire!'
Indeed it was a horse, a huge beautiful horse with
a long flowing mane and tail. There appeared to be flames shooting out around
the horse. The sky and the sea were still a fiery red.
The horse stopped in front of the children.
'Good evening, I am the Flame Horse'.
(Georgina: Part Two) 16 August 2019
The children stood; mouths
open in wonder as the horse bowed its head before them. The last speck of sun
had vanished, leaving the sea dark and undulating with rolling scrolls of silver.
The light from the horse was both dazzling and gentle, the heat from the flames
was intense yet soothing.
‘I have come to ask for your
help,’ said the Flame Horse, raising her head.
Beth and Jez had been taught
well by their mother, so, in their dazed and astonished state, they found
themselves politely asking ‘How can we help?’
The horse shook its white-hot
mane and reared up on blazing hooves. The light intensified as sand began
swirling around them. Covering their eyes, the children clung to each other
until the sand had settled. They saw, in the distance, the Flame Horse
galloping away, like a shooting star low on the beach.
The sand where the horse had
stood was still hot, though the air was cool around them. At the very centre,
where the sand had spun fastest, was a glass shape, glowing brightly. Beth
picked it up, and, though the heat made her cheeks flush and her hair flutter,
it felt pleasant to hold.
A voice carried on the gentle
twilight sea-breeze. The children knew it was their mother calling.
Beth and Jez took each other’s
hands again and walked quickly back the way they had come.
(Justin: Part 3) 21 August
2019
Thunder coloured clouds soon
overtook them and large drops of rain began to fall. A loud hissing sound began
to leak from the glass shape. The sound of cool water meeting intense heat soon
became deafening. Grey plumes of steam spiralled into the air. Beth was forced
to repeatedly wipe her eyes and failed to register at first that the shape had
changed. Looking down, she now saw that a tiny multi-coloured glass key nestled
in the palm of her hand. It was no bigger than her thumb.
‘Maybe the key is linked to
the riddle of Logan Rock? Beth said.
‘Beth, we don’t even know what
or who Logan Rock is yet. It sounds like the name of a retired WWF All-American
wrestler’. Beth inwardly sighed; Jez had been the same when Jane had first
disappeared last year. Being sincere one minute and childishly flippant the
next. She knew that Jez didn’t cope well with change or the unknown. Beth had
been pleasantly surprised at how he’d reacted to their encounter with the Flame
Horse.
In frustrated silence, they
trudged back along the path to the brow of the hill. In the distance, they saw
their mother silhouetted against the doorway of the cottage. The cottage had
been in the Orbit family for generations. Known as The Gingerbread House by the
locals, it was usually used for two months of the year. Which made it difficult
to explain who was switching the bedroom lights on and off for the other ten.
(Liliane: Part 4) 24 August
2019
They ran towards the cottage
and towards their mother, who was pleased to see them. She rather worried since
that incident last year with their friend, Jane. Jane had been a bit of a
mystery. They had evidently met her on the beach and had soon become firm
friends. Their mother had not been entirely happy about their friendship as
Jane was very evasive about where she lived or where she came from. There had
been something strangely ethereal about her and then one day she just vanished.
Well she had not quite
vanished before their eyes but almost. She had last been seen running towards
the rocks and had apparently run round them, out of sight. Beth and Jeremy had
followed but when they got to the other side of the rocks, there was no one
there. They had called and searched but there was nowhere to hide, no cave that
she could have gone in to and got lost. The way it happened had been really
worrying.
(Jim: Part 5) 25 August 2019
Mrs Susan Orbit-Smythe
listened patiently while her children Beth and Jeremy told her of their
encounter with the amazing Flame Horse and how they had to solve the Riddle of
Logan Rock.
‘And then we will know the
truth about what pains us most Mummy!
Don’t you see then we will find out what happened to Jane! Beth was practically jumping up and down in
her excitement, but Susan noted her son Jeremy was clearly upset about what had
happened and didn’t say anything. But
she didn’t have time to find out what was troubling him. Later she was to
regret she had not taken the time.
‘We will talk about all this
later,’ she said. ‘But first you have to go and tidy yourselves up and put on
clean clothes. We are having an important visitor for tea. Our new neighbour
who has just moved into that pretty cottage down the road. He has just retired
from the navy. We are going to meet Captain Leonard Jackson. He sounded very nice on the telephone. I
wonder what brings him to this part of the coast?’
It was then that Beth noticed
her mother had put on a newish dress and spent a lot of time on her hair and
makeup. ‘Come on Jez,’ she said, ‘We
must get ready for the Captain’.
(Carole: Part 6) 27 August
2019
Tall and broad-shouldered,
Captain Jackson had the upright bearing of a man who was comfortable in
uniform. Though retired, he was smartly dressed
in a double-breasted blazer, sharply creased cream trousers, a crisp white
shirt and carefully knotted tie bearing the crown, wreath and anchor logo of
the Royal Navy. His sandy hair was
cropped short and his deep blue, almost violet, eyes twinkled. As he smiled the tanned skin around his eyes
wrinkled and his whole face lit up, and when he looked at her Mother, Beth
noticed, her cheeks glowed pink and she lowered her eyes, smiling.
‘Call me Len,’ he said.
‘Geez!’ thought Jeremy, ‘He’s
just like James Bond. He was a Navy man
too.’ Then, as the Captain leant
forward, arm outstretched, to shake hands with him, Jeremy noticed his computer
watch. It was unlike any Smart watch
Jeremy had ever seen. ‘Perhaps he’s a
spy too?’ he thought.
Beth had noticed the watch as
well. It looked expensive and he wore it
on his right wrist.
‘He must be left-handed like
me,’ she thought and she noticed other things too. He was wearing a tiny gold tie pin in the
shape of a key and, on the back of his hand, there was a tattoo, a motif of
flames in yellow, orange, red and a creamy-white that seemed to flicker as he
moved.
There was something else about
him. A vague, abstract something that
she could not place. He made her feel
safe and relaxed.
(Beryl: Part 7) 29 August 2019
Suddenly Beth knew what the
flame tattoo reminded her of – the horse they had seen on the beach. And the
tie pin in the shape of a key, wasn't that exactly the same shape as the glass
key the horse had given them? She rummaged in her pocket and retrieved the key,
glancing from it to the tie pin. It was difficult to tell. They were alike but
were they identical? The Captain – she couldn't think of him as Len – and her
mother were busy talking. She nudged Jeremy, showing him the key in her palm
and indicating with her head the Captain's tie pin.
But Jeremy was absorbed in his
own thoughts. If the Captain really was a spy, as the watch would suggest, was
he a good spy or a bad one? He hadn't tried to hide the watch so perhaps he
wasn't a spy at all. Perhaps the watch was something to do with his role in the
navy. When his sister nudged him and showed him the key in her hand he didn't
know what she was getting at. But he did need to talk things over with her. He
had an uneasy feeling about this man his mother seemed so taken with. And for
some unknown reason thoughts of Jane kept coming into his mind.
“Please may we leave the table
and go outside while it's still light?” he blurted out suddenly. The adults
looked at him in surprise and he blushed, feeling like a small boy and furious
with himself at the same time.
“All right,” their mother
said. “But stay in the garden. It's too late to go to the beach.”
“What's up?” Beth asked as
soon as they were outside.
“Nothing.”
“Oh come on, J, something's
bothering you.”
“Well, I can't stop thinking
about Jane. I feel as if there's some connection between her and the Captain.
And I don't think I trust him.”
“Well, I don't agree at all. I
have a really positive feeling about him. And look. . . .” She showed him the
glass key and told him about the tie-pin key and the flaming tattoo. “They link
him to the horse we saw and the horse was good, surely.”
“I agree about the horse. And
mum certainly seems to have fallen for the Captain. But something about him
troubles me. And before you say it, I'm not just being over-sensitive. But I am
worried.”
(Cathy: Part 8) 4 September
2019.
Beth turned the glass key over
and over in her hand. Beside her, J was looking back at the cottage. Framed in
the window were Mum and the Captain, and the Captain had his hand on Mum’s arm.
‘C’mon,’ spluttered J, ‘We’re
not putting up with this! What’s he doing to Mum?’
He grabbed his sister’s arm,
and they charged back inside, bursting in on the adults just as the Captain
leaned in to kiss their mother.
‘What the …?’ swore the
Captain, as Jeremy pushed between them.
‘Don’t touch her!!’ yelled
Jeremy, anger giving him courage.
‘Jeremy. Sweetheart …’ his
blushing mother’s voice trailed off.
The safe feeling Beth had felt
around the Captain evaporated. She moved close to her Mum and slipped a hand
into hers.
Jeremy’s outburst had made the
Captain stumble backwards. Grabbing wildly to save himself from falling, his
outstretched right arm exposed a second tattoo – just above the expensive
watch.
‘Ow!’ Beth squealed in pain.
‘The key’s burning my hand!’ She opened her palm, and shook the key free. It
landed on the carpet. Trapped in their glass prison, flames snaked and swirled.
Jeremy wasn’t looking at the
key. Instead, he stared at the second tattoo. The letter ‘LR’, executed in a
peculiar glowing ink he’d never seen before.
The captain recovered his
balance. He straightened his jacket, pulling down his sleeve to cover the
tattoo. As the glowing letters disappeared from view, so the flames imprisoned
in the glass key flickered and died.
The captain picked the key up
and put it on the coffee table.
He looked at the three
bewildered faces in front of him.
(Tony: Part 9) 16 September
2019.
The events of the last few
moments had made Susan feel somewhat faint, and Beth and Jeremy more than
confused.
Beth picked up the key again
from the table. She waited a few seconds until it started to burn in her hand,
and then she dropped the key on the floor. Immediately the glass prison
surrounded them again, and flames were visible as before, yet they no longer
burned. After a few seconds the effect ended, as did the prison.
“That’s what happens when you
drop the key”, she announced.
Not wanting to be left out,
Jeremy picked up the key, and held it for a few seconds before dropping it to
the floor, but nothing happened.
“Who found the key?” the
captain asked.
Beth didn’t want to answer
him, but Jeremy saw that the Captain also looked as confused as he was,
although he could be acting, and pushed Beth lightly, “I did.” She squeaked.
“Well it seems clear that it
only works for the person who finds it. I’m sure it must have some use. You
must always be careful when you invoke someone else’s magic. But who’s? And is
it friendly or evil?”
“I think this is all too much
to think about at this time of night. Perhaps we should all get a good nights’
sleep and see if we can make more sense of it in the morning.”
Susan saw the Captain out, and
the children made their way to their room. “Its’ not fair,” Jeremy commented to
his sister.
“What’s not fair? The ring
working for me, and not for you?”
“No. This was our mystery.
Just mine and yours. Now mum and that Captain fellow are muscling in on our
adventure, and I still don’t trust him. It’s just not fair.”
(Dave: Part 10) 17 September
2019.
It was a night of broken sleep
for the children. Strange dreams plagued them, dreams of flames and fires, keys
and locks, prisons and rocks. And then there was that creepy old Navy Captain
whose staring, leering eyes looked like those of the devil himself.
Neither Beth nor Jeremy spoke
of their weird dreams when Mother served up breakfast which they quickly
devoured.
“We’re going out to play on
the beach!” Beth called to her mother. “See you later!”
They ran down the path and out
towards the beach before their mother could call to them to be careful.
“Did you bring it?” Jeremy
asked.
Beth opened her hand. There it
was. The mystical key that looked, for all the world, like a normal key.
The children made their way
towards some of the rocks at the base of a sandy cliff and sat down to discuss
their worrying dreams and talk about that creepy Captain chap. They both
shuddered when they remembered him trying to kiss their mother.
“He’s nasty.” Beth said
shuddering at the thought. “But what about his tie and the flames, and that
tattoo LR. Do you think that stands for Logan’s Rock? And that fancy watch too.
He’s up to no good.”
Jeremy said they should play
detective, so they crept towards the Captain’s cottage. Perhaps they would find
some clues to the mystery. Suddenly they heard the thundering hooves of a
runaway horse and saw the flames surrounding it. At the very same moment the
key in Beth’s hand got very, very hot...
(Steve:
Part 11) 14 October 2019
Beth
and Jeremy ducked down behind a rock, out of sight of the cottage, afraid of
what would happen next because they both had a bad feeling about the Captain.
Did he have special powers?
The
flaming horse galloped by, tossing its head, acknowledging the two children as
it passed.
“This
must be a special place,” said Beth, “because this key has turned its heat to
light, and it is glowing very brightly now. It’s not so hot anymore, you try
holding it.”
As she
handed the key over to Jez, its light increased in intensity and cast its glow
onto the boulder that they had crouched behind, so that suddenly words began to
appear on the rock face, which read:
“Gilgamesh,
who saw all. He too sought the path to unending youth.”
Beth
said “This must be Logan’s rock, but we mustn’t tell the others that we’ve
found it. It’s our secret and our riddle to solve.”
“So,
who’s Gilgamesh and what does it mean Beth?”
“The
epic of Gilgamesh is the oldest story ever written, and it’s about a king who
says that he’s found the meaning of eternal life, but I don’t know what the
words on this rock mean.”
“Well
it’s certainly a riddle. What do we do now?”
Just
then the light of the key began to fade, as the noise of the galloping horse
receded, but the quiet was broken, as the Captain opened the cottage door. The
Captain looked out and called “Who’s there?”
(Derek: Part 12) 17 October
2019
‘It’s Jane, Uncle’.
‘Inanna, my dear come in, come
in quickly’.
Jeremy and Beth looked at each
other, confusion lining their sun tanned faces. They slid away unnoticed from
Jackson’s cottage and once safely back on the beach, Jez cried out ‘Was that
Jane? But the Captain called her Inanna or such like and how do you know about
this Gilgamesh?’
‘Calm down,’ soothed Beth, ‘I
learnt about him in an ancient history lesson, he is connected , if I remember
correctly with Mesopotamia, an old country where roughly Iraq is now.’
‘You’re a clever so and so,
aren’t you!”
‘Thank you dear Brother, but
who is Inanna? We need our friend Google.’
The computer hummed into life
and Beth typed in Inanna. ‘Wow, Inanna is connected to Gilgamesh.’
‘How?’ Asked Jez excitedly.
‘She’s a goddess and Gilgamesh
comes to her aid.’
‘Goddess of what, Sis?’
‘Love, beauty, sex, desire and
political power’.
‘Sex eh, I like the sound of
her!’
‘Oh be quiet Jeremy. Let’s
think, now remember the words on the stone, path to unending youth or similar,
it says here that Gilgamesh failed the tests and did not find immortality.
Perhaps he helped Inanna find it and perhaps, just perhaps Inanna is Jane.’
‘Could be, Beth and perhaps
ancient history is wrong and this Gilgamesh chap, did find the correct path and
has turned out to be Captain Jackson! After all he is strange man, what
with his two tattoo's, tie pin, watch on right hand, and the Flame Horse
galloping past his cottage.’
‘Who knows, what is our next
step?’
