Football Fiesta by Gerard Siggins

Author:Gerard Siggins [Gerard Siggins]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781788491754
Publisher: The O'Brien Press
Published: 2019-05-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 25

The students enjoyed their afternoon off, lazing around in the sun and taking dips in the warm sea. Jess and Craig were the strongest swimmers and had races out to a football that Kalvin had helpfully kicked into the water.

Swimming off Atlantis was a bit different to a normal island as there was no beach, and no shallows to paddle in. It was like jumping into a giant swimming pool that only had a deep end, so the other three, being less confident swimmers, stayed close to shore.

Joe got bored splashing around after a while and decided to explore the island that he had only seen briefly on that first morning in Clew Bay. Jess and Craig were still twenty metres out to sea, and Ajit and Kim were playing water-polo with another of the footballs, so he wandered off on his own.

‘Be careful if you go up near the cliffs, Joe,’ called Kalvin, who seemed to be acting as their life guard-cum-babysitter for the afternoon.

‘I will,’ called Joe, as he set off at a trot up the slope which gradually steepened as it neared the top. He turned and looked back down at the island and marvelled at the idea of creating an occasionally-submarine artificial island that could have a football pitch on its roof.

‘Victor’s obviously a genius, and a brilliant businessman, but he’s also a bit mad,’ he chuckled to himself.

He walked the last few steps to the top of the island, taking Kalvin’s advice and steering clear of the cliff edge. He sat down and gazed out at the ocean and pinched himself, as he had done several times since he had come to Atlantis Island.

‘The lads back in Woodstock are probably hugging themselves to keep warm, training out in the wind and the rain while I’m lazing around in the Caribbean,’ he thought. ‘They probably don’t miss me at all – on the pitch anyway – and Robbie’s still wondering when he’s going to get a call from that scout.’

He closed his eyes and thought back to home, and all the things he missed. He didn’t want to feel too homesick, but he enjoyed thinking about his mum’s shepherd’s pie, and what might be happening on his favourite TV zombie show.

Being tired from his efforts in the football match, and nice and warm from the sun, Joe soon dozed off, where he continued to dream of undead monsters who devoured meat and potato pies.

‘Joe! Are you all right,’ came the call that woke him up. It was Kalvin at the bottom of the hill. The other four kids were out of the water, wrapped in towels, and standing next to the cottage. It was also quite a bit darker, and he saw the blazing sun had turned bright red and was hovering just above the horizon.

‘It gets dark very quickly here,’ called Kalvin, ‘Get down here and we’ll head inside for food.’

Joe stood up and took one last look over the top of the cliffs where he was astonished to see the same flickering lights he had seen the week before.

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