10 pages docktown upside down

RAT TAILS ADVENTURE SERIES

Dock Town Upside Down GRAHAM VIVIAN LANCASTER

For Sydney Jade Lancaster.

L TRAYBERRY PRESS

ALEXANDER HOUSE Incorporating

TRAYBERRY PRESS 29 Howick Road Pietermaritzburg 0836388813 Copyright 2012 Graham Vivian Lancaster Copyright 2012 in this published edition TRAYBERRY PRESS All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the copyright holder and publisher.

First published 2012

ISBN: 9780987014627

Cover design: G. V. Lancaster / Maxine Wicks Photography: Graham Vivian Lancaster Art work: Amber Wicks Distributed by Trayberry Book Distributors.

Cell: 0836388813 Tel: 033 - 3427978

Works by the author: NOVELS:

Wind Song Storm Song Strength Of ten

SELF HELP: Everyone Can Do It Its Never Too Late Surviving The Ladder The Cost Of Money Who’s Shrinking Your Money?

The Happy Customer POETRY:

HUMOUR:

Marks On My Soul Gypsey Whale Song Gravel Roads Fledgeling African Ride Moments of Truth Picaroon Journeys Rusty Gates Poetry Study Guide Bert and Co. Bert Another Story Nothing For Mahala

ADVENTURE SERIES: Wild and Dangerous + Study Guide Secrets of the Sea Cyclone Tracy Wrath Of The Gods Dangerous Alliances When The Earth Thunders + Study Guide Awakening Africa Flying With Eagles Over The Edge + Study Guide ******************* The Adventurous Life Of Rory Flint Rat To Riches + Study Guide Dock Town Mayor and Mayoress Dock Town Upside Down

DT Antonio Starting Over Hans fed me and sewed clothes for me by hand as I sat on the end of his bunk quietly watching. He made a bright yellow rain coat and even some boots, which he cut out carefully with a sharp knife from a sheet of rubber the engineers had given him and I marvelled at his patience and skill.

There was something about the sewing and making of clothes that tormented my mind and I tried to work out what it was. Someone had sewed for me, and yet, looking down at my tattered dungarees, I thought it must have been long ago.

“Von veek have we been gone from Maputo, Liddle Fella and you vil be needing clothes for to keep warm and I sew it quickly, for soon ve are sailing into da big storm.”

I had seen dark clouds building up in the distance, and then they would dissipate, only to brew into a more sinister looking plot. The wind gusted, at times worse than others, whistling eerie wind songs off the bridge as it howled around the ship like a living beast as we sailed into it. The swells picked up on the wind and some of them broke with spindrift rising like white cocks-combs to be driven ahead of them on the wind. Spindrift pelted the ship like hails of salty shotgun pellets that caused the sailors to duck and shield their eyes lest they should be blinded.

“Why are we sailing into the storm, Hans?”

“Because straight across is da shortest and quickest way to Hong Kong,” he said quite simply and I nodded. It was a huge ship and they knew what they were doing. “It is the shortest vay to Hong Kong, ja! But Captain he did try to steer round the edge but da storm was changing course and much vider across dan vot ve expect from the weather report, ja!”

“Ja,” I nodded in agreement.

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“Da storm it catches us, ja, but dat is vot it is all about to be a sailor and never is it a boring life, ja.”

“Ja,” I nodded.

“Come fit on der clothes, Liddle Fella before Hans he must be full time vorking on da ship in da storm. Look at this. I made for you also one overcoat for the cold.”

I was overwhelmed at the humility and compassion of this huge man.

“Thank you Hans. You are a very good friend and I would have died had it not been for your kindness.”

“Ah, it vos nothing,” he got all shy as he waved my thanks away.

“It was not ‘nothing,’ Hans and I am very proud to have you as my friend.”

“Ah, Liddle Fella! Not everyone they understand Hans, so Hans he keeps to himself.”

I had noticed he was a bit of a loner, apparently having only one friend, Peaater, besides me. Hans worked hard and from what I could see, did it well. He was a giant of a man, towering above the rest of the crew and it crossed my mind they might be afraid of him.

“No one understands what it means to be truly different to everyone else, Hans, and it can be a lonely life,” I said as a thought danced tantalisingly across my mind and then fell back into the dark place from which it had come. He stood looking at me for what seemed like ages before he spoke.

“That is the truth, Liddle Fella. Hans he is different. But tell me Liddle Fella, why is it sometimes you have such a sad look on your face and I can see your mind it is very far away?”

I looked at him and nodded thoughtfully.

“Sometimes, Hans – I see little things in my mind but it’s as though I’m not quick enough to grasp them so that I can really see what they are. In some of those thoughts I am so happy and then they are gone as though I am being teased.”

It was his turn to have a sad look in his eyes as he wrapped his huge hand round me and lifted me onto his leg.

“Von day ve will know what it is vot troubles you so, Liddle Fella. You fell out of the grab from high and are lucky you are

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not dead. There is no wonder your memory it is taking a rest,” he nodded and I saw his eyes were shining with tears at my pain. It reminded me of something, someone. Something had happened to me before and someone … I spread my arms and hugged him as best I could.

“You are such a good man, Hans.” He nodded quickly and I saw his pain of isolation, “You are my friend, Hans.” I stepped back and looked up at him.

“Oh ja, Liddle Fella - von day your memory it vill come back and ve will know where you belong.” I saw he was sad again at the thought of parting.

“When that time comes, then perhaps you and I will go back, together, to wherever it is that I come from.”

“Really, Liddle Fella? You will take Hans with?”

“Yes, really. Why not?”

“Hans thinks he will like that,” he grinned happily and I shook his finger to seal the bargain.

I fitted the clothes he had sewed and paraded in front of the mirror.

“Thank you. You are a good – um – tailor.” I had almost said seamstress and again there was a flash I couldn’t grasp of someone from my past. The harder I tried to capture her in my mind’s eye, the more she evaded me.

“Vot is wrong you are frowning so bad, Liddle Fella?”

“Nothing is wrong, Hans. The clothes and boots are strong and warm and fit well. Thank you for all your hard work.”

“Ah, it is nothing,” he said shyly.

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DT Antonio Surviving The Storm The storm was worse than anticipated as it shifted across directly into our course and despite Captain Quade’s attempts to avoid it, we were being drawn right into the middle.

“Ve have to get out of da vay of da eye of da storm, Liddle Fella. If ve sail into da eye – big, big trouble it could be for us.

Satellite navigation looks bad and ve must sail out of da vey but carefully because the swells they are becoming so big.” Hans said worriedly. I was a land rat and had no experience of the sea, so I had to take his word for it.

“You must be very careful, Liddle Fella and better it is you stay inside and not be going on deck or you vill be vashed overboard and I can never find you again.” He was really worried. I caught sight of a wave crest passing the porthole, swallowed at the height of it and nodded quickly.

“I definitely won’t be going on deck in this weather, Hans, so please don’t worry about me.”

“Ok, then Hans he vil not worry in case you go outside?” he still looked at me worriedly.

“I won’t go outside. Promise.”

“That is goot, ja. Hans, he must go now.”

Hans went to work and I crawled in beneath a blanket and fell asleep on the bed, dreaming of a far away place. It was a happy place with happy people and I awoke with such a feeling of love and peace I couldn’t fathom.

The ship was taking strain from the storm and I made my way cautiously up to the bridge to see what was going on.

The sight that greeted me when I arrived was awesome as I climbed up beside the helmsman and looked out of the windscreen.

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We pitched and rolled in the huge swells with waves staggering the ship as they broke over the bow and surged down the deck towards the bridge in roaring foaming lines from fore to aft, that slammed into the cranes and hatch covers and burst again into the air before tumbling out over the railings in great cascading gouts of white water.

And still the wind drove the ocean into a frenzy of madness that cannoned into Kaasland in explosions of noise that shuddered through the ship as water burst high into the night. It tore at the bridge with fists of unbridled vehemence that ripped at anything it might tear off and fling angrily at the blackness engulfing us. Its demented banshee screaming pierced the warmth of my coat to my very bones with frozen terror. I pulled my bright yellow rain jacket on over my coat and hugged myself trying to keep warm.

The propeller bit in deep and forced Kaasland slowly through the ocean as the helmsman held us into the onslaught.

“Phew,” he breathed out hard as a massive swell slammed into the bow, staggering the ship. “Slewing even a few degrees to port or starboard would have the sea swing us round and broach us, Liddle Fella.”

“And then we would capsize.” A fist of terror snatched at my guts as I imagined the ship rolling over. There would be no surviving overboard in this ocean.

“That’s right. This is touch and go stuff,” he told me, staring dead ahead.

Lightning lit the oil dark ocean in vivid blinding flashes of cobalt fire through the pouring rain. The rolling white capped swells bore down on us terrifyingly in the flashing lightning that seemed to shudder my eyeballs and I wasn’t sure if it was better to see the massive size of them or just know they were there.

Looking through the clear circle of glass of the spinning Kent Screen, I saw rain falling in silver torrents with drops as big as grapes drumming on the ship’s steel in showers of madness that quailed my heart. Thunder detonated round us like an angry thing flung down by the gods of wrath, shaking the air and trembling through my body.

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With a fascination of impending doom I watched the rain and huge swells passing in those flashes of lightning. The ship ploughed head on into them like a battering ram against the solid oak of an old castle door, shuddering with the impact of each blow and I could see Hans was worried as he came up beside me.

“It is a very bad storm. You do not go out on deck, Liddle Fella, or you are gone forever on the water,” Hans held me close to his face in his huge fist so there could be no misunderstanding his warning.

“You be careful too. I definitely won’t be going out there, Hans,” I re-assured him, pulling my overcoat round me against the chill of my fearful fascination of this wild weather.

“That is goot, Liddle Fella.” He put me down and went to his duties as I continued to watch, fascinated by the power of the ocean and the elements. The thought of the ship sinking stayed with me as I remembered how worried Hans was. What would I do if I suddenly found myself in the water I wondered as I watched the tops of the giant swells suddenly turning green through the shuddering lightning backlit water? I was sure there wasn’t any survival manual that covered eventualities such as this. I imagined myself in a lifeboat being thrown around on the wild ocean and shuddered. That was, if we could make the lifeboats and get them away in time before Kaasland capsized and sank.

A thought suddenly flittered across my mind like a wind blown Dandelion and I caught it before it flew away.

Somewhere, I had seen wrecked ships that stuck out above the surface of calm water like monuments at low tide. They were great jagged rusting hulks of steel and I knew, for some reason, they had to be removed. It was real – a real place and I grasped the thought with all my willpower.

I had been there and I could see the rusting hulks sticking out above the water, especially at low tide. They were jagged corroding masses of steel that had once been proud ships.

Then I pulled the thought closer and examined the prow of a ship that stuck up at a sharp angle out of the water. The hull had a huge jagged hole from an explosion, the steel broken and

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