THE NEXT MORNING the red lines and the yellow ooze, angrier and pussier than the day before, were back on Nim’s knee. Her body was warm and her head was as fat and floaty as a cloud.
The solar panel was okay, the laptop battery was charging … the other charts and chores didn’t seem to matter. She didn’t feel like breakfast but Selkie fussed until she had a glass of water and a banana.
Galileo swooped past, chasing a booby bird with a fish in its beak.
Another letter was sticking out of his band.
‘Thank you, Troppo Tourists!’ said Nim, grabbing the paper as Galileo snatched the fish cap from her hand.
Dear Nim
Great news! Your fix-it father has got a fixed-up rudder – I’m on my way home!
Plankton celebrated too – put on a great show last night – AND I discovered a new species of Dinoflagellate protozoan zoo-plankton!
(It doesn’t look EXACTLY like you but I named it after you anyway.)
The wind’s against me, but if it doesn’t get worse I’ll be home tomorrow night or the day after.
Love (as much as big plankton love little plankton), Jack
Nim knew she ought to be happy and ought to write a letter back, but her knee hurt too much to care and she needed advice faster than Galileo could bring it.
She dozed beside Selkie and, when she was too hot, went back to the hut. The battery was charged.
Just for a moment she wondered if Alex Rover still wanted to write to her now the rafts were finished, but there was no one else to ask.
From: jack.rusoe@explorer.net
To: aka@incognito.net
Date: Friday 9 April, 10:48
Dear Alex Rover
I’m sorry I couldn’t write yesterday because I forgot to do the science stuff so the battery wasn’t strong enough to turn on the email.
What would your Hero do if he cut his knee when he climbed Fire Mountain and now it has red lines and yellow gunk and his head feels hot and cloudy?
Also, does your Hero get lonely and miserable when he’s on the island and the Lady Hero is with the Bad Guys? And even if he finds a coconut pearl, it doesn’t seem as pretty because there’s no one to share it with, because Selkie and Fred don’t care about things like that (except when Fred tries to eat it, but that doesn’t count).
From Nim
ALEX HAD WOKEN long before daylight with the story dancing in her mind like images from a film. She saw swaying palms and hot, gold sand, a shimmering waterfall and grumbling volcano, clear-blue sea and cloudless sky …
As the sun came up, she looked out at the dawn-grey roofs and railways – and put on the CD, Sea Bird Songs and Dolphin Duets – ‘just like being by the sea!’ the blurb claimed.
‘Not quite,’ said Alex, turning on the computer.
She read Nim’s email and she turned quite pale.
‘It can’t be true!’ said Alex. ‘A kid can’t be all by herself on an island!’ And she read it again.
Then she printed out all of Nim’s other emails and read them again, and she looked at the map she’d drawn. She read Nim’s email about climbing Fire Mountain and what the island looked like, and realised that Nim never ever mentioned another person.
‘If one true thing has happened in my life,’ said Alex, ‘this is it.’
From: aka@incognito.net
To: jack.rusoe@explorer.net
Date: Friday 9 April, 5:55
Dear Nim
If my Hero’s knee was very swollen and sore, he would soak it in the sea and then clean it up with fresh coconut juice and bandage it. Then he’d REST in the shade and drink LOTS of water.
And if he felt lonely and miserable he’d tell someone – maybe on an email.
That’s what Girl Heroes on real islands should do, too.
Are you alone? Where are your parents?
Do you need help?
Love, Alex
Nim read the letter fast and turned off the computer. Her knee still hurt but it didn’t seem as bad now she knew what to do. She took her blue water bottle down to the beach and sat in the shade of a rock with her leg in the water. Selkie sat on one side and worried, and Fred sat on the other side and slept, and Nim sipped her water and dreamed in the middle.
When she woke up she was stiff and sore, and the sun was going down. ‘I’ve been here all day!’ said Nim, and she didn’t know if Alex Rover’s Hero would have sat there that long, but she liked the way her head felt as if it belonged to her again.
Then she took a clean hanky from the hut, and punched a hole in a coconut and wiped the yellow pus and slimy muck away from her knee, and now the knee was sore but not hot and fat. And she turned on the laptop and read Alex Rover’s letter again.
‘Oh!’ said Nim, and felt pink and happy, because if Alex Rover wanted to come and rescue her then he really must be a Hero, just like the newspaper story said.
Even if she didn’t need to be rescued.
From: jack.rusoe@explorer.net
To: aka@incognito.net
Date: Friday 9 April, 18:26
Dear Alex Rover
My mother went to investigate the contents of a blue whale’s stomach when I was a baby, but some bad guys frightened the whale and she hasn’t been seen since.
Jack is studying plankton. He went away for three days except his rudder got broken in a storm and so did his satellite dish, but he sent me a message with Galileo the frigate bird to say he’ll be home soon.
Soon might be tomorrow or the day after that.
I’m not alone because Fred and Selkie are here, and so is Chica.
So I don’t really need help because I washed my knee like you said and it feels a lot better. And I’m happy that you’re really your Hero, because I always knew you were.
From Nim
But when she turned off the laptop she didn’t feel quite so bright and brave, so instead of going to bed they all went down to Turtle Beach and sat together till the full moon shone silver on the waves.
Chica would leave soon to wander the world’s oceans for another year. ‘But you’ll come back next spring, won’t you?’ said Nim, because it was hard to think of Chica leaving too, when Jack wasn’t home yet and Alex didn’t need to rescue her.
Chica nodded sleepily.
‘And maybe then,’ Nim said, ‘Alex will come and meet you, too.’