Red Rocks (8 page)

O
f course he was late to the movie, so he sat in the blackness, not following the story and unable to concentrate on it anyway. Giant robots screeched and crunched their way across the screen but he couldn’t work out if they were meant to be good or evil. Maybe they were neither — or both. His arm was still throbbing and he couldn’t stop his mind from wandering back over the day’s awful events: the scrape of
his hand on the gravel and the sting of his bike being stolen; his fruitless search through the dusty house; the look on his dad’s face when he was with Cara.

It was dark when he came out. The days were still so short at this time of year. His stomach growled despite the packet of nuts he’d eaten. There was no sign of Dad’s car, so he stood near the road and waited. Moviegoers, heading in for the next session, stepped around him.

‘You okay?’ asked one woman.

‘Fine, thanks,’ he said. ‘Just waiting for my dad.’

The woman looked concerned, but said nothing more and disappeared into the cinema. The crowd thinned and evaporated, and Jake was left standing alone, still waiting. He was cold and shoved his hands deep into his pockets.

Finally, one of the theatre staff, a tall young guy with dreadlocks, came out to where he stood.

‘Do you need to call someone?’ he asked.
His face was kind but Jake couldn’t remember his dad’s number, so he shook his head and thanked him.

‘I’m sure he’ll be here soon.’ Jake’s voice sounded much brighter than he felt. On the inside he was worried Dad had forgotten him altogether. He kicked a nearby lamppost. It was bad enough that his father didn’t want to live in the same city as him, even though Jake had practically begged him to come to Auckland when he was younger. But at least Dad usually
tried
to make Jake feel special when he was visiting, despite often being so busy writing. Now he couldn’t even remember to pick his own son up from the movies. Jake was just contemplating stomping home in the dark, which he didn’t relish, when Dad’s dented old car pulled up. Dad beeped the horn, even though Jake had seen him and was already moving towards the curb.

‘Sorry, sorry,’ said Dad. His voice was
vigorous
but he didn’t really sound remorseful. ‘Lost
track of time. Hope you didn’t have to wait too long.’

Jake said nothing and scrunched angrily down in his seat as they drove away.

‘Hey,’ said Dad. ‘Where’s your bike?’ He stopped the car. ‘We can’t leave it there
overnight
.’ He was just about to pull a U-turn, and Jake realised he’d have to tell him.

‘No, stop.’ He put his hand on Dad’s arm. ‘I haven’t got it. Some kids nicked it.’

‘What? Why didn’t you say so?’ He switched the engine off and turned to look at Jake. ‘What happened?’

Jake gave him the censored version of the day, the version he had gone over in his head at the movies. He told him about the boys but not about his conversation with Jessie or the hunt for the sealskin. ‘And I hurt my arm.’ He held it out. His wrist was nicely bruised now and a warm feeling spread through him when he saw how worried his dad looked as he took it gently in his hands.

‘Right,’ said Dad. ‘I’m calling the police when we get home. Those little gangsters aren’t getting away with this. Mate, why didn’t you tell me before?’

Jake realised that the story had given Dad a shock — the aura of enchantment around him had slipped and Jake had been able to wriggle his way back in. Now was his chance.

‘Because Cara’s got you all … weird!’ he blurted. ‘I thought you’d be mad. Or you wouldn’t care.’ He didn’t know which was worse.

‘Hey!’ said Dad. ‘What do you mean?’

‘Is she your girlfriend or something now? You bought her all that stuff. You can’t afford it. Mum told me you don’t have any money.’

Dad paused, weighing up his words carefully. ‘Cara’s special, Jake. She needs looking after. She doesn’t have any money or anywhere to live. We have to be kind to her. She doesn’t deserve to be homeless. Nobody does.’

‘So, what, is she moving in with you?’

Dad sighed. ‘I don’t expect you to
understand
.
It’s grown-up stuff.’

‘But I do understand. It’s just what
happened
with Mum. Greg moved in, and now there’s a baby.’

Dad laughed but he didn’t look amused. ‘Let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves, eh?’

‘Do you love her?’

‘What kind of a question is that?’

‘
Do you love her
?’

Dad ran a hand through his thick hair and looked at Jake with serious eyes. ‘Yes, Jake, I love her.’

‘I knew it.’ The magic had enveloped his father. There was no way he could love someone like that after just meeting her. Jake had to do something. He took a deep breath.

‘I know what she is, Dad. I know you took her skin and hid it so she’d stay with you.’

Dad put his hands on the steering wheel and stared at them. ‘Do you now?’

‘You have to give the skin back, or …’

‘Or what, Jake? Or she’ll stay with me?
I’ll be happy? Is that so bad?’

‘You said yourself, in the story you told me. She won’t rest until she’s found it. She’ll just wander around all the time, looking for it.’ Jake dropped his voice to a whisper. ‘And then she’ll die.’

‘Oh, rubbish,’ said Dad, swatting the air between them. ‘I know what this is, Jake. You’re jealous. And I can understand that, with everything that’s happened with your mum. But this is what I want.’

‘I am
not
jealous,’ said Jake, but he was lying.

‘Besides,’ said Dad. ‘She loves me too. It wouldn’t make a blind bit of difference if I gave her the skin. Which, I might add, is just a fairy story — you said so yourself. She’d stay with me anyway.’

‘Well, prove it, then!’ said Jake. ‘Give it back and see what happens.’

‘Maybe I will.’ Dad started up the car again and shifted it roughly into gear. They drove home in an angry silence.

Jake woke with a start the next morning, realising he’d lost track of the days. It was Saturday. That meant he was leaving tomorrow, flying back up to Auckland. He only had today to make things right! Cara hadn’t been there when they got home from the movies, and Jake and his dad didn’t mention her again. Dad had called the police, as he said he would, but they had said there wasn’t much they could do, and that Jake and his dad should keep an eye out in case the bike showed up somewhere. Jake had eaten his dinner, then gone to bed. Later, he’d heard the front door click open and light footsteps going past his room.

Sure enough, when he got up, Cara was sitting at the table with Dad, their heads together as they drank tea. Jake slipped past them into the kitchen without saying anything, and stood at the bench while he waited for his toast to cook. Dad came up behind him and
pressed the button to re-boil the kettle.

‘You off out today?’ he asked. He sounded hopeful.

Jake’s stomach dropped. His last day before heading back to Mum, Greg and the baby, and his dad was trying to get rid of him. Things were bad. ‘Yeah,’ said Jake. Then, whispering: ‘So have you given it back to her?’

‘Shh!’ said Dad, and grabbed Jake’s sore wrist, roughly.

‘Ow!’ Jake knew the sound of the kettle coming to the boil would drown out his voice, so he said boldly: ‘Where is it, Dad?’

But his dad just frowned and shook his head, and Jake realised then that he would never tell, because deep down his father knew that Cara would leave him as soon as it was in her strange webbed hands.

E
ven without his bike, it didn’t take a long time to get out to Ted’s cottage to find Jessie. The knot in Jake’s stomach made him walk fast, jog even, and his sense of urgency increased as the sun climbed higher in the sky. Tomorrow he would be back on a plane, and who knew what would happen once he was gone? His only hope was getting Jessie to help him.

She came running to meet him when the shack came into sight.

‘I knew you would come,’ she said. ‘You did not find it, did you? I saw Cara last night.’

‘Did you say something to her?’

‘No, of course not! I said I would not.’

‘What did she say?’

‘She said that she had not found the skin and that she was preparing to make a life in human form, at least for the time being. That she had found someone to take care of her better than Ted can.’

Jake sat down on the ground. He knew it. He drew his knees up and put his head in his arms.

‘What am I going to do?’

He felt a cool hand on his shoulder. Jessie was trying to comfort him.

‘We must find it today. We will ask Ted to help.’

Ted sat by the fire, drinking a mug of tea and doing a crossword puzzle in a book. He put it to one side when he saw the look on Jake’s
face. Jake wondered how much Ted knew about what had been going on.

It was as if Ted had read his mind. He stood up, nodding. ‘Ah, young fella. You’ve got that look about you. It’s Cara, isn’t it? She’s got a hold of your dad.’

Jake bit back tears and nodded.

‘He found the skin? At the rocks?’

Jake blushed. ‘No, it was me. I hid it. I didn’t know she was a selkie. Not until Jessie told me, but even then I didn’t believe her.’ He felt ashamed of himself. ‘Then when I tried to bring it back, Dad stopped me. And by then he’d fallen in love with Cara and it was too late. He’s got it. He’s hidden it somewhere.’ He heard the misery in his own voice.

‘This is all my fault,’ said Ted.

‘Why is it
your
fault?’

‘I had no idea that you had the skin, boy. It’s my job to keep them safe. If I’d known I would’ve warned you, so I would. And I wouldn’t have let Cara meet your dad. No, you should have told
me. At least, Jessie should have told me when she knew.’

Jessie looked at her feet, but said nothing.

Jake spread his hands in front of him. ‘What can we do? I can’t find the skin. Jessie says we can’t tell her he has it.’

‘No,’ said Ted quickly, ‘you mustn’t do that. Look, sit down, boy. I’ve got something you should hear.’

‘But I don’t have time! We have to find the skin!’

‘Just sit. This might help you. Come on.’ He took Jake by the arm and guided him to the bed. Next, he went to the bookcase and picked up the photograph Jake had seen last time he was here — the portrait with the woman and two girls. He handed it to Jake.

‘Do you know who these people are?’

‘I thought they might be relations of yours.’

Ted nodded. ‘My wife, actually. And my two daughters.’

Jake was shocked. He hadn’t thought of
Ted having a wife — he seemed like someone who had been alone his whole life. Of course, Jessie had said she was his granddaughter and Cara his daughter, but he had decided early on this was just one of her lies. Besides, neither of the girls in the photo was Cara.

‘What happened to them?’

‘My wife left me, a long time ago,’ said Ted. ‘Then Cara and Jessie died.’

Jake started. He looked up, confused. Jessie was staring at him placidly.

‘I don’t understand,’ he said.

‘Well, I’ll explain it to you, boy.’ Ted sat heavily back in his chair. He stretched out his hand towards Jake, who handed the photo back to him. The old man started to talk as he stroked the glass of the portrait.

‘When I was younger, about your dad’s age, you wouldn’t have recognised me. I was a
lawyer
. I lived in a big house, high up on the hills overlooking the sea. I wore smart suits every
day, went to expensive restaurants. I defended big businesses, gave them legal advice, and they paid me far more than I was worth, I can tell you. I thought I was happy. I’d worked hard to get to that point. But I’ll admit that I was lonely. Oh sure, there were women in my life, but I always felt a bit suspicious of them, thought they were only after my money.

‘I bought a boat, the
Sea Mist
, which I kept in a special boat shed and launched down at Island Bay. Even though I was always working, any time I managed to steal was always spent in that boat. Powerful motor it had. I could blast out past the breakers and into the open sea, feel the wind on my face and forget about work. Don’t get me wrong, I loved my job — the sense of power all that money gave me. The challenge of winning cases, especially if I suspected my client was in the wrong. I saved them so much money, they practically showered me with champagne. But deep down I had a cold feeling in my gut, and after each case it
would take longer and longer in the boat for me to feel calm and clean again. And always, I went home to my huge empty house on the hill and I’d pour myself a glass of whiskey and sit alone on my deck, looking out at the sea. I got to realise that the huge gulf inside me was an absence of love.

‘It was like Alice had heard my thoughts. One summer evening, after a gruelling day at work, I was in the boat, preparing to take it out to sea and forget my troubles. The tide was at its highest, about to turn. I saw something floating in the water. At first I thought it was a dead dog, but when I looked closer I saw that it was a perfectly preserved animal pelt. I fished it out and looked at it. It was a beautiful sealskin, reddish brown, but with silver flecks in it that caught the light as I turned it over in my hands. I was enchanted.

‘I put it away in my hold, intending to take it home and keep it for my collection of curiosities.

‘I’d only just made it past the breakers when the engine started to make a terrible graunching noise. I didn’t want to risk being stranded out to sea, so I guided the
Sea Mist
back into shore, thinking I’d get a mechanic to look at her before I took her out again. The light had dimmed considerably, and as I bobbed towards the boat ramp, engine off, I heard a splashing beside me in the water. I looked down and saw a woman there, out for an evening swim. She had pale skin and huge dark eyes, and I couldn’t take my eyes off her. Realising that I was staring, I thought it best to speak to her.

‘“Hello,” I said. “How’s the water?”

‘She took a moment to reply, just floating in the water, looking back at me. When she spoke it was as though her voice made a beeline for my heart.

‘“Kind sir,” she said, like something out of a fairy tale. “If you could please help me. I have lost my clothing. I came down to swim here and I fear that the tide rose higher than usual
and the sea took it. I have been swimming around here for an hour or more, looking, and I am very tired.”

‘She was the most free and beautiful creature I’d ever seen, but the poor thing looked scared as well as tired, so I looked around for something to give her.

‘“Here.” I put a towel and a spare shirt and pants at the ladder, which I lowered into the water. Then I went and stood on the other side of the boat with my back to her.

‘I heard her splashing out of the sea, her light footsteps on the deck, and when she announced that she was covered, I turned and I knew I’d found the love of my life. At the time I couldn’t explain why I was so sure, and I didn’t really want to know why. I just knew that from then on my life was going to change.

‘Alice had the most profound effect on me. I saw my life for what it was — shallow and corrupt. I quit my job and sold my house, but I kept the
Sea Mist.
We lived for a long time on
the proceeds of the house, and on the money I’d invested. We lived in a small cottage in Owhiro Bay, possibly even the house your father lives in now, who knows? I was very happy. I fished every day, and Alice was always waiting for me at home when I arrived. She fell pregnant and we had a beautiful daughter, Cara, and not long after that, another, Jessie. I thought I might die of happiness.

‘But things were not quite right with Alice. While I was content just to have her by my side, her unhappiness grew clearer by the day. I’d come home and she’d have an exhausted, haunted look about her. Her feet were often cut and bruised, but when I asked her why, she’d brush me aside and say she’d fallen, or that she’d been gardening. I urged her to wear shoes, but she wouldn’t.

‘At nights I often found her standing at the open window, letting in the freezing wind, while she looked out to sea.

‘Finally, she broke down one night and
told me what she was. A selkie — one of the seal-people. She’d shed her skin that day, and the tide had risen and taken it from the rocks, where it had floated my way. She told me that she only needed to find it and she could leave and be happy.

‘But of course I didn’t want her to leave. I had forgotten about the sealskin, and it had sat all those years in a box in the hold below deck. Alice had been in the boat, but she’d never guessed that the skin was right under her nose. I think the boat’s proximity to the sea somehow masked the smell of it. After she’d told me her story, I held her in my arms for a long time, but I didn’t tell her that it was me who was keeping her captive.

‘She was growing sicker by the day, and yearned for the sea more and more. The girls were neglected. Often I’d come home and they’d be crying with hunger and I suspected she’d been leaving them alone while she went out walking, searching the streets and the water for her skin.

‘One evening, I came home and she wasn’t
there. The children had bloodied fingernails from trying to claw their way out of the locked house. They clung to me with fear and confusion when I opened the door and I saw them for what they were — they were as thin as flower stems and just as weak. I’d have to do something about it. I’d have to choose between my wife and my daughters.

‘She arrived home in the middle of the night, drenched and clammy, but didn’t seem to feel the cold. Her briny smell when she climbed into bed beside me was overpowering. She fell into an exhausted sleep and I knew what I had to do. I woke early, and, while she slept, went down to the
Sea Mist
to collect the skin.

‘There it was, in its box where I’d left it all those years ago. I worried that it had been attacked by insects, that it’d fall apart when I lifted it, but it was as glossy and beautiful as the day I found it. When I took it from its box the smell — her smell, Alice’s — was all around me.

‘I brought the sealskin home. The children
were playing happily on the floor while she was in the kitchen, making them breakfast. She turned to greet me, a smile on her lips, but her face changed when she realised what I had in my arms. I don’t know how, maybe it was the way her eyes grew and went black, but I sensed what was coming. I dropped the skin on the floor, picked up the children and all but tossed them into their room. I turned to face her as she threw her body against mine, shrieking.

‘She nearly killed me. I’ll say no more, but when she had finished with me, I could hardly walk or see. As I lay bleeding on the floor, she picked up the skin and ran from the house, ripping off her clothes as she went. By the time I’d dragged myself to the window and pulled myself to standing, she was a silky missile in the ocean, leaping and arcing, rippling the water. Then she disappeared.

‘My heart and body were broken. I lay on the couch while the children called “Mummy, Mummy” around me, pleading for me to get
up and look for her. Somehow I managed to get off the couch and feed them, put them to bed that evening, where they cried themselves to sleep. I hated myself then. It was all my fault. I’d unwittingly trapped Alice and now I was alone and my children motherless. She was a wild beast that should never have been tamed, and I blamed her for attacking me no more than I would blame a caged lion that turned on its trainer.

‘I don’t know how the girls knew, but it must have been in their blood. When I woke up the next morning, they were gone. They must have sensed what had happened to Alice, and had opened the front door and wandered down to the sea, looking for her. A neighbour found their little bodies washed up on the beach. They possessed neither a sealskin to transform them nor the ability to swim. They had tried to follow their mother and the sea had rejected them. I still wonder if she could have saved them, but perhaps she was already far away. I’ll never know. I never saw her again.’