| |
When Marisa reaches the end of her story, the silence is broken by Gracie. “Sage has been obsessed with this bottle. An old bottle! What’s going on, Marisa? It’s as if it won’t let her go.”
“I’ve only just heard about the spell,” Marisa says, “but Sofia told me its intentions were good.” There’s nothing else she can say.
Rhett weighs in. “I’m no expert on Portuguese folklore, but my Hawaiian instinct says that Sage is caught between Roxie’s spirit and her unfinished business. The bottle is a link between them so Sage is caught up with it too.”
Before we can examine this idea, a voice interrupts from across the lawn. “Selkieeeeee! You saved meeeeee!”
Sage is racing towards us, nearly tripping over an enormous toy rabbit she’s holding. It’s the first time I’ve seen her since the rescue and her explosion of vibrant energy is my reward. With my vision blurred by tears, I run to greet her, and luckily Derek has more foresight than me. As Sage leaps into my arms and almost knocks me over, he’s just behind me and embraces us both.
As Derek withdraws I say, “Hello there, Bright Eyes. You must have had a good snooze if you can run that fast.”
Sage locks eyes with mine and we’re back in our private bubble.
“Pebbles is the best pillow, Selkie. I fold his ears under his head, like this,” – she pulls away to demonstrate – “and he doesn’t mind.”
“Hello, Pebbles. We have a lot of rabbits in Australia.”
“Mommy told me that’s why you talk funny. Do you have big rabbits like Pebbles?”
“Only small ones.”
“Big ones are better,” she says.
“They make better pillows.”
“And Pebbles won’t fit in the bottle.”
As her words zap the air like a lightning bolt, Derek pushes a chair against the back of my knees. At this unexpected chance to know more, I sit down with my back to the group and lift Sage onto my lap.
“If he went into the bottle,” I prompt, “you couldn’t pull him out again.”
“No. He would get stuck. Then there’d be trouble.”
My gut guides my words. “That’s what happened to Roxie’s drawing.”
“I told Roxie I was getting a rabbit and she was sad. She didn’t have her rabbit anymore. So I put her picture in the bottle to make her feel better –”
“– and it got stuck.”
“Exactly.”
“You found the bottle under the pool house.”
She runs her fingers through Pebbles’ fur. “The builders took it away. I can’t go under there anymore.”
After a pause, my next words come. “That was kind of you, to give Roxie back her picture. Did it make her happy?”
“Not really.”
I wait for more.
“Then she wanted a real rabbit. A picture of a rabbit isn’t the same as a real rabbit. Then the bottle got lost so the picture got lost too.” She strokes Pebbles’ ears. “That’s why she took Noodles.”
Shit.
My heart is thumping so hard I’m afraid Sage will feel it, but I dare not move. Our bubble is so strong, she’s unaware of the intense silence from the audience listening behind us.
“I told you that when Noodles died,” she says.
“I remember. Noodles went to be with Roxie. Is Roxie happy now?”
“Not really.”
Is that why Sage had a meltdown about getting the missing bottle back? After Noodles died, was that her way to stop Roxie taking anything else she loved? How successful was her five-year-old logic?
“I suppose when Roxie got her bottle back she wanted you to put other things in it. You’re her friend so you help her.”
“She’s very bossy.”
Rhett’s words come back: unfinished business.
“She wants her bracelet,” Sage says. “I found it under some special rocks but she said it’s not finders keepers.”
“Because the bracelet has her name on it?”
“She can’t read, but I saw R and O. Like how you write ‘rocks’. That’s why she changed her name. She likes them.”
“Did Roxie tell you she likes rocks?”
“Not really. She doesn’t talk.” She frowns until she finds the words. “I just know what she’s thinking.”
“Inside your head.”
“Exactly.”
It’s what I heard when I was her age.
Sage snuggles closer and tightens her arms around Pebbles. “She told me to put it in the bottle.”
I miss a few beats. “Where’s the bracelet now?”
“Well, it’s not really a bracelet. It ... broke.” She pauses. “I didn’t mean to break it, Selkie. It was an accident. The pearls went everywhere and it was dark and I couldn’t find them.”
Dark under the pool house. Is that why she was under there so long?
“Did you find some of them?”
“In the dirt. I put them in the bottle, but Roxie said I had to find all the pearls and put them back together, and I said it was impossible!”
From this flash of feeling, I can see her scrabbling around in the dark and the dirt, getting more and more panicked trying to find them all. She could hear her parents calling but she couldn’t come out.
“Then you called me,” she says, “so I changed my name to Selkie. Roxie used my old name but when I was Selkie I didn’t have to answer her anymore.”
A moment ago I thought she was going to cry, but she’s been outsmarting Roxie. Except she stayed under there with the bottle. Why?
“When you were under the pool house, I asked you if you were hiding.”
“I was waiting,” she says. “I told you but you didn’t listen.”
“What were you waiting for?” Why didn’t I ask her at the time?
“For you to tell me to come out! I was tired of Roxie bossing me so I changed my name and I waited and waited. But you didn’t tell me.”
Instead I told her a story about selkies wearing onesies. If I’d asked her to come out, would her exit have been simple? We were so afraid she’d bunker down we didn’t even try it. Even Lolana got that wrong.
But then Sage and I would have missed the magic of our slither-dance. A memory I’ll treasure, in spite of the ordeal. And our bubble for sharing these secrets wouldn’t be so strong.
“Thank you for telling me what happened. Now, I’ve got a surprise for you.”
“What?”
I’m still following my gut. “You’re going to meet someone called Marisa. She’s special because her mommy ... painted the eyes on the bottle.”
“Roxie’s eyes?”
“Yes. Marisa’s mommy got some pearl nail polish and painted those beautiful eyes so Roxie could see the world. And she put a special herb in the bottle. Can you guess what it was? Think about Roxie’s other name before she changed it.”
“Rosemary!”
“Yes, Marisa’s mommy put some rosemary leaves in the bottle so Roxie had somewhere to feel at home. Then she put the bottle under the pool house so Roxie would be safe and warm.”
Was it that sprig of rosemary that trapped Roxie’s memory in the bottle for sixty years? Separating her from her precious bracelet? The fanciful thought slips away.
Sage is thinking. “But the pool house is gone and I think Mommy put the bottle in a dumpster.” Her face crinkles and her chin wobbles. “How will Roxie get her bracelet back now?”
Scooping her up quickly, I carry her over to the table. Gracie and I exchange a look. I’m not quite the rescue hero we thought but her eye-roll thanks me for doing something else she couldn’t do – lift the lid on Sage’s relationship with Roxie.
“Mommy. Daddy. Where’s the surprise? Pebbles wants to know.”
“Two surprises, sweetie.” Gracie is playing her part. “I didn’t throw the bottle in the dumpster. Look, here it is. And this is Marisa, the lady Selkie told you about.”
Sage looks at the bottle, then at Marisa. “Aloha, Marisa. You’re old to have a mommy.”
“Be polite,” Gracie says.
“Sorry, Marisa. You look nice.”
“Aloha, Sage,” Marisa says. “You’re right. I am old. But when I was a baby a long time ago, my mommy painted these eyes on this bottle. And she put rosemary leaves inside for Roxie.”
Who said Marisa isn’t good with kids? Rhett moves behind her chair and gives her shoulder a gentle squeeze.
While we wonder where to go next, Lolana steps in. “Hello, Sage. There are pearls in the bottom of this bottle. Are they the pearls you want to give back to Roxie?”
“Yes. But her bracelet broke,” – she pouts her lower lip – “and I don’t know how to fix it.”
“Let’s see what we can do together,” Lolana says. “What shape is a bracelet?”
“A circle, of course.” A glare from Gracie. “Sorry.”
“Let’s make a magic circle and give the bracelet back to Roxie that way.”
Sage’s eyes light up. “Can Pebbles help?”
“Definitely. Derek, pull up a chair for Pebbles, please. We need him to supervise.”
After the revelations about Sage and Roxie, Lolana has a private word with the Coopers.
Sage puts her face close to the bottle. “Roxie, you’re not a secret anymore. Stop worrying about your bracelet. We’re going to make magic. Be patient!”
*
Lolana organises things quickly to maintain Sage’s interest. Gracie takes Sage into the house and they bring back a bowl of water. Sage empties the pearls into the bowl to soak.
“They’re pretty again, Roxie,” she says. “Look, no dirt.”
The name tag also comes out of the bottle. It’s tarnished, so Lolana opens her basket and produces a silver cloth. After a few wipes the name emerges enough to read.
Rosemary.
Hudson shakes his head. Sage learned the name Rosemary from her grandma, but if she’s not talking to Rosemary’s spirit, how does she know her nickname?
Lolana moves things along. “Now we’re going to set the scene for the magic by making smudging sticks.” She explains the process to Sage and Pebbles.
“We need sage!” Sage cries.
A few weeks ago Hudson slashed the overgrown yard, and around the edges the wild sage has dried. While Pebbles guards the bottle, we collect armfuls of the herb. Everyone helps, even Hudson. He snips the leaves from the stalks as instructed, and Lolana shows us all how to make bundles, including some dried rosemary from her basket.
When she produces a roll of twine to bind them, Derek goes to the kit in his car to get an extra roll and scissors. On the way he skirts the trees lining the road, and I realise he’s checking for a lurking PI. Instead of unsettling me, it has the opposite effect. I know I’m in good hands. When he comes back, we turn the outdoor table into a production line.
Sage is in charge of quality control and keeping everyone on task – both jobs she’s gifted at. “Your string’s too loose, Selkie.”
“How do I fix it?”
“Pull it tighter ...”
The unspoken ‘silly’ makes me smile. “I’ll do my best.”
She moves around the table. “Marisa, yours is pretty good. And Rhett’s already finished. Mommy, do we have a star stamp for the back of his hand?” She frowns in thought. “Rhett, please help Selkie.”
When she looks back at me, I get the oddest feeling. By rescuing my smudging stick, is she returning the favour from the pool house?
After we each have a stick of sage and rosemary, Derek moves the chair with Pebbles and the bottle over to the pond. Our little procession follows. A small spring is trickling out of the hill and a cairn of rocks sits above it.
“I found Roxie’s bracelet under these rocks,” Sage announces.
Did Audrey make this cairn as a tribute to her daughter? As a home for the bracelet that caused her death? It overlooks the spring that fed the pool. Hudson’s crumpled face says he’s wondering the same thing.
“Sorry I didn’t tell you, Daddy.” Sage brightens. “I put the rocks back, look.”
Hudson is keeping his emotions in check. “It’s good to say sorry, Sage. But –”
“– it’s better to do the right thing. I know but ... Roxie said it was a secret.”
“Well, we’re going to fix things now.”
“With magic!”
Lolana gets into a huddle with Sage and Pebbles.
“Make a circle around the pond,” Sage cries. She starts pushing each of us into place, Derek beside me and her parents together. “Rhett, you stand next to Marisa like a grandpa and grandma.”
Derek winks at me. I’ve noticed it too. Rhett looks just like a senior version of Ralph, Marisa’s teenage crush.
When the human circle is ready, Lolana produces a taper and lights it with a match. “Now for some magic smoke.”
As she ignites our smudging sticks and each of them begins to smoulder, perfumed clouds rise from our hands. I’m amazed this simple process can create such a sense of portent. A space to herald endings and beginnings ...
After checking the bottle’s eyes are turned towards the action, Sage runs around the pond, waving her arms to make the smoke rise. “This smoke is for you, Roxie. Smell the sage and rosemary. You’ll like them.” Then she whispers loudly to Lolana, “How does she get her bracelet? She thinks the smoke’s OK but she wants pearls.”
“It’s time now. Ask your mommy to bring them.”
Gracie steps forward with the bowl.
Lolana says, “Sage, it’s time for you to make the magic bracelet for Roxie. You’re the only one who can do it because you’re her friend.”
“I’m five like her.”
“Exactly. Everyone is standing in a circle and these rocks around the pond are in a circle too –”
“– like a bracelet,” Sage says.
Lolana grins. “Exactly.”
“I’m ready for magic!”
“OK. You go around the pond and lift up a rock like this.” Lolana bends down and demonstrates. “Make a hole in the dirt with your finger and drop one pearl into the hole like a seed, then put the rock back. Off you go.”
Sage jumps up and down. “Planting pearls for Roxie!”
With astounding concentration, she takes one pearl at a time from the bowl, gives it a kiss and plants it under a rock. As she repeats it over and over, the ritual is like a mantra, drawing us into the ‘magic’.
When she’s worked her way around the circle of stones until there are no pearls left, Sage gets the silver name plate from Lolana and rests it against the cairn at the head of the circle. It restores the tribute to Rosemary, and as I catch Hudson and Gracie sharing a hug, I start choking up.
“Roxie,” Sage cries, “your magic bracelet is under these rocks! It’s invisible like you.”
Perfect.
“Thank you, Sage,” Lolana says. “She’s been sad about losing it but now you’ve given it back to her. Now Roxie can take her magic bracelet with her wherever she goes.”
Sage stops. “Is Roxie ... going away?” Her chin quivers. “Like ... my ... gran?”
It’s the first time Sage has mentioned Audrey. She lost her gran and her old home not long ago, and now she’s going to lose her special friend. It’s a lot of farewells for a five-year-old.
Lolana crouches down. “When you close your eyes, can you see your gran?”
Sage presses her lips together and nods.
“Well, she’s still there isn’t she? You just need to close your eyes to see her. So close your eyes and you’ll see the magic working for Roxie.” Sage closes her eyes. “All those invisible pearls are little moons. Can you see them?”
The moon and the pearl share a soul.
“They’re silver,” Sage says.
“And they’re holding Roxie safe in a circle of silver light. Now watch how the water from this heavenly spring is carrying her spirit to all the magic places.”
Sage opens her eyes. “I saw them, but how can Roxie see where she’s going? Her eyes are on the bottle.”
Top marks to Lolana for anticipating this. While we were collecting the sage, I saw her having a word with Marisa.
“You’re right about Roxie’s eyes,” Marisa says, “and you can help her get them back with this magic cloth. I’ll hold the bottle while you make her eyes invisible.”
With tears trickling down her flushed cheeks, Sage bravely takes the cloth impregnated with nail polish remover. Wrinkling her nose at the smell, she rubs the painted eyes until they’re gone. She’s not the only brave one. Marisa has just allowed her to obliterate a tangible memento of her origins.
“Roxie! The magic is working. Now your invisible eyes can see all your invisible things.” But as Gracie washes her daughter’s hands in the bowl, Sage is frowning at the bottle. “We forgot her rabbit picture! If Noodles runs away she might need it.”
Sage has thought of everything, but the circle of frowns tells me no-one else has. I pick up two sticks ready to extract the picture, then stop and look at Hudson. The drawing is the only keepsake from his sister. After a moment’s thought, he chooses the living five-year-old over the departed one, nodding for me to continue.
Sage doesn’t take her eyes off my fingers as I draw the picture from the bottle, chopsticks-style.
“How will you give it to Roxie?” Hudson asks her.
“Like this!” She grabs the picture, waves it above her head and runs to the pond where she launches it into the water like a curled paper boat. As it becomes waterlogged and sinks, she drops to her haunches and watches until the lines of pale pencil fade and disappear.
Then she takes a deep breath. “Aloha, Roxie! I’ll ... miss ... you.”
Dissolving into loud sobs, she grabs Pebbles and falls into Gracie’s arms.
*
As Sage drops off to sleep in her mother’s lap, silence descends upon our gathering. There’s just the sound of the trickling spring, carrying Roxie’s presence away to all the magic places. The gentle release of a trapped spirit? Or was Roxie only ever trapped in Sage’s imagination? The shared atmosphere says we’ll never know.
Gracie strokes her daughter’s hair, and Lolana pulls up a chair to keep her company. Rhett and Marisa begin a private conversation and Hudson goes to the barbecue on the porch, where Derek and I join him.
“I can’t thank you enough.” He’s keeping his voice low. “If you hadn’t persisted we might never have learned about ... my connection to this house. And it looks like we’ll get our daughter back.”
“Sage is so passionate,” I say. “I bet she wakes up and throws herself into the next thing.”
Hudson chuckles. “Passionate is a good word. She’s a handful. A wonderful handful.”
*
The aromas from the barbecue waft over our gathering, working their magic on the sleeping child. After a big stretch Sage says, “Daddy, Pebbles is so hungry.”
“Barbecued grass coming up!”
She sits Pebbles on a chair, telling him to be patient, then says to her father, “And lots of people-food for me too, please.”
Everyone stops. These are the magic words we’ve been waiting for. If Sage is thinking about her empty tummy, then the spectre of Roxie has departed and Sage is back.
As we flip from a wehe to a party mood, we each chime, “Me too, please.”
Sage giggles. “Be patient!”
Derek announces a surprise in his car and Sage rushes off with him to get it. Rhett puts himself in charge of drinks and we clink glasses around the group.
“Thanks to all of you,” Gracie says, “we can toast a garden with only one herb.” She grins through a few quick tears, then she asks Lolana, “What about the cairn?”
“Keep it as a memorial to Rosemary. She deserves her place here too. I don’t think you’ll hear from Roxie again.”
“Now she’s gotten her pearls back,” Rhett says.
Her unfinished business. Triggered when Sage found the bracelet? Rosemary wouldn’t let it go when she was drowning. If her spirit really was here, it makes sense that she wouldn’t want Sage to have it, the replacement five-year-old from the same family living in Waipunalani. The possibility doesn’t even feel fanciful anymore. Just ... finished.
“If Sage dreams about her,” Gracie says, “she’ll see her riding on a magic carpet edged by tiny moons. I’ll dream about that myself.”
Hudson puts his arm around his wife before directing another question to Lolana. “You had the chance to tell Sage that Rosemary has gone to be with her gran, but you didn’t say it.”
“I was caught out when Sage mentioned Audrey,” Lolana says. “But I didn’t want her to think Rosemary had a special place with her gran, while she had to say goodbye to both of them. But I’ve just been telling Gracie, it’s made me wonder if the origin of her invisible friend was always Audrey.”
“I’ve been thinking about that too,” Gracie says. “One day Sage was sitting on Audrey’s lap while I arranged flowers in a vase. I wasn’t paying close attention until Audrey got upset. She snapped at Sage to stop changing her name. She insisted Sage’s name was Rosemary, not the other name. I don’t think she referred to Roxie, and it only happened once that I remember. But it’s possible she said Roxie – and I missed it.”
Lolana says, “An angry outburst from her gran would make a lasting impression on Sage. Creating an invisible friend who changed her name is a plausible response. And a way to keep her gran’s memory alive.”
Is this the origin of Roxie after all? It would link the two names in Sage’s mind, even creating a secret she shared with her gran. Then she found the bracelet and the bottle with the eyes, making it all so real.
This leads me to a thought. “Did Audrey give Rosemary the bracelet to confirm her name? It sounds like she didn’t approve of the nickname.” It’s the reverse of Stella changing my name to Elkie. Now that I’ve taken Selkie back, I’ve discovered names have power. “And Roxie is a sassy name,” I say, “not sweet like Rosemary. The nickname might have brought out another side to her daughter’s character that Audrey didn’t like.”
“We’ll never know,” Gracie says. “But we’re going to remember her as Rosemary, aren’t we Huds?”
“Look!” Sage shouts. She and Derek are carrying a box. “It’s a game called croquet! Derek says everyone can play. Did you hear that Pebbles?”
Derek opens the box, then shows Sage how a toy rabbit can hold a mallet. His thoughtfulness reminds me I haven’t worried about Andrew since we left the office. This Hawaiian magic is powerful stuff.
Sage runs over to me. “Can you play croquet, Selkie? If you don’t know how to say it, it rhymes with OK, but not really.”
“I’ve never played it before, Sage.” I stop. “Can I call you Sage?”
“Yes, please. I like my old name best. Do you mind?”
I laugh. “I don’t mind. I think Sage is a perfect name for you. And Selkie is a perfect name for me. Now we won’t get each other mixed up.”
She giggles and takes my hand. “They both start with ‘S’.”
When she turns her big eyes on me, I realise we’ve lost our private bubble. Now that she and Roxie have let each other go, we’ve let go too. But with her five-year-old wisdom, Sage is reminding me we’re still connected. I brush a drop of water from my eye and help set up the game.
*
There’s enough food and croquet to keep the party going until well after sunset. Sage invents her own rules for the game, then organises everyone to play it her way.
On the sidelines Hudson and I get talking. He works in banking and when he hears about my seminar plans, he offers to set up my business account and merchant facilities without any hassles. It’s a big thankyou for my help and I accept.
When it’s time to leave, we all move to the front driveway.
While Rhett offers to drive Marisa home, Gracie goes into the house and returns with the bottle wrapped in brown paper. “This has always belonged to you,” she says. “Thank you for honouring its intention to do good.” She gives it to Marisa who doesn’t know what to say.
When Gracie turns to me, our hug says we won’t see each other again.
It’s one of the endings I predicted and Sage confirms it. “Pebbles wants to tell you something.” When I bend down, she holds the rabbit to my ear and whispers, “Aloha, Selkie. Mahalo.” Thank you.
Even though I knew it was coming, the farewell catches me off-guard. But I’ll always carry a sprig of sage in my virtual bottle.