Five Go Back to Kirrin Island

©2006 Enid Blyton Yahoo Group

Every once in a while, regular members of the Enid Blyton Yahoo Group join forces and write a Round Robin. If you've never heard of a Round Robin, well, in this case it's a brand new story written by a group of fans, with each member writing a chapter and making it up as they go along. Nobody knows where the story will lead; there's no plot to follow, and the direction of the next chapter is decided by the end of the last one. It's a lot of fun, and the result is either a wonderful new story—or a complete mess!

What follows is the Famous Five in a brand new exciting adventure. There are over 20 members uniting to write this story, so this section will grow one chapter at a time over the next few months...

Chapter 1: Return to Kirrin
by Venkat Iyer (January 10, 2006)

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Two boys stood on a railway platform in London, watching people go by.

"Its still half an hour before the girls arrive" said Julian, the elder of the two brothers. "Lets go to the corner shop and get another ice cream".

"Alright, old boy" drawled Dick in a bored voice. He was a year younger at fourteen, but was not well grown and stood nearly a head shorter than the tall and sturdy Julian. "I am sick and tired of all the extra coaching we had to take this summer. I just can't wait to go to Kirrin again. I am really looking forward to a glorious summer holiday."

"The sparks will fly once George hears the news" replied Julian. "You saw the pictures of Kirrin Island in the newspaper, didn't you?"

"Anne hid the papers from George, she still doesn't know" said Dick. "She would have failed her exams if she knew what has been happening. Anne wrote to me that there was a regular conspiracy in her school to keep her from the truth!"

The boys whiled the time away having an ice each. After a while, a train drew up on the platform and the boys had to swallow their ice cream in a hurry and rush. Two heads leaned out of a window and yelled. "Dick! Julian! Here we are, and the whole compartment is empty. Come on, hurry".

The four children banged each other on the back and Julian lifted Anne off her feet. "Hey little sister, you have grown heavy, I can barely lift you. Mother must have been feeding you up while we were slaving away at our special tuitions".

George grinned at her cousins, a little shyly. George was actually Georgina, but refused to answer unless people called her George. With her short hair and tomboyish ways, a lot of people mistook her for a boy.

"We had a nice two weeks together" she said. "Parties, trips to the cinema and visits to London with Anne's friends—your father insisted on taking us to the natural history museum too. Quite normal and not even the smell of an adventure."

With a sudden jerk, the train started moving. "Off to Kirrin again" chanted Anne, the youngest. "What will happen to us there this time?"

"I wouldn't mind having another adventure or two" said Dick. "By the way George, congratulations on your father winning such a big prize in science. He is world famous now, isn't he?"

George blushed with pleasure. She never got on well with her father, who had a very short temper and could not stand her noisy ways. But she was terribly proud of him and all the work which he did.

"Uncle Quentin has really put Kirrin on the map" said Julian. "It is such an out of the way place, but now its on everyone's lips. Many people must be wanting to go there even if it is only to gaze at the house of such a famous theoretical physicist."

"Do you know what he did to win the prize?" asked Anne. "I never could understand his work."

"I am beginning to understand a little now" said Dick. "Do you remember the funny tower he put up on Kirrin Island once and wanted to work deep underwater, surrounded by water at all times? He was trying to detect nutrinos that time, which can only be done deep under the earth".

"That's not why he got the prize" said George, a little self consciously. "His equations about fusion reactions were finally confirmed by scientists experimenting at Cambridge. His dream of a cheap energy source may really come true now."

The children chatted of this and that as the train ran over the moorlands of Dorset and pulled nearer and nearer to the border with Devonshire. After a while, George fell silent. Dick nudged Julian. "Someone is missing Timmy" he said.

George heard him and smiled. It was surprising how George was getting over her awkward shyness. "Yes, I miss Tim terribly at school. I had joined Gaylands only because they took pets, and then they went and changed their policy. I had a terrible time deciding between Tim and Anne and all my other school friends. I can't wait to see him again."

Soon the train was running down the coast. After a while it pulled into a small station. "Its Kirrin" yelled George. "Come on, lets go".

As the children scrambled down from the train, a big brown dog rushed at them like a whirlwind, barking madly. "Its Tim" screamed George as she hugged him. "Woof woof" went Timmy in his deep voice. There was quite a commotion as dog and owner seemed to go mad.

The four asked the porter to keep their luggage to be picked up later and set off for Kirrin cottage down the coast road. Kirrin Bay lay before them, dotted here and there with fishing boats. Small cliffs and rocks partly blocked the view from the road. Around a corner, they saw a small island standing at the entrance to the bay.

"Look, its Kirrin island" yelled George joyfully, rushing forward. Suddenly she came to a halt and stared at a tall aluminium tower in the middle of the island, glistening in the sunlight. "What is that tower doing on my island?" she demanded angrily.

"We didn't want to tell you before, because we knew you would be upset" began Dick as George glared at him. "Since Uncle Quentin became famous with his new award, people have been visiting Kirrin to see where he works. And since fishing is so poor, some of the local fishermen persuaded your father to put up a replica of the famous tower he used for his experiments. The fishermen take trippers to visit the island and make a bit of money. Its good for the village you know. They have mouths to feed after all."

"How dare he" raged George. "Its my island. It belonged to my mother and she gave it to me. Father had no right to do any such thing. I am going to Kirrin Island right away and take down that wretched tower."

"Don't be silly George" said Julian. "Your father wrote to me and explained how the fishing catch has been falling. Kirrin village always looks to the Kirrins for help in difficult times and your family never let them down before. Its time you stopped being so silly".

But George refused to listen to reason and was mutinous all the way to Kirrin Cottage. As they entered the gate, Aunt Fanny opened the door with a warm welcoming smile, which died as she spied George's face. "So, you saw the tower on the island. I want to talk with you about that."

"How could you!" cried George. "I want you to speak to father and make him take that tower down immediately", and Anne saw to her horror that there were tears in her eyes. Before anyone could say anything, George pushed past her mother and flew upstairs. Timmy leapt after her. The others let her go, for they knew George considered crying to be girlish and hated it.

"You could have expected George to react this way" said Julian to his aunt. "We have been anticipating something like this ever since we saw the article and picture in the newspaper".

"I am afraid there is worse to come" said Aunt Fanny in a gloomy sort of voice. "Uncle Quentin has got a bee in his bonnet about being the last of the Kirrins. You know Kirrin belonged to my parents, but Quentin is a Barnard-Kirrin too, a distant relation of the family. In fact our unusual name made me get acquainted with him when we were both at Cambridge. He has spent his whole life devoted to science, but now suddenly he has rediscovered his family roots. With all the recognition he has been getting, he wants to resurrect the old Kirrin family lands and estates. He wants to rebuild Kirrin Castle on the island, maybe even build a causeway to the island and live there, like the old time Kirrins. Nobody can convince him otherwise. He is now hard at work on the old map of Kirrin which you children found and a few other maps he has dug up from some very old library collections."

The children listened is a horrified silence. What? Destroy the island they all loved and cherished? Change the landscape of Kirrin for ever? This could not be happening!

"George will never, never accept that" said Dick. "She would go off her head, and you know something, so would we. How are you ever going to convince George to agree to this?"

"There is one alternative, but its even worse' said Aunt Fanny. "Professor Hayling called the other day. Cambridge University where Uncle Quentin studied has offered him a Professor's chair and a chance to build a new experimental fusion reactor. But I am afraid that would mean leaving Kirrin and living in Cambridge. That's why I haven't told Quentin about the phone call yet, or he would want to leave today."

This was getting worse and worse. The three children went upstairs, talking about the startling turn of events. They left George alone, for they knew she was too upset to listen to them. Anne peeped into her room and saw George sobbing into Timmy's thick coat. If she only knew what else was in store for her. Anne blinked back her tears and turned away.

Julian saw her face and tried to cheer her up. "Don't worry, Anne. Things will turn out fine. Haven't they always? Uncle Quentin will just get involved with something else and forget about all this."

"But what if he goes and lives in Cambridge?" she sobbed, for Anne loved Kirrin very much indeed.

"Even that won't change things, we could still come to Kirrin for our holidays. I will ask father to speak to Uncle Quentin, you know he will always listen to our father", said Julian.

"Not always" said Dick in a morose voice. "Uncle Quentin refused to study law as Grandpa and father wanted, and hardly even spoke to our family for years together. Why, we didn't meet George for ages because of that old quarrel."

Julian glared at him. "This is not helping any. Can't you see Anne is upset? Come on, let us go down to the shore and have a bathe. That will make us feel better."

The three children went down the rocky path to the shore. They did not see George and Timmy slipping away down the cliff path that led to the fishing cottages. But George had a bone to pick with the fishermen who lived there. Soon, she turned a corner and came to a cove with many boats tied up. She saw a tall gangling youth unfurling a sail and ran towards him.

"Alf, how dare you take trippers to my island" she yelled angrily. But the boy took no notice and instead, gave a rousing welcome to Timmy, who leapt around him adoringly.

"Alf, I am talking to you" yelled George.

"Hello Miss. Georgina" said the boy. That made George even angrier, if that was possible. She hated being called Georgina even more than being called Miss.

"How many times have I told you to call me George" she raged.

"And I asked you to call me by my middle name James didn't I, after my mother married my stepfather who is called Alf too?, replied the boy. "I am the one who's been taking Timmy for his walks while you were away at school. I haven't heard any thanks yet".

George calmed down a little. "Sorry James. Of course I am grateful about you looking after Timmy. But why have you let trippers run all over my island? I didn't even know the fishermen could find the way to land on Kirrin Island."

"Well, finding the way to Kirrin Island is probably the first thing every fisherboy in this village learns" replied James. "We never let on to you about it, because we knew how possessive you were as a child about the island. When even you could row to the island by the time you were ten, it is not going to be difficult for a fisherman to do it, you know".

"But the tower? And the trippers? Why all this?" asked George. James looked away.

"So you haven't heard about the causeway yet", he said sadly, shaking his head. "Kirrin is not going to be the same again, once your father rebuilds the castle and the causeway. But we need the jobs, Master George. We were all planning to move away until your father came up with his grand plans for Kirrin. It's the only thing that made us stay on as his tenants. We can't live on fishing any more. This tripper business is just a temporary arrangement, until the excitement over your fathers big award dies away."

As George heard all this, her insides suddenly went cold with fear. Until now she had raged and yelled for every small thing and usually got her way. But looking at the grave face of this friendly fisherboy, she felt helpless in the hands of a relentless fate. With a heavy heart, she ran back the way she had come. She spied the other children on the beach and ran to them in distress. It took the combined effort of the three children and Timmy to calm her.

In the middle of all this commotion, nobody noticed a girl walking up to them. She looked a lot like George with short curly hair cut almost as short as a boy's. She walked up to Dick and punched him on the shoulder.

"Ragamuffin Jo!" yelled Dick in pleasure as he turned to look at her. "Fancy meeting you the first day of the holidays. What brings you this way?"

Jo had a worried look on her face. "I went to meet my father, who is in prison, you know. He had a surprising bit of news from one the prison inmates and sent me to give warning."

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