Nim at Sea (4 page)

T
HE ROOM WAS FULL
of cages and sad smells. There were parrots, songbirds, lizards, spider monkeys, and a tank of tropical fish—and Selkie! She was sleeping in a cage beside an old bathtub full of dirty seawater.

Nim raced across the room, yanked open the cage door, and threw herself onto the sea lion, hugging and kissing her, rubbing her head and tickling her whiskers. Selkie
whuffle
d and opened her eyes.

“It’s okay, Selkie,” Nim whispered. “I’ve come to—”

But before she could finish the sentence, a deep voice snarled, “Hey! What are you doing here?”

Nim looked up at a tall, pale man with steel blue eyes. Nim didn’t recognize him, but Jack would have, and so would Alex. This was the very same man who’d been in charge of the Troppo Tourist boat that scared Nim’s mother’s whale to the bottom of the sea, and also the one that had dropped off Alex and her tiny boat into the terrible storm when she came to rescue Nim.

But all Nim knew was that he was the person who’d seal-napped her friend. She was as angry as Fire Mountain when it erupted.

But she also knew she’d never get Selkie out of here if she let that fire escape.

“Are you the Professor?” she asked.

He nodded. “How did you get down here?”

“I want to work with the animals,” said Nim.

The Professor laughed. “Let me guess: your mom’s on the crew, she smuggled you on board—and now you’re bored!”

Nim nodded as if he’d guessed her secret.

“What’s your mom’s name?”

“Alex,” said Nim. Then she felt even worse. Her mother’s name had been Emily.

“And will she think it’s a good idea for you to be snooping around down here?”

“She knows I like learning about animals,” Nim said quickly. “And…and I thought you’d like to see this marine iguana.”

Fred stared hard.

“That,” said the Professor, “is the ugliest thing I’ve ever seen. Luckily, some people like ugly creatures. Find an empty cage and stick it in.”

Fred tucked himself tighter around Nim’s neck.

“HE’S NOT GOING IN A CAGE!” Nim said. “Animals don’t belong in cages!”

The Professor’s voice was like ice. “The Foundation for Research on Intelligent, Unique, and Interesting Animals helps animals from all over the world. The most intelligent, unique, or interesting will go to millionaires’ homes—I mean, be relocated to appropriate environments—at the end of the cruise.”

“But…the iguana could learn to be even more intelligent, unique, and interesting if he knew how to live with people. Plus, I found him. He’s my…property.”

The Professor shrugged. “All the animals residing on this ship are the property of the Foundation. But if you want to tame him first, I guess I can allow that.”

“We’ve already put on a show for the Kids’ Klub.”

He laughed, a thin sort of laugh. “So you fancy yourself a mini-Professor, do you? Think you could take over my job of giving animal lectures to the passengers?”

“No, no, of course not! It was just a little show for the kids. But I could help you…. I’ve even worked with sea lions before. I bet I could teach this one all sorts of tricks!”

“That sea lion,” the Professor said, “is a mean, vicious beast. It tried to bite me when I rescued it. It’ll be more cooperative after a few days with no food.”

Nim felt as if someone had thrown a coconut hard against her stomach. She took a deep breath.
Think, think!
she told herself.
All that matters is helping Selkie!

“Sea lion,” she announced to the cage, “your name is…Selkie! Selkie—come out!”

“You can’t do that!” the Professor bellowed as he jumped out of Selkie’s way.

“Selkie,” Nim began.

The Professor grabbed a long whip from the corner of the room.

Nim looked around wildly. There was nowhere to hide. “Please don’t hit her!” she screamed, and leapt in front of her friend.

“We’ll get out of this somehow,” she whispered to Selkie. “Just do what I say, even if it seems stupid.”

“Get away from her!” the Professor snarled.

Nim ignored him. “Selkie—handstand!”

Selkie raised herself on her front flippers and did her best handstand.

What next?
Nim thought desperately.

Then Fred scurried across to Selkie. He rolled himself into a ball.

“Oh, Fred!” said Nim.

Fred rolled himself tighter.

“Selkie,” said Nim, “soccer!”

Selkie sat thinking with her head on one side, the way she did when she was puzzling about something tricky. Nim always shouted at her when she threw Fred instead of the coconut when they played soccer, and Fred always sulked.

“Soccer!” Nim said again.

Selkie flicked Fred up with her nose and threw him neatly to Nim. He climbed tight around Nim’s neck again.

“Thank you!” said Nim. “Now give me a kiss.”

Selkie waddled over and whiskery-kissed Nim on the cheek.

The Professor’s eyes had opened wide with surprise. He smiled as he put down his whip. “Okay, girlie; you can help.”

J
ACK SAT ON
S
ELKIE’S
R
OCK
till his shadow stretched dark across the beach—but the little red seaplane never came back, and neither did Nim.

“Nim!” Jack called, walking back to the new hut the three of them had built together. Nim and Jack’s previous home had been blown away by the terrible storm. “Nim! Dinnertime!”

The only answer was a
honk
from a sea lion. Jack couldn’t tell whether it was Selkie.

“Nim!” he called again. “Nim!”

She wasn’t at the hut. She wasn’t at Turtle Beach or Shell Beach, the Rainforest Pool or the vegetable garden, Keyhole Cove or Sea Lion Point.

She knows Alex has gone!
Jack thought.
She doesn’t want to see me because I somehow drove Alex away. Poor Nim!

He climbed up to the Emergency Cave, because he thought she might hide there if she really didn’t want to see him.

There were fresh footprints on the floor, but no Nim. And that’s when Jack really started to worry.

Alex had sat so long in the Sunshine Island waiting room that the sky had turned black. Suddenly the ship floated into the harbor with its lights twinkling as if it were a fairytale castle.

But Alex didn’t care about fairytales. She just wanted to go to her cabin, lock the door, and not come out till she got to the other side of the world.

There were no portholes in the Animal Room, but Nim felt the engines stop and the ship bump gently against a wharf.

Now! We can escape!
Nim thought, rubbing Selkie’s head in a get-ready way. Fred was already tucked tight on her shoulder, worn out after his busy day.

“Okay, young one,” said the Professor. “Time to get that sea lion back into its cage.”

“But—”

The Professor pointed his whip at her. “Let’s get things straight. Out of the goodness of my heart, I’m going to let you help me with these animals. But if you don’t do exactly what I say, when I say it, I’ll have to tell the captain that your mom smuggled a stowaway on board. Then he’ll have to tell the police—and then you and Alex will go to jail.”

Nim nodded.

She hugged Selkie, hard, then let her go. It felt like the second-worst thing she’d ever done.

Selkie slid slowly into her cage.

“Now scram. I don’t want your mom snooping around here looking for you.”

“She wouldn’t do that!” Nim spluttered, though she wasn’t sure if she was defending her real mother or Alex.

The Professor laughed, pushed her out the door, and locked it.

There was nothing Nim could do but walk back up the hall and up the stairs as if she knew where she was going.

“Fred,” she whispered when they were alone, “what are we going to do?”

Fred made his hungry face, which wasn’t any help at all.

Nim got into the elevator, pushed the
ARMADILLO
button, and went back to the Kids’ Klub. No one was there. Nim and Fred curled up in a chair to share the banana in her pocket—but she’d seen two women cleaning the Troppo Tots’ room next door, and Nim knew that if they came in here they’d tell her to get out and go back to her cabin. Even with Fred on her shoulder, Nim felt alone, very small, and very, very frightened. She needed to find somewhere safe to sleep.

An empty soda bottle rolled out from under a chair.

Nim thought of how she and Jack always checked bottles when they drifted in with the tide. “There might be a message,” Jack always said. So far, there never had been—but they liked imagining that someday there might be.

Paper and pencils were stacked on a desk. Nim peeked out the door: the women were still washing the Troppo Tots’ floor. She had maybe a minute before they found her.

Dear Jack,

The Troppo Tourists have seal-napped Selkie. Fred and I are on the ship too. We will rescue Selkie as soon as we can, but she is locked up tonight.

I’m very, very sorry I made Alex leave.

Nim walked down the stairs to the next deck, and then down to the next and the one after that, because she didn’t know where to go or what else to do. She could see lights on the wharf and in the houses behind it, as if everyone had a flashlight or candles in their windows. It looked like a scene out of a fairytale.

Other people were looking out too, leaning on the railings and chatting. Some of them smiled and said hello, but Nim kept on walking, around to the other side of the ship. No one was on that side because there was nothing to look at except the black and empty sea, and nothing to do unless you were a lonely Nim throwing her message in a bottle far into the darkness, hoping the waves would float it to Jack.

She went down the next stairs to the Monkey Deck—where the lifeboats were. She stopped under the small inflatable motorboat. “Hang on, Fred,” said Nim.

Swinging upside down like a nimble monkey-girl, Nim scrambled up the frame and onto the boat, unclipped one end of the canvas cover, and slid inside. Then she pulled out four life jackets to make a mattress and pillow, and curled up.

Fred went straight to sleep, but Nim kept seeing Selkie locked in her cage, and Alex flying away on the plane, and Jack all alone on their island. She didn’t know how she was going to save Selkie, or where they were going to end up, or how they were going to live on this ship.

For the first time since she was a baby, Nim cried herself to sleep.

Nim was so tired, and the canvas lifeboat cover kept the sun out so well, that she didn’t wake up till long after the sun was up and the ship was back out at sea.

She opened her eyes, peeked quickly over the edge of the lifeboat—and ducked down even faster, because a boy was coming out of the cabin in front of her!

Nim settled back down to wait. Fred made a hungry face, so she dug through all her pockets to see what she could find: a pencil and a very soggy notebook, a green stone, five ankle bands for birds visiting the island, a small bamboo cup, a few strands of seaweed…and the map Alex had drawn of her city island.

She gave Fred the seaweed and, very gently, spread Alex’s map out on the seat. It was torn on the fold lines and a bit faded.

MAP: NEW YORK CITY/MANHATTAN ISLAND

“You’d probably be grounded all the way to New York City,” Kylie had said when they pulled Nim out of the sea.

New York City was where Alex’s editor was—the one person in the world who would know where Alex was now.

“Oh, Fred, we’re going to rescue Selkie, find Alex—and bring us all together again!” she whispered. “All we have to do is stay on the ship till the end of the trip—without getting caught.”

Then there was a
thump,
and a
bump,
and a boy slithered into Nim’s boat.