Lighthouse Jive by Jonathan Dunne

Author:Jonathan Dunne [Dunne, Jonathan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2016-10-30T22:00:00+00:00

-12-

Arty’s Escape

‘Where’s Arty?’

Lambert looked at his wife. ‘She was just next to you.’

Amber turned and asked Apollo if he’d seen her and the Scottish Terrier, answered that he had just seen Artemis heading back down the path towards the slipway.

As if by omen, a sudden gust of wind came up from nowhere and blew paper plates across the yard.

Gonzo looked out to the mainland again, something he’d done several times as he chatted with the Lamberts. Now, Lambert realized that he was gazing out to Carrantuohill Mountain. The mountain was some kind of weather report for those in the know. Lambert now saw the bruised thunder-heads bubbling above it, visible in the evening dusk sky. The seagulls, which were a constant screeching feature of the island, had suddenly disappeared from the sky. The quietness on the island was a quietness the Lamberts had never witnessed before.

One word from The Island God was enough: ‘Storm.’

Lambert couldn’t get over how easy storms sneaked up on the island. It was just one storm after the other. One minute it’s sunny, and the next, there are grey clouds on the horizon.

And that’s exactly the way things happened on the island; everything was the calm before the storm and then everything came at once. In a short time, Lambert would come to understand this: it’s all or nothing with the island. First she loves you and welcomes you to her bedroom, but then she can turn sour just as fast.

‘It’s getting dark. The last place she should be is on the paths. One gust of wind will blow her over the side.’

Amber and Lambert were fully aware of the dangers on the island and didn’t really need to hear the native’s words of warning.

They all followed Gonzo back down the sheer pathway. There was no sign of Artemis anywhere.

By now the wind was howling and simmering dark rain clouds were above them, just waiting for God to unzip them.

‘Arty!!’ called Amber in the rising wind, ‘Are you down there?!’

Lambert too called out but the might of the wind was swallowing his words.

Apollo and Aristotle ran down to the mooring.

Just a minute later, both the Lamberts and Gonzo heard Aristotle call out in a half-voice half-bark yelp: ‘She’s down here! Woof!’

Jesus, talk about staying in character, thought Lambert. Hearing that uber-creepy dog-man call in the Atlantic storm had to be the most disturbing moment of Lambert’s life to date, here on this beautiful island of all places. He really needed to sit the boy down and have a heart-to-heart once this storm passed.

Amber, Lambert, and Gonzo got down to the bottom of the pathway and skidded to a stop at the water’s edge. None of them could believe their eyes. Lambert’s reaction was to spontaneously sweat and feel woozy, practically seasick. In the back of his mind thinking that maybe he should’ve never come out to the island.

Amber screamed at her daughter, but the sea gales absorbed her words and made her gulp. Meanwhile, Apollo had

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