Magnus Fin and the Moonlight Mission (15 page)

“Take two partners for a Dashing White Sargeant.”

Tam, the accordion player, squeezed the red and silver box in and out with gusto and Johnny accompanied him on the fiddle while people looked for partners. Some folks bustled around munching peanuts. Jeanette took off her cardigan because she was too warm and Carol abandoned her high heels because it was much easier to do a Dashing White Sargeant in her stocking soles. Then Mr Sargent laughed and told everyone that this was his special dance and he wanted everyone up on the dance floor and anyone not dancing would get detention.

Martha looked at Frank and shrugged, and Frank looked at Tarkin, and Tarkin shrugged. They all said they were sorry, but they didn’t know the steps to the Dashing White Sargeant and maybe they should just sit this one out. But Francis said not at all and didn’t they all have to start somewhere, and here was as good a time and a place as any.

Ragnor was the star dancer and Keith said if they just followed Ragnor and did what he did they’d be fine. And Barbara said all you do is go round for eight and back for eight – like this, she said, whizzing round the floor and clicking her heels. She whizzed round so fast her long red hair spun out behind her.

Martha coughed, gulped, then took her son by the hand and said they sure would give it a go, and everyone laughed.

So no one noticed Magnus Fin and Aquella come in. They stood at the back of the hall, lit up by the warm colourful lights. They watched the folk from the village, all dressed in their best clothes, laughing, clapping and tapping their feet. They watched Barbara, in her new black and silver sparkly dress, skip around the room. They even watched in amazement as Tarkin stomped his way round the dance floor with Frank at one side and his mother at the other.

“Oh no,” Magnus Fin whispered behind his cupped hand. “Sargent’s here. Well, I didn’t put this kilt on for nothing. Come on. We can’t just stand here.”

“Yeah,” said Aquella, “let’s dance.” She was at her first ceilidh – Sargent or no Sargent – and already she felt her body sway in time to the music.

Barbara came running up the dance floor, clapping her hands. “Magnus Fin! Aquella! You’re just in time. And don’t you both look lovely!” She took them by the hands and pulled them to where everyone was gathering for the dance.

Tam and Johnny were already into the first few bars of the tune but Mr Sargent and his wife needed a partner. “Just a wee minute there, lads,” Sargent called out, lifting a hand to halt the musicians. “If anybody has a right to dance this dance, it has to be me.” So the music was stopped and Mr Sargent bounded over to Magnus Fin. “Now that’s what I like to see,” he boomed, “a young man in a kilt. And on St Andrew’s day too! My good lady and I need a partner – Magnus
Fin – so, if Magnus Fin would do us the honour, Magnus Fin could dance the Dashing White Sargeant with the Sargents!”

Fin burst out laughing. “Aye, why not?” That left Aquella to dance between her Uncle Ragnor and Aunty Barbara.

And if Ragnor was the star dancer – well, Aquella was the moon itself. She danced like a wave of the sea and her long black hair spun round with every twirl of her lovely green dress. Up the threesomes went hand in hand to meet another threesome, feet drumming the beat. Folk whooped and cheered then under arms they dipped and on to meet the next threesome.

Round for eight they whizzed, and back for eight, and all the time Tam was keeping time, whacking his foot up and down on the wooden floor, his fingers flitting like frenzied things over the keys and the accordion bouncing up and down on his knee. Johnny flashed the fiddle bow like lightning. No one could resist the music.

Tarkin clicked his heels, grinning at Fin and Aquella as they spun round. He could whoop and cheer as loudly as anyone.

“It’s great you came along, Tarkin,” Frank shouted above the music as the whole company stamped their feet.

Tarkin nodded, “Aye,” he shouted. And it was. “Muckle great.”

Ragnor, Barbara and Aquella’s threesome met the threesome of Mr and Mrs Sargent and Magnus Fin. They moved in and out like waves. In for three, back for three. As they danced, the bright emerald eyes of Ragnor met the eyes of his son. Magnus Fin winked,
first with the green eye, then with the brown. One for the land, the other for the sea, and both of them glistening.

How is it, son,
asked Ragnor,
under the sea?

Fine, Dad. Just fine. Or it will be soon.

And Miranda? Tell me, Fin, how is she?

At that moment all arms were lifted high as the music soared. Magnus Fin swung his kilt. Tarkin and Aquella cheered.

Fine, Dad. The sickness has gone. Miranda is well!

And it wasn’t long after, when folk were choosing partners for a Strip the Willow, that the sirens sounded. Magnus Fin, Aquella and Tarkin rushed to the window and peered out. Blue lights flashed on the road outside. It was rare in that small village to hear the wail of sirens. Soon everybody had rushed to the windows, craning their necks to see what all the commotion was about. Tarkin was busy explaining to his mother and to Frank, “I told you. We were on a clean-up mission. And I phoned the police. I told them all about it.”

Fin flopped down on a seat and sighed with relief. So they
had
taken the phone calls seriously. He felt a great weight fall from his shoulders. Now all he wanted to do was eat a sausage roll and dance.

But everybody made a fuss. Dancing was put on hold while Tarkin told everyone how toxic waste had been dumped in the bay. Fridges, would you believe – and loads of them! Magnus Fin, Aquella and himself had discovered it. Well, Magnus Fin most of all, Tarkin admitted, but he and Aquella had been a great help. And because of it seals were dying. And the Scottish
Environment Protection Agency said they’d get things in place and start their clean-up at first light. With their equipment and their highly-trained divers, they hoped to have the salvage operation completed in a day or two.

The music started up again and it was three cheers for Magnus Fin, Aquella and Tarkin – and no one cheered louder than Mr Sargent. That was followed by a rousing rendition of “For They’re All Jolly Good Fellows!” and that was followed by piping hot sausage rolls. Fin ate a few then stuffed a few into his sporran. He knew a few hungry hoodlums in the sea who looked like they hadn’t had a good meal for years.
Hope you fish like sausage rolls,
Fin thought, beaming from ear to ear while stuffing yet another one into his sporran.

All through the night, the bay was buzzing with cranking, splashing and whirring noises. But both Magnus Fin’s and Tarkin’s families were so tired after a night’s dancing that they slept through it all. By the time they all woke up that Saturday morning on the first day of December, half the village was lined up along the harbour wall, watching with fascination as the Scottish Environment Protection Agency, with divers wearing full chemical protection gear, salvaged fridge after freezer, after battery, after leaking metal storage tank.

Magnus Fin, though, in the cottage down by the shore, would be happy if he never saw another fridge as long as he lived. While his parents and Aquella ran into the garden after breakfast to observe the big clean-up, Fin sat at the kitchen table and helped himself to more porridge, another dollop of cream and another large drizzling of honey. When he’d licked the bowl clean he took some bread crusts, then ran up to his bedroom and stuffed them into his sporran, which was now swelling like an udder.

He could hear Aquella and his parents cheering outside. “Come on down, Fin,” his father shouted.

“Yeah, come on, son,” his mother chimed in, waving up to him. “It’s great fun. You wouldn’t believe how much stuff they’re bringing up.”

Fin pressed his nose up against his bedroom window and watched. It was like a party out there. With every new item that the deep-water crane forked up and dropped into the toxic-waste disposal vessel, a rousing cheer went up.

“And folk are saying the fat cat bosses of Safe Solutions will go to prison,” Ragnor shouted up to Magnus Fin. “So tell us, son, what do you want for Christmas? You can have whatever you want.”

Fin opened his window and stuck his head out. “Can I get, um – a mountain bike?” His voice trailed off and he quickly added, “Or a new pair of trainers would be fine.” He knew his parents didn’t have much money. And now they had Aquella to look after as well. He saw his parents look at each other for a while, considering. Then he saw them smile.

“What colour of bike, Fin?”

“Yippee!” he cheered, so loudly he wondered if it would waken Ronan.
Ronan?
He had forgotten all about Ronan – and about his own new seal skin.

From the garden Aquella caught her cousin’s thoughts. She swung round and nodded. Fin dashed downstairs and into the garden.

“Off beachcombing then, son?” Barbara asked. “You never know what you might find with all that junk dislodged.”

“I’ll come with you, Fin,” Aquella said. “Come on, race you to the beach.”

They hadn’t run far when Magnus Fin stopped and shouted back at the top of his voice, “Red!” Then he turned and sped along the beach path.

As they approached the cave they saw a curling wisp
of blue smoke. “Looks like the fire’s still going,” Fin said, slowing down. “Do you think that man’s still there?”

“You mean Davie?”

No sooner had Aquella spoken his name than the winkle picker stepped out of the cave. “Far too busy out there for me,” he said, nodding in the direction of the clean-up operation. Saying nothing more, he picked up his sack of whelks and set off along the beach path.

“Thanks, Davie,” Aquella called out after him, “thanks for staying with him. And thanks for everything.”

The winkle picker stopped for a moment, looked back at Aquella and Magnus Fin then smiled.

“Bye, Davie,” Fin said, waving.

“Bye, Magnus Fin,” he said, nodding his head. Then Davie adjusted his sack of whelks on his shoulder and, humming to himself, carried on his way.

Fin hesitated at the mouth of the cave. “Um, maybe you should go in. I’ll just wait here.” Fin stepped back to let Aquella past.

“No, Fin. I know he’s my brother, but he’s your cousin. And he’s sleeping on your seal skin.” She took Fin by the sleeve and tugged him into the warm cave. “Ronan?” she called, hurrying now to the back of the cave, “Ronan?”

She gasped when she saw her brother, then she laughed. She fell to her knees and clasped his hand. “Look at you in my puffy jacket. You look like me.”

He did, with his long black hair, his bright green eyes and now with Aquella’s puffy pink jacket on. Ronan was sitting up, leaning against the wall, a pile of whelks on one side of him and a tin cup of steaming hot tea on the other.

“Are you feeling better?” Aquella asked, squeezing his hand.

Ronan looked at her, blinked a few times then nodded. He still looked weak but a hundred times better than he had looked the night before. “Look, Ronan.” Aquella got to her feet to let Fin come forward. “This is our cousin, Magnus Fin. He is
Sliochan Nan Ron
and you slept on his seal skin.”

Ronan lifted his head to stare at his cousin but if he did recognise Magnus Fin he didn’t show it. He managed a faint smile. Then his hand moved. Slowly he lifted his arm, free now from barnacles and seaweed. He held up Fin’s seal skin.

“Take it, Fin,” Aquella urged him. “Go on, he’s giving it to you.”

Fin stepped forward and took it. “Thanks. Hey, thanks very much, Ronan.”

“And now,” said Aquella, kneeling beside her brother again, “we’d better try and find out where you left
your
seal skin, Ronan. Can you remember yet?”

Ronan closed his eyes and appeared to concentrate. “He thinks it’s in here somewhere,” Aquella said to Fin, “but I’ve searched everywhere and I can’t find it.” Just then Ronan’s eyes flashed and he seemed excited. “Where is it, Ronan? Where’s your seal skin?”

Ronan tilted his head and gazed up at the ceiling. With his free hand he pointed to a high ledge. “Away up there?” Aquella gasped. “Are you sure?”

Ronan nodded. He tried to stagger to his feet but fell back. “It’s OK, Ronan. Your strength will come back. But now you have to take it easy.” She looked up at Magnus Fin. “Um – Fin?”

Magnus Fin knew what was coming. He looked up at the high ledge. “You want me to climb up there?” She nodded. “Right to the top?” She nodded again. So did Ronan. Fin groaned. “It’s really high.”

“But it’s got foot ledges. You’ll manage. I know you will. Please, Fin?”

It
was
high. Some of the foot ledges were hardly two inches thick. Fin, though, had had a lot of practice on the school climbing frame, so scaling the cave wall wasn’t half as hard as he thought it might be. He had almost reached the high dusty ledge when a bat, disturbed from its daytime slumbers, brushed Fin’s hair then flew out of the cave.

“Wow!” Fin called out, gripping the ledge, and with his free hand feeling along the rocky shelf. “Bat attack! Hey! I can feel a seal skin. It’s been a bat’s bed!”

“Throw it down, Fin.”

He did, wondering as it fell what the bat was going to do for a bed now. He didn’t wonder for long. “Hey, Aquella!” he shouted down. “Throw my seal skin up here. It’s a good hiding place. No one will ever find it here.”
Except a bat that is,
he thought, grinning. Magnus Fin liked bats. He liked the idea of a bat using his seal skin for a bed. And his seal skin would feel safe in his father’s cave.

By the time Fin was down, Ronan was asleep again, this time with his own seal skin as a blanket, and Aquella was tending to the fire.

“When will he go back to the sea?” Fin asked.

“When the sea is clean, and when he’s better. Tonight maybe?” Aquella put some wood on the fire then stood up. “You know, Fin, when I was on the beach last night,
I’m sure I saw a lot of pottery bits and blue sand glass, and – I’m pretty sure I saw a shark’s tooth.” By this time she was at the mouth of the cave. “Race you down to the tideline!”

And she was gone, her bare feet gliding over the sand, her long black hair flapping in the wind. Fin glanced back at Ronan, then up at the high shelf where his seal skin was hidden. The fire crackled – and for a fleeting moment he remembered words from an old story his father used to tell him in this very cave …

Once upon a time, there lived a beautiful seal… Her eyes, folk said, were human eyes. So beautiful was she that many tried to hunt her. But they never could. She was known as the bright one …

Then Magnus Fin ran from the cave, feeling a wave of joy and happiness ripple through him. “Hey! Wait for me!”