“We’ll go after I straighten things out with Uncle Hector.”
“Are you sure he’s your uncle?”
“What?”
“Have you remembered anything yet?”
“No, but I’ve been pretty busy lately what with fixing the boat and searching for lost little girls.”
“I’m sorry. We didn’t mean to go there. We just got lost. We were scared. And everything looks different when you’re littler.”
“I don’t care. You shouldn’t have gone anywhere at all, not with Molly. What were you two thinking?”
“We couldn’t leave Molly behind. Rebecca is the only one she’s comfortable around. She screams her head off if I hold her.”
“That’s no excuse. I thought you two were more responsible than that.”
“I know. I’m sorry.”
When they reached the village, the party was in full swing. The boys had built a fire about as tall as Samantha. The younger children ran around, screaming and playing games. The older children talked and ate roasted fish and vegetables. It wasn’t much of a going away feast, but it was the best they could do.
Samantha looked around, but one person was missing: Uncle Hector. She took Wendell by the arm. “Where’s Uncle Hector?”
“He said he wanted to check on the boat.”
“Oh no.” Then she took off running for the beach.
Chapter 28: Going Home
The Lady Jane was already in the water by the time she reached the beach. She saw Uncle Hector still on the beach, untying the rope that kept the boat anchored to the shore. “Uncle Hector! What are you doing?”
He spun around to face her. A smile came to his face. “Hey, Lucy. You find your friends?”
“Are you leaving?”
“What? No! I was just going to test her out.”
“By yourself? At night? Anyway, Wendell said to wait for morning.”
“I think I know a lot more about the sea than Baby Einstein there. She’ll hold up. She’s a good ship.”
Tears came to Samantha’s eyes. “You weren’t even going to say goodbye. You were just going to leave me behind.”
He held up his hands and grinned wider. “You got it all wrong, Lucy. Maybe I was going to leave, but it’s because I love you. I didn’t want to risk you kids. If something happened, I couldn’t live with myself. If I got to the mainland, then I’d get help.”
The tears became a flood she couldn’t control. “Prudence was right. You made them little because they found out you were going to steal the water. Miss Brigham too. She was the first one to stumble onto your scheme. So you threw the water on her so she couldn’t talk. Then you surprised Rebecca and Prudence. You tried to do the same to them, but David showed up to stop you. He let them escape. Otherwise I’d have never known. I’d have kept on believing you, like a fool.”
“Come on, Lucy, stop crying. I only did it for us. Back on the mainland I don’t have anything. The bank was going to take the Jane from me. What kind of life would I be able to give you like that?”
“Then why were you going to leave me behind?”
“I told you: I wanted to get help. I was going to sell the water and then come back for you all. I swear it.”
“Stop lying to me!”
“OK, kid. If that’s what you want.”
She didn’t notice his foot moving until it was too late. As she’d done to Pryde’s beast days earlier, he kicked up sand into her face. Between the sand and the tears, she was effectively blind. Before she could get her guard up, he kicked her in the midsection.
She collapsed to the ground, but then her instincts kicked in. She rolled into a fighting crouch. While she still couldn’t see more than blurs in front of her, she still had her other senses. She could smell his stale cigarette odor as he closed in.
With her lightning reflexes, she seized his arm and then twisted it. He screamed with pain, meaning she’d probably broken something. He kneed her in the face, but she kept hold of his arm. With seemingly little effort, she flipped him over her head. Then she sprung back to her feet.
Her vision cleared enough for her to see him lying in the sand. Before he could get back to his feet, she kicked him in the ribs. Then she turned him over. She planted her knees on his chest to keep him pinned; he gasped for air.
“It’s over, Uncle Hector,” she said. “I’m going to lock you in the woodshed and then tomorrow we’ll go to the mainland so you can go to jail.”
“Then what will you do? You’re just a kid. They won’t let you stay together.”
“We’ll figure something out.” She didn’t know what she would do yet, but she would think of something. “I’m sorry it has to be this way, Uncle Hector.”
He smiled at her, blood dribbling from his mouth. “I ain’t your uncle, kid.”
“What? But I’m Lucinda, your niece.”
“Lucinda is dead.”
“You said—”
“They found her body a few months after she went missing. Some local pervert cut her up. He’s doing life in the pen now.”
“No, you’re lying. You recognized me when you woke up.”
“Yeah, I did think you were her at first. Thought maybe I’d died and gone to Heaven, not that I ever deserved to go there. But I came to my senses.”
“You’ve been lying to me all along? Why?”
“This,” he said. Samantha had let herself get distracted by what he was saying, so distracted, she didn’t see him reach into his pocket. From that pocket he took out a tiny glass bottle. Samantha saw only a flash of rainbow-colored light a moment before the water hit her in the face.
She fell off of Mr. Delgado, onto the beach. For a moment she sat there on all fours, feeling the familiar sense of disorientation as the world seemed to swell. Her mother’s clothes became even looser on her as she shrank. The boobies Helena and the boys had made fun of disappeared in moments, her chest turning flat again.
There wasn’t enough in the vial to make her a toddler or baby, just a little girl like Prudence. Her instincts told her to get up, but before she could, Mr. Delgado kicked her in the midsection. She let out a groan and then flattened on the beach.
“You stupid brat,” he growled. He punctuated it with another kick. “It’s a good thing I already put some on the boat. The sooner I get off this rock, the better.”
He kicked her a third time. Samantha screamed in pain. She probably had some cracked ribs that would need another dose of fountain water to cure. While her instincts told her to get back to her feet, the pain was too much and she was too little to fight it.
“See you around, kid.” She braced for another kick, but he only walked away.
Samantha lay on the beach for a minute or two, trying to breathe. By the time she managed to get on her knees, Mr. Delgado had untied the boat. The waves began carrying it away from the beach. He waded into the water after it. He’d left some of the netting along the side to use as a ladder to climb up.
He stood on the bow for a moment, water dripping off of him. Then he waved. In that moment she wanted to believe he really was her uncle, that he really would come back for them. She didn’t have the strength to wave back or to chase after him. She could only kneel in the sand and watch him leave without her.
She watched as the boat drifted farther and farther back into the sea. Mr. Delgado disappeared from the bow. She didn’t know where he’d gone until she heard the Lady Jane’s motor roar to life. He had said it didn’t have much gas left, but perhaps that had been a lie too.
It did at least have enough gas to turn the boat around. In the moonlight she could see only his back as he stood on the bridge, guiding the boat out to sea. “Come back,” she whispered. “Don’t leave me here.”
As she watched the boat retreat from sight, she saw Wendell had been right. The Lady Jane wasn’t ready to sail yet. At first she thought it was only an optical illusion that the boat was riding low in the water. Soon, though she realized that wasn’t the case. The boat w
as sinking!
Samantha forced herself to her feet. She kicked off her shoes and then took off her denim jacket. She let the denim pants slip to the ground too so they wouldn’t slow her down. Then she charged into the water. Uncle Hector would drown if she didn’t.
As she began to paddle forward in the water, she saw the lights of the boat dip beneath the waves. She could only hear the crash of the waves for a moment. Then his scream came through the wind. He was calling her name.
She squinted in the darkness and saw him up ahead, thrashing in the water. For the many hidden skills she did possess, swimming was not one of them. No matter how hard she clawed and kicked at the water, she couldn’t get any closer.
A few minutes later he, like his boat, slipped beneath the waves. Samantha stopped her furious attempts at swimming, her entire body going numb. A wave carried her back to the shore, flinging her onto the sand.
She wasn’t sure how long she lay there before she felt a hand on her back. “Samantha?” Prudence asked. “Are you all right?”
Samantha’s voice was too choked by tears to say anything. She only latched onto her friend, pressing her close in a hug. “It’s all right,” Prudence said, but Samantha knew it wasn’t.
Epilogue: Moving Forward
The first thing she did after gathering her clothes was to go back to the Fountain of Youth. Samantha saw only a toddler and baby this time; she was the little girl now she’d seen last time. She didn’t have anything to put the water in, so she just stuck one finger into the fountain. That was enough; the pain in her ribs went away seconds later.
“I guess now you’re little too. Like me.”
“I guess so. How old do you think I am?”
“Eight. Maybe nine.”
“Nine sounds better.”
“How old do you think I am?”
“Eight, I guess.”
“Then I’ll be eight—and a half,” Prudence said. Despite the sadness she felt about Mr. Delgado’s death, Samantha couldn’t help but grin.
“That’s fine.”
Their next priority was to release David from the woodshed. When she opened the door, he charged forward. She couldn’t help but notice how he loomed over her now. His grin looked much different than Prudence’s. He tousled her hair and said, “Well, aren’t you a cute little rugrat now?”
She answered by sweeping his legs out from under him and then shoving him to the ground. “I’m not a rugrat!” She pinned one arm behind his back and then hissed, “Say it.”
“Uncle.”
“Louder.”
“Uncle!”
“Good.” Samantha released his arm and then let him roll back into a sitting position. “Just because I’m little doesn’t mean I’m weak. Understand?”
“Yeah, sure.” He rubbed his arm and said, “So your uncle betrayed you too, huh?”
“He’s not my uncle. He’s just a liar.”
“By now he’s halfway to the mainland with the water, right?”
“No. He’s dead.”
“You killed him?”
“He drowned.” She knew she shouldn’t show any weakness yet, but she couldn’t stop herself from crying about Mr. Delgado. “The boat wasn’t ready. It sank. He drowned.”
“So we’re stuck here?”
“Yes. We’re stuck here.”
***
Though she didn’t want to, Samantha waited until the next morning to head out to Mr. Pryde’s house. Prudence accompanied her with a pitcher of milk for Molly. They didn’t talk much, Samantha’s pain still too fresh. She was just grateful to have Prudence with her to hold her hand. That was as much comfort as she needed at the moment.
They heard Molly well before they saw her. The poor baby hadn’t eaten in over a day. Her diaper probably hadn’t been changed yet either. It took both Samantha and Prudence to yank the cellar door open.
Inside, they found Rebecca cradling Molly, trying in vain to comfort the girl. The candle had gone out, no doubt adding to Molly’s pain. “Prudence?” Rebecca said. Samantha noted how tiny her voice sounded now.
“We’re here,” Prudence said. “Me and Samantha.”
“Oh, good. Do you have a light? I’m out of matches.”
“Don’t worry, we’ll help you out of there,” Samantha said.
“Samantha? You sound funny.”
“Just take my hand.” Samantha had Prudence stand on the bottom step while she reached out for Rebecca. “I’m right over here, by the door. Take my hand and we’ll get you out of here. We have some milk for Molly.”
Samantha felt a tiny hand take hers. She gently pulled on it. “Pull me in, Prudence.” Prudence complied, pulling Samantha back over to the steps. From there it was easy enough to climb back up to the surface.
They sat in the rubble of Pryde’s house for a few minutes while Rebecca fed Molly. As Prudence had said, Rebecca had shrunk into a toddler. Prudence had found her a pink dress that only made Rebecca look younger. She and Miss Brigham would have to grow up again, all because Samantha had been too blinded by the prospect of finding her family to see the truth.
“Samantha, what’s wrong?” Rebecca asked.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “I’m sorry for what happened. I shouldn’t have trusted Uncle Hector so much. I shouldn’t have believed him.”
“It’s not your fault. We all believed him.”
“You weren’t stupid enough to believe him after what happened to Miss Brigham.”
“You weren’t stupid.”
“OK, I was naïve.”
“But none of us died. That’s the important thing.” Rebecca ran a hand over her dress. “We’ve all had to grow up again. Even you.”
“I suppose.” Samantha stared down at the rotting floor of Pryde’s house. “Now I don’t have anyone. I’m all alone.”
“You’re never alone,” Prudence said. “You still have me and Rebecca and Molly. We’re your family.”
“Even Helena?” Samantha said with a smile.
“Even her.”
They hugged again, though not as tightly as on the beach. Samantha had to admit Prudence had a point: she had all the other children yet. They were like her sisters and brothers, especially Prudence. Even if they weren’t of the same blood or even the same culture, their time here on Eternity had made them a family.
“I don’t know what I’d do without you. Any of you.”
Rebecca, always the more practical one, said, “What are we going to do now?”
“We’ll rebuild the town. It’s going to be hard, but we did it before. We can do it again. This time it’ll be even better.”
Samantha helped Rebecca to her feet, followed by Prudence. They walked arm-in-arm back towards the village, where a new future awaited them.
***
Mom takes Samantha’s hand after they get out of the car, though Samantha insists she’s old enough to walk along the beach on her own. “I’m twelve, Mom, not three,” Samantha says.
“I know, honey. I worry about you is all.” Mom looks back to the car, where Dad is applying sunscreen first to his arms, and then to his chest. “Come on, let’s go find a place. Your father will be doing that for hours.”
“It’s not my fault I don’t have such a lovely tan already,” Dad says. With a hand turned white from sunscreen he blows them a kiss.
Samantha checks for any kids her own age around to see this embarrassing display. Even worse than the hand-holding and Dad turning himself into the Abominable Sunscreen Monster is Mom forcing Samantha to wear a black one-piece suit and a floppy straw hat. They might as well give her a sand shovel and pail.
Before the trip west, she had ridden her bike to the department store after school. When she reached the section of bathing wear, she stared up at the mannequin in its red bikini, showing off its stone-gray skin. She imagines herself in the bikini, boys turning to look at her when she walks past.
Under the fluorescent lights of the dressing room, the bikini doesn’t look nearly as impressi
ve. The top chafes her breasts while the bottom is tight. A stubborn roll of fat—Mom said it was baby fat that would disappear when she got older peeks over the bottom. A breeze from the air conditioning sends a chill through her exposed skin.
Her face turns as red as the bikini as she changes back into a loose T-shirt and jeans. Holding the bikini up, she shakes her head. She’s not pretty enough for something like this. Not like the other girls at school.
The bikini on its hanger trembles in her hand beneath the mannequin’s accusing gaze. Samantha will never have a body like that. She’ll never be pretty.
“The baby clothes are over there,” her mortal enemy Hannah Lindley says. Her friends shriek with laughter like a pack of monkeys.
“You would know,” Samantha growls, silencing the monkeys. For a moment she glares at Hannah’s smug face and then turns around, the hanger steadying in her hand. She marches up to the counter, feeling Hannah and her friends staring.
“Aren’t you a little young for this?” the old woman at the counter says.
Samantha says nothing. She fishes the money from her pocket, money she’s saved from her lunch and allowance for three weeks now for this moment; it doesn’t feel half as good as she imagined. Nevertheless, she tosses back her hair, keeping her nose pointed at the ceiling as she struts past Hannah and her chattering friends.
Unfortunately, Mom shared the old woman at the counter’s reaction when she caught Samantha modeling the bikini in the mirror. “Young lady, you are not going out of the house like that,” Mom said.
“But Mom—”
“I said no. End of story.”
Samantha took off the bikini and ran to the living room, where Dad watched television. “Dad, tell Mom I can wear whatever I want,” she said.
Dad’s face turned paler than usual at the sight of the bikini. “Sorry, kiddo, nothing I can do,” he said.
“You two always treat me like a baby. I hate you!” Samantha stormed into her room, using the bikini as a hankie for the rest of the night.
The bikini remains in a drawer back home while Samantha has to walk the beach holding Mommy’s hand in this stupid onesie with the stupid hat. Making the situation even worse, Mom wears an identical bathing suit and hat. The shrieking of Hannah’s friends echoes in Samantha’s ears.
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