 
Time For a Change

By Lynne Roberts

Published by Liberty Publications at Smashwords

Copyright 2014 Lynne Roberts

ISBN 978-1-927241-11-0

Smashwords Edition, License Notes  
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to your favorite ebook retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author
Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13
Chapter 1

Cory felt sick. It wasn't so much the motion of the car, although the way Ms Lannigan jerked and bounced it all over the road certainly didn't help. She was nervous, though Cory couldn't see that she had anything to be nervous about. She wasn't the one being taken to live with a new foster family.

Cory swallowed hard. There seemed to be a frozen lump inside him that was growing bigger and bigger and filling his whole body. The problem was that when he was anxious or upset, which happened to be most of the time in the past three years, the frozen feeling made him stiff and stopped him from smiling or even talking at times. This made other people think he was cold and uncaring and the more Cory tried to be friendly the more frozen up he became.

The last three years seem to have taken forever to live through. At first it felt unreal. Why should he have been the only one of his family to survive? If he hadn't spent that night at his friend Jonathan's house, he too would have died when the gas heater blew up and set fire to his house, killing his parents and two brothers. Jonathan's parents had been very kind and let Cory stay living with them while things were 'sorted out'. Cory had lived in a half awake state for months then Jonathan's family had gone overseas and he had to stay behind.

Jonathan's mother had been very apologetic.

"My husband has been offered a teaching position in Brunei and it is too good an opportunity to turn down. We're sorry we have to leave you here but it's better for you to be around your school and friends than having another upheaval in your life."

Upheaval! Huh! She didn't know the half of it. From the moment he was taken by Ms Lannigann, his social worker, to a new foster home, Cory was furiously angry. He raged about being left behind by his best friend. He raged about being alive while his family was dead. He raged about the fact that his only other living relations were an old grandmother who lived in an old folk's home, and whose mind was completely gone, to a distant uncle in Northland who had family problems and definitely didn't want other one.

By this time Cory was a problem. He smashed things for the sheer joy of seeing them break. He swore and kicked and bit and fought anyone who tried to offer him a kind word. Four foster homes and four changes of school later, Cory was deposited in a 'temporary' care home. Here a succession of boys stayed before being placed in homes more suitable for them.

It didn't help that Jonathan had promised faithfully to write to Cory. A couple of letters came at the beginning, glowing with enthusiasm for Brunei where apparently their whole family was surrounded by fabulous wealth and Jonathan was given everything his heart could desire. But these letters soon trickled to a stop and Cory hadn't heard from him now for over a year.

"No one will want me," muttered Cory when Ms Lannigan brightly told him she was looking for a 'placement' for him. By now his anger was gone and he couldn't have cared less what happened to him.

"That's not true, Cory," Ms Lannigan had said soothingly. "You're nearly twelve now and I'm sure you could be very useful if you tried. Perhaps if you could go to a farm..." she trailed off as she saw Cory's aghast expression.

"I'm being sent out as a slave," thought Cory bitterly. "That's the only thing I'm ever going to be good for." He sighed and went back to feeling hopeless.

But in the event, it wasn't a farm he was heading for. It was the beginning of the April school holidays and he was to go and stay with the Miller family.

"If it goes well they may consider taking you as a permanent placement," Ms Lannigan told Cory wishing that the boy could wipe that scowl off his face. "This is a trial period."

"So you mean I can come back after the holidays?" demanded Cory.

"Well yes, I suppose so," admitted Ms Lannigan, with a mental sigh at trying to find yet another placement for this dreadful child.

"Good," thought Cory. "I only have to put up with them for two weeks. They are bound to be awful."

So here they were jolting down a country road to the small farmlet the Millers lived on.

"The Millers have one child, a daughter Meredith. She's a year younger than you," said Ms Lannigan encouragingly.

"You told me before," muttered Cory, forcing the words out over the frozen lump inside him. As if he didn't have enough to put up with, without being expected to be friendly with a girl! He closed his eyes and concentrated on the plans inside his head for the racing car he was going to build when he was grown up. It would be sleek and shining silver and he would travel faster than anyone else on the road. Maybe it could skim over water as well. He was adding a gun for firing from the back and a helicopter rotor for emergency lift offs when Ms Lannigan called "Here we are," and he opened his eyes with a blink.

Ms Lannigan pulled the car to a stop outside an old rambling house. She opened the car door in relief. She had been sure Cory was on the point of throwing up in her car and was thankful to have got him this far without any outbursts of temper.

A skinny girl with blonde pigtails shrieked "Mum, Dad, he's here," and bounded up to the car.

Cory got out and stood feeling stiff and awkward while the girl introduced herself.

"Hi, you must be Cory. I'm Meredith, I'm going to be your sister and you're going to be my brother, at least I hope you are. I've always wanted a big brother. Girls in books always have them and they do all sorts of adventures together. I hope we can have adventures together. Have you lived in the country before? Well, its not really country like miles from anywhere, it's only four kilometres to town but it takes ages to walk it so we go by car or I ride my bike. Have you got a bike? Oh, no. I suppose you haven't. Dad will have to buy you one and then we can go for bike rides, which will be awesome because Mum and Dad don't like me riding on my own. Dad, Dad, you have to get Cory a bike."

Cory backed up to the car against this barrage of words. Meredith could apparently speak without having to pause for breath like normal people and she was now dragging at his arm.

"Come and see your room and I'll help you to get your bags. Where is all your stuff? Is that all you've got? Only one bag? Gosh. I need a bag twice that big even if I only stay at my friend Sasha's house for one night. Sasha is my best friend but she's gone away for the holidays. I thought it was going to be really bad luck that I had to stay home, because we usually go away, but Dad's too busy to take us on holiday this time, but now you're here we'll be able to do stuff together..."

She faltered to a stop as she saw Cory's grim expression.

At this point Meredith's father stepped over to the car. He stuck out a welcoming hand and gave a wide grin. "Hi Cory, I'm Brian," he said cheerfully. "This is my daughter Meredith, as I'm sure she's told you, and this is my wife Maggie."

A small dark haired woman came forward and looked as if she wanted to kiss Cory, who recoiled in horror. Mrs Miller immediately looked embarrassed and patted him on the shoulders instead.

"Welcome Cory. I hope you'll enjoy being part of our family," she said rather stiffly. Cory realised with a slight shock that she was nervous as well. The frozen lump thawed enough to enable him to croak, "Hello."

"Now if you have any problems," Ms Lannigan looked menacingly at Cory, with _Be Good_ written in large letters in the air above her head, "don't hesitate to contact me. Otherwise I'll be in touch in a fortnight."

She hastily climbed into her car and drove off, narrowly missing the gatepost and doing terminal damage to a small camellia bush as she turned the wheel.

Meredith giggled.

"She's not much of a driver, is she?"

Cory felt himself thawing a bit more and risked a glance at Meredith but she had raced into the house calling for Cory to come and see his room.

Brian tried to take Cory's bag but Cory hung onto it fiercely. It held everything he possessed and there was no way anyone else was going to touch it. Cory allowed himself to be ushered inside, wishing he could run freely like Meredith instead of stumbling like some sort of clumsy puppet.

"Then I'd run away from here as fast as I could go," he thought and mentally increased the speed of his racing car by adding a jet propelled rocket to the back of it.
Chapter 2

His room was a pleasant surprise after having shared a dormitory with three other boys for the past six months. It was light and airy with a large window stretching along one wall and a set of French doors at one end.

"The doors open on to the veranda," chattered Meredith, "so you can go outside when you want to without bothering the rest of us."

"Meredith," protested her mother. "That's hardly polite."

"Oh he knows what I mean," scoffed Meredith. "You do, don't you?" she demanded, standing in front of Cory who gave her a sickly grin.

"Um, sure. Yes. It's fine," he told Maggie grudgingly as he looked around the room. A large single bed was covered with a soft furry blanket of some sort with dolphins on. There were dolphins and curling waves in patterns on the curtains and a large wooden desk sat in an alcove formed by a bank of shelves.

"I put some books here for you," explained Meredith cheerfully, "but there's heaps of room to put your own stuff. Oh!" She blushed as she remembered the one small bag Cory had brought.

"We have to get Cory a bike, Dad," she reminded him.

"I'll take Cory to choose himself one tomorrow," promised her father. "Oh blast, that's the phone."

He raced off to answer it and Cory realised that Meredith was very like her father. Maggie was much quieter and remarked that she would go and prepare the dinner.

"Get Meredith to show you round outside when you are ready," she said. "Meredith, don't rush Cory. Give him some breathing space to unpack."

"It's okay, I'll do it later," mumbled Cory, not intending to unpack any more than he had to. They needn't think he was going to stay in a place with only a girl, even though the promise of a bike sounded hopeful.

"Come and I'll show you the house then, and I'll explain a few of the ground rules," said Maggie. "Then I have to get the dinner on or we'll never eat tonight. Oh dear, that sounds like trouble," she sighed as Brian's raised voice could be heard on the phone in the hallway.

"No, no! That won't possibly work. I'll sort it out and phone you back with the details. Cretins!" he said as he slammed down the phone.

"You would think a little bit of common sense would prevail but no. I'm going to have to go to Wellington and sort this lot out." He turned an apologetic gaze in Cory's direction.

"Sorry, mate. I hate to do this on your first day here but the bike will have to wait a week or so. I have to make a business trip. Maggie, you'd better pack for me while I made a couple of calls. I'll leave first thing in the morning."

Meredith's protests were ignored as Maggie rapidly showed Cory the bathroom and kitchen.

"Let me know anything you really can't bear eating," she said, "and if you're hungry in between meals you can have fruit or make a sandwich. You can take turns with Meredith to wash the dishes and I expect you to keep your room reasonably tidy so I can clean it once a week. We'd like you to tell us where you are going if you go out so we know when to expect you back. No alcohol, smoking or drugs and we expect you to tell the truth at all times. Is that understood?"

She finished in a rush and Cory nodded, feeling rather bewildered. Alcohol and drugs? What did they think he was? He wondered what on earth Ms Lannigan had told them. If they thought he was as bad as all that, he was surprised they even considered letting him into the house at all. He glowered at Meredith and wished she would leave him alone for five minutes. She dragged him outside to meet the animals.

"Tabitha is our cat, she's pretty old now but she still catches mice."

A well fed tabby cat consented to be stroked before stalking off to clean itself in a patch of sun on the veranda. "These are the calves. They are getting big now so they eat the grass but when they were little we fed them with bottles."

Four black and white steer stretched their heads over the gate and sucked at Meredith's fingers as she held them out. Cory decided he was not impressed.

"Do you eat them?" he asked.

"Of course not," Meredith answered in shocked tones. "They are just babies. We sell them to a farmer and buy some more tiny ones in the winter," she explained. "I don't like to think about anyone eating them. Though I guess that's what will happen to them eventually," she added mournfully.

"Do you have a dog?" asked Cory eagerly. He had always wanted a dog of his own but never thought it likely to happen.

"We did have one, called Bonny. She was a spaniel, but she died a year ago. Mum and I cried so much that Dad said he'd never get another dog as it was too upsetting when they died. He might change his mind now you're here though. Let's ask him."

"No, wait," called Cory desperately. "Don't bother because I'm not intending to stay in this dump..." he was thinking, but didn't quite like to say it when Meredith was looking at him so eagerly. "Until spring!" he said finally. "I'm sure that's when puppies are born, in spring."

Meredith looked doubtful. "Oh, I suppose that would make sense," she said. "Anyway that's about it. There are heaps of cows on the farm next door. That's where old Mr Sanders and his wife live, they haven't got any children. At least they have, only they've all grown up and left home now, so that doesn't count, and the rest of the place is all trees."

"I saw them when we were driving here," said Cory. "Does anyone live in there?"

"No. It's private property. It belongs to some sort of forestry trust and anyway, it's so dark and gloomy under all those pines I've never really wanted to go in there."

Cory sank deeper into despair. Staying in the country with a girl had pretty much ruined the holidays and now it turned out there weren't even any houses close by. He had hoped there might be some boys near enough to hang around with but it was obviously going to be worse than he had imagined. He wondered how long it would be before they put him to work.

"What's in the shed?" asked Cory idly as they walked past a large corrugated iron garage.

"Just tools and garden stuff," said Meredith without interest. "Oh, and Dad keeps his boat there, of course."

"Brian's got a boat?" Cory brightened. "Can I look at it?"

"Sure," said Meredith, and led the way to the shed door. Inside was a long sleek motorboat on a large metal trailer.

"Wow." Cory's eyes were like saucers. His mental plans for a racing car were immediately shelved in favour of a speedboat of his own. He ran his hand lovingly along the smooth red fibreglass side of the boat. "It's huge. Can you sleep in it? What's under the cover?"

Meredith shrugged. "I guess you could sleep in it, but we have never bothered. We mainly go out for the day. It's got a cabin. Look."

She stepped on the side of the trailer and pulled up one end of the large canvas canopy that stretched over the boat. Inside there was a swivel seat in front of an impressive bank of instruments. Beside the swivel seat was a bench seat with space to sit front or back. At the front of the boat was a tiny cabin with two benches big enough for sleeping on. A tackle box and fishing rod were lying on the floor at the back end of the boat.

"Pooh, it smells of fish in here," said Meredith and dropped the cover again.

" _Changing Times._ What a strange name for a boat." Cory read the gold lettering on the prow.

Meredith laughed.

"It's because Dad's business suddenly started making heaps of money and he said it was obviously a sign of the times. He said it would mean he could spend lots of time fishing instead of working every day. It hasn't really worked out like that though," she sighed. "He still seems to work all the time and we hardly ever go out in the boat."

"If I had a boat like this, I'd go out in it every day," breathed Cory in awe.

At that moment Maggie called "dinner time'" and Cory sat up for his first meal with the Miller family. Meredith and Brian talked and talked and talked. Maggie occasionally got a few words in and there would be awful pauses when one of them asked Cory a question. He invariably had his mouth full of food and had to try and choke it down so he could mumble an answer. They were all stupid questions too. They would natter on about boring politics, or something equally deadly dull happening in the community, then ask him what he thought. As if they even cared!

After a while Maggie laughed.

"Leave the poor boy in peace to eat his meal."

Cory thankfully turned his attention back to his plate. He couldn't understand why he was so hungry all the time. He certainly wasn't growing that he could see and yet there was a hollow pit in his stomach that demanded constant fuelling. At least Maggie seemed to understand this and told him to help himself from the dishes on the table. Not like one place he'd be been where they frowned on anything other than 'organic food' and only tiny quantities of that.

As Cory lay in bed that night, feeling the texture of unfamiliar sheets and sniffing at the slightly new paint smell of the room, he thought that the day hadn't been as bad as he had feared.

"I wonder if Brian will take me out on the boat?" he wondered, and drifted off to sleep dreaming of boats and dolphins.
Chapter 3

By mid afternoon the next day, Cory was so bored he could scream. They had spent the morning shopping; something Cory loathed. That is, Maggie and Meredith had been shopping. Cory just did as he was bid. They made him try on new jeans and track pants and bought him T- shirts and socks, sneakers and boots. Cory lost interest after ten minutes of this but Maggie and Meredith were content to spend hours choosing fabric so that Maggie could make Cory even more new clothes. Cory's protests that he had enough clothes by now were ignored. He felt faintly guilty that they were obviously spending a lot of money on him and would be annoyed when he left at the end of the two weeks but shrugged it off.

"If they want to chuck their money away then I'm not going to stop them," he thought.

It turned out that Maggie loved to sew and liked nothing better than looking at fabric and patterns. So Cory was left to wander round the few shops in the small town that really almost didn't qualify for the name of town. This rapidly palled and he was reduced to tossing bits of gravel into a handy grating and scoring himself 50 points for every stone he dropped through. He was approaching seven thousand when Meredith finally caught up with him to take him back to the car. Lunch was a hasty affair of sandwiches as Maggie was keen to get started with the sewing. After suffering the indignity of being measured, Cory beat a hasty retreat as he saw what looked like acres of polar fleece and denim spread out on the table for cutting.

"Don't go too far away," warned Maggie. "I'll need you to try things on as I go."

By this time a damp and drizzly rain was starting to fall and Cory was feeling restless. A quick glance at the books in his room showed that he had read at least half of them and the rest he dismissed as being too babyish. They nearly all had the word _Magic_ in the title.

"Typical girl," thought Cory. "Only girls believe in magic. Everyone knows there's no such thing." He asked if he could play on the computer and was told that Brian used it for his work so it was out of bounds unless it was under his supervision. Cory was furious about this. He went across and turned on the television but Maggie quickly turned it off again.

"We don't watch television in the daytime," she said briskly. "We feel it is better to do things than to watch other people do them."

Cory looked mutinous at this. He wanted to watch surfers and he could hardly do that himself instead. They were miles from a beach and anyway it was the start of winter. He slumped into a chair, drumming his fingers on the arms, and stared moodily at the floor, figuring that if Maggie didn't like it she might let him turn the set on again.

The worst thing was Meredith who bounced around him like a friendly puppy wanting to play. Cory told her to get lost and that he didn't play with girls, but she took no notice. Eventually he grudgingly suggested they could kick a ball around outside. This met with an unenthusiastic response and they were both beginning to feel rather desperate when Meredith suggested they could play hide and seek.

"We'll make it inside and outside," she suggested. "That way it will be really fun."

"But you live here. You'll know all the best hiding places," objected Cory.

"Not really. I hardly ever get to play it. You can't hide from yourself," said Meredith sadly, turning large mournful eyes in his direction.

"Please play with Meredith," Maggie asked him. "You could at least make an effort. She is only trying to be friendly."

Cory felt guilty. "Okay, then. You can hide first," he said with a resigned sigh.

He closed his eyes and counted loudly to fifty, while Meredith shrieked in delight and headed out the door. Cory spent a few minutes searching before finding her under her bed.

"That didn't take long. How did you know I'd be here?"

"It's raining," Cory pointed out. "I didn't think you'd hide anywhere you could get wet."

"Your turn to hide. One two three..."

Cory ran into his bedroom and then thought, "Too easy. I know, the boat!" he decided. He slipped out the french doors, reflecting that they were proving to be useful already, and ran quickly across the wet grass to the shed. He ducked inside with a gasp as the rain came down harder. Lifting the canopy of the boat, he wriggled over the side and into the centre where he found there was just room over his head for him to sit crouched in the bottom of the boat. He considered climbing into the cabin but decided it would be too stuffy. He heard Meredith opening the shed floor and kept very still. She walked around the boat, moving a couple of cartons from a stack against the wall, then left the shed, banging the door behind her. Cory grinned to himself and decided to climb out and sneak up behind her. As he crawled to the side he glanced up at the instrument panel where a round silver button gleamed at the bottom of a small screen.

" I wonder what that does?" Cory thought. "Maybe it's a TV."

He decided to find out, and reaching across he pressed the button firmly. There was a sudden jolt and Cory was thrown back onto the floor of the boat, which now appeared to be rocking from side to side.

"Ouch," he said, rubbing his elbow where it had collided with the edge of the seat. "I guess that's what they call hitting the deck."

Pushing back the canopy he began to climb out then stopped in amazement. There was no sign of the shed with its workbench of carpentry tools and lawnmower pushed to one side. Instead the wooden deck of a ship stretched out beside him. Gulping in amazement he ducked back under the canopy. Yes, sure enough, there was everything just as it had been when he climbed in. He peeped out again and saw the deck with a large mast hung about with ropes and a white sail flapping in the breeze.

"I must be dreaming," thought Cory. "It must be a mirage brought on by shock. Perhaps I've gone mad and the stress of going to another foster home has turned my brain."

He watched as an order rang out and a sailor dressed in ragged clothing, and with a scarf knotted around his head over dirty unkempt hair, came over to the mast and started swarming up it. He climbed swiftly and by tipping his head back Cory could see the sailor aiming at a crow's nest high above. He decided to climb out and get a better view. After a quick glance around, he slipped on to the deck and crept to the shelter of a large coil of rope and bundle of sails, which were neatly stacked against the wooden side of the ship's cabin. From there he had an excellent view. At the end of the boat on a raised platform, a sailor stood holding an enormous steering wheel. A fair-haired man, who Cory assumed must be in charge, was bellowing orders.

"Steady as she goes, Mr Mate," he boomed, and an answer of "Aye, aye, captain," came from the sailor at the wheel.

Cory was thrilled.

"This is the life for a man," he thought. He looked up at the crow's nest as a cry of "Ship ahoy," rang out. At this, the boat erupted into a hive of activity. Sailors poured out from a hatch beside Cory and began energetically hauling on ropes and lashing barrels to the rails. Cory was amazed to see some of the men priming long guns and pistols while others sharpened wicked looking cutlasses on some sort of grindstone.

"They must be going to have a battle," he thought excitedly. "I wonder if I can join them." He hesitantly stepped out of his hiding place and approached the nearest sailor.

"Can I help?" he asked tentatively.

The man barely glanced at him but grunted and handed Cory a wicked looking knife. "Polish that," he said, and Cory proudly rubbed the knife on the piece of leather proffered by the man until it was gleaming.

A sudden squall of rain came slanting across and a large wave pitched the ship high in the air. The deck lurched and the ship shuddered as it crashed down from the crest of the wave in a mist of spray. The man swore and stepped back under the shelter of an overhanging beam. Cory stood there for a few minutes getting wetter and more uncomfortable as he tried to keep his footing on the slippery deck. The sailors were ignoring him, and each seeking a dry place for themselves, so he decided to creep back into the boat for shelter until the storm was over. He discovered that from the outside, Brian's boat appeared to be a pile of fishing nets at one side of the deck. Cory made a dive under this as a wave tilted the deck and tipped him off his feet. As he tumbled into the boat his elbow hit the silver button. There was a jolt then a sudden silence as the boat stopped rocking.
Chapter 4

"Bother," thought Cory. "I'm back."

He looked out and sure enough he was back in the Millers' shed once more. "That was amazing, though," he thought, and grinned to himself as he went back to the house.

"Where have you been?" cried Meredith as he came through the kitchen door. "I've been looking for you for ages. Well, ten minutes anyway."

"Hiding, It's a secret," said Cory, wondering if he had dreamt the whole thing. He had been on the ship for at least an hour but only a few minutes seemed to have passed here.

"Ugh, yuck, you're filthy. You must have been hiding somewhere really dirty."

Maggie came in as she heard their voices.

"Oh good. Cory, I'm ready for you to try this on," she said holding out a new sweatshirt.

"He's all dirty Mum," said Meredith indignantly.

Her mother laughed.

"That's what boys do, get dirty. Perhaps you'd better have a quick wash, Cory and I'll put some clean clothes out for you."

Cory scowled and did as he was told. Fortunately Meredith didn't want to play anymore and was content to help her mother or read a book. Cory retreated to his room and pretended to read a book while he lay and thought about the ship.

"I can go there whenever I want to," he thought. "It will be neat. I'd love to live on a ship." He mentally planned the sort of ship he would have when he grew up. He would naturally be the captain and there would not be any girls allowed on board. He decided he might make an exception for an old woman, such as Maggie, to do the cooking. He would have his own private cabin with his own computer and his own television set that he could watch whenever he wanted to.

He thought about this a lot more until tea time where he suffered through Meredith's chatter as he stuffed himself with stew and baked potatoes. After tea Maggie relented and let them watch television while she cleared the table so he was spared the ordeal of having to make conversation with her.

Breakfast the next morning was a disaster. Cory was not a morning person. He liked to wake up gradually and he did not appreciate girls who tried to ask him questions and plan his day before he had even woken up properly. He finally lost his temper and swore at Meredith.

"Cory!" Maggie was shocked. "You can leave the table this minute. There's a pile of wood in the shed and you can bring some in for me for the fire. Go on, off you go."

Cory stamped out muttering. "It's started already. I knew it would. I'm no better than a slave."

He picked up a couple of logs from the carefully stacked pile and threw them at the wall. They hit with a satisfying 'clang' before rolling to the ground with a thud.

" Why should I get their stupid wood, I'm not their servant?" He hurled another couple of logs at the wall. "Who wants to stay in this stupid place anyway?" he thought. "I should run away to that ship. No-one would be able to find me. They would all think I was dead. Then they'd be sorry." He picked up and threw another half dozen of the small logs.

The more he thought about this idea, the more it appealed to him. Looking around carefully, he ran back to the house and into his room through the outside doors. Stuffing his possessions hurriedly into his backpack, he hurried back to the shed and quickly climbed under the boat canopy, where he threw his bag into the cabin. Holding his breath he pressed the silver button, praying that it would work again. He felt a jolt and then a gentle rocking motion. Cory smiled in relief. "It's worked," he thought happily and pulled the canopy back and stood up.

"A stowaway!" roared an angry voice, and Cory felt himself lifted by his collar and dumped down in a heap onto the deck.

"And where did you spring from?" demanded the voice.

Cory looked up. A giant of a man stood there. His feet and legs were encased in large black boots and a faded yellow shirt was tucked into large baggy stripped trousers. The man wore a black patch over one eye and Cory was petrified with fright when he noticed that the man had a shining silver cutlass thrust through his belt.

"A pirate, he must be a pirate!" Cory had wild thoughts about making a run for it, although where he was going to run to he wasn't quite certain.

"Come on, cat got your tongue? I haven't got all day. Where have you come from?"

"Er, I hid in the boat," stammered Cory. This, at least, was true.

"Hoping to stowaway were you? Don't you know what I do to stowaways on my ship? I cut them into strips and use their guts for garters," thundered the pirate.

Cory began to shake with fright.

"I'm sorry," he squeaked "I won't do it again."

"I should toss you overboard," continued the pirate, as Cory cowered at his feet, "but I'm too kind hearted. Tell me boy, are you any good at scrubbing decks?"

"I don't know, I've never tried," said Cory uncertainly.

"Then now is your chance. Hey Sam." He called to a skinny young man with his hair tied back with a grubby length of string and blackened teeth grinning from thin lips.

"Put this young stowaway to work scrubbing the decks. Then I'll decide whether to toss him to the fishes or take him on as a cabin boy."

"Aye, aye captain. Come on you."

Sam prodded Cory with his foot and led him over to one end of the deck where he issued him with a brush, a large block of coarse soap and a bucket of cold seawater.

"Get scrubbing."

He cuffed Cory on the side of the head and Cory frantically began to scrub at the deck. After a while he got into a rhythm – soap, scrub, rinse, but his knees began to hurt from kneeling while his hands were cold and rough from the water. The ship was obviously at sea but where Cody did not know. There was no land in sight and a chill wind whistled across the deck. The ship rocked from side to side but the motion was not unpleasant.

"I wouldn't like to be here in a storm," thought Cody with an anxious look at the sky.

He kept scrubbing and began to realise why women always complained that their work was never done. The deck looked as if it was the size of a football field and Cory was dismayed to see how little he had done when he looked around. From time to time Sam would come and watch him for a few minutes then grunt and walk away. Although the sun was only a pale one, seen fitfully through misty clouds, Cory began to feel hot and uncomfortable. He felt as if he had been scrubbing for hours and hours. His back hurt and he wanted to go back. He almost thought "home" and reflected that the Millers' place hadn't been all bad.

"At least they don't make me scrub floors," he thought. Collecting the wood for the fire seemed a small thing to do now, and Cory felt sorry he had left the logs in such a mess. Even washing the dishes with Meredith had turned out to be loading and emptying the dishwasher. It was such a change from the piles of plates to be hand washed in the Home that Cory was quite sure he would never complain about that.

Cory had a lot of time to think as he was scrubbing. The creak of the wood was punctuated with curses and the occasional snatch of song as the crew heaved on ropes to adjust the sails, mended nets and polished fierce looking cutlasses and daggers. Cory glanced across at Brian's boat and saw it was now a lifeboat tied to the ship's side.

"If I can get back into it and press the button, maybe it will take me back," he thought. He started cleaning near the edge of the deck, getting closer and closer to the lifeboat. Just as Cory was only a few metres away, Sam came back.

"Do the middle, you useless cur," he commanded with a kick.

Cory had to work back to the middle of the deck, the only relief from the back breaking scrubbing coming when he had to throw the bucket overboard at the end of a long rope, to fill it again.

At the end of what felt like several hours Cory heard a gruff voice.

"Take a break, lad."

An old man with a straggling white beard gave him a nudge and pointed to a barrel lashed to the mast. "There's drinking water in there and the cook will find you some biscuit if you ask him."

Cory thankfully went to the barrel where a battered tin cup hung. Dipping it in the water he took a large mouthful then spluttered and spat it out. It tasted awful.

"I can't drink this," he gasped. Following a couple of the pirates, making sure to keep a wary distance behind them, he went down a short ladder to the galley. There, a large African man was sweating profusely as he chopped vegetables and strips of salted meat to make a stew. To Cory's request for a biscuit he nodded to a box on the shelf by the door. Cory reached in and drew out a rock hard piece of what looked like dog biscuit, which he despondently took back up onto the deck. He watched the other men knock their biscuits on the deck before eating them and bashed his one down hard as well. To his disgust, several maggots dropped out onto the deck. Cory retched as the other men laughed at him.

"Eat up boy, that'll put hairs on your chest," sniggered Sam.

Cory decided he was definitely not enjoying himself. He leapt to this feet and starting running back towards the lifeboat.

"Grab him. Don't let him get away," came a shout.
Chapter 5

Cory put on an extra spurt of speed as he heard heavy footsteps pounding behind him. Wrenching up the canvas cover he tumbled into the boat as a large hand gripped his sweatshirt. Wriggling desperately, Cory struggled out of the sweatshirt and reached out to push the silver button on the panel. The boat lurched then settled down. Cory risked a cautious peep, grinning with relief as he saw the familiar shed again.

"Where have you been?" Meredith asked some time later as she and Cory shared a large fruit cake for afternoon tea. "I went down to help you with the wood for the fire and you weren't there. I guessed you must be hiding but I thought I knew all the hiding places around here."

"Well," Cory hesitated. He wanted to keep the secret of the boat all to himself but he really owed Meredith something for helping him. She had tidied the wood shed and taken the wood inside for him so it was only fair to tell her where he had been. He decided to describe the pirate ship but make it seem that he had made the whole thing up.

"I went on an amazing adventure." He carefully checked his piece of cake for maggots before continuing. "It's magic, I think."

"Wow, magic! Really?" Meredith's eyes sparkled. She firmly believed in magic even though she had never actually had any magical experiences.

"Tell me all about it," she said breathlessly. "Were there fairies?"

"Not that sort of magic," said Cory hastily. "In fact it wasn't all wishes and dreams coming true. Some of it was fairly horrible. I don't know if I'd want to do it again."

"Do what? What?" shrieked Meredith. "Tell me!"

Taking a deep breath, Cory described his experiences to her. Maggie was pleased to see them together and even more pleased that Cory seemed so animated and talkative. She had felt sorry for him when he arrived looking so stiff and miserable, and she had been wondering if he would ever make an effort to settle in.

Meredith was wildly excited about the pirate ship and insisted on going back with Cory to the boat.

"Now do exactly what you did before," she commanded as Cory reluctantly pulled the canvas canopy over them.

"I pushed this silver button like this."

Cory reached out and pushed the button. To his relief, nothing happened.

"Oh!" said Meredith, as she looked out from under the canopy. "It was just a story you made up. It wasn't real at all. That's the GPS screen anyway. I don't see why that would be magic."

"What's GPS?" Cory looked blank.

"Dad explained it to me. It's the Global Positioning System. You push the buttons and the screen brings up numbers to show you where you are. It gets them off the satellites in the sky. It won't work inside the shed though."

"Why do you need one?" asked Cory.

"It's so you can find your way home if it's dark or foggy. Or you can use it to mark where you are if you need to call Mayday for help. Dad mainly uses it to mark his best fishing spots."

Cory was suitably impressed by this.

"I didn't know what it was. Look, perhaps magic doesn't just happen when you want it to. Maybe it will only work at certain times."

"You mean it could be once a day like when people get wishes from Genies in bottles?" asked Meredith hopefully.

"Could be," agreed Cory, endeavouring to look suitably mysterious, but secretly wondering if Meredith had guessed correctly.

Cory woke up in what felt like the middle of the night. Meredith was shaking his shoulder.

"What is it? What's happened? What do you want?" he gasped as he sat up.

"I thought we could go and try that magic button in the boat," Meredith said happily. "I've packed some food to bring with us and everything."

"But it's not even daylight yet," protested Cory.

Meredith was scandalised.

"It's nearly seven o'clock," she said "Don't you want to get up?"

"No, I'm still asleep. Go away," said Cory. Turning his back on her, he closed his eyes.

"Oh you're no fun at all," said Meredith crossly, and flounced out of the room. Cory gave a sigh of relief. All his arm muscles were aching from scrubbing the deck and his knees still felt tender. A couple of hours later he woke up ravenous and went out to the kitchen. Maggie was sewing again and called out for him to help himself.

"Sorry I'm late for breakfast," mumbled Cory guiltily. He was trying to feel annoyed with Maggie but it was so hard when she was so nice and understanding. He had been prepared to be really horrible to her if she tried to be like a mother to him. After all, no-one could replace his own mother. But Maggie wasn't trying to mother him at all and seemed to accept what he did cheerfully.

"Meredith is always an early bird," said Maggie, "but you can do things at your own pace. Time doesn't matter so much in the holidays."

Cory was relieved at not having to speak to Maggie face to face. He still felt stiff and shy with her although he wasn't having the same trouble with Meredith.

"I guess it's because she talks so much," he thought. "She's so happy and friendly she doesn't give people a chance to be shy. It's hard to stay cross with her for long." He decided he would try and sneak out to the shed without her and see if the boat would work its magic again.

"Where is Meredith?" he asked.

"Reading a book in her room, I think," Maggie replied.

"No I'm not, I've finished it. Yum, toast," said Meredith dropping onto the chair beside Cory.

"Hey, make your own, that's mine."

"Make some more for both of us and we'll share it," said Meredith through a mouthful of toast and marmalade. "I'm starving. Its ages since I ate breakfast." She looked accusingly at Cory.

"Yeah, yeah, you've made your point," said Cory. "But I was tired." If Meredith had been scrubbing decks for hours she would have been tired too, he thought, as he glowered at her. Meredith seemed unconcerned by his expression and showed a distressing tendency to stick to him like glue.

"We're going out to the shed, Mum," called Meredith a few minutes later, as she and Cory cleared away the remains of breakfast before heading outside. Cory felt anxious. He wanted to try the boat again without Meredith but there didn't seem to be any way he could get rid of her. Part of him wanted the boat magic to work again so he could prove to Meredith he hadn't been making it up. But the rest of him was not looking forward to seeing that pirate ship again. Cory gave a resigned sigh as they climbed into the boat together and Meredith looked at him expectantly.

"Make the magic boat travel for us," she commanded excitedly.

Cory groaned inwardly as he reached across and pressed the silver button. An enormous jerk tossed the two children together in the bottom of the boat.

"Ouch!" said Meredith indignantly. "Get off, you're squashing me."

"Sorry," said Cory. "I forgot to tell you. That's what happened last time as well." He crawled to the side of the boat and lifted the cover back slowly, with Meredith breathing down his neck from behind.

"Keep quiet," he warned her, "until we see what's happening." His warning of quiet was unnecessary. There was a fearful racket going on outside the boat. As Meredith and Cory watched with wonder, a battle appeared to be in progress. Towering beside the pirate ship was another sailing ship from which shouts and the clang of steel issued forth. Cory climbed out of their boat, which was now looking like a lifeboat again, and together he and Meredith crept along the deck of the deserted pirate ship for a better view. The pirates had evidently boarded the other sailing vessel and were having a fight to the death to take control of her. The occasional pistol shot rang out and there were despairing cries as sailors were forced overboard into the sea below.

"Can't we do something to stop it," cried Meredith in anguish. "Oh look. There's blood everywhere. I'm going to be sick."

She ran to the rail and was violently sick over the side. Cory hung onto her sweatshirt from behind, feeling green and unwell himself. It wasn't so much the blood as the screams of pain and cries for help as the sailors and occasional pirate drowned before their eyes.

"I don't like this," wailed Meredith as she turned away from the rail.

"Nor do I," confessed Cory.

"I thought boys were supposed to like blood and fighting and stuff."

"Well I don't. Hey, look at that."

Over on the stern of the other ship a massive fight was taking place between the pirate chief and a fair- haired man. Cory realised with a shock that the fair haired man was the captain of the first ship he had been on. The pirate chief was slashing madly with his cutlass while the captain had a long gleaming sword that he used to parry the blows and then to thrust at the pirate. Back and forth they battled, high on the poop deck. The wind fluttered the sails billowing above them as they stood silhouetted against the gathering clouds in the sky behind them.

"Oh, I think he's winning," cried Meredith, clenching her fists and watching with bated breath. Sure enough the fair-haired man was slowly beating back the pirate chief who was retreating despite his best efforts.

"Oh no," groaned Cory as another pirate sprang to the chief's aid. "Look out!" he cried, but it was too late. The second pirate lifted a large wooden bar and cracked the captain across the head with it. The pirate chief instantly picked up a rope and bound his adversary's arms behind his back. Two more pirates rushed up and threw the man to the deck and it seemed as if the battle was over.

"Come on, we'd better go back," Cory urged Meredith and they crept back into the lifeboat. They lay there for a minute or two in the dark, while Meredith took great heaving breaths and Cory tried to clench down the sick feeling inside him.
Chapter 6.

"What's happening now?" gasped Meredith as Cory lifted the cover to peep out.

"The pirates have won," he said gloomily. "They're carrying a big treasure chest over a plank onto their ship. Oh, and it looks like they've taken the captain prisoner."

"Where? Let me see." Meredith risked a quick glance. "Oh no, that's the one we saw fighting with the pirate chief. He looked so brave and now they're going to kill him."

"I don't think they'll kill him," said Cory thoughtfully. "They would have done that already. I think they must be keeping him for a reason."

"Perhaps they are going to hold him for ransom," shuddered Meredith. "I don't like this magic at all. Push the button, Cory and let's go home."

Cory had to agree with her. The last thing he had seen was the pirates setting fire to the other ship by hurling flaming torches onto the deck. He knew he would have nightmares about people burning to death if he didn't leave quickly.

A quick push of the button and a jolt took them back to the shed where the children climbed thankfully out of the boat.

"You were right, Cory. You weren't making it up. I'll never read stories about pirates again, they were horrible."

Cory was inclined to agree and Maggie was pleasantly surprised to find that the two children were content to spend a day playing Scrabble and Monopoly inside.

"I'll take you to the movies tomorrow," she promised "There's a really good pirate one on or else there's a cartoon, but you're probably both a bit big for the cartoon."

"No we're not," Meredith assured her, and Cory agreed that he definitely didn't want to see any more pirates.

After two days of wet weather, Meredith was feeling bored. She and Cory talked about the pirate ship as they moved the cattle into a fresh paddock. Moving the cattle was more a case of opening the gate and standing back as they rushed hopefully towards Meredith, looking for a bucket of Moosli or a bottle of milk.

"I can't help think about the captain," said Meredith worriedly. "Where do you suppose they will keep him prisoner?"

"Dunno. Probably tied up in one of the cabins, or else down the bottom of the ship in the hold."

"They might not tie him up," said Meredith, "Because it's not as if he can go anywhere. He's way outnumbered and the ship was in the middle of the ocean." She shuddered as she remembered the sailors falling in the water. "Do you suppose we could go and rescue him?"

"What, us?" Cory said in amazement. "We're only a couple of kids. How can we take on a whole ship full of pirates? They're very strong."

He remembered the pirate chief hauling him from the boat and how his hands had felt like iron pincers.

"There must be something we can do. Perhaps we can go there when it's dark and sneak him away. If he came in the boat with us we could help him escape. I can't sleep at night I worry so much," Meredith said plaintively.

"I know what you mean," agreed Cory. He hadn't slept so well the last couple of nights either. It was very unsettling thinking about the way the pirates had thrown the other sailors into the water. "Perhaps it would work if we go at night, but we'd need to take a knife or something to cut the ropes if he's tied up."

"Dad's got a pocket knife I can borrow," said Meredith confidently, "and we can at least take him some food. I could make some sandwiches when we do the dishes after dinner."

"Good idea," agreed Cory remembering the maggoty ship biscuit. "But what we really need is to take something to create a diversion. You know, something that will make the pirates run to one place while we help the prisoner escape."

"I know just the thing," said Meredith, after a few minutes thought. "The kitchen timer. It's that green plastic thing that looks like an apple," she told Cory. "You turn it for how many minutes you want, then it makes an alarm when it has counted them. It's really loud so Mum won't use it."

"Sounds perfect. When shall we go?"

"We know it only takes a couple of minutes here no matter how long we stay but we'd better wait until Mum goes to bed. I'll set my watch alarm for just before midnight and wake you up then."

Cory agreed to this, although part of him was still a bit unsure about the coming adventure. As he settled down in bed, with all his clothes on under the covers, he realised that they hadn't thought what they were going to do with the prisoner when or if they managed to rescue him.

"Bother," he thought. "Typical girl. She rushes into things without thinking them through. I'll have to think of a good plan," and promptly fell asleep. He woke with Meredith shaking him and together they tiptoed to the shed, with Meredith firmly clutching his hand.

"I don't like the dark much," she explained.

Cory didn't like the dark either and he felt better holding Meredith's hand, though he would have died rather than admit it.

They climbed into the boat with a few mutters of pain as Cory bashed his ankle on the side of the trailer.

"Why can't we have the light on?" he asked crossly.

" Because someone might see it and tell Mum. Come on, hurry up."

" Shine the torch over here then so I can see which button to press."

Cory pressed the button on the GPS screen and the boat jerked and rocked violently. The rocking continues as he peered out.

"We're here," he hissed. "There's quite a big sea out there so we'll have to go carefully."

At least the wind made quite a noise, Cory reflected gratefully as he crept along the deck. They had decided that he would set the kitchen timer on the opposite side of the ship from their lifeboat.

"Ten minutes should be enough," Meredith had said, so Cory wound the dial around and poked the timer in between the folds of a spare sail that was stored on the deck. He had one nasty moment when he realised there was a man by the wheel steering the ship. A lantern cast a dim glow over his shoulder.

"We should have thought of that," he muttered to himself as he crawled past on his stomach and made his way quickly back to find Meredith at the opening of the hatch. Together they climbed down the stairs and into the darkness. There was an overpowering smell of rum and a tremendous noise of snoring men.

"Where do we go?" asked Meredith softly.

"Not that way, that's the galley," whispered Cory. "Keep going down, I'm sure that's where he'll be."

He was right. After stumbling down another short flight of steps, they arrived in what they assumed was the hold. There were barrels and boxes stacked and roped in place and in one corner, faintly illuminated by the moon shining through a porthole they saw the prisoner. He was a stocky faired haired young man dressed in a leather jerkin over a wide sleeved shirt with a lace collar. Close fitting trousers with braid down the sides covered his legs but his feet were bare and red with cold.

"They've taken his boots away," said Meredith indignantly. "I can't believe anyone could be so mean."

As she spoke the captain groaned. He was lying curled up, his feet and hands bound behind him.

"We've come to rescue you," said Meredith quietly, as the prisoner jerked awake and stared at them with wondering eyes.

"A little maid and a lad. Do my eyes deceive me?" he croaked.

"No, I mean yes, I mean, oh do keep still so we can cut these ropes." Meredith held the torch steady while Cory sawed at the ropes binding the man's wrists.

"I'm Meredith and that's Cory," said Meredith encouragingly.

"Joshua Barnett, at your service," said the prisoner politely. As soon as his hands were freed he grabbed the knife from Cory and rapidly parted the rope around his ankles. He massaged his legs and groaned.

"Black Harry will rue the day he took me prisoner," he said bitterly. "Now where is your ship?" He looked at the children expectantly.

"Well, it's a bit complicated. You'll have to come with us and we'll show you. But first you'd better have something to eat. Here, we brought you some sandwiches."

Joshua sniffed at the sandwiches suspiciously then wolfed them down hungrily.

"What is this strange foodstuff?" he asked.

"Peanut butter and jam," said Meredith.

"Are there any more?" asked Joshua hopefully.

"Plenty," replied Cory firmly. "But you'll have to come with us to get them."

Joshua started to object to this but the thought of more sandwiches obviously had a powerful effect on him and he consented to follow the children. They made their way up the steps and were just setting foot onto the deck when the kitchen timer went off with a loud clanging noise.

"Quick, this way," Cory urged Joshua, and dragged him in the direction of the lifeboat as shouts and curses heralded the imminent arrival of the pirates.

"We can't get in here. We have to lower it first," protested Joshua.

"Oh just get in."

Meredith was in an agony of impatience. The pirates were now pouring out of the hatch and she wanted to go quickly.

"I'll not hide like a coward, but fight like a man," said Joshua grimly, standing firmly on the deck with his arms folded and refusing to move.

"Come on," said Cory. "Meredith, climb in first and we'll follow."

Standing behind Joshua, he gave him a sudden shove. Joshua stumbled and fell towards the lifeboat. Meredith pulled as Cory pushed from behind then Cory quickly climbed in and pulled the canopy over. He pushed the GPS button and the boat rocked once then was still.

"Where are we?" asked Joshua in bewilderment. The boat was safely in the shed again and the children's heartbeats were gradually returning to normal as Cory drew back the canopy.

"You're quite safe now," Cory assured him. "We're not on the pirate ship anymore."

"But where are we? What is this vessel?"

Cory and Meredith looked at each other then Cory had a sudden inspiration.

"You are in a secret hiding place. If you will consent to sleep the night here we will bring you food in the morning then help you to get to another place."

Joshua grudgingly agreed to this after Meredith told him it was imperative for his safety.

"And don't touch any of those buttons," she warned. "They are a powerful magic and only Cory can control them."

Joshua seemed impressed by this and consented to stretch out on one of the bunks with a couple of life jackets and towels over him for warmth.

"What are we going to do?" Meredith whispered to Cory as they walked back to the house.

"We'll worry about it in the morning," yawned Cory. " At least we should sleep better knowing he's not a prisoner anymore."

Meredith agreed and they crept to their own rooms, planning on an early breakfast.
Chapter 7

The next morning Meredith told Cory to keep Maggie occupied while she put some tea in a thermos and made a pack of sandwiches for Joshua. Cory felt guilty. Maggie seemed so pleased he was actually having a conversation with her and at any other time Cory would have enjoyed it. Now he felt like a hardened criminal as he asked Maggie about how she met Brian and how long they'd lived in the country.

"Oh we're both townies! At least we were, but we've lived here since not long after Meredith was born. Brian was just a salesman then. He's done very well and now manages a whole franchise business. Mostly they tick over without any problems but this is a new partnership he is helping down in Wellington. I was teaching at a kindergarten. I still do relief teaching from time to time, but I give Brian a hand with his accounts at the office a couple of days a week. We both love living here and I'm sure the country is a good place to bring up children."

"It's a nice house. Sort of old and not too tidy. I mean, it's very tidy but not too much," added Cory in confusion, hoping he hadn't offended Maggie.

She laughed. "We like things to be comfortable, and I know what you mean. Some places are so tidy they have a sterile atmosphere like a hospital. Talking of hospitals, do you want to go and visit your grandmother at all Cory? I'd be happy to take you."

"No thanks," said Cory. "Gran doesn't even know who I am and she's pretty old and sick. I've never really known her much. She was in a home before I was born even."

"That's fine," said Maggie. "But if there's anywhere you want to go or something you want to do, be sure and tell me. After all, we want you to be happy here." She looked at him hopefully but Cory could see Meredith waving her arms and making 'hurry up' motions behind Maggie's back so he muttered something about having to go and left the table.

Maggie sighed. She'd hoped for a minute there that Cory was starting to unbend a little but it was impossible to tell what he was thinking. At least he seemed to be getting on with Meredith at last.

Meredith led the way to the shed and pulled back the boat canopy.

"He's not there," she said in dismay.

Cory looked over her shoulder. She was right. A crumpled plastic bag that had held sandwiches lay in a heap with the towels and lifejackets.

"Where on earth can he be?" she said, tossing down the gumboots and socks she had brought. "They're Dad's old ones and they look about the right size," she explained as Cory lifted an enquiring eyebrow.

They heard a faint groan coming from behind the stack of cartons by the wall and Joshua put his head out tentatively.

"Beware, danger," he croaked.

"What danger?" asked Cory, looking round wildly to see if the pirates had suddenly arrived.

"A dragon!" said Joshua dramatically.

"There aren't any dragons here," said Meredith scathingly, "only calves, and cows next door."

"It was a dragon," insisted Joshua, crawling out and beginning to devour the sandwiches hungrily. "I left the vessel at dawn to attend to a call of nature outside and it was when I was coming back that the beast attacked me. Eyes like flames it had, and it roared at me as it approached."

Meredith looked bewildered for a minute then her face cleared.

"You must have seen the milk tanker," she said in relief. "It always comes past at about half past six to the farm next door. It's okay," she reassured Joshua. "There's no need to be afraid. It won't be back until tomorrow at the same time."

"I was not afraid for myself," lied Joshua. "I was prudently hiding so I could warn you of the danger."

Cory suppressed a smile, then watched as Meredith showed Joshua the socks and boots. He was a bit doubtful about the socks.

"These hose are very short. They hardly cover the shanks at all."

He was delighted with the gumboots and stamped around making pleased noises, particularly when Meredith told him they were waterproof.

"Now," said Joshua, "I wish to be taken back to the pirate ship. I intend to challenge Black Harry to a duel. The winner will take the ship."

"Do you think that's wise?" asked Cory cautiously. "He's very strong and he has a whole crew to back him up."

"Do you doubt my courage?" bristled Joshua, turning to Cory aggressively.

"No, No, of course he doesn't," soothed Meredith as Cory reached across and pushed the silver button. They braced themselves for the jolt but nothing happened. Meredith looked at Cory expectantly.

"Push it again," she suggested. "Perhaps you didn't do it hard enough."

Cory pushed the button again more firmly then turned to Meredith in dismay.

"This is what happened before. It really must only work once a day."

"Bother. What are we going to do now?"

They looked across at Joshua who was eyeing them suspiciously.

"This is a very strange vessel," he said. "I know not what moves it when there are no sails and the wind is not blowing."

"Er, it's a magic vessel, I mean boat," said Cory.

"Yes," agreed Meredith. "It is such strong magic that it only works once a day. That means you will have to remain in hiding until tomorrow."

Joshua looked unimpressed by this.

"I'll bring you more sandwiches," offered Meredith. Joshua reluctantly agreed to this.

"I will not remain on this vessel," he declared, scratching his unshaven chin. "It is too small and I need to stretch my legs after my confinement on Black Harry's ship."

"We'll have to take turns to come out and look after him," Meredith whispered to Cory. "Otherwise he could do anything."

While Joshua was inspecting the garden tools and evaluating their effectiveness as weapons, Cory and Meredith decided to fetch some books and take turns to read to him to help pass the time. They felt it would be too hard to explain his presence to Maggie and Meredith said she would take the opportunity to make more sandwiches. Cory went towards his room to choose some books while Meredith headed for the kitchen.

"Is that you, Cory? Oh good. Come here, will you? I need to pin these on. Meredith, you can give me a hand by passing the pins."

Cory rolled his eyes at Meredith and stood in the dining room impatiently as Maggie started to pin pieces of fabric around him.

"Keep still. This is the first one so I have to get it right. Then I can do all the others without too much trouble." Maggie eyed Cory critically as she adjusted the pins.

"Can I go now, Mum? You don't need me."

Maggie frowned.

"I want you to tidy your bedroom before you go off with Cory again. It's a disgrace. There are clothes all over the floor and your bed looks as if it hasn't been made for a month."

Meredith scowled and flounced into her bedroom where she could be heard muttering as she slammed drawers shut and hurled shoes into her wardrobe.

Cory was eventually allowed to climb out of the carefully pinned jacket. He asked Maggie if he could make a sandwich, figuring he would make enough to keep Joshua fed for the day.

"Oh you poor boy, you're still hungry. I can do better than that."

Despite Cory's protests, Maggie insisted on heating him a bowl of soup and toasting half a packet of muffins. Cory felt obliged to eat this under her approving gaze, feeling guilty about Joshua languishing in the cold shed outside. He forced down the last mouthful with a sickly smile as Meredith bounced in and glared at him accusingly.

"What are you doing stuffing your face? We have to make sandwiches for Joshua," she hissed.

Cory pointed despairingly at Maggie who had gone back to her sewing machine. Meredith gave him an exasperated look then dragged him out the back door.

"We'll make some sandwiches later when Mum's not looking,"

"I don't think I can walk," Cory groaned. "I'm so full of food."

"Serves you right for eating it then."

"I had to eat it. Your mother made it for me when I was going to do the sandwiches."

Meredith sniffed at this but made no reply.

They discovered Joshua sharpening a metal blade from an old pair of scissors against a grindstone.

"This will make a handy dagger," he grunted. He refused to be interrupted and the children watched him until he was at last satisfied with what he had done. He gave it a final polish on his sleeve then thrust it in his belt for safe keeping. Cory and Meredith persuaded him to sit down on a pile of sacks while they read to him but they quickly discovered he was not an ideal listener. He objected to Meredith's choice of story – _The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe._

"Who are these children? Where is this place? "

Meredith became cross as she tried to explain the story while Cory, who had read the book already when he was younger, helpfully pointed out that she was reading it too fast.

"You're gabbling it so quickly so it's no wonder Joshua can hardly understand it. You need to make the voices different for each person as well."

"You do it then if you're so smart," yelled Meredith and threw the book in his direction."

"May the Saints preserve me from the quarrels of infants. I am going outside," stated Joshua, getting to his feet.

"You can't," began Meredith at the same time as Cory said, "What a good idea."

At that moment Maggie opened the shed door and there was an instant of appalled silence.
Chapter 8.

"I thought I heard voices," began Maggie, then noticed Joshua standing in the shadows. "Who are you? You have no right to be here. This is private property. I won't have you here bothering my family. Get out."

Picking up a shovel from the side of the shed she advanced on Joshua who gave her a horrified look before making a prudent dash for freedom out the door. Maggie ran after him for a few steps before turning back and replacing the shovel.

"That's got rid of him," she said in satisfaction.

"Gosh Mum, you were amazing. Even I was scared of you," Meredith blurted out.

Cory gulped. He could see Joshua running into the pine forest across the road and hoped he wouldn't go too far away.

"What a mess," he thought.

Maggie hustled Meredith and Cory back to the house and made them stay inside where she could keep an eye on them while she was sewing.

"I don't like you going out there with an unpleasant character like that hanging around," she said. "I suppose I should really ring the police."

"Oh no," said Meredith in alarm. "Don't do that. He's gone now and he wasn't really bothering us. He was, he was asking if there was any work," she improvised desperately.

Maggie wasn't convinced.

"Then he should have come to the door, not gone to the shed. He might have stolen something,"

"I don't think so," said Cory reassuringly. "He had just come. He heard us talking, that's why he came to the shed."

Maggie looked a little happier but it was mid-afternoon before she would allow the children to go outside. "Make sure you come inside again straight away if you see any strangers," she insisted.

Cory and Meredith searched the shed but it was empty.

"We'll have to go into the forest," said Meredith.

"I'll go. You'd better stay here in case your Mum comes and checks up on us." Cory dashed across the road and wriggled under the fence.

At first the forest was quite interesting to walk through but it became darker and darker the further in he went. From time to time Cory called, "Joshua," but there was no reply.

"I don't think he's here," Cory muttered to himself, then jumped as a strong arm clamped around his chest like an iron band. Cory felt a sharp blade prick against his throat as a hoarse voice whispered in his ear,

"Are you a spy, here to lead me into danger?"

Cory gulped.

"Joshua, it's me, Cory. I'm not a spy," he croaked. "I rescued you from the pirate ship. Remember?"

Joshua dropped the scissor blade back to his belt and folded his arms as he glared at Cory.

"Why do you not return me to the pirate ship so that I may fight them?"

"We explained that. It won't work until tomorrow." Cory was nervous. The forest was very quiet and dark and Joshua suddenly seemed very large and menacing as he stood there in front of him. Joshua grunted.

"Did you bring me food?"

"No. I'm sorry. I tried, but I couldn't get anything."

Joshua looked downcast and Cory felt even worse about the large morning tea Maggie had forced on him.

"We could buy something," suggested Cory. "I've got a couple of dollars in my pocket. Look. "He held out a handful of coins to Joshua who took one and bit it."

"This is not gold," he said contemptuously.

"No, but it's enough to buy food," Cory explained. He tried to explain the decimal currency system to Joshua as they trekked through the forest and out onto the road.

"We have to walk to the shops," said Cory apologetically. "We could hitch a ride only I don't think many cars come along here."

They walked for what seemed hours but was probably only forty minutes. They only saw one car, which was fortunate, as even that one was enough to make Joshua dive into the trees with a wail of terror. Cory had to drag him out again and explain about cars and other vehicles. A wild-eyed Joshua seemed unconvinced about the safety of this and muttered darkly of devils and magic. It was with relief that Cory saw the shops come into sight as they rounded the final corner. He persuaded Joshua to wait under a tree while he ran along to the dairy. He bought a meat pie, a bar of chocolate and, with some vague idea of preventing scurvy, a carton of grapefruit juice.

Joshua needed no persuasion to eat the pie and wolfed it down hungrily. He spat out the first mouthful of grapefruit juice and accused Cory of trying to poison him. Cory drank some himself to prove it was safe but Joshua admitted that he would have preferred rum.

"I didn't have enough money for rum. Anyway, I'm far too young to buy it," Cory explained. He gave Joshua the chocolate and watched the delighted expression that crossed his face.

"What magnificent food. Is there any more?"

"I'm afraid not," said Cory regretfully. It had been very good chocolate. "I don't have any money for more. Come on, we have to go back."

"Back where?" asked Joshua.

"Back to our boat. You will have to stay there tonight. It is very important," added Cory as Joshua started to object. "It's the only way the magic will work. Tomorrow I promise we will take you away from here."

He hoped this would work and crossed his fingers for luck as he spoke.

The road back seemed twice as long. Joshua was inclined to grumble that he was wasting time and wanted to get back to the pirate ship, although he insisted on checking the trees beside the road for enemy spies. Cory's new sneaker rubbed a blister on his heel, which became increasingly painful. It was nearly dark as the Miller's house came into view, and Cory was relieved to see it. He took Joshua to the boat and asked him to stay in it. He told him of dragons all around and impressed on him that he must be quiet. Joshua seemed more concerned that Maggie would come back. Cory assured him that Maggie would not be likely to go to the shed and ran back to the house and in at the back door.

"Cory!" exclaimed Maggie. "Where have you been?"

"I said you'd be back," put in Meredith, whom was calmly setting the table for dinner.

"Er, I went for a walk," stammered Cory. "I went into that forest over the road and I got lost. I've just found my way back now."

"I'm pleased you're back. But you must tell me next time you go wandering off by yourself."

Maggie gave him a reproachful look and Cory felt terrible. Not only had he broken one of the rules she had explained to him but he had lied to her as well. The fact that Meredith was cheerfully backing up his lies made him feel worse. He was obviously a bad influence. Innocent children weren't safe while he was around. He wished Maggie had yelled at him. It would have been easier to put up with than the way she obviously cared about him. "And I'm only here for another week anyway," he thought, then immediately wished he was staying. But Maggie would hardly want him to stay now.

Cory reflected on these gloomy thoughts during tea while Meredith chattered twice as much as usual to make up for his silence. She managed to get Cory on his own before bed.

"Where's Joshua? Did you find him?" she asked eagerly.

"He's in the boat. He's fine. I bought him a pie and some chocolate so he won't starve."

"We'll take him away first thing in the morning."

"Not until after breakfast," put in Cory hastily.
Chapter 9.

The next morning the children were relived to find that Joshua was still in the boat, where the smell of fish was competing with the smell of a large unwashed body. Meredith wrinkled her nose. Joshua was subdued as he watched them climb in and saw Cory reach for the button.

"Wait," shrieked Meredith.

"What is it?" Cory looked at Meredith in bewilderment.

"I've just thought of something. Instead of going to that horrible pirate ship, let's go somewhere else."

At Cory's questioning look she said,

"I've been thinking about it. If we change the setting on the GPS it could take us to a different place."

"Maybe, or it may not work at all," said Cory thoughtfully. "It's worth a try though."

"But I want to go back to the pirate ship," objected Joshua. "I'm a captain. I have to have a ship."

Cory ignored him as he pulled the canopy into place while Meredith busily pushed a few buttons.

"Try this," she said.

Cory pushed the silver button and held onto the driver's seat as a jolt shook the boat. Lifting the canopy cautiously he gave a gasp of relief.

"It's worked. Look, we're on a raft."

Meredith crawled out to find they were on a roughly made raft of wooden posts lashed together. A crumpled tarpaulin in the middle formed the canopy they had come out of.

"There's an island, awesome," shrieked Meredith in excitement. The raft was drifting quietly across a lagoon of clear blue water and rapidly approaching a beach of white sand. Tall palm trees fringed the beach and there was no sound but the gentle lap of waves and cry of parrots and other exotic birds in the trees.

"Cool," said Cory.

"On the contrary, it is rather hot," replied Joshua, undoing the top buttons of his shirt to reveal a gleaming gold medallion hanging from a chain around his neck. He turned and scanned the horizon.

"Let's push the raft ashore and go and explore," suggested Cory.

Joshua helped the children push the raft around the corner of the cove where they dragged it onto the sand under some overhanging bushes.

"Great. Let's see what's here," said Meredith.

Taking off her sneakers, she ran across the sand towards the trees followed by Cory and Joshua, who refused to take off the gumboots.

They found a sparkling stream falling from a waterfall into a small clear pool fringed with soft sand, and beside it grew banana palms covered with clusters of sweet fruit. They ate greedily then lay contentedly in the shade while the children plied Joshua with questions about who he was and what he did.

"I ran away to sea when I was but a lad. I was taken on as a cabin boy and soon found out that life on board ship was a lot harder than the farm I had left behind."

"Weren't your parents worried about you," interrupted Meredith.

"I suppose so, but it was years before I got back home again to see them. By that time my father had died of a fever and my mother had sold the farm and was living with my sister and her family. "

"Why did you run away?" Cory asked him.

Joshua gave him a wry look. "I thought they were making me work too hard on the farm," he said. "Many's the time I rued the day I left."

Cory felt this was uncomfortably like his own experience. Running away certainly hadn't improved his life, unless scrubbing decks could be counted an improvement.

"What do you do now?" asked Meredith.

"I take on commissions to sail ships all over the world. I was recently returning from the Far East with gold as payment from a cargo I had delivered. Black Harry has stolen it and I intend to get it back."

He sat on the sand musing on the best way of seeking his revenge and as this involved copious bloodshed, Meredith was feeling less and less friendly towards him.

"I'm so hot I'm melting. Let's go swimming," she suggested.

"We don't have any swimming togs."

"Yes we do," said Meredith triumphantly. "I keep a spare pair in the boat and I know there's a pair there that will fit you because my cousin left them there in the summer when he stayed with us. Dad always keeps a couple of towels under one of the seats in the cabin."

She ran to the raft and burrowed down into the boat cabin, emerging in her swimsuit and waving a baggy pair of shorts at Cory. He quickly changed and joined her in the pool. Joshua looked at them indulgently as they shrieked and splashed each other, and said he was going to explore the rest of the island.

A few hours later, when Cory and Meredith were dressed again and eating another banana each, Joshua came back.

"A ship approaches," he said. "Look yonder."

Meredith and Cory turned and saw what looked unfortunately very like the pirate ship sailing towards them. A large flag marked with the skull and crossbones flew from the mast in the breeze.

"It's Black Harry," said Joshua in satisfaction. "I would recognise his ship anywhere."

"How long will it take to get here?" asked Cory in dismay.

"About two or three hours at least," grunted Joshua.

"Why is it coming here?" wailed Meredith. "I thought we were rid of it."

Joshua frowned. "Black Harry will be coming here to land his treasure. There is a village not far away on the other side of the island. I saw the smoke from the cooking fires. That is where he and his crew keep their women and a few pigs and goats.

Meredith glanced uneasily over her shoulder. "Perhaps we should go back now."

"What are you going to do, Joshua?" Cory asked.

"I'll wait until the ship arrives," said Joshua grimly. "I intend to hide in the trees and watch them come ashore. Then, when night falls, I will take one of their boats and row out to the ship under cover of darkness. I will knock out the watchman, up anchor and sail the ship away myself. It isn't far to the shipping lanes where I can get assistance from one of my friends and Black Harry won't be able to touch me."

"Do you want us to stay and help?" asked Cory and was secretly relieved when Joshua shook his head.

"Nay, nay. I've no wish to take the little maid into danger, and while you're a nice enough young lad you have no real experience of seamanship have you?"

"I know how to scrub decks but that's about it," admitted Cory, while Joshua roared with laughter.

They parted with a handshake as Joshua went to find himself a good hiding place to wait until nightfall, taking with him a supply of bananas.

"Use a palm leaf to brush our footprints off the sand," he advised. "That way no-one will know we have been here."

They did as he bid them and arrived back at the raft. Meredith looked wistfully at the water.

"I'm hot again. I'd love to go for a quick swim in the lagoon," she said.

"Be my guest," said Cory "but you might not be so keen if you look over there."

Meredith looked where he was pointing and suppressed a shriek as she saw a large shark cruising under the clear water. The children wriggled under the tarpaulin to find themselves in their familiar boat again and were soon back in the shed.

"That was much better than the pirate ship, and thank goodness we've left Joshua where he wanted to be," said Meredith thankfully. "Let's try somewhere else tomorrow."

"I'll have to do some more shopping today," Maggie said at breakfast. "I want to get the crab apples picked so I can make jelly and I'm going to need sugar. We seem to be completely out of peanut butter as well."

Cory and Meredith shared a guilty look

"I'll help pick the crab apples if you like," Cory offered.

Maggie beamed "That is so kind of you to offer Cory. Usually Meredith and I do it, so an extra pair of hands will be appreciated. I'd like to get some of the cooking apples picked too. That way I can freeze them for pies later in the year."

"I love apple pie," said Cory. "I remember my Mum used to make it. She always made custard to go with it."

"My pie probably won't be as good as your mothers'," said Maggie tactfully, "but you and Meredith can help me make one if you like."

"Cool, I love cooking," said Meredith happily.

Maggie laughed. "You mean you like eating what's left in the basin," she teased. "Now I'm going to pop out to the shop so would you two like to make a start on the crab apples while I'm gone? Mr Sanders is fixing a fence just along from the shed, so if you have any problems just give him a yell."

"Yeah, sure!" said Cory and a few minutes later he and Meredith ambled out to the crab apple tree with a stepladder and some buckets. They rapidly filled one bucket and gave Maggie a wave as she left in the car. Meredith turned to Cory excitedly.

"Let's go somewhere in the boat while Mum's gone."

"We said we'd pick the crab apples," protested Cory.

"But we can do that when we get back. You know that no time seems to pass here, no matter how long we are away. We can go for a trip then still be back here to pick the crab apples before Mum gets back."

Cory could find no fault in her reasoning but still felt less than enthusiastic about the boat trip. "Things haven't exactly gone wonderfully so far," he warned as they pulled the canopy over their heads.

"Perhaps our luck will change," said Meredith hopefully "I'll change our direction so we don't end up on the pirate ship again."

"The island was okay."

"Not if there were pirates arriving at any minute. And don't forget the sharks." Meredith shuddered then gave a shriek as Cory pushed the button and she was tossed to the floor of the boat.

"I keep forgetting to hang on," she complained. Where are we?"

Cory peered out from under the canopy then turned to her in surprise.

"I think you're right. Our luck has changed. I can't see any pirates at all."
Chapter 10

Meredith pushed past him impatiently. The children were lying under a heap of fishing net at one end of a small rowing boat. There was deep water all around them but close ahead was a small rocky island. Other larger islands rose from the sea behind, grey and misty in the distance. A gentle swell slapped the boat with dark waves and white tips showed further out to sea.

"Can you row?" they each asked at the same time then burst out laughing. By taking one oar each they slowly made headway towards the island in a series of jerks and half circles.

"Try and keep it steady," complained Cory.

"I am trying. The stupid oar keeps going too deep or else doesn't go in at all," said Meredith breathlessly as she pulled on the oar.

They rowed for another few minutes and then the boat crunched to a stop on the stony shore. Pulling the boat a little higher, they decided to explore the island. A cold wind was blowing and short tufts of grass grew on the rocky cliff. Fortunately it was a short easy climb to the top and the children stood there looking around.

"There's nothing here except a few seagulls," said Cory in disgust.

"That looks like a beach down that end, let's go there."

The children slid down a grassy bank to a small beach of grey sand at the other end of the small island. Meredith started collecting shells and Cory decided to build a sandcastle. Meredith promptly joined him and they were soon hard at work.

Finally they sat back and admired their creation. Meredith had decorated the towers with shells and driftwood and they both privately felt it was the best sandcastle they had ever made.

"Aren't people going to be surprised when they find it here on a deserted island," giggled Meredith happily.

"The tide will wash it away."

"I never thought of that."

"It's coming up now. We'd better dig a moat."

The children industriously dug into the sand with their hands and surrounded the castle with a deep moat.

Meredith sat back on her heels with a sigh of satisfaction. "Lovely," she smiled.

"I'm starving," said Cory "We'd better go back."

"You're always starving," sniffed Meredith but she turned to go back up the bank after Cory. A few minutes later they were on the flat grassy top of the island.

"Race you to the boat," called Cory and ran off.

"That's not fair. I wasn't ready. You got a head start," shouted Meredith as she took off behind him. With her long legs, Meredith was a natural runner and she and Cory arrived at the cliff at the same time.

"Oh no," yelled Cory. "Look at the boat. It's all your fault."

The boat wasn't lying on the shingle where they had left it. Instead the tide had risen slowly and floated it away. It lay bobbing on the waves two hundred metres from the island.

"Why is it my fault?" asked Meredith indignantly.

"You should have tied it to an anchor or something. It's your father's boat, after all."

"I'm surprised you remembered that. I thought you'd decided you were in charge because you are a boy. You always have to be the boss."

"I do not."

"You do so."

"I do not."

"You do so. What's more," screamed Meredith, "you think you can do anything you like and no-one will say anything awful to you. Mum was really angry when you went off with Joshua. If I'd done it I would have been grounded for a month."

"It's different for you. You're her daughter. She couldn't care less what I did. I don't count. No-one wants me."

"Oh, you can be so stupid sometimes," said Meredith through gritted teeth. "It's because Mum cares about you that she didn't yell at you. She wants you to stay and she's scared you don't like her."

"Of course I like her. How could anyone not like her?"

"You've got a funny way of showing it,' sniffed Meredith and burst into tears. Cory felt very uncomfortable. He thought he had people figured out but it looked as if he could have been wrong. He threw stones into the water savagely for a few minutes then mumbled an apology.

"I'm sorry. I'll try to be nicer to Maggie."

Meredith sniffed harder and gratefully accepted Cory's rather crumpled handkerchief.

"Why do you get so mad?" she asked when she was calmer.

Cory blushed.

"I get angry when I'm scared. It sort of keeps me from getting totally terrified if I start fighting. Also, I guess I figure that if I behave really badly, people send me away because of the way I behave. Not because of who I am, if you see what I mean."

" Meredith digested this in silence for a few minutes.

"Are you always going to be like that?" she ventured at last.

"Nah, I think I'm sort of outgrowing it. I still feel frozen sometimes though and I can't talk much. Not like you. You can talk any time."

"Actually, I talk heaps when I'm nervous," Meredith confessed. Cory looked at her in amazement.

"Were you nervous when I arrived? I would never have known."

"I was scared you'd take one look at us and go away again," giggled Meredith. "I thought life would be too boring for you at our place."

"It's certainly not boring," exclaimed Cory. "I never know what's going to happen next." They stood and watched the dinghy, which was floating further away from them.

"I can't swim that far. Can you?" Meredith asked Cory.

Cory shook his head. "No, and the water is freezing."

"What are we doing to do?"

Cory was flattered that Meredith assumed that he was in charge but he had no idea of what to do next.

"I guess we'll have to wait to be rescued. There are lots of islands over there so perhaps someone will go past soon."

"We don't even know where we are," wailed Meredith. "What if we light a signal fire or something."

"Do you have any matches?"

"No."

"Well that won't work. We'll just have to wait."

The children threw themselves down on the grass and waited rather crossly for a boat to come into sight. What felt like hours went by and they watched their rowboat drift gradually away into the distance. Cory tried to teach Meredith to skim stones across the water but eventually gave up in disgust.

"You throw like a girl."

"Well I am a girl. How come boys can throw better than girls anyway?" She watched in envy as he threw a stone that bounced four times before sinking with a plop.

"We're just superior," Cory ducked as Meredith gave him a friendly punch. They threw a few more stones into the water than Meredith gave a sigh.

"I'm really no good at this." She gave a sudden yell. "Over there. Look. A boat."

The children jumped up and down, waving their arms and screaming, as a motor boat came putting over to the island. On board was a large man with grizzled hair and a weather-beaten face. He called out to the children in a jumble of foreign words. They looked at him blankly and he called out again angrily.

"I think he wants us to wade out to the boat," said Cory as the man beckoned violently. "It's too big to come in close to the shore."

"Oh all right."

Meredith gasped at the cold of the water as she and Cory waded into the sea. The man hauled them into the boat and Cory tried to explain with lots of arm movements that they had lost their dinghy.

The man grunted and turned the boat round, gunning the motor and taking off after the rowing boat. Fortunately it was only a few minutes later that they saw it. There were a few anxious moments as Cory and Meredith discovered the difficulties of climbing from one rocking boat to another in the middle of the ocean. They thanked the man, who they thought might be a fisherman, and climbed back under the pile of fishing nets.

"Just wait a couple of minutes, otherwise he'll think it's a bit strange if we vanish," suggested Meredith.

"He thinks we're strange anyway," said Cory definitely as he pushed the button.

"I have no idea where we were. I've never heard that language before."

The children bickered amicably about whether it was Norwegian or Russian or even Greek, although Meredith insisted that it couldn't have been Greek because Greece would be warmer than that.

Then she decided it might have been Scotland.

"We might have seen the Loch Ness Monster if we'd waited a bit longer."

"There is no such thing as the Loch Ness Monster."

"Well you didn't believe in magic before you came here," Meredith muttered. Cory had to admit that there was some truth in this.

"Anyway if it was Scotland we could have understood what the man said."

"Not if he was speaking Gaelic."

"For goodness sake," said Cory in exasperation. "You have an answer for everything. Are you always right?"

"Yes," said Meredith. "Well quite a bit," she amended.

They went back to the crab apple tree and carried two buckets loads each in to Maggie as she arrived back. They explained their wet jeans by telling Maggie that the grass had still been very wet around the tree.

"Oh good, more peanut butter," said Meredith "I'm starving."

"Good heavens," said Maggie in amusement. "Anyone would think you had spent the whole day out there picking those crab apples instead of half an hour.

"It felt like a whole day" said Cory and winked at Meredith as Maggie handed him a huge peanut butter sandwich.
Chapter 11.

"I never want to see another apple again as long as I live," groaned Meredith. Cory agreed with her wholeheartedly. Spurred on with the success of her crab apple jelly and apple pie, Maggie had insisted they pick all the cooking apples. Two days of solid peeling and slicing followed as Maggie made apple pies, shortcakes, muffins and crumbles as well as cooking huge quantities to store in the freezer.

"At least you're not saying you're hungry," Meredith teased Cory. "You must have eaten at least three apple pies all on your own!"

"I do finally feel full," admitted Cory. "Why don't we go outside and I'll teach you to play soccer?"

"No thanks," replied Meredith rather doubtfully. "Why don't we go for a boat ride and see where we end up?" she suggested.

Maggie overheard this as she went out to the washing line with a basket of wet clothes. "Those two are playing together with such imaginary ideas," she thought. She gave them an indulgent smile as they ran off to the shed together.

Meredith climbed into the boat first.

"Bother," she said. "We left the canopy unclipped and now Tabitha's in here."

"She probably likes the fishy smell," said Cory. "You'd better toss her out or she'll end up as the cat on a pirate ship."

"She doesn't want to move," said Meredith crossly, as Tabitha resisted her attempts to pick her up and swiped Meredith with a well-aimed claw.

"Ow." She sucked the back of her hand. "She scratched me."

"She'll have to come with us then," said Cory cheerfully. "Punch us in a destination, Mr Mate."

"Aye, aye, Captain," replied Meredith smartly, and pushed the buttons on the GPS panel at random. Cory pushed the silver button as the boat jerked then rocked quietly.

"Where are we this time?" Meredith asked as Cory looked out. She stuck her head out beside his.

"Looks like a river – oh my goodness. Look at that boat. Is that amazing or what?"

The children were sitting in a small covered supply boat which was being towed by a long narrow barge. The barge was painted dark blue with a wide red trim decorated with fancy designs in a riot of colours. An old woman sat placidly knitting in a wooden chair on the deck, while an old man in a flat black cap smoked a pipe and turned the wheel in the small steering cabin at the front of the barge. A rope looped around just above the water line and the occasional roughly woven sack was strung there as a protection against scraping the paint. Small windows were hung with lace curtains while on either side brightly painted yellow shutters were painted in a profusion of wild flowers. Tubs and wooden boxes of flowers and green plants sat in the sunshine on the deck and also on the flat roof of the barge, alongside red and white life buoys which were lashed in place with rope. A short black funnel with wisps of smoke stuck up at one end and the quack of ducks could be heard over the muffled chugging of an engine.

As Meredith and Cory watched, another barge came chugging from the opposite direction. This one was gaily decorated in shades of vivid pink and greens and a large painted notice proclaimed the name _Sparrow_ on the bows. The man steering waved a greeting as he passed.

"I know where we are. We're on a canal, and those are narrow boats," said Meredith excitedly. "I saw them in a travel brochure Dad brought home last year. He wanted to go for a holiday on one but Mum hates flying and didn't want to go so far to get there."

"Where are we then?" asked Cory blankly.

"Holland of course. Look at the old fashioned houses hanging over the water."

"I can't see any windmills, " objected Cory. "And anyway, isn't Holland supposed to be flat? There are hills over there." He pointed in the distance where a range of hills rose on the horizon.

"Well if it's not Holland it's probably somewhere else in Europe," said Meredith. "This is great. We might as well enjoy the journey."

She and Cory crawled to the back of the little boat where they were hidden from the view of anyone on the barge. They dangled their feet over the stern and watched with interest as the barge chugged slowly along the canal. Farms of spreading green pasture with bony black and white cows gave way to a bustling town. People sitting at café tables under striped umbrellas waved to the children as they went past. They saw quaint cottages with busy housewives hanging out washing or scrubbing the stone doorsteps. A pony pulling a cart clopped past in the other direction and a couple of teenagers on bicycles raced past the barge with derisive shouts until the road curved away from the canal again.

"We're not going very fast," said Cory after a while. "I'll bet I could walk as fast as this. What do you reckon we hop off if we get close to the bank and go exploring? We'd only have to run a bit to catch up again."

Meredith wasn't keen on this idea and wanted to wait for the boat to stop.

"They have to stop sometime," she said sensibly. "They can't go forever."

Almost as if he had heard her, the skipper slowed the engine.

"I could crawl faster than this," Cory pointed out.

Drifting across the canal the old couple pulled the barge alongside a small wooden jetty where they tied the barge to one of the wooden poles standing in the water by the riverbank. Cory and Meredith watched as the old man and his wife carefully locked the door of their cabin and climbed out onto the jetty.

"They must be going shopping," said Meredith. "The old woman's carrying a basket."

"The shops were a few minutes back that way," said Cory "Let's go and explore now."

Meredith didn't take much persuading.

"What about Tabitha? She's still asleep."

"Leave her there. I'll make sure I tie the canopy down so she can't get away."

The children set off down a winding track in the opposite direction to the old man and woman. There were large trees growing beside the river and their branches gave a pleasant shade to walk under. Before long the children came to a spreading grass area where a group of boys, aged from about six to twelve, were playing a loosely organised game of soccer. Cory gave a shout of pleasure and ran to join them. He quickly found that language was no barrier here but was dismayed to realise that the six-year-old had ball skills nearly as good as his own while the older boys were much better. The boys were dressed in long trousers and heavy boots which Cory thought must have made it difficult to run in. The boys shouted at each other from time to time but Cory didn't understand what they were saying. Fortunately football is the same no matter what language the players speak so he was able to join in enthusiastically.

Meredith watched for a while then wandered off and began picking some of the flowers growing by the river bank. A small tousled haired dog ran up carrying a stick in its mouth. Meredith took the stick gingerly and threw it away along the bank. The dog promptly ran after it and after worrying it for a short while, then killing it thoroughly, laid it by Meredith's feet and looked at her expectantly. Meredith tossed the stick away again, then again, but after what felt like the hundredth throw she decided that she'd had enough. The dog looked at the stick hopefully for a while then lay in the shade panting. Meredith went in search of Cory and found him lying on the grass under the trees. The other boys had gone.

"They've just left, I think their mother called them," Cory said, "What have you been doing?"

"Playing with a dog. Oh, it's still here. It must have followed me. Go on, off you go home now. "

The dog gave a short bark and promptly sat down by Cory's foot and offered him a paw.

"He's great. He is so well trained. He must belong to someone in one of these houses."

"Do you think we should look for his owner?" asked Meredith.

"No, he'll be okay. He'll find his way home again. Dogs are really intelligent."

"So are cats," said Meredith hotly. "Tabitha is really clever. She can do all sorts of things."

"I'll bet she can't shake hands though."

They bickered amicably about the respective merits of cats and dogs. Cory would have been happy to admit that he didn't know much about either animal but it was such fun teasing Meredith and seeing her getting so worked up about it. She got redder and redder in the face and talked faster and faster as she tried to convince him of Tabitha's superiority.

Eventually he took pity on her and got to his feet.

"Let's agree that they're both intelligent. We'd better get back to the boat now."

Meredith agreed. "I'd hate it to go off without us. Did you work out where we are?"

"Could be Germany. Everything they said sounded like ick,ack,uck."

Meredith giggled. "You sound like someone being sick."

"Well, it's that sort of language." Cory practised a few more "ack ack" sounds while Meredith snorted with laughter. The boat was still at the jetty when they arrived.

"And that's a surprise," said Meredith, as Cory pulled the little supply boat closer to the jetty and they scrambled in. "I was beginning to think that every boat trip we took was a total disaster."

"Things have to go right sometimes, I guess," said Cory.

A few minutes later he realised that he had spoken too soon. The bargeman and his wife came back with a full shopping basket, overflowing with fresh vegetables and with a long crusty loaf of bread poking out of one side. Cory eyed it hungrily. The skipper untied the rope and used a pole to push the boat into the canal again. As they passed a farm an old man on a tractor waved to the bargeman and pointed behind him. The man turned to his wife and said something. She shook her head. The man on the tractor shouted again and Meredith yelped. "Oh blast."

The old lady had looked up from her knitting and seen Meredith as she stood up to look at the bridge coming into sight ahead of them. The old woman called to her husband and he shouted at them loudly.

"I don't know what he's saying," said Cory nervously. "It's pretty obvious what he means through."

The man was gesturing angrily at the children to get out of the supply boat.

"I'm not getting out," said Meredith "I don't want to get wet and besides, it's our only way home."

The old man pulled the tiller sharply so that the barge veered in beside the bank of the canal. He picked up his long pole and marched purposefully down the deck towards the children, with a grim look on his face.

"We'd better go back," advised Cory and lifted the canopy ready to climb under it. Meredith scrambled in hastily and at that moment Tabitha jumped out from under the canopy and nimbly leaped across to the bank of the canal, where she sat twitching her tail.

"Tabitha," shrieked Meredith.

Cory gave one last despairing look at the grim bargeman and jumped across to land on the gritty path beside the canal. "Don't worry, I'll get Tabitha," he called, as Meredith disappeared under the canopy.

Meredith scrambled across in a panic and hit the button on the GPS. "Oh no!" she said, as she felt the boat arrive back in the shed. "What have I done? Cory will be stuck there now."
Chapter 12

"Come here, you wretched animal," said Cory in exasperation, as Tabitha turned, and with a surprising speed for her age, ran off into what appeared to be somebody's front garden. Cory crashed after her, pulling aside branches of small shrubs and trying not to stand on the neat flowerbeds. After ten minutes of fruitless chasing he sank to the grass.

"This isn't working," he said to himself. "I'm only frightening her and chasing her farther away. Perhaps if I call her quietly she might come."

He started calling "Kitty, kitty, here Tabitha."

After a few minutes of this a hesitant paw poked out, then Tabitha strolled calmly through the flowerbed and jumped onto Cory's lap. Cory gave a sigh of relief and picked her up. She lay contentedly in his arms for a few minutes, but as he tried to walk off she started struggling. Cory hastily put her down before she could scratch him.

"You don't want to be carried, I can see that. What on earth do I do with you now?"

After a few minutes thought he exclaimed, "My sweatshirt!"

He tied the sleeves together to make a big bag. "That will make it easy to carry you," he said in satisfaction.

He bundled up Tabitha in the sweatshirt and hung her like a sling around his neck.

"Ow, you're really heavy," he said, "and I don't think you are happy."

An ominous growling came from the sweatshirt.

"Calm down pussy," sighed Cory. "This isn't my idea of a good time either. But I can't lose you or Meredith would be unhappy. Come on, we'll go and find the boat."

He followed the path beside the canal. It was very pretty with brightly painted and decorated houses set beside, and in some cases almost overhanging, the water. The sun was warm and a couple of mothers with babies in prams walked past in the other direction. They smiled at Cory, who felt very self conscious carrying a cat in a shirt. The canal curved around a corner and Cory cried out in dismay. The narrow boat was still on the canal ahead of him, but even as he spotted it there was a loud clanging. The barge entered some sort of gate arrangement, and as the Cory watched open mouthed it sank from sight.

"Bother, it's gone into a lock," he thought. It must be going down to a different part of the river on another level. There must be a path or some steps somewhere around. Man, you are one heavy cat. Meredith obviously feeds you far too much."

Tabitha growled and made noises like a badly overheated car engine.

"Okay, there are some steps over there through this gate, "panted Cory. He thought that anyone seeing him would think he was mad talking to a cat, but it helped him to keep calm. He was fighting a rising panic that Meredith might have gone without him.

"Of course she hasn't," he scolded himself. "She's far too nice to do a thing like that. Anyway, you were the one wanting to run away a few days ago."

He started down the steps, keeping an anxious eye on the barge and the little towed supply boat.

"Ouch," said Cory, as Tabitha's paw shot out a gap in the sweatshirt and clawed at his chest. He tried to hurry as he saw the narrow boat head off down the river.

He jumped down the last few steps. The path curved away from the canal and a large wooden fence blocked his view of the river.

Cory considered trying to climb the fence but realised the difficulty of this with a cat to hamper him.

"And anyway, the path is sure to turn back to the canal," he said reasonably. "I'd better not waste any more time."

He kept up a steady pace as he followed the pathway, which twisted through a small park and over a curved wooden bridge above a small stream. The path then wound around under a group of shady trees before curving back to the river.

"Oh thank goodness," said Cory in relief. "I was right."

"There's the boat too," he sighed as he thankfully slowed his steps. The narrow boat was moored to yet another small jetty with steps leading down the water level. There was no sign of the old man or woman. The only sign of life at all was a small boy fishing on the other side of the river and a few ducks quacking as they paddled upstream. Cory managed to lift Tabitha onto the boat with only a few scratches to show for it. He lifted the canopy, but to his astonished dismay all he saw was neatly stacked rows of boxes and barrels.

"She's gone. She went without me." Cory was so surprised and hurt that he didn't know what to do. Tabitha was mewing pitifully so after a quick look around, he let her out of the sweatshirt into the little boat, and pulled the cover over so she couldn't get away. There she gave a few yowls before curling to sleep on a pile of sacks.

Cory was sunk in gloom. Here was what he had always wanted. A new life and a fresh start where no-one knew him and he could leave his problems behind. There wasn't even a girl in sight. Cory realised that he felt miserable. "I want to go back to the Millers," he muttered to himself. "Meredith's not too bad, for a girl anyway, and I'm starving." He lay on the boat feeling sorry for himself. The warm sun beat down on him and the steady lap of the water against the boat made a soothing rhythm. Within a few minutes Cory was asleep.

He woke with a start when he heard his name being called.

"Cory, come on."

It was Meredith. She was crawling out from under the cover with a sleepy Tabitha cradled in her arms.

"Come on," she called again.

"Where did you go?" said Cory stupidly, staring at her with his mouth open.

"Oh, I went home. Wasn't that stupid? I was in such a panic I didn't know what to do. I felt so awful when I realised you'd be stuck. So I jumped back in the boat and pushed the buttons and here I am."

Cory gave her a relieved grin. Then he thought about what Meredith had said. "I thought the boat only worked once a day," he said with a frown.

"It does. It's tomorrow now. Didn't you realise you'd been here that long?"

"I've lost a day? It only seemed like a couple of hours here." Cory was amazed. "What did Maggie say when I wasn't there?"

Meredith looked ashamed.

"She's really frantic. She thinks you've run away. I told her we'd had an argument. Well, I had to tell her something," she said defensively as she saw Cory's grim expression. "I got up really early in the morning to come and get you."

They climbed back under the cover and Cory pulled the canopy over them firmly.

"I'm exhausted," he groaned. "My legs ache from those steps and that cat is definitely going on a diet I have anything to do with it. I don't know what I'm going to say to Maggie."

Meredith was sympathetic.

"But at least it wasn't as bad as the pirate ship," she consoled him.

They arrived back in the shed and Cory walked back to the kitchen to find Maggie sitting at the table surrounded by the breakfast dishes and crying. He felt acutely embarrassed.

"Um, I'm back," he said awkwardly. Maggie shrieked and ran over to him and threw her arms around him.

"Where have you been?" she sobbed. "No, don't tell me if you don't want to. I'm so happy you've come back. I was so sure you had run away and we'd never see you again. I was going to ring the Police if you didn't come back soon but Meredith told me to wait. She was sure you would come back first thing in the morning." Maggie hugged Cory who felt a lump come into his throat.

"I had to sort things out in my mind," he said huskily. "I'm sorry if I worried you. I've been quite safe." He tried to think of something that wasn't an outright lie. "I was under some trees, and I fell asleep then Meredith found me and I came home again."

"Was it something I said?" asked Maggie. "I've tried so hard to make you feel wanted."

"No," said Cory. "You've been fantastic. You still are. I just had to think things through. I'm really hungry though," he finished hopefully.

Maggie smiled at him rather tearfully.

"I can soon fix that," she said as she bustled into the kitchen to prepare a feast fit for a king.

Cory and Meredith spent the rest of the day trying to teach Tabitha to retrieve sticks, which did not meet with her approval. Then Cory showed Meredith how to kick a soccer ball before they gave Maggie a hand to make pizzas for dinner. After eating half an enormous pizza each, onto which they had piled everything edible they could find, the children decided to try another boat trip the next day.

"But we'll check for Tabitha first," warned Cory. "I'm not carrying her anywhere again in a hurry."

They headed down to the shed while Maggie was vacuuming the hallway.

Cory pushed the button and waited for the jolt before pulling back the canopy. The children fell back in shock as a loud voice cried,

"Ahoy there, me hearties. What are you doing on my ship?"
Chapter 13

"Oh Dad, you gave me such a fright." Meredith laughed rather hysterically as her father grinned at her and helped her climb out of the boat.

"Playing pirates were you?" he said to Cory.

"Um, yeah, that's right. I hope it was okay. We just sat in it and sort of pretended it was going," stammered Cory.

"That's fine. I can't wait to get out in it myself. How about we have a day fishing tomorrow? The tide will be right if we leave just before lunch."

"Great," said Cory grinning back at him.

"What are you doing back so soon Dad? We thought you were coming tomorrow."

"I managed to sort it out a bit earlier than I expected so I changed my flight. Your mother said she thought you were playing in the boat. Now I'm going to take Cory and buy him that bike I promised him. Then you two can get out and explore instead of being stuck round here all the time."

"It hasn't been too bad, actually," said Meredith with a mischievous look at Cory.

Cory was delighted. He enjoyed this sort of shopping, he decided, as Brian let him choose which bike he wanted and joined in a serious discussion about gears and tyres. They bought a bright red helmet to match the bike and loaded it carefully onto the roof rack of the car.

Maggie made a batch of sandwiches and packed generous slices of apple shortcake and chocolate fudge so that Meredith and Cory could go straight out for a ride.

"Just stay on the side roads and steer clear of the main highway," advised Brian.

The rest of the day passed in glorious freedom as Meredith showed Cory some of the local attractions. They went to the waterhole at the river where Meredith pointed out the best place for diving.

"We can come back in summer when the weather's a bit warmer," she said. They rode to a large park where they played for a while on the climbing tower, complete with swings and slide. There were a few boys kicking a ball around at one end of the park and Cory decided to come back on his own sometime and see if he could join the game. As he climbed into bed that night, tired but happy, Cory decided that life was pretty good.

"I hope I catch a fish tomorrow," was his last thought before he fell asleep.

The next morning Meredith came into his room just as he was waking up.

"Psst Cory," she whispered.

"What is it?"

"Now that Dad's home and we're going out in the boat the magic might not work anymore. It didn't work yesterday when he was holding onto the boat."

"Well it's been pretty good while it lasted."

"Yes, but let's have one more turn. If we go straight after breakfast we can go for an adventure somewhere. It would be great to go back to one of the places we've been, but definitely not the pirate ship, or even somewhere different."

"Okay, okay," muttered Cory sleepily.

Fortunately Brian and Maggie had some business to discuss after breakfast so Cory and Meredith were able to slip away to the shed.

"Where shall we go?" asked Meredith happily once they were in the boat.

"Well," Cory hesitated, "I'd really like to go back to that pirate ship and see if Joshua managed to take over it and beat the pirates," he said in a rush.

"No," wailed Meredith. "I don't want to. It was horrible and we decided we'd never go back there."

"I didn't decide anything of the sort."

You said it was horrible. You said you didn't want to go there again ever,"

"Well, I've changed my mind," said Cory firmly, "and now I do want to go back." He reached across and started pushing in numbers on the GPS panel.

"No," shouted Meredith. "I won't let you. I want to go somewhere else." She clawed at Cory's hands and started trying to punch in different numbers.

"Stop it," said Cory.

"No!"

"Let go." Cory shoved Meredith aside and savagely punched the sliver button on the GPS. There was a sharp crack and the panel split across the centre, a couple of torn wires hanging forlornly from the gap.

Cory and Meredith were shocked into silence.

"I think it's broken," said Meredith in a small voice. "Dad will be furious. It cost hundreds of dollars when he bought it."

Cory felt sick. What a thing to happen. Not only was it the end of the magic adventures, Brian would be so angry he probably wouldn't take Cory out fishing. Ever. In fact he might not even want Cory to stay.

Cory felt even sicker. He and Meredith walked slowly back to the house where Maggie and Brian were sitting in Brian's study.

"Um Dad. We've done something terrible," said Meredith in a small voice. Both her parents spun round to stare at her.

"What have you done?" Brian briskly.

"We broke the GPS in the boat," said Meredith with a sob.

"I did it," Cory burst out. "It wasn't Meredith's fault. It was mine. We were playing in there and I hit it too hard and it cracked." He began to shake as Brian looked at him sternly.

"Right. Well, you've told me. I take it this was an accident, was it? You didn't do it on purpose?"

"Of course it was an accident," protested Meredith.

Cory nodded in agreement. "It was my fault though, even if it was an accident," he explained.

Brian nodded while Maggie bit her lip.

"Okay, I'll look at the damage later. Now you'd better both run along as Maggie and I have something to discuss.

Cory crept to his room miserably and lay on his bed where he buried his head in the pillow and wished he could relive this day. "Why did I have to do that? Why do I always muck things up?"

He could hear the murmur of voices from the study.

"They're discussing me," he thought. "They won't want me here now." He thought back on all the times he had been unhelpful to Maggie or impatient with Meredith and wished he could change them.

"I might as well start packing," he thought dismally.

He looked at the clothes Maggie had made and realised that they wouldn't all fit in his suitcase.

"I'll have to get some plastic bags," he thought wretchedly and went out to the kitchen just as Maggie was showing someone in at the front door. With a sinking heart Cory saw that it was Ms Lannigan.

"Come in here, Cory," called Maggie. "We all want to talk to you."

Cory stumbled into the living room, wrapped in misery. The frozen feeling was back inside him and he felt sick. It took two or three minutes before he was able to hear what Ms Lannigan was saying

"I said, how do you feel about staying here, Cory? Mr and Mrs Miller have decided they would like you to be a permanent part of their family."

"Stay here?" said Cory in a daze. "But I broke the GPS."

"Oh accidents happen," laughed Brian. "The insurance will cover it and anyway it was a pretty old model. Now I have an excuse to buy myself the latest technology." He winked at his wife

"Are you feeling all right Cory?" asked Maggie "You're very pale." She came over, frowning, and put a hand on Cory's' forehead.

"I'm fine," croaked Cory, as he realised that this was now his home. "I feel great. I, I just don't know what to say. "

Turning to Maggie he threw his arms around her in a hug. Maggie hugged him back then her eyes sparkling with tears of joy said, "I'd better make some lunch. We'll all go for a picnic on the boat and do some fishing to celebrate."

A few weeks later Cory helped Brian to install the new GPS on the boat.

"Look at that," said Brian proudly as they chugged out of the harbour. "This tells me exactly where I am at all times. What do you think of that, then?"

Cory glanced across at Meredith and they both laughed.

"I think it's magic," said Cory.

