Kira's Secret (3 page)

Chapter Four—
Babbling Bill

From where their house was perched on the hillside, Kira had a clear view of the fishing wharf below. She'd been watching on and off all morning using the antique spyglass that had belonged to her father's granddad, Commodore Gerald Cox. It was made of brass and wood and glass, a foot-long cylinder with an eyepiece the same size as Kira's iris. She held it up close to her left eye, squinting with the right. By twisting the far end of the cylinder she could focus wherever she wanted, from the far-off horizon to the nearby shore. Today, the wharf was her point of interest.

She waited until all the fishing boats had left for the day's outing. Only one body remained on the wharf, perched on an old lobster trap where he'd been sitting all morning: Babbling Bill.

Kira steeled herself, resolving to be brave. She stepped into her boots and aimed herself down the path to the wharf, determined to interview old Bill. She had only ever spoken a few words to him, though he'd been around as long as she could remember. She used to think he was as ancient as the weather-worn wharf, or older. He frightened her with his scratchy, growly voice, and his bushy beard and white eyebrows that nearly hid his squinting eyes. She had no idea what colour they were. Kira would never stare at him, or draw attention to herself, but he always wanted to chat and she would only mumble back shyly. She was relieved when he disappeared for several months, though the wharf seemed oddly quiet without Babbling Bill and his chatter.

His back was turned to her as Kira stepped onto the wharf. She heard the soft squeaks of his fiddle warming up for a tune. He hadn't spotted her yet, she thought, so she decided to stop and wait. She was nervous, clutching her hands together like she did at church on Sundays, trying not to annoy her parents with her fidgeting.

After the first few strains on the fiddle, his foot tapping on the wharf, Babbling Bill broke into song.

“Ahhh, the Mary Margaret Delaney
Went out to sea one day
A lovely day, a large day
With nary a cloud in the sky, nay,
Nary a cloud in the sky.

“Ahhh, four young lads were aboard
To fish the seas that day
That lovely day, that large day
With nary a cloud in the sky, nay,
Nary a cloud in the sky.

“Ahhh, there were no fish to be found
Though long they searched that day
A lovely day, a large day
Nary a fish to be found, nay
No fish to be found anywhere.

“Ahhh, but the boys were hunted and found
By the razor legs of the deep
On that fateful day, that awful day
They were found by monsters, yeah
Hunting for souls to keep.”

 

He stopped and whipped his hairy grey head around, squinting straight at Kira. She gasped, terrified.

“Aha!” he shouted. “D'ya like me song, lass?” He pointed his fiddle bow at her.

Kira barely nodded her head and tried to smile. She was struck dumb, could not speak a word if her life depended on it. All alone on the wharf with a crazy old man. She wondered if she should turn and run.

“I wrote it meself,” he said. “True story, every word. You're Cillian's girl, aren't ya?”

Kira nodded again, and wondered why her feet wouldn't move. She remembered a story of the medusa with snakes for hair, who would turn you to stone if you ever looked at her face. Bill's hair was wiry and wild and snakelike, she thought, shivering.

Kira felt vibrations on the wharf and then she heard the footsteps. Before she could turn to see who was coming, Bill spoke. “Ho there, young Cody!” he greeted the boy who now stood beside Kira.

“Hey, Cody,” she said, glad to see him.

“Ho, Bill, hey, Kira,” Cody said, holding up his palm as Bill slapped it in greeting with his own.

“Ah, yes, young Kira. Nice to see you again, lass.” Babbling Bill gave her a wide grin, and she could see his yellow teeth were all there but for one near the middle.

“Um, hello, Bill,” she said, feeling silly and shy.

“Pull up a crate or a trap and set a spell if ya like.” Bill pointed to several empty crates at one side of the wharf.

Cody and Kira each grabbed a crate and sat in front of Bill.

“Do you have a name for the tune?” Cody asked.

“Nothin's come to me yet, lad. I had a lot of time to think on it, while I lay in that bed. But they kept me groggy with pills and such. Still a wee bit fuzzy. It'll come when it's ready to. The Muse takes her time to strike. Mm hmm.”

Bill picked up his bow and began to play a lively tune. Cody tapped his feet in time to the music, but Kira felt awkward, like she had barged in on a party. The tune was a popular sea shanty often played at kitchen parties and the Fishing Fleet Festival. Cody grinned and began to drum with his hands, slapping his knees. Kira found herself staring at Bill's fake foot which remained still, hidden inside the black-and-yellow fishermen's boots he always wore.

When Bill finished, Cody and Kira clapped. Bill bowed his head and smiled. “Now, children,” he said as he laid the fiddle and bow on the ground, “would ye like to hear a story?”

Kira sat up straighter. This was her chance. Without thinking, she blurted, “Are selkies for real?”

Cody snickered.

“Ah, son, don't ye laugh. The lass asks a good question. Many people don't believe in 'em. They need proof, science like, for everything. But some things are hard to prove. Selkies is one of 'em.”

“Sooo,” Cody began, drawing out the word, “you think they exist?”

Kira wanted to disappear right then. She hated the tone in Cody's voice, and was sure he would tease her and maybe even tell the other kids at school how childish and naïve she was. He was the ultimate science guy. Why did he have to show up when he did?

“Cody, me son, I knows they exist. I seen 'em with me own eyes, I did. 'Twas one night on a beach at Cooper's Cove, down the shore. Me mate, Eddy Quinn, and me were takin' a walk after a late supper and saw a bonfire on the beach. So, we thought we'd have a look and came closer. We noticed 'twas a bunch of ladies dancing round a fire. We crept up, quiet like so's not to frighten them, noticed they weren't wearin' much. Figured their clothes were the piles of stuff behind 'em on the sand.” Bill cleared his throat and looked away. Kira blushed, remembering the drawing in her book of folk tales.

“Anyways, old Eddy, he steps on a twig, it snaps, and the ladies break their circle and jump into those piles of clothes. But what do ya know, the clothes are sealskins, and each lady turns into a flesh-and-blood seal and slithers down the sand and into the water!” Bill slapped his thighs, making Cody and Kira jump a little.

“Well, I takes a close gander at the water's edge, but they're gone, disappeared into the sea. And when I turns around, Eddy's not to be seen, neither. Spooked he was, ran off. But I know what I seen that night. Selkies!”

“So where's Eddy now?” Cody asked.

Bill pulled on his scraggly white beard and squinted tightly. “Ah, poor fella. Drowned at sea long ago, along with the whole crew. Sorry, ya can't ask him about the selkies. We was both surprised, or we'd a grabbed a skin each and had us a wife. Mind, this was before I married my Maggie.”

“Hey, Bill! You telling tall tales again?” A scrawny young man in overalls had come up behind them. “Don't believe a word he says, kids!” he laughed. “C'mon Bill, it's chowder for lunch, you don't want to be missin' that.” Still chuckling, the man turned and walked back down the wharf.

Bill shook his head, then bent to pick up his bow and fiddle. He beckoned at Kira and Cody to lean in closer. He whispered in his hoarse voice, “I'll wager there's more than one selkie wife in this village, and others up and down the shore. Not only that, I happen to know there's merrows, too.”

Kira sat up straight again. “You mean mermaids and mermen?” She'd also read about them in her book of Irish folk tales.

“Shush,” he said, holding a finger over his whiskery mouth. “Not too loud now. None of 'em wants to be found out. They're private and they're proud.”

Cody threw his hands up in the air. “Oh, c'mon. If they're for real, give us some names.”

Bill stood up and shook his head again. “I can't do that. It'd bring bad luck. I already lost one foot.”

“Why? Because you told on a mermaid?” Cody smiled and looked at Kira with raised eyebrows. He was not buying Bill's story.

“Because I said somethin' I shouldn't have. We do a lot of foolish things when we're young. We think we know everything. We don't. And you don't neither, laddie, none of us do.” He began to shuffle down the wharf toward the village centre. “I must be off now—don't want to be late for Mrs. Mason's famous fish chowder.”

Kira and Cody watched him walk, rocking from side to side until he was off the wharf.

“Maybe it was bad luck, but I don't think it was because of something he said or did,” Cody said. “Bill told me how he lost his foot, you know.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah, they were fishing squid for bait, just the regular small ones, but they hauled up this really gigantic one by mistake, and it latched on to Bill's foot. Just chomped on with all those claws and teeth in its mouth and wouldn't let go. The other fishermen had to saw the squid off his foot, but it was fighting hard and they all got cut up before they freed Bill. His foot was all mashed up and shredded. Then it got infected, and they had to amputate before it spread to his leg.”

Kira wrinkled her nose and shuddered. She could picture the fight, and wondered that he had even survived.

“And another time he told me that they'd see the giant squid sometimes when they ran into a sudden fog. As if a cold wet cloud just fell out of the sky and swallowed them, like Jonah and the whale. Yup, those were his words. Odd fellow, that Bill,” Cody muttered and shook his head. “My dad says he's senile, and he's mixing up real events with fairy tales from when he was a kid. You never know what to believe when he gets going.”

Kira said nothing. She was more confused than before. She decided she'd have to return to the library and do more reading. About squid, and seals. The merrows she'd leave to her crazy dreams. It appeared that Babbling Bill's dream world had merged with his real life, past and present. A shame, she thought, but there was probably no more to learn from him.

Chapter Five—
Stormy Seas

For the next two weeks, Kira remained in or near the house, doing all her chores faithfully and efficiently. She usually finished just before lunch, and spent the remainder of her day reading books from the library. She was trying to learn everything she could about seal life cycles, biology, and ecology. On one of her trips to the library, Kira was surprised to discover that Cody had checked out two of the books she was looking for. Mrs. Doyle peered down at her with her huge eyes and said, “You two must be preparing for a school project on marine life. I'm impressed. It's the middle of July!”

Kira only nodded her head. She didn't feel like trying to explain her own interest in the subject. As for Cody, she found it odd that a science geek was also checking out fairy tales and folk legends. Maybe he was looking for evidence that selkies might be more than myth and fantasy. Or maybe he found it all a big joke.

Besides learning new facts about the feeding habits and different varieties of seals and dolphins, the books increased Kira's longing to be back on the beach. She yearned for the feel of silky saltwater on her skin again. Most days she saw Cody wander by, heading for the tide pools, she supposed. Each day she grew more restless and resentful that she was not free to go where she wished. She began to think more about her dream, and visions of Paradise Pond flooded her brain. She couldn't possibly drown in a small puddle of water that only went up to her knees. Her parents were being over-protective, worrying about something that could never happen.

Kira had to see the tide pools again. She convinced herself that her parents were being selfish and just wanted to keep her as a housework slave. “Maybe that's why they adopted me,” she thought, feeling more and more sorry for herself.

Kira made a plan. If she was careful about the time, she could slip away right after lunch. Chances were good that her parents would never know. And if they found out? She would simply have to deal with the consequences.

Kira began to sneak out for an hour every other day. She became skilled at spotting movement at a distance and avoiding detection. The only people she ever saw out on the rocks besides Cody were occasional tourists. She would disappear behind the rocks and trees until they had passed by, or went in a different direction. Then she would look for new tide pools, and hang over them, dipping her hands in the water, staring at the webs that appeared between her fingers.

The webbing effect no longer frightened her, but was a source of wonder as she brushed her hands softly over the sand dollars and snails. Other times she passed them quickly over the sandy bottom to create muddy clouds in their wake. Kira pinched the webbing between her fingers but there was very little sensation, no matter how hard she squeezed. Her fingertips told her the webbing was real, though it felt tougher than her skin elsewhere. Each time she withdrew her hands from the saltwater they reappeared as normal fingers and thumbs, the webbing gone.

Kira often thought about Cody, and how they shared a fascination with the sea. She wished she could talk to him again, but she felt awkward approaching him. He knew there was something different about her, but until she figured out what was going on she didn't want to discuss it. What if he told someone else? Kids at school would make fun of her for sure. They already found her odd, maybe because of how her parents treated her. Maybe because she was a loner.

By the middle of August, Kira had developed a pattern of visiting the tide pools every day. She went out in all types of weather, rain or sunshine, calm days or windy. On stormy days, the character of the pools changed. All the plants and animals seemed agitated below the surface. Even the colours were angry shades of purple and ochre and red. But when she dipped her hands into the water she felt calm, and whenever her hands were still, the movement around them slowed.

On one such day, she watched a group of four people climb out of a car, whooping and shouting as they ran toward the edge of the surf. The waves were wild and high, whipped up by the strong winds. Signs posted along the beaches warned people to stay away on exactly this type of day.

From the tree line, Kira could see them run toward the water, then dash back again as the waves crashed on the rocks just behind them. They were urging each other to get closer. Crazy show-offs, she thought. Kira recognized them as boys from the village high school.

She was about to slip back into the trees and farther down the shore when she heard a loud yell. Then, more frantic, louder shouts.

“Gary! Where's Gary? He's gone!”

“Gary, stop fooling around! Where are you?”

Kira looked back. There were only three boys now, popping up and down on the rocks, running back and forth. One of them must have fallen in. Been swept away.

Kira climbed up on a boulder, and scanned the beach. There was no one else nearby, no one who would hear them in time. Without thinking, she leaped over the rocks and ran toward the boys. Then she stood next to them, peering into the dark, frothing water, feeling the spray on her face, the push of the wind on her body.

“He's gone!” one of the boys shrieked at her. “What are we going to do?” One of the other boys was punching keys on his cell phone.

Without another thought, Kira kicked off her boots, tore off her rain jacket and glasses, and dove into the angry, roiling surf. As she slid into the cold water she suddenly realized the insanity of her action. She felt herself sucked down by a current, deep into murky darkness. She was going to drown, she thought, along with the boy who was probably in the middle of the Atlantic by now. She expected to be numbed by the cold, but was surprised to feel warmth spreading through her body. She felt calm. Was she drowning? Had she already drowned?

Kira found herself sitting on a bed of kelp, gently tugged and pushed by the water around her. Like a massage, she thought, though she'd never actually had a massage before. She tried to stand up and found that she rose quickly off the bottom. Looking down, she saw that her legs had been replaced with a long, V-shaped tail undulating and propelling her through the water.

She had to be dreaming again. She was back in the tide pool. How odd, though, she didn't remember going to sleep. Kira decided to enjoy this dream, and not to worry about sea monsters or giant, drooling dogs. She shot through the water, taking in all the details. She smiled at the silvery fish flashing by, all a normal size as far as she could tell. Good, no more
Alice in Wonderland
, she thought. As she gazed down below, she noticed a doll on the bottom of the sea floor, and laughed to herself. What was a toy doing in a tide pool?

With little effort, Kira zipped down to examine the toy, and realized as she approached that it was a much larger object than she had first thought. Oh dear, was she changing size again? She was beginning to get annoyed with this particular dream.

As she swept over the figure lying on the bottom, she realized with horror that it was a boy. A human boy, not a doll. Kira grabbed his shoulders and shook the boy, but he flopped like a raggedy Ann. He was larger and heavier than she was. He had to be the boy who had just fallen in! She was not in a tide pool, this was no dream.

Kira gripped him under his arms and flapped her tail as hard as she could. They began to rise, slowly at first, then faster. Kira pushed with all her strength and could see they were fast approaching the surface. With the light coming from above, she could make out the spot ahead where the surf was breaking. She could see three boys scurrying back and forth, waving their arms. She could hear their faint cries over the roar of the surf.

Kira wanted to bring this boy back up quickly, but she did not want to be seen in her condition—a human with a fish tail! She slipped sideways around a rock outcropping and with a final shove pushed the boy out of the water and onto the beach. She took in a deep breath and shouted, “He's over here! Hurry!”

Kira sank back underwater with her hands holding the boys legs so he wouldn't slip back in. Within seconds the three boys had run around the rock and hauled their friend to safety. Still hiding beneath the waves, Kira swam around to the other side of the rock where she had first dived in. She hauled herself out of the water with a thrust of her tail, and landed, panting, next to her clothing. She looked down at herself fearfully. No more tail, just her own two legs wrapped in soggy jeans. Kira pulled on her boots, jacket, and glasses then crept around the corner.

The boys took turns pumping their friend's chest, shouting encouragement. She couldn't believe he might still be alive—it had taken so long to get him out. Or had it only been minutes?

“He's breathing! He's alive!” they cheered and gave each other high fives. He sat up, gagging, and they slapped his back.

Kira heard sirens in the distance. She kept low and scurried over the rocks and into the trees, hoping they hadn't spotted her as she ran back home. Otherwise she'd have a lot of explaining to do, and she had no explanations to give