The Shiver Stone

  ‘If you’re gonna laugh, then…’

  ‘No. Sorry, sorry,’ he said. ‘Go on, a long, long time ago…’

  He popped a handful of peanuts in his mouth. I waited for him to chew and swallow.

  The group on the beach was getting really noisy, having races and pushing each other over. Their shouts and laughter drifted out to sea.

  ‘I won’t interrupt any more. Tell me the story, please?’ he said.

  So I did. And, immediately, my mind went back in time. I was five again and my mother lay in bed with me, telling me the story as we stared out through the rain at the Shiver Stone. I remember the scent of her perfume – it’s called Anaïs Anaïs and smells like flowers. I keep the empty bottle on my dressing table.

  ‘King Cynwrig was a fierce soldier king who ruled Pembrokeshire.

  ‘Pembrokeshire was under siege from many enemies, who wanted to conquer the beautiful county, but the fiercest was the Seawitch. She would attack under cover of a storm and create havoc in the towns and villages along the coast. King Cynwrig had twenty sons and, when he left to fight somewhere else, he’d leave his sons to guard the coastline.

  ‘Owain, his youngest son, was put in charge of Carreg.

  ‘“Never leave your post,” his father told him. “If the Seawitch attacks, light the bonfire to warn the people to get out of their houses before she destroys them with her storms.”

  ‘On the very first night, Owain stood guard on the cliff top as the village of Carreg went to sleep. All was in darkness. Owain wasn’t the bravest son and already felt frightened.

  ‘At midnight the temperature suddenly dropped. Dark clouds covered the moon. Rain, rippling the surface of the calm sea, drifted towards Owain. He shivered and pulled his cloak tighter around his body.

  ‘Then lightning blazed the sky. The rain whipped down like nails and as the sea swelled, boats in the harbour heaved and tossed in the rising tide. Waves lashed the harbour wall. The brine hissed and lashed Owain’s face. He tried to raise the alarm, but shook so much he couldn’t light the bonfire. A mountainous wave rose up before him. As it receded Owain saw the Seawitch’s face in the sky where the moon should be. It was a mask of hatred. She looked down on Owain, opened her massive mouth and roared her terrible scream. Owain was terrified. He shook so much he dropped the burning torch over the cliff – and then he ran. Many people died that night crushed in their homes by the Seawitch’s storm.

  ‘The king was so furious with his cowardly son that, with one stroke of his sword, he turned him to stone. “You’ll never run away again. You’ll stay on the cliff top guarding Carreg forever,” he said.’

  I brought my voice down to a whisper. ‘And they say, if there is danger near, and you touch the stone – it will shiver as poor Owain tries to warn you – with his fear.’

  ‘Wow. That was pretty cool.’ Jago snuggled down into the duvet and lay his head on a cushion.

  Tia sniffed at my bag of cheesy Wotsits and I gave her one.

  ‘The Shiver Stone is special to me and Dad too,’ I said quietly. ‘After Mum left I had nightmares. Dad had to go out fishing at night sometimes and leave me with a sitter. He told me, if I woke from a bad dream, to tell it to the Shiver Stone. He said that, out at sea, he’d hear me and send his love back. I knew it wasn’t true, of course. But talking to Dad through the Shiver Stone, when I was scared or upset, helped.’

  The party crowd on the beach had gone quiet. Someone was playing a guitar and singing. It was a soft, sad song and it floated through the air up to where we sat.

  I rubbed at the tears on my cheeks and flicked my hand towards the people on the beach. ‘Sad song, huh?’

  But Jago was fast asleep.

  I got up slowly, cuddling Tia in my arms, and went to bed.

  ‘Get up, Carys, it’s gone nine and I have to get to work.’ Linette was tugging at my duvet.

  ‘And?’ I tried to snuggle back down.

  ‘And I told your dad I’d make sure you had a proper breakfast before I go to the Crab Claw.’

  ‘I can make my own breakfast, thank you.’ I turned my face to the pillow.

  ‘Get up, Carys!’

  She suddenly lunged forward and sniffed at me. ‘Is that my perfume you’re wearing? I’ve told you before…’

  Anger shot through me, an anger so strong and sudden I sat bolt upright in bed and shouted, ‘Get out! Get out of my room. Get out of our house. Me and Dad don’t need you here. We don’t want you here. You with your stupid cartoon hair!’

  I was screaming. Tia shot off my bed in panic and scrabbled at the door to get out.

  Linette had jerked back sharply at my first shout and now stood leaning against the wall, obviously shaken.

  I glared at her, my eyes narrowed, my heart pounding.

  I thought Linette was going to cry. ‘You can be a real brat sometimes, Carys Thomas,’ she said quietly.

  She opened the door and standing right outside was my dad – looking angrier than I’ve ever seen him, ever.

  CHAPTER

  9

  ‘Get dressed and get out here, Carys. Now!’

  Dad doesn’t do mad. I can’t remember him even telling me off really. The last time I saw him close to angry was on my eleventh birthday when there was nothing from my mum, not even a card.

  I’d asked him for the hundredth time if Mum’s present had arrived when he suddenly slammed his fist into what was left of my birthday cake. He looked astonished at what he’d done. He said he was sorry, over and over, and held me tight. Afterwards, he stood staring out to sea for a long, long time.

  I got dressed as slowly as I could and went into the lounge. Dad was on the balcony talking to Jago. Tia was on Jago’s lap. Linette had gone to the café.

  I slouched over and dropped down onto a chair. I began texting Becca.

  ‘Jago, I wonder if you’d take Tia for a walk? I need to have a little chat with Carys.’ The words ‘little chat’ didn’t sound good.

  Jago clipped on Tia’s lead and left without a word.

  Dad didn’t hang about. As soon as the door closed he turned to me. ‘Don’t you ever let me hear you speak to anyone that way again, Carys. Do you understand?’

  I nodded slowly but kept texting.

  ‘Put that phone down.’

  I kept texting.

  Dad lunged across the table and snatched the phone out of my hand. ‘This is confiscated for two weeks and so is your laptop. When Linette comes around this evening I expect a full apology from you.’ He was breathing heavily. ‘Do you understand?’ He said each word loudly, clearly.

  ‘Why are you sticking up for her? We don’t need her here. We were fine on our own before she came.’

  I grabbed my bag and tore off through the door, slamming it behind me. Racing down the steps, I nearly collided with old Mrs Jenkins from number three. She grabbed at my sleeve as I tried to get past her.

  ‘I think you’ve still got that dog in your flat.’ She screwed up her nose in disgust.

  I shook myself free of her bony fingers. ‘I don’t care what you think, you stupid old bat!’ I shouted over my shoulder. I raced out after Jago.

  I could see them; they were only halfway down the road. As usual people were oohing and ahhing over Tia and she was loving it.

  ‘Trouble?’ Jago said, when I caught up with them.

  ‘Not really,’ I lied. I wondered if he’d heard me screaming at Linette. Probably. I felt ashamed.

  There were plenty of people already out and about, and the sunshine was bright and warm. We reached the harbour car park and wound our way in and out of people and parked cars.

  ‘Carreg is very blue, isn’t it,’ Jago said.

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘The lamp posts, the railings, the benches, even the litter bins, they’re all painted the same colour blue.’

  I looked around in amazement. He was right. I’d lived here all my life and never noticed that before.

  From the top of a CCTV camer
a a gull with greedy yellow eyes glared down on us.

  ‘Let’s go to the Shiver Stone,’ I said. We walked the steep incline of St Winifred’s Hill and soon left the noise and bustle behind us in the main street.

  Tia was already getting tired in the heat, so we stopped halfway up. I took a bottle of water out of my bag, poured some into my hands and watched Tia drink.

  We leaned on the metal railings overlooking the harbour. I liked watching the harbour from there. Apart from the passing cars it was quieter and almost like a painting with the brightly coloured boats and buoys bobbing in the water.

  ‘You see that boat there, the red one with the blue stripe?’

  Jago nodded.

  ‘That’s Dad’s boat – Sea Spirit. He loves that boat.’

  ‘Your dad’s a fisherman,’ Jago said. ‘What does he catch? I mean, what sort of fish?’

  ‘Whelks,’ I said.

  ‘I don’t think I even know what a whelk looks like.’

  ‘Think big snail with a grubby shell,’ I said. ‘People say they’re delicious boiled with a drop of vinegar.’ I made a puking action with my finger in my mouth.

  ‘Not a fan, then?’ Jago laughed.

  A sudden shadow made us turn around. A huge figure towered over us. Hug Howells, dressed in her big man trousers and a floppy black t-shirt, did an odd little wave.

  Her voice boomed out. ‘Um, sorry about yesterday, kids.’

  Tia jumped up at her tree trunk leg and, without thinking, Hug bent down to pat the little dog’s head lovingly.

  ‘I was just er … having a bad day, I suppose.’ Her heavy moon face went red and her eyes shifted away from us. ‘Yes, that’s it. Bad day. No harm done, huh?’

  Jago shook his head. I said, ‘No.’

  ‘Right. Good. Good. No harm done.’ She took a sudden interest in Jago. ‘And you must be Tristan’s boy? Yes. I can see that you are. Although he has the look of a blond American Indian with those plaits of his.’

  For a minute I thought she was going to pat Jago’s head like she’d patted Tia’s but, with a repeat of, ‘Well. Good. No harm done,’ she went on her way down the hill towards the shops.

  ‘Crazy,’ I said.

  We reached the start of the cliff path. Gulls screamed and flew somersaults over our heads. From this height we could see the bay spread below us. The further along we went the fewer people we saw and that suited me fine. Jago and Tia were quiet company and that’s just what I needed.

  There’s a small woodland near the path and a river bubbles down to Glen Beach. This is my favourite part of Carreg. Even in summer it’s peaceful and the birdsong is strong and clear. Here, with the sun bright and warm and the familiar rush of the sea below, I feel happy.

  When we reached the giant Shiver Stone, we saw a figure sitting beside it at the edge of the cliff. She was staring out at the bay. If I hadn’t recognised the binoculars and the short black hair I would certainly have recognised the thick snake-like scar running down her back.

  She seemed so lost in thought I was afraid, if I spoke, it might startle her and she’d fall.

  Jago obviously hadn’t thought of that.

  ‘Hello,’ he called.

  She jumped, but grabbed at the grass on either side of her to steady herself. She scuttled back from the edge and got up to face me. She looked strange, blank.

  ‘This is the Shiver Stone?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘It’s magnificent.’ She brushed her hand over the surface of the rock with affection.

  Jago handed me Tia’s lead and took a few nervous steps towards the edge. He peered over. ‘Wow, you said your dad dived off here when he was a kid? Awesome.’

  The woman who’d rescued Jago was now looking at Tia with the same blank stare. ‘And this little creature belongs to Tristan. He must love her very much. We all love our pets, don’t we? They are special in our lives.’

  It was a weird thing to say, and she didn’t sound like she meant it. She sounded almost angry.

  A cloud covered the sun and the shadow of the Shiver Stone grew longer and darker. Jago was still peering down over the cliff at the sea below. I picked Tia up and cuddled her into me. I thought for a minute. ‘How’s the birdwatching going? Have you seen the lesser-spotted seadrake?’ I asked. ‘They’re very common around here.’

  ‘What? Oh yes, loads of them.’ She seemed nervous, awkward. She was rubbing at the back of her head and it made her hair stick up. ‘I’ve got to go,’ she said and hurried away back in the direction of town.

  We watched her for a short while and then Jago shrugged.

  He took his little hammer thing out of his geology bag and, before I realised what he was going to do, started chipping at the Shiver Stone.

  ‘Stop it!’ I said.

  He ignored me. ‘Just want a piece for my collection. It’s a type of rock called spotted dolerite, an igneous rock like basalt. It comes from the Preselis near Fishguard.’

  ‘Stop it. When a tourist tried to chip off a bit of the Shiver Stone he found all his tires were flat when he got back to the car park. He had to call out the RAC,’ I said.

  ‘I haven’t got a car,’ Jago murmured. Chip, chip, chip.

  ‘When a local kid spat on it, he fell off his bike and broke his ankle a week later.’ I was getting angry.

  ‘Don’t spit and haven’t got a bike,’ Jago said. Chip, chip, chip.

  ‘STOP!’ Without thinking, I punched his arm. The hammer flew out of his hand and crashed into a nearby bush. ‘Don’t hurt it!’ I screamed, close to tears.

  Jago stared at me in amazement. ‘If it means that much to you, you should have said,’ he muttered.

  While he rummaged through the leaves looking for his hammer, I closed my eyes, put both hands on the Shiver Stone, and whispered that I was sorry.

  Jago sulked for a while, but I pretended to be interested in his geology stuff and he soon came around.

  Tia was getting hot and tired again, so I carried her as we headed back home.

  ‘Funny we keep bumping into that woman,’ Jago said.

  ‘Hmm. I’ll tell you something funny. She’s no birdwatcher.’

  ‘How do you know?’

  ‘Those lesser-spotted seadrakes she said she’d seen?’

  ‘Yeah.’

  ‘No such bird. I made it up.’

  I was hoping Dad would be in bed by the time we got back; he’d been fishing all night, so he should be tired. He was fast asleep – the flat quiet except for his snoring. I made sandwiches for us, and chopped up the rest of the tinned ham for Tia.

  I’d done some thinking on our way back home and, as we tucked into our cheese and pickle, I said, ‘What if your dad has been kidnapped?’

  Jago almost choked. ‘Kidnapped? Why would you think he’s been kidnapped? You saw him run off.’

  ‘Yeah, but there’s a lot of odd stuff going on. Maybe there’s a secret society after him. Remember the tattoo? Your dad has the same tattoo as that Kemble Sykes.’

  I jumped up. ‘Vulpes Vulpes – we can Google it. I’m not allowed to use my laptop but you can.’ I was excited. ‘We should have done this before. That tattoo could be a clue.’

  ‘A clue to what?’

  ‘I don’t know, just a clue.’

  Jago typed ‘Vulpes Vulpes’.

  ‘It means Red Fox.’

  ‘What else?’

  He scrolled up and down, opened more sites. ‘That’s it, Red Fox.’

  ‘Try some more.’

  Jago tapped the computer screen. There were 1,430,000 results for ‘Vulpes Vulpes’.

  ‘We can’t search through all those,’ he said

  It was disappointing. ‘Ask your mum about the tattoo, then. She should know.’

  ‘Yes. She’s coming out of hospital today, so we’ll move into the caravan.’

  I could still hear my dad snoring in the bedroom, so when the phone rang, I ran to pick it up before it woke him. I almost tripped over Tia. By the time I’d got my
balance back, the phone had stopped ringing. I could hear Dad talking. He came out of his room looking like he was still half asleep. He had his old blue dressing gown over his pyjamas and his hair was sticking up.

  I looked at him to see if he was smiling, hoping everything was okay with us again. He wasn’t smiling.

  ‘You’re on a real roll, aren’t you, Carys? That was Jim from the housing association. Mrs Jenkins has been on the phone to them, complaining that we have a dog in the flat. She also says she wouldn’t have said anything except that you were very rude when she spoke to you on the steps this morning. So, thanks to you, the dog has to stay outside in the shed.’ He stroked Tia’s head and she licked his hand. ‘Until your dad gets back that is,’ he added quickly to Jago. ‘You’d better put her in the shed right now.’

  ‘But what about tonight? She can’t stay out there all night. She’ll be cold and frightened,’ I wailed.

  ‘Maybe you should have thought of that before you were rude to old Mrs Jenkins. Maybe you should think before you’re rude to anyone. Linette got it right this morning, Carys, you can be a spoiled brat.’ He stormed back into his bedroom slamming the door behind him.

  I wanted to cry. Dad was furious with me and Tia was banned to the shed. It was a bad day.

  It was about to get worse.

  ‘Spose we’d better put her in the shed then,’ Jago said.

  ‘We could take her out for another walk? We can’t just leave her in there on her own all day.’

  ‘What about if we take her back to my dad’s place? At least she’ll be in her own home and, when he gets back, she’ll be there waiting for him.’

  ‘But then she’ll be too far away and still all on her own.’

  I picked Tia up and rubbed my face in hers. She squeaked and wagged her tail and that made me feel even worse.

  I got two bowls and filled them with cornflakes and milk. That would do for dessert. ‘Besides, what if your dad doesn’t come back?’

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘Well, if he has been kidnapped…’

  I ignored the look of horror on Jago’s face and went on.

  ‘I mean he can’t just be hiding away from that man, can he?’

  Jago walked away from me and went out onto the balcony and I followed him, carrying the bowls of cornflakes.