Twenty children’s authors who are taking part in this year’s Bath Festival of Children’s Literature are also taking part in an ongoing story project which moves from blog to blog – or rather has been moving from blog to blog – for the last week or two, with each author continuing the story as it travels. It’s my turn today so you can catch up on the entire story by clicking the links below, then read my contribution that follows it:
Part 2 by The Etherington Brothers
Part 4 by Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell
And now, here’s part 10, written by me!
CHAPTER 10
What is it? Scribble scribbled on his pad and Mr Catch, the legendary fisherman, stepped away and pointed Scribble in the direction of the periscope.
‘Take a look,’ he said.
Scribble pressed his eye to the viewfinder and stared into the depths of ocean, waiting until his eyes adjusted to the dark blues and greens swirling before him. In the distance he could see a pale white light stretching from as far to the left as he could see, to as far to the right, where shoals of fish were swimming towards it, disappearing in the distance.
Is that it? Scribble wrote in his pad.
‘Is that what?’ asked Mr Catch.
The moon.
‘I think it might be.’
It’s closer than I expected.
‘That’s only because of the way the light is dispersing through the water,’ explained Mr Catch. ‘Why, it could take us hours to reach it. Even days. Well, maybe not days. But a long time anyway.’
Scribble wrote nothing now and stared out at the whiteness in the distance. He couldn’t explain it, but he felt an extraordinary need to get close to it as quickly as possible. Where had this all come from? He had never thought much about the moon until recently and now, it was all he thought about. He stepped away and felt his heart start to beat a little slower in his chest; he stepped back, looking at the distant moon again, and it returned to its regular beat. He felt that it was calling out to him somehow, as if it knew that he was the only person who could save it.
‘Scribble!’ cried Mr Catch suddenly and Scribble turned around in surprise for he hadn’t heard the legendary fisherman sound quite so startled in all their adventures so far. He didn’t bother reaching for his pad, he just shrugged his shoulders as if to say What?
‘Scribble, look!’ said Mr Catch, pointing at the submarine’s floor and to his astonishment there was a sprinkling of blue fur scattered around his feet. He shook his head in surprise, for it was exactly the same colour and texture as his own blue fur, but as he did so, more and more started to appear beneath him.
‘It’s coming from you,’ said Mr Catch. ‘Scribble, you’re shedding your fur!’
The next part of the story will appear on Wednesday September 28th on Catherine Bruton’s blog.
