The Extremely High Tide!

by Kir Fox

  “Found you!” Davy said triumphantly.

  Nia pulled off Madam Flea’s black wig. “You’ve got to admit, it was a good hiding spot.”

  “It was,” Davy agreed.

  Principal King cleared her throat. “If I’m not mistaken,” she said, “we have two spirits left to find!”

  Davy and Nia looked at each other. Then they took off running in opposite directions. Quincy and Runa helped Davy look for Nia’s spirit. Finn and Jules helped Nia look for Davy’s spirit. Earl Grey chased his spirit’s tail. They searched high and low, and then Talise said:

  “Oh, I found one!”

  Everyone hurried over to the water spray game, where Talise was holding a water gun.

  “I was reading about how tugboats perform a ceremonial water salute by spraying water, and I thought this toy gun might be useful for my boat,” she explained. “At first, I thought it was clogged. But upon further inspection, a spirit seems to be hiding inside.”

  “Huh,” Jules said. “At least all that boat research was good for something.”

  “How can you tell whose spirit is whose?” Davy blurted out. “They’re all invisible.”

  Runa looked surprised. “Sure, but you can still tell. Look at Finn’s!”

  Davy looked at the air next to Finn. Was it a little bit Finn-shaped, or was that just his imagination?

  Talise squeezed the trigger.

  WHOOOSH!

  Davy crossed his fingers behind his back. What if every-one thought it was his spirit? After all, he couldn’t prove it wasn’t.

  But then Nia sighed loudly. “That’s my spirit, all right. Guess you win this event, Davy!”

  Davy beamed and uncrossed his fingers.

  “Where is your spirit, anyway?” Principal King asked him. “We’ve looked everywhere!”

  Davy recrossed his fingers. “Umm . . .”

  Frantically, he looked around for a hiding spot no one had checked. The sandpaper-scratchy sound came from behind the rusty gate again.

  Nia clapped a hand to her mouth. “Is your spirit hiding in the prize booth?”

  “Um . . . yes?”

  Davy took a deep breath. Then he marched over and lifted the gate, just an inch, just for a second. Then he let go and let the gate slam down.

  He gestured to the air next to him. “Ta-da!”

  “Wow!” Jules exclaimed, and Finn clapped his hands.

  “Your spirit isn’t so shy after all,” Runa said. “He’s actually super brave!”

  Davy stood a little straighter. “Thanks! I—”

  Scritch-scratch.

  He glanced at the gate, then hurried away.

  The last event of Spirit Day was capture the flag. Once the group had walked to the town square, Principal King divided them into two teams. Nia was captain of a team with Quincy, Talise, Earl Grey, and their spirits. Davy was captain of a team with Jules, Runa, Finn, and their spirits.

  Principal King handed Nia a turquoise flag with red polka dots. Then she handed Davy a lime-green flag with pink stripes.

  “As captains, you have one minute to hide your flags,” she announced. “Starting now!”

  Nia sprinted in one direction. Davy took off in the opposite direction. He headed straight for the mermaid statue and tucked the flag between her fingers, which were holding a bronze dog collar. Then he hurried back to his team.

  “Jules, you’re in charge of guarding the statue from Nia’s team,” he said, panting. “Finn, Runa, and I will spread out and look for their flag.”

  “And our spirits will look, too, right?” Runa asked.

  “Er, right,” Davy said.

  “Ready?” Principal King said. “Go!”

  The kids scattered. Across the square, Nia’s team scat-tered, too.

  Davy kept an eye on Nia as he searched outside the library, then the post office. He’d nearly reached the comic-book store when he heard a scream! Startled, he turned to look—but it was only the barbershop pole. It spun and screamed whenever somebody got a haircut.

  Just then, Nia dashed past Jules and headed straight for the mermaid statue. She was going to get their flag! Davy wanted to stop her—but then he looked at the screaming barber pole again.

  It was blur of red and white . . . and turquoise.

  “Aha!” Davy yelled.

  He ran toward the pole as fast as he could, even though Nia was almost to the mermaid statue. There was no way he could beat her. . . .

  He reached the barbershop pole just as it stopped spinning.

  The flag was gone.

  Confused, Davy spun around to find Nia waving his team’s green-and-pink flag. Principal King blew her whistle.

  “That was a close one,” she said. “But the winner is . . . Davy’s team!”

  Davy felt even more confused. “What? I didn’t get the flag! I thought it was tied to the barbershop pole.”

  “It was!” Nia said, brow furrowed. “If you didn’t get it, who did?”

  “Who else?” Principal King pointed. “Davy’s spirit, of course!”

  The turquoise-and-red flag fluttered down at Davy’s feet. Nia sighed gustily. “Oh, well. Congratulations, Davy!”

  Davy blink-blinked, staring from the flag to Nia to the flag again. Did he really have a spirit after all? His team seemed to think so.

  “We won!” Finn cheered, and Jules hooted, and Runa hugged Davy, and his spirit cartwheeled around the square.

  Or at least, he was pretty sure it did.

  Finn was going to be late for school.

  The day had started out like every other, with Runa stopping by Finn’s house so they could walk to school together. “Your girlfriend’s here,” Finn’s third-oldest brother called.

  “Runa isn’t my girlfriend,” Finn called back, like he did every morning. “I’ll be ready in a minute!”

  But that morning, getting ready took a lot longer than a minute.

  First, Finn’s third-oldest brother took so long shaving, Finn almost considered leaving for school without brushing his teeth. But only almost. He knew dental hygiene was very important, especially when you have a sweet tooth.

  “You didn’t even have any facial hair to start with,” Finn grumbled.

  In response, his third-oldest brother ruffled up Finn’s auburn hair so messily, Finn had to spend twice as long fixing it.

  Then, he couldn’t find his math essay. He searched high and low. In fact, he was starting to consider searching even lower—in the basement—when his oldest brother admitted he’d used it as a coaster for his seaweed protein shake.

  “What in the world is a math essay, anyway?” his oldest brother asked.

  “Ms. Grimalkin was trying something different,” Finn said, stuffing the damp paper into his backpack.

  Ready at last, he hurried to the front door. But the porch was empty.

  “Sorry, buddy,” his second-oldest brother said. “Your girlfriend left for school without you.”

  “Runa isn’t my girlfriend,” Finn said. “I do think she’s the coolest, most fascinating person in the whole entire world. But I don’t feel that way about her. . . .”

  He explained for a minute and a half before he realized his second-oldest brother had already left for school, too.

  “Older brothers are so time-consuming,” Finn said, checking his watch. Uh-oh. The tardy bell would ring in twelve minutes. It usually took Finn and Runa seventeen minutes to walk to school.

  He was definitely going to be late.

  Finn started jogging. He only made it half a block before he slowed, panting. Runa had often reassured Finn that he possessed many great qualities, but they both had to admit that athleticism wasn’t among them.

  “I need a shortcut,” he said. Then he gulped.

  The only shortcut Finn knew was through the beach forest.

  None of the kids in Topsea spent much time in the beach forest. There could be anything hiding in those big, dense evergreens. Pirates. Dragons. Actual trolls (unlike Billy, the nice old
woman who lived under the boardwalk). Runa swore she’d been searching for pinecones in the beach forest one evening, and way up high in one of the trees, she’d seen a kid with sticks and leaves in his hair, and he started howling at the full moon—

  “The feral child!” Finn had gasped.

  Runa had nodded. “Clearly, he was raised by wolves.”

  They’d both giggled. Wolves, like dogs, were mythological creatures. Therefore, feral children couldn’t be real. Right?

  Finn wasn’t sure, but he hurried through the trees as fast as he could. Even though the sun was out, the beach forest seemed dark and shadowy. He had to keep zigzagging around tree trunks and ducking to avoid low-hanging branches. After a few minutes, he stopped.

  “Where am I?” he asked out loud.

  “You’re in the beach forest,” a voice replied.

  Finn spun around.

  A boy stood behind him. He was like nobody Finn had ever seen. He was barefoot. His white-blond hair was long and disheveled, and there were a few sticks and leaves in it. His skin looked suntanned, but he might have just been dirty.

  The feral child was real!

  Finn cleared his throat. He always spoke politely, but since he had a very small voice, he tried to speak loudly, too. “Yes! I know I’m in the beach forest! Thank you very much!”

  “Why are you yelling?” the feral child asked. “I’m right beside you.”

  “Sorry,” Finn said in an equally polite but quieter voice.

  The feral child chuckled. Finn noticed his left eye was a deep, stormy green—exactly like the underside of a pine needle. But his right eye was a bright, pale blue—exactly like the wolf eyes Finn had seen in storybooks.

  “What I meant was,” Finn continued, “I don’t know where I am within the beach forest. I’m lost.”

  “Maybe you’re right where you’re supposed to be.”

  “I’m supposed to be at school.” Finn paused. “Do you even go to school?”

  “I prefer not to.”

  Finn started to lose a little patience. “Going to school isn’t a matter of preference,” he tried to explain. “It’s like, your official job as a kid or something.”

  “It’s still a choice,” the feral child said.

  “Not according to my mom and dad,” Finn said. “It’s different with you, since you had wolves for parents.”

  “I had who for what, now?”

  Finn wondered if the feral child’s parents were a touchy subject. They shouldn’t be! Finn’s classmates had many different kinds of parents: single parents, double moms, stepdads, long-lost grandfathers. Although they were all human, as far as Finn knew.

  “Um, never mind,” he said. “But you live here? In the beach forest?”

  “I live everywhere I am,” the feral child replied. “But the forest is where I feel the most alive.”

  “For someone who doesn’t go to school, you have a way with words.”

  The feral child smirked. “Well, I read quite a bit.”

  “Where do you get books?”

  “The library.”

  Finn glanced at the feral child’s feet. “Do you put on shoes when you go?”

  “I prefer not to.”

  “Wow.” Finn didn’t love wearing shoes. He liked to feel the grass between his toes. He wondered how the floor of the library would feel under his bare feet. “That sounds kind of nice, actually. Do you howl at the moon?”

  “Do you?” the feral child asked.

  Finn giggled. “No!”

  “Why not?”

  “I don’t know! It just seems kind of silly.”

  “Lots of things seem silly until you try them,” the feral child said. “And then you find out they’re actually super fun.”

  “Like what kinds of things?” Finn asked.

  “I’d be happy to show you.” The feral child winked his blue eye. “Unless there’s someplace you’re supposed to be?”

  Finn thought about it a moment. “I guess since I’m already late . . .”

  They both grinned.

  The day had started out like every other. But it turned into one of the best days of Finn’s life. The feral child made him a crown out of sticks and flowers to match his. They ate blackberries and flossed with blades of grass. After Finn kicked off his shoes, they went rock-hopping through a cool, bubbling brook.

  “Watch out for brook blobs!” the feral child called.

  “Are those like sea blobs?” Finn called back.

  “Sort of. Brook blobs have teeth.”

  They ducked under a waterfall into a cave. It smelled suspiciously smoky, so they roared at each other like dragons and skedaddled. They used spiky pinecones to knock down purple oranges that stained their teeth when they ate them.

  “Don’t worry,” the feral child said, grinning purplishly. “It’ll only last a few days.”

  They climbed the feral child’s favorite tree, one of the tallest in the entire beach forest. From its highest branches, Finn could see so much! He saw the seaweed-cracker factory and Hanger Cliffs Water Park, which had closed due to crab infestation before it had even opened. He saw the bluffs and the beach and the ocean.

  “Wow, you can almost see the end of the endless pier,” Finn said.

  “Almost,” the feral child agreed.

  Finn could see the boardwalk, where Billy lived. The high school where his oldest and second-oldest brothers went to school, and the junior high where his third-oldest brother went to school.

  And there was Topsea School! Finn saw the entire playground, including the jungle gym that looked just like the masts of a pirate ship. The cafeteria, where Nicky and Ricky and Micky dished up clam chowder and fried clams and clammed fries. (Before the clam shortage, anyway.) When Finn squinted, he thought he even saw Earl Grey waiting outside for Nia. The way Runa had waited for Finn this morning.

  “I wonder what Runa is up to right now,” he wondered out loud.

  “Who’s Runa?” asked the feral child.

  “Runa isn’t my—” Finn started to say automatically, then caught himself. Only his brothers teased him about Runa being his girlfriend. “Runa is my best friend,” he went on. “I think she’s the coolest, most fascinating person in the whole entire world, and—”

  “FINN!”

  The voice echoed through Topsea. “Who’s Finn?” asked the feral child.

  “Me!” Finn said. “I’m Finn. The voice sounds like my second-oldest brother. He’s probably looking for me, since I never showed up at school. . . .”

  “How many brothers do you have?”

  “Too many! They’re very time-consuming.” Finn sighed. “But I’d better go find him.”

  The feral child nodded. “Yes, you’d better.”

  Finn glanced down. The ground looked very far below. “Could you help me climb down from here, please?”

  For a moment, he thought the feral child might say, I prefer not to. But the feral child just smiled and nodded. “Of course.”

  The feral child guided him down the tree, then through the beach forest. Finn could hear all three of his brothers calling now. Right at the edge of the tree line, the feral child stopped. “I prefer to stay right here.”

  “I understand,” Finn said.

  They looked at each other.

  Finally, Finn removed his crown of sticks and flowers and stuck it in his backpack. “Maybe sometime I’ll get lost again,” he said. “I think you’re pretty cool and fascinating.”

  “You’re pretty cool and fascinating yourself,” the feral child said, winking his green eye.

  Finn blushed.

  Then he ran to join his brothers.

  Later that evening, Finn looked out his window.

  There was a full moon outside.

  He sniffled. Maybe he was getting a cold? He rubbed his nose and gazed at the moon. It seemed to gaze back at him, almost playfully. Like a great big eye in the sky, if the other eye was winking.

  Finn put on his crown of sticks and flowers.r />
  Then he lifted the window, leaned outside, and howled.

  “AROOOOO!”

  He listened. For a moment, the night sounded like every other.

  And then, way off in the beach forest, somebody howled back.

  Typically, Talise spent Saturday mornings with the ocean.

  Sometimes she studied tides or examined tide pools. Other times, she put on her wet suit and flippers and buoyancy vest and everything else and went for a dive in the deep sea—just not the deep-deep sea, since she wasn’t allowed to dive that deep without a buddy.

  But the ocean had told Talise to build a boat. So today, she wanted to go to the boat supply shop.

  First, Talise had to ask her parents. Fortunately, she was quite fluent in their dialect: Loving/Concerned, usually with a dash of Mystified. She started with her mother, who worked as a consultant. That meant people paid her for expert advice.

  “I have never built a boat before, and I am feeling apprehensive,” Talise said. “I would like to consult an expert.”

  She turned to her father, who worked as a controller. That meant he controlled . . . Talise wasn’t entirely sure.

  “I think that will help me take control of the situation,” she continued. “Along with some boatbuilding supplies, of course. I’ll just need you to accompany me with your credit card—”

  “Talise,” her mom said. She had white skin and dark blond hair. “But we had something else in mind for today.”

  “We know you’ve been spending a lot of time by yourself lately,” Talise’s father said. He had dark brown skin and black hair.

  “Lately?” Talise repeated.

  “Especially since Clara is visiting Puerto Rico for the next few weeks,” her mother said. “So we arranged for you to spend the day with Runa!”

  “Runa?”

  Perhaps Talise looked as upset on the outside as she felt on the inside, because her father patted her shoulder. “She’ll meet you at the pier. I’m sure you’ll have a great time!”

  Talise was not so sure.

  She squeezed her sea blob as she walked to the beach. She’d really been looking forward to visiting the boat supply shop! Or at the very least, spending more time with her boat schematic. Instead, she was stuck with Runa, the kid Talise had the least in common with.