Nim at Sea (2 page)

“They’ve killed her!” Nim screamed.

But then Selkie lifted her head, and Nim saw the men tying ropes and nets around her.

She had to save her friend! Fast!

Fred scrambled to her shoulder and clung on tight. Nim stood on the edge of the cliff. The water was a long way down.

What if I hit the rocks?
Nim thought.

She jumped, as high and far as she could, and twisted into a dive.

She hit the water.

Nim’s lungs were bursting and her ears were hurting. But soon she saw light above her head, and kicked and spluttered her way up to the air.

The boat was already a long way out, and the waves were strong on this side of the island, but Nim had no choice. She took another deep breath and began to swim with all her might.

J
ACK SAT ON
S
ELKIE’S
R
OCK
for a long, long time, staring out at the empty sky. He felt as if a part of his world had vanished with Alex’s plane and he’d been left behind.

He reread the letter he’d found on the beach.

Dear Alex,

I’m glad the materials I organized for the supply ship were useful; I hope these things will all be too. I guess that new cabin must be just about finished by now and you’ve all got clothes to wear again. It was quite amusing to read about your banana-leaf dress in your first e-mail!

Your apartment and furniture have been sold, as per your instructions. I’m enclosing all the paperwork. However, just in case you change your mind about staying on that little island forever, I’m also enclosing a new passport and credit card to replace the ones you lost.

Now, enclosed please find the reason I’ve been so busy: the first copy of your new book! I am very proud to be the editor of this book: I think it’s wonderful, and we’re going all out to make sure it’ll be your biggest bestseller.

Please let me know if there’s anything else I can do.

Yours,

Delia Defoe

“Why would she…?” said Jack. But no matter how many times he read the letter, it still didn’t explain why Alex had gone.

“What could have suddenly made her so unhappy?” he asked the sea. “Did the things on the plane remind her of what she’d been missing? Did she suddenly want to go and be famous again? And why couldn’t she tell me?”

But the sea didn’t answer, and it didn’t matter what Jack wondered, because Alex was gone—and soon he’d have to tell Nim, which would be almost worse than knowing it himself.

Jack had seen Nim’s face when she’d opened that big crate of books. He knew she’d be lying somewhere, her head on Selkie’s back and Fred curled on her stomach, lost in a story, not even realizing everything had changed.

Meanwhile, Alex sat in the passenger seat of the seaplane, too frozen with sadness to even be afraid. She looked back at the gold sand of Turtle Beach, the light clear blue of Keyhole Cove, the palm tree Nim always climbed, and the shack they’d just built, and she wondered if she had made a terrible mistake.

Then she thought about what Nim had said, and knew she cared too much about her friends to stay if Nim didn’t want her.

Fred jumped off Nim’s shoulder when they hit the water, but he stayed under only long enough to grab one big mouthful of seaweed before popping out beside her.

Selkie was part of Fred’s life, and Fred wanted her back.

They were both swimming as fast as they could, straight out to sea, but the boat was pulling away even faster. Nim’s heart was pounding; it hurt when she breathed and she was swallowing too much water.

I
…huff…
can’t…go
…huff…
fast enough!
she thought. She rolled onto her back. Fred kept on gliding under the water just beside her.

When Nim had caught her breath and rolled over again, the cruise ship was getting closer—but the motorboat with Selkie and the seal-nappers had disappeared.

It can’t have gone!
Nim thought.
It must be on the other side of the ship.

That was when she saw the huge pink-and-purple name on the ship’s bow:
THE TROPPO TOURIST
, the company that Nim was more afraid of than anything in the world.

Nim tried to swim faster, but it didn’t take long before she was gasping, swallowing water and spitting it out again. She rolled onto her back; her arms whirred, her legs kicked…and her head knocked hard against a rubber boat.

Hands grabbed her arms. A man and a woman, with horrified faces and matching pink-and-purple T-shirts, stared down at her.

“Fred!” screamed Nim.

Fred scrabbled to her shoulder, and they were hauled into an inflatable motorboat like the one that had seal-napped Selkie.

“You said you’d counted, Kelvin!” shouted the woman, whose T-shirt said
I’M KYLIE
.

“I did!” Kelvin answered. “There were fifteen kids in that snorkeling group and we took fifteen back…I think.”

“If you’d counted,” Kylie insisted, “we wouldn’t be fishing this poor kid out of the water now!”

“Maybe she’s a castaway from that deserted island: Kid Crusoe!”

Nim didn’t have enough breath to say her name was Nim Rusoe, not Kid Crusoe.

“Where were you heading to, honey?”

“To the boat,” Nim whispered.

“Just in time,” said Kelvin. “We’re about to set sail.”

Nim still couldn’t see the other little boat. All she could see was the cruise ship: its white length stretching forever in front of her, and its towering decks reaching to the sky.

It was the only place Selkie’s boat could have come from, and the only place it could have gone. If Nim was going to rescue Selkie, she had to get on the ship.

Fred sneezed.

“What
is
that?” Kelvin asked.

Fred clung tight to Nim and glared his fiercest dragon glare. “He’s my friend,” Nim explained.

“If you say so!” Kelvin grinned. He didn’t look as if he really wanted to touch Fred anyway.

“Not to worry, you can keep your, er, pet,” said Kylie.

“She’s delirious,” Kelvin whispered.

“Hey, where’s your snorkel?” asked Kylie.

“I don’t know,” said Nim.

“Never mind,” said Kylie, with a big anxious smile. “We won’t tell anyone you lost a valuable snorkel if you don’t tell anyone you nearly missed the boat.”

“Great idea!” said Kelvin. “Look, kid, we don’t want to get you into trouble. And wouldn’t your parents be mad if they found out you hadn’t stayed with the other kids the way you were supposed to?”

“You’d probably be grounded all the way to New York City!”

“Stuck in your cabin for six whole days—you wouldn’t like that, would you?”

Nim felt as if her head was going to explode. “Where’s
Selkie
?” she demanded.

“Who’s Selkie?”

“We haven’t lost another kid, have we?”

“She’s a—” But Nim stopped just before she said “sea lion.” She remembered the part in Alex’s book when the hero tricked the bad guys out of kidnapping him because they thought he was crazy.

“She’s a mermaid,” said Nim.

“Poor thing! She’s had too much sun!”

“Stayed too long in the water!”

“Wrap her up—grab that jacket.”

Kelvin dropped a pink-and-purple Troppo jacket over Nim and Fred. He still didn’t seem to want to touch Fred.

“Don’t worry, kiddo,” said Kylie. “I’ll get you settled down before you see your parents. You’ll be fine!”

The boat bumped against the ship. A long plank with rope railings led up from the water to a door halfway along the side. Kelvin grabbed a rope, and Nim and Fred followed Kylie up the ramp and onto the giant ship.

N
IM FOUND HERSELF
in a big open room with small palm trees and large, bright flowers. There were decks above her, a long hall lined with doors leading off to the left, and a white stone fountain to the right. And everywhere she looked there were people: sitting on the edge of the fountain, looking out over the rail, relaxing in deck chairs, perched at small tables with drinks and snacks, sitting at desks across from beaming
Troppo Tourist
crew members. They were talking and laughing and eating and gazing around.

Nim felt frozen, too stunned to even move.

“Are you okay?” Kylie asked worriedly.

Nim nodded, but in truth she could hardly breathe. She took a step closer to the fountain, where water bubbled and splashed from the mouth of a carved-stone dolphin. In the tiny pool around it were two dolphins swimming in endless circles.

Nim gasped. The dolphins she knew swam free and far across the sea—these animals barely had room to splash.

“This way,” Kylie said, quickly steering Nim down a flight of stairs and into another long hallway with a shiny green floor and walls lined with doors. There were no windows, and even though light shone from bright lamps in the ceiling, Nim felt as closed in as if she were in a cave. Fred curled himself tightly around her neck, peering out from under her chin.

Kylie pulled out a key, unlocked the door marked
12,
and ushered Nim into a cabin. There were two bunk beds, two sets of drawers, and a door into a tiny, shiny room. She reached in and handed Nim a towel.

“You’d better get warm and dry before you go back to the Kids’ Klub,” she said. “Were you supposed to have lunch with your mom and dad?”

“No,” said Nim.

“Well, how about I get you something yummy? What about a hamburger and milkshake? I bet that’ll make you feel better!”

“Maybe,” said Nim.

Kylie tried to smile reassuringly. “You’ll be fine, don’t worry!” She stepped out the door, called, “Have a shower if you want to warm up!” and disappeared.

Fred crawled down from Nim’s shoulder.

Nim waited a second, and tried to open the door.

Nim had lived all her life on the island. She’d read about locks, but she’d never seen one. She’d never known what it would be like to be inside a small room and not be able to get out. She pulled the knob and kicked the door as hard as she could.

“Ow!” she shouted, rubbing her big toe.

“Now what do we do?” she asked Fred.

Fred felt braver now that Kylie was gone. He decided to explore the cabin. In the tiny room behind the door he found an even tinier room with glass walls and a hard floor with a hole in the middle.

Alex had told Nim about toilets that flushed and showers like waterfalls that ran as hot or as cold as you liked. When Nim wanted to get clean, she swam in the sea or soaked in the Rainforest Pool. She turned the tap on—and the water gushed out just like Alex had said, warm as sunshine.

“I’ll try it if you will!” she told Fred.

Nim stuck her arm under the spray, then her leg, and then she and Fred jumped back and forth under the water and out the door, till there were puddles on the floor, splashes up the walls, and drops on the ceiling. Fred got so hot he couldn’t stay still, and raced crazily around the cabin and up and down the bunks till he was worn out. Nim turned the tap off, rubbed her hair with the towel, and shook herself to dry her clothes.

She was wearing a blue shirt and red pants made with the material brought by the supply ship. Jack had designed the pants with drawstring legs that could be pushed up into shorts for coolness or pulled down smooth for swimming or palm tree climbing. There were lots of pockets for Useful Things, including one extra-deep pocket with its own drawstring to keep special things safe. Nim pushed the legs up into shorts now, because they were soggy and dripping.

Everything else in the bathroom, and quite a lot of things in the cabin, were soggy too—especially the pillow Fred was stretched out on.

The door opened, and Kylie came in with a tray piled with food. Her face went pale when she saw the cabin. “I see you had a shower!” she exclaimed. “I bet you feel better now!”

“A little bit,” Nim said.

“Well, this ought to fix you up. Look what I’ve brought you: milkshake, hamburger, chips, some Jell-O, cake, a banana, and a hot chocolate in case you’re still cold.”

“Thank you,” said Nim. She stared at the food and wondered what to try first; the banana was the only thing she recognized. Nim put it in her pocket when Kylie wasn’t looking.

“Those are interesting shorts you’re wearing,” Kylie said. “I thought they were a wetsuit.”

“They’re wet shorts,” Nim explained. She opened the hamburger and found some lettuce.
Something else I know!
Nim thought, but Fred snatched it and gulped it down.

The milkshake slid cold down her throat, and then hot chocolate warmed it up again. Nim tried a mouthful of slippery green Jell-O. She liked the way it squished through her teeth. She ate a handful of salty, crunchy chips and the pickle from the hamburger. Fred sampled the food too. He liked the Jell-O best. Nim loved the hot chocolate. And the crunchy chips. It was hard to decide.

Kylie watched Nim and Fred trying the food, mouthful by mouthful. “That’s an interesting way to eat,” she said.

“It’s interesting food,” Nim said politely.

Suddenly there was a faint
rumble
from somewhere deep inside the ship, and the floor beneath Nim’s bare feet began a steady, chugging tremble. The ship’s engines had started.

If I don’t get out of here soon,
thought Nim,
it’ll be too late to rescue Selkie and get back to the island!

“Do you feel well enough to go back to the Kids’ Klub?”

Nim nodded. She had to start looking for Selkie somewhere.

“Do you want to take that—I mean, your friend—with you?”

Fred rushed to the plate, slurped down the last of the Jell-O, and raced up to Nim’s shoulder. Nim picked up the pink-and-purple jacket—maybe she could use it as a type of disguise? She threw it over Fred so he was disguised too, all except for his watching eyes and iguana grin.

They followed Kylie halfway down a hall to a fish tank with a sign saying
PIRANHA DECK
. Nim held Fred’s tail to make extra sure he didn’t fall in.

Kylie stopped and pressed a button on the wall opposite the tank. Doors slid open, and she ushered Nim and Fred into a small empty room. All that was in it was a doormat that said
THURSDAY
, a mirror on the wall that showed their frightened faces, and a row of buttons beside the door with a picture of an animal on each one. Kylie pressed the
ARMADILLO
button and the doors slid shut.

Nim knew about elevators: Alex had told her about her home, a building that was half as high as Fire Mountain, with elevators that took her up to her apartment and back down to street level with just a press of a button. What Nim didn’t know was that the elevator would leave her stomach down at the bottom while it whisked the rest of her up to the top. Fred didn’t know either. He was so surprised he sneezed his last mouthful of Jell-O all over Nim’s neck.

“Yuck, Fred!” said Nim. It was the first completely true thing she’d said since she’d got on the ship.

“I bet your friends will be glad to see you,” Kylie said as the elevator stopped.

The only friends Nim had ever had were Selkie and Fred, plus Chica the sea turtle and Galileo the frigate bird—but Chica came ashore only once a year to lay her eggs, and Galileo was only your friend if you had a fish in your hand. So for just a minute Nim thought,
Selkie’s here!

But when the elevator doors opened, the sign said
ARMADILLO DECK
, and the cage beneath it held two little armadillos rolled into tight armor-plated balls.

Kylie turned, and Nim followed her toward a swimming pool. Selkie wasn’t in it, or in the little pool with a spray that fountained up like the water through the rocks of her own Keyhole Cove. They walked on, past a door marked
TROPPO TEENS
, past another marked
TROPPO TOTS
, and then stopped at the
KIDS’ KLUB
door.

Inside, some people were making things at tables, others were playing games on giant computer screens, some were running, and others were talking; some were bigger than Nim and some smaller. They were as crowded and noisy as seagulls on a beach—and, except for another pink-and-purple-T-shirted woman, whose name tag said
KRISTIE
,
they were all…

Kids!
Nim thought.
I didn’t think there’d be this many kids in a whole city!

Kylie pushed her firmly into the room and pulled Kristie out the door. “Not quite right in the head,” Nim heard her say. “She shouldn’t have been allowed to go snorkeling—and look at the lizard she caught out there! We couldn’t get it away from her.”

“Never mind—the Professor can deal with that.”

But Nim wasn’t listening anymore.

In the books Nim had read, kids had adventures together; sometimes they were friends at the beginning of the story, and other times they fought and ended up friends in the end.
But how are you supposed to know what to do,
Nim wondered,
when you can’t even figure out what they’re doing—and they don’t even notice you?

She backed up against the wall and watched them as if they were a flock of birds that weren’t used to her yet.

A girl in front of one of the giant computer screens stopped spinning her steering wheel and looked right at Nim. She smiled, and Nim tried to smile back. The girl came over.

“I’m Erin Caritas. Did you get on at that port two days ago too? I thought we were the only ones.” She pointed to a slightly smaller dark-haired boy who was riding a strange sort of motorbike that kept bouncing him off the seat but didn’t go anywhere. “That’s my brother, Ben.”

Fred stuck his head out from under the jacket and sneezed.

“Cool!” said Erin. “What’s his name?”

Suddenly a bunch of kids were around them, so close Nim could hardly breathe, asking questions so fast no one even noticed she wasn’t answering.

“Where’d you get that thing?”

“Can I touch it?”

“What
is
it?”

“How come the Professor let you have it?”