Chapter 8 Where's Charlie?

Chapter 8 Where’s Charlie?

Leah’s POV at 8 years of age.

The loud squawking of the birds woke us up the following morning.

Jacob and I stretched our bodies and yawned.

“Where’s Charlie?” Jacob asked me.

“I don’t know. Let’s see if we can find him.” I suggested.

While we exited our house, Jacob grabbed the telescope and stopped at the edge of water.

He peered through the lens and exclaimed, “I see him. He’s across the way on the other beach. He must have swam across and fell asleep there.”

“Come on Leah.” He motioned me over to the boat. I grabbed a bunch of flowers and put them in the boat.

I helped Jacob put the boat in the water and then we both jumped in so Jacob could row across to get us to Charlie.

“What are you doing?” Jacob questioned me.

 “I’m making this flower necklace so I can place it on Charlie’s head. Then you can say boo and he will be surprised when he sees this on his head.” I said with a smile on my face.

I was waiting for Jacob to say something to the nature of it being girly or him rolling his eyes. You can imagine my surprise when he laughed and thought it was a funny idea.

Before I knew it, we were at the location where Jacob had spotted Charlie. I jumped out of the boat followed by Jacob.

 Charlie was lying on his side with the barrel around his arm.

We approached him very slowly. I placed the wreath on his head.

“Charlie wake up, it’s us.” Jacob said to him out loud.

I figured he probably had some sand in his ears so I screamed louder.

“Wake up wake up!!” I shouted.

Jacob decided to turn Charlie on his back.

Charlie’s eyes were wide open and his face was gray as slate. The shocking thing was the crab coming out his mouth.

The next thing I knew a wave of darkness came over me.  I felt as if I was being carried in Jacob’s arms as he was running to the boat where we had left it.

I felt the waves under the boat as Jacob rowed back to our house.

When I finally awakened, I was in our house with Jacob beside me.  I was a bit disoriented and then it hit me that Charlie was dead. It was only Jacob and I. The thought scared me so I started to cry.

Jacob petted my knee and said to me “Lee Lee don’t cry, we’ll be alright I promise you.”

“We need to get some sleep.”

I had Jacob hold me tight that night while we slept because I was afraid that I would wake up and he would have left me as well.

The next morning, we packed everything up in the trunk and placed it in the boat. I was dressed in my dress that I had worn when we first arrived on this horrid island.

Jacob showed up with a bunch of bananas and placed them in the boat.  He pushed the boat onto the water and decided to row away from this wretched place that we once called home.

The entire time he was rowing, I would just sit there and not utter a single word.

After some rowing, Jacob peered over his shoulder and shouted, “Look!”

We had come across a different island and to greet us there were two friendly dolphins who squealed as if to say Hello and welcome.

“This looks like a great place to stay for a while.” Jacob said.

I nodded my head in agreement with a smile on my face.