about a shipwreck It was called The Tempest Becca thought it was joyless of Jane to mention shipwreck when it was the first voyage of summer and the first time she and Jane were allowed to go to sea without an adult Shipwreck would wreck not just Gull but everything all their plans for sailing around the island if only they could get permission I phoned Dugald this morning Uncle Mac corrected Jane Her great-uncle Dugald Macallan was a local weatherman and it was often his voice that they heard on the recorded weather announcement And it must have been a substitute Dugald she added because Uncle Mac’s here He’s talking to Merlin about waterworks Becca said It was Gran who called it waterworks But it was just plumbing which is what Merlin did when he wasn’t in a boat or fighting fires or arguing with Aunt Fifi if she happened to be visiting Gran Well said Jane What did substitute Dugald say Boring Northwest winds ten to fifteen knots Diminishing to five to ten knots Dugald had added That was hardly any wind at all They’d be lucky to get anywhere Why don’t you let me have a go asked Jane Maybe something interesting will happen Something interesting is just what Gran had told Becca she didn’t want to happen when she gave Becca permission to sail Gull out of the bay Gran was remembering something Mum and Auntie Clare had done a long time ago and said she wasn’t going to go through that again and neither were the neighbors You’re the skipper Gran had said You have to take responsibility for all decisions or you’ll lose your job So put that in your pipe and smoke it
But Becca couldn’t see what could go wrong on a day as quiet as this Jane was fine at sailing if you could call it that with the sail hanging so limp Gull slowed to a pace so listless that Becca almost fell asleep Far in the hot sunny distance she could see someone trudging across the seaweedy beach to Seal Rock Look she said Someone’s going to beat us there You could only walk to Seal Rock at the lowest of low tides Humans didn’t go there usually but today the tide was almost as far out as it ever got The seals would be bothered and swim away Becca thought with a human poking around Gull isn’t even a gumboot said Jane More like a geographical feature said Becca remembering certain books she had read Like a lump or a boulder or an ancient Viking ship fossilized with the remains of a noble warrior because Vikings loved to fight and then get buried in their ships in a hill Gull crept onwards A geological pace said Becca That’s what Aunt Fifi would say She’d hate this She likes to move fast But they were getting there Now Becca could see Seal Rock’s special boulder the one that looked like a tortoise from some angles And there was a bump on it so maybe there were still seals there The tide’s turned she said She could feel the change in the sea’s flow Such as it was She hung over the gunwales She saw red and purple sea urchins
waving their spines She saw sea cucumbers sluggish on the sea’s floor and sun stars bright as sunset and rosy as dawn tiptoeing this way and that on their many legs and hundreds of tiny sucker-feet The sun stars were moving faster than Gull We’re there Jane said at last That was after they had drunk their ginger beer and Jane had laughed some of hers out her nose and they had eaten most of Gran’s scary cheese-and-onion sandwiches It was after the tide had made Seal Rock back into an island They pulled Gull up and walked around the islet trying not to pay attention to the person on tortoise rock For it was a person not a seal they could see now that they were there But there were no seals Not one They were here though said Jane There were fishy remains everywhere and clumps of old fur all brown and tufty There was gray crumbly stuff too that Becca didn’t want to know too much about I think this is where seal babies hang out Jane said Look at this hunk of fur Oh said Jane It still has skin on it Even the air is nourishing Becca said She thought it must be at least as good for you as those awful fish-oil capsules they sold in vitamin stores If you can stand it Take your hand off your nose I can’t understand you said Becca person there sat up There was a snorty croaking noise from tortoise rock and the
It’s just seal and sea-lion leavings he said Old meals and a little poop Merlin Becca exclaimed What are you doing here I thought you were talking with Uncle Mac said Jane I was said Merlin And then I went for a walk Did you come here to talk to the seals asked Jane I came to be alone How can you be alone asked Becca Don’t you have a pager or something I turned it off Merlin said A person needs a little peace now and then He closed his eyes Feel free to ignore me Becca and Jane went on exploring Look A seal tooth Jane exclaimed I didn’t know seals lost their teeth Becca said Is there a tooth I can’t sleep with you girls clonking about Merlin declared fairy for seals sitting up again Come help us finish our sandwiches said Becca They sat against lumpy tortoise rock Who made these Merlin asked when his eyes had stopped running with onion tears They’re very aggressive sandwiches Gran said Becca She calls these onions sweet and says they taste like apples Apples Merlin blew more onion tears out his nose What time is it he suddenly asked I’d better be going But you can’t Becca said For the sea had been coming in quickly and serenely creeping up the shore Already it felt like Seal Rock was shrinking sinking quietly into the strait perhaps preparing to become the seals
