Red Rocks

by King, Rachael

  Dad rowed for what seemed like hours. Jake’s stomach grumbled and he pulled out a sandwich from his pocket. He took a bite and suddenly thought, what if they were lost out here for days? He took two small bites and then put the rest back in his pocket. They could always eat raw fish if they were desperate. He was thirsty too, but they had only brought two small water bottles. Best to wait until they were really desperate. He imagined them drifting for days until they were finally rescued by a huge container ship, which would spot them just as it was about to plough over them and continue on its way.

  He looked up. His father had stopped rowing. The wind had died down but the mist still surrounded them. It had become still and quiet as quickly as it had become rough. Jake shivered and half expected a ghost pirate ship to cruise silently by, with cutlasses and bare skulls leering at them, but they were all alone.

  ‘I’m not sure which direction we’re headed.’ Dad hung his head, as if he were ashamed.

  ‘It’s okay,’ said Jake. ‘We’ve got our life jackets on. And look, the wind has stopped. We’ll be fine.’ But he didn’t feel fine, and he knew his voice betrayed him. It was eerie out there on the water, who knew how far from home? And he had never seen his father look so unsure.

  ‘Hey,’ said his dad. He moved down to sit next to Jake. They huddled together. It was like a bad dream. Jake thought about what had happened the night before, at the beach. But that had been a dream, hadn’t it? Maybe it had happened. He found himself shuddering uncontrollably. Dad pulled him tight.

  Then, in the stillness, they heard a splashing sound. Jake turned to look behind them and saw ripples in the water. Big ripples, not like the ones a fish leaves. Could it be … were there sharks out here? Things were going from bad to worse. At least the waves had gone, and they were safe in their boat. But what if the shark was big enough to come up underneath them and tip them over?

  He looked at the water below, but saw nothing. He closed his eyes. He would prefer not to see it coming, he decided.

  ‘Hello,’ said Dad. ‘Who have we got here?’

  Jake opened his eyes and found himself looking down at a pair of shiny eyes in the water. A small seal floated beside the boat, staring at them. He smiled in relief. Not a shark, then.

  The seal kept looking at them.

  ‘We’re lost,’ Jake said. ‘Can you help us get back to shore?’

  The seal’s nose wrinkled, as though looking at them in disdain. It dived under the boat and disappeared.

  ‘I guess it wasn’t in the mood for helping us,’ said Dad, chuckling. But then his voice grew grave again. ‘We might just have to wait for the mist to clear and find out where we are.’ He looked into the sky. ‘If we could see the sun we could work out which way was north.’ But the sky was a uniform grey, hanging heavily above them. It was so dark it felt as though night could fall at any moment, when in fact it was probably only lunchtime.

  They sat waiting for another few minutes. Jake took another bite of his sandwich — he was starving.

  The seal popped its head out of the water again. It watched Jake eating.

  ‘Can we give it a fish?’ Jake asked.

  ‘Sure.’ His dad picked one, the smallest kahawai, from the bucket. He held it out to the seal, who seemed to smile as it took the fish in its jaws. With a toss of the head, the fish disappeared down the seal’s gullet in one go. It reminded Jake of something but he couldn’t think what. It was nice to see the seal eating, but Jake was still hungry, and he was scared.

  ‘What if we don’t make it back to shore?’ he asked his dad. ‘We’ll have to eat fish.’ His clothes were damp, and he shivered. A hot tear sprang to his eye and he didn’t have time to wipe it away before it fell on his cheek.

  ‘Hey, hey,’ said his father. ‘We’ll be fine. Don’t worry.’ He looked determined suddenly, and took up the oars again.

  As he put them in place, the seal dived under the water again and emerged a few metres away. It turned onto its side and waved a flipper in the air.

  Jake wiped his cheek. ‘I think it wants us to follow.’

  ‘I doubt that very much,’ said Dad, but he rowed a few strokes towards the seal anyway. It dived down again and came up further away. Every time the dinghy got close to it, the seal submerged itself, only to re-emerge a distance away, always looking back at them, sometimes waving a flipper again. They rowed for half an hour. Dad’s face was beaded with sweat and his cheeks were red. He was breathing fast.

  Jake’s heart was beating hard. Could the seal really be showing them the way home? Then he had a terrible thought. Perhaps it knew somehow that he had stolen the sealskin, and it was leading them further and further out to sea as a punishment. But just as he was about to tell his father to stop, to turn around, he gave a shout.

  ‘The island!’ Through the mist, the island emerged like a giant crouching turtle. Beyond it, the mist was retreating, the sky was thinning to blue and the curve of Island Bay was coming into view. The seal went under for the last time, and Jake couldn’t see where it had come up. But by then, it didn’t matter. They knew the way home.

  11

  A terrible storm developed that afternoon. Jake sat inside with his father watching the sea whip itself into a frenzy. The house shook and moaned.

  ‘I can’t believe I took you out there without checking the weather forecast,’ said his dad. ‘I’m so sorry, Jake. We could have been out there in this. I never would have forgiven myself.’

  ‘It’s a good thing that seal showed us the way home.’

  ‘Yes, how extraordinary. I suppose it was just chasing fish, and the fish were moving with the current. The tide was going in, after all. But it seemed like it was waiting for us, didn’t it?’

  ‘It was.’

  His father ruffled his hair. ‘Then if you say that’s what happened, that’s what happened. It was an adventure anyway.’

  Dad lit a fire and they huddled around it. Jake wondered how Ted was getting on in his little cottage. He hoped the sea didn’t come right up into the house. What about Jessie? Was she scared? He wished he could get on his bike and go and see her, to tell her about the seal that had saved their lives. She would believe him.

  After dinner, they toasted marshmallows on sticks in the glowing embers of the fire, while Dad told him stories. Jake liked to close his eyes and listen to the sound of his father’s voice wash over him, taking him to faraway places. He felt truly happy when he was here, sitting next to his father in the warm light. He wished he could live here, go to school in Wellington, but it was complicated, because he also wanted to live with his mother, and it just wasn’t possible to have both his parents in the same house. Besides, if Dad had a new girlfriend, there might not be many nights like this left, just the two of them. He had to savour this moment because what if Cara moved in? What if they had a baby? It was bad enough that he had to share his mum with Davey and Greg. He didn’t want to have it happen all over again with Dad.

  He found his thoughts drifting to what Jessie had said to him about the sealskin, and to the horrible dream he’d had that had felt so real. He was feeling a little scared about going to bed tonight.

  ‘Dad, do you know about selkies?’

  ‘Seal-people? Sure, I know the legend. I think I used to tell you about them when you were small. But I’ve got news for you, kiddo — they were just fairy stories. If you’re hoping to catch a beautiful maiden by hiding its skin, you’re out of luck. All those seals at Red Rocks are male anyway. Bachelors who haven’t found a mate for the breeding season.’

  ‘That’s not what Ted said. He said some were girl seals.’

  ‘Well, I’ll believe that when I see it for myself. Why do you ask?’

  ‘Can you tell me again? The story?’

  ‘Aren’t you a bit old for fairy tales?’

  Jake blushed. ‘Okay, forget about it.’ He stabbed at a marshmallow with his stick.

  ‘Hey, don’t be like that,’ said Dad. ‘You’re very tetchy these da
ys. I’d be happy to tell you what I remember.’

  Jake closed his eyes as Dad shifted on his cushion on the floor, leaning his back against the couch.

  ‘The story comes from Celtic and Norse cultures that live by the sea, like the Orkney Islands. It goes that there was once a fisherman who was very lonely. All the women in his village were either very old or they were already married. He longed to have a wife to cook for him and keep him warm at night, and to give him children to fill his tiny cottage with laughter. Yes, I know, it’s not a very modern fairy story — don’t let your mum catch you talking about women like that.

  ‘Anyway, one day he got back from a fishing trip and he met a woman on the shore who looked a little lost and who was clad only in seaweed. He took her home and gave her clothes to wear and food to eat. She was very quiet and very, very beautiful and he fell deeply in love with her. He asked her to marry him but she said that she couldn’t, that she was a selkie and she must return to her people. But he locked her in a room and went out looking for her skin. He found it hidden in a cave in the rocks and took it home and put it in a chest in the cellar, which he locked tightly.

  ‘The woman could not return to her people without her skin. She searched and searched in vain. When she came back from looking for it, she agreed to marry him and live with him until she could find it. She learned to cook and she kept him warm at night, but every day when he went out fishing, she roamed the coast, always hunting for her skin, unaware that it was right underneath her, in the cellar.

  ‘The fisherman was very much in love with her, but she refused to give him children because she said it would be unfair on them when she returned to the sea. As the years went by and she did not find her skin, she grew sadder and sadder. She hardly ate anything and she wasn’t much more than skin and bones. Soon she was so weak she couldn’t get out of bed. The fisherman sent for the doctor, who told him the terrible news that he didn’t expect her to live much longer. The fisherman was devastated. He spent the whole night crying, and in the morning he knew what he had to do. He loved her very much and didn’t want to lose her, but if he gave her back her skin, she would finally be happy and free and she would live.

  ‘The woman could barely open her eyes when the sun came through the curtains, but there on her bed was her skin. Summoning the last of her energy, she took it and left the house, walking down to the sea without so much as a goodbye to the man who had loved her but who had held her prisoner for so long. Once she was wearing her skin, he never saw her again.

  ‘I think that’s how it goes,’ said Dad.

  ‘But why would a selkie come on land if she risked getting stuck as a human?’ asked Jake. ‘Why was she there in the first place?’

  ‘I don’t know the answer to that. But if you had the chance to transform yourself into another sort of creature, wouldn’t you? Just to see what it was like?’

  Jake smiled. ‘Yeah. I’d love to be a bird. Or a dolphin!’

  ‘Well, there you go. Maybe a seal, even.’

  Jake remembered the dream he’d had, the feeling of freedom as he’d spun through the water. And then the terror, when the skin had been taken from him and he’d started to drown. ‘Not a seal,’ he said.

  ‘Sorry I’m not a better storyteller,’ said Dad. ‘That’s my version of the myth anyway. I’m sure you could find a book about it if you wanted.’

  ‘Maybe I will,’ said Jake. He shrugged. ‘It doesn’t matter though. I was just curious. Jessie thinks selkies are real.’

  ‘Well, she’s younger than you, Jake. Little kids believe things. You did. Don’t be mean to her about it. I think it’s nice when you can believe in things like that for so long.’ He ruffled Jake’s hair. ‘Okay, mister?’

  Jake smiled. ‘Sure. Maybe I believe in them too. Just a little bit.’

  It was Dad’s turn to smile. ‘And that is nothing to be ashamed of. We could all use a little bit of magic in our lives, don’t you think?’

  They sat there for a while longer. Jake watched his father’s face while he stared into the fire, looking as though his mind had wandered elsewhere. He hadn’t shaved for a few days and his beard had come in thick and fast. Jake was shocked to see how much grey was in it. He turned to the fire and began to make out shapes in the flames that curved and flickered around the logs. Faces, seals …

  ‘Bedtime for you, mister. Come on, look at you, you’re nodding off.’

  Jake allowed himself to be led into his room. He was so tired he just flopped onto the bed. He was already wearing his pyjamas, so Dad just stuffed him under the covers. The sheets felt alarmingly cold for a bit, but they soon warmed with the heat from his body and before he knew it, he was asleep, with the sound of the rain pelting the roof and the wind scrabbling at the windows.

  He was awoken some hours later by a booming sound. He sat up, alarmed, and his room was suddenly lit up as bright as day before being plunged into darkness again. A few seconds later another crash, like two planes colliding directly overhead. He lay back down again — just thunder and lightning, but boy did it feel close. He wondered if he was safe in his bed, whether lightning could find you, even inside a house. He waited with anticipation for the next flash — the storm was so close now. There it was, lighting up the clothes strewn around the room, the open closet, inside which the sealskin lay. Jake jumped as the thunder struck almost immediately. It was right above him! And — what was that smell? Hot and meaty, but mixed with mud and salt. He was blinded by the previous flash and he looked in the darkness towards the wardrobe. Surely the smell wasn’t coming from there? He jumped out of bed to slam the wardrobe door shut and as the door connected there was a startling flash of white and an almighty BOOM! Jake was only a metre from the curtainless window and in the puff of light he saw a face! It flickered in the light, looking in at him, a pale face with huge dark eyes and a wild crown of red hair that was being whipped around in the wind and the rain.

  Jake screamed, but another flash drowned him out. Cara appeared to look straight at him. The next second the world was dark again and Jake waited, holding his breath for more lightning and thunder, but it didn’t come. When finally a gentle flicker ignited, the woman was gone and the storm was moving away with her. The roll of thunder was a long time afterwards and it sounded like a distant cannon.

  Jake got back into bed and pulled the covers up to his ears, but he was too shaken and scared to go to sleep. He got out of bed again and padded through the house to his father’s room. He got in bed beside him and Dad moved over to let him in.

  ‘Scared of the storm?’ His father’s voice was thick with sleep.

  ‘Yeah,’ said Jake, and he almost felt safe again, with his father sleeping beside him. But still he could not sleep. He listened to the storm moving further and further away, and every night noise sounded like someone trying to get into the house. And now there was one thing he knew for sure. He knew what it was that Cara was looking for. She had come for her skin. Was this why she had befriended his father? Had she sensed her skin was near? And was it possible his father was falling in love with her? He knew now what he had to do.

  12

  As soon as it started to get light outside, Jake got out of bed while his father snored. He hardly ever got up before his dad. The storm had completely gone and the sky outside was streaked with pink and gold. Jake moved quietly into his room. He took his backpack and opened the wardrobe, expecting to be hit by the horrible odour again, but only when he brought the sealskin right up to his face did he smell it. It was milder than the night before, but had the same musky, dirty essence.

  He stuffed it into his bag, but it was too big and stuck out the top. He went into the kitchen and got a rubbish bag from the drawer, which he used to cover it, to protect it from the weather, but also to hide it. His hands shook as he pulled the plastic over the backpack. What if he couldn’t get there in time? What if Cara was outside waiting for him?

  ‘What are you up to?’

  Jake spun around
to see his father standing in the doorway, rubbing his eyes and yawning. ‘You’re up early. Do you want some breakfast?’

  ‘I had some already,’ lied Jake. ‘It’s a nice day. Can I go and see Jessie?’

  ‘If you want.’ Dad walked to Jake’s window and looked out. ‘It’s so calm out there now. You’d never know there’d been a storm.’ He turned. ‘Wrap up warm, though. It’s cold at this time of the morning. I should know.’

  Jake nodded and grabbed his coat. He tried not to look at his bag in the corner of the room, in case Dad saw what he was looking at and asked questions. He waited for his father to leave the room, but he just stood there, yawning and scratching his thickening beard.

  ‘Well,’ said Dad. ‘I’m off for a shower. Can’t seem to wake up this morning. I’ve got a lot of work on today, since yesterday was a write-off. You okay with that?’

  ‘Yes, fine.’ Jake started tapping his toes and willing his father to go, which he did. As soon as Jake heard the shower start up, he picked up the bag and threw it on his back, making for the front door.

  ‘What’s in the bag?’

  Jake spun around. His dad was advancing down the hall towards him, a towel wrapped around his waist.

  ‘Nothing,’ said Jake. ‘Just a jacket. And my lunch.’

  ‘But you’re wearing your jacket. What are you up to? I thought you were behaving strangely.’

  Jake didn’t know what to say. He turned away, his heart beating faster. Dad stopped a metre away, scrutinising him. ‘Jake …’ There was a stern warning in his voice.

  Jake opened the front door, but to his surprise and horror, his dad lunged forward and grabbed the bag, wrestling it off Jake’s back.