Deep Ark 6 - Epilogue

                                                      Epilogue
                                                         pg 124

We lie on the warm sand, my dad and I. The waves lap gently at our bare feet. Above us, seagulls circle lazily and the mashed-potato clouds slide across a plate of blue sky.

The island has never looked so beautiful. I have never been so happy.

After we buried poor Octo Serp, Hammerhead took the Sea Slug back to DA6 and I stayed on the island. I felt no fear at being left alone. For five days, I was the king of my own domain. The place was teeming with bird life, tropical flowers and trees and I explored every part of this amazing paradise.

                                                  pg 125

I even learned to climb the tall palm trees. At the top, I found strange, giant nuts. I knocked one to the ground and it split open. Inside, it was pure white and full of clear juice. I guzzled it until the sweet fluid ran down my cheeks. I'd never tasted anything so delicious.

At night, I built a fire of driftwood and cooked fresh fish that I caught in a net the skipper had left me. Basin City and my underwater world seemed a very long way away.

On day five, the Sea Slug returned. When Dad and Old Joe climbed out of the hatch, the looks on their faces were something to behold! I'd never seen my dad so happy. The smile never left his face. And Old Joe actually did a jig for joy on the beach!

I knew how he felt.

"I'm going to set up a hamburger joint, here on the beach. I'll call it Island Joe's," he said.

I found Dad staring out to sea at the end of the bay. "I wish your mum were here to see this," he said sadly. "She loved the sun and the sand."

"She is here, Dad." I squeezed his hand.

Then we walked along the beach together and

                                            pg 126

I told him about everything that had happened. The words just poured out: finding Octo in the hold, the snakes in the crates, discovering the Surface ...

"One thing still tugs me though," I said,

gazing out at the Sea Slug bobbing at anchor in the bay. "I still don't know why that boa turned on poor Octo like that."

Later that day, I asked Hammerhead the same question. He smiled knowingly, then took something out of his pocket and passed it to me. It was one of DA6's snake remote controls.

"I kept this little souvenir ven ve left DA6," he said with a chuckle. "And this, too." It was a small homing device. "Your dad said all the large vorms had microchips inside. So I figured all I needed to do vas plant this homing device on Serp. Ven he broke open the tank, I simply pressed the button and the vorm did the rest. It vent straight home to Mamma!" 

Dad stands  and brushes the sand from his

                                                                           pg 127

shorts with a puzzled frown on his face. "Rom, I've just thought of something," he says. "What happened to the snakes that Octo stored aboard the Sea Slug? They weren't there when the skipper returned to DA6."

I stand next to him and point to the jungle behind us.

"What use is a paradise without snakes?" I say, looking Dad square in the eye.

He looks back at me in astonishment and then turns to the jungle. A huge smile spreads over his face and he laughs so loud, a flock of rainbow-coloured parrots squawks up into the clear, blue sky.

My name is Rom. I'm twelve years old, I live twenty metres above the sea on a tropical island and I always see the sun.