He finished with Samantha and went to work on Pix. In a moment, he was standing up.
“Wel , good-bye, I guess. There's real y nothing else to say.”
A few minutes later, they heard the boat start up again.
Mother and daughter started talking at once. 'Mom, they're gone!”
“Are you al right?”
They were almost giddy with relief. They were alive.
But, Pix soon realized, taking stock of the situation, not in good shape.
The island was uninhabited, and tied securely the way they were, there was no way they could attract attention tomorrow morning from a passing boat. When the Athertons didn't turn up at the camp and it became apparent that Pix and Samantha were also missing, a search would be made, yet it was unlikely that anyone would think to come here. There were countless islands of varying size dotted throughout Penobscot Bay. It could be days or even weeks before they were found.
Jim wasn't going to be directly responsible for their deaths. Obviously, he'd come up with a plan that effectively kept them out of the way while the Athertons headed for the Canadian border and stil kept his hands clean. Pix could almost hear him explaining it to 'sweet-cakes,”
“That's al we need, a few hours. If they're found, fine. If not ...”
If not .. .
“Samantha, we have to try to cut these ropes with something. Can you stand up?'
“I don't know' She strained to bend her knees and get into a sitting position. 'It's no use. He's tied our hands and feet together.'
“Maybe I can untie the knot. My fingers are free.”
Pix rol ed over to Samantha and began to pick at the knot at her ankles. Her fingers soon began to ache and she wished she hadn't kept her nails so short. Manicures didn't last long gardening.
“At least one of us has to get down to the shore and start yel ing. There's always the chance that a boat could have pul ed into the cove for the night. Distract me. Sing.
Anything.' The pain and frustration were intense.
“Al right. What shal I sing?' Samantha's mind was suddenly blank. She and Mom had rather different tastes in music. The latest from the Indigo Girls would not do much to speed the process. 'I know—what you and Daddy used to sing to me when I couldn't get to sleep.' Her voice started out shakily and got stronger. 'Hush, little baby, don't say a word. Papa's gonna buy you a mockingbird.”
By the time Papa had purchased the sixth horse and cart, Pix had undone the knot and Samantha's feet and hands were no longer tied together. She stood up.
“Look and see if there are any nails in the wal or anything sharp you could use to try to undo mine ' Pix did not want her daughter to suffer the way she had; she knew her fingers were bleeding from the rough rope.
Samantha hopped around the lean-to. The moon had risen. It was past eleven o'clock.
“Here's a bunch of nails. They must have hung stuff on them. I'l try to get one with my teeth.'
“Be careful!' Al those years of orthodontics, fluoride treatments, sealants. She watched Samantha hop back toward her with a rusty nail in her mouth and kneel by her side. Samantha dropped the nail to the floor and deftly picked it up, starting in on the knot, looking over her shoulder the same way her mother had.
“Boy, are we going to be stiff in the morning.”
“Yes,' Pix agreed, stiff, but not stiffs.
“Al right, it's your turn.”
Pix started to sing. This time Mama bought.
After what seemed like hours, Pix was somewhat freed also and they gingerly made their way down to the shore. Coming through the trees, the ocean with the moon streaking across it like a beacon was a welcome sight. Pix had almost fal en in the woods and now she fel on purpose, rol ing over and over toward the shoreline, wel away from the ledges. She closed her eyes as the hard rocks pressed into her body, then opened them when she reached the smoother sand. Samantha fol owed her and they began to cal , 'Help! Help! Please, someone help us!”
They decided to take turns, then figured they might as wel wait until morning. No one was within earshot. Pix once more lay as close as she could to her daughter. The wind was picking up. It was getting. colder. Even if they could free themselves, it was too far to swim to the mainland through the frigid waters. Pix reassured Samantha. It offered a measure of comfort for herself, too, despite the disbelief of a quick rescue steadily rising like the tide.
“Don't worry, everything wil be al right in the morning.
Why don't you close your eyes'
“I don't think I can sleep.'
“Hush, little baby ..
Before she could get very far into the lul aby, Pix thought she heard the sound of an oar or a paddle. She lifted her head. Wishful thinking. Then the sound came again, more distinctly.
“Yoo hoo! Pix? Samantha? Where are you?' It was Mother.
The three women and Duncan made a somewhat outlandish grouping as they sat on the deck of the Athertons' house waiting for Earl. Neither Pix nor Samantha had wanted to go inside, so Duncan had fetched blankets for them to wrap around themselves and a bottle of brandy and glasses at Mrs. Rowe's suggestion. Pix was drinking from the Baccarat after al . The teenagers had Cokes and were steadily devouring a bag of potato chips. Although hungry, Pix herself did not feel like eating anything from this particular larder.
Warm, the brandy seeping into her weary bones and bloodstream, Pix wanted her mother to tel the story again
—and again just as a child with a favorite book. Like most other parents she knew, she had more quotations from Doctor Seuss and Margaret Wise Brown to hand than Doctor Seuss and Margaret Wise Brown to hand than Shakespeare.
“You actual y have Duncan here to thank more than me,' Ursula said.
“I know,' Pix answered, and gave the boy yet another hug. Since her mother had climbed out of the canoe and deftly cut their ropes with the Swiss army knife she always carried, Pix had been doing a great deal of hugging.
“I knew something was weird. They had been treating me like shit—excuse me.' Duncan flushed and looked at Ursula. 'I mean, they had been yel ing at me and saying I was never coming back here, then suddenly Mom gives me some money and tel s me to take al my friends out.' He shook his head. 'She's been real jittery al summer and it's been worse lately. I thought because of what was happening at camp, and'—he lowered his voice
—'because of what they thought I was doing.”
Pix was indignant. 'We owe you an enormous apology!'
“Don't worry about it. I probably would have thought it was me, too. Like who would have thought Mom would go out and buy the same shoes? They're for kids.”
Pix pul ed the blanket closer around her. The wind was picking up and it seemed they might final y get the rain they'd been waiting for al these weeks. It could come. The Fairchilds' foundation was dry. Even if Seth couldn't work for a few days, the ground was so parched, it would be worth it.
The deck they were sitting on seemed another island and time was suspended, making it difficult for her to decide to move. Behind them the house was stil il uminated, a gaudy backdrop to the dark landscape on either side. The waning moon shone across the water and the stars were out, mixing with clouds moving across the sky in an ever-increasing number. The air was fresh. Tilting her head back, Pix drank it in grateful y.
She realized she hadn't been listening to the conversation, and Duncan, uncharacteristical y, was continuing to talk.
“So I go to my friends, `Let's blow the pizza, get snacks, and see the early movie.' I wanted to check out what was happening. I came back here alone. Al the lights were on, but no one was home. They weren't in the office at camp, either, and al the campers and staff were in their cabins. Mom's car was in the driveway and when I looked in the garage, Jim's was there, but yours was, too. It didn't make any sense. You couldn't have al gone somewhere together, unless someone else had picked you up, but you didn't seem to be that kind of friends, anyway. I decided to cal your house. I was going to hang up when you answered so you wouldn't think I was a jerk. When you didn't answer, I began to get this funny feeling. I couldn't cal Earl. We aren't exactly buddies. So I
