Ultimate Justice

by Ultimate Justice (epub)

  “But we’re not special, miss,” said Fran.

  “Oh, but you are! You make us happy… and Adnak here and his friends too. Isn’t that true?” she asked, looking Adnak in the eyes.

  “Guess it is,” he replied.

  Then Kakko sat up straight, took a deep breath, and declared, “Adnak likes to watch us play football. Would you like to learn to play football?”

  “Ye-eee-es!” went up the cry.

  “Can we teach them football?” asked Kakko of Kloa.

  “Of course. Teach us all!” The volunteers were delighted to have found such a talented young visitor.

  ***

  Kakko called for the children’s attention. “OK, listen carefully and I’ll tell you how it works. It’s called football because you mustn’t touch the ball with your hands or arms – but you can use your body or your head. The object of the game is to get the ball between your opponent’s goal posts – Bandi will you set these up now for us on the sand? That’s called a ‘goal’. And you’re not supposed to push people – you try to get the ball off them with your feet. Like this.” She and Shaun demonstrated, controlling the ball and tackling each other in turn a few times. “But you pass the ball to people on your own team.” And she and Shaun passed the ball back and forth, and finally Kakko kicked the ball through one of the goals Bandi had marked out. “See? That’s one goal to me!”

  “OK. Let’s divide into girls and boys. The ten boys go with Shaun and the ten girls come with me and we’ll talk tactics. OK, go!”

  The ten girls all crowded round Kakko.

  “The clue to playing this game is passing the ball to someone else before you get tackled,” she explained. “As soon as one of us has the ball, all the rest of you scatter into a space. If you have the ball and see someone in a space, pass it to them and keep passing it to people in spaces until you can get near the goal in front of you, then hit it as hard as you can to get it between the posts. Their goalkeeper (Shaun) will try and stop it. A goalkeeper is allowed to stop the ball with his hands. I’ll be the girls’ goalkeeper which means I can use my hands too. But don’t forget none of the rest of you can use your hands… Are you ready Shaun?”

  “Sure. We’re ready.”

  At first the game was a real mess and Kakko and Shaun kept stopping the game to explain, but soon they got the idea and talent started to emerge. Some of the children managed to keep the ball long enough to do something with it. Shaun and Kakko were very generous in letting the ball through nearly every time it was on target to encourage them. The kids ran and ran – much more than they need to have done. It was excellent exercise but they were soon tired out.

  “OK,” said Kakko. “That’s a draw. Four goals each. Now, how about the leaders? Come on, seven-a-side – girls versus boys.”

  “Count me out,” said Adnak.

  “No. That won’t work,” said Shaun. “We need you. Look even Bandi’s playing. We can’t beat them with only six players. You can’t let the boys down.”

  “But I can’t run!”

  “OK. You’re goalkeeper. You won’t have to run.”

  Since the seven girls – volunteers and guests – were all around Kakko getting instructions, Adnak realised he had no choice. He’d be the only one sitting out with the children.

  Kakko gave the same advice about running into space but she was to be up front while another took the role of goalkeeper. Three were to stay back a bit and pass the ball to the three in front of them.

  The game kicked off and it was frenetic from the start. The gender rivalry was intense. When a boy tripped a girl up, the girl children all started yelling. “Unfair! Unfair!” Shaun did the gentlemanly thing and stopped the game giving the girls a free kick. After that they were more careful about fouling. The children were all shouting. The boys scored and their supporters all danced up and down while the girls jeered. They were certainly getting into the spirit of it. Then the girls scored and the roles were reversed. After ten more minutes they were level, two all. But Kakko, herself, hadn’t scored.

  “OK,” said Shaun. “Next goal wins!”

  Soon the ball was passed to Kakko in just the right place and she hit it sweetly and powerfully just inside the right-hand post! She was getting ready to celebrate when she saw Adnak leaping to his left and getting his hand to it. The boys cheered and whooped and began chanting his name. It was a close thing. The game continued for several more minutes before eventually the boys managed to score. The boys were all delighted.

  “Well done!” shouted Kakko and shook her brother’s hand and got all the other players to do the same.

  “Victors can get us all a drink!” she said, bending forward with her hands on her knees.

  Shaun and the boy leaders went over to the boat.

  “That was fun,” said one. “That’s a great game. We’ve got team games here but not quite like this.”

  “Adnak,” said Shaun, “you were brilliant. How you got across to stop that shot from Kakko was top drawer. She hit that so sweetly. You read it.”

  “Read it?”

  “Realised where it was going to go before she hit it.”

  “Well. Yes. She is good is your sister. I watched her yesterday. She doesn’t just hit the ball anywhere, she puts it where you don’t think you can reach it. I knew where she would aim so I suppose I was already moving.”

  “Great stuff, Adnak,” said his brother who wasn’t noted for complimenting him. “Did you hear the kids chanting your name?”

  “Glad you played?” smiled Shaun. “You’re a natural in goal.”

  “Thanks,” said Adnak.

  When everyone had finished drinking it was time for more activities.

  “Who here can swim?” asked Kloa.

  Not one of the children raised their hands, only the leaders.

  “Well it’s about time you learnt,” said Kloa. “Each of you children… when I say… Fran you don’t know what you’re doing yet… wait. When I say… find a leader to teach you… wait for it… if there are more than two of you, find someone else. Wait… Go!”

  Adnak and Shaun were rushed at by the boys. They all wanted them. But it soon worked out. They all took off their T-shirts and shorts. It was now mid-afternoon and this was the first time anyone had glimpsed a swim-suit. The children, on the other hand, had no swimming things, but they did not hesitate before ripping off all of their clothes and trotting down the beach naked. The waves were gentle in this part of the inlet and the beach shelving, ideal for safe swimming. Kakko wondered what it must be like to own an island. Beautiful view, lovely sand, blue sea – but lonely. (She needed her friends and family around her on a beach.) Without anyone to share it with, you could be very sad. It wasn’t surprising that the island was uninhabited.

  Soon the leaders were demonstrating and then holding the children while they tried the strokes. It was interesting for Kakko, Shaun and Bandi to watch because in this place it appeared they all began learning on their backs.

  The kids were definitely nervous, but all of them brave. Some of them were noisy, some quiet, some out-going, some shy – but they were all brave. I guess they have to be to survive without parents, thought Kakko. Her mother had taken her to the swimming baths for as long as she could remember. She couldn’t really recall learning to swim any more than she could remember learning to walk. But this was probably the first time these children had even tried it. They made good progress for a first lesson and Kloa congratulated them all.

  Then she led them all off to the shade of some trees that overhung the beach. They dressed and put large quantities of sun-oil on their faces and exposed skin. This was a game in itself.

  The day concluded with a nature tour of the island with Kloa and the others finding interesting shells, leaves and flowers. They even saw the nest of a ground-nesting bird with little chicks in it. They left it carefully covered up. Needless to say, they didn’t see any goof-adders.

  ***

  “Time to go, I think,” cal
led Kloa eventually.

  “Oh. My binoculars! I left them in the house,” said Adnak. “I meant to go back there but I never got a chance. I’ll go and get them.”

  He charged up towards the house while the kids filed onto the boat. Within minutes he was back.

  “I need help,” he yelled to the crewmen. “There’s a man in there who’s hurt. Get the first aid kit… and a stretcher.”

  The crewmen, Shaun and a couple of the leaders arrived at the house to see a man laying twisted on a heap of broken wood, unconscious. He had clearly come through the ceiling. There were bits of it everywhere.

  “Looks like he’s broken his leg,” said Shaun. “And he’s definitely hit his head. This is bad… what was he doing here?”

  “Paparazzi,” said Adnak, picking up a camera with a very long lens. “They follow us all the time. That’s why we come here to this island. They can’t take pictures from out at sea so easily with the beach tucked away in the inlet.”

  “How’d he get here and how long has he been here?” asked Shaun.

  “No idea. But I don’t think this happened too long ago,” said Adnak. “There was no sign of him earlier in the day and there were no fresh footsteps up the stairs then. Look, the barricade has been removed. It was there when we arrived.”

  “I’m reluctant to move him, but we can’t leave him here,” said a crewman. He carefully felt the man’s neck and back. “Seems to be alright. But his legs are both broken and I don’t like the look of that head wound… OK. We have to get him onto his back. Shaun, that’s your name isn’t it?” Shaun nodded. “You hold his head and neck. Try and keep everything straight. Adnak you take that right leg. Careful where it’s broken.”

  Between them they eventually, and very carefully, got the man onto his back on the stretcher and his two legs bound together with a splint padded with their clothes. The crewmen set off carrying him gently to the boat. Shaun and Adnak stayed to check if there was anything else apart from the camera that might belong to the man.

  “Probably upstairs,” said Shaun.

  “Well if there is, it can stay there,” said Adnak. “I’m not going up there.”

  “No point,” agreed Shaun. “If you hadn’t left your binoculars that man could have died here. He’s a lucky man.”

  “He is. I expect he was due to be picked up by his mates, but he would certainly have laid there some time before they came to look for him.”

  As they followed the stretcher down the path, Adnak said to Shaun, “You know what? Today’s been great. He,” looking at the man on the stretcher, “he wanted to get pictures of us half naked on the beach and put them in the local rag with some suggestive headline saying we are spoilt rich brats.”

  “Hope he didn’t get any pictures like that – I mean us teaching the kids to swim. I wonder what he got?”

  “Guess he went up the stairs to get a better view.”

  When they got back to the boat they checked the camera, which was remarkably undamaged. The last pictures were of the football match. They decided to leave it as it was. Thankfully the man hadn’t witnessed the swimming lessons.

  11

  As the cruiser came into the harbour, Mr Pero, Jalli and Jack walked up to greet them. They were concerned to see an ambulance beside the quay and quickly ascertained that the captain must have radioed to say they were bringing in a casualty.

  Jalli was relieved to see Kakko helping to hold back the children as a stretcher was carried off the boat and was put into the ambulance.

  “I see Kakko,” she whispered to Jack, “and Shaun, and Bandi.” They breathed sighs of relief. It wasn’t their children, then. But who was it? Then Kloa came over the gangway and the children started to file across. The first ones bounded up to Mr Pero, vying to be the first to tell him the news.

  “A papzi,” said Fran, “a man with a big camera. He didn’t keep the first rule and went up the stairs.”

  “He didn’t keep the second either. I saw him. He was got by a goof-adder,” contributed a second child.

  “And he didn’t come for the picnic when the boat went…” said a third taking a breath and giving not a bad impression of the ship’s horn.

  “But none of us broke any of the rules!” said another.

  “That’s good,” said Mr Pero. “I’m glad to hear it.”

  “And we learnt to play football. And Adnak saved the boys.”

  “He jumped a long way and stopped the ball. Kakko had hit it very hard.”

  “And then we went swimming. Shaun showed me how to float… when can we go again, Mr Pero?”

  “Oh. I don’t know. That’s up to Mr Zookas. Perhaps if you all write him a nice thank you letter…”

  “Oh we will.”

  “How did Adnak save the boys?” asked Jalli of one of the leaders.

  “At football. He was… what did Shaun call him?”

  “Goalkeeper?” suggested Jack.

  “Yes. That’s it. He jumped right over and landed on his side but his hand stopped the ball. He was very quick.”

  “So he didn’t go off anywhere?”

  “Only when we all did at the beginning, to look around,” said Jeno. “But he wasn’t allowed upstairs in the house and had to keep on the paths like the rest of us.”

  “Then he came when the boat went hoot and we had our picnic,” added another.

  “He kept all the rules,” confirmed Fran. “We all did except the papzi man. But he wasn’t there to hear Kloa tell us them.”

  “How did he get there?” asked Jalli.

  “I expect he was dropped off round the back of the island to spy on us,” replied Adnak. “He could have clearly read the first rule. The stairs were properly barred with a danger warning.”

  “But we kept all the rules and none of us got hurt,” explained a little girl dying to contribute to the conversation.

  “That’s good. That’s very good,” said Jalli.

  “Are you Kakko’s mum?” asked Jess.

  “Yes.”

  “She’s very good at telling stories. She told us all about Gollocks and how she got to stay with the three furry people in the wood for ever.”

  “Oh. You mean bears?”

  “Yes. There was Daddy Bear,” said a little girl in a low voice, “and Mummy Bear…”

  “And Baby Bear!” squeaked the little girl.

  “Well, you have all had a wonderful time it seems. And now Kloa,” said Mr Pero, “I think the house-mother and her team have got something cooking. So perhaps it’s time to walk back to the centre.”

  They all walked back together.

  “You had a good time?” asked Jalli of her daughter.

  “Brilliant, Mum. And you?”

  “I am pleased… Oh, we’ve had a quiet time visiting Mr Zookas in his great big villa and then had lunch at Paradise House.” Jalli was cross with herself for allowing herself to doubt her daughter. She resolved to be less doubting in future. The teenage girl in Paradise House was right: coming from a loving home makes a difference.

  Jack read his wife’s thoughts, “I bet she behaves twice as grown-up when we aren’t around. Away from us, our daughter is an adult…”

  “I know, but she doesn’t behave like that sometimes,” sighed Jalli.

  “Mostly at home where she has always been the child.”

  “I guess that’s it. Perhaps we ought to trust her a bit more than we do.”

  ***

  That evening Mr Pero entertained them in his restaurant. It was good, he said, to sit with them and not have to concern himself with what was happening in the kitchen – but, of course, he did. But at the end of the meal he was satisfied. He had ordered the best for his guests and the kitchen had delivered. Of course he knew the panic that must have entered the hearts of the staff having to cook him, their greatest critic, the most complicated dish.

  “By the way,” said Mr Pero, “apparently, that photographer is expected to make a full recovery. I got a message from his family. They are
very grateful to you all for saving his life.”

  “Let’s hope he learned his lesson about spying,” said Jalli.

  “Doubt it. But he might have learned that you should obey the rules of the leader if you want to be safe. I don’t think he has much of a sense of moral values.”

  “You never know,” said Jack. “People change don’t they? Look at Zookas. And now his children are being heroes for the Paradise children.”

  “True, you never do know the extent of change that is possible.”

  At the end of the meal Jalli called the waiter and said, “Our compliments to the chef.”

  “And mine,” Pero added. The waiter beamed.

  Then Mr Pero took his leave of them.

  “It may be another twenty years,” said Jack with a sigh.

  “In that case I will most probably be in another dimension,” replied Mr Pero. “Go well and have fun!”

  “We will. We have learnt so much from you. But don’t count on us not coming back. We never know.”

  ***

  The following morning the ‘sun’ shone just as brightly.

  Kakko picked up the local newspaper. Their trip did not appear on the scandal page, but the front page. The headline ran, ‘EX STREET KIDS GIVEN TREAT’ which was followed by, ‘Zookas’ family and friends take Paradise Centre children for a picnic and swimming lessons.’ The picture was of them all crowding round Adnak. There were other pictures but none of the later events of course.

  Jack and Jalli resolved to get back to Woodglade as soon as they had eaten their breakfast.

  “Do we have to go straight away?” complained Kakko. “Can’t we go to the beach one more time before we leave?”

  “We – ell,” said Jalli, “we mustn’t leave Grandma and Nan much longer.”

  “Oh, please,” begged Shaun.

  Jack put his hand on Jalli’s. “Alright,” said Jalli, “but we must not be late.”

  The sun was shining, the sea was inviting, and Kakko was ready to turn heads in her bright, brief swim-wear. Jack and Jalli settled under a palm tree on white plastic chairs and drank in the hot, spicy air that reminded them of the first time they had come.