The Pacific Giants

by Jean Flitcroft

  “Milk or lemon?” he said.

  “Milk, please.” Vanessa gazed out of the big bay window to the sea. She’d love a house like this someday, right on the edge of the ocean.

  “So,” said her host, “you’ve been kind enough to listen to my life story and to help me pick my paints. Now, what can I do for you in return?”

  “Well,” Vanessa said, leaning forward in her chair, “you’re a professor, I hear.”

  “Retired professor of marine biology—worked in the University of British Columbia for thirty years. But please, call me Jack. You can’t help me pick my paint colors and then call me Professor Noire.”

  “OK,” said Vanessa.

  “Now ask me,” Jack said grinning at her. “I can see you’ll burst if you don’t.”

  Vanessa was taken aback. Was she that easily read?

  She inhaled deeply. “Tell me everything you know about Caddy,” she blurted out.

  CHAPTER 24

  The most famous book about Cadborosaurus was written by scientists Paul LeBlond and Edward Bousfield and was published in 1995. It is called Cadborosaurus: Survivor from the Deep.

  Vanessa drank her tea and listened as Professor Noire—Jack—spoke.

  “I saw Caddy for the first time in Turner Bay in 1964. She just popped up out of the blue beside me while I was fishing with my brother Larry. We used to go out fishing once a week.” Jack leaned back in his chair. “After that we went out every day, but I didn’t see Caddy again for another twenty years. By that stage I was beginning to think I had imagined the whole thing.”

  He paused and frowned.

  “The only problem with the hallucination theory was the fact that Larry and I had both seen the exact same thing at the same time. How could we both have imagined it? I asked myself. So in the end it seemed more rational to believe that we did see a strange creature in the sea that day.”

  Vanessa looked at Jack’s lined face. It was an honest face. She was dying to ask him to describe the creature, but if she interrupted now, goodness knows what else she would miss.

  “Soon after that, I began to go through the old newspapers and magazines to see where Caddy popped up. Larry got bored with the whole thing, but I became obsessed. I couldn’t believe the number of witnesses Caddy had. From that point on, I began to collect details of all the sightings.”

  Jack stopped to pour Vanessa some more tea from the pot. Then he noticed that there was no more milk in the jug and started to get up.

  “I drink it black too, thanks,” Vanessa said quickly, taking a sip. She didn’t care about the tea—she wanted him to sit down and keep talking.

  “The reports go back right to the turn of the twentieth century. Most were just ordinary people taken by surprise and reluctant to admit it, but they felt that what they had seen was so extraordinary that they had to tell someone. Over time, other people heard what I was doing and got in touch with me. I got them to describe it and draw a picture if they could.”

  Vanessa thought of the picture that she’d drawn and that Wayne now had. She wouldn’t say anything yet. Plenty of time for her story later.

  Jack got up from the table, went over to a huge bookshelf and ran his fingers along the spines, searching for something.

  “Found you,” he said, plucking out a small paperback book and presenting it with both hands to Vanessa. “You should read this. It’s the bible on Caddy.”

  Vanessa looked at the title. Cadborosaurus: Survivor from the Deep by Paul LeBlond and Edward L. Bousfield. She opened it reverently and read the first lines:

  This book is about Caddy, British Columbia’s sea serpent. Although reported by hundreds of eyewitnesses over the past century, this animal remains a “cryptid”: a creature whose existence is still in doubt because of insufficient material evidence.

  “Oh my God! This is so incredible, Jack. Normally I have to hunt to the ends of the earth to find out about a cryptid, and here you are, just handing me a whole book about Caddy. Do you know these people who wrote it—Paul LeBlond and Edward Bousfield?” She read the names from the cover.

  “Oh, yes indeed. I’ve met them both, and I’ve met Heulvemann too. He’s the father of cryptozoology.”

  “I can’t believe it,” Vanessa said dramatically. “I’m standing here talking to a real cryptozoologist.”

  “And I can’t believe I’ve met a kid who knows what a cryptozoologist is!” Jack laughed. “How come?”

  “It’s my mum,” Vanessa said, stumbling over her words. “She is … she was … she was fascinated by cryptids and kept files on them—the Loch Ness Monster, the Chupacabra, Ogopogo. …”

  “And Caddy?” Jack added.

  “No, not Caddy. Mind you, it was only Ronan checking for me, so he could have missed it.”

  Jack didn’t ask who Ronan was or pepper her with questions like most people would. Instead he took a drink of his tea and waited for her to explain.

  “Can I borrow the book, please? Just for a few days?” said Vanessa.

  “Of course. I’m sorry I can’t give it to you to keep—it’s my only copy and it’s out of print now.”

  “I promise I won’t lose it. I won’t let it out of my sight even for a moment,” Vanessa said, clutching the book to her chest. “I’d better go, or Lee will be worried,” she said then, forgetting that she hadn’t explained who Lee was or what they were doing on the island. “Can I come again?”

  She stood up from the table.

  “Absolutely, Vanessa,” said Jack. “You’ve still got to pick the paint color for the hall.”

  CHAPTER 25

  Although Caddy is only rarely seen at the surface, all indications are that it is an air-breather. Several observers have described nostrils at the snout end of the head and some have described “steam” or “jet” emissions from them.

  —Cadborosaurus: Survivor from the Deep

  Lee was sitting at the kitchen table with Frankie when Vanessa arrived back. There was a big pot of coffee between them, which was almost empty. Lee jumped up when she saw Vanessa and hugged her without saying a word.

  When she had arrived back, Lee had been surprised to find that Vanessa was not in the guesthouse or on the beach. At first she had tried not to let herself worry, but distant ripples—the memory of Vanessa’s disappearance in Scotland not so long ago—began to gather momentum in Lee’s head. An hour drinking coffee with Mrs. Bouche hadn’t soothed her nerves either.

  She’s just biked to the village, Lee had reminded herself. She needed to get away from Wayne for a bit, that’s all.

  But another part of Lee wondered why Vanessa had been gone so long.

  Vanessa knew immediately from Lee’s face that she had been worried, and she was annoyed with herself. How would she explain about going into Jack Noire’s cottage now? What an idiot she was!

  “Sorry. I got talking to a professor,” Vanessa said brightly, hoping that the “professor” bit might distract Lee. She made it sound as if she had just met him in town.

  “Oh, Lee, I’d forgotten all about him,” Mrs. Bouche exclaimed. “So you found him, Vanessa. Well done, you!” She patted Vanessa enthusiastically on the shoulder.

  For some reason that Vanessa couldn’t quite understand herself, she wanted to keep Caddy a secret from Lee—just for the moment. She would tell her soon, but there was a lot of stuff to read and digest first. Besides, Lee had the whales to worry about. The image of Ziggy’s sliced dorsal fin hit her suddenly. How could she have forgotten?

  Lee looked from Frankie to Vanessa and back again, waiting for further explanation.

  “He’s a professor of …” Mrs. Bouche stopped. She had no idea of what.

  “Marine biology,” Vanessa said quickly. “He’s retired now, but he worked for thirty years in the University of British Columbia. You know, the one in Vancouver, Lee. It sounded like an amazing place.”

  Vanessa was beginning to babble and she knew that Lee would spot it soon. She just had to keep the conversation away fr
om cryptids. Otherwise Mrs. Bouche would bring up Caddy sooner or later.

  “The professor was really interesting. He knew so much about whales,” Vanessa said, meeting Lee’s eyes and hoping the mention of whales would throw her on to a different track.

  Lee looked slightly stunned but said nothing.

  “I’m starving,” Vanessa said heartily. “Did I miss dinner, Frankie? I’m really sorry.”

  Vanessa felt her guilt as a lead weight in her stomach. She wasn’t the tiniest bit hungry. All she wanted was to go to her bedroom and read the Cadborosaurus book. She had to understand what she had seen first; then she would tell Lee.

  “Is Wayne back yet?” Vanessa persisted.

  Surely the mention of the precious one would finally change the subject?

  “He’s just back too,” said Frankie cheerfully. “I’m surprised you two didn’t bump into each other in town.”

  Lee gave Vanessa a questioning look. Was it so obvious that she was hiding something?

  “I’ll get the dinner on the table,” said Frankie, heaving herself up and going to a large pot sitting on the stove. She hummed a tune under her breath, unaware of the tension in the room.

  Lee sidled up to Vanessa.

  “You didn’t discuss Ziggy with the professor, did you, Vanessa?” she said quietly.

  “Absolutely not, Lee!” Vanessa said with conviction. “Nothing at all about Ziggy or the humpbacks, I promise.” At least on that score she was telling Lee the absolute truth.

  CHAPTER 26

  On 5 January 1934 Murray Jackson, Billy Alexander, and three friends saw a creature with a 4-foot long neck and a cowlike head with horns or ears. It was reported in the Vancouver Sun later that week.

  That evening, Vanessa propped Toddy up against her pillow and flicked through the book. Her eye was caught by a silly rhyme about Caddy, which she read out loud to herself.

  British Columbians! Lift up a chorus!

  To greet the arrival of Cadborosaurus!

  He may have been here quite a long time before us,

  But he’s shy and don’t stay round too long, so’s to bore us.

  Cadborosaurus! Cadborosaurus!

  Come up and see us again, you old war ’oss!

  “See, Toddy, Caddy is famous in this part of the world.” Vanessa let the book drop onto her lap and leaned back on the bed. “Lee would love that—she loves rhymes and limericks.”

  She felt guilty keeping Caddy a secret. So why not tell Lee? After all, Lee had shared Vanessa’s adventure with Nessie.

  Vanessa sighed. Her thoughts returned to their walk along the beach after dinner. She just hadn’t found the right moment to mention Caddy. Lee had done most of the talking. She seemed to want to talk about the whales, and Vanessa had been very happy to listen. They had not discovered anything new about the whale hunters, Lee had said, but they had gotten great recordings of the whales’ song.

  “It’s amazing, Vanessa. The male humpbacks in the same area sing the same song. So the North Pacific males sing something different from the southern hemisphere males. But the next year when they migrate back up from Hawaii, the song has evolved into something new.”

  It was getting dark by the time they came in.

  “Oh, I forgot to tell you the most important thing, though,” Lee said as they climbed the stairs. “Dr. Mitchell said it would be OK for you to visit the research center with me on Friday.”

  Vanessa had been thrilled. Just two days away—she couldn’t wait!

  She put down her book now and picked up Toddy.

  “Any ideas about the illegal whale hunting?” Vanessa asked him.

  Nothing.

  “I wonder how Lee is going to track them down.”

  Nothing.

  Vanessa smoothed the long hair off the face of the shrunken head, put it back on the pillow, and said sternly, “OK, if you’re not prepared to talk, then you can listen and learn.”

  Vanessa read the first chapter of the book to Toddy. She did it quietly, listening all the time for sounds of people on the stairs, just in case. It was interesting stuff about cryptozoology and the definitions, but Vanessa really wanted to know about Caddy. She flicked ahead, skipping through the pictures of native petroglyphs made by the Indian tribes, who spoke of a sea serpent in the waters.

  She stopped at a picture of a man in a suit and tie with the words “Caddy’s ‘godfather,’ Archie Wills” underneath. She read on.

  The first mention of the name “Cadborosaurus” appeared on 11 October 1933. Several suggestions for names for the monster had been received by theVictoria Daily Times, one of which is “Cadborosaurus,” which can be shortened to “Caddy,” in honor of Cadboro Bay, where the creature was first sighted.

  Vanessa’s eyes stopped on a picture of Caddy. It was a postcard from 1933, drawn by Charles Eagles. Beneath it she read, “Body approximately twenty feet, tail thirty feet, head and neck ten feet. Total length sixty feet.”

  While she couldn’t really say much about the length of the creature she’d seen, the head certainly looked similar.

  She wriggled with suppressed excitement. She read on.

  “Your modern man would rather disbelieve something than believe it,” Archie Wills wrote. “He likes to think he is cynical and hard-boiled, whereas he is the most credulous creature ever made. When he can’t understand a thing like astronomy, or relativity, or finance, he believes anything you care to tell him, if you tell him with sufficient scientific or financial trimmings. But the trouble is he can understand a sea serpent. He can visualize it. Therefore he disbelieves it. His disbelief flatters his vanity, makes him think he is a superior fellow. Well, it doesn’t make him a superior fellow. Any fool can disbelieve in sea serpents.”

  “That’s almost exactly what my mum used to say to me, Toddy. She said that some scientists believe that science is truth, whereas science sometimes clouds the truth and hides the obvious.”

  Vanessa shut the book with a snap. She wouldn’t allow herself to read the whole thing in one go. That would be gorging herself. She would take it bit by bit, digest it, and think about it.

  “What do you think I should do? I mean, should I discuss it with Lee?” Vanessa mused. “Or find out as much as I can first?”

  The sightless eyes stared at her.

  “Maybe you’re right. Keep silent for the moment. Knowledge is power, or something like that. Caesar said so.”

  Vanessa turned off her lamp and lay down.

  “Night, Toddy,” she murmured as she tucked him under her pillow. She always hid him when she was going to sleep in case someone came into her room.

  It was Sir Francis Bacon who said that, actually.

  It was the gentlest of whispers that tickled her inner ear, but Vanessa heard it and laughed.

  She closed her eyes. “You’re such a know-it-all!” she replied.

  CHAPTER 27

  In September 1963 the carcass of a sea creature was found near Oak Harbor, Whidbey Island. Although it appeared to have a head that resembled a horse, Mr. Welander of Fisheries is said to have thought it was a basking shark.

  “Can I borrow the bike again, please, Frankie?” Vanessa asked politely the next morning after breakfast.

  Mrs. Bouche frowned. “I think you know why that’s impossible, Vanessa,” she said sternly. “Wayne was really very upset last night.”

  “I only borrowed it for a few hours, Frankie,” Vanessa said defensively. “I’m sorry I was late back.”

  “New tires will have to be sent from the mainland,” Frankie said, as if she hadn’t heard her. “It could take weeks, not to mention the money involved.”

  Vanessa stared at Mrs. Bouche, shocked to see how upset she was.

  “It was very, very careless of you,” Frankie said crossly. “I think you should apologize to Wayne. He was so generous, lending it to you in the first place.”

  Fighting an internal battle between her rising indignation and the worry that she had somehow damaged the bike wit
hout realizing it, Vanessa stared wildly at Mrs. Bouche. She didn’t point out that it was Frankie who had done the lending. Wayne wouldn’t have let her anywhere near his bike.

  “I’m sorry, Frankie,” she said eventually. “I really don’t know what you mean. I rode it back from Jack Noire’s and it was fine.”

  “Well, I’m not sure how two punctured tires can be called ‘fine,’ Vanessa. I checked the bike myself this morning when Wayne told me, and it’s true.”

  “But that’s terrible,” Vanessa said hotly. “Of course I’ll find Wayne and sort it out with him.” She mumbled something under her breath and then finished with the words “pay for it.”

  Mrs. Bouche looked up and gave her a small, grateful smile.

  “Thank you, Vanessa. It was the fact that you said nothing that bothered Wayne, more so than the money. But we do appreciate your offering to pay.”

  Vanessa nodded silently. She would make Wayne pay for this all right. She felt a cold fury growing in her chest and she pursed her lips for fear of what she might say. She excused herself and then flung herself out the back door into the yard.

  “I’m going to kill him,” she whispered over and over as she searched for Wayne, slamming the doors of the various outhouses and sheds as she went.

  Vanessa could see that Mrs. Bouche was staring out of the kitchen window at her. She looked really sad and that made Vanessa even more furious. Why had Wayne done it? Was it just spite—or did he have a screw loose?

  Vanessa found the bike sitting against the outside wall of the utility room. Kneeling down, she inspected the tires. It was obvious to her that they weren’t just punctured. They had been slashed with a knife. She felt another wave of intense fury wash over her, and she kicked the wheel so hard she hurt her foot. Why? Was Wayne trying to get her in trouble? Make things so horrible that she’d want to leave?

  Any vestige of pity that Vanessa had felt for Wayne disappeared. He really was dangerous. She’d have to be careful, but she would find a way to get him back.