‘Fabtastic said Timmo ‘you make me speechless.’
‘Cool splodger,’ the others chimed in. Roger was still grinning. They looked at him expectantly.
‘Even better, I telephoned my dad when we got here and he has bought 500,000 Amazon shares.’
‘Which will zoom upwards due to the huge sales,’ said Kate.
‘And be sold at a massive premium’ added Jack. ‘Then zoom down again.’
The children clapped Roger on the back in pure admiration. It encouraged him to intellectualise about The Black Hand Gang. ‘Did you know the original gang was a bunch of Serbians who assassinated the Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and that led to the start of the First World War in 1914?’
‘Roger!’ A chorus of good-natured “shut-ups” made him stop but they didn’t really mind him being intellectual. After all he was their best friend and one of their gang.
Marshall left the party and went to his room to look after his mum. They had a lot of catching up to do.
Brett walked away towards the bar and a well-earned beer leaving Kate, Jack, Roger and Timmo alone. The older children stood and gathered around Timmo’s new wheelchair provided by the hotel. Jack ruffled Timmo’s ginger mop and looked at the messages already inscribed on both of his plaster casts holding his legs stretched out in front of him.
Roger had written, “Timmo isn’t a dimmo.” Brett, “the bravest boy ever.” Marshall had put, “bet you can’t hop 100 metres.” Kate, “love you loads get well soon, x x x.’ And then there was Jack’s message. “Nearly lost but then found. I love you forever Timmo.”
The sun was setting over the jungle forests of Nyere National Park and they silently stood in awe of its beauty. Maybe their senses were heightened to a level never reached before, never reached by most people in their rather mundane lives. But the gang of four friends now knew the difference between living and existing. Now they had tasted real life and adventure, it was intoxicating and an irreversible process. They reached out their hands and clasped them together in the centre of their circle. As the sun finally set on their African adventure a loud shout echoed across the river and disturbed the monkeys making them stare at their ancestral equivalents.
‘Who dares wins!’ The shout followed the hands as they were thrust skywards and clenched into triumphal fists.
* * *
The Black Hand Gang and Madam Musseine were stopped before they started by a company of best friends.
The Evil stopped by The Good in our small world.
The newspapers christened them “The Company”. A set of children but with no names mentioned. Lauded as saving our world, the one we think we understand but where no one knows what is really happening behind the facade of reality.
The stories in the media didn’t cover 99 per cent of the truth.
There are many evil people in our world and only a few brave and courageous children to defeat them, starting with you.
* * *
One week later, Roger sat at his desk at Eton Public School and blotted the splodge of ink on his history essay, ‘The Samurai, warriors of Japan – honourable despots or heroes?’
Timmo was at home with dad, his left leg was recovering well but his right was a mess. He was desperate to return to school and his mates but for now, the doctors had told him the damage would keep him in a wheelchair for a long time, maybe forever. However, there was only so much Top Gear on Dave TV that even he could watch and re-watch and now he was bored.
Which left Kate and Jack. She glanced across at the handsome hero to her left. He was squirming at his school desk remembering the adventure of a lifetime and not paying attention to the English teacher droning on about William Shakespeare. He turned towards her and gave her the handsomest of smiles and she returned it before shyly lowering her gaze as she blushed bright red. The teacher continued to recite Shakespeare but now it was more interesting, at least for Kate.
‘Take all my loves, my love yea take them all;
What hast thou then more than thou hadst before?
She sighed and remembered how close they had been in the volcano.
Jack the lad, a typical brainless boy just played with his pen, swooping it across the desk as if it were an aeroplane or even...a stealth gyroscope.
THE END
The second book in the series is called:
The Black Hand Gang rise again.
Madame Musseine and sushi.
Acknowledgements
To my son, Jack George who listened to my stories about ‘The Black Hand Gang’ whilst we were on holiday in Llafranc, Catalonia.
You prompted the story lines, demanding more from my imagination.
Do you remember the heat Jack? The scent of the pine and olive trees mixed with that of the brine as it evaporated on the shores of the warm Mediterranean sea.
Thank you for all your suggestions then. Thank you for editing the manuscript now.
Be inspired by our book and always remember to ask yourself; are you living or just existing?
Love Dad xxxxxxx
Theme music for the film is “Africa” by Toto
I hear the drums echoing tonight
But she hears only whispers of some quiet conversation
She's coming in, 12:30 flight
The moonlit wings reflect the stars that guide me towards salvation
I stopped an old man along the way
Hoping to find some long forgotten words or ancient melodies
He turned to me as if to say, "Hurry boy, it's waiting there for you"
It's gonna take a lot to drag me away from you
There's nothing that a hundred men or more could ever do
I bless the rains down in Africa
Gonna take some time to do the things we never had
The wild dogs cry out in the night
As they grow restless, longing for some solitary company
I know that I must do what's right
As sure as Kilimanjaro rises like Olympus above the Serengeti
I seek to cure what's deep inside, frightened of this thing that I've become
It's gonna take a lot to drag me away from you
There's nothing that a hundred men or more could ever do
I bless the rains down in Africa
Gonna take some time to do the things we never had
Hurry boy, she's waiting there for you
It's gonna take a lot to drag me away from you
There's nothing that a hundred men or more could ever do
I bless the rains down in Africa
I bless the rains down in Africa
(I bless the rain)
I bless the rains down in Africa
(I bless the rain)
I bless the rains down in Africa
I bless the rains down in Africa
(Ah, gonna take the time)
Gonna take some time to do the things we never had
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