A scuffling noise sounded inside the cave. Mrs. Hudson whirled around and pulled a dagger from the back of her pants.
Ruby gasped. A head peered around the edge of the cave, then disappeared. Matt’s heart nearly leaped out of his chest. He saw the head for only a brief moment, but he was certain it was human.
“Jia!” he called. “It’s Matt! It’s the Hudsons! We came to rescue you!” He tried to run to her, but his dad grabbed him and held him back while Mrs. Hudson stepped forward and started talking. For some reason she spoke in Arabic.
“You can come out,” she said. “We won’t hurt you.”
Matt waited, holding his breath.
The head appeared again, a dark face blinking in the bright light. Matt’s heart sank. It wasn’t Jia. The person stepped out of the cave fully. It was a woman. She looked young, in her late teens or early twenties, but her face was gaunt, cheeks hollow, like she was on the verge of starvation. Her eyes had that look of being too large for her head, and her dark skin had patches of frostbite. Her lips were cracked. She was covered with bits and pieces of furs and leather from a variety of animals, but even through all the bulk of her clothing, Matt could tell she was very thin.
Mrs. Hudson took in a sharp breath. She breathed out a word that Matt did not understand. It sounded like “Two-ee.”
And then the woman spoke.
“Rubbana,” she said.
Matt didn’t understand her at first, but then he realized she was speaking in Arabic too. She had called his mother “Captain.”
11
Fatoumata
“Tui!” Mrs. Hudson broke into a run and swung her arms around the woman, hugging her so forcefully they both slipped on the rocks and nearly fell over.
“Am I dead?” said the young woman, still speaking in Arabic. “I had hoped the afterlife would be warmer, but I always imagined I would find you there, Captain.”
“No, no, you’re not dead, Tui! It’s me. We’re alive, and I’m here!” Mrs. Hudson released her and held her at arm’s length. “But, Tui, I don’t understand. Why are you here?”
“Why do you think? I came for a holiday.”
Mrs. Hudson let out a gargled sound that was something between a cry and a laugh, and then stopped abruptly. She put her hand to her mouth. “Oh, Tui, no. No, he didn’t leave you here. . . .”
Tui only stared at Mrs. Hudson, her eyes lifeless and empty as two black stones.
“I tried to stop him,” said Tui, “but what could I do? He was strong, and when he got the compass . . . I could do nothing.”
“What’s going on?” Ruby whispered to Matt. “I can’t understand a word they’re saying. Who is she?”
“She was on Mom’s crew,” Matt whispered to her and Corey. “When she was Captain Bonnaire. Captain Vincent discarded her here, I think.” Matt thought he recognized her somewhat, from when he’d been on the Vermillion before, though she’d looked fuller in the face then, healthier.
Mrs. Hudson looked at her friend, taking in her thinness, the tattered furs, like she was living all that she had been through, feeling her pain and suffering. “I’m so sorry, Tui,” she said, her voice catching in her throat. “I did not mean for this to happen. I swear it. I thought you would be safe. Can you ever forgive me?”
“I’ve had my moments of anger, I admit,” said Tui, her head held high. “But you are here now. I had almost given up hope, but you are here, and now I wish to serve my dear captain with all my heart.” She squeezed Mrs. Hudson’s hands tightly. “Though I see you have gathered more crew since we saw each other last.” Tui turned her attention to Matt and everyone else in the party. “Maybe you do not have room for me any longer?”
Mrs. Hudson suddenly jumped and turned back to her husband and children. It was as though she’d almost forgotten they even existed. Her two worlds were colliding now. She laughed a little, wiping her nose on her sleeve. “They are a crew of sorts.” Mrs. Hudson reached for her husband. He came to her side and took her hand. “This is my husband, Matthew.”
“Husband?” said Tui as though she thought she may have misheard.
“And these are our children,” said Mrs. Hudson. “Mateo, Corey, and Ruby.”
Tui blinked down at the children like they were three little aliens. “Children? Three children? Captain Bonnaire a wife and mama?”
Mrs. Hudson laughed. “I know. I never would have believed it myself all those years ago when we were off playing pirates.” Mrs. Hudson suddenly switched to English. “Matthew, kids, this is my dear friend, Tui. She was on my crew on the Vermillion, all those years ago. Tui, I’m sorry you will have to speak English with them. Only Mateo speaks Arabic fluently. The rest are too lazy.”
“Hey!” said Corey. “We can’t all be geniuses.”
“I am very glad to meet you,” said Tui in English. “My name is Fatoumata, but my friends call me Tui.”
“Hi, I’m Chuck,” said Chuck, stepping forward.
“Chook?” said Tui. “And you are part of the new crew?”
“I’m the neighbor whose vehicle they stole to get here, so I guess that does make me part of the crew, doesn’t it? I’m very pleased to meet you.” He shook Tui’s hand vigorously. “So, where are you from? I’m guessing you weren’t born around these parts, huh? Unless your parents are polar bears?” He chuckled. Tui pulled her hand away and straightened to her full and considerable height.
“I am from the great empire of Mali,” she said. “I was born in AD 1308.”
“You don’t say?” said Chuck. “Wow. You look great for your age.” He slapped his knee and cackled. Tui looked like she was ready to stab him with an icicle.
“Tui is the daughter of the great king of Mali,” said Mrs. Hudson. “Mansa Musa.”
The name tickled a part of Matt’s memory for some reason, but he couldn’t think why.
“Oh, so you’re a princess then?” said Chuck. “And you say your real name is Fat-mama? That’s an . . . unusual name. Does it mean something special in Mali-ese? Should I call you Princess Fat-mama?”
Corey laughed out loud until Mrs. Hudson slapped his back, and he turned it into a cough. Matt had to bite the insides of his cheeks, and Ruby stuffed her crocheted blanket in her mouth, shaking with silent laughter. Tui glared at Chuck, and for a moment Matt thought she was going to throw him to the ground, but then her face broke into a grin and she, too, started laughing. She tipped her head back and laughed and laughed. She wiped tears from her eyes and shook her head. “Oh, Rubbana. A husband . . . three children. I never thought I would live to see the day. But how is this possible? I did not think I had been here so long. . . .”
“More time has passed for me than for you, it would seem,” said Mrs. Hudson. “It’s been twenty years since I left the Vermillion. I’m quite a bit older now than when I was captain.”
“And wiser,” said Tui. “I can see that now.”
Mrs. Hudson blushed and shook her head. “Not so wise, I don’t think. I never was.”
“It is always the wise who think they are not wise, and the fools who think they are,” said Tui.
Matt watched his mother’s eyes fill with tears. She looked so happy to have her old friend back but also sad for the years now between them, the time they’d lost that they could never get back. Matt remembered his own friend, the very reason they’d come here in the first place.
“Excuse me, Fatoumata?” said Matt, speaking in Arabic. Tui turned to Matt. “Is there anyone else here with you? I mean, another who was discarded by Captain Vincent? A girl about my age?”
Tui shook her head. “I have been all alone. I have seen no people in this godforsaken place. Only beasts and fowl and so much ice and snow.”
Matt slumped. They had guessed correctly about Captain Vincent discarding someone here, just not the right person. Not for him anyway.
“I have many questions,” said Tui. “Some can wait, but how did you get the compass back from Vincent? Is he dead?”
Mrs. Hu
dson stiffened. “He’s not dead,” she said flatly. “He still has the Obsidian Compass and the Vermillion.”
“But then, how did you come to find me? You are not discarded here too?”
Mrs. Hudson shook her head. “We have another compass.” She glanced briefly at Matt. “A crude replica of the Obsidian Compass, but it was enough to get us here.”
Matt felt a slight sting in his chest at the description of his compass. A crude replica? He grabbed the compass beneath his blanket and wrapped his fingers over the sticky, greasy hunk of metal. Maybe it wasn’t so grand as the Obsidian Compass, but it worked, didn’t it?
“So you can take me from this horrible place! Ah! When can we leave? You know how I hate the cold! Vince knew that too. Curse that evil man! I cannot wait to face him and give him what he deserves!”
“Yes, we’d all like that,” said Mrs. Hudson. “We’ll leave right away, this very moment!” Matt wondered where his mom intended to go. Back home to New York, still? Or did finding her friend from the past change things? Perhaps seeing Tui would make her realize that they couldn’t just go home and live a normal life. Regardless, they still had to find Jia. Matt wasn’t going to give up on finding her.
“You have a ship for traveling?” Tui asked. “We can leave now? All together?”
“Yes, Chuck’s vehicle is just right over there, up on the bluff,” said Mrs. Hudson, pointing toward the jutting cliff where the rusty orange bus sat like an abandoned toy. “Oh my . . .”
The herd of woolly mammoths was now roaming the cliffside. One gargantuan mammoth had discovered Blossom. It toyed with it with its trunk, nudging it with its giant tusks. Blossom teetered back and forth.
“Hey!” Chuck shouted. He started running down the beach, waving his arms and shouting. “Get away from my bus!” He picked up rocks and threw them at the mammoth. They didn’t even reach halfway up the cliff, but something about the commotion or noise must have roused the mammoth. It suddenly lifted its trunk and blew, then shoved Blossom toward the edge of the cliff.
“No! No! NO!” shouted Chuck. “Back! Go back!”
The mammoth dug its huge curved tusks under the bus like a forklift, and with one heft it tossed it up and over the edge of the cliff. Chuck skidded to a halt. The mammoth stomped and snorted as the bus crashed down on the beach and rolled and tumbled over rocks and ice.
Chuck ran toward Blossom. Everyone else went after him. Matt stood next to his dad, and Corey came up beside him. The bus had miraculously landed on its wheels, but that was about the only lucky thing about it. All the windows were cracked; one had been completely shattered. Dozens of dents had been pounded into the rusty orange metal. The bus hadn’t been in the best shape before, but now it looked like a crushed soda can.
A few walruses had worked their way up the beach, all of them barking, grunting, and snorting like they’d found a new toy.
“Get away!” shouted Chuck, trying to kick at the walruses, but they just bellowed and blustered. One roared and snapped its long tusks at Chuck. He might have been impaled had Mr. Hudson not yanked him back. The walrus then dug its tusks into one of Blossom’s tires. The tire let out a pitiful squeak and deflated, making the bus a bit lopsided.
“Chuck, I’m so sorry,” said Mr. Hudson. “We’ll pay for all the damages when we get home. I promise.”
Chuck just kept staring at his bus. “Will we get home?” he asked. “I mean, I got a spare tire in the back, but I’m guessing there’s some other stuff that might need repairs.”
“I can fix it,” said Matt. “Jia taught me a lot about auto mechanics while I was on the Vermillion.”
The snow started to fall in thicker drifts. The wind picked up.
“We will not be able to fix it tonight,” said Tui. “A storm is coming.”
“You mean we’re going to spend the night here?” said Ruby, shivering beneath her blanket. She looked around as though hoping a hotel might suddenly pop up in the midst of all the ice and snow.
“My cave is warm and safe,” said Tui. “I promise you will be comfortable.”
“Hey, a campout’s always fun,” said Chuck. “Let me get some supplies from Blossom. I think I got some food in the minifridge.” The walruses barked and retreated as Chuck forced open the rusty, dented door of the bus.
After Chuck had loaded some food and supplies in a bag, they all followed Tui back to her cave. The snow grew so thick, Matt could barely see a foot in front of him. Everything turned white, and Matt could barely tell which way was up or down. It gave him a strong wave of vertigo.
When they reached Tui’s cave, Matt was relieved to be out of the wind and then stunned as he observed the interior of the cave. He had been expecting a dark, cramped little space, but it was open and spacious and breathtakingly beautiful. Ice crystals were clustered all around, hanging from the walls and ceiling like chandeliers. Dim daylight filtered through the holes and patches of ice in the ceiling, casting a bluish glow.
Farther back was a smaller cavern, about half the size of the one they’d entered and more stone than ice. It was here that Tui had made her living quarters. In the center was a firepit. A small fire was burning, the smoke curling up to an opening in the rocks above. This was the smoke Matt had seen up on the cliffs. A few flurries of snow fell down from the openings in the ceiling.
Tui gathered two large handfuls of what looked like big grassy clods of dirt and dropped them on the fire. They smothered the flame at first, and then the coals flickered and the flames grew, casting light and shadow over the cavern walls.
“What is that you’re burning?” Corey asked.
“Mammoth dung. It burns very well,” and then when Tui saw the look of disgust on their faces she added, “but don’t worry. It smells like grass, mostly.”
Matt was surprised to see how cozy the cave had been made. The walls and floor around the fire were covered in furs. Some large stone blocks served as a table and bench. There were crude dishes made from stone, and tools and weapons that looked to be made of bone. A spear and a small ax leaned up against the wall. The space smelled strongly of smoke and sweat and game.
Ten minutes later they were all eating cold hot dogs and marshmallows. (No one was quite brave enough to roast their food in the mammoth dung fire.) Mrs. Hudson and Tui chattered away. They couldn’t talk fast enough as they caught up on all that had happened since they’d seen each other last. Tui had very little to tell about her time spent in the Siberian Ice Age, but she had many questions for Mrs. Hudson about her past twenty years. That was one of the strange things about time travel, Matt decided. People’s timelines didn’t always line up. You could be the same age at one meeting, and then very different ages at another. Matt wondered, What if the next time he saw Jia she was much older than him, or he was a lot older than her? They would still be friends of course, but it wouldn’t be the same. It gave him an unsettled feeling in his stomach. He didn’t want to find her twenty years later. He wanted to start back up where they’d left off.
Mrs. Hudson told Tui about how she’d met Mr. Hudson, their marriage, their jobs, living in New York, and raising children. She told Tui about how Captain Vincent had kidnapped them, and how they’d escaped. Tui was clearly shocked and outraged by it all.
“That man . . . he is pure evil, Captain. I swear it on all the riches of my father, I will hunt him down and he will pay for what he has done. To all of us.”
Matt was curious about how his mother would respond to this declaration, but she said nothing about it. She had just as many questions for Tui about what had happened before she’d been discarded here, how Captain Vincent had gotten the compass from her, what had happened to the other crew members. “I know Agnes is still on the Vermillion,” she said.
Tui blew out a puff of air. “I am not surprised. Vince is probably too afraid to discard her. I hope she will chop off his head.”
Mrs. Hudson laughed, then grew serious. “But what of Neeti and Demetria? Do you know what happened to them?
Where he took them?”
Tui shook her head. “I do not know. I was first to go. I do not doubt he discarded the others in equally horrible places.”
“What about Annie?” Matt asked without thinking. “What happened to the little girl with the gun?”
Mrs. Hudson whipped her head around to Matt. “How do you know Annie?”
“Oh . . . I . . . uh . . .” Matt suddenly realized his mistake. He still hadn’t told his mom about the first time he’d traveled with his compass. On his birthday. His mom put it together though. He saw the wheels turning in her brain, practically heard the clicks of it all coming together. She paled and put her hand to her mouth. “It happened,” she said. “You went to the Vermillion. . . . I saw you . . . years ago . . . I . . .” She shook her head. “When did this happen?”
“On my birthday,” said Matt.
“I knew it,” snapped Mrs. Hudson. “Hide-and-seek, my foot!” She glared at Corey and Ruby, who both shrank back a little.
“What is going on?” said Mr. Hudson, looking back and forth. “What am I missing?”
Mrs. Hudson didn’t pause to answer her husband. “Mateo, you must be more careful! Time travel is not a game. There could have been serious repercussions!”
“I think there were,” muttered Corey. “Matt saw you kissing Captain Vincent! Talk about scarring for life!”
Mr. Hudson started choking on a marshmallow. Chuck patted him on the back. “You okay, buddy?” He coughed, his eyes watering. Mrs. Hudson’s face was beet red.
“And if that wasn’t bad enough, you almost shot Matt!” Ruby added.
Mr. Hudson, now marshmallow-free, sat straight up. “What? Belamie, you never told me any of this! You saw Matt? Before we ever met? And you almost shot him?!”
Time Castaways #2 Page 14