(Fry Words 301-325: being it's your stand – stood sun questions fish area mark dog horse birds problem complete room know – knew since ever piece tell - told usually didn't friends easy - easily heard)
As the sun set on the burning wreck Bill sat down. There was nothing he could do. He was lucky to be alive, but how many people on that ship had died? Had it been an accident? Or was someone trying to kill him?
Too many questions. But he knew sitting out here looking at a burning ship wouldn't solve his problem. Which was communication, as usual.
Ever since he was a young man he'd never had many friends. He didn't make friends easily. His mother usually told him to go out and talk to people, but he liked to just stay in his room and think. He liked being in his room. His parents had been farmers and he'd preferred to talk to his animals – he liked animals much better than humans.
He remembered their red horse, called Flame, whose job was to plough the fields but could run like the wind through the woods. They also had a black dog called Coal, that Bill had loved to play with for hours in the fields and out on long walks, whatever the weather. They'd had other animals as well – fish, birds – that for fun Bill had sometimes asked questions to, and usually he never heard them answer, but sometimes - just sometimes - he thought he did.
“It's your problem,” he remembers a bird singing to him once.
“What's my problem?” he asked.
But they just kept repeating, “It's your problem.”
He didn't find it easy to understand the fish, however, as they were usually under water. He wondered what happened to Flame and Coal.
And now this was his problem. How to communicate with the black sponge balls. Where had they come from? Nobody knew. One morning five years ago the people of the town had woken up and they had been there ever since. A complete mystery. A piece of a puzzle.
It was almost dark. It was time to stand up and go back to the town square. Bill was hungry, but he had to mark out an area around the sponge balls to stop other people touching them. He decided to try one more time tonight and then go to bed.
Read Chapter 1 : The English Scientists
Read Chapter 2 : Song Of War
Read Chapter 3 : The Plan
Read Chapter 4 : Bill's Ship Sails
Read Chapter 6 : The Indian Girl
© Chris Young 2018
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