by Janis Mackay
Hi whoever u r,
I’m Tarkin. I wanna stay here. I don’t wanna go. And I want Dad to visit. This is the best place ever and Fin’s the best friend ever. Please, sea.
Thank u xx
He folded up the chocolate wrapper and pushed it down into the blue bottle. With the next huge wave that came, he pushed the cork as far down as he could then hurled the wishing bottle out to sea. The wave sucked it up, bobbed it about and in seconds it was far out at sea.
Magnus Fin saw his friend and shouted to him, “Good luck!” But his voice was drowned out by the din of the waves.
Chapter Twenty-eight
Two days later – as Magnus Fin ran up the road to the village, trying desperately not to be late for school – Ragnor had an unexpected visitor. A young girl with long dark hair knocked on the door of the cottage by the sea. She wore a tattered blue dress and was completely drenched to the skin. She had come in search of her uncle Ragnor …
Tarkin turned up at school even later than Magnus that day, looking glum. He hadn’t even bothered to tie his hair back and it hung like a damp curtain across his face. He spent the morning chewing on his hair and scratching his name on the desk, TARK IN WAS HERE. At lunchtime he gave his bag of crisps, that he called “chips”, to Magnus Fin.
“Mom doesn’t like it here any more,” he said, kicking a stone across the playground. “It’s too cold, she says. And she can’t get the right inspiration for writing her musicals. When she starts to go on like that it usually means we’ll be packing our bags.”
Tarkin’s eyes filled up with tears and he kicked another stone, annoyed that his message in a bottle had brought the opposite of what he wanted. “I don’t want to go anywhere else. I wish she’d just stop, you know? Like, just live somewhere. You’re lucky, Fin. You’ve never been anywhere else.”
“Well, I’ve been to Inverness a few times and I’ve been to Aberdeen once and I’ve been to Glasgow once,” he said, counting all the places he had been on his fingers. “And I’ve been at my granny’s in John O’Groats loads of times.”
“Yeah, Fin, but you know what I mean. Like, you haven’t been dragged across the world looking for the perfect place. The perfect place that just doesn’t exist. Your dad wasn’t dumped somewhere along the line cos he couldn’t keep up. You don’t have to get to know people every few months when you turn up at the next random school. You don’t have to live out of a suitcase.”
“I thought you said you liked the Inuits and the Aborigines?” Magnus Fin said, trying not to think about Tarkin packing a suitcase and going away. It didn’t seem fair. Magnus Fin’s bottle had brought him a best friend and now it seemed he might be taken away.
“Sure I like them. They stay in one place! They know the land they live on, every blade of grass. Not like me. I’m just getting to know this place. The beach. The cave. The hills around here. The sea. I really like this place, Fin – and you. Not everyone likes me. You don’t think I’m weird. You’re cool, Fin. Real cool.”
Just then the bell rang and the children filed into the classroom. Mrs McLeod called for the class to be quiet. “Right, P6. Good afternoon. I must say how well you have all done. Everyone in the village is saying so and your picture will be in the local paper on Saturday, so well done, children. Yes, the beach clean-up was a great success. Although it looks like we might have to do it again next week.”
A cheer ran round the class, except for Patsy who said no way was she going to do that again.
“Anyway, that wasn’t what I wanted to say,” the teacher continued. “If you’ll just quieten down, I have something to announce.”
The class grew instantly quiet. Announcements usually meant there would be a school disco or an outing or they’d get away early or an astronaut was coming in to give them a talk.
“Right, very good. Excellent. We have a new pupil joining us. Isn’t that nice? I know it’s a bit unusual to join when it’s nearly the summer holidays but it’ll give her a chance to settle in and get to know you all, then she’ll be back with you all for P7.”
The class was silent. A new girl joining was a big thing. She might be really nice, she might be really horrible, she might be a bully, she might be rich, she might be funny, or she might have a dad with a helicopter. “I’ll just bring her in. She’s talking to the headmistress right now. See if you can make a very good impression, P6, and be as good as gold when the new girl comes in.”
“What’s her name, Miss?” asked Chloe Grant, who was upset that there were three Chloe’s in the class already and dreaded there being a fourth.
“Don’t worry, Chloe Grant,” the teacher said, “she is not called Chloe.”
“So what is she called? Tell us, Mrs McLeod,” chanted Chloe Gunn and Chloe Gow.
“Her name,” said the teacher, looking around the room, wondering where the new girl would sit, “is Aquella, and she’s Magnus Fin’s cousin. Magnus, as there is space, she can sit next to you.”
The teacher marched out of the classroom and Magnus Fin sat with his mouth wide open until Tarkin nudged him and told him he looked like a goofy goldfish after brain removal.
Two minutes later Mrs McLeod came back into the room, and this time, tucked in behind her, was the new girl. Magnus Fin hardly dared look up. His heart was pounding under his ribs like there was a football match going on inside him. He counted to ten then raised his head. His eyes fell upon the new girl – his cousin. It was her. It really was. It was Aquella! It was the girl he had met under the sea. He knew it would be.
Ever since flinging his bottle out to sea, magic things had been happening non stop. Why, he thought, should they stop now? He stared at her and a tingling feeling ran up and down his spine. She, like him, was a selkie. Without all her shell necklaces and skirts of seaweed she looked, of course, different. Anyone else would think she was an ordinary human girl (although Tarkin would later tell him there was no such thing as an ordinary human). Magnus Fin saw how emerald-green and shining her eyes were and how sleek and jet-black was her hair. It was so shiny he could almost see Mrs McLeod’s face reflected in it. The new girl was a selkie; that was for sure. She was wearing human clothes and she had tied her long hair back into a ponytail, but there was no mistaking: this new girl was the one he had last seen diving back into the rubble of the dying monster’s palace. She looked across at Magnus Fin and smiled.
“Well, P6. Don’t be rude. Say hello and welcome to Aquella.”
“Hello and welcome, Aquella,” they chorused in their sing-song group voice.
Then the new girl sat down next to Magnus Fin. On the other side of Magnus sat Tarkin. Both boys stared at Aquella, who turned and winked at them then sat back and listened to the teacher.
“So, P6. Aquella is rather shy, and who wouldn’t be, not knowing anyone, so the headmistress has asked me to say a few words. She comes from a little-known island north of Shetland. Aquella is pronounced Akwa-ella – lovely name, don’t you all think?”
The pupils craned their necks to get a better look at Aquella. The teacher smiled encouragingly at the new girl and carried on. “I want you all to be kind to our new girl and make her feel at home. We are, are we not, P6, a very friendly class?”
The whole class nodded.
“And Aquella’s background may be different from our own, but we are all, are we not, P6, in our different ways, different?”
The whole class nodded.
“And there’s nothing wrong with being different, is there, P6? In fact, we should celebrate our differences, don’t you all agree?” Mrs McLeod could feel herself getting carried away. Some of her husband’s influence was definitely rubbing off on her. She beamed down at the children, suddenly overwhelmed with love for every single one of them – the chubby and the skinny, the grubby and the funny, the fussy and the bossy. Every single one of them. Even that Magnus Fin.
Three heads at the front nodded particularly vigorously: one with long blonde hair, one with long black hair and one with a mop of
black hair that used to be short but was now, the teacher noticed, almost touching his shoulders.
“So now, P6, as you’ve all been so good and so hard-working, and as it will soon be the summer holidays, I think you deserve a story.”
They all cheered. “Anyway, P6, as Tarkin, I’m sure you’ll all remember, told us such a wonderful story about a mermaid …” They all cheered again. “… I thought I’d tell you one too. This is one my husband told me, not about a mermaid exactly, but about a creature we have in Scotland. So, children, are you all listening?
“Once upon a time there was a seal …”
Chapter Twenty-nine
At playtime everyone hovered around Aquella. They wanted to hear how a girl from north of Shetland would talk. Magnus Fin was proud to introduce everyone to his new cousin. He couldn’t quite believe that he now had two friends! He couldn’t ask her the questions that were burning inside him, not with all the other children milling around. So he had to wait until hometime.
As they wandered towards the cottage by the shore, Aquella told Magnus how Miranda knew Aquella wouldn’t survive long in Sule Skerrie without a seal skin; how Miranda had led her up to the rock with the mother-of-pearl handle. Just as Magnus Fin had done, Aquella came ashore.
“Miranda brought me a blue dress she had found in the wardrobe of a sunken ship. She gave me directions to your cottage and told me to ask for my uncle Ragnor. Your mum and dad gave me food and clean clothes – and a room in the attic that looks out to sea.”
Magnus Fin could barely contain his excitement. “But, Aquella, what about the monster’s ruins – and the crab? Did you save the crab?”
“Ah yes, the brave crab …” said Aquella and she smiled. Although it wasn’t an answer exactly, Magnus Fin felt sure the crab had survived. Just then they reached the cottage door and an unusually animated Barbara welcomed her son and her new niece inside.
Aquella, Magnus Fin and Tarkin became the best of friends. They were rarely out of each other’s sight. Magnus Fin’s life was choc-a-bloc busy these days. He could hardly believe that only a month ago he was friendless and not very good at talking to people. Now it seemed he was chatting all the time, and running, and playing, and teaching swimming. Aquella didn’t say anything about being a selkie, but sometimes she and Magnus Fin gave each other what Tarkin called “the emerald-flash look” and in that look everything was said. Perhaps, thought Magnus Fin, selkies didn’t need words.
Sometimes eleven-year-olds didn’t either, and at those times the three friends just played at the seaside or in Magnus Fin’s Neptune’s Cave without saying anything at all. At other times they chatted about everything under the sea and sun. Aquella enjoyed her life as a girl, especially with friends like Magnus Fin and Tarkin. But Tarkin, Magnus Fin noticed, didn’t laugh and joke as much as he used to.
“What’s up with you, Tarkin?” he asked him one day.
“Yeah, Tarkin,” said Aquella, “you haven’t told a joke for ages.”
“I get the feeling she really wants to go,” he told them, twisting his ponytail round his little finger then biting on his shark’s tooth. The three of them were on their way to the village shop to buy sweets. “Mom, she says it’s too cold here. She says if this is summer, what’s winter gonna be like? She keeps talking about France now. She got a book out of the library about farmhouses in the south of France.”
“Maybe she’ll change her mind,” Aquella said. “The tide changes all the time, doesn’t it? So maybe people change their minds too?”
“Yeah, Tarkin, I bet Aquella’s right. I think your mum will change her mind. You can’t go yet anyway. You haven’t learnt to swim yet,” said Magnus Fin, nudging his friend in the ribs. “Um, and my mum and dad want to have a party. So, Tarkin, why don’t you invite your mum and her boyfriend? Come round on Saturday. Mum will bake you a cake.”
Tarkin raised his eyebrows. “Really?” He hadn’t seen Magnus Fin’s parents for a few days, but he couldn’t imagine they would ever organise a party.
“Really,” said Magnus Fin. “We’d have no party without Tarkin, isn’t that right, Aquella?”
“That’s right,” she said, smiling, “and this is going to be my very first party. I can’t wait!”
Chapter Thirty
That Saturday, the cottage down by the sea was filled with the sweet cinnamon-and-sugar smell of baking. Ragnor was busy trying to coax the barbecue to work, and Barbara was in the garden shaking out a white tablecloth and throwing it over the picnic table.
“Food will be ready soon, everyone,” Barbara called out, picking daisies from the grass then scattering them over the tablecloth. Then she turned and ran across the grass to where Ragnor was busy with the business of sausage cooking. He had finally succeeded in getting the coals to light. The two of them laughed, hugged each other then ran hand in hand up to the bench, where they plonked themselves down and, arms round each other, gazed out to sea. Barbara’s long red hair fell down her back and spun out as she shook her head and laughed. Ragnor’s hair was also long. His was black and shiny. From where Tarkin, Magnus Fin and Aquella were playing swingball, they could hear the rich, warm laughter coming from the two grown-ups.
“So, like, who are these cool people, Fin?” Tarkin asked, nudging in the direction of the handsome man and woman on the bench.
“My parents,” said Magnus Fin, his voice bursting with pride.
“Cool,” said Tarkin. “So what happened to the G-G-Ps? Where are they? I mean, I thought your parents were, like, ancient?”
“I think they time-travelled,” said Magnus Fin, winking and wishing everyone was as positive as Tarkin. “And, um – see that lady doing a spot of line dancing over there in the cowboy boots and big hat? That’s my granny!”
Hearing herself mentioned, Granny May turned and waved.
“Cool, Fin, you are unique – totally awesome. Oh man, I wish I wasn’t going to France. I can’t even speak French. Aquella, that just ain’t how you hold the bat. Look, it’s like this, that’s it.”
“I’ve got a lot to learn,” said Aquella, winking at Magnus Fin. Then she turned back to Tarkin who had just whacked the ball really hard. “Hey, Tarkin, where’s your mum? I thought she was coming to the party?” Aquella missed the ball. “Oh! Bad shot! Hey, this is my very first party and she isn’t even here!”
“I dunno where she is. I wanted to get here early. She said she was going for a walk down the beach then she’d be here. Maybe she’s fallen out with her boyfriend.”
Just as the sausages were ready, the rest of the children in Magnus Fin’s class at school turned up.
“Heard you were having a party,” said Patsy Mackay. “Aquella told us.”
“I hope that was all right,” said Aquella. “We’re all friends, aren’t we?”
For a second Magnus Fin looked uncomfortable, until Tarkin nudged him.
“Cool,” said Tarkin, “means we can play lots of games – like hide ‘n’ seek. Man, I love hide ‘n’ seek. Do you, Aquella?”
“Never tried,” she said, “but I’m sure I’ll love it.”
Magnus Fin grinned and Patsy Mackay threw him a big tooth-gap smile, then Ragnor called out at the top of his voice, “Food’s ready, everyone!”
While Barbara handed everyone napkins and drinks, the guests could only stare, blink and look on in wonder. Magnus Fin’s mother was a picture of beauty. By this time, half the village had turned up. Even Granny May, puffed out after the line dancing, was stuck for words. Eventually, after a bite of sausage, she recovered her speech and with tears in her eyes announced to everyone, “She is even more beautiful than I remember. What did I tell you, Fin? What did I tell you? Everyone – isn’t she an absolute beauty? Isn’t my daughter just a picture? Thank goodness they’re better, that’s all I can say.”
And not only Magnus Fin, but Ragnor and all the guests could only nod their heads and smile.
“Oh, for heaven’s sake, stop staring and eat up,” said Barbara, putting
her hands to her face, hardly daring to believe that her youth and beauty had returned. “You don’t want these sausages to get cold, do you? And then there’s chocolate cake and ice cream for afters.” Then Barbara turned to Tarkin and saw he wasn’t eating his sausage, just fiddling with it. “What’s wrong, Tarkin?” she said gently. “Don’t American boys like hot dogs?”
“Yeah, usually, it’s just …”
“It’s just that he might have to go away, Mum,” said Magnus Fin, his mouth crammed full of sausage, “cos his mum thinks it’s too cold here.”
“Where is she anyway?” Ragnor said, coming over to put thirty more sausages on the barbecue seeing as half the village had turned up. “I thought you said she was going to come to our party, Tarkin?”
But Tarkin could only shrug his shoulders and scuff his feet. Words seemed to have left him. He didn’t know where she was. Packing a suitcase probably and stabbing a pin into a map of France.
“Isn’t that her?” said Aquella, pointing to a woman and man walking down the path towards them.
Tarkin looked up. Yes. It was. He nodded. Then looked again. His mother had something in her hands. As she came closer, Tarkin saw what it was. His bottle! The blue glass bottle he had flung out to sea two weeks before. Of all the people in the world to find it, his mother had! His face flushed red.
“Welcome to the party,” said Barbara, walking up to greet the couple. “You’re just in time for some of Ragnor’s wonderful sausages.”
Tarkin’s mum smiled at Barbara. “Thank you so much. So good of you to invite us. I just gotta go and talk to my son first if you’ll excuse me.” And she walked through the crowd of guests to where Tarkin stood at the bottom of the garden, with his head down, staring at the grass. She looked at him and lifted his chin. “Look at me, Tarkin.”
