THEY ROUNDED A TURN INTO THE LIGHT AND GRACE SQUINTED against the glare. She could smell the ocean.
“C’mon, hurry!” Fred shouted back to them. He was teetering on a big boulder at the edge of the water. There was only a metre or so between the cliff and the rising tide.
The beach was littered with mounds of dried kelp, and its rotting, salty smell mingled with the damp sea air. Rain was exploding from the thunderheads above. Stinging needles of water pelted Grace’s face and arms as she emerged onto the beach. The pain on the outside seemed to dull some of the pain inside and she tilted her face upward, welcoming more.
“Where are we, anyway?” Mai asked. She looked back and forth along the shore. “Grace?”
“What?”
“Do you know this place? It’s not Battlemen’s Beach, that’s for sure!” Mai’s voice rose.
Grace shook her head. What does it matter now? she thought.
Mai’s fingers closed gently around Grace’s wrist. “It’s important!” she said firmly.
Grace sighed. “Well, we were at the PA4, which is pretty much under the Point Aconi lighthouse.” She glanced above them to the cliffs. “Look, you can see the tip of it up there.”
Grace stepped onto a flat boulder at the edge of the waves. She leaned as far forward as she dared. “There!” she said, pointing. “I can see the very tip of Little Table Island. The rest of it is hidden by the point.”
“So we’re on the opposite side of the point, then?” Fred asked. “We’ve never been here before.”
Grace pulled the map out of her dad’s field bag. She spread it out on the rocky beach. Point Aconi stretched like a long finger into the ocean. She traced along the right side of the point with her finger. “That’s Battlemen’s Beach.” She pointed to a small sliver off the point. “And this is Little Table Island.”
“Oh,” Mai said, crouching down beside Grace. “So we’re here, then?” She touched the left side of the long finger on the map.
“We have to be,” Grace nodded.
“Uh, guys?” Fred broke in. “The tide’s almost in. And it doesn’t look like we can get back to Battlemen’s Beach from here—the water’s already risen all the way up to the cliffs that way. We’re gonna get trapped here if we don’t start moving!”
Grace looked up at the towering cliff beside them. Always stay as far away from the rock face as it is high. Her dad’s words echoed in her head. But his warning isn’t much good to us now, she thought as she watched the small waves from the incoming tide curl around her feet. She was close enough to touch the crumbling slate of the cliff face.
There was nowhere to go. If there were a rock slide, they’d be buried.
“Grace?” Mai said. “What are we going to do? The water…it’s everywhere.” Her voice was high and scratchy.
“Have you ever been on this side of the point?” Jeeter asked. “Where would we end up if we go down that way?” He pointed off in the other direction, away from Battlemen’s Beach.
“I don’t know,” Grace said. “My dad and I never came this far before. I always wanted to come around the point by boat and see this side of the beach from the water.” She remembered pleading with her dad to come over here. He’d promised to take her one day. “But we never did…” she trailed off.
“Well, what choice do we have?” Mai squeaked, flinging dripping strands of hair away from her face. “We can’t go back into the tunnel, not with the chance of another cave-in!”
“Yeah, pancake city!” Fred said, slapping his two hands together. “Besides, that Stuckless guy is coming back for us, remember?”
Grace shuddered.
“Guys?” Fred said. “Whatever we’re doing, we’d better do it, like, pronto.”
The water had now risen past Fred’s ankles. Their tiny scrap of shore was disappearing fast.
For a second Grace felt like just leaning against the cliff and waiting for the water to come and take her away. It would be so easy.
“Come on,” Jeeter said. He scurried over the huge boulders on the beach, not looking back.
Fred started to follow behind Jeeter, but his foot slipped on the wet surface of a boulder and he banged his knee against the stone. “Ouch!” He turned back toward Grace and Mai, frowning and rubbing his shin.
“Are you okay?” Mai asked.
“Yeah, of course,” Fred bluffed. “I’m fine.”
He jumped back up on the boulder and held his hand out to help Mai.
“Thanks, Fred,” she said as she grabbed his hand.
Fred’s face shone as he pulled Mai up beside him. He didn’t let go of her as they continued over the rocks.
Grace gazed longingly at the approaching waves and sighed. Sluggishly, she picked up the rear. Watching everyone’s back was a different view, she mused. She was used to being the leader. As she followed, she overheard Mai filling Fred in about the toxic waste and finding her dad’s hat.
The rain had finally stopped, but the rocks were still slick and dangerous. Wet clumps of seaweed hid gaps between the boulders, and more than one trapped foot had to be yanked free as they clambered over the uneven shore. Blood oozed from the nicks and scratches they obtained from grasping at the sharp barnacles that encrusted most of the rock surfaces. Gulls screamed overhead. It was like they were in a hostile alien world.
Grace felt as if she’d forgotten everything she’d ever known. She was lost in a daze. Only having one arm to balance made it even tougher, but she refused all offers of help. It was Mai who’d finally suggested using their caving gloves to protect their hands from the barnacles. Grace couldn’t believe that she hadn’t thought of that.
After a torturous half hour, Grace, Mai, Fred, and Jeeter finally hit a clearing with a few flat boulders. They collapsed to rest and examine their injuries.
“Be careful, these are the last of the bandages,” Mai warned. “Fred! You have to clean the wound first!” She tossed him the disinfectant.
“Me?” he said. “Aren’t you going to do it?”
“Oh, for goodness sake,” she griped. But she was smiling as she kneeled down beside him to help.
Leaning backward, Grace squinted up at the cliffs above her. The rocks looked strange. She stood up to examine them more closely. Her fingers traced the smooth uniform ridges. Were they…tree trunk fossils? She stepped back to get a broader view. “Wow!” she exclaimed. There was a forest full of upright tree trunks encased in the cliff!
Wait ’til Dad sees this! The moment the thought sprung into her head, tears stung her eyes. He wouldn’t see it, not ever. Her excitement at the fossil discovery evaporated as quickly as it had come. Grace pulled her dad’s hat out of her pack. Careful to avoid looking at the stains on the brim, she switched it with her own, tugging it down over her eyes. It was loose, but she didn’t adjust it.
Mai was staring at her. Grace quickly looked away. Rubbing away her tears, she wondered where Jeeter was. Where had he gone this time?
As if in answer to her silent question, he emerged from behind a huge boulder. “You guys aren’t going to believe this,” he said, a huge grin on his face. “Follow me!”
Fred tugged Mai toward where Jeeter was beckoning them. They scrambled over the terrain and out of sight around a corner. Alone, Grace dragged herself to her feet, her arm throbbing worse than ever. Her eyes were again drawn to the sea. It sounded like her wave machine. She was suddenly very tired. If I lie down, will I float away? she wondered to herself.
Grace reluctantly followed in the direction of her friends. As she rounded another outcropping, she stopped abruptly. There, in the middle of nowhere, was a big wooden wharf with two fishing boats and a huge yacht tied up to it.
“Wow!” Fred said, running toward the wharf. “I bet they have their own cook on a yacht like that. Maybe he’ll make me a hamburger. I’m sooo hungry!” He stopped as he was about to step onto the wharf and turned to wave them on.
“Wait a minute,” Mai said. “We don’t know these people.”
“Who cares?” Fred said, walking back toward his friends. “This is Cape Breton, not New York. You think they’re the fish mafia or something?”
“Very funny, Freddo,” Jeeter said. “But Mai has a point. They could be anybody.”
“All I’m saying is that we have to be careful,” Mai said. “Maybe we should check it out first.”
“I’ll go,” Jeeter volunteered.
“Watch out,” Mai warned. It seemed like she might follow him. But then Fred touched her arm and whispered something in her ear. Whatever he said, it convinced her to stay beside him. That’s a first, Grace thought, Mai listening to Fred?
Jeeter walked slowly toward the yacht. It twisted slightly in the current, its long sleek side now visible.
Suddenly, Mai waved her arms frantically at Jeeter. “Jeeter, come back!” she rasped as loudly as she could. She pointed at the side of the yacht.
“Why?” he called back to her. “What’s wrong?”
“Look at the name on the yacht! It’s Sandstar!”