The Secret of the Lonely Isles (3 page)

‘You chucked
green ant
nests at them?' said the officer leaning against the sink.

‘Yeah,' said Tyler. ‘It was Jem's idea. There were eight of them an' three of us. We wouldn'ta had a hope. But they ran a mile once the ants started chewing into 'em. It was brilliant!'

‘Green ants,' repeated the young female officer, jotting notes on her pad and looking mystified. The other officer looked like he was trying very hard not to laugh.

‘But how did Zac get home? Where was he?' asked Jem.

‘We found young Zac here wandering along the Esplanade by himself at midnight, so we picked him up and brought him home,' answered the police officer by the sink. ‘Not the safest place for a young bloke to be at night,' he added. ‘And not the safest place for you kids to be either. I know the gang that hangs around the park there. They're a nasty mob – you could've been hurt. What you
should
have done, was to wake up your parents, and tell them Zac was missing, not go out
looking for him yourselves.' He stood up, and nodded to his partner. ‘We'll be off now. No harm done. But just remember what I said. All of you were very lucky tonight, not to get into a lot more trouble.'

Karen showed the officers out, and Carol stood up.

‘Thanks for trying to find Zac,' she said, as she ushered Zac and Celie out the door. ‘He went out lookin' for his dad, he says. He was cranky 'cause he didn't take him to the footy tonight.' She paused, and then said, ‘You should've woken Mum and Dad like the policeman said, not gone out yourselves. But I know you were just lookin' out for your mate. Thanks kids.' And she took Zac and Celie by the hand and said goodnight to Steve as Karen came back into the kitchen. Maddy, Jem and Tyler sat down at the table.

Steve rocked his wheelchair back and forth, looking from one to the other. ‘Why the heck didn't you wake us up? What were you thinking, going out in the middle of the night like that? You know it's not safe!'

‘You would've just yelled at everybody, and Zac would've got into even more trouble, and everyone would've been more miserable than they are now!' said Maddy passionately, and burst into tears. The tension of being out at night on their own, and how near they'd come to being bashed by the gang in the park, flooded over her and she dropped her head onto her arms and
sobbed. Jem and Tyler sat awkwardly either side of her, not knowing what to do or say.

Steve opened his mouth to speak but Karen shook her head at him, gathered Maddy up in her arms and hustled her off to bed. ‘You too, fellas, c'mon. It's been a big night. We'll talk about it in the morning, okay?'

Jem lay on top of his sheets, thinking about the little dog. He was only trying to help it, and it bit him. It made him think of his father. What was it, when people got hurt, that made them turn on the people helping them? He could, just faintly, hear his parents arguing in their bedroom. He felt a rush of misery wash over him, and wanted to cry, just like Maddy.

Suddenly, Tyler gave a yelp, and sat up. ‘Ahh! I've still got green ants biting me …' He squirmed around finding the culprits, and then lay back again. ‘That was sweet, seeing those guys run for it!' And he closed his eyes with a happy grin, and was snoring in no time.

Jem and Tyler were in the kitchen, leaning on the kitchen table, chins in their hands, looking and feeling gloomy. Karen and Steve had talked to the three of them earlier that morning, and extracted promises from them that they'd never go out at night on their own again. Maddy looked uncomfortable for a moment, but had brightened up soon after, and gone off to meet her friends at the Plaza shopping centre. Karen looked at the two boys and put down her coffee mug.

‘Well, how about the movies today? And yes Tyler,
go and see if Zac can come too.' Twenty minutes later they piled into the car and headed off to the cinema at the Plaza.

‘If I'd thought of this in time we could've given Maddy a lift out here,' Karen said.

Jem enjoyed the movie, a new action picture. He never got tired of them. As they were coming out of the cinema, Karen suddenly stopped beside him.

‘That's Maddy!' she said. ‘I thought the girls were shopping, not going to the movies.'

Jem looked across the lobby and saw Maddy coming out of a different cinema, except she wasn't with her girlfriends – she was with a boy. And not a boy really, but a tall, dark-haired young man who looked about eighteen or even twenty. They were holding hands and Maddy was giggling, until she noticed Karen and the boys standing there staring at her. She went pale, and muttered something to the boy beside her, shaking her hand out of his. Karen folded her arms and waited as Maddy walked over to her, looking very nervous.

‘I thought you were shopping with Aleisha. What's going on, Maddy?' said Karen quietly.

‘Well, well …' she stammered, ‘you wouldn't let me go to the party! Everyone else went and had a great time, and I had to stay home like a little kid! I wanted to see Drake, and I knew you wouldn't let me, so …'
Her voice trailed off and there were angry tears in her eyes.

‘So you lied to us and sneaked around behind our backs. I'm surprised at you, Maddy, and I'm very disappointed. Especially after last night.'

‘Well at least I didn't sneak out at night! You made me promise not to.'

Karen sighed and shook her head. Her shoulders sagged and she suddenly looked very tired again. Jem stared at his sister. How could she act like this? She must've known how upset their mum would be.

‘Don't tell Dad!' said Maddy urgently. ‘He won't understand, he'll just get really angry again.'

‘What, so I'm supposed to lie for you, am I? Your father has every right to know about this, although God knows he doesn't need any more stress. You should have thought of that before you sneaked out and lied to us, seeing this, this …' She glanced over at the young man who leaned against a pillar with a faint smirk on his face.

‘So you think this is funny, do you?' hissed Karen softly, taking a step towards him. ‘You stay away from my daughter, and take that silly grin off your face or you'll be dealing with me, sonny.'

There was no doubt about his mum, thought Jem. She could terrify you without raising her voice a notch.
The young bloke reddened, and stalked off without looking back. Maddy let out a whimper.

‘How could you embarrass me like that?' she said. ‘He'll never talk to me again!'

‘Well that'll be the least of your problems. How could you do this after what happened last night? You're grounded until further notice.'

As Maddy started to protest, Karen hushed her impatiently and herded them out of the shopping centre. They drove home in total silence, and when they pulled up at the house, Zac muttered a quick thanks, and darted through the fence to his house having exchanged a doleful glance with Jem and Tyler.

Things just seemed to go downhill after that. Maddy of course sulked around the house, refusing to speak to anyone and sighing loudly. Karen was irritated with her, and that seemed to leak over to Jem and Tyler as well, and they made themselves as scarce as they could. Steve was so angry with Maddy he yelled at everyone, as if they were all responsible for her behaviour. At night Jem could hear his parents arguing in muted tones in their bedroom. The only person who seemed happy and unaffected was Neenie. She continued to come upstairs in the lift for her meals, and chat amiably to long dead friends, and occasionally make a little sense. And she still wanted Jem to play snakes and ladders with her every day.

A few days later Jem, Maddy and Tyler were in the kitchen looking for something to eat. Karen was in the lounge room with Steve, going through his daily exercise program. Jem could tell it wasn't going well. He could hear his father's voice getting louder, and his mother's quieter one trying to stay calm and defuse Steve's temper. There was a heavy thump, a shouted curse, and another crash that sounded like a table being knocked over, and china smashing against a wall. Karen ran out of the room and slammed the door behind her. She stopped for a moment, chest heaving and her face tight, then noticed Jem, Maddy and Tyler standing in the kitchen doorway staring helplessly at her. She opened her mouth to say something, but nothing came out, and she shook her head and darted down the hallway to her bedroom.

They could hear scraping sounds and the odd swear word from the lounge room, which was probably Steve trying to get himself back into the wheelchair. Muffled sounds of sobbing came from the bedroom. They didn't know what to do – try to comfort their mother, or try to help their father get back in his chair. Either choice seemed impossible. Jem's stomach knotted up and he felt sick.

Maddy suddenly pushed her chair back, said grimly, ‘I'll go,' and stomped off down the hallway to the lounge room.

Tyler sat at the kitchen table looking very unhappy. Jem hovered in the doorway, unable to make a decision but feeling like he should do something – anything.

Just then, they heard the thump of a car door being closed, and they raced out to the verandah, each thinking the same terrible thought: that their mother was leaving.

A tall, slim woman stood at the gate, her hand on the latch. Jem stared down at her, momentarily unsure whether she was really there at all. She was wearing loose-fitting, white cotton trousers, and a floaty kind of pale shirt, and the breeze made the clothing flutter gently, giving the impression that she was drifting across the grass towards them. Her silvery-white hair was pinned up, and loose strands floated around her face like a halo. A necklace of tiny seashells hung around her neck.

‘Hello, are you Jeremy?' she said, in a pleasant, musical voice, as she floated up the stairs. Jem opened and closed his mouth, nodding without speaking.

Tyler craned his head around his brother to see who was there.

‘And you must be Tyler,' said the stranger.

‘Ella?' Karen's voice startled Jem and he turned to see his mother staring at the woman as if she couldn't believe her eyes.

The woman smiled, and held out her arms. Karen squeezed past Jem and Tyler, and threw herself into the woman's arms, burying her head in her shoulder and sobbing again.

Tyler looked at Jem and muttered, ‘Who's she?'

‘I dunno,' Jem whispered back, ‘but I'm pretty sure I've seen her before somewhere.'

Ella patted Karen's hair, and spoke to her in a language that Jem couldn't understand, and eventually her tears subsided and she stood back, wiping her face with her hands.

‘I can't believe it's you! Ella, it's been so long …' she sniffed, her voice cracking. She sounded like a little child, not like the mother of three children. She led the way into the kitchen and the two women sat down, staring at each other and holding hands across the table.

Jem could hear the clink of broken china being swept up and Maddy's muffled voice behind the lounge room door, speaking to Steve. Good on you, sis. He relaxed a little, now that he knew he no longer had to brave his father's anger and try and help him up off the floor.

Karen blinked suddenly, and looked up. ‘Jem and Tyler, this is my Aunt Ella. You haven't seen her since you were babies.'

Ella looked at each of them carefully and shook their hands. ‘Lovely to see you again, boys. You do look very different from the last time I saw you!' There was a faint accent, but Jem had no idea what it was.

‘I didn't know where you were,' said Karen. ‘I wrote to you about Steve's accident but …' Her voice trailed off. ‘Everything's been a bit – disorganised.'

Ella patted her hand reassuringly. ‘It's all right, darling. I haven't been easy to contact. I sailed directly to Indonesia from New Guinea, and they're both difficult places for letters to find you, so I've had to rely on emails for the last few months, and my laptop's been very temperamental. But your sister managed to get through to me a couple of weeks ago, so I left and sailed straight here.'

‘You sailed?' asked Tyler, his eyes widening. ‘In a boat?'

‘Yes,' she said, smiling warmly at him. ‘In my little yacht
Freya
.'

‘I know! You're the lady in the photo on the bookcase!' Jem had it now. There had been a framed photo in the lounge room for as long as Jem could remember, of a woman standing on the deck of a yacht. Ella was that woman, just a few years older. Ella nodded.

‘Yes. I left Australia almost ten years ago to sail around the world, and now I'm back.'

Dinner that evening was a happier occasion than they'd enjoyed for a while. A sizzling roast beef, golden roasted potatoes, buttered peas and honeyed carrots all crowded in the middle of the dining table, which had been set with the best china. A jug of rich brown gravy steamed to one side, and Karen had baked fresh bread rolls. Tyler looked particularly expectant – he'd seen the apple pie in the kitchen, and was eagerly waiting for dessert. Even Steve was on his best behaviour, and joined in the conversation, asking Ella questions about her travels. Neenie had put her pearls on when she was told there was a guest for dinner, and didn't seem confused at all. After dinner was over, Jem, Tyler and Maddy leaned on the table, mesmerised by tales of sailing single-handed across the Pacific Ocean, and meandering through the seventeen thousand islands of Indonesia.

‘Seventeen thousand islands!' exclaimed Tyler. ‘You'd lose count of which ones you'd been to!'

‘Oh Tyler! I didn't visit them all, or even see them all,' Ella laughed. ‘But the ones I did stop at were lovely, and the people were too.'

Jem glanced around the table, and noticed the taut, pinched look had left his mother's face. His father
seemed relaxed and almost happy. It's like old times, he thought, like before Dad's accident.

‘Aunty Ella, how come you were talking to Mum in a weird language this morning?' asked Tyler through a mouthful of apple pie and cream.

‘Please Tyler, just call me Ella. “Aunty” makes me feel quite ancient. I spoke to your mother in old Cornish, the language that used to be spoken in Cornwall, where we Tremaynes come from. I used to talk to your mum and her sister in it when they were growing up, not that they ever understood much of course. No one really speaks it much any more you see.'

‘Cornwall?' asked Maddy. ‘Isn't that where they used to have lots of smugglers and stuff, you know, pirate ships?'

Ella laughed. ‘Yes, there were, and wreckers – people who used lights to lure ships onto the rocks, and then plunder them. It was all very wicked and exciting.'

‘Like that painting?' asked Jem, suppressing a shudder. There was a painting on the wall of a Cornish shipwreck, and Jem used to have nightmares about storms and rocky coasts, and terrified people struggling in dark foaming water. He didn't like the sea. Fishing on a river in a dinghy was one thing, but the idea of heading out on all that wide water was not Jem's idea of a good time at all.

‘How did you end up here?' Tyler was fascinated. ‘It's on the other side of the world!'

‘Well, my sister – your grandmother Rosa – left home first, and she went sailing in the Pacific. We all loved boats. You see our father was a fisherman, and we learned to sail almost before we learned to walk. Rosa met your grandfather, Bill, in Noumea where he was building a hospital and they later moved to Australia. A few years later, when I had finished studying, I came to visit them here, and I stayed. I was a history teacher, but I've always had a little sailing boat.'