by Renée Riva
“Well, I wonder what mom and dad would do if they knew about your stinky little secret out in the shed. Would they finally put an end to this crazy animal problem of yours, or let you just keep it, and baby you like they always do? And if they don’t do anything, I will. I’ll go turn that red-eyed vampire rat loose tonight, and she can just die out there in the storm for all I care.”
I look at Mama and Daddy, and now they are lookin’ at me to see if this is really true. I can’t believe Adriana would do this to me. How could she tell them about Ruby? How could she? “I was just trying to help you,” I cry and run from the room.
I rush out to the shed in the pourin’ rain and grab Ruby’s cage. Where can I go to save her? There is no way Mama and Daddy will let me keep Ruby after what Adriana just told them, and even if they do, Adriana will turn her loose to die anyway.
The only way to save Ruby is to get her off this island. And the only way off this island is by boat. I run down to the dock and untie the dinghy. Sailor is right behind me and jumps in with me. I don’t even care that it’s pitch dark and the wind is blowin’ rain in my face. All I can think about is saving Ruby.
I jab the oars into the oarlocks and start to row. No one can see me from the cabin, so if I can just get away before they realize the boat is missing I should be able to save her. All I have to do is get to the mainland. If I can hide the cage somewhere by the gas dock, then row back to the island, I can call Dorie in the morning and tell her where I hid the cage, and her mom can drive her out to get Ruby. It has to work—it just has to.
I’m rowing downlake toward the gas dock, but there’s a crosswind blowin’ me toward the shore. The only thing on the mainland before you reach the gas dock is Pirate’s Cove, where all the rocks jet out into the water, and there’s no way to get to shore with a boat.
It’s just so dark out I can’t see how much farther I have to go before I need to turn toward shore. But the wind is pushin’ us that direction so hard that the dinghy is goin’ toward shore no matter how hard I try to row straight.
I have Ruby’s cage covered with my jacket to keep her dry, but I am freezin’ cold. My arms are tired, and my hands are numb. I feel just like I did when I drifted downlake and Danny had to rescue me. If only he would come now and take Ruby to shore for me.
I can barely even row anymore. The wind is just too strong. All I can do is drift to shore and pray we’ve already passed Pirate’s Cove.
Just as I’m thinkin’ that, the dinghy bashes into something, and Ruby’s cage slides off the seat to the floor. It’s so dark and rainy, I can’t even see. The waves keep smashing us harder and harder into the rocks. Pirate’s Cove. I feel water pouring in all around me. I can’t see. I can’t see. “Sailor,” I’m cryin’ and clinging to him for dear life. The water—it’s all around me. I no longer feel the boat beneath me. Ruby … where’s Ruby … Jesus, where’s Jesus …
I’m holdin’ Sailor’s collar, that’s all I feel, and the water’s covering my face. He’s swimming, and I’m holdin’ on … my head—it hurts … it hurts.…
I’m dreaming, but I can’t wake up. I feel sunlight on my face, but I can’t open my eyes. I hear voices, I hear my name, but I can’t answer.
I’m in a warm place with softness all around me. I hear Mama’s voice, and she’s cryin’. She’s holdin’ my hand and sayin’, “Come back, A. J., please come back.”
I’m tryin’ to open my eyes. I push and push, and they barely open. I see Mama, and she screams, “She’s back. Sonny, she’s back.” Then I see Daddy, then all of my brothers, then Adriana … Adriana is crying. Then I remember.
Sailor. “Where’s Sailor?” I whisper.
“Right here, A. J.,” Daddy says, and Sailor comes over and licks my face, and I start to cry.
“I was in the water, I hit my head.… Sailor … was there.…” I feel my head where it hit the rocks. Bandages are wound all around my head like a turban.
“Sailor must have … brought you to shore,” Daddy chokes up.
“… Ruby … my Ruby …?” I feel hot tears roll down my face. “My Ruby drown?”
“I’m so sorry, A. J. …” Adriana sobs.
I couldn’t look at her.
“Who found me, Daddy? Whose voice did I hear when I couldn’t wake up?”
“Jack found you, A. J. He was out looking all night for you with the rest of us. He found you at Pirate’s Cove at daybreak—with Sailor by your side.”
Jack found me. I close my eyes. “I’m so tired.”
“You sleep now,” Mama whispers and strokes my forehead, like when I’m sick and have a fever.
I wake a long while later to my daddy’s voice. “A. J., someone’s here who’d like to see you.”
I open my eyes. Jack’s standin’ in my doorway.
“Jack,” I whisper.
“I’ll let you two talk a bit,” Daddy says and closes the door.
Jack walks over to the bed real slow. I look up at him and try to smile, even though it hurts. “Thanks for findin’ me,” I say.
He looks down at me real tender like, and for a moment I swear I see Danny in his eyes.
“It’s me who needs to thank you, A. J. I may have found you, but because of you, I think Jesus found me again.”
“He did?” I ask, surprised.
“When I found you, A. J., I thought you were gone. You lay there still as a rock, and all I could do while I was lookin’ down at you was think of every word you said to me the other day. And I remembered what you said about how you lit that candle for me and asked God to change me. Well, I kneeled down over you, and I prayed that if God could change a man, would He start with me?” Then he starts to cry.
“When I looked at you, A. J., I saw myself as a little boy at my grandma’s old church, kneelin’ down at the altar and askin’ Jesus to be my Savior, and then I realized, I had known Him once before. But it has been a long time since I last asked Him for anything.”
“You thought I was dead?” I ask him. I always wondered what it would be like to have someone think you were dead—just like in Tom Sawyer.
“When you started to move, A. J., it was like God was givin’ back your life and my life all at the same time. I know I’ve hurt a lot of people, but I’m askin’ God to help me change. You really think He can change a man like me?”
“Sure He can. Just look at St. Paul. He went around killin’ all the Christians before God told him to knock it off. He even let Paul become a Christian himself. You’re not much worse than him.”
I’ve had to spend three long days in bed to make sure my head’s gonna be all right. They think I might get dizzy and fall if I get up too soon. I’m just glad I’m in my own bed with Sailor by my side. I don’t remember ever bein’ in the hospital, but I guess I was until Dr. Starky got me released by agreeing to treat me on the island. They said I was thrashin’ all around and yellin’ that I wanted to go home, so Mama begged him to get me out of there. Once I got here, I passed out for two days.
Dr. Starky’s here to check up on my stitches. He says I took quite a head bashing at Pirate’s Cove. According to Dr. Starky, most kids only take thirty stitches, but it took forty to hold my brain in ’cause it’s so big.
Daddy starts sayin’ that the reason they got me released so fast from the hospital was ’cause I was screamin’ so loud about goin’ home that kids in the other rooms started rumors about me bein’ a lost Martian who was being held captive. “Then when they wheeled you out with that big cone on your head, everyone believed it.”
“Daddy, you’re makin’ that up, aren’t you?”
Daddy and Dr. Starky keep tellin’ jokes while he’s checkin’ my stitches. They finally have to stop ’cause it hurts every time I start to laugh.
I’m pretty sure that Dr. Starky doesn’t remember Daddy as bein’ the nut on the bow of the pink boat. But when he goes to leave, he says, “Oh, by the way, Sonny, that is one fine seacraft you have there. Let me know if you ever decide to part with it.
”
Everyone has been so nice to me, I wish I could get this kind of treatment without havin’ to bash my head on a rock. Even Adriana has been nice. She comes in to see if I want ice cream or something to drink, or she brings me new comic books to read. It’s still hard for me to see her though; it always reminds me of Ruby. Matter of fact, Adriana is standin’ at my door again right now.
“Hey, can I come in?”
“Yeah.” I guess I have nothing better to do.
She comes and sits on the end of my bed. The first thing I look for is that stupid St. Christopher that started this whole thing. They say he’s the protector of children. Well, if it were up to me, I think they should desaint him at the Vatican for not doin’ his job.
Not only did he not protect me from smashin’ my head on the rocks, but what kind of saint would allow an innocent hamster to drown? Besides, he’s the reason I told my parents about Adriana in the first place. If he hadn’t been hangin’ around her neck like some trophy, I would never have gotten myself into this mess.
“Where’s your Christopher?” I ask. I will no longer address him as Saint.
Adriana looks down at the place he once hung. “I gave it back,” she says.
“You … gave … you broke up with Jason?” I’m shocked.
“No boy is more important than my own sister, A. J., especially one who’s a disloyal two-timer.”
“Wow. What did he say when you gave it back?” This will be a great twist for my diary.
“He was all defensive at first, but after he found out what happened to you, he realized that he was hurting a lot of people. Jack had a talk with him and told him they didn’t need more than one fool in their family, and that he already filled that position himself.”
“I don’t think Jack is a fool anymore, do you, Adriana?”
“I’d say between you and Jesus, Jack doesn’t have a fighting chance to stay a fool. You two are the only thing he talks about anymore, how Jesus brought you into his life, so you could bring his life back to Jesus. Even Mom is starting to believe there’s something different about that man.”
“What about Danny and his mama? Do they believe it?”
“I think they are just watching him for a while, trying to figure out if this is real or not. It’s hard when you’ve been hurt before.”
“Well, I believe it. I could see it in his eyes when he came to see me. When someone has Jesus in their soul, you can see it in their eyes. You know why, Adriana?”
“No, A. J., why?” This time she looks at me like she really cares what I have to say.
“Because when you have the Light of the World living inside of your soul, He shines out of you anywhere He can.”
19
Grace
Today is a special day in history for this island, especially for Juniper Beach. There is a new sign hangin’ on a tree there in honor of Jack Morgan. Ever since Jack found Jesus again, he has insisted on gettin’ baptized right here in the same lake that I nearly drowned in.
The Baptist preacher is on vacation for two weeks, so we went to our church to talk to the priest about helping Jack get baptized. The priest said he’d be happy to help, as long as Jack went through their baptism classes and got baptized in their holy fountain.
Jack said that the lake is where God gave him his life back, and he refuses to get sprinkled with some holy water in a cement tub. Jesus never did it that way Himself, he told the priest, and this lake water is every bit as holy as their water because the same Hand that made this water made theirs. He also told him he didn’t need classes because he has read about it in the Bible, and it’s not all that complicated.
The priest wouldn’t go for it, so we went to the Baptist youth pastor who said he’d be honored to baptize Jack on Juniper Beach. I gotta hand it to the Baptists on that one. They act so excited to baptize anyone, anywhere, that must be how they got their name.
It is a warm summer morning, and there’s a lot of people on Juniper Beach. I almost hated to give away the secret, but when I showed this beach to Jack, he fell in love with it. He promised that if I shared my secret beach, he would hang a sign that was sure to keep the majority of Squawkomish from coming on its shores.
TRESPASSERS WILL BE BAPTIZED
He said that way, if anyone does come ashore, we’ll know we’ve got a good reason to welcome them.
Everyone from our family and Jack’s family, as well as half of the Baptist church, has showed up for this event. The good thing about that is, those Baptists are into this whole potluck thing, and there is more food piled on these tables than I could eat in a month.
Everyone’s gathered at the shoreline, and Jack walks into the water with the pastor. I’m already choked up at this point, just watchin’ Jack. He’s lookin’ so serious, as if he’s walkin’ right toward the cross at Calvary. The pastor asks Jack if he has put his trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. He says, yes, he has. Then the pastor says, “On your profession of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, I baptize you, Jack Morgan, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit,” and under the water he goes.
When he comes up, everyone is cryin’. It’s like seein’ a man who was dead go under, and a man who’s alive come out. He gets to that shore, and the first person there huggin’ his daddy and weepin’ is Danny. And next to Danny is his mama.
When Jack sees his wife standin’ there in front of him, he reaches out and touches her small face with his big rough hand, like he is touchin’ a precious jewel. He’s drippin’ wet, but you can still see the tears fallin’ from his face. Jason comes over after that and hugs his daddy too.
I am standin’ here lookin’ at this family who was all in pieces and is now together, and nobody can tell me that there ain’t no God.
By the time all the Baptists have left the island, we have so much food left over, Mama suggests we have a farewell feast for the Morgan family later this evenin’. She figures it will take a few hours before anyone will be hungry enough to eat again. She even suggests we have it right on Juniper Beach at sunset.
Mama thinks it would be fun to surprise the Morgans, so we spend the entire afternoon fixin’ up Juniper Beach to look like a fancy lakeside restaurant.
Mama goes to town, haulin’ out all the tiki torches and chinese lanterns from The Big Island Bash to light up the place after the sun goes down.
Daddy sets up two long tables, pushed together to look like one, that Adriana covers with white bedsheets. They look just like fancy white tablecloths once she sets some candles and fresh flowers in the middle. We hang the chinese lanterns from overhanging tree boughs at the entrance to the beach and stake the tiki torches around the table.
J. R. is busy buildin’ the campfire for after-dinner marshmallows and a few fireworks that Daddy “confiscated” from some state park campers, because they were a fire hazard.
Daddy hands the stash of starburst cones to J. R. and says, “Son, I’m assigning you the responsibility of destroying these potentially hazardous pyrotechnics somewhere around ten o’clock tonight, as a service to the Idaho Department of Parks and Recreation.”
J. R. loves it when Daddy does things like that. I think Daddy figures that, if we do happen to start a fire here on the island, there will be a very limited number of bodies to recover, compared to burnin’ down the entire state park.
I get to be in charge of paintin’ a fancy name on a big slab of driftwood to hang at the entrance of our lakeside bistro. While it’s dryin’ in the sun, Mama makes me lie down and rest my head awhile back at the cabin. She and Adriana come back while I’m sleepin’ to reassess all the leftovers we’d brought back earlier. Once they finish arranging everything on pretty serving platters, the three of us carry it all back to Juniper Beach.
While we’re walkin’ toward the beach, Adriana says, “Oh, by the way, A. J., Daddy invited the Gizmodes to join us for dinner tonight. Little Rodney stopped by the cabin to see you, but I told him you were sleeping and would see him at dinner.”
“What? Are you serious?”
“Dead serious. He’s been really worried about you. He asked if he could sit by you tonight, and even brought you some daisies.”
“No dang way.” My head’s startin’ to hurt just thinkin’ about it. “C’mon, Adriana, you gotta get me outta this. I’ll stay at the cabin. Tell him I have a headache, anything.…”
“Honestly, A. J., just because he wears high-water jeans with red cowboy boots is no reason to hide from the poor guy. I think his matching red cowboy hat looks kind of cool, really.”
When I look at Adriana, I see her mouth startin’ to twitch. “You’re a big fat liar.”
Adriana’s laughin’ so hard she’s doubled over her bowl of potato salad.
“You think that’s funny?” Then I start laughin’ out of pure relief that it’s not true. “When I see Rodney at catechism, I’ll have him tell his big brother that you’re ready for that big slobbery Hawaiian kiss he’s been savin’ up for you.”
When Adriana finally comes up for air, she says, “Yuck. I’d rather kiss a baboon.”
It feels good to laugh with my sister again.
Mama takes a good look around, eyeballin’ every little detail, until not a thing is left undone or out of place, then sends me to go round up the Morgans. “And don’t spill the beans about the Juniper Beach Lakeshore Dining Establishment and Bistro.”
“Don’t worry, Mama, I couldn’t repeat all that if I tried.”
I return a short time later with the Morgans in tow. I’m tryin’ to see all of this through their eyes, as if I wasn’t expectin’ anything. It looks so great, it even surprises me. Mama has the twins at the entrance to greet us. In their white shirts and little black bow ties they look like midget maître d’s. There is no way on earth they would ever agree to wear those little bows unless Mama made them.
The Morgans just stand in awe with their mouths hangin’ open like they can’t believe what we’ve done.