Where
the
Action Is
|
 |
Epilogue
A week after John and Ed’s ‘revelations’,
Terry
Regan’s radio station returned to the air. Jack,
Max,
Impie, Juliett and her brother David saw the Radio Madeleine tender
leave St Felix pier for the forts.
Before he left, Adrian spoke to Jack and her brother and sister, and
Juliett.
‘Listen,’ he said, ‘you never really had
a chance to
enjoy your stay on our fort. The time your spent with us was
not
spent under the best conditions, with that threat hanging over
you.’
‘Not really,’ said Juliett, ‘in spite of
it all I
enjoyed it!’
‘So did we!’ said the others together.
‘But when we have sorted out our station again, you must come
out
for a day, as was your prize!’
He finally got them to agree with him. But since Jack, Max
and
Impie were due to return to Elchester very soon, to their parents and
school, it was decided to wait until the next school holiday, when they
would probably come back to Thelstone.
Then goodbyes were said, since, when Adrian and the rest on his shift,
Alan, Dirk, Norman, Yale and Sean, returned, Jack and her family would
be gone. With Juliett, Adrian said only, ‘Se you in
two
week,’ for there was no reason for Juliett to leave
Thelstone. Then the tender was moving across a sea like
glass, to
the tiny dots on the horizon that were Radio Madeleine.
Theltone St Felix never returned to the quiet town it used always to
be, for the events of which it was the centre were a main topic of in
Stoweshire for a very long time to come. In fact, it was
impossible for it to return to anonymity, for Press reports drew the
curious from miles around. It would be wrong to say that this
was
detrimental to the town, rather the opposite, Thelstone prospered by
the increased trade in the shops.
The same applied to Radio Madeleine, and to a lesser extent, Radio
Electra. The write-ups in the Press were all good, and in
praise
of the bravery of the staff against the great odds. Their
sacrifice, nearly of their lives, continued the write-ups, proved that
at least some of the offshore radio stations were not as malignant as
certain people had painted them. Without Madeleine, the
activities of the vicious dope ring may have continued
indefinitely. And so on. The result of all this was that
Madeleine became one of England’s top radio
stations.
Alexis Mark Kane of Radio Electra also became more popular than ever he
had been.
As for the children, who were so central to the drama,
Juliett’s
family tried to settle down as it had been. Curious people
were a
problem at first, but curiosity tended to die down as time went
on. The death of Clarence, though, had left a gap in their
lives
that could never be filled.
Jack, Max and Impie returned to Elchester, and they joined their
parents there, who were overjoyed to see them. They had,
naturally, been informed of all the goings-on, and were worried, and
also curious about it all. It took a long time to tell the
whole
story, and Mr and Mrs Irving were not too sure whether to be angry, or
pleased; the former at the children’s foolishness at trying
to
tackle the job single-handed, the latter at their safety. But
they made them promise never to refrain from telling the police if they
ran into strange situations again. And when they returned to
school, the children were the centres of attention for a very long
time. The story was told over and over again, and they never
tired of telling it, for they couldn’t help being proud of
their
adventures. However, though all this attention made Jack
happy,
the happiest things, to her, were her memories of the radio station and
Alan Love in particular. She looked forward to her return to
Thelstone in the next school holiday, and strangely, her life seemed
sunnier than ever before, though she had no idea why.
--------------
Adrian Leslie stood on the deck of the central tower of his radio
station, as dusk was falling, on a perfect late summer day.
They
sky was even lovelier than it had been when he had stood before gazing
at it. He felt peaceful, happier than he had felt for a long
time. The world was beautiful, life was sweet, and danger was
gone. Perhaps he felt like this because the whole of
Stoweshire
felt relieved from the fear it had felt under the reign of
Richardson’s gang. No more would ever be seen of
any of
that motley crowd for a very, very, long time to come. The
relief
of the nightmare over was probably the reason for Adrian’s
happiness.
Again he saw a star on the horizon, the breeze ruffled his
hair.
From the open window of the studio floated sounds of music on the night
air. The sound of a jingle penetrated his thoughts.
‘You’re where the action is!!! Radio Madeleine on
298!!!’
‘How right you are!’ thought Adrian.
‘But for a
while it was the wrong sort of action!’
He turned and entered the transmission tower. He was on the
air
in five minutes.
THE
END
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