six

True to his word, Jeff called her on Wednesday. “How would my two best girls like a boat ride tomorrow night?”

Janelle’s joyful anticipation of the outing made Kristen glad she had accepted the invitation.

“Next to Daddy, Uncle Jeff is my favorite man in the whole world,” she told Kristen, walking the path toward the bay. Jeff had asked them to meet him on the dock at seven so that he wouldn’t need to tie up his boat. When they arrived five minutes early, he was already waiting for them.

Kristen smiled approval at the sight of his sleek blue pleasure craft. Although it was smaller than the Janni Lu, it looked just as comfortable, and spotlessly clean. Jeff lifted Janelle into the boat, and when he was sure she had a firm foothold, he helped Kristen aboard.

“Is this a Coast Guard vessel?”

“No, this one belongs to me. Those others are used strictly for business.” He turned the key, and the engine responded with a steady hum.

He guided them along the coastline, and directed their attention to points of interest along the way. Many of the estates that were visible from the water belonged to famous people, and he named them as they passed. Unlike the strictly zoned areas of Atlanta, Kristen noted that here small vacation cottages and rustic fishing shacks were interspersed among the more lavish hideaways of the island’s wealthiest residents. Occasionally, people on the land waved or called to them as they cruised by, and they laughed and shouted their greeting in return.

Laced into a small life jacket, Janelle sat in one of the swivel chairs in the stern and waved to every boat they passed, and always the gesture was returned. Kristen loved to see the happy look on her face. It was beginning to occur more and more often, she observed.

Jeff maneuvered the boat along the channel, reading and heeding the red and green markers, and Kristen told him about her misfortune on the day of her arrival. She could laugh about it now.

He chuckled, too, but not without sympathy. “Those grass beds have trapped a lot of unwary boaters over the years, and even some of the more experienced ones who should know better.”

As they rounded a wide bend and turned toward a neighboring island, Kristen could hear music and see bright lights a short distance ahead.

“That’s the Pelican, one of the nicest restaurants in the area,” Jeff told her. “We’ll give it a try some evening soon.” He circled the boat in a wide arc and turned toward home. The ride had a hypnotic effect on Janelle, and her eyes grew heavy. Jeff gently positioned her on some life-preserver cushions. Kristen stood beside him at the wheel while he followed the channel markers and guided them back to their wharf.

Kristen roused Janelle enough to stand between them, and each of them held one of her hands and started down the path toward home.

Mrs. Baxter met them at the door and took Janelle upstairs to bed. “There’s fresh coffee, and pie in the kitchen,” she called over her shoulder.

Kristen took plates from the cabinet and cut generous wedges of the warm apple pie. She filled two mugs with the steaming brew and they wandered to the front porch.

In cane-bottomed rockers, they sat in silence, slowly sipping the hot coffee and enjoying Mrs. Baxter’s pie. Already their friendship had developed into an easy, undemanding one that did not require constant small talk.

The stars were out, and the moon was growing larger each night, approaching the full moon stage.

“When the moon is full, I’ll be back to show you another of our island surprises,” he promised.

“No hints?”

“No hints. Just wait and see.”

Kristen felt so comfortable with him. He was easy to talk to, and he was fun. How she wished she could transfer her affection for Wes to Jeff. Why couldn’t people control such things?

As though Jeff could read her thoughts, he asked, “Have you spoken to Wes since he left?”

“Yes, he calls Janelle almost every night. He usually talks with me to get a report on her behavior, and to be sure we have everything we need.”

“You’re so good for Janelle. She is really beginning to blossom under your care. Already her cheeks are filling out, and she’s acquiring a healthy tan. She seems to be gaining more self-confidence, too!”

“I hope I’ve been able to help her. It’s going to be hard to give her up.”

“Well, just remember, it’s not over till the fat lady sings.”

Maybe not, but it sure seemed to Kristen as though the fat lady was warming up her voice in a hurry.

They said good night on the steps. “Don’t forget what I promised. I’ll be back when the moon is full, to show you my surprise.”

“I’ll remember,” Kristen promised. She watched him disappear down the brushy path and felt a rush of affection for him. But it was not the kind that made bells ring!

Kristen and Janelle had fallen into a ritual of daily routine. Mornings, after gathering shells from the incoming tide, they cleaned them and added them to their growing collection. As the day warmed, they made their daily venture into the gulf waters. Janelle had already learned to float, and Kristen was confident that it was only a matter of days before she would be swimming. That was to be her big surprise for her father when he came for the Fourth of July weekend.

Janelle loved the birds. They liked to throw crumbs out and watch the terns and gulls squabble over them, but Jeff warned them that it was not in the birds’ best interest to be fed by human hands. “Birds need to retain their inherent skills of finding the food of their natural diets, rather than relying on man to feed them,” he explained.

Almost every day, they took the rental boat out into the dark blue-black waters of Gaspar Bay. Sometimes they fished, though their catches were either small or nonexistent, and sometimes they just drifted, Janelle dangling her small feet in the murky water. And not once did they even get near the grass beds!

Afternoons were usually spent up in the crow’s nest. Kristen was fast filling her sketchbook with island memories. Janelle was showing remarkable talent with the oil pencils and canvases. Her biggest challenge was the picture of the Janni Lu that she was drawing for her father’s birthday surprise.

“Don’t tell him,” she kept reminding Kristen.

“Of course I won’t. Your secret is safe with me.”

No matter what they did or where they went, Janelle always kept Timmy close by her side. Kristen suggested once that they wash his T-shirt, but Janelle wouldn’t hear of it.

“I want him to stay just the way he is. Just like when Mommy gave him to me.”

In the evenings, they read, played games, and often walked on the beach before retiring, leaving their footprints for the nocturnal tides to sweep away.

Long gone were the “Keep Out” signs that Janelle had positioned when Kristen first arrived. Instead, the two of them had become close friends, and frequent visits between the rooms were welcomed.

Just two nights after their dinner date with Jeff, they walked along the water’s edge, and Kristen noticed that the moon had rounded out to a full circle. Jeff must have forgotten his promise, because she had not heard from him since Thursday, and tomorrow the cycle would begin all over with a new moon.

As she readied for bed, she drew on her robe and stepped out on the deck to have one last look at the full moon that bathed everything in its soft, silvery light. She could see the bay sparkling over the treetops, and the graceful palm fronds swaying in the gentle night breeze. She inhaled deeply of the salt air, and was just turning to go back into her bedroom when she saw a figure approaching the house from across the inland dunes.

When she realized that it was Jeff, she called down to him. “Jeff, it’s almost eleven o’clock. What are you doing here at this hour?”

“Come down to the beach, Kristen. Bring Janelle with you. I have something to show you both.”

“Jeff, Janelle has been asleep for over an hour. I don’t think you realize how late it is.” What could he be thinking?

“I know, Kristen, but this is something really special. Wake Janelle and both of you hurry down. Trust me. You’ll be glad you did.”

“Won’t this keep until tomorrow?”

“Indeed, it won’t.”

It was difficult to wake the sleeping child, and Kristen wondered if she were doing the right thing. But, “Trust me,” he had said, and trust him she did.

Twenty minutes later, a sleepy-eyed little girl and a very curious lady met a grinning Coast Guardsman on the steps of the Spinnaker. “This had better be good, Jeff.”

“It’s good,” he assured her. “But I’ll let you be the judge.”

With Jeff leading, they headed for the beach. Jeff carried a flashlight, but the bright light of the full moon made it unnecessary.

“Look!” He pointed down the beach.

The largest turtle Kristen had ever seen was lumbering out of the gulf and up the beach toward the dunes. Now she realized that there was not just one, but several. They were awesome! Their shells were flat, quite unlike the boxy shells of the land gophers who inhabited the island, and each was fully a yard wide. They must weigh several hundred pounds apiece!

Janelle was frightened until Jeff assured them that the turtles were harmless, and had but one thing in mind—motherhood!

“At this time of year, on the night of the full moon, the female turtles come up out of the sea and lay their eggs along the beaches. Come along, and we’ll watch them.”

“We don’t want to frighten them, Jeff.”

“You needn’t worry about that. When it’s their nesting time, they aren’t distracted by anything. It takes them about an hour to make their nests, lay their eggs, and get back to the water. During that time, barking dogs, curious bystanders, or even hunters don’t distract them.”

“Hunters? You mean they’re in danger?”

“Yes, very much so. They’re in danger of becoming extinct, so our state and federal laws try to protect them. It’s illegal to take the eggs or harm the turtles. But poachers are always trying to find ways to steal them.”

“Why would they do that?”

“Turtle steak and turtle soup are considered delicacies. And turtle eggs, they say, make cakes rise higher, taste better, and stay fresh longer.”

They were very close now to one of the turtles, as she dragged her heavy body up the beach. Her progress was slow and clumsy. She seemed intent on reaching a point high above the first dunes.

“Sea turtles have flippers instead of legs, like land turtles,” Jeff explained. “They can travel fast in the water, but on land, they’re not very mobile. The males never come ashore, and the females only come in to lay their eggs.”

The big turtle was working now, using her hind flippers to dig a hole. Farther down, other turtles were feverishly working, too.

“These are loggerheads,” Jeff told them. “There are about five different kinds of sea turtles, but the loggerheads are the ones we usually see here on the west coast of Florida every year.”

By now, the female turtle had finished digging, and had positioned the back half of her body into the newly dug nest. As she began depositing her leathery eggs, Jeff shone his flashlight into the big hole.

Janelle, who had been quiet up until now, said, “Look, Uncle Jeff. They don’t look like eggs. They look like Ping-Pong balls. And there’s lots of them!” She danced with excitement.

On and on the turtle worked, depositing what must have been a hundred eggs in the sandy nest before she stopped to rest. Then, as furiously as she had worked to dig the hole, she began using her front flippers to cover it with sand.

“If each turtle lays that many eggs, I don’t understand why they are in danger of becoming extinct,” Kristen declared.

“Out of a hundred eggs, she’ll be lucky if fifty make it to the sea. When they hatch, the little turtles will have to scurry into the water before a crab or a dog or any of many predators can catch them. Then even in the water, some of them will become prey to fish or birds. They’re so small when they’re first born that a big fish can swallow one whole. It’s a dangerous life!”

“Can’t they pull into their shells and hide?”

“No, sea turtles can’t do that like land turtles. That’s one reason they need all the help we can give them.”

“Can we see them hatch, Uncle Jeff?” Janelle was wide awake now, and full of questions.

“It takes almost sixty days, honey. Let’s make a date that on the full moon two months from now, we’ll come to watch for them.”

Kristen counted the time in her mind. By then she would be preparing to leave the island forever! Janelle’s school started the first week in September, and the Atlanta office would be expecting Kristen’s return.

“Why such a sad look, Kristen? Don’t you want to come back to watch the babies hatch?” Jeff’s concern brought her thoughts back to the present.

“Of course, I wouldn’t miss it for anything. Look, what’s she doing now?”

The mother-to-be turtle had finished filling the hole with sand, and was now frantically pushing her flippers back and forth over the ground.

“She’s trying to cover up her tracks,” Jeff answered. “See how she smooths the top of the nest? She hopes nothing will find her eggs before they hatch. Notice that she chose a spot well above the high-tide line, too. She’s very concerned for the safety of her children.”

Now, she began her strange, clumsy retreat to the sea. Farther down the beach, Kristen could see others doing the same, while some were still busy making their nests.

A telltale, tractorlike trail was all the evidence she had left behind. The winds and tide would soon remove that, and hopefully, the little eggs would stay warm and secure, hidden beneath the sand.

Kristen said a silent prayer that they would be safe until they could begin their lives in the water.

“The males are right out there close by, waiting for their mates to return. Scientists have traced their routes, and have found that, no matter how many hundreds of miles they travel, the little females, when they reach maturity, will return to this very beach to nest.”

“Can we come back and see them when they do?” Janelle asked.

“I don’t see why not, Janelle. That won’t happen until next summer, but you’ll be coming back by then for your next school vacation.”

Jeff took Janelle’s small hand in his big one and smiled down at her. “But now I think it’s time I walked my two best girls home and let them get back to bed.”

They looked back for a last glimpse of the big, old turtles, lumbering down to the sea.

“How can I ever thank you for such an exciting night, Jeff?” Kristen felt certain that she had never had a better friend.

They said good night on the steps. “I’ll be in touch soon,” he told them. “And don’t forget that we have a date fifty-six nights from tonight! That’s two lunar months.”

“We’ll mark the calendar,” Kristen promised. She took Janelle by the hand and led her up the stairs.

For the second time that night, she put on her gown and robe, and stepped out on the deck. In the distance, she could hear the whir of the motor as Jeff departed the island. Life here on Gaspar Island was filled with surprises. Remembering Marla’s comments, she wondered how anyone could ever be bored in this place.

Returning to her room, she crawled into bed and turned out the light. She wasn’t at all sure she could fall asleep after so much excitement, but before she had time to wonder about it, she already had.