Moving Day                                                                                     

Zakry opened his eyes."Remember, remember the fifth of November".Oh no thought Zakry. Most 8 year old boys were jumping for joy at the thought of Rockets and Cartwheels. Bonfires, hotdogs and sparklers. Normally Zakry would have been up and out of bed ready to build a dummy to cart around in his Dad's wheelbarrow, shouting "penny for the guy" but not today. No because today was MOVING DAY!!

He curled into a ball, groaned to himself and pulled the blankets up over his head. "If I hide in here" he thought to himself "then they'll forget about me and leave me here". Just then his bedroom door opened and in walked his Mum.

"C'mon Zak, you've got to get up.Dad's been and got the truck, we've got to put your bed in there".

"Oh but Mum, I don't want to move, who am I going to play with? Jenny and Scott can't come with me can they?"

"No Zak but Mortimer can come." she said, picking up his faithful old bear from the corner of his bed.


Only Zaks mum knew about Mortimer, after all 8 year old boys weren't supposed to have their teddy bears anymore were they? Even more so when you were a big, chunky chap like Zak.

"I don't care about Mortimer. I don't want to move. I want to stay here!"

"Well Zakry you can just take yourself downstairs and eat your breakfast. We are moving house whether you like it or not. I don't expect you to understand why; it’s just something we have to do".

Zakry could tell he had upset his Mum and did as he was told. He grabbed Mortimer, put on his slippers and went downstairs.

"Good morning, Dad"

"Oh, good morning, Zak. Jenny is in the kitchen waiting to see you."

"Is she? Oh," Zakry quickly threw Mortimer under the stairs, feeling himself going slightly red and walked into the kitchen.

"Hello Jenny. What are you doing here so early?"

"Scott and I wondered if you wanted to make a guy with us before you go. You know, seen as it's probably the last thing we'll do together as a bunch. What do you think?"

Zak could tell that Jenny was sad.

"I'll go and ask Mum."

He grabbed Mortimer from under the stairs and ran up.

"Muuum......"

"What's up Zak?" she said walking into his bedroom.

"Jenny and Scott are making a guy and they want me to help. Can I go please?"

"Yes, I suppose so but make sure your back by three o'clock, otherwise we'll be going without you!" she laughed.

"Alright Mum." Zak grabbed his coat and legged it downstairs. "C'mon Jenny, I'll race you to Scotts. Last one there is an eggy fart!" Zak rushed out of the front door.

"Bye Mr bracklestick" shouted Jenny, running out the front door in hot pursuit of Zak.She knew for a fact she couldn't beat him now, after all Scott only lived three houses down the street.

"Hiya Zak" said Scott as Zak ran up the front path "where's Jenny?"

"She's just coming and she's lost the race so she's an eggy fart, right." Zak winked at Scott.

Jenny came running up the path "cheat."

"So, you're still an eggy fart" said Zak.

"Urgh, Oh god Zak I can smell her from here. Jenny tell your Mum that you don't want any more boiled eggs for breakfast." Zak and Scott howled with laughter.

"Pigs, I'll get you back tomorrow when Zak's gone!"

There was silence. Zak looked at the floor.

"Hey Zak, remember that time when Jenny fell face first in the sand tray in reception class?" said Scott.

"Yeah she had a cold and when Mrs Jacobs helped her up she had two lines of sandy snot coming out her nose. Urgh!!" Zak stuck his tongue out at Jenny.

"Well ..eh.. well" Jenny was trying to think of something just as stupid about Zak, when suddenly she realised. "Well, Zakry Bracklestick, what do you think you're doing here in your pyjama's?" laughed Jenny.

Zak looked down and realised he still had his pyjama's and his slipper's on. He hadn't even had his breakfast!

"Ha, ha! What a dong!" Laughed Scott.

"You can talk Scott. Why didn't you notice that I still had my pyjama's on then? Bat!"

Zak could feel himself getting redder and redder.

"I'll be back in about 20 minutes get started on that guy, right!"

Zakry legged it back to his house, leaving behind him the sound of Scott and Jenny's laughter.

He ran up the front path of 19 Vineleaf Rd, shoving past his Mum and Dad who were struggling to take his bed down the path to the truck.Zak stopped at the front door turned around and yelled "Mum, you could have told me that I still had my pyjama's on!"

At that moment Zak's Dad dropped his end of the bed.

"Aiyee, my foot, quick pull the bed towards you Josie." He yelled.

Zak's mum gave the bed a heave and his Dad let out an almighty roar and started jumping all over the path.Zakry laughed, his Dad looked like he was doing an Indian war dance.

Zak's mum ran over to his dad.

"Sit down Chris, I've got to get your shoe off and have a look."

"Oh it's alright love, it’ll probably just be a bruise, come on we've still got a lot to do and you can stop laughing monster or you can load the truck while I put my feet up!"

"Sorry Dad, I just really liked your war dance, do you want me to light a fire in the back garden for you?"

"I wasn't doing a war dance."

Zaks mum started laughing."Oh yes you were love, if only you could have got the chanting right. How does it go Zak?"

Zak put his left hand behind his head, so that his fingers were sticking up to look like feathers and then curled his fist around an imaginary weapon."Heeya heeya,ho,hum, Heeya heeya,ho,hum......"

"Yeah.... alright Zak, I get the picture. What are you doing with your pyjama's on?" grinned Dad.

"I forgot to get dressed, I haven't even had my breakfast!"

"Well, you'd better get on with it before everything ends up in the truck, even your breakfast."

Zak ran upstairs to get dressed. Then came back down, slurped and crunched his way through a bowl of cereal his mum had left on the table for him and then ran out the front door.

"Bye Dad, bye Mum, back at three like you said."

"Right Zak, see you later."

Zakry got back to Scott's and went through to his back garden.

"Hey Zak, we're nearly finished. What do you think?" said Jenny.

Zak looked at the guy, it had an old football for a head and a couple of old pillow's for a body that Scott had sneaked out of his Mum's airing cupboard. They had filled an old pair of trousers with some newspapers, then they wired it all together using some garden wire from Jenny's Dad's shed, stuck some wellie's on him, and shoved him in the barrow.

They went off down Vine Leaf Rd, in the direction of Jenny's house which was down the other end of the street. They knocked on a few doors and eventually got to old Mrs Jeffries house.Zakry didn't really like her very much. She had lived in the street her whole life and must have been nearly 100 years old. She had yellow hair and teeth to match, she spoke really loud and you had to shout back so she could hear you.

"Do we have to go in there?" asked Zak.

"Well we've got to get some more money and we've only got the other side of the street left to do." said Scott.

"She's alright" said Jenny "we've lived next door for as long as I can remember. She’s just a bit deaf that's all."

"Oh alright then. "Zak huffed.

Jenny knocked the door and waited, and waited and....

"Oh, hello Jenny dear."Mrs Jeffries came out from the side of the house. "What can I do for you?"

"Hello Mrs Jeffries, we've brought our guy for bonfire night."

"Oh, your doing 'penny for the guy'. I used to do that when I was your age, but that was a very long time ago. .You haven't done a very good job look, his heads falling off." she laughed "I'll sort it out, I'll be back in a minute." She went off down the side of the house.

Zakry was bored, he just wanted to get on his way. He could see his Mum and Dad loading the truck with furniture. He was already starting to miss home and his friends and he hadn't even left yet.

"Here we go, this should do the trick" Mrs Jeffries had come back with a big thick roll of black sticky tape. She pulled a piece off and stuck one end on the head and the other end on the body. She did this a few times until eventually the head was firmly in place." There you go then." She handed Jenny a shiny 50 pence piece and off they went.

Just as Zak was going out of the gate, he could see his Mum carrying his Grandad's rocking chair. He had forgotten about that chair, he loved to sit in it when he was little...., but hang on a minute, where was she going, she had walked straight past the truck and carried on going.

"C'mon Zak, we've got to go." said Scott.

"Yeah alright, in a minute." Zakry's curiosity had gotten the better of him. His Mum had turned down the jetty to the football field. What was she doing?.

"I'll see you later Scott alright."
 
He waved to them both and ran off down the road behind his Mum. He got to the end of the jetty and there in front of him was the bonfire heap. "Oh no!" he thought and sure enough there was his mum trying to put the chair on the top. Suddenly out of nowhere a really tall man appeared and helped her to put his rocking chair right at the top.

"She can't do that, that's my Grandad's chair" thought Zak. "I've got to get it back." He hid behind a wheelie bin at the side of the jetty and waited for his Mum to go back towards home and then he headed for the bonfire heap.

"Wow" he thought "It was huge, it had to be at least three times as high as him. He walked around looking for a way up. He could see the chair. He took ten steps back and tried to find the easiest way up. Then he could see it, the wood had been piled in such a way that it formed a crooked kind of ladder. He ran over to it and started to make his way up.

It was a bit creepy he could hear wood creaking under him. He grabbed a piece of wood above him, it snapped, he lost his hold, he could feel himself starting to fall. Suddenly he spotted another piece and grabbed it. "Phew" he thought to himself and scrambled as quick as he could to the top. He grabbed on to his Grandad's chair, climbed into it and sat down. He looked at the bottom of the bonfire, how on earth was he going to get the chair back down there. If he threw it down it would break for sure, he couldn't carry it down it was too heavy.

Zakry let out a huge sigh and leaned his head back against his chair and was watching a seagull flying above him.

Suddenly, Zakry felt very wet. "Eh, what on....." Zakry looked back down, expecting to see the football field. Instead he was completely surrounded by water !!

CHAPTER TWO

The Gold Digger

Zakry couldn't believe his eye's, he was floating on a piece of driftwood, in the sea!!! "How on earth did I get here" he thought. More importantly how was he going to get home. He couldn't see any land, just water, for the first time, in as long as he could remember Zakry felt scared.

He could feel the hot sun beating down on his head, he lay his head on the wood but every time he went over a wave, the water would go up his nose and in his mouth. Zakry felt as though he had been floating there forever. He started to drift off to sleep.

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"Ahoy there, matey."

Zakry awoke, startled, he looked around him but he couldn't see anything.

"Look behind you, fishfood."

Zakry turned his head, "Wow" he thought. It was a huge Galleon, with guns and sails.

"Thought you might 'ave been a goner" said the deep voice. "Let's bring you up here.

The man threw a large net into the water. Zakry managed to turn his body around to face the galleon. He looked at the net and then to the man that had thrown it, he had a green and yellow stripy scarf over his head and a big gold hoop hanging from his left ear, his face was all grubby and he obviously hadn't shaved for a week. Zakry wondered if he might be better off on his piece of wood.

"Well come on boy, grab 'old, there's no magic round 'ere, 'ave to work for yer crust."

Zakry let go of the board and started to swim towards the net. "Hang on a minute!" he thought "swimming? I'm swimming, but I can't swim!" He grabbed hold of the net. This was getting weirder by the minute. Zak had never swum a metre in his life. The man hauled Zak up the side of the boat.

"Hallo boy, 'as to meet the Cap'n now and ask to come aboard his ship."

"So whats your name?"

The big burly man gave him a dirty toothed grin and said "Don't worry boy, you'll soon find out." He grabbed hold of Zakry's arm and pulled him to the back of the boat.

Zakry looked around at all the strange men on the boat, they were tall and short, fat and thin, but they all had very colourful, if somewhat dirty, clothes on.

"'Ere you go cap'n, 'es a young 'un though."

Zakry looked at the man he'd called the captain. He was really tall, probably the tallest man Zak had ever seen. He had long spidery white hair that went all the way down to his knees. He wore a long black coat with silvery buttons and a funny shaped black hat. There was a horrible black and white bird sitting on it, Zakry thought it might be a Magpie.

"Hello there boy. What's your name then?" said the captain.

"My name is Zakry, sir, Zakry Bracklestick."

"Well that be a fine name you have there son, but not quite as fine as mine."

"What is your name sir?" asked Zak. He wasn't scared of this man, he had quite a friendly voice. It had a nice sound.

"Well" the captain bent down and looked straight into Zakry's eye's. "The names 'Mad Eye' Morgan McKinlay. Mad Eye 'cause ones not mine and it does what it wants" laughed Captain Morgan.

Zakry gasped for he could see that in the captains left eye there was no pupil but instead a skull and crossbones. "What happened to your eye then captain?" asked Zak.

"You don't have to call me captain boy, everyone calls me Mad Morgan for short. You see this scar here?"He pointed to a scar that ran from his left eyebrow, across his nose and down to the right hand side of his mouth. Zakry thought it looked quite nasty. It was very wide and the skin inside was a totally different colour to the rest of his face.

"Well boy, I was standing here at the helm, guiding my Gold Digger through the most violent storm I can remember when the main brace snapped and came towards me like a lion tamer's whip, it cracked me straight in the face and took me eye clean out."

Zakry sucked in a breath."I bet that hurt " he said.

"Ah no, it just stung a little bit, that is until it got the poison. Old Thistleface had me in me bed for a week, whilst the maggot's cleaned me up."

"Maggots?" asked Zak curiously.

"Yes boy. They put maggots in the cut to clean the poison. Look. Mad Morgan pulled a chain out from under his coat, on the end was a vial and inside there was a dirty great big white maggot. "This is the last maggot they pulled off me face. Saved me life it did."

Zakry pulled a face of disgust. "Urm, Mad Morgan, is it ok if I come aboard your ship?"

"Well you is here now boy.I can't see another ship for you to get back onto. You may as well stay and help Otto, my cabin boy."

"Can you drop me off when we get back to England?"

"England?, England? Where be that then boy, never heard of no England!"

"It's near France and Spain."

"I's never heard of them either. Otto, fetch the charts." Morgan yelled towards the middle of the ship.

From out of nowhere a short shaggy haired blonde lad appeared and handed Mad Morgan a long rolled up scroll like object.

Mad Morgan lay the object on the deck and rolled it out. "Come here then boy show me where your England be."

Zakry looked down at the map, he couldn't see the funny shaped country that Mrs Harris had shown them in geography. He couldn't even see the big continent that she had called Europe.

"Mad Morgan, where are we?"

"We're sailing in the Skanesa Ocean, heading for Pearl Island."

"What's at Pearl Island then, is that where you live?"

"No boy, I lives on this boat. Treasure boy, there be treasure on Pearl Island. I is a treasure hunter."

"You mean like a pirate?"

"Pirate" yelled Mad Morgan. The ship fell silent. "I be no pirate, boy."

"I didn't say you were sir. I just asked if you were a pirate."

"Pirates are evil nasty scumbags who come aboard yer boat and cut yer throat."

At the same time as saying this Mad Morgan pulled back his long black coat to reveal a long shiny curved sword. Zakry drew breath. The rest of the men laughed, and went about their business.

"You need to go with Otto now. He will show you what to do" Mad Morgan waved his hand at him. "Be off with you, now!"

Otto grabbed Zaks arm and dragged him to the midships. "You have to do what he says as quick as you can or else he'll have you walk the plank or slice you from ear to ear. Your right they are pirates." Otto pointed to the flag which was above the crows nest.It was black with a white skull and crossbones.

"You must have seen his eye?" said Otto.

"He said it wasn't his." Said Zakry.

"No it's not, it's made of glass. When he wants to scare you he takes it out and makes you hold it for half an hour, while you look at the hole in his head. Otto shuddered as he said it.

"Urgh, that’s horrible" said Zak.

"Not as horrible as that blasted bird of his .Maggie, he calls her, I think it's evil, I'm sure it has the devil in it."

"So how did you get here Otto?"

"I don't know, I've been here as long as I can remember."

"How old are you?"

"Eh, I don't know. About 14 I 'spose,"

"Where's your Mum and Dad?"

"Ain't never had one of them." Said Otto.

"I think I'll miss mine. If I can't find England on the map, I don't know how I'll get home."

"You'll be alright here Zak. As long as you keep your head down and do as your told. What do you need them for?"

Zak looked at Otto and felt quite sad for him. His trousers were all torn and scruffy. He looked like he needed a good bath and a haircut. "Oh No" he thought "I sound like my Mum!"

"C'mon Zak, we've got loads of fish to gut and yams to peel for old Thistleface." Otto led him down to the galley.

"Hey there little man." A really big, burly man with a thick curly black beard smiled at Otto.

"Hi Thistleface, I've come to do the fish and the yams."

"Hang on a minute , who you got there?" His mood changed and he glared at Zak. "No-one but you in my galley, boy. You know the rules."

"Mad Morgan told me he has to help me. His names Zak, he was lost at sea."

"I don't care if he flew here from space, he's not coming in or else I'll have all that wretched lot in here. You'll have to do the work on deck." Thistleface gave Otto a crate of fish. Otto handed it to Zak.

"Urgh! It stinks."

"You won't turn your nose up boy when yer eating it. Now get up on deck and scrub 'em out!" Thistleface handed Otto another crate full of long funny shaped yellowy things.

"What are those?"asked Zak.

"Yams, have you never seen a yam before?"

"No, my Mum has potatoes with fish

"Potatoes? What are potatoes?" Asked Otto with a frown.

"We grow them in England."

Otto led Zak up to the bulwarks. "Right Zak, can you sit here and gut the fish, throw the waste over the side. I'll get on with peeling the yams."

Zak looked at the fish and then at Otto. He didn't know what to do. He had never done anything like this before. His Mum did all the cooking.

"Urm, Otto, how do you gut fish?"

"You’ve never done it before?"

"No" Zak felt stupid.

"I'll show you how to do the first one, then you'll have to do the rest. Where's yer knife?"

"I don't have one."

"You don't have a knife? Are you mad, you has to have a knife round here. Here have this one, I've got two." Otto handed Zakry a long sharp pointy knife. Zak took the knife hesitantly.

"Right first of all, you chop the head off, then you put the tip of the knife in the tail end, look here." Otto showed Zak exactly where to put the knife. "Not too deep now mind, then cut it up the middle, get your finger and thumb, grab hold of the insides and pull." Otto pulled and a big yucky mess landed in the bucket.

"Urgh" said Zak "that's horrible!"

"Right when you've done that bit, put the tip of your knife under the spine, put your thumb on the top of the spine and pull towards you. See? All the bones come out at once." Zak watched, quite amazed, as all the bones came out in one long line. There was no way he could do that!

"Get on with it then." Otto went off to carry on peeling his Yams.

Zakry picked up the knife and a fish. He cut the head off. That was the easy bit. He put the knife in where Otto had shown him and cut it up the middle. He grabbed a hold of the insides, they were all squishy, Zak felt his stomach lurch. He pulled and they landed in the bucket. "Huh, not as hard as it looks." Zak thought. He pulled the bones out. Zak was feeling very pleased with himself. He picked up another fish, he started to cut it up the middle. "Phwoar, what's that smell?" Zak's stomach leapt forward and he was sick all over the deck.

"Oh, no" said Otto "NOW you've done it, Jib and Jab are going to go nuts. you've put the knife in too deep, you've pierced the intestines. Where's the fish?"

Zakry looked around, it must have shot out of his hands when he had been sick. Just then he spotted it. A tall dark skinned man was just about to..... oh no, too late, the man had stepped on it and had gone flying, landing very hard on his backside.

"Oh you've really done it this time! "Otto went and sat down. He started to peel his yams, trying to make it look like it had nothing to do with him.

"You boy" The dark skinned man pointed at Zakry.

Zakry looked at him. "Who me?"

"Yeah, this your fish?"

Zakry nodded.

"Hey Jib, you a'right?" Another tall dark skinned man went up to the first one.

"Yeah Jab, I'm alright man. That stupid boy there lost his fish. It was my foot what found it."

"Hey look at the state of our deck, man." The two dark skinned men walked towards Zakry. They looked really angry.

Zakry was quite scared "Otto what do I do?" he whispered.

"Nothing, just do what they say, or they'll thrash you."

The two dark skinned men were now standing in front of Zakry.

"I is Jib and 'e is Jab, we is from Carny Point. You 'as made a mess of our deck, so what you gonna do about it?"

Zak looked at the two men, he couldn't tell them apart, the only difference was their clothes. The one called Jib had a yellow shirt on and a red and white spotty bandana. The one called Jab had a red and white shirt on, and a yellow bandana.

"I'm very sorry, I've never cleaned fish before. I did it wrong and was sick. I didn't mean to make a mess."

Jib looked at Jab and grinned. "Grab him by his arms!" They picked him up, each had an arm and put him feet first over the side of the ship. Zak could see the sea below him. They weren't going to drop him in surely. He was Mad Morgans friend, everyone was scared of him. He was almost certain that Mad Morgan would go crazy if he caught them.

"Otto" shouted Jab "get the fish guts." Otto did as he was told. "Now throw them overboard."

As Otto did this Zakry seen a shark come up to the surface, it's big wide jaws were open. Zakry thought he could see right into it's stomach. It had huge black empty eyes. It's jaws clamped together like a trappers snare snapping shut, narrowly missing Zak's toes.

"Argh," he screamed "please don't let me go, I'll do anything you want, just please, please don't drop me in!!" Zakry was kicking and flailing around. He was terrified, he didn't want to be eaten by a shark.

"Well, what's going on here then?"

Zakry looked above him and there was Mad Morgan. Once he heard what Zak had done he was sure to be thrown in.

"Look at the state of the deck Morgan. It takes us long enough to scrub it as it is!" said Jab.

"Bring the boy up here at once."

Jib and Jab pulled Zak up over the side.

"What's all this mess about boy?"

"The smell, it made me sick, I'm very sorry sir."

"Jib,Jab, you never been sick before?"

The rest of the pirates laughed. Jib and Jab hung their heads in shame.

Suddenly there was a roar from the crow's nest. "Land Ahoy! Cap'n. Land Ahoy!"

"Otto get me the telescope, at once!" Otto dropped his yam and ran to fetch Mad Morgan the telescope.

It was a long dirty brass one. Mad Morgan looked towards the land. "We're there, it's Pearl Island! We'll be rich beyond wer dreams. Zak boy help Jib and Jab clean this mess, we'll be ashore before ye know."

Mad Morgan danced a little jig. Maggie, his bird, flew up in the air and shrieked, annoyed at being disturbed by her masters unusual behaviour.