WHEN ALEX FINALLY got out of the cruise ship terminal, she could see the top of the Papyrus Publishing building, tall and shining above the others around it. There was a long queue for taxis, and Alex needed to get there fast. She crossed the highway and started to walk.

She wrote her email to Nim and Jack in her head as she walked. It wasn’t easy, but she knew what she had to say. The only thing she didn’t know was what their answer would be.

She was thinking about them so hard that sometimes she’d see a girl with hair like Nim’s, or a man who walked like Jack, and for half a moment she’d think, They’re here!

It was so bad that when she looked in the window of her publisher’s building, she thought she saw Selkie sitting in front of the bookcases.

‘You,’ Alex told herself, ‘are going absolutely fruitcake nutty!’

‘But,’ she added, ‘in five more minutes you can email them.’

‘FIRST THINGS FIRST,’ Delia was saying to Nim. ‘Come up to my office to email Alex and your father – Selkie and Fred can stay down here, can’t they?’

Selkie barked and pressed hard against Nim, while Fred scrambled up to her shoulder.

‘Okay,’ said Delia. ‘I guess we can take the freight elevator.’

Suddenly Selkie barked louder and skidded across to the revolving door as fast as she could lollop.

‘Selkie!’ shouted Nim.

And then she saw Alex.

They raced across the floor and met in the middle, hanging on just as tight as they had when Nim had pulled Alex out of her sinking sailboat. Selkie whuffled around them in a loving circle and Fred climbed up to Alex’s shoulder.

‘But how?’ Alex asked. ‘And when?’

‘On a ship,’ said Nim. ‘I’m sorry, I’m so sorry.’

‘Where’s Jack?’

‘I think he’s very mad at me. I don’t know why I said such terrible things.’

‘Do you mean you came alone?’

‘That’s what she means,’ said Delia. ‘Which is one of the many reasons I’m so happy to meet my best-selling author!’

Alex let go of Nim for just long enough to shake Delia’s hand. ‘Before we do anything else,’ she said, ‘could we please email Jack?’

Delia led them around to the freight elevator and they all rode up to Delia’s office, with Nim and Alex still both talking at once and trying to explain.

‘… and then we jumped off,’ said Nim. ‘Near the green lady.’

‘Jumped off what?’ asked Alex, feeling sick.

‘The ship,’ said Nim.

Alex felt even sicker. ‘What ship?’ she asked, when she could breathe again.

Nim told her, and Alex told Nim her story, and Nim laughed and cried and Alex cried and laughed, when they realised that Nim had been hiding in a lifeboat right outside Alex’s cabin for that whole week.

Then Alex checked her email, and the messages came flooding in. She read through Jack’s messages from the last right back to the first. The more she read the paler she got, because Jack was so angry and sad she knew he’d never want to see her again.

‘But I told him what happened,’ Nim said sadly. ‘Erin sent an email every day.’

‘Maybe he was too sad to understand,’ said Alex.

From: aka@incognito.net

To: jack.rusoe@explorer.net

Date: Wednesday July 7, 2:02pm

Subject: I’ve found Alex!

Dear Jack

You shouldn’t be angry at Alex because it’s not her fault that I left. But it’s my fault she left.

I wish you could come too.

We are going down to the sea now so Selkie and Fred can swim in salt water, because they’ve just been in fountains today. I hope your email is working so you get this and I hope you answer.

Love (as much as Selkie loves us)

Nim

‘But what if the Professor tries to catch Selkie again?’ Nim asked.

‘NO ONE is ever going to take Selkie away again!’ said Alex. She looked so fierce that Nim believed her.

DELIA’S PHONE RANG. ‘There’s someone waiting for you downstairs,’ she said, and for just a minute both Nim and Alex thought, Jack!

They all rode the freight elevator back down to the lobby, and though it wasn’t Jack, Nim was still very glad to see Carla. Fred was glad to see Fritz, and Alex and Delia were glad to meet someone who’d helped Nim. There were more thank yous, more exclaiming and explaining, and then Carla and Fritz dashed off to start baking tomorrow’s cakes.

A long white car with black windows pulled up in front. The driver got out to open the doors.

‘Here’s your car,’ said Delia. ‘Are you sure you don’t want me to organise a hotel?’

‘Thanks,’ said Alex, ‘but I’d like to do it myself. It’s time I learned to do things like that.’

A boy and a girl with their mother stopped to stare as Alex, Delia, Nim and Fred, and finally Selkie, came out through the revolving doors.

‘Look at the sea lion!’

‘That kid’s got a lizard on her shoulder!’

‘Oh, they’re just advertising a book,’ said the mother.

Nim and Alex looked at each other and laughed so hard they had to lean against the limousine before they could get into it.

Delia waved goodbye as the car pulled out, with Nim and Alex sitting beside each other, Fred on the back of the seat staring out a window, and Selkie sitting on the floor and staring out hers.

Alex pushed a button in the limousine’s door and her window rolled down. Nim pushed the button for Selkie, but rolled Fred’s down just enough that he could put his head out, and not so far he could fall out by mistake.

‘Help yourself to a drink,’ the driver said.

There were bottles in a cupboard behind the driver’s seat. Nim had to pour the water into a lid for Fred. Selkie could drink hers from the bottle.

The limousine driver politely asked Selkie not to put her head out the window with the bottle in her mouth. Selkie finished her water fast: she liked having her head out of the window.

When they stopped at a light, three dogs crossed the road in front of them.

‘WHOOF!’ honked Selkie, racing from one window to the next.

‘Arf!’ the dogs yipped in surprise.

Selkie whuffled happily. Limousines were much nicer than being on her own in the back of a van, trying not to move in case she squashed cakes.

THE DRIVER TOOK them to another park a little further up the river from where the tugboat had brought Nim that morning. There was a marina with boats moored all along the wharves: sailboats, motorboats, and some that looked more like floating houses. One had flower boxes at its windows and a ‘For Rent’ sign on its bow.

‘Interesting!’ Alex said thoughtfully. ‘But I’m starving. Let’s get something to eat.’

Fred rubbed his spiky back against her ankle. He’d nearly forgotten how much he liked Alex.

The four of them walked together across the green grass to a café in the middle. They sat at an outside table, where Selkie and Fred could watch the dogs sitting at other tables with their people. Alex ordered fish and chips and salad, but added, ‘One fish needs to be raw, please!’

‘Of course!’ said the waiter, and brought Selkie and Fred a bowl of water to share while they waited.

‘I didn’t know you had sea lions in New York City,’ said the man at the next table.

‘We’re just visiting,’ Alex explained.

‘And I love your mother-and-daughter outfits!’ his wife exclaimed. ‘Did you make them yourself?’

Alex looked embarrassed. ‘We’re not …’

‘Yes,’ said Nim.

Alex’s eyes filled up with tears. ‘We’ll have to find somewhere to check emails after dinner,’ she said – because even though Nim had forgiven her for leaving, she didn’t know if Jack ever could.

‘But Selkie and Fred need to swim first,’ said Nim, and so when they’d finished, they wandered down to the marina. Fred and Selkie lollopped across the park and into the water – and as they ran, more and more people came to stare.

‘Quick!’ said Alex, and they raced to the end of a pier where a sign said: ‘Kayaks for hire.’

‘Have you kayaked before?’ the woman asked.

‘Of course!’ said Alex.

They climbed in and started to paddle. They were splashing as much water as Selkie in a fountain, but somehow they didn’t move very far or very fast.

‘Are you sure you’ve done this before?’ Nim asked.

‘It might have been one of my books,’ said Alex. ‘I get mixed up.’