The Blue Seal of Trinity Cove (8 page)

The little girl stayed with her new family. The Shaman wove her magic on the little girl as well and they all became a group of trees standing together and holding each other's hands with their knobbly and knotted branches. They had a lot of time where they could shapeshift into their human form and stay that way because they lived close to the gorge and white men didn't go there much. But when the white men did come they would go back into their tree form. The little girl, who was called Wanda – because of the fact that she had wandered into their group one day – came to love her new family and home very much. She grew up only knowing the ways of her people and didn't recognise that she was different from them. She knew her skin was lighter but still felt she was a part of their tribe. All of the other children loved her as well and they played happily together when they saw each other. She became very close to the son of the chief, whose name was Insa. As they came into their young adulthood it was clear that the two of them would be husband and wife. Both Wanda and Insa were very happy about this. They each pictured themselves being with the other until the day they died. All of the tribe thought it a perfect match. But then Wanda started to have terrifying nightmares. In her dreams she would see all of her tribe being murdered by the white people. She saw them being stabbed and shot and even strangled to death, which was disturbing for her because up until now she had never known that such acts existed, her tribe being a peace-loving tribe. And she saw the women and children of her tribe being cruelly treated and tortured, just for the fun of it. In the dreams, the white people knew of the magic the Shaman had used to shapeshift the tribe into trees and every single one was taken down at the roots and burned in massive bonfires all across the land. As the trees burned they turned back into the bodies of her people and so were burned to death, with nothing of them remaining except a handful of ashes. As the days went on and the nightmares increased in intensity, Wanda realised that the people responsible for this massacre – even though she had never actually seen them in her life before, only heard of them from her people – were people just like her with white skin. They had strange customs and wore unusual clothes that covered them from neck to toe.

She went to the Shaman and spoke of her dreams and her concern that the dreams might be premonitions. Often, over the years, she had talked to the Shaman about the Shaman's ability to see into the future. Wanda knew that this was one of the reasons the Shaman held so much power. She
always
knew what was coming up and the people of the tribe respected her for this talent, and relied on her to guide them with all of the decisions they had to make at all times. But this day, when Wanda needed her advice more than ever, the Shaman simply said that they were annoying dreams that meant nothing and to ignore them. Pre-wedding jitters was the explanation. Wanda wasn't convinced but the more she pressed the Shaman, the more irritable the Shaman became and then she stopped talking altogether and asked Wanda to leave.

Wanda walked away from the Shaman's hut even more confused than when she had arrived there. Not only because the Shaman had reacted in an uncaring way about her dreams, but also because Wanda noticed something else about the Shaman too. There was a certain look in her eye and tone to her voice that Wanda had never seen before. But she couldn't recognise what it was. The Shaman acted as if she wasn't worried about the dreams and what they meant, but she was hiding something; intuitively Wanda knew this for sure. She decided to take matters into her own hands.

It wasn't long before the Shaman would come to deeply regret her decision to ignore the girl.

W
anda thought that if she could go to the white man's town and dress in the way of the white girls and learn to speak their language, then she would be able to go and talk to the person in charge of the white people, their chief. She would tell him that her people were good people and that there should be peace between them. She would say that her people only wanted to have a little bit of the land and to have a simple life. This is what Wanda thought she would say to the chief. She thought he would listen to her because she had the same coloured skin as him. She thought she could change the course of history.

When she arrived in the town, Wanda realised there was a flaw in her plan. She had no money to buy the clothes. Her only option would be to steal some clothes from the local general store. She crept into the store without anyone seeing and then made her way to the back of the store, hiding behind boxes and racks. She found a frilly, lacy, blue dress that had been left hanging in a change room and slipped it on. She stayed out of sight and listened very carefully to all of the conversations of the customers and the shopkeeper, hoping to learn some of the language.

“Good day, Mrs McClarrin,”

“Good day, Mrs Parkins,”

“Fine weather, we're having today.”

“Yes, indeed. A drop of rain wouldn't hurt though.”

“I agree, it shouldn't be long now. How are you today?”

“Well, I shouldn't complain because there are a lot of people worse off than me, but the bunions on my feet are playing up something dreadful lately. And I said to my Alfie last night, I said, he's not goin' and spending all his wages this week at the pub because I need some new shoes …”

“Sorry Mrs McClarrin, excuse me, but I'll have to attend to another customer and then I'll be right back.”

“Oh, all right then,” but then under her breath, to herself, she said, “I've never known anyone to be so rude.” And with a click of her tongue she turned away.

“What can I do for you today, Mrs Morley?”

“I'll have two loaves of bread, a packet of sugar, a bag of the tea leaves and three yards of that Chantilly lace and I'll pay for it all with
cash
,” said Mrs Morley with her nose up in the air and putting extra emphasis on the word “cash.” Wanda wondered what it meant when, as she peaked out from her hiding place, she saw Mrs Morley looking sideways at Mrs McClarrin as if she was somehow a better person than her. Mrs McClarrin leaned all of her weight (of which there was quite a bit) on one foot and then the other and every now and then would wince with pain.

“Now Mrs McClarrin, what can I do for you?” said Mrs Parkins after some time.

“Well, I was hopin' to get some bread and tea leaves too but you know,” and she leaned in close, across the counter, and whispered to the shop-keeper, “I can't be payin' you ‘til the weekend when Alfie gets paid, so can I put it on the account?”

“That will be fine, Mrs McClarrin, that will be just fine.” But Wanda noticed at that moment, a flash of a look pass between Mrs Parkins and Mrs Morley that seemed to say, “I told you so!”

Wanda also noticed the way the women were dressed and how their hair was done. She looked behind herself in a mirror for the first time in her life and was shocked. Her blonde hair was tangled and matted and her skin was smudged with dirt all over. Her nails were chewed and dirty and she was very skinny compared to the women in the shop. Next to the women she looked like a savage child.

Wanda didn't notice that there was a pile of boxes that were balanced precariously one on top of the other right behind her and as she turned back around after gazing at herself in the mirror, she accidently bumped them and they toppled onto the floor with a loud, resounding, banging sound.

“What on earth …” muttered Mrs Parkins and before Wanda knew it all of the women were standing right in front of her and staring at her with utter shock and amazement on their faces.

“Well, I never,” Mrs McClarrin was the first to break the silence.

“Excuse me, but you seem to be wearing one of my dresses and if I remember correctly, it hasn't been paid for,” said Mrs Parkins in a shrill voice, coming to her senses at last.

“Indeed,” said Mrs Morley, still with her nose in the air. “There's only one thing that can be done in these instances, Mrs Parkins,” she said with an air of authority. “This feral little girl has to be taken to the police station. They'll know how to deal with her.”

“Well, yes, I suppose you're right, Mrs Morley. So come along, dear, you'll have to come with me,” but then to the women she whispered, “I have to admit though, I'm curious as to who she is and where she came from.” Wanda didn't like how they talked about her as if she wasn't even there. All she knew was that they were coming toward her as if to take her somewhere and she didn't like the feel of that at all. Of course she couldn't really understand exactly what they were saying but she knew that it couldn't be good. She knew she was about to get into a lot of trouble and her instinct told her to run. She stood up and lifted her long dress to her knees and ran right between the women in a flash and on out the door before they even had time to realise what was going on. Living where she had all her life had made her very agile and a fast runner.

“But who are you, child?” called out Mrs McClarrin. “Let us help you.”

“Get back here with that dress, young lady! How dare you …” yelled Mrs Parkins and Mrs Morley chimed in with her bit too: “Don't think you'll get away with this, you rogue child, whoever you are! Oh my goodness me, I think I'm going to faint …”

Wanda heard everything the women said. She didn't understand anything but she realised that they must be angry about her stealing the dress. Their voices only made her run faster. She didn't look back as she ran straight out of town and toward the gorge. She ran and ran until she got to an old falling-down hut and then stopped for a few seconds to catch her breath. If she kept going this way she would be back at the gorge in five or six hours. She had started to regret her decision to leave her people at the gorge. She wanted to be home desperately

She didn't notice until she was right upon them that she had run into the middle of a large group of travellers. She hesitated for a second, realising that the men were all scattered in every direction, but she kept to her course and prepared to jump right over the campfire that was in her path. But on the other side of the fireplace was a dirty old toothless man, who had quick reflexes. He jumped up into the air to meet her just as she was landing and grabbed her, pulling her to the ground with him, with his full weight on top of her.

“Well, lookee here; what we got ‘ere then?” he said, rolling her over and staring down at her. All of the men that had been scattered around the camp dropped what they were doing and came running to where she lay on the ground, pinned underneath the man.

“Well, well, well,” said another sinister-looking man. “Look what we have here. We have a regular little beauty queen who has just run into our midst. The Lord God is smiling down at us today, my gentlemen friends.” Wanda didn't like the look of the men and the sound of what they were saying. She made a move to get up but another two of the men came to help the original man hold her down. They each pinned her to the ground so that she couldn't move at all.