We tack into the bay under Cottage Hill, and there’s a wail that starts way up at the shacks. And I wonder if Pirate Bradshaw beat us here! But it’s not her.
It’s Ma, my own ma, running wildly down to the jetty and jumping up and down there screaming,
‘Neoma! Neoma!’ like I can somehow get there faster. I wish I could, my throat prickles like sobs is stacking up in there.
‘Jaguar!’ she screams, and all the aunties and uncles and old people and young cousins come running down to the water’s edge. ‘Jaguar!’ they yell. ‘Neoma!’ And I feel mighty grand to be the one who’s bringing home this son of the whole village.
I blink through fat squirmy tears but I can’t see Jag’s da anywhere.
‘You din’t tell me the people of Cottage Hill were so … bouncy,’ Saleesi says.
Ma is on Licorice Stix like a flea on a dog even before we’ve touched the jetty, and she’s hugging me and holding me out and yelling at me about what did I think I was doing and hugging me again and blubbing up a storm. She hugs Jag and passes him over onto the jetty where people is tying off Licorice for us. They pass him from person to person, hugging him, rubbing his hair, patting his back, and he’s laughing as he’s pushed from person to person like a toy.
Then Ma hands me over for the same treatment and grabs hold of Saleesi, wrapping her in big hugs, her eyes wide as scallop shells, but she too is pulled off the boat and people hug her like they knew her and lost her and got her back, same as us. The three of us is left standing in front of Marta. Ma comes and wraps her arms around me like I might slip away again if she lets go.
‘Where’s Da?’ Jag asks, still looking around, frowning hard like maybe Uncle Sorren never woke up from that dart.
‘He’s gone to Valley of the Sun to fetch you back,’ Marta says.
Me and Jag look at each other. I dunno how he’ll find it, avoid pirates, and get past the Valley of the Sun people even if he does.
‘But why?’ I say. ‘I already fetched him back.’
‘Sorren went to fetch you back too,’ Marta says.
‘But who’s gonna fetch him back?’ I ask.
‘He can fetch himself back,’ Marta says.
I know she’s wrong. But she don’t listen when I tell her she’s wrong, and Ma says to stop nagging Marta, and go wash that fish stink off while she fixes us some food. Is it any wonder I don’t tell people what I’m up to?
Jag says not to worry, we got enough information to trade for his da back and if we have to steal Licorice and go back to Valley of the Sun again, we will. I dunno what’s come over Jag lately. At this rate, I’ll be the cautious one!
