At 4 Black Heights everyone were still in shock, as the two teenage daughters, Bonita and Carla, rushed off to spread the news. First they ran down to the Blumington Bridge and Bolan River, which separates the northern region from Sunrise Valley. Bonita made a quick stop at the Hedgewall house, and while she continued up the hill to Greench Farm, Carla ran up to the Yea-Low home, and Yoseph Hedgewall saddled Moose to ride over to the western region which is quite a distance.
At 9 Yea-Low Ring nobody were awake yet. Reynar and Graica had a busy night taking care of their crying baby girl, Dorance. It was still very early.
Yoseph couldn't help shouting out the good news as he rode through the central village, although he knew very well that nobody lived there.
He finally arrived at Redward Heights.
Bonita reached Greench Farm, where several of her relatives reside. Farmer's wife Bridgette at the main farm and the Sculptor Albert Blumington at the Peel house are both siblings of Bonita's mom. And of course Bonita's older sister Rebecka lives up there too, married to LaShawn G. Gladiston.
Over at 4 Greench Farm they were already up, obviously having some disagreement.
Then they heard Bonita Black outside...
It's not hard to understand that the entire island was turned upside down this morning. They had only heard about the other world, and now there was someone visiting them from... that other place. Everything had to change dramatically, one way or the other.
A short while later, many of the islanders had gathered at the café at 2 Yvonne Drive. The captain and his men were there too, and it turned out they knew more about this island than one could expect.
So, the island's correct name is Magna. It's located in a heavily volcanic area, and lately the activity had increased and the Government expected serious damage to be done. The situation was indeed serious.
Although the café was packed, not all of the residents had attended the meeting. A few households were not even represented, including Randal Redward's house.
Only a few of the residents owned a watch, but none of those old instruments were functional. Therefore, the time references were no longer AM and PM, but simply dawn, fall, midday and midnight.
Captain Turmington's ship wasn't a huge one, he wasn't even sure that they could all be rescued in one go. Perhaps he would need to make two transports, or send another boat for the last group? The ship was too big to navigate close up to land though, so they had launched a lifeboat to be used as a transit boat.
The seventh day of the week had been their traditional get together event for a very long time. Today everything was set up at the village square. Constance had been the organizer for as long as she could remember. Of course being rescued would be the best community event they could ever wish for, but if they could do both...
Captain Turmington was a patient man, but now he thought he had waited long enough. This little community got to have leaders, he could not communicate with each and everyone for the rest of this operation!
As mentioned, a few households had not attended the café. Alfonso Blumington had not even heard about the rescue yet! He is the poor fisherman, and after his very old mom Bianca died, he lives all alone at 3 Blumington Road with 4 cats. He walked down to Sunrise Valley to sell fish, but found nobody at home. He would have been stupid if not taking advantage of that, digging into their garbage.
If he only found something he could use, it was all worth the walk. But no, he returned back home empty handed. He realized he could not go on like this much longer. He was somehow bitter that he was the only one from his generation who was still stingle, there was no woman available to him. Not even someone he didn't like.
Lately he had thought of a silly way out of this. Agnes Hawk was a widow, although everyone said she was crazy, and he didn't like her that much, she was also living alone - with her two teen sons. But there was a catch, why would she want to leave her better house to live here in a shed up north? Agnes got some money, and Alfonso knew she even owned 10% of the bank stocks.
Talking of Agnes Hawk, she had been out walking this morning, and although her nephew and neighbour Reynar had tried to inform her about the ship, he never found her at home. Agnes was very depressed, missing Beetle way too much. Today she was on her way to the old Maccaroni Mine to look for him.
Smoke from the volcano filled the area, the sun simply couldn't get through. Wasn't the smoky carpet more heavy then ever? Agnes started the walk down into the dark mine.
Suddenly she noticed a floating shadow that she recognized...
For the first time Agnes noticed the wall of the mountain was a little darker right where the old fence stopped. Unfortunately the fence sort of blocked her way to Beetle, what if she ran and jumped over the old fence...?
She was too obsessed to even notice that she was not alone in the mine. Someone was walking up on her from behind...
A little later, Randal Redward finally reached the café. Both Randal and his horse Wild are top skilled, and the animal was now warm and sweaty, but happy. Why wasn't there a hitching post outside this bakery?
Randal entered the café and took it for granted that everyone had been awaiting his arrival.
He greeted the strangers and luckily he had just washed his hands. The white glove made Randal feel less superior, was it a warning?
Being rescued would certainly mean that Randal Redward would no longer be in charge of this little population. Back when his parents still lived, they kept talking about the great Redward family fortune, if it still exists Randal would of course accept a change.
Handling this all right could give Randal a good start in the other world. Impressing a captain might not be that important, but then again - who knows who the captain's contacts might be.
So, they agreed to walk over to the Village Hall, just Captain Turmington and his crew and the Village Council.
