Becca at Sea

by Deirdre Baker

  “The Keswicks’ sweetpeas are already up to my knees,” Lucy said.

  “Oh, you know them,” Gran said. “They live for gardening!”

  Nobody could accuse Gran of living for gardening. That was one of the reasons she got the family to dig for her.

  “Look!” Alicia pointed. “Kay’s tomatoes already have flowers on them, and yours aren’t even planted.”

  “Hey!” said Gran. “What are you? The garden report squad? My lavender is doing well. And look at the rosemary. It’s huge!”

  Those two herbs were the only plants Becca recognized in the sea of grass, weeds and winter-deadened sticks that was Gran’s allotment.

  “You’ve got some very robust thistles,” Dad said. “Don’t forget them!”

  He was grinding his teeth, Becca noticed.

  “It’s very tasty rosemary!” Gran said, looking miffed.

  “Rosemary!” snorted Dad.

  “Next year we could come in winter and cover it all with seaweed,” Becca said. “That’s what Kay does. It keeps the grass and weeds down, she says. She calls it putting the garden to bed. Then you’d have lavender and rosemary and flowers and veg, too.”

  “Seaweed!” exclaimed Gran. “All that salt! Terrible for the garden! Don’t even mention it!”

  But Becca couldn’t help noticing Kay’s terrifically happy-looking flowers and vegetables. They didn’t look like the seaweed had hurt them at all.

  “Where do we start?” she asked.

  “Here.” Lucy pointed to the earth by Becca’s feet. “Inch by inch. Or centimeter by centimeter, if you prefer.” She sighed importantly. “It’s like this every year, isn’t it, Uncle Hill?”

  She jammed her fork into the wilderness.

  Becca poked her own fork into the hard ground. Lucy and Alicia were right about one thing at least. It was tough work.

  * * *

  The heat of the May sun bloomed around them, and bit by bit, the green mat of spring weeds changed to the damp brown of turned earth. Becca’s palms became red and hot from digging, and sweat dripped into her eyes.

  “You girls have made such great progress that I might give you part of the afternoon off,” Dad said as they ate cheese and oatcakes and chocolate, sprawled around the gardening tools, the water barrels and the wheelbarrow.

  “All I want is to go for a swim,” Alicia groaned.

  “Me, too!” Becca couldn’t wait to jump into the sea.

  “Maybe in a couple of hours,” Dad said. “If we get the whole plot turned over, we’ll take a break and then plant tomorrow.”

  “It’s a deal!” Lucy and Alicia cried together.

  Becca saw them exchange a look. She knew that look. Something was up. They had a plan.

  * * *

  “Yes, Becca is going with you.”

  Gran probably meant to speak softly, but Becca heard her anyway.

  “But, Gran — ”

  “And there will be no nonsense,” Gran ordered.

  Silence. Becca made sure to thump up the back steps so Gran would know she was there. How embarrassing. But why shouldn’t Lucy and Alicia include her? Besides, if she didn’t go with them she’d be alone or once again stuck with adults.

  “I hung up the suits,” she announced.

  “I didn’t know you could reach the clothesline,” Alicia said.

  How did she make such an ordinary comment sound so mean?

  “I stood on the chopping block.”

  “Are you ready to go?” Lucy asked.

  Becca knew Lucy hoped she would say no.

  “Sure,” she said. “What are we waiting for?”

  * * *

  “You won’t be able to come if you don’t keep up,” Alicia said sternly over her shoulder. For some reason she was carrying a thick coil of rope, but that didn’t slow her down.

  “She isn’t trying to be nasty,” Lucy explained, walking backwards so she could face Becca. “It’s just that there’s a certain place we want to go, and if we don’t hurry there won’t be time.”

  The smell from Mac’s chopping and sawing lingered even though Mac wasn’t there. Becca saw the clean wood of a new house frame rising among the trees, and a glint of red from the belly of the kayak. She thought of telling Lucy and Alicia about how she and Gran had nearly sunk the Zodiac.

  “Hurry up!” Lucy wailed over her shoulder, and Becca knew they couldn’t care less about the Zodiac or even about her being kissed by a seal.

  Alicia leaped the ditch and headed off through the bracken at the edge of the forest.

  So they weren’t going to the park.

  “Where are we going?”

  Lucy started to run.

  “Come on!”

  Lucy jumped.

  Becca jumped.

  Cedars and bracken gave way to salal, to hemlock and Douglas fir. Becca heard Lucy and Alicia rustling through the bush ahead of her.

  “Is there a path here?” Becca called.

  Nobody answered.

  Glossy leaves spread before her. Above the leaves, pale salal blossoms nodded on red stems like round little ghosts of the berries they would be in summer. Becca pushed against the bushes with her arms and chest, and tough, snaky stems caught at her feet. Leaves scratching on her clothes and the sound of her own breathing filled her ears.

  “Lucy! Alicia!”

  A faint murmur drifted back to her, and then she heard a crunching sound.

  “What? What do you want?” demanded Alicia, suddenly standing beside her.

  “I didn’t know where you were,” Becca said.

  “You’re going to have to keep up,” Alicia told her. “I knew we shouldn’t have let you come. If you get lost, don’t blame me. Now come on.”

  After a while branches were whipping Becca’s face. She was climbing over fallen trees, and when she looked up, she saw only leaves and branches. It was easier to tunnel under the salal and weasel through the stalks. But she had no idea where she was going. The soles of Lucy’s runners and her faded cutoffs were the only landmarks, and they were always disappearing into the shadowy bush ahead of her.

  “Are you sure this is the right way?” Becca heard Lucy ask.

  She didn’t hear the answer.

  A while later she almost bumped into Alicia.

  “There!” Alicia said triumphantly. “There’s that tree! We have to head over there.”

  “What tree?” Lucy was grumpy. “There are thousands of trees. Millions!”

  Becca couldn’t see any trees at all, just the underside of salal leaves. But Alicia and Lucy had already crunched off and she had to scramble to keep the back of them in sight.

  The next time she bumped into them they were sitting on a fallen log, still surrounded by a sea of salal and Douglas fir.

  “You always get us lost,” Lucy argued. “Why don’t you let me go first for a change?”

  “We’re not lost,” Alicia insisted. “We’re just in the woods.”

  “Yeah, but where in the woods?”

  It was green and cool resting there under the salal in the middle of the forest. Becca closed her eyes and listened to her cousins argue.

  When she opened them, it was because something wet and cold had touched her face.

  Frank’s nose.

  “Frank!” she whispered. “What are you doing here?”

  His white feet twinkled, his black tail swished, and Becca crawled through the bush after him.

  “I’m going,” she said loudly. “You can follow me if you want.”

  But she was making so much noise going in and out of the salal stalks that she couldn’t tell whether her cousins were behind her or not.

  “Are you looking for mice?” she asked Frank.

  But Frank just moved steadily through the bush.

  “Th
e salal’s not so thick,” she mentioned to him. “It’s getting lighter.”

  Now Becca could hear Lucy and Alicia behind her, scrambling to keep up.

  “Does she know where she’s going?” she heard Alicia ask.

  “I don’t know, but it can’t be any worse than following you around,” Lucy retorted.

  Becca smiled. In a moment, her head poked out of the salal altogether.

  She was on the edge of a silver forest.

  “Frank?” she called.

  Frank had vanished, but in front of her oak trees rose up like spindly pillars, shaking tufts of leaves on the ends of high, gnarled limbs. The leaves looked like so many hands waving to the world. The sun lit up the rough tree bark and it shone silver and gray. The whole glade smelled mossy and sweet, and the grasses were starred with wildflowers — blue and yellow and white.

  Becca had never seen anything like it.

  “It’s a magic place,” she said out loud.

  The trees whispered with their leaves.

  “I’ll make a wish,” she said, and she put her arms around one of the oaks and spoke quietly into its rough, warm bark.

  “What are you doing?” Alicia demanded.

  She and Lucy were standing at the edge of the salal, watching Becca curiously.

  “What I want,” she said, still holding the tree.

  “Where are we?” Lucy began, but as she looked around she, too, was overtaken by the spell of the silvery old trees. She walked among them and touched them as Becca had done.

  “This isn’t where I wanted to go,” Alicia said.

  Becca hardly heard her. If I had a friend, she thought, I could come here with her. Lucy and Alicia would never know. Frank could bring us, or I could even find my own way.

  “Where were you trying to go?” she asked.

  “To the store!” answered Alicia. “But how do we get there from here?”

  “It was your big idea,” said Lucy. “You should know the way.”

  Becca looked across the sea. There was Sandy Point. She recognized the shape of its hill from passing it on the day of the herring. Beyond that were the snowy peaks of Vancouver Island.

  Well. Now she knew where they were. Follow the shore one way, and they’d get back to Gran’s. Follow it the other way, and they’d get to the store. Eventually.

  “I know it’s possible,” Alicia said. “If you look at a map you can see — ”

  “We can do it,” Becca agreed. “It’s just that — ”

  “Well, what are we waiting for?” Alicia asked. “Let’s go!”

  * * *

  “It’s a long way,” Becca said later.

  Bits of tree were stuck in her hair, and her feet were all sweaty inside her shoes. She couldn’t think of anything but how good it would be to feel cold seawater on her hot skin.

  “It’s not so bad,” said Alicia scornfully. She was rude again now that she thought she knew the way. And her legs were longer.

  “You can have ice cream when we get there,” Lucy promised.

  “I didn’t bring my allowance,” Becca said.

  “I’ll get yours,” Lucy offered. “After all, if it weren’t for you we’d probably still be lost. How many days do you think this is going to take?” she asked Alicia.

  “Look! It’s opening out now,” Alicia said. “We can get down here and walk the rest of the way on the beach.”

  I don’t think so, Becca thought, peering over the edge of a cliff.

  “It’s only a little cliff,” said Alicia. “It’s what I brought the rope for.”

  “Yeah, it’s really little,” Lucy said.

  “Don’t be a drip,” retorted Alicia. “It’s not that far. It isn’t any higher than Gran’s loft.”

  “Which you fell out of and broke your arm last year,” said Lucy. “And anyway, this is higher. Lots higher.”

  “Lucy’s right,” Becca said quickly, gazing down through the trees to where the ground dropped off a long way above the beach.

  “It’s no big deal,” scoffed Alicia. “There’s tons of good footholds.”

  “Oh, sure,” Lucy said.

  Becca braced herself on the hillside, hanging on to a branch so she wouldn’t slide over the edge. How would she end up, if she slipped? Cuts and abrasions, like the Band-Aid box said. Crushed and bleeding, probably. A few broken bones. And worse.

  “How are we supposed to get down?” she asked.

  “The rope!” said Alicia. “I learned these cool knots. They’re just right for this kind of thing. A bowline! A sheepshank! A clove-hitch! We’ll tie you up in the rope and let you down, because you’re littlest, and then Lucy and I will climb down ourselves hanging on to the rope.”

  Becca looked at Lucy.

  “I don’t have a clue,” Lucy whispered. “But eat whatever you have in your pockets. It could be your last meal.”

  * * *

  Becca was knotted into Alicia’s bowline, but it didn’t make her feel any better. She stood at the top of the cliff and looked at the stones below. Some were covered with barnacles, and some with seaweed.

  “Are you sure this is a good idea?” she asked. Why had she even wanted to come along on this expedition? She couldn’t remember.

  “Come on, Becca,” said Alicia briskly. “It’s getting late and the store might close.”

  “The store doesn’t have anything I want to die for,” Becca said, looking down.

  Alicia ignored her.

  “I’ll treat you, and Lucy will, too. Double junk food. Here, I’ll hold the rope tight around the tree and let you down slowly. Use your feet and hands. Like you’re climbing, only down instead of up, and with a safety line.”

  Safety? Was that the right word?

  Becca hoped so. She took a deep breath and rolled over so her legs were hanging down. Already she could feel Alicia’s rope sneaking up her ribs.

  “What if I fall out of it?”

  “You won’t,” Alicia said cheerfully. “Go on! Squinch backwards. I’ll let you down slowly.”

  Becca had a great view of Alicia’s scabby knees and scratched shins. How fascinating, she thought. Alicia has a mole on her left leg and her ratty-looking socks are stuck full of burrs.

  That was before the sandstone began to scratch into her stomach and part of her shirt decided to stay somewhere farther up the cliff.

  “Ow!” Becca yelled as the rope bit under her arms.

  “Hang on to the line, you dodo!” Alicia shouted. “Think of ice cream! Licorice shoelaces!”

  “I hate licorice,” Becca yelled. “And don’t call me names!”

  Her stomach was probably bleeding. Her shirt was rucked up to her armpits. She could feel knobs and ledges in the rock with her feet, but not see them. Her knees kept banging into the stone. Soon they would look worse than Alicia’s and they would hurt more, too.

  “How much do you weigh, anyway?” Alicia suddenly asked, rather out of breath.

  “Don’t let go!” Becca said.

  She swung around on the rope, eyeing the rocks below.

  “Can’t you get a good foothold?” Alicia called. “Caramels. Jelly beans. Chips.”

  Becca was halfway there.

  “What are you doing?” demanded Alicia.

  “Can’t I even rest for one second?” Becca grumbled.

  There was a sudden shower of earth and dead leaves, right down on her head. She heard Lucy yelp.

  “What are you doing?” she yelled.

  “The rope is kind of slipping,” said Alicia calmly. “And Lucy almost fell off the cliff. Hurry up.”

  Becca’s nose scraped against rock. She could see every grain of sand in the sandstone, every chip and crack. She’d never noticed before how many shades of brown and pink and yellow and orange could be in one piece of rock.

&n
bsp; Bang! With a meter to go the rope broke and she fell on to the stones, her foot stuck between two of them and her calf bleeding from barnacle scrapes. Nothing too serious, and now she could look forward to food. Suddenly, she could hear her stomach growling.

  It was too bad it took Lucy and Alicia so long to get down the cliff themselves. It wasn’t nearly as easy as Alicia had said, and she was stuck for a long time trying to get past the overhang. Because the rope had broken off short, she and Lucy had to make a little jump from up the cliff on to the rocks, which were big and lumpy and a perfect place to break bones.

  When Alicia finally made it to solid ground she had to sit still for quite a while.

  “It feels late,” Lucy observed as they hiked across Admiral’s Bay. “I hope the store’s still open. I’m starved!”

  * * *

  “A meat pie and a carton of milk,” Lucy said as they pushed open the door of the store, which was still hopping even though it was almost closing time. “What do you want, Becca?”

  A meat pie! And then a banana. A bottle of ginger beer, which she liked and nobody else did, so they wouldn’t ask her to share. Some cookies and a bag of chips. It would be a feast — almost a midnight feast. Well, that wasn’t really true, but it felt like it.

  “I need that shipment of pipes by Wednesday,” a man was telling Mrs. Barker, the cashier. “There’s a new place out on Bosun’s Bay I’m going to be plumbing.”

  “Don’t worry, Merlin. The guys down in hardware say it’ll be here by then,” Mrs. Barker said, and the pipe man scooped up his groceries and headed out the door. “Next?”

  Alicia dumped her pile of groceries on the counter.

  “That’ll be $22.47,” said Mrs. Barker.

  Lucy reached into her pocket, and Alicia reached into hers. Becca knew they had fifteen dollars each, but she saw the same look of horror pass over both their faces at the same time.

  “I changed my shorts,” they said.

  “What?”

  “The money’s in my other shorts,” they said, in perfect unison.

  Becca had never seen them look so crushed, and it didn’t help that her stomach began to growl so ferociously that even Mrs. Barker gave her a look.