I couldn’t sleep, though. I was wide awake. Strange not to know what time it was.
I found Maria’s legends book on the chair. I had to find a spot where a light couldn’t be seen.
The bedroom had no outside door. No window. I lighted a candle and put it on the floor. Tucking my robe close around me, I leaned against the wall and began to read.
I saw the williwaw legend and then opened to a page that began: In the days before history, two girls fell in love with the moon, but trouble was coming; at least for one of them.
This wasn’t only in a story. It was right here.
How could I escape from the soldiers? Would I ever see Mom again? Or Gram? My teeth began to chatter. Not from cold; I was afraid.
I blew out the candle, left the book on the floor, and went through the living room. I peered out the door, looking toward the village.
Smoke rose from one of the houses, and a light flickered in the darkness!
Matt!
He was going to get himself captured, and me with him. Trouble.
It was a distance to the enemy camp, but maybe the soldiers would search to be sure no one else was on the island.
I pulled on my coat over my pajamas and tiptoed outside, remembering to close the door. Barefoot, I walked along the edge of the path.
I banged on his door. Never mind quiet. It was too late for that.
He threw open the door. “Now what?”
I pushed him inside. Almost. He was much bigger and stronger than I was.
“I knew it.” He slammed the door behind us. “Something is wrong with you.”
“Light, smoke,” I answered furiously. “Something is wrong with you!”
He looked around. I could tell he was embarrassed. “I didn’t think anyone could see.”
“Wrong.” I bit my lip before I could say again.
He blew out the candle and the room grew dim. “I have oysters,” he said. “I was saving them for the morning, but if you want some…”
“No.”
He shrugged.
I waited a moment to calm down. “There’s a cave,” I told him. “My father said so. If we found it, we could move everything in there. Maybe we could even have light. We might be safe.”
He didn’t say anything for a moment. “I think Pop said something about a cave. I can’t remember exactly…”
I took a chance. “Want to look for it with me?”
I waited for him to answer.
He shrugged again. “I guess so. Tomorrow.”
“It may be a forever search, I’m warning you.”
“You think I can’t do that?” He closed his mouth. I could see how angry he was.
WE had to find that cave. I stopped. What had Dad said about it? So many things!
I tried to remember: there was nothing about how big it was, nothing about where it was on the island. It was hard to think. I was so hungry.
Wait!
Once when we talked about the island, he’d said, “I looked down. I could see the ocean stretching out forever.”
The ocean, not the sea.
So, the Pacific Ocean; the south side of the island.
And Mrs. Weio: two rocks bowing to each other when it’s calm.
It was still early. While I waited for Matt, I read another page of the legends book. The moon would choose only one of the two girls.
But now, Willie was at the door. He was hungry too. Did he want to go to the soldiers?
I hesitated, but he needed to eat. I was careful to open the door slowly, peering along the path to be sure the soldiers weren’t nearby.
Willie darted out but looked back almost as if he wanted me to come with him.
If only I could! I hadn’t had enough to eat for days.
“Go, Willie,” I whispered, and closed the door carefully. I leaned against it, worrying suddenly that he’d lead the soldiers back here, back to me.
What could I do? I couldn’t sit still anymore. I rubbed my hands against my skirt. Mom’s bird book was on the counter and I paged through it, seeing descriptions of birds I’d never heard of, the horned puffin, and the king eider with its orange bill. I wondered about Dad’s yellow bittern. Would I ever see it? Imagine how happy that would have made him.
Matt was knocking at the door. I grabbed the notebook and put a pencil behind my ear, in case I saw interesting birds.
Outside, we took the long path away from the soldiers. “The cave,” I said. “We have to search along the Pacific side.”
Hours later, we saw the ocean. We began to climb, crossing diagonally, searching for an opening in the rocks. From high up, the water looked almost like a mirror. I saw ships, almost as if they were painted on that glass.
Ships! More soldiers?
I glanced over my shoulder. Matt was looking out at the ocean too. What was he thinking? Maybe he wished he were out there on the water.
I reached the highest rock, turning slowly. I tried to see an opening, no matter how small. I glanced down, checking the paths below to be sure we were alone.
A bird with yellow wings flew over my head and swooped down to teeter on a ledge nearby. I hardly moved, hardly breathed. But Matt called and the bird took one or two tiny running steps and flew.
That was it. Not only had he ruined my view of the bird, he was loud enough to be heard by anyone nearby.
“You’re an idiot,” I said.
He stepped back, surprised. Then his arms churned…
He tumbled over the rocks and disappeared below. I couldn’t imagine that he wasn’t badly hurt.
I followed him, holding on to rocks. I tripped, bruising my elbow. But never mind. I had to get to him.
Had that miserable boy killed himself?
“Please no,” I heard myself saying.
I rolled down the hill, stones cutting my back, my arms, my legs. I hit my head and kept falling. The world was dizzying: black rocks and gray sand, one above the other, turning in a perfect circle.
The ocean roared in my ears. Would I hit the water and be carried far out?
But with a wrench to my knee, and to my elbow, I stopped. I closed my eyes.
Dreaming. Pop was yelling, Izzy was yelling No! Angry…I yelled too. I’m not going to the islands with you, Pop. Mom, I’m hurt.
I opened my eyes to mist, to fog, to Izzy bending over me, her glasses halfway down her nose.
What was she crying about? Saying “No,” over and over? What was I doing there anyway? Lying on the ground, a stone under my shoulder?
“Matt?” Izzy was whispering. “Are you alive?”
Of course I was alive. She couldn’t even see that? “Your glasses are a mess,” I said.
She really was crying.
“What are you doing here?”
“Helping you,” she answered. “What do you think?”
“Who knows?” I looked past her, high up to the top of the hill. I remembered then, I had fallen.
I sat up. “All right. I’m…” I stopped. My knee was through my pants, bloody, and when I moved, it didn’t want to move with me. I tried to close my mouth over the groaning noise I was making, but I couldn’t stop.
But Izzy wasn’t looking at me. She was staring down at the water, at a pair of rocks. She pushed at her glasses. “Don’t move. Stay there. Just give me a few minutes. I’ll be back.”
I really didn’t want her to go. Strange. But moving was a problem. I watched her scramble back up the hill, hand over hand on the rocks.
Would she leave me there?
It was too much to think about.
I closed my eyes again.
I was still trembling, thinking about Matt sprawled out against the rocks.
I told myself to stop. He was alive; he was breathing. But his knee. Oh, his knee.
How could I help him? There was something…
What had I seen in the water?
Two rocks, bowing.
Then, maybe, the cave could be above us.
I left Mom’s no
tebook just off the path, the pages fluttering. No time to bother with it, as precious as it was. I kept going, climbing the rocks again, looking for an opening.
And there it was.
Ducking my head, I peered into the cave, reaching out to touch the rocks at the entrance. My father might have done that long ago. And on a sunny day I might have brought Mom here to look for birds flying overhead.
I took a step inside and looked back. Far along the path below, a few soldiers were marching. The ships! More of the enemy! These were not the same soldiers as the ones I’d seen near the harbor.
They’d be on top of Matt in minutes.
Hands grasping the rocks, I slid down to him.
“We have to move,” I said.
“I don’t think…” he began.
I didn’t let him finish. “They’re coming. The soldiers. We have no time. We have to do this.”
I put my hands under his arms and tried to lift him. How heavy he was!
Mrs. Dane: You could do anything, Izzy, if only you set your mind to it.
I took a breath, helping him sit up. One knee was so full of blood, I had to look away. He leaned against me and managed to stand, but bent over like the old grandmother from the village.
We began to climb, but so slowly, I couldn’t imagine that the soldiers wouldn’t be directly underneath us in seconds.
I held on to Matt, bearing his weight, saying it over and over in my mind: You could do anything, Izzy…anything.
Somehow we reached the cave. I helped him sit close to the entrance; it was as far as he could go. We sat on the hard stone floor, blinking in the dim light.
And then I remembered. Mom’s notebook. On the ground, just off the path.
Where were the soldiers now? Had they seen it?
I looked over Matt’s shoulder.
They were still on the path, but marching away.
I raised myself higher. “Safe,” I whispered, hardly able to speak.
I sat there, trying to calm myself. As soon as I could, I wanted to walk farther in, to see how far the cave went. But first the notebook!
Please let it still be there.
I clambered down the side of the rocks, tearing the hem of my coat. But it was there, damp now, some of the pages curled, some bent.
But still, the soldiers hadn’t seen it! I scooped it up and climbed back inside. “Going to explore,” I told Matt, who didn’t answer.
The cave was deeper than I’d thought. I held on to one side, moving slowly, until ahead of me was a trickle of water.
In front of me, a fountain streamed down into a narrow pool. I sank down on the cave floor, held my hair back, put my face into the icy water, and drank. The sound of my gulping was loud in this place surrounded by stones.
I stood and took another few steps, following a turn in the cave. Light and a misty fog came from an opening in the back of the cave.
Far below were tents.
Too many tents to count.
There must have been hundreds of soldiers there!
No place was safe!
Not us.
Certainly not us.
“WATER,” Izzy said, cupping a torn piece of her skirt in her hands. Water dripped along the rocks.
I’d never been so thirsty. But instead of putting it to my mouth, she washed the blood away from my knee. “It’s twice the size it should be,” she said.
I didn’t care about the blood. I just wanted to take that cloth and suck on it, washing away the terrible dryness in my mouth.
I wouldn’t ask her.
But she was gone again, moving toward the back of the cave, and came back moments later with the cloth. Washed of blood, it dripped cool water into my mouth.
She never stopped talking, telling me about the fountain and the soldiers’ camp below. “There are too many tents to count.”
She took a breath and began again. “You won’t be able to go back to the village with that knee the way it is. But don’t worry, I’ll find food.”
She pushed her hair away from her face. “Blankets. Cups. Bandages.” She narrowed her eyes. “I’ll steal whatever I have to.”
I turned away from her. The pain in my knee was much worse now. It was hard to think about anything else.
She was right. The village was miles away. I wouldn’t even be able to climb down the side of the cliff.
I thought of the terrible climb we’d taken a little while ago. How had she carried most of my weight? It was hard to believe: a skinny thing like her.
I was stuck with her now, almost as much a prisoner as Pop was, so far away, I thought irritably. Then, Mean, I told myself.
Izzy slept at last, breaking off midsentence about learning how to dig for clams.
I couldn’t sleep. I tried to stand.
Tried.
Tried again.
Then, leaning against the wall, I managed to inch my way along the cave.
A thin stream of sand was coming from openings where the rocks were not quite seamed together. Were we safe here?
It took forever to get to the fountain and that small pool. And that was as far as I could go.
I lowered myself down, sitting with my back against the wet wall. I looked at my shoes. There was no way to get them off.
I inched into the water, which just covered my knees.
Never mind the shoes.
It was freezing, but it numbed my knee, washing the rest of the blood away.
Long ago, it seemed, I was in Connecticut. Maybe today I’d be at the Y with Mom, watching her swim, timing her. I closed my eyes. Years ago when I had mumps, she’d sat on the couch with me, reading aloud.
If only I could see her for just five minutes.
How had this happened to me?
Did I feel sorry for myself?
I did. And why not!
I awoke in the dark, aching from lying on the hard stone floor, my teeth chattering from the cold. Where was Willie, I wondered.
I glanced across at Matt. He was awake and I could see from his face how much pain he was in. How long would it take him to heal? We had to leave here before we were caught. There were so many soldiers; we couldn’t hide from them for long.
Still, I had to bring things back from the village, otherwise we’d freeze. But the soldiers! I couldn’t wait for daytime; I had to go now in the dark.
It would take all night. Could I leave Matt for that long? Could I walk across the island without being seen?
I stood up quickly. I had to stop scaring myself.
I leaned over him. “I’m going to the village.”
He nodded, then held up his hand. “Wait, Izzy. I just thought of something. My father had a radio hidden under the floorboards. I’m sure he broke it up, but maybe there wasn’t time. Maybe it’s still there.” Matt grabbed my arm. “I can’t believe I didn’t think of it sooner. It’s probably gone, but just maybe…”
His voice trailed off. His leg was bleeding again. Through his torn sleeve I could see that his elbow was raw. I had to get bandages.
At the mouth of the cave, I peered down at the path. It was empty. I climbed out and down the rocks, looking over my shoulder.
If they came, would I have time to hide? I hurried, making my way in the foggy darkness, walking all those miles. Stopping to rest, I wondered why those soldiers were there, feeling an ache of homesickness.
When I finally reached the village, I went from house to house: the village chief’s first, even though I’d been there once. The old grandmother’s was next. A bit of stale bread, but nothing else.
I found a piece of salmon in the last house. Outside, I gave half to Willie. But I couldn’t wait another minute to go to Matt’s house, all the while thinking, Floorboards, maybe a radio. Saved. We’d have help.
By this time, it was light, almost morning. I heard the sound of a cuckoo, but he was too sneaky to be seen. Like me, I hoped. I’d add that to Mom’s notes when I had time.
Inside Matt’s house, I leaned against the
wall.
Why floorboards? Did we even have floorboards in my house? It seemed to me the floor was nothing but packed earth.
And where? In what room?
“If I wanted to hide something under the floor,” I said aloud, “it would be…”
Under the table? No. Someone might see where the floor had been torn up.
So, out of sight. I went into the bedroom and looked down. The boards were wide, uneven. I pushed the bed hard until it began to move, an inch, then more.
I ran my hands over the floor and caught a huge splinter in my finger.
But nothing was there.
I pulled at the splinter, which didn’t want to come out, as I went into the other bedroom and pushed that bed aside.
I crawled across the dusty floor, and yes, feeling with my fingers, I could tell the thick boards were not quite fitted together.
A radio. Please.
I pried up the boards, three, then four, and one more.
There was no radio.
Oh! I sat back. Willie leaned over my shoulder. I was looking down at a treasure of food!
I ran my hands over boxes wrapped in waxed paper. It was hard to believe. More flour, sugar, dozens of strips of dried salmon, oats, raisins. I thought of Gram. Sometimes I’d stay at her house. She always made oatmeal with a raisin face.
I sat back on my knees for a second, yanking at the splinter, which finally came free. I couldn’t wait to get back to the cave with all of this. It would keep us alive!
Then I realized. We weren’t saved. We’d still have to help ourselves. And I had to find bandages. Nothing was more important.
My house, maybe. And on the front step was a pail of mussels in seawater. Matt was such a strange boy. One minute he was nasty, the next doing something that made a difference. When had he left them? Why hadn’t I seen them?
I took the pail inside with me and pulled blankets off the bed, took Mom’s winter robe and even a pillow. In the bathroom, I saw the legends book. I had to see which girl the moon chose. And The Call of the Wild!
But bandages. There were none in the house, none in the whole village. Only filthy towels, rags crusted with mud.
I felt a pain in my chest. I went back into my bedroom and stood there, looking at the pink party dress. I ran my hand over its softness. For the hundredth time I thought of Gram, pictured her sewing the velvet buttons. Would I ever see her again?
Island War Page 7