THE NEXT MORNING, Nim, Selkie and Fred snuck up even earlier to swim in the Waterslide Pool. With the three of them all together, they felt almost free.

At the first sounds of the crew bustling around, they scurried back to Selkie’s prison. A few moments later, the ship dropped anchor in a white sand harbour.

Nim locked Selkie in and ran upstairs to say good morning to the dolphins in the fountain. When she went back to the Animal Room, the Professor was waiting for her to start feeding and cleaning.

‘No time for that!’ he snapped, when Nim hugged Selkie. ‘Feed them and get out. I don’t want you around today.’

‘But you said I could practise this afternoon!’

‘I’ve changed my mind. Now snap to it and then scram!’

His eyes were narrow, his face was hard – and he kept glancing at his whip. Nim fed the animals, and got out.

‘EVERYONE’S GOING ASHORE,’ Erin told Nim. ‘I wish you could come, but they check the tickets extra carefully when people get back on. It wouldn’t be safe.’

‘They’ll probably use your inflatable,’ Ben added. ‘Did you get all your things?’

Nim nodded. Everything was tucked safely into Erin’s wardrobe.

‘The Kids’ Klub is shut too,’ Erin said sadly, ‘so you’d better stay in our cabin.’

Nim had to wander up and down the deck while Erin and Ben’s mother hurried in and out of the cabins to organise their day. She felt as empty as a pricked balloon when Ben and Erin finally disappeared down the stairs with their family.

A second later, Erin came running back down the hall.

‘I said I forgot my hat,’ she puffed, unlocking the cabin door. ‘There are some books on my bed, if you want to read, and television, and paper and textas for making the posters. I wish you could come!’

Erin grabbed her hat, shouted, ‘Bye!’ and ran out. Nim started looking through the books. One was Mountain Madness, by Alex Rover. Nim remembered when she first read it, when she was alone on the island and Alex had emailed to ask Jack about coconuts. Alex had tried to tell Nim she wasn’t really the Hero of her story, but Nim hadn’t believed her. She wondered if she would still like the book now she knew Alex was just a small scared woman who’d sailed across the world to help Nim, before she even knew her.

She lay on Erin’s bed and started reading.

There was a knock, and Ben bounced in. ‘We forgot to tell you – breakfast is in the desk!’

He raced out again, and Nim found a brown-bread sandwich and an apple in the drawer.

Fred didn’t like brown bread, and he didn’t like apples, but he was hungry enough to share. ‘We’ll find you something,’ Nim said, though she wasn’t sure what.

They had a shower; Nim changed into the clothes Erin had left for her, and sat down at the desk with the papers and coloured pens. She drew twenty-two SEA LION CIRCUS posters – two for each passenger deck – exactly how she’d planned them with Erin and Ben. When she’d finished, she tucked them neatly into the desk drawer, flopped back onto Erin’s bed, and went on reading.

Rap! Tap!

Someone was knocking at the door.

Nim stayed very still and didn’t answer. Fred crept behind a lamp and went to sleep.

The door opened, and a steward in a white uniform and blue apron came in with a vacuum cleaner and a mop and bucket. She saw Nim, and dropped her bucket.

‘Yipes!’ Virginia squeaked. ‘Did your parents leave you here alone?’

Nim nodded, because she couldn’t tell the truth.

‘Are you sick?’

Nim nodded again.

Virginia shook her head sympathetically. ‘Sorry – I still have to clean,’ she said, ‘but I’ll be as quiet as I can.’

She straightened Ben’s bed and made Nim sit on it while she changed Erin’s. ‘Leaving a sick child alone!’ Nim heard her muttering. ‘Appalling!’

Nim thought about Erin and Ben’s parents, and her face grew as hot and red as the lava in Fire Mountain. ‘I’m feeling a lot better now!’

Virginia finished cleaning, felt Nim’s forehead and made her go back to bed.

Nim picked up Mountain Madness again. She read lying down, she read sitting up, and she read lying on the floor with her feet on the bed. Then she practised doing handstands, and Fred practised climbing from her shoulder to her feet instead of the usual way around. They even made up a trick with Fred staying stiff as a log and Nim twirling him around on her feet.

But you can’t stay upside down spinning an iguana for ever, so after that Nim stared out through the lifeboat stands at a bit of blue sea. A great black frigate bird soared past. Looking through her spyglass she was almost sure it was Galileo. ‘I wish I could go out on deck to check,’ she muttered, even though she didn’t have a fish to call him with.

One more chapter of Mountain Madness; the hero had just caught a trout in a mountain stream and cooked it over a fire.

‘I should have saved the apple for lunch,’ Nim told Fred. Fred answered with his best unblinking stare. He was sure she could find them some food if she tried hard enough.

‘We can’t go out,’ she told him, ‘because everyone else has gone ashore, and the crew will notice me and ask where my parents are.’

There was another knock at the door. Nim shoved a pillow over Fred, and Virginia tiptoed in carrying a tray.

‘I wasn’t sure what you liked,’ she said, ‘so I brought sandwiches and salad, fruit, cake …’

The pillow wiggled. Nim put her elbow on it. ‘Thank you. That’s very nice of you.’

She was glad she could say something that wasn’t a lie.

‘I’m so pleased you’re starting to feel better. The poor lady next door hasn’t left her cabin for the whole trip!’

This cabin was a bright room with cheerful paintings on the walls, but Nim thought she’d have gone crazy if she’d spent the whole trip in it.

‘You look a bit bored,’ Virginia said, as she left. ‘Do you want the TV on?’ She handed Nim the remote control.

‘Thanks,’ said Nim.

But even though Nim had seen televisions in the lounges when they played Spy, and she’d played video games in the Kids’ Klub, she’d never sat and watched a program with a story – and she’d never had the remote. Neither had Fred. Fred didn’t care about the programs, but he liked stepping on the buttons so that the channel changed just as Nim figured out what was happening.

‘Stop it, Fred!’ Nim shouted.

Fred went to sulk under the bed, and Nim turned the TV off. She didn’t want to shout again and wake up that poor sick lady next door.

‘Come on … you can have all the lettuce,’ she coaxed, and when Fred had eaten the lettuce out of the sandwich and sneezed a kiwi fruit all over the bed, he felt quite cheerful again.

Nim finished Mountain Madness and stared out the window some more.

When she heard the rumble of the launches and the thump of passengers’ feet on the gangplank, she grabbed Fred and raced outside to gulp deep breaths of fresh air.

And as soon as the ship was on its way out to sea again, Nim pulled on her Troppo Tourist jacket and ran down the stairs to the Animal Room. She waited outside the door until the Professor let her in.

Selkie whuffled sadly, because it had been an even longer day for her. And scarier.

The last of the empty cages was full now – with long, fat snakes.

From: erin@kidmail.com

To: jack.rusoe@explorer.net

Date: Monday 5 July, 7:30pm

Subject: Very important!

Dear Jack

Maybe there’s something wrong with the computer and that’s why you’re not answering, but I think you’d want to know what we’re doing so I’ll go on emailing and maybe you can read it later.

Today I had to stay inside the cabin all day and it was very boring but now I understand even better how Selkie must be feeling, and all the other animals with her. So maybe it was good in some ways.

Erin bought me a bead bracelet when she went ashore. It’s very pretty and she bought one for herself just the same so whenever we wear them we will think about each other. Ben brought Fred and me a coconut, which was good because we haven’t had coconut for way too long.

Love (as much as Fred loves coconut)

Nim