The Shiver Stone

by Sharon Tregenza

  One of the paramedics told us what a brilliant job we’d done. How we’d probably saved her life. It didn’t really sink in. I was just so relieved that they were there to take over. Jago was bustled in beside his mother and just had time to give me a weak wave before the ambulance, siren still screaming, made its bumpy way back along the lane.

  And I was alone again. The silence heavy around me. Only then did I fully realise what might have happened. That Jago’s mother might have died there on the floor of Tristan’s shed. My whole body shook.

  A frantic yapping brought me to my senses and I freed Tia from the workroom. I felt so weak I knew I couldn’t walk home. With trembling hands I called my dad’s mobile, went outside and flopped down on the grass to wait.

  A bee landed on a nearby foxglove. I watched it crawl inside the purple cup and disappear. It was hard to believe that something so tiny could cause so much drama.

  Dad was there in minutes to pick up Tia and me.

  Linette was delighted with my story. She loves her soap operas and this was more real life drama than she could wish for.

  ‘A runaway sculptor, a mysterious wife and son, and a life-threatening situation – all in one day.’ She counted them off on her fingers.

  ‘Don’t forget the guy with the skinny beard,’ I added.

  ‘Hmm, mysterious stranger too. Yummy stuff.’

  Dad laughed, then looked serious. ‘You were amazing, Carys.’

  ‘Jago was too,’ I said.

  ‘Yeah, but you stuck the needle in.’

  I didn’t want to think about that bit. It made my stomach turn over.

  We were outside on the balcony. Up on the cliff the Shiver Stone darkened against the sky as the sunny afternoon turned to evening. It was getting cooler by the minute, but there were still people on the beach. Kids and adults shouted and played on the sand and splashed in the sea. Two seagulls perched on next-door’s railings and eyed our lasagne. Tia, after a bellyful of minced beef and grated cheese, slept, curled up on my lap.

  ‘What about the boy?’ Dad said.

  ‘What about him?’

  ‘Where will he go if his mother has to stay in hospital?’

  I hadn’t thought about that. ‘He told the ambulance crew they were booked into the caravan site.’

  ‘He can’t sleep in a caravan on his own.’

  Linette came back out with a bowl of fresh strawberries and some cream. She heard what Dad said. ‘He could stay here, if it’s okay with you, Dai?’

  ‘I’m off fishing. It would be up to you to keep an eye on him,’ Dad said.

  ‘S’okay.’

  ‘You haven’t asked whether I mind him being here,’ I huffed.

  ‘Well?’ Dad said.

  I hesitated. I have to admit the whole thing was pretty exciting. With my best friend Becca off staying with her dad in Swansea, things had been boring lately.

  ‘I don’t care,’ I said.

  ‘Right. Let’s finish up here and get to the hospital and see what’s what.’ Dad shoved a huge strawberry in his mouth, stalk and all.

  Someone had washed off Polly’s eyebrows so her face looked bald. There was a cut with stitches over one eye where she’d hit the coffee table when she fell. Jago sat huddled up in a chair by her bed.

  ‘She’ll need to stay in another day or two at least. There’s a possibility of concussion from that head wound too,’ Dr Dylan told Dad and Linette.

  Polly grabbed my hand with both of hers and wouldn’t let go. ‘Jago told me what you did. You saved my life. How can I ever thank you?’

  It was really embarrassing. I tried to tug my hand away without hurting her feelings. ‘S’all right.’

  Dad asked her if she’d like Jago to come home with us until she got out of hospital.

  She looked a little uncertain. ‘Thank you. I don’t know what to say.’

  Dr Dylan stepped forward. ‘You can say yes, Ms Pepper. Dai Thomas has been my friend since nursery school and Linette is my niece. Carys there has called me Dr Dylan from the minute she could speak, haven’t you, menace?’

  I grinned.

  ‘We dump our six-year-old twins on them sometimes. They’ll look after your boy until you’re okay to go home,’ he said.

  ‘My dad, has he turned up yet?’ Jago looked more miserable than ever.

  Linette put an arm around his shoulder. ‘I’m sure he’ll be back as soon as he hears what’s happened. But until then you can stay with us. Okay?’

  He looked at his mother and she nodded. ‘I’ll be fine in a day or two. No point this spoiling your holiday, Jago.’

  ‘Bit late for that,’ he mumbled.

  Because of the view from the balcony, most people go, ‘Oh wow!’ when they come into our flat. Jago didn’t say, ‘Oh wow.’ He didn’t say anything.

  Dad had to leave, to catch the tide, but Linette tried cheering him up. She can talk for Wales. But even she gave up after an hour of nothing but grunts.

  He did smile once when Tia licked his nose.

  I Googled ‘Coblynau’ on my laptop and read: ‘Coblynau are half a yard long and hideously ugly. They wear miners’ clothes and carry work tools and lamps. If one is angry it can cause rock slides.’ Then I Googled ‘fossil pick’ and found out it was a pointed-tip rock hammer used by geologists.

  ‘Emailing your friends?’ Linette asked. She was making up the sofa bed in the lounge for Jago.

  ‘Yeah.’ I slammed the laptop closed. Now I’m being a geek checking out this stuff, I thought.

  I texted my friend Becca to tell her what had happened with Polly and Jago and Tristan. She texted back saying ‘cool’ and then gave me a list of all the amazing stuff she was doing with her dad.

  By ten o’clock I was tired. I tucked Tia under my arm and sneaked her into my room before Linette had a chance to moan about it.

  I struggled awake from a nightmare of a giant bee trying to eat my face to find Tia scrabbling at my head to go out.

  I opened my door and, still half asleep, trundled after her into the lounge to let her onto the balcony.

  Someone was leaning over the railings. It startled me and I shrieked.

  Jago turned sharply. ‘Sorry! Couldn’t sleep.’

  ‘Forgot you were here,’ I said, rubbing my eyes.

  I joined him outside. My gaze automatically went up to the dark shadow of the Shiver Stone. In the bright silver moonlight it looked its dramatic best. A black giant of a stone keeping watch over our little village – keeping guard.

  ‘It’s getting cold,’ he said.

  Tia peed on the balcony and I promised myself I’d clean it up before Dad or Linette noticed.

  Jago and I wandered back inside. He sat on the edge of the sofa bed. I got an apple from the fruit bowl and offered him one. He took it.

  ‘Does that hurt?’ he said.

  ‘What?’

  ‘The brace on your teeth.’

  ‘No.’

  We sat without speaking for a while and then he said, ‘She’s nice.’

  ‘Who?’

  ‘Your mum.’

  ‘She’s not my mum, just my dad’s girlfriend, and she’s not nice.’

  ‘Oh.’

  Silence again.

  ‘So where’s your mum then?’

  I took another bite of my apple, chewed and swallowed hard. ‘Malawi,’ I said.

  We hadn’t put the light on but the moon was so bright it lit the room.

  ‘It’s in…’

  ‘…Africa,’ he said. ‘I know where Malawi is. What’s she doing there?’

  ‘You ask a lot of questions.’

  ‘Fine, don’t tell me then. I don’t care.’

  I hesitated. ‘She’s a nurse. She looks after sick kids with AIDs. Four years ago she dumped us to go out and look after them full time. I was eight.’

  He stared at me but didn’t speak.

  ‘She sends me birthday and Christmas cards … sometimes.’ I felt tears rise in my eyes and angrily brushed them away. �
�She’ll come back. I know she will. And she’ll marry Dad again and…’

  ‘Yeah, course she will. Your mum and my dad? A couple of prize-winning parents. Not!’

  I threw my half-eaten apple at him as hard as I could.

  He ducked.

  It missed, bounced off the sofa and landed on Tia. In a panic she leapt onto Jago’s lap. He cuddled her close.

  ‘Sorry! Sorry!’

  ‘S’okay.’

  ‘Not you. I’m saying sorry to Tia.’

  Carrying the little dog, he strode out through the French doors onto the balcony. After a minute I followed him. It was still warm. Bright stars filled the sky and the moon made a silver path across the sea.

  Then he said it. ‘Oh wow!’ He was gazing up at the cliff top. ‘That’s the Shiver Stone, isn’t it? I read up on it when I knew we were coming here. I can’t wait to see it up close. Geology is my thing.’

  ‘We could go tomorrow.’

  He nodded. ‘Yeah.’

  We talked, staring out at the water, listening to the gentle washing sound of the waves.

  ‘I’d like a dog. We’ve got five cats. They’re okay but…’

  ‘Yeah, cats are okay but not as good as a dog. So what’s the story with your dad?’

  He took a big breath in and blew it out again. ‘Mum told you about him leaving. She tells everyone that. I wish she wouldn’t. Anyway, Mum said he came home one night ten years ago, in a right panic and covered in blood. He packed a bag, kissed us goodbye and said he would get in touch when he could.’

  ‘Covered in blood? Was he hurt?’

  ‘Mum said it wasn’t his blood.’

  ‘Someone else’s blood?’

  ‘Someone else’s blood,’ Jago said.

  We were silent while we thought about what that might mean. I shivered.

  Tia struggled to get to me and Jago handed her over. She smelt sweet and warm. I stroked her tiny head.

  ‘That was the last we saw of him. Until he was on the telly after he did that statue thing on the beach. Mum nearly passed out when she saw him.’

  ‘I took that video.’

  ‘Yeah, you said.’

  ‘I sneaked out at night and videoed him on my iPhone. Could have got myself grounded forever, but it was worth it.’

  ‘Really?’

  ‘Did you see me being interviewed about it on telly? I was on Good Morning Wales?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘Did you hear me on Radio Pembrokeshire, then? Talking to David Baker on the Breakfast Show?’

  ‘No, I didn’t. Sorry.’

  I sighed.

  He was eager to tell me the rest of his story. ‘I don’t know how Mum contacted him. She told me a few days ago we were going to a place called Carreg, in Pembrokeshire, to see my dad. Then he goes and runs off again. I don’t care. I don’t even know him. But Mum’s really upset.’

  ‘Candyfloss!’ I shouted.

  ‘What?’

  ‘He bought candyfloss. Said it was for someone special. That must have been you. He seemed happy, excited.’

  Jago turned slowly towards me. ‘So you don’t think it was us he ran away from.’

  ‘No. I think it was Skinny Beard.’

  ‘Who?’

  ‘He saw this man and he took off. Now this guy is looking for him. He said his name was Kemble Sykes – weird name.’ So is Jago Pepper I thought, but I didn’t say it.

  ‘And this … Kemble, he’s after my dad?’

  ‘Yeah.’ I yawned and glanced at the clock. ‘It’s three in the morning. I’m going back to bed.’

  ‘Carys?’

  ‘What?’

  ‘That woman, Linette, you should be nicer to her.’

  I was instantly angry. ‘What’s it got to do with you?’

  ‘She loves you.’

  ‘And what would you know about it?’ I stormed off to my room.

  CHAPTER

  5

  ‘Having her feet eaten by fish,’ I said.

  It was late the next morning and Dad had just asked where Linette was.

  ‘What?’

  I dipped the brush into the bottle of varnish and painted my big toenail yellow.

  ‘What?’ he repeated.

  ‘It’s her day off so she’s gone for a fish pedicure at a beauty salon in Narberth. You stick your feet in a tank of water and these little fishes nibble away the dead skin. Gross.’

  ‘If I’d known that’s what she wanted I could have thrown her off the boat into a shoal of mackerel.’

  I looked up, surprised. ‘That’s exactly what she said you’d say.’

  Dad laughed and took a long swallow of his coffee. ‘That woman knows me too well.’

  Tia was asleep on the carpet making little snoring noises.

  I painted the next toenail purple.

  ‘I’m shattered. Been up all night. I’m off to bed.’ Dad rubbed the bald spot on his head and looked around. ‘Where’s the boy?’

  ‘Linette dropped him off at the hospital to see his mum. She’s picking him up on the way back from her foot thing. They should be back soon.’

  Just as I said that, we heard a key in the door and Linette came in with Jago. Dad gave her a hug. ‘How’s your mum?’ he said to Jago.

  Jago shrugged and looked away.

  ‘Better, I think. Still looks a bit pale though,’ Linette answered for him. She nodded at me. ‘Madam here wouldn’t come with us. Wanted to stay with the dog.’ She saw what I was doing. ‘Is that my nail polish, Carys?’

  ‘No,’ I lied.

  ‘How many times do I have to tell you to leave my stuff alone!’

  Dad closed his eyes and groaned. ‘If you two are going to kick off again, I’m for my bed.’

  He disappeared and Linette stormed into the kitchen. We could hear her banging pots and pans around.

  ‘Thought we could go see if my dad is back yet,’ Jago said.

  ‘We’ll take Tia.’ I wiggled my toes in the air to dry the nail polish.

  ‘Purple and yellow nails – looks like you’ve got foot fungus.’ Jago screwed up his nose.

  ‘Oh, thanks.’

  ‘S’okay.’ He smiled. I noticed his straight white teeth again and, embarrassed, ran my tongue across the metal wires covering mine.

  He noticed. ‘Lots of kids have those. It’s almost a fashion accessory where I come from. The tin grin is in.’

  That made me smile and for once I didn’t close my lips to hide my brace.

  It was hot and Tia panted up the hill, her tiny pink tongue lolling out of her mouth.

  On the pavement there were several long stone tubs of flowers. Tia peed by every other one. The noise of cars and tourists faded as we made our way along the lane to Tristan’s hut.

  There was no answer to our knocks and, when we went inside, everything looked the same. I found a saucer and poured cold water into it for Tia. She lapped it up noisily.

  Disappointed, Jago flopped onto the sofa. ‘I don’t get it. Do you think he knows what happened to my mum?’

  I shrugged. Tia was sniffing at something she’d found on the floor.

  I bent down and picked up an orange tic tac. You know when you read in a book sometimes, ‘The hairs on the back on my neck stood up’? That’s what happened right then. There was this crawly feeling between my shoulder blades and I spun round half expecting Skinny Beard to be standing right behind me.

  ‘He’s been in here.’

  ‘My dad?’

  ‘No, the guy who’s after him.’ I showed Jago the sweet in my palm.

  He looked puzzled.

  ‘He eats orange tic tacs all the time.’

  ‘My dad does?’

  ‘No! Kemble Sykes. He’s been in here looking for your dad. He must really want to find him. Look, there’s no point hanging around. Let’s drop Tia home and go to the beach for the afternoon. We can try again later.’

  Halfway down the lane, Tia looked up at the window of the guesthouse called Seaview and growled. A curta
in twitched and someone peered down at us.

  I punched Jago’s arm and pointed up. ‘There, there he is. That’s the man, the one after your dad.’

  But the figure pulled back into the room before Jago saw him.

  ‘I don’t think it’s a coincidence him staying right there, so close to your dad’s place, do you? He’s definitely stalking him.’

  Before Jago could answer, Tia gave a sharp bark and jerked at the lead so hard it pulled out of my hand. She hurtled up the long path to Hug Howells’ house with the lead trailing. I chased after her, calling her name, but she completely ignored me. When she reached the door, she scrabbled frantically to be let in.

  Panting, I reached her just as the door opened a few inches and the enormous Hug Howells, her face red and angry, stood barring the way.

  ‘Get that damn dog off my property!’ she shouted.

  ‘But I…’

  ‘You heard me. It’s nothing but a nuisance. Bad enough I have to put up with that sculptor bloke, not paying his rent, parking his motorbike in front of my garage.’

  I grabbed Tia’s lead and took a few steps back.

  I didn’t know Hug Howells well, but she’d always seemed like a nice person before. She made honey from her bees. ‘Hug’s Happy Honey’ was in all the local shops – bright yellow jars with a cartoon of a cross-eyed bee on the label. Linette sold them in the Crab’s Claw.

  She was still ranting about Tia. ‘Bringing that yappy little pest here, making a racket. Get off my property, will you!’

  ‘She’s not a pest,’ I shouted at the closing door. I hauled Tia back down the path. She was still tugging, trying to get to Hug’s house.

  Jago was waiting at the gate. ‘What was all that about?’

  ‘Seems Hug hates dogs.’ I didn’t say it sounded like she hated Tristan too.

  ‘Hug? That’s her name?’

  ‘She was called Caress when she was born. But Dad said she got so big and strong when she was a kid everyone said she was more like a Bear Hug than a Caress. Hug stuck.’

  ‘Nasty piece of work.’ Jago frowned.

  I nodded but it didn’t feel right. Dad told me that, when Mum went, Hug left a jar of honey on our doorstep every week for months and months.

  ‘Come on. Let’s drop Tia home for a while and go to the beach.’