by Annie Katz
I went in my room to set out some clothes in case I ever got a chance to use the shower. With only one bathroom, I decided I'd better wait until some of the people cleared out. In the corner of my room beside the dresser I found Chloe and Zoe curled up together asleep. I had wondered where they would find a quiet spot.
Cats are smart to stay away from big parties. I bet they never go out of their way to save an abandoned baby turtle or mouse. They'd probably eat it. Humans are the only ones who have their noses in everyone else's business.
I curled up in the corner beside them to wait for things in the house to settle down, and the next thing I knew, Lila woke us up.
"There you are," she said. "Sound asleep." All three of us sat up and yawned at her. "The coast is clear, my beauties," she said, her voice full of affection. "It's safe to come out now."
We all joined Lila in the living room, and I looked down at the beach from the picture window. Guards sat watch at each side of the pup. It seemed she had moved several feet closer to the ocean, or else the tide line had changed.
"Is Jamie okay?" I asked Lila.
"Mark's trying to get him to nap on the window seat upstairs. He'll be fine."
I nodded and went to take a shower. It felt good to get the salt out of my hair and to feel fresh and clean again. After I dressed in clean clothes and straightened the bathroom, I went to the kitchen for food and water. I couldn't remember eating or drinking anything all day.
In the refrigerator was a bowl of potato salad, another of bean salad, and a platter of cold cuts. I fixed myself a full plate and sat at the kitchen table. The sign making materials had been moved to a laundry basket and tucked in a corner of the room. I could see the beach and everything seemed pretty quiet and peaceful. Maybe the baby would be fine after all. When everyone works together, it's easier.
It reminded me of a science movie about aerodynamics in sixth grade. In one part it showed Canadian geese migrating, how they fly in a big V and take turns being the leader so everyone benefits from the air currents of those in front. When they work together they can fly farther, faster, and easier.
Jamie's mission had turned into a flying V, and it didn't need him so much anymore. I thought about how wonderful Mark had been all day, and I felt my heart soften toward him. He really loved Jamie and would do anything for him. It was sweet.
Just then Mark came into the room, so I smiled and said, "Hi."
He seemed surprised that I was nice to him, which I guess is understandable because I had been five degrees below chilly ever since we'd met.
"Jamie okay?" I asked.
"He's asleep," he said. "Grandma went up to sit with him."
"The potato salad is really good," I said, pointing to the fridge.
"Yea, I had some earlier. Everyone brought food. Like a funeral."
"Do you think the seal will be okay?" I asked. "The way that lady threw it down?"
"It has a good chance," he said. "Their fat protects them."
I nodded and scooted over to make space for him at the table, but he didn't join me. He took his plate of food on a tray with three glasses of water back upstairs. I was glad he didn't sit beside me, but glad we'd talked in a regular way. Maybe Jamie's seal brought all of us closer together.
Saint Ann’s Cove
Everyone decided we shouldn't keep watch after sunset, because it would confuse the seal mom when she came back. When the sun went down, they packed up all the signs and chairs and stored them on Lila's big porch so the morning crew could find them easily before sunrise.
We were all up early the next day. When Jamie went down to the beach, one of the neighbors was already planting the signs. The pup was farther north, which I thought meant at least that it was alive and probably the mom had come in the night to feed it. Later I learned they found a slithery trail in the sand, so everyone felt the most critical test had been passed.
None of us were on the beach patrol list for the day, so Lila and I made a big breakfast of pancakes, sausage and eggs. We served it on a fresh yellow tablecloth in the kitchen. Lila sent Mark down to get Jamie to join us.
We wolfed down the food, because it tasted really good and we were so relieved Jamie's baby was still okay. When we were finished, Lila said, "Before all the excitement, I was thinking we might go to Saint Ann's today. The tide will be low enough at noon for us to get around the point. We'd have an hour in the cove before we had to come back. What do you think?"
I didn't know enough to have an opinion.
Jamie shook his head. "I have to stay here."
Lila nodded.
Mark said, "I want to go. The last two years we couldn't because the tides were never low enough. The year before that was stormy."
Lila nodded.
"What do you want to do, Grandma?" I asked her.
"I love Saint Ann's," she said. "It reminds me that magic and mystery are always just around the corner. Very symbolic. Yes, it feels right to go today."
"I want to go, then," I said. "Unless you want me to stay with Jamie. I don't mind."
"Curtis and Molly are coming here," Lila said. "Curtis wants to stay here, and Molly can go with us if we decide to go."
Lila asked Jamie, "Will that work for you, Jamie? We'll go and Curtis will be here until we get back?"
"Sure," Jamie said. "I can go next year."
"Okay, then," Lila said. "On to another amazing adventure." She went to call Curtis with our plans.
Jamie went back down to the beach while Mark and I cleaned up the kitchen. We'd been in the habit of doing chores together silently, but now the quality of the silence had shifted from tense to relaxed and accepting.
"What's it like?" I asked him. "The cove."
"It's small, and there's usually no sand, only smooth rocks, from being tumbled by the ocean. Grandma said the first year she lived here, there was black sand covering the rocks, but since then, only rocks."
"That's why she calls it Saint Ann's Rock Garden," I said.
"One of the old timers at the hardware store told me they called it Saint Ann's because someone saw a vision there. I think he was teasing me, but it felt serious too." He shook his head. "You never know what to believe."
"I know," I said. "People have lied to me my whole life."
He nodded. He studied me and asked, "Did you know about me and Jamie?"
"I found out you were my brothers three weeks ago."
He nodded and sighed, and I finished drying the last dish while he washed off the stove.
"Jamie likes you," Mark said, like an offering.
"Jamie's the most lovable creature I've ever met," I said.
Mark laughed and nodded. "True."
There didn't seem to be anything else to say.
Even though we'd be back from our cove adventure in a few hours, Lila had us carry backpacks with water, flashlights, and jackets. We had to wear shoes and socks, jeans, and hats. It felt more like an overnight excursion than a walk down the beach. Molly was very excited. She'd never been to the cove, and Mark had only been twice.
Lila and Mark led the way, and Molly and I followed behind them. We walked on the beach the way Lila and I did my first morning in Oregon, all the way to the cliff that jutted into the sea.
On the way, Molly told me cove legends. Being raised in the bookstore where lots of people liked to gather and gossip made her a treasure chest of information. She was like her mom that way. Molly wanted to know everything, and she loved to talk.
Here's what she told me about Saint Ann's. Some people say every time they see it, there's been at least one impossible change, something has moved or there's a big tree that wasn't there the time before, or a rock formation has shifted to the other side of the cove. People take pictures from one year and compare them to the other years to find out what's different, like in the kid magazine drawings on the puzzle page.
Everyone argues about what is the best part. Some say its inaccessibility makes it more valuable. The cliffs and headlands a
bove the cove are fenced off private property, so hikers can't go in by land. Sometimes people have to wait three or four years before the tides and weather conditions are right for making it around the cliff face. Most visitors don't know about the cove, and the locals keep it secret.
Others say it is a sacred place, and anyone who goes there is blessed and healed, or if they go there angry, something bad happens. They say it magnifies whatever is in your mind or heart.
Others say fairies or rock spirits live there, and that explains the impossible rock piles on the beach. "Mom says those are made by humans though," Molly said. "She thinks someone gets in first every year, maybe by braving the surf around the point or going in with a sea kayak to build the rock sculptures."
"Sea kayaks to make rock piles?" I said. "That sounds like too much trouble."
"It sounds fun to me," Molly said. "Curtis and Mom went to the cove when they were dating, before they had Bradley."
I'd wondered if Bradley was Molly's half brother. "Where's your real dad?" I asked, because I didn't know any delicate way to say it.
"He got sick of Oregon. Mom said he got more and more depressed every year from the rain and cold, and finally he just couldn't take it anymore. He lives in a little town in Mexico where the sun shines all the time. He sends me pretty blouses that his new wife makes. I'll give you some. They're too big for me. In his mind I'm grown up already."
"My dad died," I said. "He killed himself."
"Lila's son," she said.
"Yes, he was my dad, so Mark and Jamie are my half brothers, but I didn't know it until three weeks ago."
"Bradley is my half brother," she said. "But he seems like my real brother."
I was so used to being an only child, I could barely imagine half brothers, much less whole ones.
"Did your dad use a gun?" Molly asked.
"No, he used a motorcycle."
"Oh," she said. "Curtis hates guns and motorcycles both. He says they should be outlawed. Both too noisy and dangerous."
I wondered how many dads would still be alive if we didn't have guns and motorcycles.
Lila and Mark were waiting for us at the sea cliff. Lila looked at her watch. "We're a few minutes early," she said. "The narrowest part of the passage is on the other side, so we can wait here until the tide recedes."
"I'll go ahead and check," Mark said, eager to go.
"No, Mark. I need you to stay with us. We'll have time."
Molly was smiling and so happy to be on an adventure. She was about Jamie's size, so she fit right in with our family.
"Here's what I need from all of you," Lila said. "I'm taking you back here because I love you and it's a magical place. It's also a dangerous place, and I have to feel I can trust you."
Mark took a deep breath and sighed it all out. I could tell he'd heard Lila's speeches most of his life. Molly and I were more respectful.
"The cliffs above the cove are steep and unstable," Lila began. "They look like rock in some places, but they are shale and sandstone, and they crumble easily. The caves are even more dangerous. The sound of one big shore break can cause a cave to collapse, so I don't want you exploring on your own. Understand?"
Molly and I nodded, and Mark strained to look around the cliff. A young couple with walking sticks and backpacks were making their way around, and Mark seemed upset that someone else would get there first.
"Mark?" Lila said, with sternness in her voice that I'd never heard before. It got his attention.
"Can I trust you?" she asked him.
"Yes, Grandma, you can trust me," he said, and he calmed himself down by breathing deeply. I bet his football captain had to remind him to calm down, too.
"Okay then, darlings!" she said. "Off we go to Saint Ann's Cove!"
She went first and told Mark to go last. If anyone lost footing they were to call for help. She wanted us to stick together unless she told us otherwise. "If you hear me call or hear this whistle, come immediately," she said. She showed us the whistle around her neck, the one Jamie had used to summon Mark the day before.
To lead us around she stepped up on a ledge of slippery wet stones that had been exposed at the base of the cliff. Molly was in front of me and Mark was in back. I could see why Lila positioned us this way, because it was not easy going. She stopped several places where the water was washing up between stones, braced herself on the cliff face, and put out her hand to help Molly across difficult spots.
I could see why everyone wasn't flocking over here. Most of the regular beach walkers didn't seem up for this test of agility and courage. The surf pounded relentlessly on the black rocks farther out from us, but it didn't hit us. I thought this would be a terrible time for one of those sneaker waves, but I kept my fears to myself and concentrated on one step after another.
At one point I hesitated. There was no obvious next step, just two sharp rock ridges sticking up with a deep crevice between them. There was another crevice between the cliff and the first ridge, and I couldn't tell how deep it was because it was filled with foamy water. I was afraid if I put my foot in the crevice, my shoe would get lodged there and I'd be trapped. I didn't know how Lila and Molly had gotten through.
Mark was right behind me. "Here," he said, and he took my hand and guided me to trade places with him. He found a way through by wedging his bottom against the cliff and his feet across to the ridged stone and inching around until he was on flat stones again. He waited for me to do as he had done, and then he let me go on ahead.
Right after that difficult stretch, we rounded the point. What I saw took my breath away, and I had to reach back and grab Mark's arm to keep from falling over. Tall rock spires rose out of the surf at the mouth of the deep cove. They were twenty feet high or more, pointed on top. They seemed exactly right for one of the fantasy novels Molly and I loved to read aloud to each other. This would be the perfect entrance to a magical castle where dragons flew and wizards ruled the world.
The waves forced themselves into the narrow cove entrance and crashed on stones that tumbled back and forth in the surge. The sound was so loud conversation was impossible, but it was beautiful, like aboriginal music. The cove smelled delicious, super clean and wet and salty.
I had to concentrate on my footing to get around the last of the cliff passage and join Lila and Molly, who were waiting for us on the crescent stone beach. When we were all together again, we stood and surveyed the area.
I didn't see the couple who had gone around the cliff ahead of us, so they must have been exploring behind a rock formation or in one of the caves I could see on the other side of the beach. There were what looked like three cave entrances, one larger one facing the sea, a smaller one near it, and then another up higher on the cliff to the right of the others. The mouth of the biggest one was about ten feet tall.
The rock sculptures were startling. Some were four or five feet tall. They were made of flat round stones balanced one on top of the other. There were a dozen or more, giving the impression of a group of intelligent beings standing around at a party. I knew the couple who came in before us couldn't have had time to make them so someone else must have done it. They couldn't be left over from last year, because one big wave would knock them down. So who made them?
"We'll stay on the beach first," Lila shouted to us above the rumbling surf. "If a sneaker wave comes, run straight back to that tree." She made sure we all saw the struggling pine tree hanging on to the steep bank at the back on the cove.
"Keep your own self safe, and we'll all be okay. Right?"
We nodded to let her know we understood. "Mark, make sure you can always see the rest of us. I need to know where you are at all times. I'll stay with the girls. Meet us back here in thirty minutes." Lila made Mark compare his watch to hers, so they were sure of the meeting time.
As soon as Lila released Mark, he was off to the far end of the beach.
Molly and I were fascinated with the rock sculptures, which were easier to build than they appe
ared. You had to have a good base, a heavy flat rock secure with the rocks surrounding it. Then choose all the flattest rocks you could find and balance them one on top of the other. They were so heavy that once you got the balance right, they stayed in place.
I never realized playing with gravity and lifting heavy stones could be that much fun. Lila made some stone piles too, and each of ours had its own personality, so we could tell them apart. Soon we had made some to rival the ones we found when we arrived, so it looked as if more rock people had arrived at the beach party.
After building, we explored the odd rock formations on the beach. One Molly and I both loved was a stone archway. It was a natural tunnel about eight feet long and three feet high inside. We crawled all the way through it on our hands and knees. The floor of the tunnel was small round stones, so it was like crawling on marbles. Lila didn't join us in that. She said she'd crawled through the first time she came to Saint Ann's, and her knees still remembered it.
Farther down the cove we found the young couple who had hiked in ahead of us. They were digging through the stones at the surf edge.
Molly asked them, "What are you looking for?"
"Agates," the woman said. "We found some amazing clear stones here four years ago. Big ones."
The man pulled a stone out of his pocket and showed it to us. It was about the size of a small cookie, and it was a clear mossy green with streaks of opaque brown through it. "This will polish to a beauty," he said.
Molly and I tried finding some on our own, but we didn't have any luck and lost interest. I was afraid we wouldn't have time to see everything.
Through her binoculars Lila was studying the sea spires rising out of the surf. She pointed out birds perched on narrow ledges near the top of one of the spires, and she let us take turns with her field glasses.
The black birds were about the size of fat robins, only they had big bright orange feet and heavy orange bills. They didn't look like any bird I'd seen before, even on nature shows on TV. They seemed uncomfortable up on those skinny ledges, but I guess they were safe there. Nothing could get them.
