“I think we need to be…sneaky.”
Evie walked away from the front door and, as quietly as she could, made her way along the front of the house and then around the corner into the shade along its side. She looked over her shoulder. Catherine and Ruby were following behind. Suddenly Evie heard a noise and she stopped, holding up her hand to let the others know to do likewise. Evie crouched down. She crawled the last couple of feet and flattened herself against the wall. Then she carefully looked around the corner.
“Oh, oh my,” said Ruby from behind.
“Oh, oh my” was right.
Before them in Erik’s backyard, all manner of large plastic buckets and tools were strewn over the long grass. Massive bags of fish food sat open in the hot sun, and hoses snaked across the yard, making quite the obstacle course. But that wasn’t the “oh, oh my” of it all. No, the “oh, oh my” was what looked to be a homemade aboveground swimming pool standing in the middle of everything, around which was a kind of makeshift deck. But not just that. Two teetering bridges crossed it. And standing at the intersection of the two bridges, right over the center of the pool, was Erik.
From where they were watching, he seemed to be shaking.
“Erik?” said Ruby, standing up and walking slowly into the backyard.
Erik looked at her with wide eyes and held his hand out toward her. “Ruby, stop. It’s too dangerous.”
“What’s going on?”
Erik looked at them and bit his lower lip. Then he looked down into the water, then back at them.
“Come on, Erik,” said Ruby gently, taking another step closer, “you can tell us.”
“Ruby, stop!” he cried out again.
She stopped.
“I…I’m trapped. It won’t let me down.” And just as he said it, there was a sudden flash of gray and white and then a giant splash, sending water pouring over the side of the pool. Erik cowered, balancing precariously on the bridge.
“Is that the little shark?” asked Evie.
Erik nodded but was too terrified to say anything.
“And it keeps jumping up out of the water at you whenever you try to run away?”
Erik nodded.
“It’s trapped you in the middle of those two bridges, hasn’t it?” added Evie.
Erik nodded again.
Evie turned to look at Catherine, who was staring intently at the pool. “Catherine?” said Evie.
“I understand now,” she said, more to herself than to them. “Look how little it is. Can’t be more than four feet. Look how thin. It’s malnourished.”
“I found it a week ago. It was trapped in a small lagoon a few miles north. I saved it,” said Erik, a quaver to his voice.
“I wouldn’t go as far as ‘saved,’ ” replied Catherine, taking a step closer to the pool. Her movement inspired more thrashing within, and water splashed over the sides. She stopped. “That’s why it keeps trying to attack you. It’s starving.”
“What do we do?” asked Evie.
“Okay,” said Catherine slowly, “okay.” She removed her shoes and walked over past Evie and past Ruby, right for the pool.
“No, don’t!” said Erik. But Catherine wasn’t paying attention. She continued to walk, slowly but with purpose, smoothly, with a calm kind of grace, almost like she was gliding. She carefully climbed the ladder and stepped onto the deck. Finally she made it to the edge of the pool. Then in one swift motion she ducked down as the flash of gray and white leapt out of the water right for her. It fell back down, a large splash coming up over the edge and even hitting Evie where she stood.
Catherine slowly got onto all fours, crawled over to the edge, and looked into the water. “It’s terrified,” she said softly, her voice almost like a low hum.
“Don’t go in there,” said Erik. “It ate everything. All my beautiful fish I collected. And I’d already fed it. It’s an eating machine.”
“I sometimes eat when I’m stressed too,” said Evie. From her vantage point she could only see the fin of the little shark at moments. She wanted to go closer and see what Catherine was doing, but she was also scared. Besides, only Catherine could possibly do what Catherine was doing. It made the most sense for Evie to stay back.
In one quick movement Catherine slipped into the water. She did it so delicately, it was almost like she didn’t break the surface at all; hardly a ripple formed. The fin of the little shark was at the other end of the pool, facing her. From where Evie stood, it looked to her like the two were staring at each other.
Then the little shark charged. It was so fast that Evie hardly registered what was happening. But what she saw was astonishing. Instead of turning and running away, Catherine stayed firmly in place, and as the shark came at her, she bopped it. Downward. Tapped it right on the nose. The shark swam away quickly after that and then turned back to face her again, swimming back and forth and back and forth on the other side of the pool.
“Did you just bop a shark?” asked Evie.
Catherine didn’t respond. She was a little preoccupied. Sure enough, only moments later the shark charged again, and again Catherine bopped it on the nose. The movement seemed almost playful, as if Catherine was playing a game, but the little shark was quite clearly rather confused by the action.
And it happened for a third time.
Evie was starting to wonder if there was anything more to this plan.
But almost exactly as Evie generally started to wonder about things, that was when the wonderings were answered. Instead of staying in her spot this time, Catherine took a slow step forward. Her hand was outstretched under the water, almost like one would extend a hand to a dog to sniff. The shark slowly circled around her, and Catherine turned to watch it, never leaving her back exposed. Once again it lunged at her, and once again she bopped it. And then it went back to circling.
No one said anything, no one moved. It seemed also that no one was breathing. Even a couple of birds in a nearby tree were holding their breath. It felt like time was standing still as the little shark circled and circled. And then, slowly, tentatively, it tightened the circle. It was hard to see from where Evie was standing, but it looked like the shark got so close that it brushed against Catherine’s leg. Catherine made a small smile then. Her hand was still in the water, and she reached out at the next pass. But instead of bopping, she gave the shark a little stroke as it swam past.
Then Catherine crouched down so her shoulders were covered in water. She was tall enough that Evie guessed she was likely resting on her knees. “It’s okay,” said Catherine in that low hum of a voice, and at first Evie thought she was talking to the shark. And maybe she was. But Evie realized when Catherine looked up at her with a smile that Catherine was also talking to her.
Evie swallowed her fear and climbed up the ladder, followed by Ruby. They stood toward the back of the deck, looking down into the water, marveling at the scene before them. The shark was swimming calmly around Catherine as she occasionally gave it a light touch. The shark actually seemed to like those touches, like a cat wanting to be scratched in certain places, but only for a moment and then darting away. Looking down at it now with Catherine by its side, Evie realized that the shark might be much littler than Steve, might be malnourished, but it still was very sharklike. Still made of pure muscle and sharp pointy teeth.
Catherine looked up. Erik was still shaking on the high platform above her. “You can come down now,” she said. But the man shook his head and stayed clinging to the railing, his sunburned knuckles white from the effort.
Ruby carefully walked over to the foot of the bridge and climbed up onto it. “Come on, Erik. It’s safe now,” she said, though she glanced down fearfully as she crossed over the pool. The little shark didn’t even seem to register her, just continued to brush up against Catherine, occasionally now bopping her with its head in a playful
manner. Catherine only smiled more broadly at that.
Ruby reached Erik and slowly helped him to release his grip. Then she walked with him bit by bit along the bridge and down the short ladder. When he arrived beside Evie, he collapsed onto the deck in a heap. Evie leaned down next to him to make sure he was okay.
“You all right?” she asked.
Erik nodded. He was pale beneath his sunburn, and still shaking a bit.
“What on earth were you thinking, Erik?” asked Ruby, but not meanly. She sounded more astonished than anything else.
“I wanted to make my own aquarium. I wanted to show people how amazing fish are,” he said, his voice quivering.
“But you can’t just make an aquarium out of a backyard pool. There are rules and regulations, and that’s not enough space anyway for a full-grown shark,” said Evie, astonished.
Erik nodded. “It was all temporary. I had a plan to build a big one, once I had earned a bit more money. But then all the tourists left and my shifts were cut…”
“The tourists left because of Steve, because he’s been looking for the little shark. You’re the reason your shifts were cut,” said Evie.
“Oh. You think that’s why Steve’s here?” asked Erik, looking up at Evie with wide eyes.
“Yes, of course I do. You didn’t think…” Evie stopped. It almost seemed pointless to ask him how he couldn’t have realized that. “How did you get this shark out of the water and into your tank in the first place?”
“I spotted him in the lagoon when I was looking for other fish. He couldn’t find a way out. He was in trouble. So I helped him and then saw that he was so skinny and hungry. So I figured he would fit in my old exotic fish tank. It was big enough that he could swim a little bit in circles in it, and I thought I could help him get better. I read all about it, and he’s definitely healthier than when I first found him.” Erik shuddered at the words. Evie understood: a healthy shark was a scary shark.
“But he’s still too small and too underweight,” said Catherine quietly from the pool. “He’s also a she. And probably about just over a month old, by the looks of her.”
“Oh? Okay,” said Erik. “A she.”
“So how are we going to get her back to Steve?” asked Ruby.
“No! No, you can’t do that,” said Erik, desperation in his voice. “She’s my star attraction.” He tried to push himself to his feet and failed, flopping back down.
“Erik, you can’t be serious,” said Ruby with a laugh.
“I am!”
“Okay,” Ruby replied, “let me try to explain this to you one more time: You can’t afford to build a proper aquarium because you aren’t earning enough money. You aren’t earning enough money because Steve is driving the tourists away. The only way to get rid of Steve is to give him the little shark, and then you can start earning money again once the tourists get back.” Erik nodded along as Ruby explained all this. Then his face fell.
“But—but—” he stuttered.
“Besides,” added Catherine, “a great white has never survived in an aquarium, in captivity. Keeping this shark would be its death sentence.”
“Well, I mean, that wouldn’t be good,” he said quietly.
“Why don’t you start smaller?” said Evie, jumping into the conversation. “Why not a nice little tank at the inn? With small fish. Pretty fish. Like the one you showed me yesterday? You could tell guests all about the fish, educate them. You can take your time with it. You don’t need a full-sized aquarium right this minute.”
Erik looked at her, thinking hard. He seemed unable to make up his mind. Fine. Another tactic, then.
“Or, I mean, Ruby might have to report you to the authorities. I’m sure what you did was illegal,” said Evie.
“Right, okay, yeah, I like that small-tank-at-the-inn idea,” said Erik immediately.
“Good!” said Ruby, brushing her hands together, as she tended to do when a decision was made. “Now, okay. Here’s the thing. How do we get the little shark back to Steve?”
It was a good question. It wasn’t as if they could call anyone official, not if they wanted to keep Erik out of trouble. “Where’s the tank from the basement?” Ruby asked.
Erik pointed slowly over to the other side of the pool. Lying on the far side was a pile of twisted metal and broken glass. Above it was a piece of dangling chain attached to a broken pipe leaning to the side.
“What’s that?” asked Evie.
“I made a makeshift crane, used it back in the basement and then brought it here. The shark got angry. Thrashed about. Everything was destroyed.” Erik’s expression flinched at the memory.
“Oh,” said Evie. No tank, then. No crane either, evidently. Not that she’d even thought they’d need one, but of course a crane to lift a heavy shark tank did make sense. “Catherine, do you have any suggestions?”
“Sorry, what?” Catherine was now swimming around with the shark, ducking underwater and playing with it. Playing tag with it, it almost looked like.
“Any suggestions about how to get the little shark back to the cove?” asked Ruby.
Catherine stopped playing to think, which meant the shark bumped into her in frustration, trying to get her to start up again. She laughed and gave it a pat but kept thinking. “Erik, do you have any leftover pool liner?” she asked after a moment.
“Yeah, I think so,” he replied.
She turned and looked at Ruby. “How fond are you of your truck?”
Sebastian truly hadn’t thought it was possible for the audience to get any louder than it had been, but the sound in the pitch darkness was so intense, so loud, that Sebastian had the sincere fear that his head might explode. Or at the very least his eardrums.
But then, almost like pressing a switch, at the first chord of music, the audience fell silent. It was an eerie moment, and didn’t last long. At the second chord the silence was punctuated by a couple of individual whoops. But the third chord sent the audience into fits. It wasn’t the music that had done it. A shaft of white light had turned on, and it was focused down on the stage, near the left of the stage. Sebastian squinted to see what was happening, but when he saw the top of a head materialize from the floor, he instantly understood. Ujin was being raised onto the stage by an elevator under it. The audience was getting its first glimpse of the actual real-life Lost Boys, and it quite simply didn’t know what to do with itself. Ujin’s name flashed across the screen, accompanied by a picture of him grinning at the audience. This only made the screaming louder, and Sebastian really wanted to go out onto the stage and ask them to quiet down because they were drowning out Ujin’s singing. And Sebastian knew from watching rehearsal how great Ujin sounded. But the audience mercifully quieted down on its own, listening as Ujin sang the opening line of the song. The moment was short-lived, however, as another bright shaft of light hit the stage, close to where Sebastian was standing on the right side backstage. And Yejun’s head appeared, rising from the floor of the stage. He joined in the singing, and then the process was repeated twice more with Cheese and Toy. The four of them sang in perfect harmony for a moment. Then they stopped where there was a pause in the song. The audience members tried desperately to keep quiet, but they knew what was coming. Or rather, who was coming.
Kwan’s voice did not materialize from the floor of the stage like the others. Nor did it come from anywhere on the stage. It actually sounded as if it was coming from somewhere up in the audience. Somewhere up farther, higher, in the roof. Sebastian broke free from Suwon’s grasp and moved back toward the rear right side of the stage and looked out at the audience, getting his first full view of it. He staggered a bit when he saw them. His brain couldn’t process the number of people all standing together. A white shaft of light shot through the air toward the ceiling of the stadium, and that’s when both Sebastian and the audience got their first glimpse of K
wan.
He was standing high above them on a catwalk, holding on to something above his head. If the crowd had been excited by the idea of elevators bringing people onto a stage, this concept that Kwan, the lead singer of the Lost Boys, was right there high above them was too much for them to process. In fact, instead of screaming at his appearance as they had with all the others, they just stood there, silent, looking up. Kwan definitely had the most powerful voice of all the band members, and even Sebastian shared in the audience’s awe as he sang the final line of the slow intro that would launch them into the fast-paced rest of the song. Kwan seemed to savor the moment. In fact he went even more slowly than in rehearsal, and the musicians had to compensate for that. When he hit the last note, he held it high up with him in the air. It floated above the audience and lingered. Only when the first crash of cymbals and synthesized beats started did the audience break from its spell.
So too, it seemed, did the band. Brightly colored lights flashed across the stage as the boys got into formation, Toy doing one of his trademark flips. And meanwhile Kwan held fast to whatever it was above his head and suddenly came flying down to join the rest of the band. A zip line! He was using a zip line. Sebastian was seriously impressed.
Kwan landed effortlessly and high-fived a couple of girls right at the lip of the stage, before going off and joining the others standing front and center. They launched into one of their choreographed routines, one that was far more complicated than the one they’d taught Sebastian in their dining room. They were perfectly in sync with each other, dancing without missing a beat, and all the while singing in harmony.
Sebastian sang along quietly to himself. He’d heard the song now numerous times, and even though he didn’t know the language or the words (he was certain he was butchering them), he didn’t feel embarrassed. Instead he felt elated, and for the first time he felt truly honored to have spent time with not only such a popular group but a talented one as well.
The Reckless Rescue Page 14