Fear the Drowning Deep(6)
“Everything’s fine. Not much changes here in three days.” We exchanged a smile, and my arms itched to embrace him. “Only …” I took a deep breath and tried to quell the squirming in the pit of my stomach. “Mr. Gill and a few other men found a girl’s body on the beach yesterday. No one we know. Were there bad storms? Her boat might’ve hit the rocks.”
Da sucked in a breath and pressed his lips together. “You can tell me.”
I glanced at Grayse, whose head was bent over the cleat, then back to him.
As Da swung himself up onto the dock, I was all too aware of the murky water waiting to swallow him up if he took a wrong step. My shoulders only relaxed once he landed on the worn dock with a dull thud.
Da wasted no time wrapping me in a tight hug, and I buried my face in his shirt. The scent of fish guts and sweat overwhelmed me, crawling in through my nose and trailing down my throat. I sneezed so hard the boards beneath us groaned in protest.
“Steady there, Bridey-bird!” Da made a show of wiping off his already filthy shirt before beginning to haul his catch out of the boat.
Studying the mess of buckets, nets, and rods as he pulled them up, I realized everything looked grimier than usual. “There was a storm, wasn’t there?”
He nodded, showing me a couple of empty buckets. “Aye. It started the morning of my second day out. A nasty squall blew up, and I lost nearly half my catch.”
I peered in the bucket he plunked down closest to me. A meager handful of prawns sat within, glistening under the sun. I turned my head away before the stench could make me gag and focused on Da’s many nets. I couldn’t spot a single lobster in any of them.
“I didn’t see a girl, though,” Da added before I could ask. “Just a few of the fellas heading for deeper water.” He bowed his head. “Poor lass. I wonder if she was trying to sail out too far on her own.”
“That’s a lecture you’ll never have to give me,” I said, but the sight of an empty bucket, then another, wiped away my smile. “Is this really all you caught?”
A frown spread across Da’s weathered face. “The sea’s a fickle mistress, bird, and sometimes the places where I’ve fished in the past … well, they dry up. The fish stop coming, and I have to try elsewhere. But, I’ll not deny that everything seems scarcer lately. For everyone.” His shoulders sagged. “I’m afraid this town is headed for hard times.”
I looked away, my stomach sinking.
Grayse gave a triumphant—and rather hoarse—shout as she finished her knot, distracting Da and sparing me from attempting to say something falsely cheery.
“Let me check what you’ve done there, little fish …” Da hurried toward Grayse, but rather than inspecting the joining of the line and cleat, he swept her into his arms and spun her around.
I turned, ready to abandon the dock for the safety of firm ground, when a glimmer of something pinkish-white in Da’s fishing gear caught my eye. I crouched for a closer look. A round object about half the size of a chicken egg rested in a tangle of coarse netting. I tugged at the pile, hoping to jar it loose.
The thing rolled across the dock boards, its surface splashed with the many hues of a rainbow as sunlight caught its angles.
Once the marble-like object came to rest against a bucket, I reached out, straining my arm until my fingers closed over its slick sides. I gazed down at what looked like a giant pearl. It felt like a pearl, too, cool and smooth against my palm. But pearls were never this large. Why hadn’t Da noticed this bright beauty, with so little else in his nets?
I stuffed the pearl in my pocket, deciding to surprise Mam and Da with it later. That way, I could see both my parents’ delighted expressions at once. Maybe Da could find more like it when he went back out to sea tomorrow.
“Bridey,” Da called from the opposite side of the dock. “Care to join us?” He was helping Grayse feed the birds the rest of our cheese.
“I’m fine right here, thanks.”
I glanced down through a wide gap in the boards just in time to see something stirring in the shadows below. A large black fin sliced through the water, making ripples as it swam away. My heart gave a nasty jolt, and I suppressed a shriek. The creature made a splash as it dived under.
“Da!” I finally managed.
His careworn face turned toward me, along with Grayse’s, and a flush crept into my cheeks. “Let’s head home, shall we? Bet you’re ready for a nap, Da.” My pulse fluttered as I tried to form a clear picture in my mind of the creature under the dock.
Da shook his head, oblivious to my discomfort. “I can’t leave my catch sitting here. The guillemots would have a feast before I had a chance to haul it to the market. Why don’t you take your sister for lunch at Ms. Katleen’s?”
He searched his pockets and produced a pair of moldy-looking coins.
Grayse’s lip trembled. “I want to stay and help!” She gazed imploringly at Da. “And I had enough cheese to last me till supper.”
Da smiled. “Can’t argue with that. What about you, Bridey? Are you in the mood to sort prawns for me?”
“Not today, I’m afraid.” I glanced from my bare feet to Grayse’s. I couldn’t stay here with something lurking in the water. Da would insist I’d seen a dolphin or a seal. And if Grayse heard mention of her finned friends in the harbor, she’d want to take a closer look.