“This one, Grandpa!” said Ruby. It had just, in fact, swung over from the police helicopter, about five metres to Grandpa Sam’s left. It hung in between the three of them, shuddering with the vibrations from the helicopter above.
“Yes!” said Sam. “This one! We’ll get on first, and then you, Grandpa!”
Ruby started to get on. Then she stopped.
“Sam …” said Ruby. He turned to her. She was at his eye level. “You’re OK to go now, even though we haven’t found the star?”
Sam looked at her. He reached out, and touched her cheek. He’d never done that before.
“Grandpa is the star, Ruby.”
“He is?”
“Yes. The light that I kept seeing on the island. From my room? It was Grandpa. Flashing my power torch.” He pointed to Grandpa Sam, who was still holding the torch in his hand.
“Oh.” She nodded and reached up to climb the ladder. But still didn’t actually go. “Is that a bit … disappointing?”
Sam looked over to Grandpa Sam. In the bright light from above, they could see his kind, smiling face. Well. They could see his kind, smiling eyes, underneath a lot of mud and leaves.
“No,” said Sam. “The main reason I wanted to find the star was to stop my birthday being every day so that everyone would get on with just finding Grandpa. And now we have!”
Ruby nodded again.
“RUBY!!” shouted Charlie from above. “STOP HANGING ABOUT! COME ON!”
“OK, Dad!” she shouted up. “But” – she still wasn’t going – “what about your birthday happening every day, Sam? How are we going to stop it? If we can’t find the star for you to do a new wish on it?”
Sam frowned. He didn’t know the answer to this. If Grandpa was the star, he could try wishing on Grandpa …
But he knew that wouldn’t work …
“I don’t know, Ruby. But—”
“RUBY! PLEASE!”
“I think we’ll just have to think about that later.”
She nodded, for the third time, but this time raised herself upwards and climbed the rungs towards the helicopter. Sam watched as his sister got to the top.
He watched as she stretched out her arms, and as Vicky and Charlie stretched out their arms, and then watched their faces look unbelievably full of relief as those arms suddenly became full of her, of his sister.
He thought, Well, I should go too. That looks nice. And they look – now that they’ve stopped hugging Ruby and she’s gone to sit in the back of the helicopter with the other grandparents – like they really want me to come.
So he started up the ladder.
It was more frightening than he’d realised. It made him think how it must have been very frightening for Ruby. Even though he had always been a good climber – as we know, he often went up to his own bunk bed at night without even using his hands – this ladder was wobbly. The whole thing was wobbly and windy and swaying and frightening.
But he was helped along by his parents and grandparents and Carmel (and PC Middleton), who were all going:
“Come on, Sam! You can do it, Sam! You’re doing so well, Sam!”
Which really did help. He looked up, rather than down, towards his parents reaching out for him … only one more rung to go and then he would be there … and then he had a thought.
He stopped climbing – he was hanging on the last section of the ladder – and looked down.
“OK, Grandpa? You ready to come up as well?”
Grandpa Sam looked at him. Then he looked up at the helicopter. Then he looked around at the island. And then he said:
“No, I think I’ll stay here for a bit.”