The Island From Hell

Chapter 10

When the time came for the children to go to sleep, Max like most children his age, complained that he wasn't tired, even though he certainly was. Luckily Millie brought the means to make her family famous campfire coco. All you needed was a quart of milk, sweetened chocolate, and an old fashioned coffee pot to hang over the fire. One cup full of that hot chocolate and Max was out like a light,

Speaking of light, Maisie would not be as easy to get to sleep because there was no night light, and they couldn't just leave the lanterns on all night because they had a shorter limit. But Maisie just couldn't sleep in the dark. She just couldn't.

"I don't wanna sleep in the dark Mommy." She wailed. "Bad things happen in the dark."

"Maisie nothing bad is going to happen to you as long as we're here." Millie assured her daughter.

"But what if a monster tries to get me."

"No one's going to try to get you."

"How do you know?"

"Because I'm your mother and it's a mother's job to protect her babies form the monsters."

"It's a father's job too." Moxxie entered the tent with something in his hand.

It was a guitar. A very special guitar. Though biology was Moxxie's life, he had a passion for music. His late mother had been a music teacher and she shared with him, what she taught her students. Though she wasn't much of a singer, she could play just about any instrument which was a talent he inherited from her. Though no one knew where the singing voice came from.

"You go and get some rest Millie, I'll take it from here."

Millie smiled and tucked Maisie into her sleeping bag. She handed Fluffles to her, kissed her goodnight, kissed her sleeping son goodnight, and left the tent.

"Do you have a night light Daddy?" Maisie asked.

"No but a friend of your grandpa once told me that when her little boy was too scared to go to sleep she would sing to him, and since we can't provide a night light, let's see what a song can do."

"Daddy."

"Yes?"

"What was Grandpa like?"

"He was the best man in the whole wide world. He was smart, kind, honest, brave. He was my hero." He sighed. "You don't know how much I wish that you and your brother could've gotten to know him."

"Would he have liked me?"

"Liked you? He would have adored you. He would've said that you were most wonderful little girl in the world."

Maisie smiled and hugged Fluffles.

"Now let's see if music can make you feel as safe as a night light would."

He sat down next to Maisie, held the guitar firmly, and began to slowly play a melody from the strings. The melody was soon followed by his voice.

"If you leap ever awake, in the mirror of a bad dream.

And for a fraction of a second, you can't remember where you are.
Just open your window, and follow your memories.
Upstream to the meadow in the mountain, where we counted every falling star.

I believe the light that shines on you, will shine on you forever .
And though I can't guarantee there's nothing scary hidin' under your bed,
I'm gonna stand guard like the postcard of the golden retriever.

And never leave 'Til I leave you with a sweet dream in your head."

In another tent Stolas was looking over a picture of Octavia with devouted love and anxious worry. Worry about how she was doing back home and how she would do once she graduated high school and the time came for her to go to college. Would he be able to send her to the school she wanted? Would he be able to ensure that she could have the career and the life she dreamed of? He was determined not to do to her what his own father had done.