missing?â
I look at her set face, and I feel my eyes burn with tears. âI-Iâm sorry. I didnât mean to frighten you.â
Her tight expression eases. She crosses the room and gathers me into her arms. âI know you didnât mean to, sweetling,â she says in a gentler tone, and smooths a lock of hair away from my face. âAnd I know Cam probably asked you to help. Iâll have a talk with his mother. Aliciaâs probably going to be angrier about this than I am.â She gives me a quick kiss on my forehead and steps away.
âWhat happened tonight will never happen again,â she says, returning to her usual cool, brisk scientist mode. âDo I make myself clear?â
I nod quickly. Then I canât help yawning.
âWell, itâs obvious you wonât get much out of school today,â she declares. âYou might as well go back to bed. Iâll figure out your punishment later. I think the dolphin dock pilings need scraping again.â
After I close my bedroom door behind me, I make a face. Even though I hate scraping the dock pilings, Iâm getting off pretty lightly. Shortly after I lie down on my bed, I fall fast asleep.
When I wake up, Iâm surprised to hear voices. I check my watch. Itâs already two in the afternoon, and Iâm starving. I open my door quietly and peer around it. Ben Reece, a dolphin trainer from down the coast, is sitting at our kitchen table talking with my mother. Their expressions are tense and serious.
âRumor has it theyâre going to make a big announcement tomorrow,â Ben is telling her. âThe smuggling incident last night may be the last straw. This could be the crackdown weâve all been dreading.â
My mother glances up and notices me. I see her make an effort to smile. âGood afternoon, sweetling. I left a fish bar and some of Aliciaâs bread for you on the counter.â
âHi, Nere.â Ben gives me a nod. âI saw you working with the pod last week. Your dolphins look sharp. Maybe your mother will let me borrow you to work with my pod one of these days.â
I have a hunch that Ben would much rather borrow my mother. But the one time I was brave enough to ask Gillian about Ben, she only laughed and said she was a one-man woman, and her man was gone. What I saw in her eyes then has kept me from asking her that question again.
Pain twists inside me when I realize that my father has been dead for over two years now. He was washed overboard during a sudden wild storm, and even our dolphins couldnât find his body. Some nights before supper, I catch myself listening for his footsteps and his whistling as he hurries up our path from the harbor.
Although I want my mother to be happy, another part of me is relieved that sheâs not interested in Ben. But men like him will keep trying. Despite her years spent in the sun and on the sea, she is still beautiful.
Every day I wish Iâd inherited more of her looks. I have her pale skin and blond hair, but they look weird on me. Some days I think my blue eyes are almost pretty, but barely anyone sees them because I have to wear huge, blocky, dark glasses to keep my weak eyes from tearing in bright sunlight. Iâll never be curvy like the town girls because I spend so much time swimming with the dolphins.
No wonder I only have two friends. Robry and Cam donât seem to mind my freaky coloring or the fact that Iâm as skinny and strong as most fisher boys. But I mind.
I linger in the main room and start in on my lunch, hoping to find out more about the big government announcement Ben had mentioned.
âLetâs head down to your boat,â Gillian says to Ben. âAfter you finish your lunch, Nere, please start on your lessons for this afternoon.â She motions to my learning pad and a long list of articles sheâs left for me on the table.
As she leaves, I yank out a chair. Usually the lessons my