Megan's Island Read online

  She thought of the letter to Annie, and the anger subsided into sadness, and a little shame, too. Whatever it was, her mother didn’t want it any more than Megan did. Her fingers numb, she unfastened the life jacket and left it beside Sandy’s, well above the water line.

  “How about over there?” Sandy was asking as she reached the top of the rocky slope. Her hands no longer left wet marks on the stone, though her clothes continued to drip. “We could put some branches over the front of that cave to hide our stuff, and maybe we could even build a fire on the ledge in front of it and cook hot dogs or something like that.”

  To begin with, Megan moved sluggishly, her mind on their problems. But gradually she threw more energy into helping Sandy drag pine boughs from the surrounding trees—small ones, because they hadn’t brought a knife to cut off the larger ones—until finally all she thought about was the shelter they were building.

  It wasn’t actually a cave, she supposed, because the sides were open, but the jutting, layered rock provided a roof overhead, and the pine boughs shielded them from the view of any passing fishermen on the water. Not that there were any, except Grandpa, and he was half a mile up the lake.

  Their clothes and hair were completely dried by the time they shoved off in the canoe to return to shore. Grandpa was still fishing; he gave them a wave, and they waved back, until Megan said sharply, “Be careful, Sandy, you’ll dump us again, and we don’t know how to get back in this thing out here in deep water!”

  “Oh, yeah, I forgot,” Sandy said sheepishly. He took up his paddle again. “I’m glad Grandpa isn’t nervous, like Mom. So he’ll let us run around out here, and not keep fussing if he can’t see us every minute.”

  Megan nodded as the canoe nosed toward the beach in front of the cottage. “Let’s get something to eat, and then go and see if there’s any mail. There might be something from Mom.”

  There wasn’t, however. There was no mail at all, but the letter to Annie was gone. Megan wondered if she’d get the letter if Annie wrote back to her. She hadn’t known what return address to put, and she hadn’t wanted to ask Grandpa for fear he’d tell her not to mail her letter. All she had was the name of the town, Lakewood. The first time they went into the village, she’d try to find the post office and ask if they had anything for her.

  The rowboat was back at the mainland. Grandpa greeted them with a grin as they entered the kitchen. “Bet you’re starving, eh? I’m fixing up a stack of sandwiches, be ready in a minute. You should have come with me, Sandy, the fish were biting pretty good. I got two, and one of them was almost as big as the one you caught yesterday.”

  They joined him in buttering the bread, and didn’t mention the snack they’d had before going to the mailbox. Being out on the water increased their appetites, Megan decided; Sandy was right about keeping supplies out at their cave.

  “You going fishing again this afternoon, Grandpa?” Sandy asked with his mouth full and a milky mustache that Mom would have objected to.

  “Nope, thought I’d gather a little firewood. Evenings are still chilly enough so the fireplace is welcome. You kids want to help me, or have you got something else planned?”

  “Well, if you aren’t using the boat, I thought maybe we’d go back to the island. We’re fixing up a cave. Would it be okay if we took some stuff to eat, and maybe a couple of blankets?”

  Laugh wrinkles formed around Grandpa’s eyes. “A cave, eh? I’d have liked to do that myself when I was your age. Sure, take some fruit, and there’s some crackers and peanut butter if you want ’em. I don’t know about blankets—I’m not sure we’ve got any spares—but there’s a couple of old sleeping bags in that back closet. Help yourselves.”

  The rowboat had more room to carry things, even a lantern Grandpa said they wouldn’t need at the house unless the electricity went off, which it never had done since he’d been here. He showed them how to use it safely, and even gave them a little box of waterproof matches.

  The boat didn’t glide over the water as easily as the canoe, but it was less likely to dump them into the lake. Rowing continued to be awkward. They thought they were getting a little better at it, though their arms and shoulders still ached by the time they’d crossed to the island.

  They forgot that as soon as they arrived. It was fun, arranging their furnishings in the cave. They left the sleeping bags rolled up to lean against, and arranged the other supplies on an inner ledge that might have been made for the purpose.

  It was so nice when they were finished that they hated to go home to the cottage for supper.

  Grandpa had not only put in a supply of firewood, he’d made spaghetti. Tonight Sandy set the table while Megan sliced vegetables for a salad. Even that was a reminder that made her uneasy once more. It had all begun—at least as far as Megan was concerned—when Mom dropped the salad bowl and broke it. That bowl had been a treasured possession, yet Mom had scarcely noticed what she’d done.

  She’d been upset, but not about breaking the bowl. And not about cutting her feet a little bit, either, Megan thought. Sandy said she’d been watching TV—the news, maybe—and she’d been startled and dropped the bowl. Only why? What could have been on the news that had anything to do with them?

  Was she crazy, to think that was what had happened? Megan resolved to stay inside tonight and listen to the news with Grandpa.

  Only there was nothing on the radio except things that were happening in distant places, to people she’d never heard of. She joined Sandy and Grandpa in a game of Monopoly they didn’t have time to finish before they had to go to bed, but her mind kept wrestling with the riddle. What could Mom have heard on the TV news that would have frightened her so badly, when it apparently hadn’t frightened anyone else?

  The following morning, when Grandpa announced that he needed a few things from town, he took it for granted that they wanted to stay behind and ferry more supplies to the island. He’d come up with an old ice chest—though he said if they took cans of pop they could set them in the water and refrigerate them without needing any ice—and a little grate they could put across a couple of rocks to form a cooking surface. Sandy was full of plans for a weenie roast, and Grandpa said he’d bring back marshmallows, too.

  It was too early to expect a reply from Annie, so Megan didn’t ask if they could go with Grandpa into Lakewood. The island had worked a spell on her yesterday. She’d managed to forget how frightened she was, at least most of the time. So she couldn’t wait to get back to it.

  Her anticipation and pleasure were shattered, however, within moments of setting foot on the small beach. In fact, she was still hauling the boat ashore when Sandy’s stunned voice brought her sharply around.

  “Megan, look! Somebody’s been here!”

  And there was the evidence, plain to see: a bare footprint in the sand, bigger than either of their own.

  Chapter Seven

  Megan’s initial reaction was disappointment. Someone had invaded her own private territory!

  “It’s bigger than mine, but not adult-size,” Sandy said, placing his own foot next to the footprint in the sand. “I thought these islands didn’t belong to anybody. I mean, Grandpa didn’t say we’d be trespassing if we built a clubhouse here.”

  Megan looked around. While it was true they didn’t own the island, there had been no sign that anyone else ever visited it. Except for the man who was writing a book—the man who threw sticks for his dog—there weren’t even supposed to be any other people living on the lake right now.

  “Here’s another one,” Sandy announced, following the trail across the sand. The footprints vanished when he came to the rock. “I hope he didn’t find our hideout! I hope he didn’t mess up our stuff!”

  He was off, first scrambling up the rock, then running toward their cave. Megan hurried after him. It wasn’t fair that someone else should be here, in a place that felt like their own, not after they’d worked so hard to fix it up into a refuge, a place where they could almost forget what was
happening in their lives on the mainland.

  Every time Sandy came to a spot where sand lay over the rock, he paused to look for more footprints. Before they ever reached the cave, Megan knew they were going to find that it, too, had been discovered. Both of the prints her brother had found since they’d left the beach were headed in that direction.

  Had someone watched them fixing it up, from the far shore where she could see only dark evergreens and a few contrasting birch trees? She stood for a moment, shading her eyes, but nothing moved on the opposite side of the lake.

  “He’s been here!” Sandy shouted, reaching the cave ahead of her. “He even came inside!”

  Megan ducked her head to keep from bashing it on the rocky overhang. “He must have known it was a private place,” she said bitterly. “He could see we have our stuff here.”

  “It doesn’t look as if he took anything, though,” Sandy said after a moment. “The food’s all here, and the lantern and the sleeping bags.”

  “How did he get here?” Megan wondered aloud. “There was no boat. Our own little beach is the only place you can land with a boat unless you want to climb straight up the way we did the first time.”

  They didn’t learn the answer to that until they returned to their own boat. Sandy poked around and discovered that in the sand at the very end of the strip of beach, there was an indentation such as would be made by the bow of a canoe, and part of one footprint that hadn’t been washed away by the waves.

  “It’s all spoiled now,” Megan said, staring at the marks. “It was a special place, just for us, and he’s spoiled it.” She needed the island, needed a place of her own.

  “He didn’t actually hurt anything,” Sandy pointed out. “Maybe it’s another kid. Maybe it’s someone to do things with.”

  “He went into our cave. He snooped,” Megan said. “He could see it belonged to someone else.” It was the only place that did belong to them, she thought. They had no home, they had been taken away from their friends, and even the cottage was a temporary place, one Grandpa had only rented until his foot healed.

  “There are other islands,” Sandy said after a moment of silence. “Why don’t we go explore some of the other ones?”

  This was the best one, Megan thought. You could tell that without ever stepping onto the others. But at least for now she didn’t want to stay here. “Okay. Let’s go look,” she agreed without enthusiasm. They had to do something to pass the time until their mother came back for them.

  After they unloaded the supplies they’d brought, they visited four other islands. By the end of the day, they both had aching muscles and sore hands from using the oars. Though Megan was right about their island being the best, the others were interesting, too. They were all small; one was so tiny that it was all they could do to both fit on it at the same time. It had one scraggly juniper bush growing out of the single rock that formed it, and Sandy laughingly announced that he was going to tie something to the top of the bush, claiming it for himself.

  When they finally dragged home for supper, Megan picking a sliver out of her palm from her last stint with the oars, Sandy asked Grandpa about the islands.

  “Well, I suppose they belong to somebody,” he conceded, raising his voice to be heard over the sizzle of frying meat. “You kids ever have fresh side pork? Hardly ever see it anymore; they usually make bacon out of that cut these days. It was always one of my favorite meals, with boiled potatoes and cream gravy. And peas. I got some fresh peas to go with it.”

  “Somebody was on our island,” Sandy said. “We found his footprints.”

  “That so? Wouldn’t have thought Mr. Jamison would go out there; I’ve never even seen him in a boat, though there’s a canoe goes with the cabin he rented. Fellow comes up weekends sometimes has an outboard, but he’s older than I am, and all he ever does is fish. Get me some paper towels to drain this on, will you, Megan?”

  She handed him the roll of towels. “Maybe we have another new neighbor.”

  “Could be. They’ll start coming in droves, they tell me in town, soon as school is out. All the lakes around here, hundreds of people come up from the cities to vacation. Well, this person didn’t steal your stuff, did he?”

  “No. He went into our cave, though, and looked at it. We just wondered if the islands belonged to anybody.”

  “My guess is they probably belong to the state. They aren’t big enough to build anything on, so most individuals wouldn’t want them,” Grandpa said.

  “We went on one,” Sandy told him, getting the milk out of the refrigerator, “that’s barely big enough for both of us to stand on. You couldn’t put anything bigger than a dollhouse on that.”

  Grandpa stirred the peas, chuckling as he began to dish them up. “Funny thing about islands, they fascinate most people. I knew you kids would enjoy these.”

  “I’m going to try to find something to make a flag to fly on the smallest one,” Sandy said, “and maybe we’ll have a ceremony and name it. Megan can share the big one with Bigfoot, or whoever left his prints there.”

  “There’s a miniature American flag in the closet where you got the sleeping bags. Don’t see any reason why you can’t use that if you want it,” Grandpa said. “I like to see a flag flying. Come on, let’s eat.”

  They had the ceremony the following day. The flag was a bright spot of color fluttering in the breeze as they rowed away from it. Although Megan had told him that it was only ships that were christened with champagne, Sandy had insisted on popping open a can of 7-Up and pouring it over the juniper bush as he pronounced, “I now name you Sandy’s Island,” in formal tones. He wore a broad grin, and Megan wished that she felt as upbeat as he did.

  His joy faded into alarm as soon as they rounded the end of the big island. “Megan! He’s here again! He’s still here!”

  There was a yellow canoe leaning on its side on their small beach, as if it belonged there.

  “We don’t own the island, and maybe he’s got as much right to come here as we have,” Megan muttered, “but he’s got no right to touch our stuff!”

  “Who wants to touch your old stuff? It’s just junk,” the voice said loudly, over their heads.

  Megan stopped in the act of drawing their rowboat up beside the yellow canoe.

  The intruder stood on the top of the rocky ridge, a tall, skinny boy of perhaps twelve, with faded jeans that needed mending, and a shock of dark brown hair that fell over his forehead. He had eyes so dark they were nearly black, and a scowl twisted his rather attractive face.

  “What’re you doing on our island?” Sandy demanded, though he didn’t sound as hostile as the stranger had.

  “It’s not your island,” the boy countered. “My dad says these islands don’t belong to anybody, so I’ve got as much right to be here as you do.”

  “But not to bother our stuff.”

  “I didn’t take any of it.” The boy swiped the hair back from his face. “None of it’s worth taking, actually.”

  Megan tried to keep her voice carefully neutral. “Good. Then you won’t get in our way.” She started up the slope, right toward him. Because of the incline, she had to crawl, and she didn’t know until she reached the top that he hadn’t moved; he stood blocking her way, making her swerve aside.

  Sandy, right behind her, stood up and faced the boy. “Stay out of our cave, then.”

  The boy was even taller than Megan had thought, a full head taller than she was. He made a snorting sound. “It’s a baby’s place. Little kid stuff. Why don’t you build a real house?”

  “Because we haven’t got anything to build with,” Sandy said. “It takes lumber and nails and hammers, and we don’t have any.”

  The boy considered that. Some of the hostility went out of his thin face. “There’s stuff at my dad’s cabin,” he said surprisingly. “The landlord tore down an old house and brought a load of lumber for firewood. Some of it’s good enough to build out of, and nobody will care. It’s just for the tenants to put in th
e fireplace. And Dad has saws and hammers, stuff like that. He’s going to rebuild the porch steps, for part of the rent.”

  “I suppose you’re an expert on building,” Megan heard herself saying, and then wondered why she bothered with this boy she was obviously going to dislike.

  “I know more than just cutting a few spruce branches and propping them over the opening to a cave. My dad used to have me help him build lots of things, before he moved out.” The boy hesitated, then turned to gesture over his shoulder toward the up-lake end of the island. “There’s a great tree over there—a pair of trees, really—to build a tree house in. I thought about it when I first came, last week, but I couldn’t figure out how to get the materials over here in a canoe.”

  Before Megan could stop him, Sandy spoke out. “We’ve got a rowboat. I mean, it’s our grandpa’s, but he lets us use it when he’s not fishing.”

  The boy ignored Megan, his gaze fixed on Sandy. “You willing to let me haul stuff in it?” Then, before Sandy could reply or Megan interrupt, he added, “You could help with it if you wanted.”

  “Sure,” Sandy agreed. “Why not?”

  Why not? Megan wondered angrily. Why should they? Although, if he’d been here since last week, maybe he had discovered the island before they had. Even so, she didn’t want him here, not on an island she had considered her own.

  “Where do you live?” Sandy was asking.

  “The log cabin, over there.”

  “Your dad’s the one who’s writing a book?”

  The boy’s lip curled. “Yeah. That’s all he does. He didn’t use to be so grouchy, before he and my mom split up. I can’t even talk around him, for fear he’ll forget what he wants to write. I have to fix my own meals, because he doesn’t remember to stop to eat.”

  “We’re going to cook hot dogs today,” Sandy offered. “You want some? We have enough, don’t we, Megan?”

  A sharp reply trembled on her tongue, and then she sighed. They couldn’t run him off an island that didn’t really belong to anybody. And they’d wanted to meet other kids, hadn’t they?