The Pacific Giants

by Jean Flitcroft

  Whatever happened, Vanessa knew she couldn’t let Wayne see it. She pulled a coin out of her pocket and threw it as hard as she could at the creature. She didn’t know whether she had hit it or not, but it suddenly darted away, quick and agile as an eel, and then disappeared.

  “What are you up to?” Wayne said suspiciously, joining her at the rail and peering down into the water where the creature had just been.

  Vanessa’s mouth was so dry that she croaked the word. “Money,” she said, clearing her throat.

  “Throwing money into the sea?” Wayne said with mock outrage. “You’re just weird, Vanessa.”

  It was the first time that he had used her name, and she didn’t like it at all.

  “It’s for luck,” Vanessa said quickly, praying the creature wouldn’t reappear. “It’s an old fisherman’s tradition we have in Ireland.”

  She turned and walked away, hoping that Wayne would follow her.

  He did.

  “That’s just stupid,” he said.

  “A lot of traditions are, I suppose. The Chookinan tribe in this part of the world used to drown their firstborn boy, didn’t they?” Vanessa’s eyes narrowed as she lied. She had no idea if there was such a tribe and knew nothing about native practices. “That would have been you gone, Wayne,” she said with emphasis.

  Wayne’s mouth opened and closed, but he said nothing, and Vanessa grinned. One point for her. Or so she thought, until she noticed Mr. Fox watching her. Why was she always the one to get caught out?

  CHAPTER 13

  In October 1937 at Naden Harbor Whaling Station, whalers cut open the stomach of a sperm whale and found the 20-foot long carcass of an unidentifiable creature. It was described as having a horselike head, a serpentine body, and a finned, spiny tail. Although it is not known what happened to the carcass, there are three photographs still in existence. To this day no scientist has been able to identify the creature.

  In the end, neither Vanessa nor Wayne felt like going for a swim. The water had turned quite choppy and cold, so Mr. Fox started the engines, deciding that they should head home.

  Vanessa was subdued and silent. Her thoughts returned obsessively to the image of the coils, the bulging eyes, and the extraordinary head. She had only seen the creature for a few seconds, she guessed, but what she had seen had turned her whole world on its head.

  Could she have been hallucinating? A food allergy? Was there a strange marine creature in this part of the world that she had never heard about?

  “Besides whales, what else do you get in these waters? Anything weird and wonderful in this part of the world?” she asked Mr. Fox eventually.

  “Seals, sea lions, porpoises mainly.”

  “Don’t think so,” Vanessa said doubtfully. Mr. Fox gave her a funny look.

  “Don’t think what?” Wayne asked.

  “Nothing. I just saw a strange-looking bird on the water,” Vanessa replied lamely.

  “Maybe you’re seeing things, Vanessa,” Wayne said slyly. “That’s the second sign of madness, you know.”

  His round eyes in his moon face met hers. Vanessa didn’t react, but his words hit home hard. Maybe she was a bit loopy. She did sometimes see things that other people didn’t.

  “You seasick?” Mr. Fox asked Vanessa.

  “No. Not at all,” Vanessa replied, surprised by the question, unaware of how pale she was looking.

  “See the land in the distance there, Vanessa? That’s Brighton Island.” He looked quickly at Wayne, who was playing with some ropes in the middle of the boat, and lowered his voice a little. “That’s where Lee is working.”

  Normally, Vanessa would have been full of questions.

  “That’s great,” she said flatly.

  She stared out at the horizon, but she kept thinking about the creature in the water. She was coming slowly to the conclusion that she might just have witnessed another cryptid. But which cryptid? What was its name, and would it be in her mum’s files in the attic at home? How was she going to work this one out?

  CHAPTER 14

  Alan Maclean of Vancouver Island saw the sea monster in 1962 and probably regretted ever reporting it. He received joke mail with offers of free eye tests and even membership in Alcoholics Anonymous.

  Vanessa was barely conscious of the return journey, and it wasn’t until Mr. Fox let out a roar that she was dragged back to the present.

  “The tender’s gone,” he cried, staring at the mooring. “I should have done it myself,” he muttered angrily.

  Although he dropped his voice, Vanessa still heard him. She felt her stomach turn over. She knew she had tied it up properly—Mr. Fox had even checked the knot. She looked to where it should have been and then scanned the bay frantically. Please be there, please be there. But it was nowhere to be seen.

  “I’m so sorry, Mr. Fox. I’m sure the knot was good,” Vanessa said, trying not to cry.

  She knew how important the little tender was. The trawler was too big to bring into the shallows.

  “Forget it,” Mr. Fox said shortly. “I’ll go in as close as I can and let you guys swim in with your wetsuits and snorkels. Then I’ll go and look for the tender. OK?”

  Wayne was remarkably quiet, and when Vanessa looked at him, he avoided her eyes. That was odd. Not like Wayne to miss a chance to gloat.

  Unless…

  Vanessa struggled to recall the sequence of events. After she’d tied the tender, Mr. Fox had checked it. And then what? Then Wayne went to check it, she remembered now. Had he loosened it deliberately? Why would he do that? To get her into trouble?

  “You checked it after we did, didn’t you, Wayne?” Vanessa asked him.

  “He’s ten, Vanessa,” Mr. Fox said tersely. “How is he supposed to know a good knot?”

  With that, he banged his hand on the railing, and Vanessa could see that he was trying to control his temper. Did he think that Vanessa was trying to shift the blame on to Wayne? She’d have to watch herself. Wayne might be annoying, but he was an islander, and being local would mean a lot around here, she guessed.

  “OK, sorry,” Vanessa said quickly. “Sounds like a good plan. I hope you find it, Mr. Fox. Come on, Wayne,” she added chummily.

  “Last one in is a girl,” Wayne yelled as they stood at the edge.

  Vanessa sighed inwardly as Wayne gave a triumphant shout and jumped in. He swam quickly to the shore, determined to be first. She had to admit that he had a really nice stroke. Maybe his mother hadn’t been exaggerating about his swimming abilities after all.

  Vanessa swam slowly back to the beach. It would be hard work walking across two stony beaches in her bare feet, but she’d take her time, and that way she’d avoid arriving back with Wayne. Vanessa hoped that Mr. Fox would remember to bring back her runners later; otherwise she’d have nothing to wear tomorrow.

  When Vanessa got back to the guesthouse, there was no sign of Wayne or Frankie. Relieved, she crept up the stairs to her bedroom, had a leisurely shower, and then lay down on her bed to read.

  When she’d read the same page for the fourth time and still couldn’t remember what it was about, she put down her book.

  She leaned over the side of her bed and picked up her backpack. She unzipped an internal pocket and took out a small object with great care.

  In her hand she held an ugly, puckered shrunken head that was about the size of a small orange. It had long black hair and its lips were stitched shut with twine. The shrunken head had belonged to her grandfather, Todd, an explorer who had lived with a head-shrinking tribe in Ecuador a long time ago. Vanessa had found the head in the attic when she was looking for her mother’s cryptid files. Now she took it everywhere with her, told it secrets—and sometimes got advice back!

  “You should have seen it, Toddy,” Vanessa whispered. “It was like nothing I’ve ever seen before. I only saw part of its back and it was huge. It was kind of like a cross between a giant snake and a huge crocodile with a horse’s face!”

  She looked
sharply at the head, its face held in a permanent grimace.

  “You wouldn’t grin like that if you had seen how ugly it was,” Vanessa said grimly.

  Toddy said nothing.

  It was about five o’clock when Mr. Fox returned with Lee. Vanessa met them at the door as they came in. She noticed that Mr. Fox was looking much more cheerful now.

  “Good news,” he said heartily, presenting Vanessa with her runners. “I found the tender eventually, thank goodness, and Dr. McDonald didn’t have to swim in fully clothed.”

  Lee grinned.

  “Where did you find it in the end?” Vanessa asked.

  “Not far from Rocky Bay, actually. It must have come off quite quickly after we set off and then drifted a bit. We’ll have to have a little refresher course on knots someday soon,” Mr. Fox added—rather unnecessarily, Vanessa thought.

  Lee put her arm on Vanessa’s shoulder and squeezed it.

  “Had fun today, then?” she said.

  “It was amazing, Lee. They were so huge up close, and so beautiful. There was a baby humpback too,” Vanessa said dreamily. “I’d love to be a scientist and study them.”

  “Tomorrow, I’ll ask Dr. Mitchell if you could visit the research lab before we fly out. Just to see the setup—the hydrophones that record the whales singing,” Lee said thoughtfully. “He’s terribly nice. He runs a graduate fellowship program, which you could do when you’re older, Vanessa, if you’re interested.”

  Vanessa’s eyes widened in amazement. Lee wasn’t like other adults, who were always putting obstacles in the way—you couldn’t do this and that. She never treated her like a silly kid, although Vanessa knew that she had been just that when they first met. She cringed now to think of the fuss she’d made about their trip to Loch Ness.

  “Would you? Oh, Lee, that would be fantastic,” she said gratefully.

  Vanessa was dying to ask if it could be tomorrow, but she swallowed her words. Better not to badger Lee.

  “Can I go too?” Wayne’s whiny voice came from over Vanessa’s left shoulder, and it was all she could do to resist stamping her foot.

  “I’ll see what I can do, Wayne,” Lee said lightly, squeezing Vanessa’s forearm again and giving her a conspiratorial grin.

  CHAPTER 15

  It has been reported that, on 13 February 1953, Caddy was observed by ten people who watched from different viewpoints around Qualicum Bay. Surely this number of people can’t all have been mistaken?

  Later that evening, Vanessa decided to ring home. It would cost a fortune on her mobile, but she had to call Luke or Ronan and see if they could look at her mum’s cryptid files, which were stored in the attic. Her work had been put up there after she died.

  But which brother should she call? Luke would be better at finding the files, but he would ask too many questions.

  The ringing went on for ages before a small, sleepy voice answered.

  “Hullo?”

  “Hi, Ronan, it’s me. How are you?” Vanessa said.

  “Who is this?” Ronan’s voice became belligerent.

  “It’s me, Vanessa, you idiot. Your sister? I’ve only been gone a few days.”

  “For God’s sake, Vanessa, it’s the middle of the night here,” Ronan said indignantly.

  Whoops. She had totally forgotten about the time difference.

  “Sorry, Ro. But I need you to do me a favor. Please, please,” Vanessa begged. “I’ll never ask you for anything else again and I’ll back you up against Dad in the event of a row.”

  “Wow. Must be big.” Ronan sounded more awake now.

  “I just need you to go up into the attic for me and find a file.” Vanessa tried to sound matter-of-fact.

  “You what?”

  “Just listen,” Vanessa said quickly. “I don’t have enough time or credit to explain fully. I’m looking for a file. It may be in one of Mum’s boxes near the trapdoor in the attic. It will be a colored folder and will be about a monster in Canada. …”

  Her voice trailed away. It sounded odd, even to her.

  She felt her heart sink. Would Ronan find it, even if it was there?

  “A monster?” Ronan asked in a tired voice. “What are you on about, Vanessa?”

  “I’m just following up on some of Mum’s research. Pleeeease, Ronan. Do you remember, I brought a folder to Loch Ness that time we went? It will be just like that, but it will be about a creature in Canada. I don’t know its name, though.”

  “OK. A folder about an unknown Canadian monster,” he repeated finally. “I’ll try to find it. But you’re not expecting me to go and get it now, Vanessa?”

  “It will only take a couple of minutes, Ro, and you could call me back,” she pleaded. “Otherwise I won’t get a wink of sleep tonight, wondering.”

  Vanessa heard him give a grim laugh.

  “Good,” he said. “Then you’ll know how it feels to be sleep-deprived, like me.”

  “But couldn’t you just—”

  “Listen to me, Vanessa,” Ronan said sternly. “I’ll look for it in the morning, so don’t you dare call me back before then.” He slammed down the phone.

  CHAPTER 16

  There are reports of the monster being seen on land. In 1936 E. J. Stephenson, with his wife and son, saw a huge unidentifiable creature wriggling over the reef into a lagoon on Saturna Island.

  After breakfast the next morning, Vanessa walked with Lee down the beach at the next bay to meet Mr. Fox. Lee hadn’t said anything about taking Vanessa with her to Brighton Island that morning, but Vanessa remained hopeful.

  “What’s the plan today?” Lee asked her as they waited for Mr. Fox to bring the tender in.

  That was disappointing. Clearly, Lee had no intention of taking Vanessa with her.

  “Brought my sketchpad and might draw for a bit on the beach,” Vanessa said lightly, although she felt gloomy already.

  Hide until lunch to avoid Wayne, she said in her head.

  After Vanessa waved Lee and Mr. Fox off, she walked farther along the beach and found a pile of huge boulders.

  It would be a good place to hide from Wayne and kill a bit of time.

  Nestled in the center of the boulders, Vanessa found that she was protected from view on all sides. She just hoped that there weren’t any large crabs hiding in there with her.

  She took out her charcoal pencil and sketchbook, turned to a fresh page and stared at it. What should she draw? Normally she’d just let her pencil lead her, make quick rough sketches of whatever came into her head. Now she hesitated, and the empty whiteness of the page overwhelmed her. Did the equivalent of writer’s block exist for artists?

  Maybe the whale music that Lee had loaded onto her iPod would help. She plugged the headphones into her ears and listened, waiting for inspiration. The image of the whale and its huge body breaching came to her. She could hear the thunderous noise, see the almighty splash. She started to draw it. Then she drew herself swimming nearby. Vanessa smiled. She looked tiny by comparison. No wonder whales were called the “giants of the ocean.”

  She threw her head back, looking skyward, and thought about the strange creature she had seen yesterday. It had looked huge and powerful. Scary too, not at all friendly like Nessie. More like the Chupacabra. An involuntary shiver ran down her spine as she thought back to Mexico and that terrible night she had seen the devilish eyes watching her.

  Now her thoughts jumped to Ronan. She wondered if he had gone up to the attic last night, or if he’d gone back to sleep. Would he even find a file? She tried calling him again, but there was no answer.

  Vanessa turned over the page. OK. She’d try to draw it, whatever it was. She concentrated hard, trying to recall the head with the funny little bulges and huge eyes. Then she drew the snakelike coils and the misshapen head. The creature started to emerge, but then the nib on her pencil broke. No sharpener either. She tried again with the stub of the pencil but it looked so bad. Like a toddler’s drawing of some fantasy animal. Frustrated, Vanessa tore t
he page out, scrunched it into a ball and pushed it in between two rocks.

  Vanessa switched off her iPod and put it back into her bag. For a split second, she thought she heard her name, a distant cry that hung in the air. Then a seagull mewed overhead and she watched it soar higher and higher.

  “Vaannessaaaa.” This time there was no doubting it. Vanessa poked her head above the level of the rocks and peered about. It could be Wayne trying to trick her.

  “Vanessa, where are you?”

  It was clearer this time, and Vanessa could tell that it was a woman’s voice. Lee?

  “Vanessa, you’ve got to hurry.”

  Vanessa turned and saw Lee standing beside the tender on the beach, her hands cupped around her mouth.

  How come she was back from Brighton Island already? And Mr. Fox’s boat was there too. Strange.

  Vanessa sprang down from her rocky hideout and ran toward Lee.

  “What’s wrong? Is everything OK?” she asked breathlessly.

  “Quick. I’ll explain as we go.” Lee shepherded Vanessa hurriedly onto the tender.

  CHAPTER 17

  Illegal whaling is an international problem. Despite a ban on commercial whaling since 1986, some countries continue to ignore it or get around it by describing their activities as scientific research.

  “One of the tagged whales has turned up,” Lee said, waving a small black walkie-talkie type of thing in one hand and using the other to steer the tender. “It’s little Ziggy,” she added, “one of the young whales.”

  Her face was flushed with excitement, her eyes shining. They were approaching the trawler, and Mr. Fox leaned out to pull them in. Vanessa decided to wait until they were on board to ask questions. It was probably not a good time to offer to tie the tender either.

  “We’ll need Jasper and the team,” Lee said to Mr. Fox as they climbed up the steps. “Can you radio them and get them to bring everything? Ziggy is probably two tons by now.”