by Dale Furse
‘I don't know. Look, I know this is going to sound silly, but I've been feeling strange for a while now. It's like I can sense things.’ She shook her head. Nothing about the day made sense. ‘It's hard to explain.’
‘Try.’ He smirked and picked a blade of grass to chew on. ‘You know, you have been acting kinda weird lately.’
‘Don't make fun of me.’ She crossed her legs and plucked at the remaining hair-band on her wrist. ‘All right.’ She sighed. ‘It's like when you pushed me out of the way of the coconut before. I felt…sensed your fear for me.’
‘You don't have to be a seer for that. It was a bloody big coconut.’
She glared at him and he choked back a laugh.
‘Fine. Laugh all you like but I'm telling you,’ she nodded towards the house, ‘I know I've seen those two before.’
She focused her attention towards the veranda. One visitor was about her height, the other a little taller.
‘How would you know?’ Sam said. ‘We can't even see their faces.’
Nell fell silent and scoured her mind for the answer. The moment she closed her eyes, images began to flash; images from her dreams, images she couldn't even try to explain, not even to Sam. Among the pictures, she found the two strangers. In her mind, she watched them turn around. She crashed back onto the sand with a gasp. They were so close; she could have reached out and touched them. Two pairs of sky-blue eyes stared at her and honey-coloured hair framed the two bronze faces. The older girl had a calm face and the younger appeared to have just sucked on a lemon.
‘Nell,’ a voice called from a distance. Hands clasped and shook her shoulders.
Her eyes opened and she pulled away from Sam’s anxious face.
‘What's going on?’ He tried to help her sit up. ‘You looked like you were in some sort of trance.’
‘Both of them are girls,’ she whispered hoarsely, squirming out of Sam's grasp. Her eyes darted to the front porch. Her father stared hard at the trees. The two strangers followed his gaze. A small groan escaped from deep within Nell’s chest. They were the same faces. The same girls she had just seen in her head. How? Where did they come from?
‘They couldn't have heard us.’ Sam gawped at the veranda.
‘They didn't.’ Her father led the caped girls into the house. ‘They seemed to know we were here.’ She didn't know how, but was certain she was right.
‘Now you really are being a mug.’ He stood up. ‘Let's go and see.’
‘No, I don't want to.’ She doubted that the heat caused the sweat to drip down her back. Something was happening to her and she didn't want to know what it was. Maybe she had a brain tumour.
‘Why not?’
‘Because I don't like them.’
‘How do you know if you like them? You don't even know them, and you've got Buckley's chance of finding out if you don't bloody meet them.’
‘I don't want to meet them.’ She wrapped her arms around her legs and rested her chin on her knees.
Sam hunkered down again. ‘You know? You are weird,’ was all he said.
She silently thanked him for being quiet. Of course, he was right. She had to take the time to think. Closing her eyes, she blocked everything around her out.
Her mind immediately filled with pictures of the three bird-men from her dreams. Her own image appeared, as if she was in a movie. Purple wings, two parts apiece, exploded from her back. No, not her back, the sides of her torso. Oversized eagle's talons took the place of her feet. Great graphics. The bird-men swooped down on her. However, unlike a movie, her terror erupted as she leapt into the air and flew as fast as she could but still only just managed to stay out of the men's reach. Just as she thought her heart would explode, the scene disappeared.
Her pulse quietened and joy replaced fear when another scene played out in her mind. Her wings and claws were gone and she rode atop a sea creature. It was bigger than a whale but its neck was long and slender like a swimming dinosaur. A brachiosaurus. The smooth-skinned creature swam along the surface slowly before diving deep under the water. Nell lurched forward and wrapped her arms around its graceful neck but she wasn't afraid. Without the need for air, she stopped breathing automatically. She delighted in the ride, laughing and stroking the animal.
A moment later, she shook the scene from her mind. Really great. Now she was having daydreams. Sam was right. She was acting like a mug.
‘Look, I'm starving,’ Sam finally said. ‘If you don’t want to go in there, do you want to come to my place?’
Boys. All they thought about was their stomachs. She shook her head. ‘I'm not hungry.’
‘Well, you can't sit here all day.’ He peered up at the blackening sky. ‘It's going to pelt down any sec.’
Nell gazed over the water. Like a curtain of smoke, the rain fell on the still, grey ocean. The wind carried the scent. A mixture of clean water above the salty ocean. The watery screen stretched as far as she could see north and south, and moved westward towards land, giving the air an eerie aspect.
‘Okay, if you don’t want to meet them, we can sneak in and see if we can hear them? We don’t have to let them know we’re even there.’ Sam tried to get her to move again.
Before she could answer, the sky dumped its load and large raindrops stung any exposed skin. Within seconds, she and Sam were drenched.
She braced for his temper, but he crossed his arms over his chest and glared at her.
Finally, exhaling loudly, he stood up. ‘I'm going home.’ He bent towards his bike.
Nell thought quickly. She didn't want him to go. Something was happening and whatever that something was, it was happening to her. The changes that she was going through were more than the normal girl stuff. Her father was worried and so was Carl. In the space of a few hours, everything had changed. Did she have a disease? If there was something wrong, she wanted Sam with her when she found out. Maybe they could sneak in. Her father had probably taken the girls into the library.
She jumped to her feet. ‘Wait.’
Sam stopped, glared over his shoulder and raised his eyebrows. The rain fell on him. His wet hair, plastered down the sides of his face, looked like an old-fashioned bonnet.
A giggle escaped her throat. ‘Okay. Come in and I'll get some towels.’
She sensed Sam close behind her as she shook off her wet, sand-filled scuffs. She wiped her feet on the mat and signalled for him to do the same. When she opened the front door and stepped into the cool foyer, the library door was closed. ‘Wait here,’ she whispered. She ran up the stairs, grabbed two large towels from the bathroom and hurried back down again. She threw a towel to Sam.
Once they'd dried themselves as much as they could, Nell hung the towels over the stair's banister and faced the door that led to the library. Her father and the girls were probably talking about her. She shrugged, elbowed Sam and indicated that they should listen by cupping her ear with her hand.
He beamed and nodded. They tiptoed to the door and pressed their ears against the wood. Muffled voices. Nell’s shoulders slumped. There was no way she would be able to hear their conversation. Unless …
Sam shook his head and stepped back from the door.
She examined her friend, trying to make up her mind. She didn't want to let him in on her secret. It was nice knowing she knew something nobody else knew. She corrected herself. Annet knew. Sam’s mother had caught her sneaking into the kitchen from the passage last July when Nell was supposed to be studying. She sighed, grabbed Sam's arm and dragged him after her. An odd exhilaration passed through her as the atmosphere again tingled her skin.
‘Where're we going?’ Sam didn’t fight as she pulled him along.
‘Just follow me.’
In the kitchen, she shoved him under the large wooden table against the wall on the right. When she crouched down, he looked at her as though she was mad.
She smiled and pushed a cracked piece of skirting board down. A square panel, the size of a large dog door, flew open fro
m the wall. His expression was blank.
‘It's a secret passageway,’ she said quietly. ‘I found it years ago when I was hiding from your mother.’ His eyes widened and she sensed his hesitation. ‘Don't worry. I've been through it heaps of times. It goes to the library, and don't ask me how it got here because I don't know.’
‘I'm not worried,’ he said, looking insulted. ‘One thing I do like when going out with Dad are the caves. You’d probably be scared to death there. Bats and all sorts of creepy-crawlies.’
Nell snorted and crawled through the opening easily and once on the other side, stood up and waited.
Sam hunched his shoulders to pass through and after scrambling to his feet, had to stoop to keep his head from hitting the ceiling. Nell picked up the small red torch she always kept there.
‘How come you never showed me this before?’
‘I don't know. I guess I liked the idea of having my own secret passageway.’
‘Maybe it was used for smuggling.’
‘Yeah, maybe, I've sensed strange things all over Cape Hollow lately.’ She ignored his disbelieving look.
As they came to the library entrance, she switched off the torch and didn't have to wait long before her eyes adjusted to the darkness. When she looked at Sam and put her finger up to her mouth to tell him to be quiet, there was no reaction.
He looked around as if he couldn’t see her.
She slid a panel silently to the side to let some light in and repeated her action with her finger on her mouth.
He nodded.
They crawled from the passageway to behind the heavy desk. With only enough space to sit on the floor with folded legs, they hunkered down. Nell knew they were secure in their hiding place.
The first voice was small and whiny. ‘But, Uncle …’
There. That had to be the smaller girl. Nell knew she wouldn't like her. Who did she call Uncle?
‘No, Cay-Meka!’ said Nell’s father.
So the younger one’s name was Cay-Meka and she was her father’s niece. Huh. Another relative Nell knew nothing about. Funny name though. Nell held her breath as footsteps moved close by.
‘Dar-Seldra, you must understand my reluctance.’ Nell’s father again. ‘I will wait until her birthday. There is no reason to suspect anything will go amiss.’ There was a pause before her father spoke again. ‘Kandar came earlier and warned me my Asisa’s family is searching for Nell. I will go to Corl and find out which relatives want to see her and send word for them to contact me before I will allow them near her.’
Nell frowned. Corl? That must be where her mother was from? Nell had never heard of it and she made a mental note to check her computer to find out where it was.
She glanced at Sam. He seemed to be concentrating hard on the conversation; his expression, as baffled as Nell felt. She tried to make sense of what was said. Why couldn’t her mother’s family meet Nell anytime? Why would her father have reason not to let them? They had just as much right as her father’s sister and niece.
The whiny voice interrupted Nell’s thoughts. ‘Mother agrees. Don't you, Mother?’
Both Nell and Sam's eyes bulged as they mouthed ‘Mother?’ to each other.
Having only caught a glimpse of the visitors before they vanished inside, Nell recalled the images in her dreams. The girl called Dar-Seldra couldn’t possibly be the whiny one's mother. She didn’t look much older than Nell.
Sam opened his mouth as if to say something.
She put a finger over his mouth to stop him. Her father spoke again.
‘Dar-Seldra will do as I say, and so will you, Cay-Meka.’
‘But it is the law.’ Cay-Meka appeared not to want to give up.
‘Did you not hear me, niece?’ Nell's father boomed.
Her father had never been so angry before and what were they all talking about? What law for what? Feeling as if her head would burst any second, she shut her eyes. She had to concentrate on the conversation.
‘Yes, Uncle.’ Cay-Meka's whine had turned into a sulk.
How could he have kept so much from Nell? Didn’t she matter to him at all?
‘I will go before the council, explain my position and find out who is looking for Nell.’
What did the council have to do with any family problems? Nell couldn’t sit still any longer and craned her neck around the base of the statue. The short girl, Cay-Meka, had turned her back to the other two, and with folded arms, faced the wall of books. All three were similar with their fair hair and bronze skin and Nell had no problem believing they were related. But how could the girls be mother and daughter? Impossible. With her mother’s looks, freckled skin and black curls, Nell didn’t look like any of them.
She shook her head. Lots of people didn't look like their families. She turned her attention back to her unknown relatives. The girls had removed their capes. Dar-Seldra's long hair was the colour of dark honey and she had the sides pulled back with hair clips. The jewels in the clips were the same intense purple as her dress. Cay-Meka's light honey hair was bobbed with a fringe and her dress was a luminous pink. Both dresses were sleeveless and the silky material flowed to their ankles.
Nell's father stepped closer to the older girl. Nell strained to listen.
‘What is on your mind, Dar-tern?’
Nell wondered about the way Dar-Seldra said her father’s name. Maybe David translated to Dar-tern in his sister’s language.
‘I might have reason to be concerned.’ Her father talked softly, as if he didn't want Cay-Meka to hear. ‘Nell dreams of swimming.’
Dar-Seldra’s eyes brightened and she smiled widely.
‘And of flying,’ her father continued.
He did listen when she told him about her dreams! Her happiness at the revelation soon vanished when Dar-Seldra's face transformed into a look of horror.
‘No.’ Dar-Seldra clasped her hand over her mouth.
Why had Dar-Seldra acted like that? They were only dreams.
Nell's curious eyes met her father's surprised gape. Startled, she dipped back behind the desk. One of her fingers found Sam's left eye.
‘Aagh!’ His hand flew to his eye.
‘Samuel,’ Nell pouted.
‘Don't 'Samuel' me. You're the one who nearly poked my eye out.’ He lifted his hand to show the damage. His eye was red and watery.
‘No need to bicker.’ Nell’s father towered over the spies. ‘Nell had already given you away.’
His eyes flashed anger as he pulled the two intruders clear of the desk by their arms. His expression slowly turned to one of resignation as he rubbed the back of his neck and gazed over their heads at nothing in particular.
Sam and Nell stood, wet and solemn, before him.
CHAPTER FIVE
AFTER SEVERAL DREADFUL MINUTES NELL BEGAN TO FIDGET, switching her weight from one leg to the other and plucking at the hair-band on her wrist.
Her father’s eyes finally focused on them and a warm half-smile grew on his lips as he sat down on the brown sofa. ‘What am I going to do with you two?’
The smaller of the two strangers, Cay-Meka, stepped forward. ‘So this is my cousin.’ She narrowed her eyes at Nell.
Nell looked the small girl up and down. Not a freckle marred her smooth tanned skin. She might have been pretty except for the sneer on her face.
‘Cay-Meka, you will be polite.’ Dar-Seldra extended her hand towards Nell.
As soon as Nell accepted the older girl's soft hand, Dar-Seldra pulled her into a warm embrace. ‘Dar-Nellen,’ she said. ‘I so wanted to be there for you as you grew up and I am so sorry I was not.’
‘Dar-Nellen?’
‘That is your full Phib name,’ Dar-Seldra said.
Nell stiffened. That was what the crocodile called her.
‘Don’t be troubled. We will still call you Nell.’
Maybe somewhere in her earliest memories, Nell had heard the name before. Yes. She decided to try to forget the crocodile and sighed. ‘I’m glad. I d
on’t even like it when Dad calls me Nellen and I’d hate to be called Dar-Nellen for the rest of my life.’ She took a deep breath.
Dar-Seldra straightened and stroked Nell’s hair.
Nell smelt sweet jasmine and there was a hint of the sea in Dar-Seldra’s hair. Out of the corner of her eye, Cay-Meka stiffened.
It had felt so right to hug Dar-Seldra and Nell liked her instantly. She didn't seem to mind that Nell was wet, and up close she looked older, although not old enough to be Cay-Meka's mother. Her eyes were as blue and warm as the sea on a clear summer's day. The woman appeared fragile. However, a quiet strength filled her.
Nell scanned the room and love was evident in all but one. She sensed her cousin didn't even like her. Cousin? Aunt? After years without any other family but her father, she was both thrilled and dismayed at the revelation. She bit her cheek. Why hadn’t her father ever told her they existed before today? She wanted to insist he explain, but all she could do was stare at her father rubbing his chin.
‘I suppose the hour has finally come.’ He rose slowly. ‘Nell, your seventeenth year is upon us and it's high time you learned of your ancestry and of our worlds.’
‘Ancestry?’ Nell spoke in monosyllables. ‘Worlds?’
‘Whoa!’ Sam looked aghast and jumped back. ‘Are you people aliens or something?’
‘On Earth, I suppose we are.’ He stepped around the coffee table and towered over Nell.
Her cheeks grew cold and numb. She tried to back away too but the armchair stopped her going as far as Sam.
He smiled. ‘I'm sorry you had to find out like this, love.’ He gathered up her hands, shaking both so her arms wobbled as if made of rubber. ‘I should have told you but the time never seemed quite right.’ He peered closer at her face and pulled her to the sofa. ‘Come and sit down. You’re in shock.’
Dar-Seldra leaned over and felt Nell’s forehead. ‘She’s cold. Perhaps we should give her some time to digest what we’ve already told her.’
Nell’s father shook his head and squeezed Nell’s hands. ‘Try to listen and understanding will come in time.’
How was she supposed to understand? They were aliens, people from different planets. ‘You're not my father?’ She spoke slowly, scared to hear the answer, and removed her hands from his.