Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15
LucasArts Fiction

CHAPTER 2 - THE MASTER PLAN

Our family has a pretty steady routine on Saturday nights. From five to six o'clock, I watch TV. Six o'clock we have tea - and I have to set the table, worse luck. Most nights we have pasta, but sometimes Dad'll put a bit of effort in and we have a roast meal. But only occasionally. Six thirty to seven thirty I have to do homework. This is always how we run things in the Hall residence. But, as I was only just discovering, tonight was far from your average night.
It started with Dad. After the phone call, he rushed up to Wendy's room. Wendy was in there, probably reading books. I play on Jork - Wendy reads books. Wendy says this will pay off later in life, but I say if you're not spinning around, you're not enjoying life.
I wandered over to the living room and turned the TV on. Voltron was on, then Monkey, then Pigs on Parade, then The Goodies, then Doctor Who, then Astro Boy, so perhaps you can forgive me if my attention got a little diverted. It wasn't until Astro Boy had finished that I looked at the time, and got a shock - it was past nine o'clock! Dad always puts me to bed before eight thirty - he prides himself on it. But not only had he not gotten me into bed, he hadn't cooked tea! In fact, I hadn't seen him since he left the kitchen!
I was starting to feel hungry.
Why had Dad ignored me completely? I wondered. What had that phone call been about? What were Dad and Wendy talking about?
That settled it. I walked upstairs to Wendy's room, and opened her door.
Dad and Wendy were sitting on her bed, looking at an atlas. Wendy was pointing at something.
"That looks like a good place," she said.
Dad nodded.
"I'm hungry," I reminded him.
Dad looked up. "Oh, hi Matt," he says, cool as a cube. "Come on in, I've been wanting to talk to you."
I walked in, and stood in the centre of the room. "What was that phone call you got?" I asked, because I could see that tea was a long way off yet.
Dad looked at Wendy. Wendy nodded. Dad turned back to me.
"Master Plan," he said, almost whispering.
It meant nothing to me. "Huh?" I replied.
Dad sat back. "I have had a brilliant idea," he said. "One that is going to solve all our problems."
"What was that phone call you got earlier, Dad?" I asked. I wanted to get things sorted out at the beginning, otherwise nothing would make sense.
Dad smiled. "Aaah," he said, holding up one finger, "where it all began. That was a call from a certain lawyer called Mr Jenson. He was acting as executor for the will of my second cousin Terry."
Dad had a lot of cousins, something like over fifty. He only ever saw a quarter of them regularly. As for me, I'd never heard of a cousin Terry before.
"Is cousin Terry dead?" I asked. Somehow it didn't seem right that Dad should be happy.
"He was my second cousin," said Dad. "He was eighty two. We were all expecting it." He shook his head. "Anyway, Mr Jenson had been over the will, and it seems Terry left us something."
"What?"
"He left us," said Dad with that smile on his face, "a sailing ship."
I didn't say anything. I couldn't believe it. A sailing ship? Ours?
"Straight from the Spice Route," confirmed Dad. "It's a caravel, which means it's small, but very fast. Mr Jenson says it's a national treasure. And now, we own it. Which brings me to my Master Plan - and the end of all our worries. You see?"
"No," I said. I didn't.
Dad nodded at Wendy, who reached for the atlas and turned it around so I could see it better. It was open at a map of the world.
"It's a map of the world," I said. I didn't know much about geography, but I did know that much.
"Yes," said Wendy. "Do you know how they made it?"
I shook my head. If anyone knew, it would be Wendy.
"Explorers," she said. "Back in the Middle Ages, people only knew where Europe was, and there were big blue gaps all around it. So they sailed ships into the big gaps, and people like Columbus drew lines of the coastlines they came to, like America. And when Columbus got back to Spain, he was given a noble title and lots of other rewards. He died rich. Which brings us to the plan."
I was starting to get a glimmer of an idea about the plan. "What's the plan?" I asked.
"We become explorers," said Dad proudly. "All we have to do is discover a new island and we're set for life."
I couldn't understand why they seemed so confident the plan would work. Surely all the land masses had been discovered by now?
Wendy turned the pages of the atlas, until finding another map of the world, this one with lots of red lines crossing it. "This is a map of major air routes," said Wendy. "You can see there are plenty of gaps." She pointed to areas where a large expanse of sea lay.
Wendy turned the page. "Major sea routes," she said. I looked at the map, and although a number of the gaps on the previous page had a sea route, there were still plenty of areas where there weren't any planes or ships at all. These had been marked with an X.
"Do you mean there might be islands there?" I asked, pointing at the X's. A lot of them were in the same area.
"Yes," said Wendy. She never sounds excited. "Undiscovered and unexplored."
"Until now," said Dad, grinning.
I looked from Dad to Wendy. I still didn't get it.
"All we're going to do now," said Dad, "is get that ship together, and sail out in search of new lands. And when we return, everyone is so grateful to us that we'll be loaded with stuff."
"If it's that easy, why hasn't it been done before?" I asked.
Wendy snorted. "Because no-one ever thought of it, probably. They just looked at their atlases, leafed through the blue bits, and assumed everything had been discovered. Well, they're wrong."
"How do you feel about a bit of sea travel, Matt?" asked Dad.
"Um... okay, I suppose," I said. I'd never been on the sea before.
"Well, better get packing," said Dad. "We're leaving in a few days."
"What?" I said. We were half way through the school term.
"Don't worry," said Dad. "I already rung your teacher. I told her you're going on a Geography field trip. It's all taken care of."
I walked slowly out of the room and off to my bedroom. I looked around and started to gather together all the stuff I felt like taking on a cruise.
I was still hungry.