Secret of the Swamp: Facing their parents

Freddy, Rose and Zena looked at each other.

Tell Pa! Oh my!

They had not thought about their parents for the last two hours. What would their parents say when they found out about today’s forbidden adventure. But face them, they must and soon.

"Not so soon that I cannot pick some mangoes and cherries," thought Freddy, as he shinned up a tree.

The pirogue with the children pulled up to the big boat shed just as the meeting was ending. The dirty children waved frantically at the adults.

Mr Koom looked at them with a frown on his face.

“This is the best way to face him,’ whispered Zena.

“He won’t scold us until we get home. By then he would have calmed down a bit.”

"Pa. We found something, Pa!” cried Rose.

They were much too excited to be afraid.

The villagers smiled at the children running toward them.

“What have you found?” asked Sammy, the wildlife warden.

Zena and Freddy let Rose tell the story. It was her story after all, and their father would scold less, as Rose was the baby of the family. Rose started at the beginning.

“We turned the tap off,” said Freddy when she came to the end.

“But the bags are still there. We can’t tell what was in them, and we didn’t touch anything.”

“Except the mangoes,” Zena said so only Freddy could hear.

“We think the owners of the orchard may have gone away,” said Rose.

When the story was finished, all of the villagers clapped.

“You have smart children, Koom,” said Mr Beharry.

“Will you let me give them a reward?" he asked, as he dipped into his pocket and came up with $200 for each of them. Mr Beharry had no children of his own and he was always giving gifts to the little ones in the village.

Rose, Zena and Freddy looked at each other. Money to buy Zena’s books and things. Their mother smiled. She knew exactly what was going on in their minds.

Freddy gave directions to Sammy, the wildlife warden and Mr Beharry and some of the villagers went with him, upriver in the Ministry boat, to find the bags.

“What will happen now, Pa?” asked Rose as her father and Vishnu rowed home along the river.

“They will test the substance in the bags. I think it must be a dangerous chemical,” he said.

“Sammy will tell us what he finds out,” said Vishnu.

“They will certainly move the bags away from the river.”

“What happened at the meeting” asked Freddy, still afraid to meet his parent’s eyes.

“Sammy told us that the Agriculture Ministry is teaching farmers about organic farming, using less chemicals,” said his mother.

“Animal farmers are also being taught to recycle so there is less run-off from their farms into the river.”

I wonder if I can take classes in agricultural science at my new school, thought Zena, as they tied up the pirogue in front of their home.

Rose looked at the skinny black arms of the mangroves. Soon the crabs will be back, she thought, as her father held her hand for the short walk home.

We've come to the end to the serialised story, Secret of the Swamp, written by Morton Books publisher Julie Morton and illustrated by artist Tyler Villaruel @Tyss.artt on IG and @tyss.art on TikTok.We at Newsday Kids hope you enjoyed it.