Cougar Cove by Julie Lawson

Author:Julie Lawson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: JUV000000
Publisher: Orca Book Publishers
Published: 2004-04-01T00:00:00+00:00

A Welcome Surprise

Early one morning, Sam sat on her rock watching wisps of fog swirl around the cove.

The tide was way out. She counted eight herons, standing in the water. Why were they called great blue herons? They looked more grey than blue. They looked like layers of fog, standing still and silent, long necks bent as they waited to spear a fish. Without moving, they appeared and disappeared in the fog.

The scene reminded her of a poem she loved.

The fog comes in on little cat feet…She still knew it by heart, and remembered how astonished she’d been when her grade two teacher had printed it on the board, read it out loud, and said, “This is a poem.” And it didn’t even rhyme.

Here, she thought, the fog doesn’t come in on little cat feet. It comes in like a heron. Tiptoeing stealthily. Long leg up, long leg down.

“Have a good time, honey,” Mom had said. “Careful you don’t lean against the fog.”

Sam remembered how she had laughed. Mom always said that on the West Coast, the fog was so thick you could lean against it. But of course you couldn’t.

What was fog, anyway? Only water, in a different form. In certain conditions, things change, she realized. At Brackenwood Point, conditions were different from home. So she was different. Even though she was still Sam, she felt unfamiliar to herself. It scared her, as if a part of her was still in Toronto. She felt like a hermit crab, searching for a new shell to move into. Until it found one, it was lost. Vulnerable, Uncle Lon had said. Open to attack.

Attack from the Horribles. If she was like a hermit crab, her cousins—especially Robyn— were anemones, stinging when anyone got too close to their territory.

Why hadn’t things turned out the way she’d expected? Don’t lean against the fog. Mom was right. Sam did have a way of counting on things too much. Imagining how perfect and wonderful something would be, then being disappointed when it didn’t live up to expectations. But if you couldn’t hope for the best, what point was there in hoping at all?

The sound of footsteps on the beach interrupted her thoughts.

“At least we don’t have to take Gullible,” Robyn was saying.

Sam crouched lower, hoping the edge of the rock would keep her hidden.

“Where is she?” Alex said.

“Who cares?”

“Come on, she’s not so bad. For a city kid. And she’s only eleven.”

“Not so bad?” Sam could picture Robyn’s lip curling into a sneer. “She’s a total wimp. And boring! All she does is wander around in the woods or sit on the beach. And when she rows, where does she go? Around the bay, in circles. And nobody could be that stupid, believing every little thing. What planet does she come from, anyway?”

“Trawna, remember?”

Robyn laughed and said something, but the sound of the boat being dragged across the gravel made it impossible to hear.

Trawna. What did they know about Toronto? Sam thought angrily. She’d like to see how well they made out in a big city.

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