CHAPTER 8

Now, in case you’re wondering why we hate pirates so much, it’s because—as both Jill and I have already mentioned—we were all captured by a pirate. And not just any pirate. We were captured by the worst pirate of them all:

Captain Woodenhead.

Do you remember that wooden head we found in the shark? If you don’t, go back to page sixty-five and have a look.

If you do remember the wooden head, then you’ll already know what a horrible-looking pirate Captain Woodenhead was and you can go straight to the start of the next paragraph and read the rest of our story—then you’ll understand why we hate pirates so much.

Anyway, that’s the story of how we all met and how we came to be living here and why we hate pirates so much.

‘Wow,’ says Terry. ‘You’re so good at telling stories, Andy. As you were describing the storm I could practically feel the wind and the rain, see the lightning and hear the thunder!’

‘Yeah, me too,’ I say.

‘Guys,’ says Jill, ‘I hate to tell you this, but the reason you can feel wind and rain, see lightning and hear thunder is not because Andy is such a good storyteller but because there really is wind and rain and lightning and thunder. There’s a very big storm headed our way!’

Uh-oh. Jill’s right. Looks like we’re in for a rough night. We’d better stop doing the book for a while and make sure the treehouse is okay. Stay dry, and see you when the storm’s over.