* * *
Mum and Gran stood about in their nightclothes, and Pin in her sleeper nestled in Dad’s arms. Aunt Fifi was still wrapped in her bath towel, hair dripping, her face pale with shock.
After he had checked the house, and clanking a bit in his fire chief’s outfit, Merlin took Becca back into the cabin.
“It’s very easy to deal with a chimney fire,” he explained quietly. “If you get it early, like you did, even a small cup of water will usually do. Just throw the water right into the firebox and put the lid back on, and steam will drown the flames.”
He showed her how to do it, then looked at her seriously. She burst into tears.
“You did absolutely the right thing,” he said kindly, hugging her to all his buckles and fire-fighting implements. “You are an absolute, amazing hero.” Then his voice went a little grim. “But I’ll have to have a talk with your gran and Fifi.”
Now that the danger was over, the rest of the fire fighters milled about exchanging chimney-fire stories and admiring Pin. Mrs. Barker took off her fire fighter’s hat and gave Pin a kiss.
But Becca heard Merlin talk gravely to Gran about the state of her chimney.
“But I’ve just been having tiny fires to burn the rubbish,” Gran said apologetically. “I’ve been so worried about the fire hazard that I’ve hardly used the wood stove at all.”
“It’s a common mistake,” Merlin said. “But it’s those little fires that gummed up the lower part of the stovepipe. And Fifi — ”
“I know,” said Aunt Fifi. She was pink in the face, and it wasn’t just because she was standing in the middle of a crew of fire fighters wearing nothing but a towel. “I didn’t listen to my mother! She told me not to build up the fire, and I did. And that pitchy wood burns so hot.”
For a moment her face looked pained and then she covered it with her hand.
It was strange to see Aunt Fifi acting like a kid in trouble. Becca went over and took her hand.
“You just wanted us to be warm,” she said. “And it was a wonderful swim.”
“At least it burned out the creosote messing up the stovepipe,” Gran said to Merlin, and something about her voice made Becca rush over to her.
“Here — sit down,” Becca said, opening out a beach chair. Gran sank into it in a most un-Gran-like way, almost as if she didn’t have the strength to stand any longer.
“Isobel, it’s the worst possible way to clean your chimney,” Merlin admonished her. “And Fifi — ” He gave her a long look. “Be careful,” he said, managing to sound ferocious and gentle at once.
Then he rounded up the fire fighters and they all trooped back up to the road, carrying their unused rolled-up hose, hatchets and extinguishers, and whistling. Becca heard the great fire truck roar back up to the fire hall, not needed. Thank goodness.
Kay and Bill fed them breakfast on their deck. Kay had made muffins, and she brought out two kinds of homemade cookies. Becca had coffee for the first time and that was very interesting.
And she had never seen Bill in his pajamas before. That was interesting, too, because there was such a big tear around one of the sleeves that she could see his hairy armpit quite clearly.
“Let’s hope Pin’s birthday festivities are less alarming,” said Gran. “When we get around to them.”
“They might be,” said Becca, grinning to herself as she dumped another spoonful of sugar in her coffee. “And then again, they might not. I invited Merlin to the party.”
12. Island Birthday
“I don’t care whether or not Becca invited Merlin,” came Aunt Fifi’s voice from the deck. “I refuse to go with him in Arnulf’s boat. I simply don’t trust that man in a boat. He couldn’t tie a bowline to save his life.”
Becca thought Aunt Fifi was just feeling grumpy about yesterday’s near-disaster.
“Why did you invite Merlin?” Gran asked Becca as they checked out the Zodiac’s chambres flottantes in preparation for Pin’s birthday excursion over to Camas Island. “It’s not like we don’t have enough family drama without him. Things could go bust at any minute! Meg and Martin, Lucy and Alicia, Mollie and Ardeth, Clare and Clarence, your mum and dad… we’re very argumentative when we all get together. You know that. It’s probably a good thing Catriona’s on call and couldn’t come.”
“I thought Aunt Fifi might want to start a fire,” Becca said. “Wouldn’t it be safer to have him around? Anyway, I like him.”
“Well, you’ve certainly done a fine job of arranging the party,” Gran said. “It should be a very dynamic crew. Is there anyone else you’ve invited without telling me?”
“Yep. I invited Mac, too. He’s nice, and he could teach me how to kayak.”
“Mac! But he’s not even coming to the island until late today. He has to work.”
“What is his work?” Becca asked. “Anyway, I told him he had to come, and he promised.”
“You’re very commanding these days,” said Gran, but then she suddenly gave a command herself.
“Heave!”
Becca hefted her side of the Zodiac, and she and Gran carried the boat down to the sea.
Right behind them came Dad with the canoe on his head. Auntie Clare and Uncle Clarence followed with a load of beach towels, birthday presents, bathing suits, picnic baskets and a cooler.
“Becca, did you phone Dugald?” Dad asked, his voice muffled by the canoe.
“Winds variable five to ten knots,” Becca reported. But she kept to herself the rest of what Dugald had said — “Rising to northwest twenty to twenty-five knots in the late afternoon.”
She knew if she said anything Gran wouldn’t want to go, and it had been Becca’s idea that they celebrate Pin’s birthday on Camas Island. It might be her only trip there this summer.
* * *
“It’s a fleet!” Becca said, looking back. She, Gran, Mollie and Ardeth were zooming ahead in the Zodiac.
“Look at them!” Mollie exclaimed. “Uncle Martin’s going to capsize that thing if he doesn’t stop horsing around. Why doesn’t he sit down?”
For Uncle Martin had decided to sail the Glaucous Gull once more, despite the light winds. Auntie Meg and Lucy and Alicia were there to help him.
“Lucy and Alicia might get stuck rowing,” Becca shouted over the buzz of the motor.
They could see Lucy and Alicia arguing with Uncle Martin as the Glaucous Gull dropped farther and farther behind the rest of the family. Auntie Meg drooped in the bow, looking a bit the way Uncle Martin had on that first rough voyage.
“Auntie Meg doesn’t look too good,” Ardeth reported after inspecting her with the binoculars. “And it isn’t even rough. She probably wishes she’d come with us.”
“Or with Mum.” Becca thought of Mum with Pin in the baby backpack, having a quiet stroll through the forest to the beach where she and Gran would pick them up and ferry them over to Camas Island.
Dad and Auntie Clare were making good time with their paddles. Uncle Clarence was lounging amidships in a nest of life jackets and birthday presents. Becca could see him gesturing with his hands, probably telling Dad all about their work in clinics in Africa.
Aunt Fifi was paddling Mac’s kayak. To Becca it had seemed a weird coincidence that when Merlin had appeared, just in the nick of time before they all pushed off, he’d brought a kayak instead of his brother-in-law’s boat.
“Arnulf hasn’t recovered from my account of the last time,” he confided to Becca. “Anyway, simple is best. I just got this second-hand. Good, isn’t it?”
Proudly he had displayed his new find — a kayak for two.
“You have to watch out for second-hand boats,” Becca had said and wondered if Aunt Fifi would possibly consent to paddle a kayak with Merlin.
“I value my independence,” Aunt Fifi said when Becca suggested it. But independent or not, Becca noticed now
that Merlin and her aunt were paddling side by side. And Aunt Fifi was actually laughing.
It was sunny and hot on Camas Island. Uncle Martin and Auntie Clare constructed a driftwood shelter so Pin could sleep in the shade, and Mum and Auntie Meg sat in it together while Mum nursed Pin.
“It’s the best, Meg,” Mum was saying. “Becca and Pin. For me not having them would be like never leaving my hometown.”
It was strange what adults said to one another when they thought no one was listening. Becca crunched along the pebbles, watching. Auntie Clare, Dad and Gran were down at the water’s edge, carefully lifting stones to see what lay beneath.
“Hillel,” she heard Gran say to Dad from the middle of a tide pool, “come and look here. A nudibranch I’ve never seen before.”
Up in the middle of the island, Uncle Martin and Uncle Clarence were walking through the dry, golden grasses, peering up at the light that rose far above them. Their voices floated back to Becca, a rise and fall of sound with no words.
“Well, I think Becca’s too young to do it,” she suddenly heard Alicia declare.
“I am not!” Becca said loudly.
She stumped over a rise in the beach to find all four of her cousins lolling in the driftwood.
“I am not too young! To do what?”
“Swim around Camas Island,” Lucy said. “Alicia and I’ve been wanting to forever. Anyway, I don’t think you’re too young. You got us home from the middle of that forest, didn’t you?”
“Yes, I did,” Becca said, looking fiercely at Alicia. Looking at her reminded Becca of the fine, silvery trees and the wish she had made there.
“And she saved the whole family from the chimney fire,” Ardeth pointed out.
“And she’s gone skinny-swimming with the falling stars,” said Mollie.
“And I drove the Zodiac all by myself through the herring run,” said Becca.
“She was kissed by a seal!” Lucy exclaimed. “Gran said.”
“Don’t get so mad,” said Alicia. “It’s a long way! And the water’s cold. And you’re just not used to swimming that far.”
“I can do it,” Becca insisted.
“Sure you can,” Mollie said. “You’re a night swimmer! You won’t be scared of what’s swimming around underneath you.”
For a second Becca paused. This wouldn’t be the safe, familiar bay with its floor of silver sand. Out here in the strait was where the wild creatures traveled — orcas and seals and the rowdy sea lions she and Gran had seen barking their heads off in spring, not to mention the schools of tiny herring there must be rushing about after all that spawning that went on in the spring.
“We’ll get Aunt Fifi and Merlin to come with us in the kayaks,” Ardeth said. “So if one of us gets tired they can haul us into shore.”
* * *
“I’d like to swim, too,” Aunt Fifi said. “How about we get Gran and the other aunts to come in the boats?”
So Becca found herself swimming between Aunt Fifi and Ardeth, while Mollie, Lucy and Alicia forged on ahead. Auntie Meg and Mum paddled Merlin’s kayak, and Gran and Aunt Clare floated along in the canoe.
“Look at them.” She heard Merlin’s voice from the shore. “They make an outstanding flock. Or should I say pod?”
Up on the beach, Dad, Merlin and the uncles cheered.
* * *
“We’ll go with the current at first,” Aunt Fifi said. “Stay close to shore so you just get the edge of it, though. You don’t want to be swept out into the strait.”
With every stroke the tidal current zoomed Becca forward. Down below, green seaweed and old oyster shells fairly whizzed by.
“You want to try some crawl?” Ardeth asked, so Becca put in her face and pulled away at the water, kicking hard. The bottom dropped away and all she could see beneath her was shadow.
When she turned her head to breathe, Aunt Fifi was right there.
In a few minutes they rounded the first point. Becca switched to breaststroke.
“They’re way ahead of us,” she said to Ardeth and Aunt Fifi.
Aunt Fifi plunged along calmly.
“No matter,” she said. “It’s not a race…”
“Time to swim on my back,” Becca said.
She stared up into the blue sky, flutter-kicking madly. Now if she turned her head she could see the grassy banks on this side of the island. On top of one of them Dad was holding Pin, watching Becca’s progress. Merlin was beside him.
She waved.
“How are you holding up?” came Mum’s voice and Gran’s almost at the same time.
“She looks great,” said Auntie Meg. “A selkie.”
“Are you getting tired?” asked Mum.
“Cold?” asked Gran.
Both, Becca could have said. But she just smiled wetly.
“I’m okay,” she told them and kicked her feet with as much energy as she could.
If she looked eastward, she could see far across the strait, all the way to the coastal mountains rising up snowy and sharp on the mainland. The sea felt huge. And it was dark underneath.
Pull… pull… pull… Her arms ached, and she was starting to feel like she had frog legs. They just kept doing frog-kick, over and over again.
“It’s getting shallower,” Ardeth said. “Look, you can see the bottom again.”
They were almost at the south end of Camas Island. Now they’d have to swim through the shallow channel between the island and the sea-lion rocks, where today seals lay about in the summer sun.
Lucy and Alicia were waiting for them, and Mollie was, too.
“This is a cinch,” said Alicia.
“So what are you waiting for?” Aunt Fifi asked.
“Oh, we just thought we’d go with you through the seal channel,” Alicia said, looking at Becca. “In case somebody needs help.”
Becca floated on her back to rest, sneaking peeks at the reefs that were covered with seals. She remembered the moment she’d come face to face with the seal. She remembered Pinny flying through the water to join her mother. From here the seals just looked like a lot of lumps, but she knew what they were like in the water. Sleek and powerful and really not human.
Becca looked at her. Alicia didn’t have a clue.
“Should we go on?” asked Mum and Gran and the aunts. Mollie and Ardeth, Lucy and Alicia watched her.
“Yes,” she said, and her frog legs started kicking again.
In the shallow channel, the water was running against them.
Kick… pull… kick… pull…
The seals on the reef turned their heads.
Alicia and Lucy were right behind her.
“Will they come after us?” Lucy puffed.
“Don’t be dumb,” Alicia said. “Just keep swimming.”
Becca didn’t say a word. She looked at the seals out of the corner of her eye.
Suddenly, it felt like she and Lucy and Alicia were all alone. Even though Mollie and Ardeth and Aunt Fifi were swimming not far behind them, and Gran and the aunts and Mum were in the boats behind that, it seemed like they might not be there at all. And the water was the seals’ home, and she was a visitor here.
“Well, this isn’t so bad,” Alicia said loudly. “This isn’t so terrifying.”
At the sound of her voice dozens of seals poked up their heads. They turned dark eyes and whiskered faces to the girls.
“Just swim,” Becca whispered. “And shut up.”
“I’m not scared,” Alicia insisted. “They can come into the water, for all I care.”
Becca looked back. The seals were still watching them.
Bit by bit, the shore passed by. The current in the channel weakened, then disappeared as they rounded the corner and headed along the western shore, swimming into choppy waves that slapped up into Becca’s face.
“Why was that so weird?” she wondered.
“I don’t know,” Lucy answered. “It felt scary.”
“You guys are wimpy,” Alicia declared.
“It’s stupid not to be nervous,” Becca puffed as she continued her breaststroke. She remembered what it had been like to have sea lions hurling themselves about only an oar’s length away. They didn’t care about people.
Alicia snorted, but maybe she was just coughing sea that had gone up her nose. Aunt Fifi and Mollie and Ardeth caught up to them then. Becca could see Dad with Pin, and Merlin with Uncle Martin up on the beach. Merlin’s hat blew off and he had to run after it, and Uncle Martin was waving his arms about something and looking agitated.
But Becca kept swimming. Her lungs hurt now, and her throat was sore with seawater she’d accidently swallowed. Her arms and legs felt flabby and dead, and somehow it seemed harder to swim than it had been.
“Do you want a tow?” Gran asked.
“No,” Becca coughed as she tried to breathe. She had sucked in a great slop of sea.
Mollie, Lucy and Alicia were in front again now, and even Ardeth had decided to swim ahead. Only Aunt Fifi remained by her side.
“Martin and Merlin seem to be having a little fit about something,” Aunt Fifi observed. “How like Merlin to start a fight at a sunny afternoon picnic.”
“Fifi!” Gran exclaimed.
“Mark my words,” was all Aunt Fifi would say. “How are you doing, Becca?”
Becca gasped.
“Fine,” she meant to say, but nothing came out.
She turned on her back again, but water kept washing over her head so she had to switch back to her front.
“Do you want a tow?” Aunt Fifi asked, as Mum and Auntie Meg paddled up beside them.
Becca wished they’d stop asking.
“Okay,” said Aunt Fifi. “I’ll just swim along beside you and you can grab me if you need to. Mother, I’ve been thinking a great deal about the garden,” she went on, puffing every once in a while as she took another stroke. “It’s clear from Becca’s enormous success with it, this being the very first year in recorded history that the garden has rendered up a carrot thicker than a baby’s finger, that you are going to have to revise your policy on that all-important issue, seaweed mulch.”
Becca at Sea Page 11