The Fires Beneath the Sea ebook - Lydia Millet (primary phonics .txt) 📗

“What?”

“The words. Max, someone had scratched a message on it—my name and the words Consult the leatherback.”

Max stopped putting his helmet on and looked at her curiously. Then he laid a hand across her forehead.

“You cool? Don’t go getting spooky on me, sis,” he said. “We don’t need two Jaxes in the family.”

“C’mon, Max,” called Zee from the street. She was already on her bike, impatient. “We barely have time for a set. I gotta be at the boat by 10:30!”

“Coming,” he called, and pushed off, jumping the curb. She watched them pedal away, dipping and weaving their bikes playfully under the pitch pine and bear oak trees.

She couldn’t blame him. Max was the practical one in the family, even if he wasn’t his usual friendly self lately; and the words definitely seemed to be gone.… She felt lonely and wanted to call Hayley, but Hayley was still working. Her mom got mad when she talked on her cell at work.

Consult the leatherback.

Her dad was supposed to drive her to the Hyannis mall to buy school clothes. But she knew he’d only agreed to it to be a dutiful parent, so her heart wasn’t really in it, either.

“I can just buy stuff online, if you want,” she said to him in the kitchen, where he stood drinking his last cup of morning coffee. The kitchen windows faced the water, and lately her dad had a habit of just standing there staring out, his mug forgotten in his hand.

“It’s Jax’s last day at camp,” said her dad slowly. “How about we pick him up and go on a whale watch? Teddy Soderstrom’s boat has empty seats since it’s the end of the season. He just called to see if we wanted to hitch a ride. It’s been a while, hasn’t it?”

Teddy was an old friend of the family who was also the captain of one of the whale-watch boats in Provincetown.

“OK,” she said.

As they drove to Jax’s camp Cara considered telling her dad about the driftwood. What if it was someone stalking her or something? Danger.

Then again, maybe she’d made up the words. Maybe, as Max had hinted and she herself feared, she was losing it a bit. And her dad already had enough to worry about.

“Why don’t you go find your brother,” said her dad when they pulled into the parking lot. “I’ll wait here.”

She wove through the milling crowds in the nature center lobby till she found Jax standing beneath a display on crabs, with a giant pink crab model in the middle. He was typing on his phone.

Of course, it was more than a phone. It was one of those all-you-can-eat smartphone deals: GPS, video, Internet, blah blah blah. You could point it at a star in the night sky, and it would tell you the name of the constellation.

Jax was the most teched-out family member by far. He had to be, according to him. Data are key.

“Hi, Cara. The European green crab, Carcinus maenas, is believed to consume approximately $44 million in New England shellfish per year,” he said, then looked up from the phone and smiled sweetly.

“Very interesting,” she said, taking his hand. “Want to go see whales?”

“Carcinus maenas is among the 100 worst invasive species in the world,” he went on.

“I need to talk to you in private,” she said, steering him out through the front doors toward the car. “Once we’re on the whale boat. Dad’ll probably get talking to Teddy and then come and find me. OK?”

“Sure,” said Jax easily, and slid into the backseat.

“Hello, Jackson,” said their dad. “Did the camping session come to a satisfactory conclusion?”

“Enh,” said Jax, and shrugged. “I give it a 6.8. High marks for red-tailed hawks, eels, and square-backed marsh crabs. Low marks for food. Too much Chex Mix. Mid-range marks for so-called leadership. I like that guy Robin, he’s nice, but Amy, the other counselor? Everything she says goes up at the end like a question. Even if it’s not an interrogative at all. ‘This is a nature experience? So I’d like you to put away all your portable electronics? That means you Jax?’ Or when I was collecting specimens, she goes, ‘I don’t think picking that up is too appropriate?’ Like that.”

“Possibly insecure,” said their dad, nodding sagely.

“Dim bulb,” said Jax.

“So we’re going to P-town to see whales,” went on their dad. “Did Cara tell you? Last time we were out on a whale-watching boat, you were five. Do you remember?”

“There is ample evidence that cetaceans are stressed by whale-watching ecotourism, which can affect their behavior, migration, and breeding,” said Jax.

“But you’re the guy who brings baby frogs into his bedroom, then leaves them under a cushion,” said Cara. “Doesn’t that affect their behavior, migration, and whatever?”

“Few frog species participate in seasonal migrations,” said Jax.

“Argh,” said Cara.

At the end of the gangplank, her dad was clapped heartily on the back by the captain, an old friend. Like his namesake stuffed bear, Teddy was big, puffy, and comforting.

“Welcome aboard, Sykes family,” he boomed. “Lemme show you my latest gadgets.” And he toured them around the boat, pointing out computer hardware and fancy seat covers.

He was trying to be jovial, Cara could tell, but once he leaned close to her dad and said something low. Her dad shook his head, and Teddy gripped his shoulder as though to strengthen him.

They were talking about her mother, obviously. Her parents’ friends didn’t like to ask about her mother being missing in front of her or Max or Jax, she’d noticed—as if, when they acted like everything was business as usual, that would keep the kids happy….

Finally the boat motored away from the pier and Cara was able to get Jax alone at the rail while their dad, who barely knew Mac from PC and claimed to believe that cell phones “might well be the Devil’s handiwork,” pretended to be interested in Teddy’s new high-tech gadgets.

She told Jax about the driftwood