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 9: Morning on Kirrin Island
by Vivienne Endecott (March 14, 2006)

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The children looked anxiously at the boat, wondering who, and where, was its owner. Could it have been left here overnight by whoever had blown up the tower? Was it anything to do with Jeffrey Pottersham? Timmy pricked up his ears, and then started to growl gently in his throat. "Timmy can hear someone," whispered George, "let's try and hide amongst those big gorse bushes, we haven't got time to go anywhere else!"

They rushed towards the clump of bushes, where Julian pushed Anne through the prickly branches into the cramped space in amongst the leggy stems. Anne was too scared to protest, even though the prickles scratched her arms and the dead twiglets fell off into her hair. George kept her hand on Timmy's collar and told him to keep quiet. The children waited with baited breath, when along the cliff strolled Penny King, carrying a large shrimping net and two large canvas bags slung diagonally across her body. The children looked at each other in surprise, and then relief. Julian decided to catch her attention.

"Hi, Penny," he called, "we didn't expect to see you here today."

Penny King stopped walking and swung around. After an initial look of surprise at the four children climbing out from the gorse, she gave them a broad smile. "Well, I didn't expect to see you here either," she laughed, "especially after what happened last night, but since you own the island I expect you have come to inspect the damage."

On being released, Timmy bounded up to Penny, who immediately bent down to pat him. "Why are you here?" asked George. "We thought that nobody would be allowed to come here today."

"I have to keep up with my project work come what may," replied Penny, a little ruefully, "regardless of the weather or if someone else's experiment blows up! My days are dictated by the tides, which is why I'm here now when sensible people are still having their breakfasts!"

"What is your project?" asked Dick, looking at the large net with curiosity. "Are you collecting specimens?"

"Yes," answered Penny. "I'm one of several scientists trying to find out why the fishery here has collapsed so quickly. My job is to record the plankton and invertebrates in the bay, to make sure that the fish have got enough food to survive. Dr Kirrin suggested that I did my data recording from the island since there would be less chance of the experimental areas being found by trippers. My friends tease me that it's just an excuse to spend the summer playing around in rock pools, and really they have a point! I've got to get going before the tide comes in. Would you like to come down with me to see what I've caught today?"

"Yes please," chanted the children, who all loved looking for little animals in the warm, sheltered, rocky pools. Julian wondered if they should be getting home, but with the warm sun on his back and an opportunity to look in pools with a real expert, he soon dispelled his worries. Besides, Uncle Quentin was expecting Mr Lenoir that morning, and it might be best to keep out of their way.

George looked at the slippery seaweed encrusted rocks and decided that it would be just too difficult for Timmy to manage to walk out. "I'll stay here with Tim," she said, "I'd like to be here to keep an eye on whoever else comes to the island this morning, but don't let me stop you from going."

Julian, Dick and Anne knew that George meant what she said, and turned to follow Penny. After several minutes scrabbling over the sharp rocks that surrounded Kirrin Island, Penny stopped at a long thin pool which was about the same size as a cricket pitch. Through the water the children could see a square, marked out with red pegs.

"This is my number two quadrat," said Penny. "I have five running up this beach, and I have to record what I see in them every low tide. My number one is only visible at very low tides," she waved an arm out to sea, "and is now a couple of foot under water."

"We've done some work with quadrats at school," said Dick, "only ours were in woodland. We had a wood anemone and a primrose, but nothing like the number of plants that you've got down there, Penny!"

"Some of those plants are actually animals," replied Penny. "You see that liver red thing? Well, that is an anemone too, but a sea anemone, and it is an animal that is waving its tentacles around in hope of catching a meal, even though it looks like a plant!" To prove the point, Penny touched the little animal gently with the end of her net handle, and immediately it pulled in its tentacles and now looked like a blob of red jelly rather than the graceful flower like creature it had been a moment ago.

Anne peered into the pool and smiled up at Penny. Of all the children, she enjoyed rock pools the best. "I love pools because they are just like little gardens," she said, "but with lots of different characters living in different places. One day it would be fun to write a story about them!" Her sharp eyes saw a Blenny, peeping out from behind a rock, and then a transparent prawn march across the bottom of the pool.

Mindful of the changing tides, Penny busied herself, recording all the creatures that she could see in the pool and soon had a long list. "Now we go back to the third quadrat," she said, and the children followed her back across the ragged, seaweed covered rocks, to a smaller pool where another square was marked out.

"Why do you have so many sites?" asked Anne, curiously. "Do you find different things in different places?"

"Oh yes," replied Penny, "it's why I enjoy studying the coast so much. It is lovely for people on a sunny day like today, but the beach is a really tough place for a little animal to live. Imagine: you expect a sea creature to live all the time underwater, but at low tide it can be exposed to very hot sun for hours at a time and be in danger of drying out. It needs to be able to cling on during the fiercest of storms lest it gets washed away. All around there is danger, and animals have adapted in all sorts of ways to protect themselves from their enemies, from making their own armour plating to chemical warfare! There is high drama going on all the time on a beach, if you know how to read the signs."

"There is a different sort of seaweed up here," called Dick, when they reached the fourth quadrat. "It's bright green and looks like lettuce."

"That's why it's called sea-lettuce," laughed Penny. "All plants have the green pigment chlorophyll to make food, but the brown weed you saw lower down the beach has other pigments too, in order to fully utilise the light that can get to it underwater. That brown one we were slipping on was called bladderwrack, and the little bubbles on the fronds help the plant to stand upright when the tide is in."

"I can't imagine what that would look like," said Anne, "it just looks like a messy tangle when the tide is out. It smells, and the flies seem to love it!"

"Well, I can show you if you are interested," replied Penny, surprisingly. "I have to keep an eye on other bits of the seabed and the first quadrat, and I can put a glass panel in the bottom of my boat so that I can see what is going on. If you would like to join me later in the week it would be fun to show you what goes on beneath the waves." The children looked at each other in excitement. They had tried diving in the bay before, of course, but their eyes soon turned red and sore in the salty water. How much more they would be able to see from the comfort of a glass bottomed boat!

"What other experiments are you doing, Penny?" asked Julian, when they got to the fifth and final quadrat. George saw them and scrambled over the rocks to join them, leaving a disgruntled Timmy on the beach.

"Well, I told you that my days were dictated by the tides, but sometimes my nights are too," Penny replied. "So when it is full moon, and high tide, I have to come down here and take a catch. Different fish and plankton are around at night, and at full moon the gangway that the trippers use, reaches into deep enough water for me not to need to use the boat." Penny got into the swing of her favourite subject, pleased to have such an attentive audience. "Plankton is fascinating. It is made up of microscopic animals, and also the larval stages of all the other sea creatures. Fish feed on it, and so do the biggest whales. But sometimes it can glow at night, and the sea can look luminous."

"I think I saw that last night in the bay," said Anne. "It really was a very queer sight." That the sea was full of friendly glowing plankton seemed a lot safer than Kirrin Island becoming a nuclear wasteland!

George looked up. "You seem to be very busy with all your recording, Penny. How often do you get to go out riding?" she asked, "Minstrel is such a lovely horse."

"Oh, I snatch an hour here or there with him," replied Penny. "I get more time during the neap tides. But it was strange the night of the last full moon. I checked him in his field on the way down to the bay, but the next morning he had got out of the field and seemed very tired. I wondered if someone had left the gate open." The children glanced at each other. That had been the night of the strange happenings at Arden Hall. Was there any connection?

"Well, that is me finished," said Penny. "It's time to go. Where have you left your boat?"

"Er..." Julian started. He hadn't thought about how to get back, and really didn't fancy meeting Jeffrey Pottersham down the secret passages that morning. "Penny, would you mind awfully giving us a ride back in your boat. How we got here is a bit complicated..."

"Oh, secrets! Don't mind me," smiled Penny. "Well it will be a bit crowded, but if you don't mind helping me row I suppose it will be all right."

"I'll row all of you," said George. "I'm entering a rowing competition and the exercise will do me good."

When they got back to Kirrin the children thanked Penny for a fascinating morning, and ran up the path back to Kirrin cottage, hoping that they would be in time for lunch. Through the garden gate they saw a tall, dark boy, lying asleep under the apple tree. He awoke at the click of the gate and grinned broadly when he saw them.

"So you have come back - we had almost given you up, thought you had all been kidnapped, but I said that we'd better wait until after lunch before calling the police – I knew you wouldn't willingly miss a meal!"

"Sooty!" exclaimed Dick, slapping his classmate on the back, "what are you doing here? Has Marybelle come too?"

"Be gentle with me, and I'll tell you after lunch," replied his friend. "I'm starving even if you're not!"

Lunch was a noisy affair. Aunt Fanny wanted to tell them off for going off in the night and not returning earlier. Uncle Quentin wanted to know about the state of the tower, and was intending to visit the island that afternoon with the police to see the damage for himself. Only Mr Lenoir stayed out of the conversation, finding the hubbub more than a little confusing when he wanted to reflect upon his morning of discussions with Uncle Quentin. Timmy sat by Sooty's feet, knowing that a good supply of titbits would come his way.

After lunch all the children and Timmy went down to the beach with their bathing things, but first they heard Sooty's news.

"I went home at half term and caught whooping cough," he said. "Most of the children on Castaway caught it. Then Marybelle got it after me. She's still feeling a bit wobbly, but I persuaded Father that my coming to see you when he came to see Dr Kirrin would be good for me."

"That was bad luck," sympathised Julian. "Whooping Cough is horrible, and it must have been pretty boring if Marybelle had it as well as you."

"Oh, every cloud has a silver lining," laughed Sooty. "Even Father felt sorry for me, so I persuaded him to buy me the 'Bells and Whistles' electrical set, you know, the one that attaches to the little Mamod steam engines. Whilst he was in such a sympathetic mood I even got some extra bits from the accessories catalogue."

"Bells and Whistles," said George with interest. "Is it any good? I've asked for a set for my birthday. I'd like to electrify the points in my train set, and get the level crossing gates to open and close."

"Oh yes, I did that in the first week," said Sooty, "but then I developed a few ideas of my own." He glanced around to check that nobody was listening, even though they were sitting in the middle of a nearly empty beach. "I attached the generator to the exercise wheel of Marybelle's hamster cage. If a bell sounded the hamster got scared and stopped, but a light would get quite bright when the hamster was going full pelt!"

The children laughed, imagining the busy hamster powering Sooty's daft circuit. Then their attention was taken by a police launch heading out towards the island. "There goes Uncle Quentin," said Julian. "He's bound to explode too when he sees the mess on the island! Never mind, isn't it time we had that bathe? Race you!"

The water was cold at first, but after plenty of splashing and ducking the children soon warmed up. George could still out-swim the boys; the extra rowing had really built her up, and her resolve not to be beaten was as strong as ever.

After the swim they flopped down onto the beach, and it was Dick who told Sooty about the queer goings on that had occurred since they had arrived back at Kirrin. On hearing of Jeffrey Pottersham's escape from prison, Sooty looked very concerned. "I've heard various strange rumours about Pottersham," he said, "and father is always very wary of him. They were undergraduates together at Oxford and were friends at first. Pottersham even came and stayed at Smuggler's Top once, and it may have been there that he first developed his interest in secret passages. Then there was a quarrel and they fell out and I know that father wouldn't trust him anymore. If he is bent on revenge against your father, George," he said seriously, looking at her straight in the eye, "then I think you will have a very determined enemy to deal with who must be caught as quickly as possible."

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