Nim at Sea (13 page)

W
HEN
A
LEX FINALLY GOT
out of the terminal building on the pier, she could see the top of her publisher’s building, tall and shining with the top hidden in the clouds. There was a long line for taxis, and Alex needed to get there fast. She crossed the highway and started to walk.

She wrote her e-mail to Nim and Jack in her head as she walked. The only thing she didn’t know was what their answer would be.

She was thinking about them so hard that sometimes she’d see a girl with hair like Nim’s, or a man who walked like Jack, and for half a moment she’d think,
They’re here!

It was so bad that when she looked in the window of her publisher’s building, she thought she saw Selkie sitting in front of the bookcases.

“You,” Alex told herself, “are going absolutely fruitcake nutty!”

“But,” she added, “in five more minutes you can e-mail them.”

“First things first,” Delia was saying to Nim. “Come up to my office to e-mail Alex and your father—Selkie and Fred can stay down here, can’t they?”

Selkie barked and pressed hard against Nim, while Fred scrambled up to her shoulder.

“Okay,” said Delia. “I guess we can take the freight elevator.”

Suddenly Selkie barked louder and skidded across to the revolving door as fast as she could lollop.

“Selkie!” shouted Nim. And then she saw Alex.

They raced across the floor and met in the middle, hanging on just as tight as they had when Nim pulled Alex out of a sinking sailboat. Selkie
whuffle
d around them in a loving circle and Fred climbed up to Alex’s shoulder.

“But how?” Alex asked. “And when?”

“On a ship,” said Nim. “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry.”

“Where’s Jack?”

“He’s back on the island. But I think he’s very mad at me because I made you leave us.”

“Do you mean you came
alone
?”

“That’s what she means,” said Delia. “Which is one of the many reasons I’m so happy to see my bestselling author!”

Alex let go of Nim for just long enough to hug Delia too. “Before we do anything else,” she said, “could we please e-mail Jack?”

Delia led them around to the freight elevator and they all rode up to her office, with Nim and Alex still both talking at once and trying to explain.

“…and then we jumped off,” said Nim. “Near the green lady.”

“Jumped off what?” asked Alex, feeling stunned.

“The ship,” said Nim.

Alex felt as if her heart had stopped. “What ship?” she asked when it started again.

Nim told her, and Alex told Nim her story, and Nim laughed and cried and Alex cried and laughed when they realized that Nim had been hiding right outside Alex’s cabin for that whole week.

Then Alex checked her e-mail, and the messages came flooding in. She read through Jack’s messages from the last right back to the first. The more she read the paler she got, because Jack was so angry and sad she knew he’d never want to see her again.

“But I told him what happened,” Nim said sadly. “Erin sent an e-mail every day.”

“Maybe he was too sad to understand?” said Alex.

To: [email protected]

From: [email protected]

Date: Wednesday 14 July, 3:32 p.m.

Subject: I’ve found Alex!!!!

Dear Jack,

You shouldn’t be angry at Alex because it’s not her fault that I left. It is
my fault that she left.

I wish you could come here too.

We are going down to the sea now so Selkie and Fred can swim in salt water, because they’ve just been in fountains since we got to the city. I hope your e-mail is working so you get this and I hope you answer.

Love (as much as Selkie loves us),

Nim

“But what if the Professor tries to catch Selkie again?” Nim asked.

“NO ONE is ever going to take Selkie away again!” said Alex. She looked so fierce that Nim believed her.

Delia’s phone rang. “There’s someone waiting for you downstairs,” she said when she’d hung up, and for just a minute both Nim and Alex thought,
Jack!

They all rode the freight elevator back down to the lobby, and though it wasn’t Jack, Nim was still very glad to see Carla, Fred was glad to see Fritz, and Alex and Delia were glad to meet someone who’d helped Nim. There were more thank-yous and more exclaiming and explaining, and then Carla and Fritz dashed off to start baking tomorrow’s cakes.

A long white car with black windows pulled up in front. The driver got out to open the doors.

“Here’s your car,” said Delia. “Are you sure you don’t want me to organize a hotel?”

“Thanks,” said Alex, “but I’d like to do it myself. It’s time I learned to do things like that.”

A boy and a girl with their mother stopped to stare as Alex, Delia, Nim and Fred, and finally Selkie came out through the revolving door.

“Look, a sea lion!”

“Hey, that kid’s got a lizard on her shoulder!”

“Oh, they’re just advertising a book,” said the mother.

Nim and Alex looked at each other and laughed so hard they had to lean against the limousine before they could get into it.

Delia waved goodbye as the car pulled out, with Nim and Alex sitting beside each other, Fred on the back of the seat staring out a window, and Selkie sitting on the floor and staring out hers.

Alex pushed a button in the limousine’s door and her window rolled down. Nim pushed the button for Selkie and rolled Fred’s down just enough that he could put his head out, but not so far he could fall out by mistake.

“Help yourself to a drink,” the driver said.

There were bottles of water in a cupboard behind the driver’s seat. Nim poured some into a lid for Fred. Selkie drank hers straight from the bottle.

The limousine driver politely asked Selkie not to put her head out the window with the bottle in her mouth. Selkie finished her water fast: she liked having her head out of the window.

When they stopped at a light, three dogs crossed the road in front of them.

“WHOOF!” honk
ed Selkie, racing from one window to the next.

“Arf!”
the dogs yipped in surprise.

Selkie
whuffle
d happily. Limousines were much nicer than being on her own in the back of a van, trying not to move in case she squashed cakes.

The driver took them to another park a little farther up the river from where the tugboat had brought Nim that morning. There was a marina, with boats moored all along the wharves: sailboats, motorboats, and some that looked more like floating houses. One had flower boxes at its windows and a
FOR LEASE
sign on its bow.

“Interesting!” Alex said thoughtfully. “But I’m starving. Let’s get something to eat.”

Fred rubbed his spiky back against her ankle. He’d nearly forgotten how much he liked Alex.

The four of them walked together across the green grass, back to a café in the middle. They sat at an outside table, where Selkie and Fred could watch the dogs sitting at other tables with their people. Alex ordered fish and chips and salad but added, “One fish needs to be raw, please!”

“Of course!” said the waiter, and brought Selkie and Fred a bowl of water to share while they waited.

“I didn’t know there were sea lions in the Hudson River,” said the man at the next table.

“We’re just visiting,” Alex explained.

“And I love your mother-and-daughter outfits!” his wife exclaimed. “Did you make them yourself?”

Alex looked embarrassed. “We’re not—”

“Yes,” said Nim.

Alex’s eyes filled up with tears. “We’ll have to find somewhere to check e-mails after dinner,” she said—because even though Nim had forgiven her for leaving, she didn’t know if Jack would.

“But Selkie and Fred need to swim first,” said Nim, and so when they’d finished, they wandered back down to the marina. Selkie and Fred lolloped across the strip of park and into the water—and as they ran, more and more people came to stare.

“Quick!” said Alex, and they raced to the end of a pier where a sign said
KAYAKS FOR HIRE
.

“Have you kayaked before?” asked the woman in charge.

“Of course!” said Alex.

They climbed in and started to paddle. They were splashing as much water as Selkie in a fountain, but somehow they didn’t move very far or very fast.

“Are you sure you’ve done this before?” Nim asked.

“It might have been in one of my books,” said Alex. “I get mixed up!”

E
RIN AND
B
EN
were at the airport with their family, waiting for the plane to take them the rest of the way home. They were early, the plane was late, and they were bored with waiting. Erin wanted to check her e-mail but there were no computers to do it.

“What’s so important it can’t wait till we get home?” her dad teased.

Erin thought maybe it was time to tell him. “It’s about Nim,” she began.

“She’s on TV!” shouted Ben.

“Amazing scenes in New York earlier today,” said the television news above their heads, “when Times Square played host to a visiting sea lion.”

Erin spun around to see Nim, Selkie, and Fred pushing through crowds in the square with the giant computerized screens.

“Originally thought to be a publicity stunt for today’s release of Alex Rover’s new book,
Nim’s Island
…”

The camera showed a
Nim’s Island
bus.

“…events have now taken a dramatic turn, with a spokesman for the Troppo Tourist cruise ship claiming that this girl…”

Nim’s face filled the screen.

“…had in fact stowed away and stolen the highly trained, valuable sea lion from their care.”

“Liar!” shouted Ben.

“Nim!” shouted a man standing beside them. He was staring up at the screen with shock, relief, and rage all dancing over his face—and he had bright eyes and baggy red pants.

“You’re Nim’s dad!” shouted Erin.

“Who’s Nim?” asked the twins.

The television showed Selkie porpoising around Nim and Alex’s kayak.

“Our friend Nim!” Erin and Ben said together.

“You’re Erin?” exclaimed Jack.

“And I’m Ben,” said Ben.

“Tell me everything!” said Jack.

The camera showed the Professor pointing accusingly. It narrowed in on the tranquilizer gun at his side.

“That’s the man who seal-napped Selkie!”

“And the other animals and birds.”

“Nim didn’t mean to stow away—she was trying to rescue Selkie!”

“We’ve got to help!”

“Police have been called to recapture the animal,” said the reporter.

Jack ran toward the Exit sign.

“Wait!” shouted Mr. Caritas. “I’ll come with you!”

“We all will,” said Mrs. Caritas.

They raced together through the airport to the long line of yellow taxis parked outside. Jack jumped into the first one with Erin, Ben, and their dad, and Mrs. Caritas and the twins grabbed the one behind.

“This is an emergency,” said Jack. “To the kayak pier—as fast as you can!”

“The one on the news?” asked the driver. “With the sea lion?”

“Yes. Please hurry!”

“Gotcha!” said the driver, and pulled out so fast they were knocked back in their seats.

The taxi zigzagged and zipped through the freeway traffic. Jack closed his eyes so he didn’t have to see the scenery blurring past, and listened hard to Erin and Ben telling him what had happened on the ship. His face was white; sometimes he looked scared and sometimes he groaned, and sometimes he smiled.

“Nim’s never had a kid friend,” he said at last. “She’s very lucky to have met you two.”

“We like her so much,” said Erin.

“We’ve never met anyone like her,” said Ben.

“I can believe that,” said Jack.

When they told him about seeing Alex in the morning, his face grew even paler and sadder, and he didn’t say anything at all.

“Why didn’t you tell your mom and me about this before?” Mr. Caritas asked.

“We were afraid….”

“Because the Professor said Nim would go to jail!”

“That’s not going to happen!” their father and Jack said together.

They crossed a bridge to reach the central part of the city. The taxi
honk
ed and blared its way through the traffic and down to the pier. They could see the masts of sailing boats and a crowd of people gathered on the shore.

Jack handed a wad of money to the driver, leapt from the cab, and ran.

A policeman stopped him. “Whoa! Stop right there. We’ve got a wild animal loose.”

“But that’s my daughter!” said Jack. “The girl, not the sea lion. The sea lion’s her friend. They’ve grown up together.”

“And the woman?”

“She’s…,” said Jack. “Well, she used to be…I mean, I know who she is, but I don’t know if…”

“I see,” said the policeman. “But the gentleman over there informs me that the animal is extremely dangerous if approached by untrained people, so I can’t let you past.”

“That
gentleman,
” said Jack, his face turning scarlet with fury, “is a wildlife poacher. Search his ship and you’ll find other animals that need to be rescued.
He’s
the only dangerous animal here.”

The Professor hadn’t noticed Jack. He strode over to the policeman. “We can’t wait any longer—that animal needs to be recaptured. I’ll just shoot it with a tranquilizer dart.”

“You’re not going to tranquilize that sea lion!” said Jack.

“Everybody keep calm!” said the policeman.

“And you’re certainly not going to tranquilize those people!” Jack shouted.

Erin and Ben, their mother and father, and the twins had snuck behind the crowd to where the kayaks were kept. They were now paddling in tight circles around Selkie.

More people from the crowd followed, until every kayak near the pier was surrounding Selkie, blocking her from the Professor.

A reporter pushed his way up to the policeman, followed by a man in a chauffeur’s uniform. “This man says he drove the sea lion down here in his limousine, and it wasn’t dangerous at all.”

“I’ll second that!” shouted Carla, racing across the lawn from her van. “She didn’t even nip my delicious cakes.”

“I don’t know if she
belongs
to anyone,” said Daniel, “but I know she loves that little girl, and Nim loves her.”

“And I think you’ll find,” said Ivan, “that this is the wildlife poacher I reported to the police earlier today.”

“What do you say to all that?” the reporter demanded, shoving his microphone in the Professor’s face.

“I say I’m getting that animal back!” shouted the Professor.

“Put the gun down!” shouted the policeman.

The Professor ignored him and raised his dart gun.

Jack sprang at him.

The policeman sprang too.

Jack and the policeman clunked heads, and their heads clunked the Professor’s arm.

“Ow!” screamed the Professor as the tranquilizer dart jabbed his leg. “Ooh,” he moaned as the injection went in. He slumped facedown and was asleep before the policeman’s handcuffs clamped around his wrists.

“And when you wake up,” the policeman told him, “you’ll have some questions to answer!”

Jack ran across the grass faster than he’d ever run. He dived into the water and swam straight out. Selkie
honk
ed her happiest
honk
as she dove toward him.

“Jack!” Nim shouted.

“Jack!” Alex whispered.

They reached for him—and their kayak tipped over.

The three of them clung to the upside-down kayak, laughing and hugging, exclaiming and explaining, till Fred poked his face up between them and Selkie
honk
ed anxiously that they needed to get back to shore.

“You’re right, Selkie,” said Jack. “I think it’s time for us all to go home.”

“All of us?” asked Nim.

“All of us,” said Alex.