Fish does not want to come out of the water. He just keeps doing circuits between the jetty posts and then somersaults and seeing how deep he can dive and how far he can leap, but when Lampie calls him, from the high jetty, Fish slowly comes swimming towards her.
“Why don’t you just leave him here?” says the dwarf. “Isn’t it better for him to be free?”
“I don’t know,” says Lampie, and it’s true – she has no idea. What would happen if she went back with an empty cart?
Where is the admiral’s son, girl?
Oh, somewhere in the sea, I don’t know.
At the very least she’d be fired. And then what about the money, and the seven years, and her father? But what about Fish? Would he have to go back under the bed, in that tower?
“And you can come with us, you know,” says the dwarf a little shyly. “If you like. Not as a Phenomenal Freak, you turned out far too neatly for that. But just for fun? For the company?”
“The Black M would go in a heartbeat,” the fat lady with the beard suddenly says. “She’s not scared of anything. She used to sail to the White Cliffs and beyond.”
It is the first time Lampie has heard the woman speak. She has a deep, husky voice and again Lampie has the feeling that she has seen her before. But she can’t remember ever having met a woman with a beard.
“The Black M? What’s that?” she asks.
“She should be over there somewhere,” says the woman, her bare arm jiggling as she points. “You’re her daughter, aren’t you? And your father was the ship’s first mate.”
“No,” says Lampie. “My father’s a lighthouse keeper.”
Through the mist she can see the light slowly turning, far off in the distance.
“Yes, that’s who I mean,” says Julie. “But she doesn’t sail any more, the Black M. That’s what they say. I wish I could…”
“Julie,” says the dwarf impatiently. “Shut up about this Black M of yours. Well, what are you going to do?” he asks Lampie. “Do you want to come with us? It’ll be fun. Every place you go is different but still the same. And everyone’s always so happy to see us. So happy not to be us.”
Lampie shrugs. Maybe, she thinks. Being part of a troupe. Travelling all over, making fires in the evening. A postcard from every new place, addressed to the Grey Lighthouse. No, she can’t do it. She shakes her head. She doesn’t want to leave.
“What about Earl?”
“Oh, Earl,” mutters the dwarf. “He won’t do anything. He just sits inside his ticket booth and thinks he’s the boss.”
“Lampie! Did you see me, Lampie? Did you see me?” At the bottom of the jetty post, Fish is shaking the drops of water from his hair, and his golden eyes are gleaming.
“Amazing,” says the dwarf. “My goodness, lad! That’s beautiful.”
“What?” Fish looks over his shoulder to see if there is something beautiful behind him.
“You,” says Oswald with a smile.
“Oh. But did you see it? Did you see me? I did a double somersault, as easy as anything, and I think if I practise I’ll be able to do a triple one and maybe even…”
Lampie sits down on the edge of the jetty. “Fish,” she says. “Do you want to come home with me or not? Would you rather stay here?”
Here? Fish looks around, at the slimy jetty posts sticking up far above him, at the water around him, with the dead seaweed floating in it, and all the rubbish and the fish heads.
“Well, you know,” says Lampie, pointing out to sea. “Or you could go further out to sea, to the White Cliffs, where the mermaids live. That’s what she said, isn’t it?”
She looks at the small bobbing head below. She would miss him so much. “But it’s quite a long way, I think.”
Fish looks back, across the surface of the water and over the sea, out of the bay, to the distant horizon, to the endless sky. There? Him? All on his own? Suddenly he just feels tired and he really wants to go home, to rest, to sleep in the familiar darkness under his bed. And his father is supposed to be coming home soon, and he mustn’t be here then, he should be… Maybe though, maybe he could even, yes, maybe he could show him that… But he hardly even dares to think that thought.
*
Beside one of the tall jetty posts, there is a slippery wooden ladder. Fish pulls himself up, as far as he can, and then Lester reaches out a long arm and drags him up the rest of the way. Up on the jetty, Lampie helps him back into his cart.
All around them, the harbour is waking up. Ropes and pulleys are rattling, sails are being hoisted with a swish, and fishermen call out, “Ho!” and, “Hey!” Some of them stare in annoyance at the strange group. What on earth are those freaks doing here?
The dwarf takes hold of Lampie’s hand. “So the answer’s no?”
The girl shakes her head.
“That’s a shame,” says Oswald. “But we come back here every year. So who knows?” He gently pulls her down to his height and gives her a kiss on the cheek.
“Who knows?” replies Lampie. She hugs him and then Lester. She kisses the bird-woman and sends her best wishes to Olga and Olga and to everyone else, except for Earl.
“Come on, people,” says the dwarf. “Time to get this show on the road. Hey, Julie, come on!”
Julie is still standing on the tip of the jetty, staring out to sea, her skirt fluttering in the breeze. Slowly she turns around.
A fisherman walking by spits on the planks, right at her feet. “Disgusting. A man in a dress.”
She clenches her fists, but then steps neatly over the blob of spit and gives Lampie a kiss on the top of her head.
“Don’t forget,” she whispers quietly into her hair. “The Black M. If only I could come too…” Then she quickly scurries after the troupe.
Lampie pulls the blanket all the way over Fish and turns the cart around. The planks rattle under the wheels, and through the gaps she sees one bit of sea after another.
When they are out of the town, they can talk.
“What did that man say to you?” asks Fish. “Um… that woman, I mean.”
“I don’t know,” says Lampie. “Something about a Black M.”
“A black what?”
“I think it’s a ship.”
“Oh. The Black Man maybe? Or the Black Mainmast, or the Black Marlin?”
“Or the Black Monster.”
“The Black Mermaid,” says Fish.
“She said: she sails to the White Cliffs. Maybe we need to go there in a ship.”
“To go where?”
“To your mother.”
“The Black Mother,” says Fish with a shiver.
Lampie struggles to tug the cart up the last part of the hill. Fish seems to have become heavier now; his tail looks fuller and she has to pull really hard. But before they reach the top, Lenny comes running through the gate, like a very big puppy, hopping and skipping around Lampie, laughing and crying, all at the same time. He wants to hug her but he is too shy. She gives him Fish to carry and so he cuddles him a bit instead before striding towards the Black House with giant steps. Lampie follows, pulling the empty cart.
Lenny keeps looking back at the girl, to make sure she really, truly has returned.