BECCA AT SEA DEIRDRE BAKER GROUNDWOOD BOOKS HOUSE OF ANANSI PRESS TORONTO BERKELEY
for Bob Gibbs sine quo non
1 Seventeen Pearls COME Becca said Gran Just a minute Rebecca said She waved to her parents as the ferry chugged across the channel taking them away to Tribune Island then Vancouver Island then Vancouver and then to the trip in Europe Becca it’s time to come Gran said Not that Becca minded It was just that she’d never stayed with Gran in February before and with Mum and Dad so far away And missing school That was strange too And no aunts around to make life interesting or uncles No cousins Well that might be a good thing No friends But she was used to that on Gran’s island where all the kids were either teenagers or babies I have to feed the cat Gran said Becca wasn’t afraid but she was used to summer She was used to having neighbors on the beach and Dad and the aunts keeping Gran busy with arguments that were sometimes cheerful and sometimes not and long light evenings when she and Mum went fishing casting off the point even though trolling in a boat was really the way to catch salmon She was used to long drawn-out sunsets when she sneaked up to the allotment gardens and Kay from next door fed her sweet carrots pulled straight from the earth But now it was already dim when they arrived at the cabin and it was hardly dinnertime Come on Frank Gran called to the cat Becca’s going to give
