Turkeymander continued.

Chapter 4

Violet says to the Turkeymander “ It’s ok!” in a low soothing voice. “We are leaving, we just got here by mistake” she says. “Violet!”I whisper in a hurry. Vi runs quickly to me at the side of the cave. The egg shines with little specks of golden dust.

The Turkeymander steps back gently and tilts its head and sticks his tongue and squakes and squakes again. Then it stops and stares at me.  Violet takes three steps back and quickly runs to the left side of the cave. I am left alone and I stand there frozen to death. Violet starts to talk again to the Turkeymander, “can you let my friend come to me?” she asks. I run to her and the Turkeymander jumps into its nest. At the same time I am thinking,” it’s working!”

“We’re leaving now”, Violet says to the Turkeymander as it retrieves its claws back and nests its head on the straw.I see the dark windy sea in its eyes and the squawking seagulls and spot it’s teeth hidden in again in its shell like beak As we pass it I think, safe at last.

Outside, I take a deep breath of salty sea air and sigh in relief. Inside, we hear the turkeymander shuffle tightly near its egg and gives a sigh as well and falls to sleep hugging closely to its egg safe and sound. We smile at each other and walk away.

By then the mist had cleared and puffed out of sight. A sparkling moon through the creeping misty hills. Everything is as still as the gravestones in a graveyard. We walk past the restaurant and the promenade.”No one must find the cave”. Violet says in a whisper. “Even the local council”. I know what to do, I’ll show you when we get back, her face and body shaking still as she pulls me by my hand and we both run like the wind.

But by the time we get home, the town awakes. The golden sun shines like a light bulb to the world. The light ends at the front of the Grand Nautilus Hotel in my cubbyhole. Once we were there, we looked out the window and we saw a boathook man waving at us through the window glass. By the time we get to the museum the morning traffic has begun. Cars trickle past us and we see they head to the seafront car park.

I fiddle with the keys and shove the door open. Inside it is freezing and cold.Outside I could still hear honking from the cars out there and at some point, I think I need some quiet .I hear people coming through the front double doors and book in saying hi at the same time as they do it.We look at the beach both thinking the same thing.

All day, violet had her nose in all the books I had. Ancient stories and racing game books. In a leather case she found in a log and she read out the title out loud,” captain k’s log” I jumped in surprise and came over to her and read, “ written in 1986”. It’s a story that no one really knows. The rock was covered in tiny specks of gold. They kept the thing but that night, something or someone attacked like the taurus fighting the man. At some point, it turns out that the story is real and good but undiscovered. The rest of our discussion continues with violet.

The rest of the evening we chatter about it all. Our adventure has only just begun.