Part twenty three: Spring break

 The Room

“Welcome to our little island,” said Prince to Tauren, Jon, Molly and Moe as he introduced them to Kelly and Timothy. “All we have here is yours.”

“Thank you for rescuing us,” said Tauren. “That was some pretty rough water out there.”

Jon nodded in agreement.

“Thank you for coming to our rescue so quickly!” Prince continued. “Everyone is safe here. We can relax and enjoy this beautiful day, while we decide what to do.”

He smiled as he watched Kelly chatting with the children who he suspected were probably orphans now.

“Are you in school?” asked Kelly. 

“It is spring break,” replied Molly. “Moe just started school this year.”  

Kelly had rescued many books before the schoolhouse had been washed away. She was glad she had been able to save them from the flood. The children would need them now.

Timothy, Tauren and Jon argued about unloading the boat. They were concerned about protecting everything, if it rained.

“We’ll work something out,” said Prince. “We’re not totally stranded here. We still have a raft with the rudder Timothy made for it and your rowboat. We can go anywhere, once the current settles down a bit.”

“What’s behind the third cast-iron door?” he wondered. It was tightly sealed, but he managed to pry it open. “Problem solved. It's a huge room.”  

“Let’s have an Irish jig around the fire, tonight,” suggested Timothy, the good-leprechaun cobbler, pulling a silver flute out of his jacket pocket. “The children will love that!”

“With old-fashioned Irish stew,” added Tauren, grinning with delight.

“We need something green to drink, too,” suggested Jon. “Let’s build a fire pit.”

That is exactly what they started to do.

Suddenly, Prince spotted the men from the ship working their way up upstream, along the distant shoreline.

The captain and Kelly’s dad had seen smoke billowing from the chimney of the old schoolhouse. They had decided to check it out, because each one of them was missing some family members.  

Prince had no idea that this was Kelly’s father. Suddenly, he felt very protective of his colleen, their children and their dog, as well as the three men with them on their island. He knew that leprechauns, gnomes and trolls do not really like men; men do not like them either.