by Sue Perkins
The following morning they set out for Kaiteriteri. They could do this in one day as they wouldn’t have to go over Takaka Hill. They would save Golden Bay for an early start day. Fury’s mother had packed lunch and they’d both brought their swimming costumes and towels. As they sat on the golden sand watching children splash in the water, Mrs Laing sighed.
“I remember when you were little enough to play on the beach. You’ve grown up so quickly.”
“I’ll always be your little girl.” Fury chewed the inside of her cheek, wondering how to approach the next subject. “You have to let me grow up though, Mum. Plus you have to trust me. Eion and I are merely friends. He’s helped me learn to paddle board and taken me out in their family kayaks. We enjoy each others company but please don’t jump to the conclusion there’s anything else to our friendship.”
For a moment she thought she’d gone too far. Her mother frowned, then looked at her sharply. After several seconds of silence her mother smiled.
“I’m sorry, my love. I tend to overreact when it comes to you and boys. I’ll try to be more laid back in the future. Dad says Eion’s a nice lad, so there’s no objection there. All I ask is you let me know where you’re going. It isn’t too much to ask, is it?”
“No, I think it’s reasonable. Thanks, Mum.” Fury leaned across and hugged her mother. “How about going for a swim?”
After trudging out to where the deep water began, they swam, then returned to the shore before the tide turned – as they’d read the notices on the beach to beware of the rip of the outgoing tide. They slathered on sunblock and sat on the towels to eat lunch and enjoy the sunshine.
“This is so lovely, Mum. It was a good idea to come here today.”
“Apparently Golden Bay beaches are as nice, if not better, so I had a word with your dad and you and I will be going over to stay for a few days, as it’s too far to do in one day. We come back on Sunday. Hope it won’t spoil your fun.”
“No, I’m not seeing Eion again until we go out in the kayaks on Monday.” Fury could have kicked herself. She should have asked if she could go out in the kayaks, not assumed it would be okay.
“Good, it means we can enjoy ourselves without me feeling guilty about upsetting your plans.” Her mother began to pack away the remains of the picnic. “Would you like to go for a drive before we head back?”
“Lovely. On the way back we could look at the places we pass through, but let’s go to Marahau. It’s supposed to be a nice place, although it’s not a swimming beach.”
Her mum nodded and they returned to the car. Fury enjoyed the drive to Marahau and then back along the Coastal Highway to Nelson.
Her father came out to meet them when they arrived back at the holiday villa.
“Did you have a nice time ladies?” He gave them both a kiss on the cheek. “I’ve missed you both.”
“Yeah, right.” Fury laughed. “I bet you’ve been dozing on the sofa for most of the day, enjoying the peace and quiet.”
Both parents laughed and, arm in arm, they went into dinner.
Chapter Thirteen
The few days Fury and her mother spent in Golden Bay were very enjoyable. They used the small town of Takaka as a base and stayed at a bed and breakfast there. Each day they went to various tourist spots and enjoyed swimming at Tata Beach.
“What a lovely place.” Fury’s mother commented the first time they went there. “Gorgeous sand and look at that turquoise sea.”
Her mother’s enthusiasm made her grin and she followed her down the beach. She liked to enter the water slowly, allowing her body to get use to the chill of the sea, but her mum preferred throwing herself into the waves.
Fury dipped her toe in and shivered at the shock of the cold water. Her mother waded out into the sea, knees rising high to cope with the small waves. She had only gone a short way when she stumbled and fell head first into the water then came up spluttering. Fury had to hide her laughter at the expression on her mother’s face.
“What happened?”
“Be careful, Fiora. There’s a big drop off on the bottom.” Her mother pushed the wet hair from her eyes. “Perhaps your way of getting in is better.”
Fury laughed and began to swim out to join her mother.
On Sunday evening they returned to Tahunanui tired, but happy. Fury’s father made them sit and relax while he fetched a takeaway. After talking about their time away, Fury began to yawn and excused herself to go to bed.
Pyjamas on, she hopped into bed and switched off the light. A ping from her phone made her sit up again and, eyes bleary with sleep, she attempted to read the text Eion had sent her.
Hope you enjoyed your trip. See you tomorrow at 10:30 at the beach. I’ll bring the kayaks and lunch.
Fury nodded to herself, turned off the phone and snuggled under the covers. Within moments she had fallen asleep.
*****
The following morning she packed her backpack and, as soon as she’d finished breakfast, headed for the beach. Eion waited for her, and together they hauled the kayaks down to the water.
“I’ve got the torches, the lamp and the crowbar. Have you got your headlamp? Great so we’re all set to explore everything.” Eion climbed in and paddled smoothly out toward the island. The tide covered the small beach beneath the rocky wall so they tied up the kayaks and splash their way into the tunnel leading to the eyes. They climbed up the slope and stopped to look out the round holes in the rock.
“Ready?” Eion asked and Fury nodded. “Let’s go see what we can find.”
Each time they made their way to the cave with the trapdoor it seemed to take less and less time. When they reached the cave, Eion looked at his waterproof watch.
“The sun should be at its zenith now,” he told her. “Let’s get the trapdoor open and be ready for the light coming through.”
They soon had the door open and ventured down to the earthen area below. It remained empty as the last time they’d seen it.
“This has to be under the land.”
Eion looked at her in surprise.
“It’s dry. If we were under the sea you’d expect a small amount of moisture to be seeping through the walls,” Fury explained.
Eion nodded. “We’ve got plenty of time, let’s climb up to the main cave and have lunch. We’ll see when the light begins to shine through. It’s a lovely sunny day so we should have the best chance of seeing anything.”
Fury led the way as they climbed up to the main cave and sat on the sandy floor. Eion had packed a chicken salad for lunch, with slices of cake and bottles of water to wash everything down.
“I wonder what the light will show us?” Fury mused. “A way to open an unseen door? A hidden cache of loot?” Fury laughed. “With our luck it will be a pile of rubbish left by the pirates.”
“Our luck has held so far.” Eion frowned. “We’ve found tunnels and I don’t think anyone else has. Or if they have they’ve never reported them. This island’s been here forever, but hardly anyone lands on it. It’s too small.”
“You mean the top bit’s too small; it has hidden depths.” Fury grinned.
Fury began to talk about after the holidays.
“When do you start uni? We go back to school at the beginning of February.”
“Uni starts mid February. I’ll be taking my car with me. It will be handy when I go down there, as I can pack all my stuff in the car and head off.”
Fury opened her mouth to speak but a ray of light shone through the glass above them. They scrambled over to the trapdoor to see what effect it had on the cave below.
The light filtering through from above shone directly into the hole left by the trapdoor. At first they could see no difference, apart from being able to see better, but then a movement to one side of their present position caught their notice.
Fury saw a ghostly man dressed as a pirate captain enter the cave, using the same entrance they had. Four others – who appeared to be his crew – followed him. Each of the gh
osts carried a small chest on their shoulders and they ignored Fury and Eion as they passed by.
She glanced at Eion but he was squinting at the pirates as if he couldn’t quite make out what they were.
With the captain leading, the ghosts climbed down the ladder and piled the chests into the centre of the cave. Within moments the light from above moved and the pirates disappeared.
“Wow!” Eion sat back on his heels. “What was that?”
“Did you see the ghosts followed the rays of light? It must activate them.” Fury pondered what she had seen. “Do you think it happens every day or only at certain times?”
“What ghosts? All I saw was a dense mist moving across the cave and down the hole in the floor. What did you see?”
“A pirate captain and four of his crew. Each of the crew carried a small chest on their shoulder. I could tell they were ghosts as they weren’t completely solid.”
While Eion thought about her words, Fury wondered why she could see the pirates and he couldn’t.
Is it because I’ve seen ghosts in the past? I got quite used to visiting and talking to Ellen. I must be more susceptible to being aware of them.
“To answer your question I have no idea if they appear every day. I also have no idea why you can see them and I can’t.” Eion sounded a bit put out about this. “We could paddle board out tomorrow at the same time and see if they turn up again.” Eion waited for Fury to agree and when she nodded, he continued. “Let’s get out of here into the sunshine. When we get back to the beach we could buy a coffee from the cafe and sit on the beach and decide what to do next.”
They replaced the trapdoor and covered it with sand then headed for the outside. Retracing their steps didn’t take long and Fury determined that, next time, she would use the stopwatch on her phone to time their coming and going from the cave and see if her imagination had played tricks on her. Thoughts of her phone made her wonder if she could use it to take a photo of the pirates.
Back at the kayaks they found the tide had gone out and the damp sand had partially dried out in the sunshine. Reluctant to sit on the dampness, they pushed the kayaks out and climbed in, then returned to the main beach. Fury helped Eion haul the kayaks up to the car park and onto his roof rack.
Soon they were sitting side by side with takeaway cups of coffee in their hands.
“It’s beautiful here.” Fury commented. “I like where we live, but it’s nice to be this close to the beach. We have to go into Timaru to go swimming in the sea.”
“I’m going to miss this when I go to Christchurch. The nearest beach is New Brighton and that’s quite a way from the uni.” Eion sighed. “I’ll be too busy to go there. Have to wait until I come home each term end.” He turned to look at Fury. “What do you think about what you saw and why do you think you saw the pirates and I didn’t?”
“The ghosts were pirates who appear when the ray of light hits the lower cave. They appear to be taking their loot to hide it, but the light didn’t last long enough to see what they do next.” Fury thought for a few moments. “I think I saw them because I’ve seen a ghost before. We had an old lady ghost trapped in our attic and I helped her to pass over.”
“Really? How did you find her? Did she moan and wail or flit through walls?”
“No. Ellen was the original owner of the house and she got trapped in her bedroom when she died. I saw her shadow passing by the window and went to investigate. When I realised she couldn’t move on I helped her find out why.” Fury didn’t want to explain further, she didn’t want Eion to think she was weird.
“I think it’s awesome you can see ghosts. I’ve never really been sure they exist.”
Fury could see the excitement in Eion’s eyes. Maybe he didn’t think her so weird after all.
“Ghosts are supposed to be like shadows from the past aren’t they?”
“They look like normal people to me. Just a bit transparent.” Fury really didn’t want to carry on this conversation. He would definitely start having second thoughts about hanging out with her if she kept talking about ghost. “We’d better think about what we should do and talk about it tomorrow. Perhaps we could make the light last longer so their next actions are clear.” Fury looked at the time on her phone. “Let’s leave it for today. I still haven’t started turning the sketch for mum into a painting so I’d like to get on with that this afternoon. “
Eion nodded with a smile.
“If you like we could go out on the paddleboards tomorrow. We won’t need the crowbar as we’ve loosened up the trapdoor so we can open it with our hands.”
“Sounds good to me. I’ll meet you near the hire station.”
Fury headed for home, determined to work out how to help Eion see the pirates.
Chapter Fourteen
Overnight, Fury gave a lot of thought to the vision they had seen on the island. The pirates had appeared to be the same depth as Emma, the ghost who’d lived in her house in Cave. Emma had needed her help to pass on, but the pirates didn’t look like they needed help. Next time she’d take a better look at their faces, but they needed the pirates to spend more time in the cave and for this to happen the light needed last much longer.
When she fell asleep she still hadn’t solved the problem of the light. Would a lantern work as well? They’d used one before but not at the right time. Plus the first time they’d seen the light shine down, the pirates hadn’t appeared. Could it be the trapdoor had to be open for them to make their presence felt?
****
Eion hadn’t arrived when Fury got to the paddle board area of the beach. She sat down to wait and went over in her mind how the pirates had appeared and what they had done.
“Morning!”
Eion’s greeting made her jump as she hadn’t heard him coming. He offered her a hand to get up and the usual tingle of the meeting of skin happened. Fury had become so used to it by now she no longer blushed. She’d told herself it didn’t mean anything as Eion wouldn’t be interested in her – he had a girlfriend. She took her paddle board from Eion and they headed out onto the water. On the island they secured their boards, then climbed the path to the eyes.
“Let’s stop here a moment and talk about what we’re going to do.” Fury found a convenient, big rock at the side of the path and sank down onto it. “We agree the pirates were ghosts?”
Eion nodded. “They must be. I only saw a misty cloud and none of them took any notice of us plus they appeared and disappeared in an instant.”
“I’ve only seen them when the light shines down from the glass, so we need to work out how to make the light last longer. If we do that you might be able to see them too. Maybe squint your eyes or don’t look directly at them.”
“I don’t see how we can do anything about the light. The glass has to be halfway up a cliff. There’s no way we can get to it from the outside.”
“Do you think there’s another glass further along the wall which passes the light on when the sun goes across the sky?”
“It’s worth a look.” Eion appeared doubtful. “I don’t think we should raise our hopes though. It’s definitely a long shot. As for me being able to see them, I’ll try your suggestions and see what happens.”
“Let’s go look.” Fury headed for the downward tunnel, then stopped. “Wait I want to start the stopwatch on my phone. I’m sure this journey is taking less time, the more we use these tunnels.”
“I thought so too,” Eion told her. “I expect we’re getting used to travelling the tunnels.”
With the stopwatch counting the seconds, they walked down the tunnels and along the route to the sandy-floored cave. Once there, they checked the stopwatch and noted how long it had taken them to get here. Then they began to look for another glass window in the upper walls.
“This is hopeless,” Eion sighed. “We need to get higher or we won’t find anything.”
“The glass has to be near the other one or the sun wouldn’t pass over quickly enough.” Fury examined the
wall below the original window. “I’m lighter than you. Maybe you could bump me up so I could get a look. Then, if there is something there, we could come out in the kayaks and bring a stick or a broom with us to clear the muck away.”
Eion agreed and he helped her up onto his shoulders. Fury kept her hand on the wall to steady herself while her mind and body screamed at her that Eion was holding her legs. She forced herself to ignore the tingling excitement spreading through her and examined the rock in front of her. Any points she thought looked soft, Fury poked at, but to no effect. Her eyes narrowed as she looked at the original window.
“I think the window is wider than it looks,” she called down to Eion. “I’m going to try and clear away the muck.”
Eion’s grunted in reply and Fury realised he must be feeling the strain of holding her on his shoulders. She quickly dug into the soil on her side of the window and clods of earth fell away revealing a much wider window.
“Hey!” Eion cried as the clods fell on him.
“Sorry! You can lower me down now.”
“Did you find anything?” Eion looked up at the wall but Fury knew he wouldn’t see any difference from this angle.
“Yes, the window is wider. I cleared some of the dirt but we’re going to need a spade or trowel to get rid of the rest. Once we’ve done it, the light should stay on the trapdoor area a lot longer.”
“The pirates didn’t appear when the trapdoor was shut or the sun didn’t shine. Do you think they only show up when the trapdoor is open.”
Fury grinned. Eion’s thoughts reflected hers. “I do. It means we’ll be able to see what they’re doing if they stay longer.”
“You know they’re not necessarily real ghosts.”
“Real ghosts? I’m not sure what you mean.”
“They could be memories of what happened in the past. The memories imbued in the cave walls.” Eion looked serious as he spoke his thoughts out loud. “That could be why I can’t see them.”
“It’s possible, but they look like ghosts to me.” Fury wondered if he’d ever seen a ghost before. Probably not.