The Golden Years chapter 9 (final chapter)

Chapter 9- Accidental killing

A loud scream was heard that spread across the town, everyone came rushing, including Master John, to see a dead man lying on the floor with a sword on his chest. Tom was standing next to him in complete shock but before he could give any explanation to Master John, the leader said to him without doubt on his mind that it was him, feeling horrified in anger “TOM, WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?. BOB TURNED OUT TO BE DUMB ENOUGH TO NOT GET YOU FIRST, HOWEVER I SHALL” then he grabbed hold of his arm “YOU SHALL BE HANGED”, Tom was pleading “please listen to me at least before reaching any conclusion.”

Peter stepped in front of them furiously “enough is enough! You have to give somebody a fair chance to speak at some point. You have no choice but have to understand this time that the island was never our home in the first place so please listen to my humble request by setting us free right now unless you want me to take serious action”. He pushed him aside then Fred came to support Tom “I think that it would be too harsh of you to hang him even before hearing out the entire truth so Tom, why can’t you go through what all occurred? ” Master John became so relieved that they still were on his side.

“I was willing to take lessons from the teacher because I wanted to impress you but he got too carried away by holding his sword to my neck deliberately so that I could lose my breath that I pushed it aside and it accidentally went through his chest.” I’m not going to hang you if it wasn’t on purpose but I’ll throw you out for good,” Peter jumped forward “EVERYBODY LISTEN UP, I KNOW THE TRUTH ABOUT JACK SO FOLLOW ME.” They all rushed shocked to see what they were received by. “JACK IT’S OK YOU CAN COME DOWN NOW AND TELL US

THE TRUTH ABOUT MASTER JOHN ONCE AND FOR ALL BECAUSE YOU’LL BE HAPPY TO KNOW THAT YOU’RE NOT CONSIDERED ALONE THIS TIME” shouted Peter.

Jack suddenly stopped what he was doing. He came down kissing Fred and Peter on the cheeks “Fred, I’m happy to have gotten to finally see you but I’m afraid we have to bid goodbye because the truth is everybody that Master John has deceived you all into making you believe that I had just vanished out of your lives  when he’s been keeping me up there all this time by forcing me to push those rocks day by day just to please him in some way , although I had grown restless as the 15 years had passed me by ,I thought maybe he would become a little bit more fair when he sees me making progress just to release me from my misery one day  but how wrong I’ve turned out to be. Where is Tom?”

Just then Master John and Tom had overheard their entire conversation “they are telling you lies to bring me down deliberately, don’t fall for it. I would never do such a thing because I’ve always been a better leader for you all. I command you to throw Peter, Joseph, Jack and Fred off my island this very instant” but to his very surprise they just stood there “what’s wrong with you people? Have you all gone deaf? I said get rid of the Marley family.”

 Joseph said, “don’t you ever have any shame left in you at all? We remained silent hoping you would always do right by us. Peter and I already found out what harm you had caused Jack. We thought you could be given a fair chance to see whether you could be honest. If you want to get respect from us, you need to apologise for what you’ve done.”

Master John realised that his powers had become of no use to anyone so he covered his eyes, “Jack, I’m deeply ashamed of the way I treated you and I don’t think I deserve to be called a leader. I hope that you can forgive me but the only reason I’ve been thinking of myself is because I wanted to forget my wife forever and start afresh but I was wrong to leave them behind as just memories” then he looked closely at Tom’s face touching him by the cheeks, “Tom, you’re the one whose tried to play the most important part in my life so I hope that you can forgive me too.”  Jack said “at least the good thing is you’ve finally realised your big mistake so we forgive you for that reason but there is no more trust left.”

Suddenly Albert and the rest could hear familiar female voices calling out to them from the beach so they began to wonder whether their miracles had finally come true so they gazed towards the shore just to notice that their wives and children had arrived after all. Albert cried  a little as he was feeling so glad  to finally get to see his real children “my dear children, I cannot express the joy I have when I  get to greet  you after a very long time  because I’ve always loved you so tell me. I’m sorry for leaving you all behind forever.” George replied “it’s not like our mother sent you off packing forever, there’s no need to make an apology by creating a scene dad, just come back home with us”.

Fred had chosen to forgive his mother realising that people can make mistakes when they’re angry and it’s high time he moved on, “Mother, I’m so glad to see you again” then she said “ so am I son because I’m deeply sorry  and feeling very sad about abandoning you three because it was my mistake to suspect your dad without full proof but it was only for your well being children, I couldn’t afford the money to feed or serve you water everyday but knowing my clever husband very well, I figured  that he would find some way out or the other for you both at the time”, before they could get onto the ship, Albert heard two people asking a question to the other men “where is our little boy? Can you please find him for us because we need to get him back?” but nobody would answer this worried looking couple who were in a rush so he stepped forward “excuse me Mr and Mrs but are you possibly looking for a 15 year old boy?”  “yes your right, my son would be about 15 now. Do you possibly know where we could find him?” begged the man then he turned around “Tom, there’s no need to go with the Marley family because I’ve found your real parents right here” . Tom came but with a frown “what do you two want with me? you needed a girl desperately, didn’t you? please just let me go” then the woman said “we’re terribly sorry Tom , we should have considered you to be our child on the first day itself, two friendly neighbours helped us find you who received a letter from their child who was on this island just like you so please come back”.

Albert replied “I think you should really go with them because they cannot live without you”

 Tom understood “you have a very valid point so if I really have to, I’ll come and visit you every week to rebuild our relationship but I’ll be staying with the Marleys.”