The Tail of Emily Windsnap - Liz Kessler [36]
“You wouldn’t!”
“No? Want to make a bet? You think I haven’t been waiting for an opportunity like this? Little miss goody-goody two shoes, making out like you’re soooo sweet and innocent.”
The boat bobbed farther away from the dock. “Why do you hate me so much?” I called over the engine.
“Hmm. Let me think.” She put her finger dramatically to her mouth and looked away, as though talking to an audience. “She gets me grounded, steals my best friend, turns the swimming teacher against me. She’s a great big fat SHOWOFF!” Mandy looked back at me. “I really don’t know.”
Then she turned and started walking back up the jetty, waving her phone in the air.
“Mandy, don’t! Please!”
“Maybe I will, maybe I won’t,” she called over her shoulder. “See ya.”
What should I do? I couldn’t go back. I couldn’t. This was probably my one and only chance to find my father. And Mandy Rushton was NOT going to ruin it. I forced her words out of my mind. She wasn’t going to stop me — she wasn’t!
I turned my attention back to my plan.
Minutes later, I was edging away from the pier, holding the tiller and carefully navigating my way out of the harbor. I went over what I’d done when I’d driven the boat to Southpool — and tried hard to convince myself that what I was doing now really wasn’t very different.
As I sailed out to sea, I looked back at Brightport Bay. The last rays of the sun winked and glinted on the water like tiny spotlights. Ocean spray dusted my hair.
I closed my eyes for a second while I thought about what I was doing. I had to find the Great Mermer Reef. Based on the time Shona and I had gotten halfway there, I knew more or less where it was, so I studied the horizon and aimed for the section that was lighter than the rest. The part that would shimmer a hundred colors when I got close by.
It got dark very suddenly as we sliced slowly through the water. King never does anything in a hurry. My hand was getting cold, holding on to the tiller. And I was getting wet. King bounced on the water, gliding along with the swells, then rising and bumping down over the waves. It had been quite calm when I set off. The farther out I got, the more hilly the sea became.
Above me, stars appeared, one by one. Soon, the night sky was packed. A fat half-moon sat among them, its other half a silhouette, semivisible as though impatient for its turn to come.
King swayed from side to side, lumbering slowly through the peaks and troughs. Was I getting anywhere? I looked behind me. Brightport was miles away! If I closed one eye and held up my hand, I could hide the whole town behind my thumbnail.
Up and down we went, climbing the waves, bouncing on the swells, inching ever closer to the Great Mermer Reef.
My eyes watered as I strained to keep them on the patch of light on the horizon, shimmering and glowing and coming gradually closer. I let myself dream about Jake — about my dad.
I’d get into the prison and we’d escape. Hiding him in the boat, we’d cruise back to the pier before anyone even realized he was gone. Then Mom would come home from the meeting. Dad would be waiting in the sea at the end of the pier, and I’d ask Mom to come for a walk with me. Then I’d leave her there on her own for a minute, and he would appear. They’d see each other, and it would be like they’d never been apart. Mom would remember everything, and we’d all live happily ever after. Excellent plan.
Excellent daydream, anyhow. A “plan” was something I didn’t exactly have.
“EMILY!” A voice shattered my thoughts. I spun around, searching the night sky. There was a shape behind me — a long way away but coming nearer. A boat, one of those little motorboats with outboard engines that they hire out in the summer. As it got closer, I could see an outline of two people, one leaning forward in the front, one in the back at the tiller.
“Emily!” A woman’s voice. And not just any woman. Mom!
Then I recognized the other voice.
“Come back here, young lady! Whatever you think you are doing, you had better stop it — and now!”
Mr. Beeston!