Secrets of Tamarind

by Nadia Aguiar

  “It started with those unusual sea creatures washing up dead,” whispered Helix. “Your parents think they’re from Tamarind, and that something bad is happening there that’s killing them, and somehow they’re washing in across the Blue Line.”

  “But how is that possible?” asked Simon. “The Blue Line is a barrier.”

  “Your parents don’t know how it’s happening,” said Helix. “But … what we do know is that the Red Coral finally found a way into Tamarind.”

  “What!” exclaimed Maya. “How do you know?”

  “I knew a little about what was happening—the dead marine creatures and the fact that the Red Coral were still hassling your family,” said Helix. “And I kept asking your parents to let me help. But they wouldn’t. They didn’t want me to get into trouble. Finally I snooped around in your dad’s office until I found some leads that helped me track down the Red Coral headquarters in St. Alban’s. I hitched a ride on a cargo ship there and back. But I was too late—when I got there the headquarters were abandoned. I found out that they had a hundred-and-fifty-foot steel ship, but that’s gone, too. About a year ago they bought a supply of diesel, batteries, canned and dried food, medicine, engine spares … and ammunition. After that there’s no record of them anywhere. It’s as if they walked into thin air. Except they haven’t.”

  “They’re in Tamarind,” said Maya, looking worried.

  “But I don’t understand,” said Simon. “If the Red Coral are already in Tamarind, what do they still want with our parents? Why don’t they leave us alone?”

  “Because of Faustina’s Gate,” said Helix. “They think your parents know where it is.”

  Faustina’s Gate. Simon wracked his brain but he was sure he had never heard of it before.

  “The Red Coral believe it’s the secret to getting across the Blue Line,” said Helix. “They managed to cross the line once, but I don’t think it was easy—you remember the storms. They need an easier way back and forth. And they think that Faustina’s Gate is it.”

  “Is it a real gate?” Maya asked curiously.

  “No one knows,” said Helix.

  “Why don’t we go in the house to talk?” said Maya, shivering and pulling her sweater down over her hands. “It’s silly to be out here like this.”

  “I’m not going to the house,” said Helix. “I don’t want to risk having your parents see me. I wanted you to meet me here so that we could leave right away.” He paused and took a deep breath and looked at both of them. “I need the Pamela Jane. And I need you to help me get through the reefs. I’m going back to Tamarind.”

  Simon and Maya were stunned for a few seconds.

  “Back to Tamarind?” Maya asked incredulously. “How?”

  “The ophalla in the Pamela Jane’s hull!” cried Simon suddenly. “It has something to do with getting back to Tamarind—you were the one who made that scratch!” He scrambled up so he was kneeling. Suddenly he felt jittery with excitement. The water lapped softly on the sand.

  “Shhh,” said Helix. “Yes, it was me. While I was gone I came across another Tamarinder who had come to the Outside like me, but a long time ago. Don’t look so surprised! I knew as soon as I saw him he was from Tamarind. Anyway, he must be nearly a hundred now—he’s a fisherman in St. Sylvan. He told me a lot of old stories. One of them was that a long time ago in Tamarind there were boats made from ophalla, built to cross the Blue Line. As soon as I heard that I knew the Pamela Jane must be one of them. That’s why after that storm, when none of your navigation equipment would work and you couldn’t stay on course, the ophalla in the Pamela Jane was naturally pulled toward the Blue Line and across to Tamarind. I don’t know how it works, just that it does. All I have to do is sail back to the place you were in when the storm struck that took you to Tamarind—the Pamela Jane will do the rest.” He paused. “So you see,” he said, “we can go back.”

  Back to Tamarind. Simon had never thought it was possible. He felt a shiver scuttle down his spine. “And you want to leave tonight,” he said.

  “Tonight!” exclaimed Maya. “Tonight?” she repeated softly. “This is happening way too fast. I think we should go and wake up Mami and Papi and talk to them—”

  “Do you really think they’d let me go?” asked Helix.

  “Well…” said Maya, then stopped.

  “Of course they wouldn’t,” said Helix. “But now that I know Tamarind is in trouble I have to go. I can’t wait another day. I’ve already drained the fuel tank on the Red Coral men’s boat. They won’t be able to catch us. I want to leave before the tide goes out. I’m not asking you to come to Tamarind with me—I don’t know what’s happening there; it might be dangerous. But, please, I need your help to get the Pamela Jane past the reefs outside the cove. I’m not a good enough sailor—I can’t make it through them, especially on a night like this. If you can help me get through them, you can row back to shore in the rowboat. Once I’m in open water I’ll be fine. I can go alone from there.”

  “So you wouldn’t even be telling us you were leaving unless you needed our help right now!” said Maya. “We’d just wake up and you and our boat would be gone!”

  “Shhh,” said Helix, looking back toward the house.

  Simon stopped listening as Maya and Helix bickered softly. He looked out at the cove. Helix was right; the tide was going out and if they didn’t leave soon they would miss their chance. Clouds hid the moon. Conditions were perfect. Suddenly he remembered the first day in Tamarind—the heat, the butterflies as big as bats that had drifted around them, the twinkling chimes of the flying fish. He remembered the tree houses high in the Cloud Forest Village where they had lived for a time, running across rope bridges far above the ground, the air thick each night with jungle fireflies and the scent of orchids. In Tamarind he and Maya and Penny had been brave and independent and free—they had rescued their mother from a pirate ship and their father from the ghostly salt islands of the Ravaged Straits. They had helped to start the Great Peace March that had finally brought generations of a bitter war to an end.

  Suddenly the boatyard didn’t matter anymore. Simon could do something much bigger and more important! He would stop the Red Coral himself! He’d show his parents he wasn’t just a kid. The breeze blew and Simon smelled the sea. His face felt hot. His fingers and toes began to tingle, as if they had been asleep and now the feeling was returning. He turned to Helix.

  “I’ll go, too,” he said boldly. “Not just to get past the reefs. I’ll go to Tamarind with you.”

  Suddenly the breeze became a gust, whipping up small waves on the surface of the cove. “This is crazy,” said Maya authoritatively. She stood up, her hands on her hips, and glared at Simon and Helix.

  “It isn’t crazy,” whispered Simon. “I think it’s very rational. We know that something hasn’t been right for a long time with our parents, and that whatever it is has to do with the Red Coral Project. Helix has just told us that the Red Coral are in Tamarind now and whatever’s happening there is bad—so bad that things from there are dying and washing up on the Outside. Who knows what’s actually happening on the island? Once I heard Papi tell Mami that the Red Coral would tear Tamarind apart to get their hands on ophalla. We can’t do anything here—even Mami and Papi haven’t been able to. But over there we can do whatever we want! We’ll be free! We can actually do something to help our family—and Tamarind. We’ll go and we’ll be back before we know it.”

  “Please, Maya, all I’m asking is that you help me through the reefs,” said Helix. “Then you can go home.”

  “And let you two go off without me!” said Maya. “Especially after you just came back, Helix!”

  She looked at them, conflicted, but she sat back down again.

  Simon knew that all Maya had ever wanted was to live a normal life on land. He also knew she would never tell their parents that Helix was back if he didn’t want her to. And Simon was pretty sure that she wasn’t about to be left behind while he and Helix went off o
n an adventure without her.

  She turned and looked out at the Pamela Jane, tugging on her mooring. The wind blew her hair and she pushed it behind her ear. She was wavering. She loved Tamarind, too. They heard the urgent whistle of the wind across the surface of the sea, the swish and churn of the waves. Simon and Helix waited. Then Simon saw a familiar determined look come into her eyes. She took a deep breath.

  “I’ll come, too,” she said. “To Tamarind.”

  The air seemed filled with electricity. The three of them looked at each other. Simon felt the hairs on the back of his neck go up. It was all beginning again.

  * * *

  Simon and Maya had to run back to the house to get supplies. In his room Simon dumped his schoolbooks out of his backpack, and threw in spare clothes, his pocketknife, and his binoculars. He rummaged through drawers—where was his compass? They couldn’t go without one. When he couldn’t find it anywhere he remembered that his father had one in his office. He slung his bag over his shoulder and crept down the hall.

  To his relief, his father’s study was empty. No light came from under his parents’ bedroom door—they must be asleep. The study door was open and Simon slipped inside. Moonlight glowed on the glass jars in which sea creatures were trapped forever in their lifeless drift. The last time Simon remembered seeing his father’s compass it had been on one of the bookshelves. He scanned the rows of titles: Coral Spawning: A Mysterious Season; Life Cycles of Coral Reefs; Blue-Green Algae … Ah, there it was, sitting in front of Strange Stromatolites and behind the jar with the water snake. When he moved the jar, the formalin sloshed gently from side to side and the snake appeared to wriggle as if alive.

  Simon pocketed the compass, but before he left he paused to look once more around the room. He let his eyes rove over the storm of papers on Papi’s cluttered desk. He felt a pang as he remembered their exchange earlier. Was he really leaving like this? He wished he could say good-bye or even just see his father for a moment. Simon was lingering by the desk when the radio hissed beside him. He nearly leaped out of his skin. For a minute he could only hear the pounding of his heart. Then a staccato code was tapped out. Then a voice: Are you there?

  “Hello?” said Simon softly.

  Peter? said the voice. Who is this? But then the static rose and the reception was lost.

  Simon fled the room and found Maya in the kitchen, packing food into her backpack. “Got everything?” she asked.

  “Yup, ready to go,” he said.

  Before Simon could tell Maya about the voice from the radio, they heard something rustle in the doorway. They looked up to see a small figure illuminated in the moonlight.

  “Penny,” Maya whispered. “Go back to bed, baby. Come on, I’ll take you.”

  Penny was rubbing her eyes, looking past Maya curiously at the things spread out on the table.

  “Where are you going?” she asked.

  “Going?” Maya asked lightly. “We aren’t going anywhere.”

  But Penny, no stranger to her older siblings’ duplicity, glared at them.

  “You’re going somewhere and I want to come,” she said. She got a stubborn gleam in her eye.

  “What are you talking about?” asked Maya. “The only place we’re all going is back off to bed.” Penny didn’t budge. Maya decided to switch tactics. “Let’s play a game,” she said cheerfully.

  Penny pressed her lips together tightly and shook her head.

  “Penny,” said Simon, “this is serious. We aren’t playing anymore. You have to go back to bed, now.”

  “How about I come with you,” said Maya. But when Maya smiled and reached out to take her arm, Penny took a deep breath and opened her mouth wide, ready to holler.

  “Stop,” Simon said to Maya. “She’ll do it.”

  Penny began to hum warningly under her breath.

  “What are we going to do?” asked Maya.

  “Take her with us?” asked Simon.

  “Be serious,” said Maya.

  “If we wait now, we’ll miss the tide,” said Simon. “You’ll just have to come back with her in the rowboat. It’s lumpy out there tonight—I need your help to get through the reefs.”

  “Me!” whispered Maya, glaring at Simon. “Why me? I’m the oldest—I’ll go with Helix. You take Penny back.”

  When Simon didn’t answer and began stuffing more food from a cupboard into his backpack, Maya turned to her sister. “Oh, Penny!” she whispered fiercely. “Can’t you just go back to bed?”

  The tide was going out and the smell of the sea moss exposed on the rocks came through the window. If the tide got too low they would be in danger of hitting the Pamela Jane’s keel on the rocks, and if they waited for the tide to come back in it would be daylight and they would have lost the chance. “Come on,” said Simon. “Helix is waiting for us. It’s now or never.”

  “We’re going to play a game,” he said to Penny. “And you have to be absolutely silent—absolutely. You understand?”

  Penny bit her lip to stop smiling. She nodded.

  Maya wrote a note.

  Dear Mami, Papi and Granny Pearl,

  Simon and Helix are taking the Pamela Jane back to Tamarind. I’m going to help them through the reefs. Penny woke up so I have her with me. I’ll explain when I get back. Sorry.

  Love,

  Maya

  PS, added Simon. Don’t be mad. We’ll be home soon.

  Maya put a vase on the note and left it in the middle of the table. Simon got the backpacks they had packed with clothes and food—bread, peanut butter, apples, bottled water—and they slipped quietly back to Simon’s bedroom and climbed through his window. Then taking Penny’s hands, the three of them crouched and dashed across the open grass down to the cove.

  Chapter Three

  Underwater Maze • Decision Time • On a Winter Sea

  The breeze was dead inside the cove, but outside it Simon could see whitecaps whipped up by the wind until the moon slid behind a cloud. The Pamela Jane creaked on her moorings.

  Helix was waiting for them in the mangroves. When Penny saw him she flung herself into his arms.

  “Hey,” he said, catching hold of her. “Starfish!” He frowned at the others. “What’s she doing here?” he whispered over her head.

  “She woke up,” said Maya in a low voice. “We couldn’t get her to go back to bed.”

  “We can’t take a five-year-old with us!” said Helix. “What are we supposed to do now?”

  “There wasn’t anything else we could do,” whispered Maya. “Don’t worry, I’m going to take her back in the rowboat once we get past the reefs.”

  “I’m going to be good,” Penny whispered loudly.

  “Shhh,” said Simon. “Our voices will carry across the water.”

  Simon and Helix flipped the overturned rowboat and palmetto bugs scurried out. They carried it down to the water and all of them stepped in. Simon rowed as silently as he could, and when they reached the Pamela Jane he tied the rowboat to the stern and they climbed on board. Maya slid a life jacket on Penny and sent her to the cabin. Simon and Helix released the mooring bridle as carefully as they could so it wouldn’t jangle. It was fine until the last moment, when the last links of the chain slid over the Pamela Jane’s gunnel with a brutal zipping sound. Simon cringed and looked quickly back to shore but there was no sign that anyone had heard. He and Maya worked quickly to rig the sails. They raised the jib first, since it was easiest and would attract the least notice from shore. In a moment it caught the breeze and the boat began gliding cautiously out toward the mouth of the cove. Simon glanced over his shoulder, holding his breath, but the shore was dark except for the light on Granny Pearl’s porch.

  Just when Simon started to think that perhaps they would be out of the cove and on their way before the men even noticed the boat was missing, they saw the first of the flashlight beams swinging along the shoreline. The drumming of footsteps carried across the water, and moments later, to their delight, the children
heard an outraged cry as the empty fuel tank was discovered.

  “Okay, hurry,” said Helix. “That’s not going to stop them for long. They’ll go to the boatyard and get hold of another boat.”

  Pale moonlight filtered through the heavy clouds, and as they rounded the rocky head the wind rose. The ghostly white bloom of the jib led them out of the cove and into the channel between the reefs.

  “We have to be careful, the next bit is tricky,” said Simon. He stayed at the wheel and Maya went to look out from the bow. Helix alternated looking out from starboard and port.

  A perilous maze of jagged reefs spread before them in the darkness. There was a single, narrow, winding channel running for about a mile through them and out to the open sea. One false move, even by a few degrees, and the hull would crunch into the rocks and the boat would sink right out from under them. Without the GPS plotter, which the Red Coral had stolen long ago, Simon had to navigate from memory. Only someone who knew the reefs like the back of his hand as he did would be able to make it. He decided to continue with only the jib until they reached open water. For now, precision seemed wiser than speed. As it was, they were missing reefs by mere inches sometimes—Maya or Helix would spot one, looming craggy and treacherous, and Simon would have just seconds to spin the wheel in time to avoid a collision.

  Behind them they heard an engine choke and splutter, then with a tortured wheeze it roared to life. The Red Coral men had found a new boat. Soon it was whizzing around the coast, the raw buzz of the engine reverberating off the shore. Simon’s knuckles were white on the wheel, but he tried to steady his nerves and stay focused: steer to port, right the wheel, call to Maya to shorten the jib, now turn a little to port. Behind them the rowboat sloshed in the swells.

  “There they are!” Helix shouted suddenly.

  Simon glanced back at the motorboat, bumping over the waves at high speed toward them. It gave no indication of slowing.

  “They’re coming up fast!” Maya called. “Simon, we’ve got to hoist the mainsail!”