by Lauren Child
‘And if I say you jump up and down, then you jump up and down, got it?’ said the pirate.
Ambassador Crew nodded.
‘So jump up and down,’ snarled the pirate.
Ambassador Crew jumped.
Chapter 16.
Don't look back
IT WAS 8AM ON SATURDAY MORNING and Clancy Crew was doing as Coach Newhart had suggested: swimming as if his life depended on it. At this rate he was going to win the trophy for Twinford Junior High single-handed. He was way out in front and almost at the buoy. He even thought he could hear Ruby’s shouts, urging him on, but of course he couldn’t, not with the earplugs in. What he could hear was the thumping of his heart and the voice in his head which said, ‘Why am I in the water? Am I out of my mind? I’m going to die!’
A couple of times he thought he saw something; a couple of times he thought he felt something brush past him. He tried to focus on a rule Ruby had taught him many, many years ago when he was just a tiny kid at a Halloween party. It had been his turn to stick his hand in the Halloween barrel; the barrel always contained everyday items – a hard-boiled egg with shell removed – but your imagination could easily lead you to believe that it was a misshapen eyeball you were holding. Sometimes, it is important to shut down the creative part of the brain, just tell yourself it’s OK and you will find that it is OK. RULE 21: DON’T THINK BACK, DON’T THINK AHEAD, JUST THINK NOW.
So Clancy tried to do just that. Things went fine until he got to the marker, turned and began to swim back to shore. This was the worst bit, the bit he dreaded. Now, he couldn’t see what was behind him; now, he would never know if some large fish with big sharp teeth was following him, waiting for exactly the right moment to open its jaws and bite down on a leg, or worse – his whole body. He imagined the blood gushing up out of his mouth, the feeding frenzy that would ensue.
Clancy closed his eyes and swam.
He swam so hard and so blindly that he only realised that he had reached the beach when he felt the rough sand graze his stomach and the strong hand of Coach Newhart pulling him to his feet.
‘Nice swim Crew. I knew you had technique, but I had no idea you were fast.’ The coach draped a towel round his shoulders and slapped him on the back. ‘Grab a hot drink son and get warmed up.’
Clancy staggered towards the support team, all of them smiling, all of them cheering congratulations, but Clancy was only aware of the sensation of sand underfoot; feet, all two of them, back on terra firma. He was alive.
When the swimathon was over and all the participants were out of the water and back on the beach, pulling on their tracksuits, Clancy went to find Ruby. She was sitting on the beach, her head resting on her knees, her eyes focused on the horizon. She looked up, smiling. ‘See Clance, I told you you could do it!’
‘Can we just get out of here?’ he pleaded.
Once they were safely installed in their favourite booth in the Double Donut, Ruby picked up the conversation. ‘Mind over matter is all it took you – of course, guts too,’ she added. ‘I don’t deny that.’
‘Well, never again,’ said Clancy, clutching a mug of hot chocolate. He was still shivering even though it was eighty degrees outside.
‘Don’t let Coach Newhart hear you saying that,’ said Ruby. ‘He thinks he just discovered the swim talent of the century. My guess is he’s got big plans for you my friend.’
‘Can we please talk about something else?’ pleaded Clancy. He was beginning to turn green. It was fair to say that Clancy Crew looked all washed out, which wasn’t surprising since he had just faced his biggest fear and lived to tell the tale. Ruby thought about her darkest terror, the total fear of being buried alive. Would she have fared so well if forced to confront her own nightmare? She decided to cut Clancy a little slack and changed the subject.
‘So I’m guessing Spectrum might issue me with some new spy gadgets – you know, dive-related ones.’
‘Talking of which…’ Clancy pulled something out of his pocket. ‘I found this on the beach, you musta dropped it.’ It was the rescue watch.
‘Thanks Clance! I didn’t even realise I’d lost it. It’s the clasp – the darned thing keeps coming loose. Hey, but that little problem with the retractable grab cable should be all hunky-dory now so I can abseil out of anywhere.’
‘Wish you’d grabbed me out of the ocean an hour ago,’ muttered Clancy.
‘Nah, you didn’t need me, you swam your way out of that just fine.’
‘It was the badge,’ said Clancy.
‘Well, you’re the one who did the swimming,’ said Ruby.
‘It was the badge,’ repeated Clancy.
They were both silent for about twenty seconds and then Clancy said, ‘So that was pretty nice of LB to let you keep it. The watch I mean.’
‘Yeah,’ said Ruby. ‘The “great” Bradley Baker’s rescue watch, who would have thunk it.’ She said this with more than the smallest hint of sarcasm.
‘You said it’s pretty special to her?’
‘Seems so,’ said Ruby. ‘BB and LB were kinda close.’
‘So is it true that they were sweethearts?’ asked Clancy.
‘Sweethearts!’ Ruby spluttered. ‘No one says sweethearts Clance, not unless they’re at least ancient, like two hundred.’
Clancy looked indignant. ‘Mouse used the word sweetheart just yesterday.’
‘Yeah, well, I’ll bet she used it in a cool way, you know, being ironic or something.’
‘You saying I’m not cool?’ said Clancy.
‘Clance, I’m not saying that, I just meant you were using the word sweetheart in an old lady type of way.’
‘I’m using it in its technical form,’ argued Clancy. ‘It’s technically correct.’
‘Yeah, if you’re listening to Chime Radio or something… Talking of which, did you happen to tune in lately?’ said Ruby.
Clancy looked at her like she had lost at least one or two brain cells. ‘What? Are you crazy? Do I look like I’m a senior citizen?’
‘It happens to play some great numbers,’ said Ruby. ‘For anyone with an eclectic taste in music – I rate it.’
‘Yeah, I agree actually, but not in the afternoon. The afternoon show is super lame – cheesy beyond cheese puffs.’
‘OK, I’ll give you that, but I wasn’t asking if you had “listened”, I asked you if you had happened to tune in; they’re two different things.’
‘How dya mean?’ asked Clancy.
‘OK, so a few days running this weird thing has been happening where Chime broadcasts tunes that aren’t tunes.’
‘What? I don’t get it,’ said Clancy, scrunching his face up like he had just eaten a bad snail or something.
This always got on Ruby’s nerves: trying to explain something when someone was looking at you like this was off-putting. ‘Quit making the face, would ya?’ said Ruby.
‘Sorry,’ said Clancy. ‘I don’t do it on purpose; it’s just how my face goes.’
Ruby continued. ‘I mean the music is untuneful, as in very un-Chime-like, sorta avant-garde – like music but super modern,’ she said.
‘Has anybody been complaining about it?’ said Clancy.
‘They apologised on the show and Talk Radio said it might be due to asteroid interference.’
‘So maybe that’s it,’ said Clancy. ‘Maybe it’s just some old asteroid.’
Ruby didn’t say anything, but Clancy recognised the look in her eye. ‘What are you thinking it is?’ he asked.
Ruby sighed. ‘I’m thinking there are a lot of strange things all going on at once and it’s hard to imagine they aren’t all connected in some way.’
They were deep into this animated discussion when Red and Del showed up. They slid into the seats next to Clancy and Ruby.
‘So Coach is pretty over the moon,’ said Del. ‘Says he hasn’t had so many great swimmers all in one grade for at least a decade. He can see big opportunities for the Twinford swim team – wants to make sure old Cr
ew here joins up, says he’s a great ocean swimmer, which means he wants you coming to swim practice. You ready for that Crew?’
Clancy put his head in his hands.
‘What’s the matter with him?’ asked Del.
‘He’s just feeling lucky to be alive,’ said Ruby.
‘And this is how he expresses it?’ said Del.
‘You mean something happened out there?’ asked Red.
But Clancy didn’t want to talk about it.
‘He thinks there’s something out in Twinford Bay that might nibble him,’ said Del.
‘You know what?’ said Red. ‘I think he might be right. I heard something when I was swimming. Something not normal.’
‘How could you?’ said Ruby. ‘You were wearing earplugs.’
‘Well, that’s the thing,’ said Red. ‘I lost them.’
Ruby wasn’t surprised to hear that; Red lost things a lot. She was a dropper, a breaker and a loser of stuff.
‘When I was almost out to the buoy,’ said Red, ‘I heard this kind of singing.’
Ruby sat up. ‘Really? What do you think it was?’
‘Could have been a mermaid or something. It was kind of sad-sounding,’ said Red.
‘Oh geez!’ said Del. ‘Trust you to believe in mermaids.’
‘I’m not saying it was one,’ said Red. ‘I’m saying it coulda been one, if there were mermaids I mean. I’m not saying there are, but if there were.’
‘There aren’t,’ said Del. ‘Not even slightly, you can take my word for it.’ Ruby agreed with Del on this point. Red’s mermaid theory was unlikely, but it was kind of strange that she claimed to have heard a voice in the ocean. Ruby was thinking back to Agent Kekoa’s briefing – the strange sounds people had been hearing in the bay. Could Red have heard the same thing?
Clancy was feeling a little cheered by this conversation; he didn’t mind talking about mermaids because, as far as he understood it, all they did was sit about brushing their hair – they weren’t particularly threatening as sea creatures went, and what’s more they didn’t exist so it wasn’t really something he had to worry about.
‘Hey you guys, I’ve been looking all over for you!’ said Elliot, spotting them at their table. ‘Dya wanna come to my place late afternoon? We’re having a barbeque – Mouse’ll be there.’
Clancy looked at him warily. ‘Seafood?’ he asked.
‘Burgers,’ said Elliot.
‘Sure,’ smiled Clancy. ‘That would be great.’
However, it turned out not to be so great because Elliot’s mother’s friend, Tilly Matthews, dropped by to update the world and his wife on the latest rumour going around Twinford. Tilly Matthews had a lot of time on her hands and most of it was spent telling folks other folks’ business; this time though she had some real news.
‘Apparently, fourteen-foot sharks have been spotted moving along Twinford Bay, and not one or two either, a whole batch of them.’
Ruby was considering correcting Tilly on the collective for sharks, but was interrupted by the clattering of Clancy’s salad fork as it fell from his hand onto his plate.
‘Are you OK sweetie-pie?’ asked Elliot’s mom. ‘You look like you might actually faint.’
‘To tell you the truth Mrs Finch, I don’t feel so good,’ replied Clancy earnestly.
His imagination had instantly supplied him with an image of him being swiftly devoured by a fourteen-foot-long shark, and he couldn’t think of anything a whole lot worse than being eaten by a fourteen-foot shark. Perhaps being eaten by a whole batch of fourteen-foot sharks would be worse, but it was marginal.
‘Would you mind if I called a cab and went on home?’ he asked.
‘Well, now I’m really worried Clancy. Do you want to lie down?’ asked Mrs Finch.
‘No, I’ll be fine,’ said Clancy. Promptly fainting.
Chapter 17.
Something fearsome this way comes
WHEN RUBY WOKE UP THE NEXT MORNING, she called Clancy right away, but he wasn’t answering his phone. In the end she had to call the main line and ask Drusilla the housekeeper to get him to pick up.
‘Hello,’ came a weak voice from the end of the line.
‘Clance? What are you doing?’ demanded Ruby.
‘I feel lousy,’ said Clancy. ‘Real sick.’
‘You’re not sick, you’re just freaked out. Yikes Clance,’ she said. ‘I mean I knew you were shark phobic, but I didn’t think that just talking about them could actually be terminal.’
‘That’s not it,’ said Clancy. ‘It’s just I knew I shouldn’t swim in the ocean. Now, it turns out I was right. I came this close to actual death.’
Ruby of course didn’t see it this way. To her it just went to prove what she had always known, that sharks were not man’s predators. She had read countless books on the subject and no one worth their marine biologist salt thought sharks were out to eat people.
‘You’re OK Clancy,’ she said. ‘Stop freaking out.’
‘I’m sick,’ insisted Clancy. ‘Super sick.’
Ruby sighed. ‘I’m coming over.’
She went downstairs and found Mrs Digby sitting talking to Hitch – unusual only because Mrs Digby rarely sat down. She usually drank her morning beverage while vacuuming, but this was a Sunday – a day on which she allowed herself a little luxury. She was poring over the papers as she swigged a cup of strong-looking tea that had been stewing in a large silver teapot, the sort of teapot a dormouse might live in. Mrs Digby was discussing with Hitch the gossip that made up every local news headline that day.
SHARKS SPOTTED IN TWINFORD BAY
SWIMATHON KIDS SWIM FOR THEIR LIVES
MARINE LIFE OUT OF CONTROL
MONSTERS ON THE LOOSE
PANIC!
The Twinford Mirror went on to say: Local fisherman very fortunate not to drown when a pod of dolphins rocked him out of his boat yesterday evening.
‘I thought dolphins were meant to be man’s best friend,’ said Mrs Digby.
‘No, that’s dogs,’ said Ruby.
‘Well, I never heard of dolphins trying to drown folks. What in high heaven is going on for Jiminy’s sake?’ Mrs Digby asked the papers.
‘Well may you ask,’ said Hitch. ‘It says here that three fishermen sent out distress signals, but no one registered their alert.’
Ruby made a mental note to add these latest events to her sheet of paper – she was going to have to extend it. But not right now – right now, she had to go buck up Clancy.
She fetched her bike and rode over to the Crew home. The front door was opened by Drusilla, who informed Ruby that Clancy was feeling ‘under the weather’.
‘If you can get him out of that bed, I’ll give you a medal,’ Drusilla added.
‘I’ll give it my best shot!’ called Ruby, running up the three flights of stairs that led to Clancy’s room.
She opened the door.
Clancy raised his head from the pillow. ‘Rube, that you?’
‘Give me a break Clance and quit the feeble routine, would you – you didn’t get attacked by fish yesterday and there’s no chance of it happening while you’re lying in bed.’
‘I don’t feel so good, you know,’ said Clancy. ‘I think I’m going to stay here. I need to recuperate.’
They argued for seventeen minutes before Ruby threw in the towel.
She wasn’t about to waste her entire Sunday sitting at Clancy’s bedside listening to total horse manure; instead she would check out what Del was up to.
It was late Sunday afternoon and Ruby had been playing Del Lasco at table tennis for more than a few hours. They had come out even, winning seventeen games each. By the time she climbed on her bike, Ruby was flat-out tired and finding it a struggle to turn the pedals, but as she reached the corner of Amster, she saw the stranger again; he was getting into a car. Maybe it was time to turn the tables, tail him for a change, see how he liked it.
The car’s engine started, and the car pulled out from the kerb
and drove north up Bleaker. Her heart was beating pretty fast and adrenalin pumped through her.
What do I do when I catch him?
But this wasn’t going to be a question she needed an answer for.
Ruby kept up OK until he turned into Flower, which was a pretty steep hill, one of the steepest in Twinford – her legs, after thirty-four games of ping-pong, were never going to chase a car up a hill, and as the gap between them grew, she accepted defeat and freewheeled back down, gliding on home to Cedarwood Drive.
On Monday, while Ruby was cleaning her teeth, she switched on the radio, turning the dial until she reached Twinford Talk Radio. There was a jingle playing, some commercial about the benefits of eating cereal with raisins in if you wanted to have a productive day at school. Ruby couldn’t see it herself; she had always felt that raisins had no business being in breakfast cereal. Who wants to eat a shrivelled grape floating in milk?
The commercials over, the voice of Greg Witney, the TTR anchorman, came back on the air.
‘SO SHELLY, WHAT DO YOU THINK HAPPENED TO THESE GREAT OCEAN PREDATORS?’‘IT’S HARD TO DRAW ANY FIRM CONCLUSIONS GREG, BUT THEY DO SEEM TO HAVE BEEN SAVAGELY ATTACKED BY SOME OTHER PREDATOR. JUDGING BY THE STATE OF THEM, CERTAINLY SOMETHING FEARSOME.’‘BUT JUST WHAT CREATURE COULD TAKE ON A TIGER SHARK – IT DOESN’T BEAR THINKING ABOUT, HUH SHELLY?’
‘IT CERTAINLY DOESN’T GREG, TWINFORD FOLK MIGHT WANT TO KEEP OUT OF THE WATER UNTIL THIS VERY STRANGE MYSTERY IS SOLVED. NOW BACK TO YOU.’
Jeepers. Clancy is never going to get out of bed again.
Ruby got dressed: today’s T-shirt kept its insult short and simply said bozo. She stamped her feet into her well-worn Yellow Stripe sneakers and skittered downstairs.
Hitch was sitting at the kitchen table, polishing some silverware and looking for all the world like an actual butler.
‘I think you may be getting too into your cover story,’ said Ruby, her nose in the refrigerator, searching for the juice.
Hitch shrugged. ‘Mrs Digby runs a tight ship.’