Chapter 1: the beginning(or maybe prologue actually)
Chapter Text
May was running around the house like how a cat would act sometimes. She ran her fingers across the pale yellow wall then stopped at a window. The sound of rain was calming when mixed with the grey-blue sky even though there was quite a lot of it and it was precisely 1 pm when it started. She rushed into the kitchen. Her older sister, Rose, was making toast and their father was sitting down.
‘Are you done yet,’ May dug her toes into her slippers. ‘Making toast should not take that long, Ling Ling.’
The toaster pinged and Rose lurched back, startled. ‘Bear with me, May, please,’ she sighed. ‘I still haven’t put on the chocolate spread yet.’
May huffed, then ran upstairs to the library room and grabbed her record player from the living room. Mr Wong clicked his tongue in disappointment and returned to reading The Calais Gazette, the island’s newspaper. As usual, most of the articles were about the Royal Family, the US and Parliament. His second wife was feeding his 1-year-old son with a milk bottle. He flipped the newspaper over and noticed a bold headline. The article underneath it reads:
STORM COMING!
The Local weather services have predicted that the rather dangerous storm named ‘Big Bertha’ will land on Calais Island on September 5th, in three days’ time. The exact time the storm will hit is unknown. Heavy rain is to be expected(so don’t blame us if you get wet). All Calais Island residents should relocate to a special shelter in three days’ time. Homes and properties will may or may not be destroyed during the storm. We will not be responsible for the damages done.
May was upstairs in the library room. It was more like a place to relax in her opinion. The rain dripped down outside and she put down her record player. It was battery-powered and portable. May opened the cupboard behind her and pulled out one of her favourite records then started playing. Rose was finally here too with two pieces of chocolate-covered toast on a small white china plate. The girls began to nibble on the toast.
In order to show you how a big symphony orchestra is put together,
Benjamin Britten has written a big piece of music
which is made up of smaller pieces
that shows you all the separate parts of the orchestra
These smaller pieces are called variations,
which means different ways of playing the same tune
‘Why must it rain now? I was going play in the garden later,’ May moaned.
‘Just listen to the record, Mei,’ Rose said as she adjusted herself.
First of all, he lets us hear the tune, or theme,
which is a beautiful melody by the much older British composer, Henry Purcell
Here is Purcell’s theme played by the whole orchestra together
The theme began to play. It sounded very grand. A girl who was 5 years older than Rose(who’s 9) walked in. Her dark brown hair tied in a braid and she was wearing a pink dress with a collar. She clutched a copy of Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens in her hand and a pair of binoculars hung around her neck. Her eyes brimmed with wisdom and curiosity. This was Hazel Wong, their half-sister. The eldest of the Wongs’ children and the only daughter of Mr Vincent Wong and his first wife, June Wong. She sat down by the window reading space and began reading. The orchestra part went on for at least 2 minutes and the rain was still coming down.
Now, Mr Britten lets you hear the four different families of the orchestra
playing the same Purcell theme in different ways
First, we hear the woodwind family
The flutes, the oboes, the clarinets and the bassoons
The tune played was soft and strong. It was soft enough that the grumbling of June Wong covered it. She was stomping around the first floor of the house with pure bitterness in her stomps. The children ignored it. Then the stomping ceased. Hazel drew her focus back to her book but her mind was thinking about something else.
With the weather like this, she thought, will the letter be delivered at all? She fidgeted restlessly with the page she’s on. At this rate, I would have to walk to the post office myself to get the letter. Hazel sat up and looked out the window with her binoculars. There was a glimmer of sun shining slightly through the grey rainclouds and the sea waves rocked gently. The record continued to play and the postman was nowhere to be seen.
June Wong walked downstairs. ‘Is it lunchtime, Vincent?’ She asked Mr Wong who looked up from his newspaper to the kitchen clock. The time was 1.20 pm, later than the actual lunchtime. June groaned with frustration and pulled out a megaphone from the kitchen cupboard. She shouted into it, ‘ROSE, MAY, HAZEL! LUNCHTIME! GET DOWN HERE!’ This caused the baby, Teddy, to cry and Jie-Jie, the second wife, to despair. Soon the sounds of 3 pairs of feet came rushing down and lunch was served.
Lunch was veggie fried rice with chicken and egg. Hazel felt very hungry and scooped quite a lot into her bowl. Her mother, June(whom Hazel called Ah Mah), stared with disapproval.
‘Ying Ying, you mustn’t eat so much,’ she said, pouring tea. ‘You will get fat.’
Hazel felt sick in her stomach and the nasty feeling she gets when she looks into the mirror crept in. She has never felt confident with her body and her mother’s remarks don’t help. Hazel dumped some of the rice back into the big bowl and sat down. Her anger simmered restlessly. She thought about the letter and it made her feel better. The nasty feeling still lingered.
Everyone slowly finished their lunch and left the table. A bike bell rang from the outside, followed by a lot of splashing. The postman! Hazel smiled with excitement and went upstairs to wait for the weather to clear. She could hear Jie-Jie, her father and her mother arguing as she thought blissfully about the letter.
The rain finally cleared. The time was 2 pm. Hazel closed the white door of the large red house her family lived in and breathed in the fresh after rain air. She held her shoebox labelled ‘PRIVATE’ firmly and walked towards the rusty mailbox her family had next to the white picket fence. There were many different letters: business, promotional flyers, bills etc. Hazel looked through the mailbox. The wind was blowing through her fringe. It tingled her forehead. Then there was an envelope in plastic wrap tucked underneath all the other letters. Hazel knew that this was her letter instantly. She unwrapped it and it reads:
Alexander Arcady, Camp Fallingford, Calais Island
Addressed to: Hazel Wong, Summer's End, Calais Island
Hazel opened her box and put the letter inside. She walked back to the house then up the stairs into her room. May and Rose were playing a different record now. Hazel closed her bedroom door and opened the letter. She read it then placed the letter back into the box and pushed it underneath her bed. Her kitten was sleeping on her pillow. Hazel picked it up and turned off the lights. The new record played on like nothing had happened.
Notes:
Calais Island is a reference to First Class Murder and Camp Fallingford is a reference to well Fallingford. There will be more references to the series in the name of the different locations.
Chapter 2: camp fallingford and one missing
Notes:
References are sprinkled in this chapter
Chapter Text
3 days before the storm
The time was 7.30 am, it was after breakfast. Hazel heard her Father’s voice and her Mother’s voice overlapping each other. There were sounds of things breaking. Hazel tried to shut out the noises and went up to the lighthouse part of the house. The house was originally a lighthouse but was abandoned then refurbished as a normal residence. The lighthouse part was still kept.
She held out her binoculars and looked out at Calais Island. The trees were starting to turn yellow and orange. Hazel looked past that and focused on the green meadow. The meeting time instructed in the letter was 8.00 am. She’s got to be quick. Hazel put down her binoculars and went back inside.
On the other side of Calais Island was Troop 55 of the Khaki Scouts, Camp Fallingford. The main camp, Fort Maudlin, was on the other island, led by Commander George Wells who was Scout Master Felix Mountfritchet’s brother-in-law and Daisy Wells’ father.
Daisy Wells took out the trumpet and blew into it to signal the time. She stood in front of the camp gate. The time was 8 am, 15 minutes before breakfast. Daisy went back into camp and her Uncle Felix walked out of his tent with a cigarette in his mouth.
‘Morning Uncle Felix!’ Daisy beamed. She ironed out Felix’s neckerchief and handed it to him.
‘It’s Scout Master M for you, niece,’ Felix said as he tied his neckerchief. He needed to do his daily inspection before breakfast. Daisy agreed to assist him even though she was still annoyed that she had to call Felix ‘Scout Master M’ when they’re at camp.
The first order of business was the project Amina El Maghrabi was working on. It was a piece of strange machinery with curtains labelled ‘RESTROOM’ covering it.
‘El Maghrabi! Latrine project inspection,’ Felix stood next to Amina and Daisy was scribbling down notes in her notepad. She blushed when Amina looked at her.
‘Yes, Scout Master M, sir!’ Amina saluted as she pulled a cord. The curtains opened and a bucket of water flowed down the pipes. She smoothed down her cargo scout trousers. A bell dinged and a small yellow flag with ‘NEXT’ written on it appeared.
‘Excellent work,’ Felix complimented Amina and walked to Beanie Martineau’s table. Her one blue and one brown eye stared at her project with determination. ‘How’s the lanyard project going, Martineau?’ He asked.
‘Terrible,’ Beanie sighed. She flicked her scraggly braid away and looked at her bundled up cord tied to a rabbit’s foot sadly. Felix looked at her in silence for a few seconds before moving on to see Kitty Freebody carrying an arm full of logs.
Felix asked sharply, ‘Freebody Major! What’s all this lumber for?’ Kitty shook her light brown hair away from her face and looked up at Felix.
‘We’re building a treehouse, sir!’ Kitty grinned. Her face looked cat-like with her green eyes.
‘What treehouse-’ Felix stared upwards and was shocked to see a treehouse right on top of a 60 ft tall tree. Kitty’s younger sister, Binny, poked out her head. Daisy clicked her tongue and wrote down some notes. Binny shouted down, ‘A treehouse for scout meetings sir! Isn’t it neat!’
‘Get down from there, Freebody Minor!’ Felix yelled back. He turned to Kitty, ‘That’s a guaranteed death if you fall!’
‘Well, where would you build it?’ Kitty groaned and dropped the wood in her arms into the pile next to her.
‘Lower,’ Felix indicated and moved on to the next project with Daisy again when he noticed Lavinia Temple crouching on the ground. ‘Temple! What are you doing?’
‘Pest control, sir! Burning some ants!’ Lavinia stood up with a can of gasoline in her right hand and a fire torch in her left. She bounced her leg with impatience.
‘Spot check,’ Felix inspected Lavinia’s uniform. It was not of Khaki Scout standard at all. ‘Your socks are down, your shirt’s untucked and your shorts are not properly pressed. You will be reported for uniform violation.’ Lavinia cursed under her breath.
Felix and Daisy moved on to the next table where they saw George Mukherjee and Bob Featherstonhaugh (pronounced ‘Fanshaw’ for some reason) working on some firework rockets. Felix held his cigarette away from the table.
‘How many rockets have we got so far, Mukherjee?’ Felix looked at the red rockets, each of them labelled a different number.
‘Sixteen and a half, sir!’ George smiled with enthusiasm and Bob smiled awkwardly.
Felix adjusted his monocle, ‘Not enough for the hullabaloo, Bob go fetch some more gunpowder from the armoury shed and make us some more rockets.’ He handed the key to Bob who only nodded and went away to the shed. This was the final project but Felix’s happy moment was interrupted by a loud motorbike noise. A boy with a drawling voice and slicked back hair was riding the camp’s motorbike. This was Inigo Bly, one of the more self-entitled scouts.
‘Bly, halt!’ Felix shouted. ‘How fast were you going just now-’
Inigo interrupted Felix instantly, ‘Safety test, sir, I was just checking if the engine was working.’ His expression was smug. Daisy stuck out her tongue at him.
‘Reckless cycling, second warning,’ Felix replied coldly. Daisy scribbled down some more notes. ‘Third time and I will take the keys.’ Inigo held up the finger at Felix as he walked towards the dining table. Felix greeted their cook and overall camp caretaker, Hetty, before sitting down to read The Daily Scout magazine. Hetty rang the bell. The time was 8.15 am and the other scouts came rushing to the table. It was breakfast time, Hetty began to distribute the food around the table(it was hash browns and eggs) and noticed an empty chair. Felix and the other scouts did too.
‘Alright who’s missing,’ Felix looked over his shoulder. The scouts all murmured ‘Arcady’ over and over again. Felix rolled his eyes then yelled, ‘ARCADY! BREAKFAST!’ There was no response. Everyone left their seat and towards the tents. They followed their scoutmaster.
They went to the tent at the far end. Felix knocked on it, ‘Arcady you in there?’ No answer. Lavinia was tapping her foot impatiently and Inigo looked properly furious.
‘GET OUT HERE COWBOY!’ He shouted before Felix shushed him. George kicked Inigo’s leg.
‘Alexander?’ Felix asked. He knelt down in front of the tent and saw that it had been zipped on the inside. Felix took out his pocket knife and unzipped the tent. It made a very satisfying sound. There was no one in the tent. The bed was neatly made too. Felix saw something under the pillow. It was an envelope addressed to him and the letter inside reads:
Dear Scout Master M,
I am very sad to inform you that I can no longer be involved with the Khaki Scouts of the United Kingdom. The rest of the troop will probably be glad to hear this(especially Bly). It is not your fault.
Best Wishes, Alexander Arcady
Felix looked around the tent. There were maps on the walls of it. He noticed one on the bottom half of the tent. It was flapping slightly and stuck on with tape. Felix pulled it off to reveal a hole in the tent wall.
‘Jiminy Cricket, he flew the coup.’
2424hYnx on Chapter 2 Sat 16 Jul 2022 09:57PM UTC
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