DESTINY 

By Tessa Harvey


    The storm flew towards the stricken vessel, hard rain spitting from every angle, the wind howling, their world growing darker, the storm closer.
    A seaman warned the captain about the two boys and he tiredly smoothed his dark, unruly hair and pulled on his captain's hat. Buttoned tightly in his dark jacket, buttons gleaming, Edmund stood as tall as the uncertain movement of the ship allowed.
    Angelo, the girl's father, Edmund remembered, knocked on the cabin door. He opened it and entered it at a nod, accompanied by crewmen holding two boys. The captain scowled at them "your grandfather abandoned you," he growled. "Did you help him damage my ship?" He felt incandescent with rage. "Thirty years of unblemished record. What do you say?"
    "He is not our grandfather," Tom, the eldest spoke up. "He lied, showed false papers to our foster carers." Josh spoke up, crying "Look what he did to us!" Both boys turned, lifting dirty shirts. Wicked bruises were visible.
    "I heard and saw birds," Tom continued, "and if you drop anchors and face the storm......" "That's being done," growled the captain.
    "Sir," Josh was also crying, "we could smell coconuts. There is land near. Can you reach it, Captain?"


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