Awake and Dreaming - Kit Pearson [27]
“This cemetery is really old,” John told Theo. “Dad told me lots of people from B.C. history are buried here, like Sir James Douglas and Emily Carr.”
“They give tours sometimes,” said Anna. “Once John and I tagged along and listened to the guide tell spooky stories about some of the dead people.”
They had reached a tall stone angel with a gentle face. “This is our favourite place,” said Anna. They sat on the steps circling the angel while Ben collected sticks.
A crow landed on a cross near them and rattled its throat. The sun appeared briefly and everything gleamed: the freshly washed grass dotted with snowdrops, the red berries and yellow forsythia blossoms lighting up the shrubs. Beyond the cemetery was the sea. Theo hadn’t realized the Kaldors lived so close to it.
She examined some graves near her. Some of the letters were so clogged with moss they were hard to read. Some just said “Mother” or “At Rest.”
All of these people were dead … It gave her a shivery feeling. She tried to avoid stepping on any of the stones.
“Snerd to the me-mor-y of …” read Lisbeth carefully.
“Snerd!” Anna giggled. “Sacred, silly.”
“I’m not silly!” said Lisbeth.
“No, you’re not,” said John. “Come on, let’s show Theo the beach.”
He led them out of another gate and down the hill until they reached a much busier street along the water. When John said it was safe, they dashed across the road and descended some concrete steps to a pebbly beach.
“Sometimes I fish here,” John explained to Theo. “But I’ve never caught anything. Dad did—he caught an eight-pound salmon!”
“Fishing’s so boring,” said Anna. They walked along a breakwater for a while, throwing sticks for Bingo. He emerged from the water looking like a sleek black seal.
“Won’t he get cold?” asked Theo, as Bingo galloped in again.
“He’s a water dog,” Ben told her. “He can swim in much colder water than this.”
A group of ducks, some with ringed necks and striped heads, bobbed near them; John said they were called Harlequin ducks. He pointed across the sea. “The Olympic Mountains are over there, but it’s too cloudy to see them today.”
“We’ve been there,” said Anna. “They’re in the United States. Once we hiked up Hurricane Ridge and looked back at Victoria.”
“I hate hiking,” said Lisbeth.
“You’re just lazy,” said Anna. “Our family goes on lots of hikes, Theo. Lis pretends not to like it, but she does really. Sometimes we camp, too. You can share Lisbeth’s and my tent, Theo.”
Theo thought of the kids in Swallows and Amazons—they were always sleeping in tents. “That would be great,” she said softly. “When do you go?”
“Usually in July,” said John. “Dad said that this year we might go to Long Beach. You’ll love it there, Theo. The beaches are huge!”
Theo still couldn’t accept that they were including her so easily. So far no one had asked a thing about her former life—they just seemed eager to introduce her to her new one.
July was a long way off. She forced herself to believe she would still be in this family then and take part in all these treats.
“I want to show Theo my mountain now,” said Ben.
They trooped back across the busy road and up the steep street to their house. It backed onto what did look like a small mountain—a massive hill of rock with a low modern building on top.
The Kaldors climbed up easily, even Ben. Theo lagged behind until Anna came back and helped her find her footing on the mossy rocks.
“Sorry,” she said. “I forgot you’re not used to this like we are. We’ve been coming up here for three years, ever since we moved in.”
They caught their breaths on a ledge beside the building. “That’s a condominium,” said John. “This part of the rock is their property, but they let us climb here.”
Theo thought they’d reached the top, but then they went past the building and climbed even higher, pushing