Nim at Sea (14 page)
Authors: Wendy Orr
T
HERE WERE SO MANY
things to organize that they couldn’t go back to their island right away. “Besides,” said Nim, “there’s a lot to see on this island!”
So while Jack and Nim went to talk to the police about the Professor, Alex went to see the boat that looked like a cottage and rented it for two weeks. Selkie and Fred liked it because they could get in and out of the river anytime they wanted, and could stay home by themselves when Nim, Jack, and Alex did things they didn’t want to do. Nim, Jack, and Alex liked it because when they got back from a busy day in the busy city, they could breathe the fresh air and sit peacefully to watch the sun setting over the river and the buildings on the other side.
They went to museums and saw dinosaurs and tiny fossils, Egyptian mummies and suits of armor, enormous paintings and miniature carvings. They went to a library with paintings on the ceilings and stone lions outside the doors. They walked through the hot city streets and into chilled stores where women sprayed perfume that made Jack sneeze. They went to a movie theater and forgot to eat their popcorn because the screen was so big and the sound so all around them that they felt as if they were in the story too. They ate bagels and hot dogs and other foods Nim had never heard of; they had afternoon tea at the hotel that looked like a palace and rode through the streets in the carriage behind the horse called Mabel. They had a party with all their friends, with a special iguana-shaped cake that made Fred sneeze with surprise.
But best of all was the hot, hot day they all went to the huge park in the middle of the city. The taxi drove down a gently curving road and dropped them off where a path led to a tranquil green lake. When the driver opened the door, Selkie galumphed halfway down the path before he could even say “Here we are!”
“I didn’t know they could move so fast!” said the driver.
Fred was racing behind Selkie as fast as his short iguana legs would carry him.
People jumped off the path out of their way, dogs barked—and Selkie and Fred slid into the water.
A row of turtles sunning on a log slowly turned their heads to stare and, one by one, disappeared under the water.
Fred came up from the bottom with a grin full of green plants.
Selkie popped up halfway across the lake to check if she could still see Nim. A gold tail stuck out of the side of her mouth.
Then, one by one, the dogs jumped in and paddled after Selkie and Fred, splashing and barking in the craziest, splashingest game of coconut-soccer-without-a-coconut that ever was.
Their families laughed as they watched them.
Other families wandering through the park came to watch.
And Nim, Alex, and Jack watched and laughed too, and sat on the bank together for the rest of the afternoon.
To: [email protected]; [email protected]
From: [email protected]
Date: Thursday 2 August, 10:05 a.m.
Subject: Home on the island
Dear Erin and Ben,
I told you I’d write again as soon as we got back to the island. The city was so fun but I’m really happy I’m home now.
Our trip back was very different. This captain let Selkie and Fred have their own pool, and I slept in a cabin. It was a lot more comfortable, but I missed doing things with you. Once we saw a whale spouting and I wished you could have seen it too. We stopped at different places to take the smuggled animals back to their homes.
We bought a new sailboat when we got to Sunshine Island so we could sail the rest of the way. Jack was going to build our new boat but Alex said this was a present from her book, and Jack said okay because he wanted us all to be home again as fast as possible. Selkie swam most of the way, which was good because she took up all the deck when she had a nap; and also she liked showing the dolphins around, because they decided to follow us home. So did some of the birds.
Jack says the Professor and the Troppo captain should be in jail for a long, long time. I hope so. So do Kylie, Kelvin, and Kristie. They visited us at the houseboat and told us how upset they were when they found out about the animal smuggling. They’re going to work on another boat now, and Virginia is going to work in a zoo to help animals who need to learn how to be free after being in cages for too long.
Did you see I have my own e-mail address now? So you can write to me as much as you want. But the best thing is that Jack and Alex said I can invite you to stay with us on the island next summer. I hope you’ll come! Love (as much as Selkie loves Fred), Nim
THIS IS A BORZOI BOOK PUBLISHED BY ALFRED A. KNOPF
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Text copyright © 2007 by Wendy Orr
Illustrations copyright © 2007 by Kerry Millard
All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Alfred A. Knopf, an imprint of Random House Children’s Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York. Originally published in Australia by Allen & Unwin in 2007.
Knopf, Borzoi Books, and the colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.
Educators and librarians, for a variety of teaching tools, visit us at
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available upon request.
eISBN: 978-0-375-84932-9
v3.0