2.1 Message in a bottle - the rock pool  (Page 3/5)

“ There must be another beach. It is quite a big island,” said Paul

“ Well, I hope we find something soon. I’m hungry,” said Susan.

“ Right, we’ll just go around this bend and then I think there’ll probably be another beach. We can stop there and have something to eat.”

“Good idea!” Susan opened the locker and took out their supplies. She also had towels, which they could use as a picnic blanket. Paul steered the boat into the little bay and soon they were pulling it up the beach so that it wouldn’t float away while they had their lunch.

Susan unpacked their sandwiches while Paul looked around. Suddenly he turned to Susan.

“Where’s the map? Look at that tree! Wasn’t there a huge palm tree bending right over?”

“Yes,” said Susan. “Here it is. But where’s the rock? Oh look. It only looks like a rhino if you see it from this side. Lisa wouldn’t know that it looks completely different from the sea side.”

“So this is it!” Paul was delighted. “Where do we go from here?”

“Uh … let’s see. There should be a path leading up to a cave.” Susan paused with her finger on the map. She looked around. The bushes grew very close together and there was no pathway to be seen,

“Yes, there it is, or at least I think it is,” said Paul. “I’ll go and see.”

“No!” Lisa almost shouted. “ Don’t leave me here by myself. I’m coming too.”

They packed up their food and made their way towards the thick bush. Sure enough there was a narrow path leading up a short slope. At the top of the slope they could see a rocky outline.

“ The cave!” said Paul

“Lisa! Lisa! “ Susan called out. “We’ve come to rescue you!”

There was no answer. They climbed the slope and peered into the cave. Somebody had been staying there. They could see a blanket folded neatly and someone had swept away the sand to make a smooth place to sleep.

“Maybe she has already been rescued,” said Paul

“Nooo,” said Susan thoughtfully. “It looks like she is coming back. It’s too neat.

What’s that noise?”

Suddenly the children were scared. What could it be? Everyone knew that the island was uninhabited by people, but what kind of animals were there? They huddled close together. Then someone stepped into the cave, gasping in surprise as she saw them.

“Who? What?”

“Lisa!” exclaimed Susan.

“How…?? You found my message? I can hardly believe it!” Lisa began to cry. She was so relieved to be found.

The children explained how they had found her note and came at once. Lisa told them how she had fallen off her family’s yacht in a storm. Her family was sailing around the world and now she didn’t know where they were or what had become of them. She thought she had been on the island for two days.

It was dark by now and they decided to sleep in the cave on the island and go back to the mainland the next day.

“What an adventure!” thought Susan as she snuggled up to her brother. “What will our friends say when we tell them what had happened?”

L.V.

1. Explain any difficult concepts, e.g. why Lisa could see the shape of a rhino from the cave while they could not see it out at sea. Have one learner stand in front facing the class. Standing behind him you can see only the back of his head, but the other learners can see his face. This would be the same for Lisa and the children.