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
you dinner The cabin was cold and Gran built a fire in the stove They ate toast and eggs at the table by the window but Becca couldn’t even see the bay Only her own reflection moved in the darkness as if night were a wall that shut out the beach the sea and all the islands and mountains across the water It’s misting up Gran said when she came back from the woodpile Becca fiddled with the little bottle that held the pearls Gran had collected over the years Mum had pearls too a necklace that she wore when she and Dad went out somewhere fancy Mum’s pearls were perfectly round and elegant and party-like They made Becca think of beautiful clothes and perfume Gran’s pearls were small as blackberry seeds nobbly and misshapen They came straight from oysters Gran had found on the beach and they made Becca think of wet shoes and the sea and the mysterious things that go on inside oysters But Mum’s pearls and Gran’s had one thing in common each one glistened with a moony shine What do you do in the dark she asked Gran Now that you’re here play Scrabble Becca set out the Scrabble They played furiously Outside fog left its prints on the window and the sounds of the sea hushed and receded You can’t do poutine Gran said It’s not English Not permitted Well there’s no word that means poutine in English Becca argued so I’m allowed to use it Poutine is poutine And look It means I can use all my letters And I can turn ax into axe on a triple
word score You can’t use words that aren’t English Gran insisted And anyway you can say poutine in ordinary English chips and cheese curds and gravy It’s just not one word It’s in the Scrabble dictionary said Becca We looked it up once trip The Scrabble dictionary Gran snorted In the good old days we just used our brains That’s how I play and that’s the rule at my house English words and use your own brain Becca saw another word she could make somewhere else Pouting she spelled staring down at the board Maybe this visit was going to be worse than she’d thought Gran went on to win by about a million points See Even if you’d got a bonus for using all your letters I would have won she said Becca packed up the game without saying a word Well it’s time to go Gran announced They were going out It was coal-dark by now and cold too Go where To get oysters Get your boots on Becca Gran threw the oyster shuckers and old oven mitts into her backpack In the dark Yep A nasty Scrabble game and now Gran was taking her out into the woods in the dark and fog It reminded Becca of a creepy fairy tale she’d read once Hold my hand said Gran’s voice in the dark You don’t want to
