Island

Josie, Annie, Nicole and Elizabeth were sitting in the fields overlooking the wide expanse of the sparkling, clear sea. Elizabeth was applying some cooling cream to her face where she had been slapped ten times by her evil Aunt, with tears running freely down her face.
“It’s alright Lizzie,” said her older sister Nicole, giving her a hug, “You’ll be alright!”
Lizzie gave a sad sort of smile and kept rubbing the cream in.
Josie looked over at her and shook her head. Her sister Annie saw her and cocked her head questioningly. Josie saw the look and sighed.
“We shouldn’t have to put up with this.” She whispered in an under tone to Annie, so that Nicole and Lizzie wouldn’t hear. “I hate seeing Lizzie like this. It’s not fair. Why should she have to do the cleaning? It’s not even her house!”
“We can’t complain Josie,” replied Annie at the same volume, “we would just get beaten more! What can we do? We’re just kids!”
“Hmmmm,” Josie murmured, “there may actually be something.”
“What?” Asked Annie forgetting to keep her voice down and getting the others attention.
“What’s going on?” Asked Nicole.
“I was just saying,” continued Josie, “That there might be a way to get away from this life and live exactly how we want together without ever being made to go back?”
“How?” Asked Elizabeth, her bright blue eyes lighting up at the thought of getting away from Aunt and her beatings.
“Well, I can only tell you if you promise never to breathe a word about it to anyone!” Josie said in hushed tones, leaning towards the group.”
“We promise!” Said Annie, Nicole and Lizzie together.
“I have an Island!”
Annie, Nicole and Lizzie stared at her. Their eyes wide in astonishment. They could not believe it. Finally a way to get away from everything.
“Where is it?” Asked the astonished Annie. Josie stood up and brushed herself down.
“Follow me.” The sisters got up and followed their friend. She led them down the old, worn path, through a thick forest, and down into a clearing with a small patch of beach with an old wooden boat on it.
“Here.” She said finally. Pointing out over the sea, the four girls looked on the horizon and saw a small, indistinct dot. “That is my island!”
“Wow!” Commented Lizzie.
“Amazing!” Said Annie.
“When can we go?” Asked Nicole. Josie laughed.
“That all depends…whether you three want to go.” Lizzie and Nicole nodded their heads with vigour, only Annie remained still.
“What’s wrong Annie?” Asked Nicole.
“Yeah, what’s wrong?” Repeated Lizzie.
“How are we going to survive?” She asked in return. “It’s all very well planning these things, but what will happen if one of us is sick? What will when one of us? What if we run out of food?”
“We have ages to plan it.” Responded Josie calmly. “ When, if, the time comes. We will be ready. We would’ve made sure we have everything we need. Ok?”
Annie hesitated for a minute or two before finally responding.
“Ok! When can we go?” Her three friends smiled hugely at her.
“Lets see,” said Josie, “How much time do we have now?”
“We still have a few hours,” Annie replied, looking at her watch. “Why?”
“Hope in.” Josie said patting the side of the old rowboat. “We’re going to the island!”


Chapter Two:
The boat slid onto the silky, clean beach of the untouched island. They all leapt from the boat looking around at their colourful surroundings. The were a large collection of tall willow trees further down the island, an alcove that seemed perfect for storing the boat, caves were spread out, some deeper than others, there was a hill with speckles of ripening summer fruit, with lush green grass surrounding everything.
“What do you think?” Asked Josie. The others glanced at her.
“Amazing!”
“Fantastic!”
“Wonderful!”
“Lets have a look around,” suggested Lizzie.
“Right!” Agreed Nicole. “If we are going to live here then we had better get to know it!”
They left their boat on the beach and went to have a look around. They came across tall willow trees, a large expanse of lush green grass. They walked up a hill and Annie gasped in delight!
“Guys,” she proclaimed, “look at this!” She pointed at a large collection of bright, red, ripe strawberries. The others bent to and picked a few of their vines to eat.
“Wow!” Said Lizzie. “If we live here we can eat these all the time!”
“Raspberries grow as well,” added Josie, “a little further down the hillside I think, but we don’t have time to go down there. Anyway, I want to show Annie something.” The others frowned in curiosity but followed Josie around and down the hillside.
“You were worried about what we would eat and drink earlier,” she said to Annie whilst leading them down the grassy hillside, “well, my last time here I came across a spring that gave out the most crystal clear water and it’s as cold as ice! Here it is!”
Without warning, the four children stumbled across the bubbling spring. It was fairly large, large enough for a kettle to receive the water from it. It was also fairly well hid, so if you didn’t know where it was you would probably walk straight past it.
“Try some!” Suggested Josie. Lizzie, Nicole and Annie all bent down and cupped their hands. They raised them to their mouth and drank.
“That’s great!” Exclaimed Nicole. “That could be our water supply. Now we will never be out of water. If we do decide to live here that is.” The four of them stood in a circle around the spring in silence.
“We should go have our lunch,” Lizzie said quietly. In silence the children made their way back down to where they left their boat. Lizzie and Nicole got the food out of the bat and served it up. As the children were tucking into their food, rabbits came hopping by. They stopped and stared at the children and one came hesitantly closer, so that its nose touched Lizzie hand. Lizzie squealed in excitement.
“Oh look at this!” She exclaimed. “They’re so tame!” Josie, Annie and Nicole smiled.
“Well,” began Josie, “what do you think? Should we come to live here?”
“Yes!” Shouted Lizzie and Nicole in unison.
“What about you Annie?” Asked Josie, turning her head towards her. “All in or no one in.”
Annie looked around at the faces of her friends and saw the red marks still visible on her sister’s face and her mind was instantly made up.
“Lets do it!” The others laughed and started to talk hurriedly in excitement. What they were going to bring, when they were going to go.
“We really need to talk about what kind of stuff we will need and when we will go.” Said Josie bringing instant calm to the over-excited babble.
“Well what about a week from now?” Suggested Nicole.
“No, today’s a Saturday. People would look for us to soon.” Said Josie.
“Well what about a week tomorrow?” Said Lizzie.
“Perfect!” Said Josie. “People won’t come and look for us until the evening!”
“So it’s settled then! A week tomorrow we will run away and live here forever!” The children nodded in agreement.
All of them were silent on the trip back over to mainland, thinking that they would once again be soon on the island. When they went back up the hill they stopped where they were lying down previously that day.
“We will meet every evening until we leave so we can plan everything.” Ordered Josie. “Until then, try to take everything you can that might help us on the island. Torches, blankets, clothes, anything like that. Store it in the hollowed trunk just inside the wood.”
“Yes!” Agreed the children. With that they parted and went their own ways to see to their respective jobs each with certain lightness to their step.

Chapter Three
That week went dreadfully slowly for the four girls. They went about their jobs thinking of only the island. Not a single day went by without something new being added to the hollow trunk. There were, however, things that the children need that Lizzie’s stepsister did not have spare. Things like blankets, a kettle, a torch, and batteries. However they were spared having to worry about that as Nicole had earned some money.
Finally, the evening before Sunday had finally arrived. The children met for one last time. They went about checking that they had got everything they would need.
“Well,” Josie said, “it looks like we have everything we need!”
“Josie,” said Annie, “I’ve just had an idea!”
“Tell us!”
“Well,” began Annie, “what if we take chickens across? I have a few chickens that I could take across, and I have enough of their corn to last a long time.”
“That’s a brilliant idea!” Proclaimed Josie. “We will never go out of eggs! That’s really helps us with the food! Before you leave then tussle them up and bring them down. Go and fetch the corn now!”
Annie darted off to get the corn and returned in only a few minutes. She placed it in the hollow trunk.
“We have about an hour left don’t we?” Asked Josie. The others nodded in reply. “Lets start taking this stuff down to the boat. It will save us time in the morning.”
The others agreed and started carrying their supplies down to their boat. In the bottom of it they put an assortment of items. In went the saucepans, next the bag of corn, then a hammer, a pair of scissors went next, accompanied after by a box of clothes, then their food supplies, a kettle, a box of games and books, blankets went next, followed by a sack of broad beans. They kept adding stuff to the boat. Finally after a long and gruelling hour of hard work, the four girls were done.
They sat down at the top of the hill each wondering what they would be doing the next day. Finally, as the sun was setting they each went back up to their house and laid down to a peaceful nights sleep.
Next morning the girls woke up early. They had a few odd jobs to do in the morning then they could take their lunch and dinner out for a picnic. Annie set about making breakfast, Nicole went to do the chickens, Lizzie went and put the washing out and Josie went to tussle up the chickens.
Whilst she was only in the large kitchen, Annie looked in the cupboards for anything extra that they could take. She found some tinned fruit, a can opener that they had forgotten the night before, some tea, a few bars of soap and a few empty tins that she thought would be useful.
She called to her Aunt that she was going to take some washing down to Lizzie and ran off to the boat. She placed the items in there and glanced across to the small dot on the horizon that would become their home in a few hours. She stood for only a few seconds before racing back up through the trees to serve breakfast.
The three sisters sat down with their Aunt to eat their breakfast hoping that they could get away soon as they had told Josie that they would meet her right after breakfast.
“I want you three out of the house today,” said Aunt, breaking the silence that surrounded every meal. “I have a very important guest coming an I don’t want you three hanging around. Take some food and don’t come back till late.”
Aunt got up and went upstairs to change. The three sisters could hardly believe their luck. Now no one would come looking for them until late into the evening.
The children hurriedly washed up the dishes and finished their chores for the last time and went to collect the food basket that their Aunt had left out for them. The children took a last look around to see if they had forgotten anything, for they did not want to ever come back. Nicole ran to the utensils drawer and withdrew a large plastic ladle and put it in with the food.
“Useful for serving food,” she explained simply. They quickly stole into the garden and took some carrots, peas, tomatoes and a few potatoes. With that they were off.
They walked down to the boat and saw Josie standing there adding a few extra items to the boat. She heard them approaching and beamed at them. She took the basket off them and placed it in the boat.
“Everyone ready?” Asked Josie. The others nodded their heads and Nicole and Lizzie stepped into the boat. Josie and Annie went to separate ends of the boat and pulled and pushed it into the water. They both jumped in and grabbed an oar each. They were off to the island finally!
Josie and Annie rowed on for a long time. They were getting very tired when the island loomed up in front of them. It looked even more inviting now than it did previously. Josie and Annie pulled their boat onto the beach and everyone jumped out. They were here.

Chapter Four:
“Come on everyone!” Said Josie to her companions. “We have to unload the boat and find a place to put the supplies.”
With a light heart the four girls set about to unload the boat. By the time they were finished they were very thirsty. Lizzie ran off with the kettle to get some water from the spring on the other side of the island. By the time she came back, for the spring was a long way away, the others had found a place to put all the food and had hidden the boat amongst some bushes and over hanging trees.
The four friends collapsed onto the beach with a mug of water in hand gratefully appreciating the coldness of it. One by one the children fell asleep in the warmth of the mid day sun, underneath some willow trees. It was almost teatime when Nicole woke up. With a laugh she prodded the others awake.
“Guys!” She laughed. “Wake up!” One by one, the girls woke up.
“Come on,” said Josie standing up, “we still have loads to do. Lizzie and Nicole, go find heather and bracken and bring it back here for our beds. Annie why don’t you go about making us some tea. I’ll go get some water first and then I’ll get the blankets.”
With their jobs they went about to do them with cheeriness. Lizzie and Nicole skipped off together keeping a sharp eye for heather and bracken; they came across a large pile of both about half way across the island. They scooped it up and came back to Annie who had just lit a fire using the magnifying glass that Nicole had bought.
Annie took out the enamel plates and mugs and put the food that her Aunt had given them earlier that morning. She poured the water that Josie had collected into the mugs and layback waiting for Josie to return from getting the blankets.
Josie returned with the blankets and threw each of them one. She sat down by the fire wrapping her blanket around her for the night was getting chilly. Annie handed out the food and drink and they sat there talking about what they were going to do the next day.
“I think we should explore around a bit,” suggested Nicole, “if someone comes looking for us, we will have to hide.”
“True,” agreed Annie, “but what about the chickens? We can’t leave then to run around the island they might fly away.”
“Good point,” said Lizzie, “why don’t we build like a hen yard for them after tea? Then we can explore the island tomorrow.”
“That’s great!” Replied the girls around the fire.
“What shall we build the yard out of then?” Asked Nicole.
“Willow stakes,” said Josie, “we can drive them into the ground and then they won’t be able to get out.”
With that taken care of, the girls finished their tea and cleaned their dishes and mugs and put them away. They went to the large forest on the other side of the island and squeezed through the thick trees to find young willows. In the middle of the forest they came across a large patch of the trees roughly the same height. Josie began chopping them down with the sharp axe that she brought to the island. Soon large piles of young willows were lying at Josie’s feet. The girls picked up as many as they could carry and took them to a small patch of land hidden mainly by gorse and willow trees.
Annie started digging holes large enough to drive the stakes into. Soon enough she had dug a large enough enclosure for the hens. One by one the stakes were place in the ground and held in place by rope for the moment, for when the stakes started producing roots they could take the rope away. The filled all the crevices with nearby heather and bracken. By the time they were finished they were hungry and thirsty once again. Before they had anything to eat, Lizzie went to fetch the chickens and put them in their new home, Nicole and Annie laid down bracken in hope that the chickens would lay their eggs there.
By the time that they were finished it was now night and they were all tired. They went around the fire that was still burning faintly and had some tea and some bread. Finally, the four girls went to their beds underneath the willow trees and fell soundly asleep.

Chapter Five:
Annie was the first one to wake that day. For a moment she could not place where she was. Then she remembered with a smile. Of course, she was on the island. She threw off her blanket and went to feed the chickens and found that they had laid 5 eggs for the children that day. She went to get some water from the spring and picked some strawberries on the way back.
She lit a fire using the magnifying glass, wanting to save their matches, and started to boil four of the eggs. She also prepared some potatoes to go with the eggs. Just as she finished breakfast the others came out of their beds and sat down around the fire.
She gave them each a plate and a mug of water for they had no milk. That was one thing that they would have to go without. They sat around the fire happily talking and eating.