Lila Blue (18 page)

After building, we explored the odd
rock formations on the beach. One Molly and I both loved was a stone archway.
It was a natural tunnel about eight feet long and three feet high inside. We
crawled all the way through it on our hands and knees. The floor of the tunnel
was small round stones, so it was like crawling on marbles. Lila didn't join us
in that. She said she'd crawled through the first time she came to Saint Ann's,
and her knees still remembered it.

Farther down the cove we found the
young couple who had hiked in ahead of us. They were digging through the stones
at the surf edge.

Molly asked them, "What are
you looking for?"

"Agates," the woman said.
"We found some amazing clear stones here four years ago. Big ones."

The man pulled a stone out of his
pocket and showed it to us. It was about the size of a small cookie, and it was
a clear mossy green with streaks of opaque brown through it. "This will
polish to a beauty," he said.

Molly and I tried finding some on
our own, but we didn't have any luck and lost interest. I was afraid we wouldn't
have time to see everything.

Through her binoculars Lila was
studying the sea spires rising out of the surf. She pointed out birds perched
on narrow ledges near the top of one of the spires, and she let us take turns
with her field glasses.

The black birds were about the size
of fat robins, only they had big bright orange feet and heavy orange bills. They
didn't look like any bird I'd seen before, even on nature shows on TV. They
seemed uncomfortable up on those skinny ledges, but I guess they were safe
there. Nothing could get them.

I had forgotten about Mark, but I
remembered him when I saw Lila scanning the cove and the cliff above it. She
checked her watch and said, "Let's head up a ways."

Molly and I followed her to the
pine tree Lila pointed out to us earlier as the meeting place. We could pretty
much see the whole cove from there, but no Mark. We waited there for a while.

I tried to take a mental picture of
everything, so I'd always remember this magical place. The rock sculpture
people perfectly complemented the steep spires rising out of the sea.

"We should have asked those
people if they made any of the rock piles," I said. "They could have
made a few before we got here. Or maybe they came yesterday?"

"We need to find Mark,"
Lila said. "He's ten minutes late. We have to start back in ten
minutes."

Molly and I didn't say anything,
but we looked at each other like, uh-oh, Mark is in trouble. We followed Lila
as she walked toward the caves at the far end of the cove.

I kept expecting to see Mark any
second, because I didn't think he would want to worry Lila. When he didn't show
up, I started worrying. We were close to the caves now, and Lila called Mark's
name. We waited. Nothing. She called again, and this time I could hear the fear
and anger mixed together in her voice.

Then she blew the whistle three
sharp blasts, and the people down at the surf line looked up and started coming
toward us. I went to meet them halfway and told them my older brother was
missing, and we wanted to start back. They hadn't seen him.

The woman looked at her watch and
said, "It's almost time to go."

We all went to join Molly and Lila,
and then I saw Mark come out of the mouth of the smallest cave, the one above
the others. He waved to us, and I waved back, relieved.

Lila didn't wave, though. As soon
as she saw him, she turned and started marching toward home. Molly and I had to
nearly run to keep up with her. Mark caught up with us in time to follow me
out. The young couple came right behind him.

It took all our concentration to
get back around the cliff face. It seemed the waves were coming higher, and one
splashed up to our knees before we got back around on our sandy beach.

Molly and Lila waited until we
joined them on the sand, and then Lila told Molly and me to go let Curtis know
we were okay. I hadn't thought about it, but now I realized Curtis would have
been watching the clock for our safe return. It was a real adventure going to
Saint Ann's, and I was grateful to Lila for being so brave and confident to
take us there.

Molly and I ran with the wind,
flapping our arms like seagulls, our backpacks thumping our backs and our wet
shoes squishing while we ran. It felt wonderful to be alive and safe, flying
down a wild beach with a friend.

We slowed down when we got to
Jamie's seal safety zone and edged close to the sea wall as far away from the
baby as we could. We waved at the pup watch crews, but I didn't recognize them.
I think Molly did. She knew everyone in the village.

Upstairs Curtis and Jamie greeted
us at the door and took our packs and hats while we rinsed off our feet
outside. Jamie got my slippers out of my room for me and gave Molly a pair of
his socks to wear.

Jamie said, "Where are Mark
and Grandma?"

"We ran home," Molly
said.

Jamie searched my face, and I was
pretty sure I couldn't hide anything from him. Still I didn't know how much to
say, so I said, "They're fine. They're talking. The cove is
fantastic!"

Molly told them about the rock
sculpture people and how we made a bunch more. I described the ocean spires as
best I could and the orange and black birds.

"Puffins," Curtis said.
"They're very shy. Only the shyest ones survive. Biologists talk about
survival of the fittest, but sometimes that means survival of the most
cautious. Especially when humans are around."

"Why would anyone hurt a
puffin?" I asked. "They don't look that good to eat."

"Same reason they would hurt a
baby seal," he said. "Some people are ignorant and mean."

The pain I'd felt in my stomach
when the woman threw down Jamie's seal came back, and I held my stomach,
telling myself everything was okay now. The baby was fine. I was fine. We would
heal.

All that adventure, sunshine, and
salt air had made us hungry, so Molly and I went in the kitchen to forage for
snacks. We decided on leftover cornbread smeared with strawberry jam, washed
down with big glasses of cold milk. We offered to fix Curtis and Jamie some
too, but they'd already eaten.

Jamie went down to meet Lila and
Mark. He needed to check in with the seal guards, too, I'm sure. Everyone
looked to him as the boss. Molly and I watched from the kitchen table where we
had our snack. Jamie seemed so small going down the stairs by himself.

Even though I was twice the size of
Molly and Jamie, I felt we were all the same size, because we were equals. It
surprised me when I couldn't avoid the disparity in our sizes. I wondered how
they experienced it. Was I a friendly giant to them?

After Molly and I were done eating,
we cleaned up and joined Curtis on the couch. He was reading a book on
astronomy, one of those big books that have all the outer space pictures. He
was showing us the coolest pictures, and we were lost in those when Mark and
Lila and Jamie came back.

They all seemed fine, so I guess it
had all been talked out. Lila was good about regaining her happiness after
everything had been communicated clearly.

I wasn't so sure about Mark, though.
He went up the stairs to the Crow's Nest without saying a word to the rest of
us.

The next morning I woke up with a
bad dream. In it I was on the beach in front of the house and the water receded
so far back that the beach was littered with stranded fish and starfish all
flopping around. I tried to gather them up and throw them back in the water,
but there were too many of them and the ocean kept going back. Then a huge wave
came and pushed me all the way over the sea wall, up the cliff, across the street,
and all the way to the highway in front of Lila's barbershop. It left me there
drenched and covered with sand. I got up and looked for everyone else. I found
Jamie and Lila together, but I couldn't find Mark or my mother. Afraid they
were lost, I woke up calling their names.

When I got up, everyone else was
eating breakfast in the kitchen. Jamie was concerned because the seal pup
hadn't moved during the night. The first shift of seal watchers couldn't find
the trail of the mother in the sand, but they couldn't be sure because maybe
high tide had washed away evidence of the mother's visit.

Jamie and Mark and I were scheduled
to take the next watch, so I hurried to get myself fed and watered and dressed
before I had to go down to the beach. My dream faded, and by the time I was on
the beach, I forgot it completely.

Our watch went smoothly. The only
people who came by were local neighbors, and they stopped for a few minutes to
chat. Most of them had been on watch the day before, so there wasn't much news.
As it was too early for most tourists to be on the beach, our job was easy.

I couldn't tell if the baby was
bigger. If the mother had been feeding her each night, she should be gaining
weight and strength. Jamie said he could tell she was bigger. He said he could
feel her getting stronger. I knew he believed it, but I also knew it's easy to
deceive ourselves when we want something with all our hearts.

I thought about my mother. We
hadn't talked much at all since Mark and Jamie had been with us. She was still
working extra hours, still drinking more to deal with the stress of it, and
still saying she wanted me to come home. Being in an empty apartment depressed
her, so it wasn't me she wanted, just someone, anyone. She sounded sad and
tired, and I knew I couldn't fix that. In Oregon, I could see how impossible it
was to solve her problems, but at home with her, I always thought there was
something I could do or not do that would make things easier for her. I was
always wrong.

I was at the north end of the seal
area and Jamie and Mark were stationed at the south end. They were looking out
to sea, sitting close together side by side, and I could see Mark lean down to
listen to Jamie or occasionally speak to him. They seemed so happy and relaxed
together. I felt very alone on my side. Terry and Rich were coming the next day
to get my brothers, so today was our last full day together.

When the next crew took over, we
went upstairs to find Lila getting ready for work early. Herbert wasn't feeling
well and needed her to take over, so she said a quick goodbye and left about
ten o'clock.

"I'll bring home fish and
chips for dinner," she said on her way out the door, "so you don't
need to cook. Just be ready to eat when I get back."

Jamie went with her because he
wanted to say goodbye to all the people and animals of Lila’s part of Rainbow
Village. I was happy that he felt okay leaving the seal long enough to visit
his other animal friends. I wondered if he visited a dozen animal friends daily
in Idaho. I realized I didn't even know how many pets they had at home.

When I asked Mark about it after
Lila and Jamie left, he said, "We have Duchess, a black lab who lives outside,
and Jamie has fish. He's always wanted cats, but Rich is allergic."

"Does he visit other people's
pets, like here?"

"Of course. He makes good
money walking dogs in our neighborhood. He's got more in savings than I
do."

I laughed. "I notice how good
you are to him. It makes me happy to see you together," I said, realizing
that I was a little jealous.

"We're lucky," he said.

"Yea. You have two parents and
you're rich," I said before I could stop myself. It sounded so childish I
was ashamed.

Mark looked at me, but he didn't say
anything. What could he say?

I went to my room and tried to call
Shelly. We hadn't talked in several days, and I wanted to know if they still
planned to come. She was at the movies with her cousins, so I told her grandma
I'd call again soon.

I thought I'd go later to the
village to see how Molly was doing, but I'd wait until after Jamie came back to
the house. I wanted a little time with him if it worked out, to tell him how
happy I was he was my brother. I didn't know if I'd ever see him again.

So I curled up on the couch with
Chloe and Zoe and read one of Lila's nature magazines, an article about salmon
fishing on the nearby rivers. Apparently some Native Americans followed tribal
traditions and netted all the fish they could catch, which conflicted with
ordinary Americans who had to follow the fish and game laws about legal limits.
Plus some fat seals stayed in the mouths of rivers grabbing every fish they
could during the salmon run, so some fishermen felt justified in shooting the
seals, which incensed people who love seals. What a mess! How could anyone
decide what was right and fair?

The cats and I must have snoozed
for a while, because I was startled awake when Mark went out through the front
door. I got up and saw him heading downstairs to the beach. He was wearing
almost the same thing he had been yesterday for our hike to the cove, only his
backpack looked fuller, and I suddenly remembered my dream.

I ran outside and called to him. He
turned and said, "I'll be home for dinner. Don't worry." Then he
waved and took off north toward the cove.

I went to the kitchen and looked on
the message board, it read, "Hiking. Home by six."

The kitchen clock said twelve
thirty, and I knew the tides were about half an hour later every cycle, so Mark
could be going back to the cove. There would be a much shorter window of time
today if he made it back there. He knew more about it than I did. It was none
of my business. He was fifteen and I was barely twelve. I'd just realized I
couldn't solve my mom's problems, and now I was trying to predict and protect a
big brother I'd barely met. That made less sense than trying to make my mother
happy.

I shook my head to get clear, but
it didn't work, so I took a hot shower, dressed, and left the house to go visit
Molly at the bookstore. On my way I went by the barbershop to wave at Lila, and
Curtis and Molly were in there, so I went in. Curtis was in Herbert's barber
chair and Molly had the chair in the lowest position with the back reclined,
like a dentist chair. She was braiding his hair, and he was holding up a book
trying to read it while she worked on him.