CHAPTER 10 (PART - B)


“Don’t worry about washing the dishes, Alyssa will take care of them when she returns” Mary Ann mentioned.
“You may want to phone your daughter before you go. She does come down this way quite a bit as of late,”
“I will. Did your husband bring the seeds and a list of what he wanted in his garden?” Chester asked.
“Yea, he told me this morning they’re in the garage near the shovels and other gardening tools…here’s the list” she said pulling it out of her apron.

Chester looked through what he wanted and started laughing handing it to Haddock.
“This will be an all-day project, at least we don’t have worry about plowing the rest of the soil” Haddock sighed in relief.
“We’ll see how fast we get done, well let’s get changed and go play in the dirt!” Chester laughed.

Once they were got their gardening tools out of the garage with the seeds they began planting away. The weather was nice, not a cloud in the sky and it was fairly warm. This place felt so much like home at Marlinspike Hall to Haddock. He began to remember when he and Tintin planted their first garden. It wasn't as successful as he would have liked it to be, but the next year's garden was much better with a little help from Nestor.

“We couldn’t have asked for a better day!” Haddock replied taking a nice whiff of fresh air.
“I know it, I guess I really couldn’t blame those youngsters if they decided to stay gone a bit longer,” Chester snapped his fingers.
"I don't know if it was such a good idea letting the three of them go like that..." Haddock said with much doubt.
"Well, I don't want to clue Alyssa or Mary Ann on what could possibly be developing, so we will just have to trust they will do as their told" Chester sighed.
“Chester, not to be darkening the mood, but we really need to know exactly about this All-Seeing-Eye and what those four did on your ship” Haddock inquired.
“I think we should wait for Tintin to get back and I will divulge the details later tonight, mind you I've told you most of what I know…speaking of which, tell me again how you and Tintin met” Chester asked as they continued to work.

“It’s a long story mate, but we got time. Well it all started when Allan’s behavior became treacherous as and he had Tintin kidnapped as a prisoner on MY ship,” Haddock paused as he and Chester both began slowly planting using hand shovels.

“I’ve had similar problems toward the end with Gaspar, he increasingly became more defiant and had a fascination with the macabre,” Chester said grimly.

“I don’t want to know what it was he did but it sounds like you should have put him out of his misery” Haddock said with disgust.

“Aye, I know, well… enough about him continue with your story,” Chester prompted as he moved around Haddock to plant the next seeds.

“Well it was when he climbed through that window where Allan had me holed up drunk on whisky, that I first met that baby faced tuft ginger. Who would of thought he’d pull me out of the bottom of the barrel and turn my life upside down…in a good way!” Haddock pointed with a smile.

“That’s a nice ring you got, it’s silvery, yet dark and not in the least dainty” Chester commented.

“That was a gift from Tintin when I turned forty. I specially had his made for his twenty-first birthday,” he said taking off his ring to let Chester look at it.
The ring had two anchors and Haddock’s initials engraved on it, “That’s pretty clever, nice to look at but not tacky in the least” Chester complemented handing it back. “Continue…” Chester urged him on.
"It was then Tintin became the voice of reasoning and awakening for me..." Haddock contined.


XXXXXXXXXX


The country air was invigorating as they rode with the windows down. Alyssa’s long blond hair blew in the wind as Tintin sat comfortably up front with Snowy in his lap, while Enzo sat in the middle of the backseat just taking in the view. The lush green countryside was more than relaxing to view.

Tintin realized they were going on a different route but wasn’t sure if the way led to downtown Colchester.
“Alyssa, are we going somewhere else?” Tintin asked suspiciously.
“Oh come on, we got extra gas and money, let’s go run the errands up near Ipswich” she smiled.
“…but if we don’t get back within a reasonable time Captain Chester will have my job!” Enzo worried.
“Don’t be silly, my Uncle Frederick wouldn’t dare do that to you. Do you think if he didn’t like you so much that he would allow you to be here with his family?!” Alyssa reasoned.
“I mean I guess not…” Enzo didn’t know what to say.
“Besides, I was about to go bloody crazy if I didn’t get out of that house. I don’t get the car that much so this is exciting for me” she smiled.
Along the way they had to slow down to avoid some horsemen in the road, but the way was really scenic and nice. Alyssa began search the radio for some music and found a popular radio station.
“That’s more like it” she smiled as they raced down the road.

“Wow Alyssa, you put on a different front at the house” Tintin observed.
“Well I’m still the same but being at the house day in and out sometimes gets really stressful that sometimes you just have to let your hair down” she laughed.
“I see…” Tintin said as she turned he got a mouthful of her hair in his mouth.
“Oh sorry” she laughed. Snowy was excited as the cool air blew through his fur.
“Do you always have this much fun?” Enzo asked.
“Not really, usually the hubby wants to go with dad to the pub and drink with his shipmates, he takes me out about twice a month,” Alyssa frowned.
“Don’t you feel bad about not helping your mom back at the house” Tintin asked.
“Trust me, she won’t do everything… I’m sure I will have work to do when we get back” she emphasized.

They rode for almost thirty minutes, Tintin couldn’t deny that he felt pretty free and even Enzo seemed to be loosening up some. The town was nicely sprawled out as had little ports around until they finally reached an area inaccessible by car.

__________________