Kira's Secret (2 page)

Chapter Two—
The Dream

Later that evening Kira's father returned from fishing, weary from a long hard day at sea. She was prepared to get a harsh scolding from him as well. Instead, she had to sit through the same old lecture she'd been hearing since she could remember.

“The sea is a dangerous place, Kira. You know how people get swept off the rocks by unexpected waves. Every year, tourists visit our beautiful beaches, and every year one or two of them drown. Such a tragedy for them and their families.” He paused and knelt down next to Kira, and took her small hands in his large calloused ones. He looked earnestly into the large blue-green eyes blinking at him through thick lenses.

“Kira, I know you're one of the best swimmers in your school. But that's in the community pool. Even the strongest swimmers are no match for the currents off our coast.”

He put his big hand on Kira's head and patted her gently. “Your mother and I would never forgive ourselves if any harm came to you. We were not blessed with our own children, and you were a gift to us. A gift we treasure. If we lost you…well, we simply can't imagine our lives without you.” He lowered his head and gave a great sigh.

Kira felt ashamed. Her father had saved her from drowning, so no wonder he was afraid for her. She knew that fishing was a hard life, but there was enough to provide clothes for her, even if they weren't the latest fashions, and a comfortable, warm house with her own little bedroom. There was always plenty to eat, though most of the desserts came from the diner where her mother worked.

Kira went to bed early that evening. She read two chapters of her library book then closed her eyes. But sleep would not come to her easily. She had so many questions she wanted to ask her parents, questions that would probably upset them.

Earlier that summer she had asked if she could go fishing with her father, like the boys did every year when school was out.

“No, Kira,” her father had said. “It's a hard job out on the boats. You're not strong enough, you'd be in the way, and that would be a safety problem for everyone. Anyhow, you'd probably get seasick, and the smell of the fish would knock you senseless after a while.”

No matter how often she protested, or how much she tried to reason with him, her father would not give in. Kira knew she was as strong as the boys, and she could run faster than most of them. It wasn't fair. Her mother was no help, either. She left for work at the diner each day, leaving a list of chores for Kira: sweep the floors, wash the dishes, iron the clothes, do the mending.

The only things she was not allowed to mend were the fishing nets. Kira was glad—she hated the feel of the rough nets in her hands. She didn't mind handling raw fish, and eating the fish and lobster her mother cooked, but she avoided the nets. She found them nasty and repulsive.

So while most of her classmates had summer jobs or were at camp, she had to stay at home all day. She felt even more isolated because her house was at the edge of town, out of sight of nearly all the others. The small blue clapboard house overlooked the wharf where the fishing boats tied up.

That night as she slowly drifted off to sleep, Kira consoled herself with visions of the beautiful creatures she had seen in the tide pools that day. She always dreamed in vivid colours. This time she found herself standing at the edge of a tide pool, staring deep into the clear, salty water. A loud bark made her look behind to see a giant dog running toward her. He was huge, the size of her entire school building, and the drooling tongue that hung out of his mouth was longer than she was! Kira didn't hesitate. She jumped into the water and started swimming away from the dog.

She heard a splash behind her, followed by a tidal wave. The monster dog was closing in on her! Kira reacted automatically—she dove down, straight down into the pond. It was a long way to the bottom. When she finally landed on the soft silt, Kira tilted her head back in amazement. The seaweeds she had seen from above were the size of poplar trees under water. A nearby lavender-coloured anemone was larger than her father's thirty-foot boat. Like
Alice in Wonderland
, she had shrunken to the size of a pocket doll. So the dog, who by then had returned to shore, must have been a regular-sized canine.

Kira gazed around at her new surroundings. What other wonders would she find now? If she was so tiny, there could be other dangers underwater. She tried to remember what Cody had told her about the animals that lived in tide pools. Starfish, sea urchins, clams, mussels, limpets—they all moved too slowly to be a serious threat. And jellyfish might be slow, but they had deadly stingers, especially if they were larger than she was. But there were also crabs, and she'd seen how quickly they could scuttle sideways. And fish, there were lots of colourful fish in the tide pools, but most of them were small. Then again, baby barracudas had all those sharp teeth, they were super fast, and ate everything they could swallow.

From the corner of her eye, Kira saw a dark shadow flitting past. She crouched behind the anemone bush and looked up. There was nothing in the water above her, but when she focused beyond the surface, she saw that the shadow belonged to a seagull flying high up in the sky. That was when Kira realized that although she wasn't wearing glasses, she could see everything clearly, close up and far away. Fantastic, she thought.

Her excitement was short-lived. From off to the left, something large and silvery was approaching at great speed and heading straight for her. Kira panicked. Should she try to hide in the anemone? Their tentacles could be fatal if she touched the poisonous parts. Should she try to swim for shore and hope the dog had gone?

In a flash she decided to swim. To her amazement, she found herself shooting through the water, around and through the seaweed, past jellyfish, anemones, and small fish. The large silvery monster, whatever it was, had been left far behind. Kira swam up and up toward the light and broke through to the surface. She saw no dogs or other land creatures as she started to scramble up onto the rocks.

But she could not get out of the water. She kicked and struggled, clawing with her hands, but to no avail. It felt like she was being dragged back into the pool. She looked behind and was astonished to see that her legs were gone and in their place was a golden fish tail.

Kira awoke in her bed, gasping. She sat up and checked under the covers for her legs. They were still attached to her body. It was only a dream, or a nightmare. But such a brilliant, magical nightmare. She lay back down and pulled the covers up to her chin. She relived the thrill of flying through the water with no effort at all. And no worries about breathing, either. How cool is that, she thought, revelling in her dream and slipping back into sleep.

Chapter Three—
Hitting the Books

When Kira woke the next morning, all she could
think about was her dream. She remembered the delicious sensation of gliding through the water like an elegant manta ray, the scenery painted in vibrant hues like she'd never seen in previous dreams. Kira dearly wished she could return to that world, but reality loomed. Her heart sank as she climbed into her clothes and dragged herself into the kitchen. She stared at the notepad on the fridge door, and read the list of chores for the day.

“Ugh, mopping the floors, again,” she groaned. This was as close as she'd get to water today, she thought with despair. As much as she loved to swim, at that moment even the community pool didn't appeal to her. She wondered about learning to scuba dive. The high school next to her middle school offered diving courses. She imagined wearing all the gear—the mask, the tanks, the wet suit with weights, the flippers. Suddenly it seemed all wrong, unnatural somehow.

Kira shook her head, but the dream would not dislodge itself from her brain. It was going to be a long, dreary day.

By the time she had finished her chores, Kira decided she needed to get out of the house. She left a note for her mother in case she arrived home early again. The day was sunny with a brisk east wind off the water. She headed toward the library, book six of the
Harry Potter
series bouncing heavily in her worn canvas backpack. Kira had put in a request for the seventh
Harry Potter
book two weeks before. Even if it wasn't available yet, she planned to look for other books to read, books that might answer a few questions that had been rattling around in her brain since early that morning. She quickened her step to shorten the half-hour walk to the centre of town.

The librarian, Mrs. Doyle, always appeared stern behind the high front counter where she perched. Her black-rimmed glasses magnified the water- blue eyes that appraised each person who walked through the door. A frizzy red halo framed her squarish face, in spite of attempts to tame her hair by tying it back. The big eyes and wild hair made her head seem very large.

As a little girl, Kira remembered being frightened the first time she saw Mrs. Doyle. All that could be seen from a child's view was a huge, fierce head without a body, staring down over the edge of the counter. Then Mrs. Doyle would smile, which confused a lot of children who were expecting her to growl at them.

Now Mrs. Doyle broke into a grin when she saw Kira walk through the library door.

“Hello, Mrs. Doyle. I'm just returning this.”

“Thank you, Kira,” she said, taking the book that was offered. “On time as usual. But I'm afraid the next book hasn't been returned yet. It's due tomorrow. I can send out a notice if it's not back by the day after.”

“Oh, that's okay. I'm not in any hurry,” Kira said, although a few days ago she couldn't wait to get her hands on
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
, the final book in the series.

“Actually, I'm wondering if you have any books on magical sea creatures. You know, like mermaids and such.”

Mrs. Doyle's eyes seemed to grow larger, if that was possible. “You mean fairy tales and legends, like
The Little Mermaid
? Or more scientific reports on sightings and theories?”

Kira's own eyes widened. “Uh, you mean people have seen real mermaids? There is such a thing?”

“Well, I suppose it's a bit like the study of UFOs, alien spaceships, and life on other planets, that sort of thing,” Mrs. Doyle frowned a little, then beamed a smile at Kira. “One never knows, does one? There are so many mysteries in our world that have yet to be explained. Here, let me show you where they are.”

Kira trotted along behind Mrs. Doyle, noticing for the first time that the librarian's hands appeared large for her short, slim body. They stopped near the back of the library and Mrs. Doyle pointed out several shelves. “The books on legends and folk tales are wonderful,” she said. “But in my opinion the non-fiction stack right behind you is just as fascinating and colourful. I'll leave you to it.”

Kira spent the next two hours leafing through dozens of books and trying to narrow down her choices. She finally selected two,
Sea Monsters—Facts and Fiction
and
Irish Folk Tales of the Sea
.

Back at home Kira read fervently and quickly. As fantastical as it seemed, one author suggested that changelings like mermaids and selkies might exist, or did exist at one time. Kira giggled at the drawing of a naked woman stepping out of a sealskin on the beach. A selkie. That notion seemed totally crazy—seals in the sea becoming humans on land once they removed their outer skins. Yeah, right, she thought.

Kira switched to the book of sea monsters, which described creatures as improbable as the fairies of folk tales. Then again, no one believed the old stories about giant squid until several washed up on their own eastern shores. Kira studied the black-and-white photos of one such find, now on exhibit at a museum in Newfoundland. This was not an animal Kira ever cared to run into. Some of them were as long as the fishing boats tied up at their wharf. Fortunately, most of the big ones stayed in deep waters and rarely came near the surface. There were many more bizarre fish and odd life forms inhabiting the deepest, darkest sea floors on the earth, documented by remote-controlled submersibles with cameras.

When her mother came in the door at the end of her work shift, Kira was still buried in a book.

“Oops!” she said, looking up at her mother. “I didn't get the potatoes on yet. Sorry.” She dropped her book and started for the kitchen.

“And hello to you, too, young lady,” her mother laughed. “Must be a good book to keep you so enthralled. What are you reading now?”

“Uh, a book on Irish folk tales. My
Harry Potter
book wasn't in yet,” she explained as she dumped potatoes into the sink. Her mother was unusually cheerful for the end of a workday.

“
Irish Folk Tales of the Sea
,” her mother read as she picked up the book. “And
Sea Monsters
? I thought you were into wizards and vampires these days.”

“It's all fantasy, Mom. Magic and stuff.” Kira wondered that her mother was not freaking out at her interest in the sea. She decided to test her.

“Mom, you came from the Shetland Islands. Don't they have a lot of stories about the sea?”

“Oh I suppose. I never paid them much attention,” she replied and held up a white box. “Look at what I brought home for dessert.” She opened the box to reveal a fluffy lemon meringue pie. “Your favourite!”

“Mmm, yum,” Kira said, noticing her mother had changed the subject. She felt uneasy with her mother's relaxed behaviour after yesterday's meltdown. She shrugged and attacked the next potato with her peeler. Whatever the reason, her mother's good mood was a welcome change from the day before.

At supper that evening, Kira's mind wandered back to the books she'd been reading. She tuned out her parents' conversation until her father's loud laugh brought her back.

“He seems well enough now, the old blighter, and just as full of tall tales, if not more,” he chuckled.

Kira's mother frowned. “Cillian, do you think we should invite him for dinner sometime? I wonder what Mrs. Mason is feeding old Bill at the boarding house. She's not big on vegetables.”

Her father shot Kira a glance, then looked back at his wife. “Ah, he's fine, Bess, the fittest eighty-year-old this side of the Atlantic. A bit soft in the head, but not bad for an old fisherman missing a foot.”

“Do you have room for pie, Kira?” her mother asked, standing up to pick up plates.

“Uh, yeah. Lots of room left for pie.” Kira watched her mother leave the table and wondered again. The second time that day her mother had changed the subject with food. Not just any food, but her absolute favourite dessert ever.

“Dad, was that Babbling Bill you were talking about? Is he back?”

Her father cleared his throat. “Er, yeah, old Babbling Bill. He was in the hospital for a while, but he seems fine now. He really is a babbler, the old geezer, can't believe a thing he says. But he's harmless, and lonely. His wife died fifteen years ago, poor soul. He likes to hang out with the fishermen on the wharf, as you know. All the fellas he fished with are gone now.”

“How did he lose his foot?”

“Ah, an accident, long time ago,” her father said, pulling on his beard and looking toward the kitchen. “D'you need some help in there, Bess?” he called out.

“I'm coming, I'm coming,” she said, arriving with a tray of plates holding the thickest lemon meringue pie wedges Kira had ever seen.

“But what kind of accident, dad?” Kira persisted, between melting mouthfuls.

“I'm not quite sure. It happened on his fishing boat, out at sea. It was a long time ago, Kira.” Her father said with a finality that suggested the discussion was closed.

For Kira this was just the beginning of a discussion, one that she intended to have with Babbling Bill at the first opportunity