Chapter 11.
“I never want to see another apple again as long as I live,” groaned Meredith. Cory agreed with her wholeheartedly. Spurred on with the success of her crab apple jelly and apple pie, Maggie had insisted they pick all the cooking apples. Two days of solid peeling and slicing followed as Maggie made apple pies, shortcakes, muffins and crumbles as well as cooking huge quantities to store in the freezer.
“At least you’re not saying you’re hungry,” Meredith teased Cory. “You must have eaten at least three apple pies all on your own!”
“I do finally feel full,” admitted Cory. “Why don’t we go outside and I’ll teach you to play soccer?”
“No thanks,” replied Meredith rather doubtfully. “Why don’t we go for a boat ride and see where we end up?” she suggested.
Maggie overheard this as she went out to the washing line with a basket of wet clothes. “Those two are playing together with such imaginary ideas,” she thought. She gave them an indulgent smile as they ran off to the shed together.
Meredith climbed into the boat first.
“Bother,” she said. “We left the canopy unclipped and now Tabitha’s in here.”
“She probably likes the fishy smell,” said Cory. “You’d better toss her out or she’ll end up as the cat on a pirate ship.”
“She doesn’t want to move,” said Meredith crossly, as Tabitha resisted her attempts to pick her up and swiped Meredith with a well-aimed claw.
“Ow.” She sucked the back of her hand. “She scratched me.”
“She’ll have to come with us then,” said Cory cheerfully. “Punch us in a destination, Mr Mate.”
“Aye, aye, Captain,” replied Meredith smartly, and pushed the buttons on the GPS panel at random. Cory pushed the silver button as the boat jerked then rocked quietly.
“Where are we this time?” Meredith asked as Cory looked out. She stuck her head out beside his.
“Looks like a river – oh my goodness. Look at that boat. Is that amazing or what?”
The children were sitting in a small covered supply boat which was being towed by a long narrow barge. The barge was painted dark blue with a wide red trim decorated with fancy designs in a riot of colours. An old woman sat placidly knitting in a wooden chair on the deck, while an old man in a flat black cap smoked a pipe and turned the wheel in the small steering cabin at the front of the barge. A rope looped around just above the water line and the occasional roughly woven sack was strung there as a protection against scraping the paint. Small windows were hung with lace curtains while on either side brightly painted yellow shutters were painted in a profusion of wild flowers. Tubs and wooden boxes of flowers and green plants sat in the sunshine on the deck and also on the flat roof of the barge, alongside red and white life buoys which were lashed in place with rope. A short black funnel with wisps of smoke stuck up at one end and the quack of ducks could be heard over the muffled chugging of an engine.
As Meredith and Cory watched, another barge came chugging from the opposite direction. This one was gaily decorated in shades of vivid pink and greens and a large painted notice proclaimed the name Sparrow on the bows. The man steering waved a greeting as he passed.
“I know where we are. We’re on a canal, and those are narrow boats,” said Meredith excitedly. “I saw them in a travel brochure Dad brought home last year. He wanted to go for a holiday on one but Mum hates flying and didn’t want to go so far to get there.”
“Where are we then?” asked Cory blankly.
”Holland of course. Look at the old fashioned houses hanging over the water.”
“I can’t see any windmills, “ objected Cory. “And anyway, isn’t Holland supposed to be flat? There are hills over there.” He pointed in the distance where a range of hills rose on the horizon.
“Well if it’s not Holland it’s probably somewhere else in Europe,” said Meredith. “This is great. We might as well enjoy the journey.”
She and Cory crawled to the back of the little boat where they were hidden from the view of anyone on the barge. They dangled their feet over the stern and watched with interest as the barge chugged slowly along the canal. Farms of spreading green pasture with bony black and white cows gave way to a bustling town. People sitting at café tables under striped umbrellas waved to the children as they went past. They saw quaint cottages with busy housewives hanging out washing or scrubbing the stone doorsteps. A pony pulling a cart clopped past in the other direction and a couple of teenagers on bicycles raced past the barge with derisive shouts until the road curved away from the canal again.
“We’re not going very fast,” said Cory after a while. “I’ll bet I could walk as fast as this. What do you reckon we hop off if we get close to the bank and go exploring? We’d only have to run a bit to catch up again.”
Meredith wasn’t keen on this idea and wanted to wait for the boat to stop.
“They have to stop sometime,” she said sensibly. “They can’t go forever.”
Almost as if he had heard her, the skipper slowed the engine.
“I could crawl faster than this,” Cory pointed out.
Drifting across the canal the old couple pulled the barge alongside a small wooden jetty where they tied the barge to one of the wooden poles standing in the water by the riverbank. Cory and Meredith watched as the old man and his wife carefully locked the door of their cabin and climbed out onto the jetty.
“They must be going shopping,” said Meredith. “The old woman’s carrying a basket.”
“The shops were a few minutes back that way,” said Cory “Let’s go and explore now.”
Meredith didn’t take much persuading.
“What about Tabitha? She’s still asleep.”
“Leave her there. I’ll make sure I tie the canopy down so she can’t get away.”
The children set off down a winding track in the opposite direction to the old man and woman. There were large trees growing beside the river and their branches gave a pleasant shade to walk under. Before long the children came to a spreading grass area where a group of boys, aged from about six to twelve, were playing a loosely organised game of soccer. Cory gave a shout of pleasure and ran to join them. He quickly found that language was no barrier here but was dismayed to realise that the six-year-old had ball skills nearly as good as his own while the older boys were much better. The boys were dressed in long trousers and heavy boots which Cory thought must have made it difficult to run in. The boys shouted at each other from time to time but Cory didn’t understand what they were saying. Fortunately football is the same no matter what language the players speak so he was able to join in enthusiastically.
Meredith watched for a while then wandered off and began picking some of the flowers growing by the river bank. A small tousled haired dog ran up carrying a stick in its mouth. Meredith took the stick gingerly and threw it away along the bank. The dog promptly ran after it and after worrying it for a short while, then killing it thoroughly, laid it by Meredith’s feet and looked at her expectantly. Meredith tossed the stick away again, then again, but after what felt like the hundredth throw she decided that she’d had enough. The dog looked at the stick hopefully for a while then lay in the shade panting. Meredith went in search of Cory and found him lying on the grass under the trees. The other boys had gone.
“They’ve just left, I think their mother called them,” Cory said, “What have you been doing?”
“Playing with a dog. Oh, it’s still here. It must have followed me. Go on, off you go home now. “
The dog gave a short bark and promptly sat down by Cory’s foot and offered him a paw.
“He’s great. He is so well trained. He must belong to someone in one of these houses.”
“Do you think we should look for his owner?” asked Meredith.
“No, he’ll be okay. He’ll find his way home again. Dogs are really intelligent.”
“So are cats,” said Meredith hotly. “Tabitha is really clever. She can do all
sorts of things.”
“I’ll bet she can’t shake hands though.”
They bickered amicably about the respective merits of cats and dogs. Cory would have been happy to admit that he didn’t know much about either animal but it was such fun teasing Meredith and seeing her getting so worked up about it. She got redder and redder in the face and talked faster and faster as she tried to convince him of Tabitha’s superiority.
Eventually he took pity on her and got to his feet.
“Let’s agree that they’re both intelligent. We’d better get back to the boat now.”
Meredith agreed. “I’d hate it to go off without us. Did you work out where we are?”
“Could be Germany. Everything they said sounded like ick,ack,uck.”
Meredith giggled. “You sound like someone being sick.”
“Well, it’s that sort of language.” Cory practised a few more “ack ack” sounds while Meredith snorted with laughter. The boat was still at the jetty when they arrived.
“And that’s a surprise,” said Meredith, as Cory pulled the little supply boat closer to the jetty and they scrambled in. “I was beginning to think that every boat trip we took was a total disaster.”
“Things have to go right sometimes, I guess,” said Cory.
A few minutes later he realised that he had spoken too soon. The bargeman and his wife came back with a full shopping basket, overflowing with fresh vegetables and with a long crusty loaf of bread poking out of one side. Cory eyed it hungrily. The skipper untied the rope and used a pole to push the boat into the canal again. As they passed a farm an old man on a tractor waved to the bargeman and pointed behind him. The man turned to his wife and said something. She shook her head. The man on the tractor shouted again and Meredith yelped. “Oh blast.”
The old lady had looked up from her knitting and seen Meredith as she stood up to look at the bridge coming into sight ahead of them. The old woman called to her husband and he shouted at them loudly.
“I don’t know what he’s saying,” said Cory nervously. “It’s pretty obvious what he means through.”
The man was gesturing angrily at the children to get out of the supply boat.
“I’m not getting out,” said Meredith “I don’t want to get wet and besides, it’s our only way home.”
The old man pulled the tiller sharply so that the barge veered in beside the bank of the canal. He picked up his long pole and marched purposefully down the deck towards the children, with a grim look on his face.
“We’d better go back,” advised Cory and lifted the canopy ready to climb under it. Meredith scrambled in hastily and at that moment Tabitha jumped out from under the canopy and nimbly leaped across to the bank of the canal, where she sat twitching her tail.
“Tabitha,” shrieked Meredith.
Cory gave one last despairing look at the grim bargeman and jumped across to land on the gritty path beside the canal. “Don’t worry, I’ll get Tabitha,” he called, as Meredith disappeared under the canopy.
Meredith scrambled across in a panic and hit the button on the GPS. “Oh no!” she said, as she felt the boat arrive back in the shed. “What have I done? Cory will be stuck there now.”