Week 5 Day 5: A stranger among them

Early in the morning a phone call woke up Rita Redward. It was Greta Greench who reported from last night. She had observed the thief, a man had stolen some more flowers and it was a man she never saw before!

The news upset everyone. They thought they were alone on the Maccaroni island, but now it turned out they were not? Had some stranger been hiding from them all the time? Suddenly they realized they didn't know Maccaroni very well. They mostly spent time in the village, while most of the land was not yet well explored. Something had to be done!

But they also had to focus on their daily matters. Farmers improved their crops, roads were being built, the inventor was nearly done inventing windmills and paint. And Rita were still urging to learn to make good nectar.

Some time ago, Rita had told her son, Randal, to harvest some special grapes from the neighbours - without asking them. She simply needed variety, in order to produce nectar, and they would need time to grow good quality grapes.

While Randal is soon pushing adulthood, the Redward family also had children, the twins Constance and Dorothy. This morning they had ran over to the school library to play chess. They were alone in the building, but it wasn't really far from home, and they knew the families living near the school.

Back home, Rita had informed Roger. He was a bit disappointed that Greta Greench had not told him first, after all he was a head of their administration, together with Yvonne Yea-Low.

They visited the west side recently, and they agreed that it would be good to move there. But without roads covering at least some of the distance, it was too far to walk every day.

At the Yea-Low house, also Yvonne had heard the news. She found the strangers disturbing, but she was pretty sure they would find out more in a few days.

Yvonne knew the plan to have all the Yea-Low children marry all the Redward children would cause some conflicts, but all along she had thought Corinne marrying Randal would be the easy part. They were nearly the same age, and they already met a few times. The longer they waited, the more alternatives would turn up. Three young men at the Greench farm were about to grow up, too, and Yvonne definitely didn't want her oldest daughter to become a farmer's wife.

Yvonne and Yespar also had two sons, Alex and Yoseph.

Alex was already a child, his traits are Neurotic, Genius and Neat. Yoseph was still a toddler, with the traits Grumpy and Genius.

Meanwhile Roger had found the twins at the school library. Dorothy and Constance were hungry, so they roasted some food at the central park just in front of Roger's little Consignment store.

A child eating 18 sausages could be either funny or just absurd. Anyway, it doesn't seem like Dorothy has the talent of geting a big body, at least not quite yet. So, those sausages must have been healthy!

They walked over to the little village administration building, Rita and Christopher were already there with Yvonne Yea-Low. They discussed the stranger, how they could make land exploring a part of their daily businesses. Such as going different routes, using several fishing spots, and maybe they also could start hunting wild animals. Some sort of wolves or dogs had been observed, there were also wild birds and probably other wild animals as well. Hunting would take them to new areas, and with some luck they would find the stranger. But the most obvious would be to settle on four different locations, leaving the village for community matters only.

Sounds promising... Rita was a little worried for the west side area, but Yvonne didn't seem interested in it, and even if Rita had claimed the right to choose land first, way back when they arrived Maccaroni island, it seemed like she wouldn't need to use that right. If anyone else would want the sunset, it would be the Yea-Lows. The Blumingtons had already mentioned that they wanted to move north, and the Greench farmers would go for fertile soil rather than a sunset. It seemed like everyone would be satisfied!

Few hours later Yvonne convinced Yespar to take a walk. It was getting dark, which was a good thing...

They sat down on the hilltop, from there they had a good view down the valley, and they could also see some of the east side coastline.

And so they did. They had not seen a thing, not heard a sound. Maybe the strangers didn't stay at the east side of Maccaroni after all.

It got very late. Most families closed the day, went inside their houses and prepared for the night. The Greench farmers were about to step inside, while a person came running, silently.

It was Randal Redward. He hid behind a tree, waited for clear coast, then headed for the farmers' crops. A-ha, some good grapes! They looked like the sort they already grew, but these were of much better quality. Mom would be pleased!

  Randal harvested just one plant, nobody would notice.

Then he ran off.

To be continued in 2 days!