NIM AND THE boy stared at each other.
Fred and the boy stared at each other.
‘Ben!’ a girl called. ‘What are you doing?’
Ben didn’t answer.
‘I’m coming up too!’
Nim’s boat rocked again, and Erin slithered in.
‘Be quiet!’ Ben hissed. ‘She’s a stowaway!’
‘I thought you were the Professor’s kid!’
‘I didn’t mean to stow away,’ Nim said, ‘but the Professor kidnapped Selkie.’
‘Kidnapped!’ Erin and Ben whispered together, crouching closer towards her in the bottom of the lifeboat.
I shouldn’t have told them! Nim thought. Now Selkie will stay in that cage forever.
‘Who’s Selkie?’ asked Erin.
‘How are you going to rescue her all by yourself?’ asked Ben.
SO NIM TOLD them her story. It was hard for Erin and Ben to believe, but they knew it was true.
‘It’s not going to be easy,’ said Nim. ‘We need to make a plan.’
‘But first, we all need breakfast,’ said Ben. Fred lifted his head and stared. He liked this Ben.
‘You exit first, Ben,’ said Erin. ‘No one’s ever surprised to see you popping out of strange places.’
With a quick peek over the edge, Ben swung down, and a second later rapped twice on the metal frame to say the coast was clear. Erin followed. After a while there were two more raps, and Nim climbed out too. Erin was waiting at the open door of the cabin; Nim could see a man and a woman disappearing down the stairs with two small girls and Ben.
‘Come inside, quick!’ Erin whispered.
This cabin was bigger and fancier than Kylie’s, with two beds and two sets of drawers and lamps, a desk and wardrobe.
‘This is Ben’s and mine,’ Erin said. ‘Mum and Dad and the twins are in the cabin next door – but they’ve gone to breakfast now, so we’ll be okay.’ She opened the wardrobe. ‘I’ve got some clothes for you.’
‘I’ve already got clothes!’ said Nim.
‘Your shorts are great,’ Erin said, ‘but if you’re going to hide on the ship, you need to look like the other kids.’
Erin was right, Nim thought. A disguise was more important than wearing her own clothes.
In the bathroom, Erin gave Nim a bag with a toothbrush, a tiny tube of toothpaste and a comb. ‘We got these on the plane. Meet us at the Kids’ Klub after you’ve visited Selkie – we’ll bring you breakfast.’
Erin raced out to meet up with her family, and Nim had a shower. This time she closed the shower door so Fred couldn’t run in and out, and not much water got on the floor. She hung her towel up where Erin had shown her, changed into her new clothes, and slipped out of the cabin, her rubber sandals flip-flopping a strange music on her feet.
The Animal Room was still locked. Nim sat outside the door, calling to Selkie through the crack, but she couldn’t hear any sea lion whuffles on the other side. Finally, the Professor came to unlock it, yawning and grumbling.
Selkie was sitting up in her cage, looking cross and bored. Nim rushed to her.
‘Never hug the animals!’ the Professor snarled.
‘But it helps them learn tricks,’ said Nim.
The Professor grunted. ‘So what do you think you could teach them?’
‘I’ll bet the sea lion could catch fish,’ said Nim.
Selkie barked yes.
Nim threw two fish high and twirling, and Selkie caught them both.
‘That’s enough,’ snapped the Professor. ‘She needs to be hungry enough to learn something more interesting.’
‘She could do much better tricks if she was in the water,’ said Nim.
The Professor pointed to the bathtub.
‘That’s not big enough!’ But Selkie slid into it, because if she rolled and splashed at least she could get wet.
‘She’s just too fat!’ the Professor sneered.
Selkie glared and slid out of the tub – and Fred scrabbled from Nim’s shoulder into the bit of water left behind, checking for seaweed.
Nim threw a fish into the tub. Fred didn’t eat fish, so he flicked it over the edge to Selkie. Selkie opened her mouth, and the fish disappeared.
‘If they had a pool to practise in,’ said Nim, ‘I could teach them fantastic tricks.’
‘Hmph,’ said the Professor. Nim wished she knew what that ‘hmph’ meant, but at least he let her give Selkie the rest of her breakfast fish. She put out seeds for the birds, too, and fruit for the monkeys and lizards, but most of the animals cowered at the back of their cages, too frightened to eat.
Fred clung tight to Nim’s shoulder. He was too afraid of being locked up to even steal food from the caged lizards.
Selkie stuck close to Nim’s side, whuffling worriedly. She was afraid of being locked up again, too, but she was more worried about what the bad man might do to Nim.
And so when the Professor ordered Selkie to her cage and Nim out of the room, Selkie didn’t complain so that Nim wouldn’t worry, and Nim didn’t cry so that Selkie wouldn’t worry.
Fred just waited till the Professor had gone the other way down the hall, with the key in his pocket – then he sneezed, hard.
AFTER THE GREY misery of the Animal Room, the Kids’ Klub seemed like a strange kind of dream, with too many lights and too many colours, too much noise, and too many kids.
‘Come on,’ said Erin, ‘let’s go outside.’
They ran up the stairs to the Sea Lion Deck. ‘The perfect spot for planning a sea lion rescue!’ Ben exclaimed.
It was hard not to feel a little happier as they lounged in the deck chairs beside the great blue pool, looking out over the deeper blue sea. Erin gave Nim a peanut butter sandwich on fresh white bread. The peanut butter was sticky, but Nim liked it after the first few bites. Ben had a banana in his pocket that was only a little bit squashed, and a piece of watermelon in a napkin that was completely smashed.
Fred loved smashed watermelon.
And as they ate and talked, their plan grew – and grew and grew.
ALEX HAD NO plans at all. Not one.
A young woman with Virginia on her nametag knocked on the cabin door with a glass of good morning juice. ‘I’m your steward for the trip, Miss Dozer – is there anything I can do to help you settle in?’
‘Could you have all my meals sent to my cabin, please?’
‘Sure!’ said Virginia. ‘But I hope you’re feeling well enough to get out and do things soon. The Professor’s lecturing on Spider Monkeys this afternoon. Poor little things … anyway, the Professor says they don’t mind being away from their mothers, and he’s the expert! Maybe you’ll feel well enough to go to that.’
‘Maybe,’ said Alex. Then she remembered she’d been wearing her same blue T-shirt and red pants for two days and a night. ‘Is there anywhere on the ship to buy clothes?’ Virginia smiled. ‘Clothes, jewellery, sports gear … we’ve got absolutely everything!’ She handed Alex a phone directory from the desk. ‘Do you know there’s one old lady who lives on the ship full time? She says she never intends to go ashore again, because the ship has everything a city does – so I’m sure you’ll find something you want.’
Alex flipped through the directory, and phoned the Troppo Ladies’ Leisurewear Shoppe to order a few new pairs of shorts and tops.
But when she opened her mouth, she heard herself ask for pyjamas, because deep down, all she really wanted to do was stay in her bed from now until she had to get off the ship. Or maybe she’d be like the old lady and just stay on the ship for the rest of her life.
JACK HAD SEARCHED for Nim all night, from one end of the island to the other and across the other side. When the sun came up he was on top of Fire Mountain.
Far below him was the top of Frigate Bird Cliffs, then Turtle Beach’s pale gold sand, the grasslands and Shell Beach at the hut, Sea Lion Point and Keyhole Cove, and finally the grim black lava-rock, where the Emergency Cave was hidden.
But no matter which way or how far his binoculars searched, there was no sign of Nim.
‘She’s not on the island,’ Jack finally admitted. ‘And Selkie would never let her fall into the sea and drown. She must be with Alex.’
The picture of the seaplane leaving was burned into his mind, but when he tried to decide if he could have seen the top of Nim’s wild hair in the back, behind Alex’s gold head, sometimes he could and sometimes he just couldn’t.
Jack was angry because they’d left without telling him, and he was frightened for Nim because she’d never been in a city, even though she’d be safe with Alex. But most of all he was sad because he was on the island without them and they were somewhere else without him, and they should all be together.
‘I’ll simply have to go and find them,’ said Jack.
The problem was, he had absolutely no idea where they could be.
