Lost on Brier Island, page 11
“Let’s go get help,” Rachel said.
“That’s a good idea. You should hurry.”
“What? I’m not leaving you here.”
“I’m staying to help Daredevil. Someone has to go down there before it’s too late.”
“We’ll hurry back.”
Alex shook her head.
“Well,” Rachel frowned. “If that’s what you want…”
Then the decision was made for them. Fog wrapped around Alex and Rachel like a fleece blanket, only there was no warmth in it. It was even thicker than before. They stood still, paralyzed. It had happened so fast! Barely time to blink.
They huddled in the chilly air, and then just as quickly it was withdrawing again, a wall hovering just offshore.
Alex glanced down at Daredevil as he thrashed again in the shallow water. He could be running out of time. Whales should be in the water, not on land. “I’m going down there before the fog comes back in.”
“I’m not staying up here by myself!” Rachel squealed.
“You’re going to get Gus, remember?” Alex turned away, anxious to get down to Daredevil. If she was going to save him, she had to do something, and fast.
“No way!” Rachel pointed to the fog bank. “That could come back any second. Then I’d be lost and alone. Let’s go together.”
“No! If the fog comes back in, nobody will be able to come back here to help Daredevil.” Stepping gingerly on the first boulder, Alex yelped as it shifted under her weight. A few smaller rocks bounced away down the cliff. She pulled back and leaned against the big boulder, closing her eyes. Her bravery had evaporated with a teeny slip of her foot.
Alex sucked in a deep breath. “You can do it,” she whispered.
“What did you say?” Rachel asked.
“Nothing.” Opening her eyes, Alex saw she was level with patches of burnt-orange and grey lichens clinging to the rock—they looked like crusty mould. Tufts of tall, wheat-coloured grass sprang from the crevices, swaying in the breeze.
Please, make me strong, she prayed. Please give me a little of Adam’s bravery—just a little. She looked down at Daredevil’s lonely silhouette on the beach. His tail flapped lamely. She had to help him. Swallowing hard, she blew out the breath that she’d been holding, and stepped back onto the basalt rocks. Rachel followed closely behind her.
“Go get Gus!”
“He’s probably not there anyway. He does a whale watch in the afternoons,” Rachel said. “And even if your parents and Sophie are home, they’d have to call the Coast Guard or something, right? How long would that take?”
They both looked at Daredevil. He might not have much time.
“Come on, then,” Alex snapped. She figured it was more likely Rachel’s fear of the fog that kept her from going for help, but she didn’t want to waste another second arguing.
Grabbing at grass where she could, Alex inched her way down the rock wall. Before taking each step, she tested it lightly with one foot first, making sure it was stable.
It was hard. Sharp rocks scraped their arms and legs. Sweat dripped into their eyes as they baked under the hot sun. Alex almost wished the cool fog would return. It had retreated farther out into the cove and sunlight was sparkling on the water.
For the last several minutes, the rocks had been covered in seaweed. This made the going even more hazardous, as their feet and hands slipped on the slick piles. Puddles of warmed seawater rippled in the hollows of flatter rocks. Time seemed to stand still as their world became the next rock, the next foothold. It felt like it would never end. Her heart skipped a beat. Maybe this hadn’t been such a good idea.
“Watch this big one beside me,” Alex called up. “It’s loose.”
“Okay,” Rachel gasped.
Searching for the next foothold, Alex glanced below her and realized she didn’t have to look anymore—they’d finally made it down to the beach. Sagging with relief, she reached up a supporting hand to steady Rachel as she jumped down the last few feet.
Alex gulped as she looked back up at how far they had descended. She didn’t even want to think about the journey they’d have to make back up the cliff. But she’d done it. Adam would have been proud of her, she was sure. Not always a wuss, am I, Adam?
As they approached Daredevil, the whale seemed to become aware of their presence. He thrashed around, his tail smacking loudly on the shallow water.
“He’s scared,” Alex said. Instinctively, she slowed her steps and spoke in a low voice. “It’s okay, Daredevil. We won’t hurt you.”
Rachel stayed close behind her.
“We’re here to help you,” Alex continued.
“Oh, poor guy!” Rachel cried. Her loud voice rang across the silent cove.
Daredevil twisted again, lifting his head off the beach.
“Shh, Rachel, not so loud. You’re scaring him!”
“Oops! Sorry.”
“It’s okay, Daredevil.” Alex moved forward to stand beside the whale. He was huge this close up. Alex guessed he had to be almost twenty feet long and taller than Alex’s five feet and two inches. Daredevil wasn’t anything like a baby. It quickly became obvious why he was beached, though. Several loops of fishing line were tangled around him, attached to two buoys that floated behind him in the water.
White crystals were crusted in his eyes and around his mouth. Sand and small rocks were stuck to his sides and underneath his jaw, caught in his throat grooves. Alex could see long dark marks crisscrossing his grey skin, which was dull and dry.
Tears welled in her eyes as she watched him writhing around. “Shh,” she whispered, her voice cracking. “Shh.”
The back part of Daredevil’s body, past his tangled long flippers, was in the shallow water. His skin was wet and shiny there, coated from the spray each time he smacked his tail.
“Water! He needs water on the rest of his skin,” Alex said. “We’ll get him wet and then try and get this line off him.”
“How are we going to do that?”
Alex looked frantically around. It wasn’t as if buckets were just magically going to appear. What would hold water? “Pass me my jacket.”
Rachel looked puzzled as she untied the jacket from around her waist and handed it to Alex. “What are you going to do with that?”
“It’s waterproof. We can use it like a scoop.”
“You really think that will work?”
It has to, Alex thought. She ran to the water’s edge. “Help me,” she called out. “Hold the other side.”
They pushed the jacket under the water and pulled it back up. Water poured over the sides, but much remained in the middle. The splashing salt water licked painfully at their scratched legs.
They shuffled sideways to Daredevil’s head, trying carefully not to slosh too much over the sides.
Gently tipping the water out, they let it cascade over Daredevil’s side. As soon as the water touched his skin, Daredevil froze. Alex and Rachel moved the jacket from side to side as the water poured out, covering as much of him as they could. They couldn’t reach the very top of his body, but were able to cover most of his side.
Alex was thrilled it had worked. They raced back to the water’s edge. Again and again, they scooped up water and splashed it over Daredevil’s massive form. They tried to fling it high enough to cover his head, but it was hard to tell if it made it all the way over him.
Alex thought maybe the whale understood they were trying to help him. She hoped so. She kept murmuring reassuring words as they made their way to and from the water. She had no idea how much time had passed. There was only the motion of filling the jacket and pouring the water, filling the jacket and pouring the water.
The sun beat down from a now-cloudless sky. After a while, Alex noticed the splashes from Daredevil’s tail were getting smaller and smaller. She looked with frustration out at the fog bank hovering beyond the edges of the cove. “Fog! Come back in and hide the sun!” she cried.
Daredevil’s body jerked.
“Sorry.” Alex’s head was pounding and her arms ached. Her lips were cracked and dry.
“I can’t even lift my arms anymore,” Rachel said. She dropped the jacket.
Alex ignored her, smoothing water with her hand around Daredevil’s face. She rinsed away some of the tiny stones and sand. “There,” she soothed, “doesn’t that feel better?”
She thought about the damp facecloth she would soak in water to moisten Adam’s lips every day. She’d whispered the same things to him.
But it seemed like Daredevil’s skin was getting drier, not wetter. The sun dried the water as fast as they poured it.
Chapter Twenty-nine
“We need something to keep him wet. His skin is drying out too fast!”
Rachel came over to stand beside her. “What about if we dunk the jacket again and cover him with that?”
“We can’t.” Alex shook her head. “We need it to carry the water.”
“Oh, right.”
Looking around for inspiration, Alex noticed how the thick seaweed was covering everything. Seaweed! When they were climbing down the rocks, it had still been wet, even though the tide was out. It must keep water inside it.
“Rachel, get some seaweed and soak it in the water. Then put it on his back.”
Rachel scrunched up her face. “Yuck, seaweed? It’s slimy!”
“But it might help him. Then we can try to get the fishing line untangled.” Alex grabbed a fistful, dragged it through the salt water, and laid it carefully on Daredevil’s skin. Some of it slid to the ground, but most of it stuck.
Reenergized, she grabbed more bunches already in the water and placed them wherever she could on Daredevil. Rachel also began picking up loose seaweed and kelp strands floating in the water and placing them on the baby whale.
“Ew—this stuff is disgusting.”
Alex lost track of how much time had passed. Even though they’d covered most of him with seaweed and his skin was now staying wet, Daredevil was barely moving.
“C’mon, Daredevil, don’t give up!”
Daredevil twitched slightly.
“We have to get these lines off him,” Alex said. The fishing line was a jumbled mess, wrapped around his body and twisted around his flippers. She remembered Gus talking about an entangled right whale he’d rescued, and how whales needed their flippers for balance and to swim.
Alex leaned forward to examine the line. She ran her fingers over it. It was just rope. Maybe she could cut it. She pulled Adam’s knife from her pocket and opened the blade.
“Rachel, try and pull out a piece so I can get the blade under it.”
She started sawing on a piece of line with the knife and eventually cut through the threads. But it was hard work and her arms were already aching from carrying the water.
It took a long time to get through one piece of the line—a small victory. There were several more loops to be cut.
Desperately, she started on the next piece. “I’ll cut through it all,” she vowed. “I will.”
Without the constant spray of water, Daredevil’s skin was getting drier by the second. “Rachel, get some water on him!”
“I’m sorry, Alex. My arms won’t work anymore. I think I’m going to throw up.”
“I can’t do it all by myself!” Alex tugged at the fishing line again. It wouldn’t budge. She’d have to cut every bit off. “Why didn’t you stay with your mother like you’re supposed to?” she cried at Daredevil. “All the other babies do. Why didn’t you?”
The baby flicked his tail weakly. Dread overwhelmed her. He was running out of time, Alex could feel it.
“You are just like Adam. Daredevil is the perfect name for you, too. He wouldn’t wait for his helmet. Why? I almost had the strap off—only another second and he would have had it.” Alex was weeping and muttering to herself as she sawed frantically at the line.
She didn’t even pause as she cut through another loop. Immediately, she started on the next, then the next. “Neither one of you did what you were supposed to,” Alex raved as she tugged at the line. “And look what happened. You should be out there, safe, swimming with your mom. But no! You decided to go off by yourself.”
At that moment, Alex stumbled backward. Dazed, she glanced down to see the knife broken in her hands. Time seemed to stop as she watched the blade fall.
She reached down and fished it out of the water. It had snapped off at the base. There was no fixing it. She slipped the broken blade into her pocket and examined the rest of the fishing line. She had managed to cut through many of the pieces. Maybe that was enough to untangle the rest.
Carefully, she pulled the cut pieces over and under the other loops. It was like trying to un-knot her grandmother’s yarn. It took forever to weave the pieces in and out. But finally, a large piece came loose in her hands.
Her heart soared. “Yes!” she cried, tossing the piece of line aside and starting on another piece. It was a bit easier to untangle than the first.
“Alex?”
“Stop complaining and come over and help me!” She’d gotten half the line off now. “It’s working.”
“No, it’s not that.” Rachel’s voice was quivering. “The tide is coming in.”
Alex looked at the small waves that were now lapping around her. She hadn’t even noticed. Glancing behind her, she was shocked to see that the water had quietly circled around them and now covered all of the shore. It was at least twenty feet to dry land.
Farther out in the cove, Rooftop was circling closer, too. Biggest tides in the world—twenty feet in six hours, Aunt Sophie had said. Alex looked up at the seaweed clinging to the basalt cliffs far above their heads. They were running out of time, too.
“Hang in there, Daredevil,” she said, working faster. “You’ll be back with your mom soon.” She pulled another loop free.
“Alex?”
“What now?”
“I…I’m trapped.”
Alex looked over at Rachel. She was perched on a boulder several feet away and below her, farther out in the cove. It was now surrounded by water. “Why didn’t you get off before?”
“I don’t know, it didn’t seem so bad…and then it was.”
“It won’t be too deep yet. Jump.”
“I can’t!”
“You have to. I can’t leave Daredevil. Jump down!” Alex said. “You can swim, right? What’s the problem? Don’t be such a wuss—” Alex paused. She couldn’t believe she’d said that. It had hurt every time Adam had called her that.
“I can’t help it,” Rachel cried. “The water is full of floating seaweed. I can’t see where to put my feet. What if I fall in a hole or something?”
The rising tide was now at Alex’s calves. Buoyed seaweed smacked against her legs, tossed by the angry waves. Alex shivered, uneasiness rippling through her. How quickly did the tide come in? She tried to calculate it in her head. Twenty feet in six hours—that would be more than three feet in an hour, over a foot every twenty minutes. She looked down. In twenty minutes, the water would be past her thighs.
They weren’t running out of time—they were out of time.
Chapter Thirty
“Alex!”
She leaned her forehead against Daredevil’s side. More time—she had to have more time. “I’m coming,” she said.
Quickly, she loosened two more loops. But no matter how hard she pulled, the rest of the line wouldn’t move. It was still wrapped tightly around one of Daredevil’s flippers.
Alex pulled the broken blade from her pocket and ran her finger lightly along the edge. Biting her lip, she wondered if it would leave a deep cut.
“The water is getting higher!” Rachel was sounding more panicked by the minute. She’d picked a poor place to rest. The waves were breaking over the rock she was on.
Alex held her breath and slashed at the fishing line. With no handle, the metal of the blade dug into the flesh of Alex’s hand.
“Help me!”
“Hold on, I’ll be right there!” Alex worked as fast as she could, trying to ignore the pain shooting through her. Her hands shook, but she kept going, working the blade as best she could at the section of line that was still wrapped around Daredevil’s flipper. If she could at least free that, he could swim and dive. He might stand a chance. Waves were brushing against her thighs now.
I can save them both. I can save them both. She kept repeating it in her head, hoping that would make it true. Daredevil twitched. Had she hurt him?
“It’s okay, Daredevil. Shh,” she murmured. Just a bit more and he might be able to get free.
“ALEX! The waves are pushing me!”
The crests of the waves were now lapping at Rachel’s legs and she was weaving, trying to keep her balance. How long had Alex been working on Daredevil? She couldn’t wait any longer.
Time was up.
Tears burned Alex’s eyes. She’d done all she could.
Dropping the blade, she leaned forward, running her hands softly over Daredevil’s head—the way she had the first time she’d seen him. “I’m sorry,” she sobbed. “I tried, I really did. But I couldn’t get it all off.” She felt Daredevil stir beneath her hands.
The incoming tide was now high enough to float Daredevil and finally loosen him from his land prison. He bobbed gently in the current for a moment. Alex gasped as he tipped to one side. But then he righted himself, or the current pushed him back up. He began to drift away from her, out towards the open sea and his mom. Rooftop was still out by the rocks close to the mouth of the cove. It must have been too shallow for her to come closer.
“Bye, Daredevil,” she whispered.
“ALEX!”
