30 Home Again

CHAPTER 30 Home Again I met Friday in front of the summer house and we walked down to the beach together. I had already packed the few things I wanted to take with me: my goatskin hat, my umbrella, and my latest pet parrot. Of course, all of the money I had found and saved all those years ago would now come in very handy!

We left the island on December 19, 1686 —twenty-eight years, two months, and nineteen days after I had landed there. By June of the next year, we had made our way back to England. As I walked through the streets of York, I couldn't believe how much had changed in the last thirty-five years. The town was bigger. The streets were busier. My mother and father had both passed away years ago. In my heart I didn't really expect them to be alive, but I was sad over the loss anyway. After spending some time in York, I decided to travel to Brazil. I was curious to see what had happened to my plantation—to see if my partners were still alive and if my farm still existed. Friday and I set off by sea to Brazil. It was now April 1688. The country had changed so much! Many of my friends and old business partners had passed away. Luckily, Wells, my

old friend and neighbor, was still alive. He had grown very rich from the success of both of our plantations. When Friday and I arrived on his doorstep, he was so surprised to see me—at first, he didn't even recognize me! My plantation was restored to me, and I made a very good profit when I sold it a couple of months later. The plans to return to England were soon set in motion. I longed for a peaceful, quiet life, the very same kind of life my father wanted for me all those years ago. Long before I set off on any adventure. Long before I spent almost all of my life stranded on a deserted island. Perhaps now, in my golden years, I could truly enjoy the life he wanted for me. But Friday and I would have to get home first, and those adventures, my faithful friends, are the tales of another story.