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Luckily Joshua fell into the water rather than onto the rocks, but he immediately went under, for he could not swim. The thick fog or smoke that covered the surface of the ocean hid even the splash. In a panic the young tulip still realized that it was necessary to unbuckle the cumbersome tuba, which dragged him to the bottom, but here’s the problem. He still had not changed the unfortunate lock, about which his friends had reminded him so many times. As he tugged at his belt, it became more and more clear to him that he was doomed.
Suddenly, some kind of light appeared from the depths. Joshua could hardly understand what it was, and was beginning to
gasping for breath, when suddenly, this light began to approach him, until it swallowed him whole.
The tuba snagged on something, and the rushing current ripped it behind him. Tulip kept clinging to life, and tried again to unbuckle the strap, until finally he succeeded. Joshua was forcefully thrown to the surface. Licking the water and losing the last of his strength. Still, he tried to figure out where to swim, and when he saw the bright light ahead, he plunged straight toward it as best he could.
Another wave tossed him onto the rocky shore, and Joshua lost consciousness…
Chapter 3
The sun was rising from behind the distant mountains, and the domestic animals began to wake the citizens of the island with their various voices, demanding food. The elders always woke up before everyone else, and they took their time and made thorough preparations for the next day. The adults woke up their children and got ready for work. The day began, as always, peacefully and quietly.
Young tulips, yawning, were already reaching for the academy.
“Hello,” said Hugo, seeing Alba on the trail.
“Good morning,” replied the girl.
“I didn’t sleep well; I was up half the night.”
“Why all of a sudden?” Alba asked sleepily.
“Who knows. He’s probably getting ready for adulthood, and doesn’t want to sleep alone,” Hugo said, smiling.
“There are your inappropriate jokes again. Where’s Joshua? I can’t stand you alone.”
“By the way, yes, he should be here by now, the lesson is about to begin,” Hugo looked around.
“That’s strange, it’s not like him to be late at all,” Alba said, also glancing around.
“Once again, we haven’t seen him since yesterday! First, he was at the academy, then he worked in the garden, and then he went to a meeting with friends,” the mother of the missing tulip explained to the counselors.
“Good. We’ve looked all over the island, but he’s nowhere to be found. Now let’s go to the academy and ask his friends about yesterday’s meeting. Don’t panic. We’ll find him, God help us,” Claude concluded.
It was a thin man who was in charge of order on the island. In addition to keeping order, his men were engaged in searching for missing animals, helping the inhabitants resolve rare disputes, and whatever else it took to keep Paradise calm. Claude and his men wore clothes symbolizing authority, namely, black tight suits with a small gold star badge on the chest, high-laced boots, a robe that fell below the knees, and a light headdress. A comfortable and practical uniform that made them feel comfortable in all conditions.
“I beg you, hurry, this is a great tragedy for the whole island, not only for our family,” said Klaus, almost crying.
“I understand everything, but you also remember the responsibility you have for the peace of every citizen of the island. Don’t tell anyone about it yet. We have no need for premature excitement and panic,” Claude replied stiffly. After interviewing Joshua’s family, Claude led a small unit to the academy to fully recreate missing Tulip’s last day.
At school, Claude summoned Hugo and Alba to talk to him, but quietly, so as not to create unnecessary rumor and gossip. The tutor escorted them out of the lesson, and the head counselor took the tulips to a separate room.
“Now, I don’t want to alarm you, but your friend didn’t come home last night,” Claude began.
The boys looked at each other, and each of them shuddered.
“Tell me about what you did yesterday after the mandatory help. Joshua’s parents tell me you’ve been making frequent visits to some place near the cliff, is that true?” Claude continued sternly.
“Yes, it’s true,” Alba began first, “we almost always go there in our spare time and watch the sunset.
“We just sit and talk,” Hugo added.
“And what happened yesterday? You watched the sunset as usual and then you went home before it got dark, as usual?” Claude clarified.
“Yes, but not exactly,” he answered and looked at his girlfriend.
“Please, be more precise,” said the counselor.
“Alba and I left a little earlier, because it’s much farther to our house, and Joshua was still there, because it’s a couple of steps to walk,” Hugo explained.
“We didn’t think anything could happen, he wasn’t often, but there were times when he was alone. But there was never a problem,” Alba added.
“Anything else? Did you notice anything suspicious in his behavior?” asked Claude another question.
“No.”
“No, nothing like that,” replied Tulips. After a few more minutes of questioning, Claude,
finally let the students go to class, and he and his men went to the place Joshua’s friends had told him about.
Claude saw nothing suspicious or anything to add to the story of the missing young man on the cliff. The counselor looked over every rock, then walked around the hammock, walked to the cliff, looked down, but saw nothing, and neither did his men. After he stepped away from the edge, the ground collapsed, but Claude simply didn’t notice the insignificant event.
“What do you mean, missing? It’s not the mainland with its gigantic expanses, it’s a tiny island,” Isa didn’t understand.
“Yes, of course, but my men and I have found nothing, and everyone else has seen nothing. If the boy had been on the island, they would have found him by now, Claude reported.
“May God forgive our sinful souls for not looking after the innocent boy,” Isa turned to God, then turned to Claude and ordered, “Gather the people, let every citizen take part in the search. Paradise has never known a case of a missing person, and I will tolerate nothing of the kind while the burden of power rests on my shoulders. God bless us.”
Claude, having received a clear instruction, bowed and immediately set out to carry out the task. As the chief left the walls of the Temple and the doors closed behind him, one of his guards approached Isa. He was a rather tall and strong man, like all the others in the Supreme’s service. Isa’s guards wore the same uniform as Claude’s men, but their faces were covered by dark masks. These masks made them unrecognizable, so the locals called them “faceless.”
“What do we do?” one of them asked.
“Nothing yet…” The Supreme hesitated, and after a pause he spoke, “Well… I need to have a word with someone.”
Wait for me at the exit, and don’t accompany me.
Rising from his chair, which could truly be called a throne, Isa rushed to the exit.
All the citizens of the island, sooner or later, when they learned of the disappearance of the tulip, immediately went in search of it, except for those who could not do so because of illness or duty. People searched everywhere, going under every bush and into every crevice, sparing no effort to find the missing young man. Unfortunately, the search came to nothing.
“What’s going to happen now?” Alba asked her friend.
“I don’t know. This happened for the first time in the history of Paradise, no one prepared us for this,” Hugo answered.
“I don’t believe anything happened to him. I don’t want to believe it,” Alba cried.
“Relax, we’ll find him, I promise you,” Hugo said, putting his arm around the girl as he pondered the loss of his friend, “Joshua… Stayed sitting there with his…”
“Alba, he stayed there with his tuba,” suddenly it hit Hugo.
“With a tuba? So what?” Alba wondered.
“Come quickly, we must report it,” he grabbed her arm and raced to the Supreme.
Meanwhile, Isa entered the very garden where Joshua was working. In the same place where he always sat, tranquilly, Giuseppe. His legs were out of place scouring the island with everyone else.
“Hello, father,” Isa said, sitting down next to him.
“Good day to you too, Supreme,” the old man replied.
“Hmm, how flattering of you to address me. It has been a long time since I heard you say that.”
“You haven’t been around in a long time,” Giuseppe muttered.
“I haven’t had time, you know… Businesses and troubles,” Isa smirked.
“I hope they haven’t figured you out yet?”
“Ha-ha-ha! What are you talking about? My fellow citizens know only the good things about their mentor. But let’s not start an old record, tell me this, where is the boy?” Isa asked with a serious look at the old man.
“If I only knew… You don’t think I could have kept it a secret, do you?”
“I think you might have said something unnecessary to him, as you did before. You were sent away from everyone else, but here you found someone who believed you. As you saw, I didn’t interfere, but tell me honestly, was it your doing?” Isa asked, implying that the old man might have revealed to the young man some old truth that prompted the tulip to act recklessly.
Giuseppe looked calmly into his son’s eyes and answered, “No, I had nothing to do with it.”
“That’s good, because I was afraid, I would have to take the sin.”
Isa got up from the pew and continued, “If you are well, then I dare not trouble you any longer, father. The next helper I promise to send a deaf-mute, so that you do not corrupt him with your freethinking,” he grinned.
“Find him,” the old man said, looking at the ground.
Isa did not answer. They froze, understanding each other without words.
But then the tulips burst into the garden.
“Isa… Supreme …” said Hugo, out of breath, “there is one thing we forgot to tell you!”
“Don’t hurry, take a breath. What did you remember?” Isa asked with a change of face.
“Yesterday we had a music lesson… " Hugo blurted out.
“We went to the precipice with the instruments without running home,” Alba interrupted him.
“Joshua was carrying a tuba with a bassoon as big as his own,” he continued excitedly.
“Tuba… Bassoon… Well done you for remembering such an important detail. May God bless you, my children, run to Claude and tell him and everyone who is searching for it,” the Supreme answered the young tulips.
“Yes, of course. Thank you,” they shouted as they ran.
Isa waited until the tulips were out of sight before he said,
“I have nothing more to say to you, father. See you soon.”
He left, and Giuseppe looked after him for a long time, shaking his gray head.
“Ehhh! Brainless beasts!”
“Stinking pigs!”
“Try and catch me, you bastard!”
“Sea jerks!”
“Ha-ha-ha!” The young men laughed and called names as they gathered by the shore.
“Yes! Come on, let’s go, or the hard-headed ones will be here soon,” ordered Leo.
“That’s a cool thing to say, isn’t it? Sea cretins, ha-ha-ha!” said Aldo rather loudly.
“You said morons, not assholes, that’s right, brother!” Mateo corrected him.
“Ha-ha-ha-ha!”, both brothers laughed.
“You mean jerks? Which one of you jerks had forgotten to bring a flashlight?”, Eva asked, rummaging through her backpack.
“She asked you,” she said, turning the question back to her brother Aldo.
“Nah, you’re the only one who’s a jerk,” Mateo said.
“What did you say?”, Aldo was indignant.
“What did you hear,” Mateo hissed, shoving him away.
“You’re both jerks, now you don’t have flashlights,” Eva summed up, giving one flashlight to Leo and taking the other.
“The hell with it, let’s go this way,” Leo spat, “It’s not the first time!”
“You forgot to put it in.”
“You forgot, I remember everything,” the brothers continued to argue.
The young men were having fun hunting sea monsters, an old pastime for idlers on the coast. The old men used to say that giant squids would swim to their voices at night and tentacle their way up the cliffs to catch any “hunters” who wandered out of sight. Those who liked risk and wanted to make the blood run faster took pleasure in teasing fate. But there were occasions when people did go missing, so such games were considered chic and the height of courage by the local boys.
“Leo, wait,” Eva said suddenly.
“What else is there?” Leo stopped.
