She looked at me with pain in her black eyes.
“Don’t worry. I’ll figure something out. Remember yesterday when you got up and swam and caught some fish? That made you feel better, didn’t it?”
I rose and started down the beach. “Come on, Mum. Come on. Let’s go get the fish!”
A shout from the cave interrupted my attempts to get the seal to the sea.
“Mum is not a dog, Cordie. You shouldn’t treat her like one!”
I said something under my breath, something unkind, and the seal glared at me.
“Oh, don’t even look at me like you understood that, Mum. You are just a seal. And you are not my mum, you know. I am just calling you that so Ione will stop bugging me. Now, I appreciate you getting us here and all, so why don’t you be a good girl and go into the ocean and clean that thing off?” I pointed to the gaping cut on her shoulder.
But she just put her head down and gazed forlornly at the ocean.
This was not good.
I gathered some blackberry leaves, remembering how Mum would gather them from our yard, mash them up, and use them as a salve when we skinned our knees. Maybe, if I could place them on the seal’s shoulder, it would give her a bit of ease.
A Daughter’s Tale
There, there. That’s better, right?
And if you are wondering if I think that the fact that there are blackberries here on the island and blackberries in our garden at home is a little coincidental, well the answer is yes. I do.
I can tell you that mashing the leaves up into a paste was not as easy as I thought it would be. Ione tried chewing them into a nice mash, but then her tongue got numb.
But I want to tell you things. Things while you sleep and maybe they will help you dream and maybe they will help you heal.
I am not sure which, but I would settle for either.
Once there were three sisters. One was older than the other two, much older. And then a sad thing happened. Well, before the sad thing, you should know that this family was very happy once. There was a mother with magical fingers who worked in a salon, and a father who repaired boats. They weren’t rich, but the family was happy. And their three children were, too. Well, two of the children were. The last one was only a baby when the sad thing happened.
You see, their mother went away. And nobody knew where she went.
I bet you didn’t know this, but when something bad like that happens to a kid, the other kids at school get all weird about it. None of them know what to say, so most of them don’t say anything at all. It’s like you have the plague. So all the friends the girls had kind of disappeared like fog does, so slightly at first that you don’t notice, but then suddenly, it’s just gone.
It made Ione angry and sad. She stopped even trying much at school. She’d never had an easy time with reading, but it got worse when her mum left.
And the baby, Neevy. She got strange fevers that came and went. And Da didn’t think the oldest one knew how much it cost to go to a doctor. But she knew.
She knew that someone had to step forward and take care of everyone, so she did. Now, don’t think that Da didn’t do his part. He did. But he didn’t make a lot of money, and the oldest daughter, well, she could tell that his heart was broken.
Maybe shattered is a better word. All the pieces were probably there, but in such tiny bits that you couldn’t even see how they might fit against each other again.
You can’t put something that broken back together. You just can’t.
So, slowly this family started to crumble, too.
But that oldest girl, well, she wasn’t going to let this happen. She worked hard and got a job cleaning a store for a crusty old man. She didn’t want to do it, but if that was what it took to make things better, then that was what she’d do.
I didn’t tell you, yet, about the letter. The oldest girl found a note from her mum, stuffed in an old book about selkies. The letter made the girl feel better at first, because she could tell that her mum didn’t really want to leave. Because you see, when people leave without saying goodbye, it’s kind of hard to tell. The girl tried hard not to be mad at her mum. Very hard. But sometimes she couldn’t help it. Mums shouldn’t leave their children.
Even seals know that.
But here comes the bad part, because the girl made up a lie and told her sister that her mum was really a selkie and that was why she left.
Her sister believed her.
And here comes the weird part. See, the oldest girl does not believe her mum is a seal. It would be stupid and ridiculous if she did.
But she wants to. Really badly.
She wants to believe that inside of the seal, somewhere deep inside, is her mum. And if she could only find a way to reverse whatever magic caused her mum to turn into the seal in the first place, then she could finally fix it all.
She couldn’t do it, though. Fix people. But maybe she could fix the other problem, the one with money. Folks know it’s not polite to talk about money, especially not having any, but the girl was smart and figured out where to find a treasure. A treasure would make lots of things better. Maybe then Da wouldn’t have to work as hard and then he could help the girls find their mum.
Someone else wants the treasure, though, and that would be an old lobster-face of a man named Mr. Doyle. But he’s just a crazy old man. He believes Mum is a selkie, too. And I bet if someone asked him, he would say he believes the moon is a piece of goat cheese on a fine china plate that a selkie stole from him long ago and tossed up into the night sky as well.
That kind of crazy.
But not as crazy as when the seal showed up in Selkie Bay, convincing the sister that she was right. Mum was trapped in a sealskin.
So the oldest girl, she did something she probably shouldn’t have. But it was brave and courageous. It was the kind of thing her mum would have done, she thought. She took the family boat and … well, you know the rest.
I left out the part where you got hurt. I don’t know how it happened, but I am very sorry it did.
And I’m not sure why you stayed with us, or how you saved us, but I really want you to get better. Because I bet a lot of those little seals will miss you if you go away. They need you.
* * *
We need you, too.
The End of the Camp
I DREAMED I WAS IN A WHITE ROOM with wires and tubes and silent machines. There was a window with white curtains, the sheer kind that are almost useless because they don’t keep any light out. They just make the light fuzzy. But under the fake drapes are blinds that can be pulled and when they are, all the light is blocked out.
But in my dream, they were open and the fuzzy light filled the room. It was a bedroom of sorts, for there were a couple of beds with white sheets. I thought there was someone in the bed, but before I could be sure, I woke up.
The seal, whom I had been napping next to, still slept soundly.
“You used to curl up next to Mum in her bed, just the same way, and I’d get in on the other side. Don’t you remember, Cordie?”
I remembered.
I remembered the way Mum changed her breath so it matched mine and how I could feel her heartbeat as I lay against her. And for just one minute, I let myself pretend that maybe I was there, snuggled next to Mum in her bed.
And it felt like home.
I put my arm around the seal and a little voice inside of me said, before I could catch it, I miss you so much, Mum.
“Don’t cry, Cordie. Mum is looking better,” Ione said bending down next to me. “Well, a little better, anyway.”
“I wasn’t crying,” I said. “Just got some sand in my eyes. That’s what I get for taking a nap on the beach.” I hadn’t meant to fall asleep so early in the day, but it was much easier to sleep on this strange little island during the light of day than in the black of night. I had never seen as many dark shadows as I had last night. But I had to get up now and figure out things—like a way to repair the boat, how to find some treasu
re, and what to do about that seal.
The sky, which had been a patchwork of white fog and beautiful blue just yesterday, was now the color of pavement this afternoon. Dark, gray, and menacing.
“I don’t like the look of this,” I said, standing up, dusting the sand from my bum, and pointing to the forming clouds.
“Well, I don’t like the look of this,” Ione said, holding the empty diaper bag upside down. The food, the bottled water, and the diapers were running out at about the same rate.
“I guess it is blackberries again,” I said. Ione made a face.
Some of the medium-sized seals brought fish to the beach, but I didn’t have it in me to gut a fish, let alone build a fire and cook it up. And I didn’t have a knife, either. But at least we could feed the fish to the large seal. Neevy, who was still snoring lightly in Ione’s arms, was going to have to learn to like berries, and fast. Or raw fish.
“Maybe we ought to explore the island,” I said. “We might find something else to eat. If blackberries grow here, maybe something else does, too.”
“And we should decide where to start digging. I am sure there is lots of buried treasure here. Remember? If I were a selkie, I would definitely bury my treasures here. Do you think we should leave Mum?” Ione continued. “She might be worried about us if we aren’t here when she wakes up.”
“Well, why don’t you wake her up and tell her, then?”
“Mum? Mum?” Ione said, kneeling next to the seal. She shook her a bit. “Mum, wake up.”
But the seal didn’t move.
“Cordie, Mum won’t wake up.”
I fell to my knees and felt the seal’s chest to see if she was still breathing. She was, though they were light, small, slow breaths.
“She needs her rest, that’s all.”
“I don’t like the way she’s breathing. It’s like she’s not breathing at all.”
I swallowed, feeling for the fib that would see me through this one. “Seals, I mean selkies, can hold their breath for a long time, so don’t worry. Let’s just let her sleep.”
I brushed my fingertips against her head. Please be okay … Mum.
I prayed the tide would come up and carry her out to sea while we were gone and that the sea would heal her.
And if the sea wasn’t willing to make her well again, I hoped it would still take her so that at least she wouldn’t have to die alone, beached on an old island. Maybe it would be better if we stayed with her, but I couldn’t chance it. One look into Ione’s eyes told me what she needed was hope. She’d already been abandoned by one mum. I didn’t think she deserved to be left by two.
* * *
I gathered up Neevy as Ione said a proper good day to each of the selkie cousins, telling them that we were going to check out the rest of the island and asking them to keep an eye on Mum.
“Get her whatever she needs,” she commanded.
Henry followed us as we trudged through the sand toward the caves.
“Go. Shoo,” I said.
“Oogh,” said Neevy.
“Don’t shoo him, Cordie. He wants to come with us, can’t you see? Come on, Henry.” She bent down and he tried to jump into her arms, as if he was a puppy! He knocked her completely flat on her back, planting himself on her stomach.
“What? You’ve never seen a girl carry her cousin around?” She grunted.
I laughed and shook my head. Ione looked ridiculous. Laughing felt strange, seeing as we were nearly out of food, the sky was getting darker, and the air smelled like rain. And I was horribly worried about … Mum. Mum who left us months ago and Mum who lay injured on the beach. The two of them swirled around in my mind, coming together and floating apart until I didn’t know what I really believed anymore. So I tried not to think about it. Instead, I let the laughter burble out, skipping happily past the angry box, which remained securely closed.
* * *
Past the three caves was another small opening.
“I wonder if we can fit through,” Ione said, nudging Henry, who scampered on the ground in front of us. “Here, you try.” She gave him another gentle poke with her foot.
Henry went inside the small opening. We waited.
“I am going to crawl in after him. Maybe that’s where they keep the extra sealskins. You know, the ones for us.” Ione sank to her hands and knees.
I pulled on the back of Ione’s shirt, halting her progress into the tunnel. “What if we are just people, Ione? What if, because Da’s not a selkie, we aren’t, either? I mean, don’t you think if we were going to change into seals, we’d know it by now?” I spoke slowly, choosing words carefully. I didn’t want to upset her, but I was one-thousand-percent sure there were no sealskins at the end of that tunnel.
Ione gave me a look like I was crazy and disappeared into the little cave without answering. I knew I shouldn’t let her go and that I was being a very careless guardian, but I was tired and, well, sometimes a person just gets tired of always being in charge.
In a few seconds, Ione was backing out of the small cave. “Cordie, look at this!” She pulled out something dusty and brown and for a moment, the air got stuck in my throat. However, it was not a sealskin, but a worn leather bag with a rusted latch on the top. Henry dutifully followed her.
“It’s like a tunnel in there, then it opens up. But look! I wonder what’s in this.”
As she unlatched the bag, I wondered something different. Who put it there? And why?
“Oh, biscuits! I love you!” Ione pulled a tin of biscuits from the bag to her lips and gave it a loud kiss. “I would marry you, biscuits!” She pried the lid off the familiar-looking tin. Seal Biscuits, the store in town. Of course. There were some chocolate biscuits and some that were just shortbread.
I don’t think I’d ever seen Neevy so excited. She threw her arms about and made noises that were a cross between a snort and a squeal. I put a biscuit in her chubby hand and she gnawed on it happily.
I would not be lying if I said those biscuits were the best I’d ever had in my life, even if they were crumbly, stale, and tasted like old paper.
We munched happily as the wind whipped around our legs. I felt a sprinkle or two, but maybe that would be all there was of the rain. Sometimes winds brought heavy rains to Selkie Bay, and sometimes they petered out into nothing.
Neevy dropped some of her biscuit and Henry sniffed it, but didn’t touch it. Ione swooped in, claiming the five-second rule, and gobbled it up. We were so distracted by the biscuits and the sputter of rain, we didn’t even think about what else might be in the bag.
Our thoughts must have crossed in the air between us at the same time, for Ione handed me the tin and continued to search the bag. “Oh, look! There’s a lighter! We can have a fire. And some packages of dried fruit, but they are brown and gross. Eww! I think this is a blanket, but it is very thin. And … hmm … what do you think a person would use this for, Cordie?”
Ione drew a long, ancient-looking spiked club from the depths of the bag.
The biscuit turned to sand in my mouth.
I knew whose bag it was.
And I had a pretty good guess why it was on the isle of the selkies.
The Puffer Fish Arrives
LITTLE HENRY WAS SQUIRMING AND BARKING, just as the wind picked up. I took the club from Ione and stuffed it back in the bag. “Don’t ever touch this, Ione. Promise me. It’s a bad thing.”
She nodded, as Henry seemed further agitated.
“Something’s got him riled. We should go and check on the others,” she said, trying to hold him, but he wanted to get there on his own. He quickly scurried ahead. I gathered up Neevy and we ran to catch up. We overtook him in a few strides since running is faster than scuttling along.
The sky was becoming fiercely dark. The clouds swirled, large and puffy.
“The babies are all gone! Cordie, where are the babies?”
I surveyed the empty beach, searching for telltale bobbing heads in the waves. There were none.
“Well, probably Mum took them out to catch some dinner before the rain comes. That makes sense, doesn’t it?”
I hoped it made sense.
I hoped she was okay.
And the babies, too. I hoped they were all okay.
“That’s not what’s supposed to happen. Remember the story? You should. You’re the one who told it to me. The babies should be on the island during the storm so they don’t get separated. Or scared.”
Shaking my head noncommittally and shrugging at the same time, since I couldn’t remember what I’d made up, I trudged down the beach to where we’d been using the Dreaming Lass as a windbreak. Another gust of wind came, blowing the sand and shells, releasing the money I’d set out to dry in a whirlwind of cash. “Ione, grab what you can!” I cried, but the money taunted and teased us, refusing to be caught.
I twirled around, Neevy in one arm, trying to catch a bill that floated just above my head with the other, when a gravelly voice chuckled and said, “Isn’t that the way it is with Sullivans and money? Always chasing what they can’t catch.”
Mr. Doyle stood taller than I remembered, in black wading boots that went past his knees.
“What are you doing here?” I asked. “How did you get here? Where’s your boat?”
“I might ask you the same,” he said. “But I can see the Dreaming Lass sitting right there, such as it is. And my boat is past the rocks over there.” He pointed to the large black rocks that were just to the north of the beach. He must have cut the motor before he got too close to the island or we’d have heard it.
“I see you’ve found my bag.” He took a step closer and I was a little scared.
“I knew it was yours.”
“So it would seem.” He took another step closer and I saw A Child’s Book of Selkies flapping in his hand. “And you’ve found some treasure, I see.” He plucked a bill from the air.
“Give it back. It’s not the island’s treasure. It’s our money. I brought it here.”
“I don’t believe it. Why would anyone bring money with them when they were hunting treasure? Most likely it’s mine, buried here by my wife.”
Secrets of Selkie Bay Page 10