Jessaloup's Song by Hester Velmans

Author:Hester Velmans
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: romance, adventure, fantasy, childrens, teen, ya, whales, mermaids, marine animals, ocean adventure
Publisher: van Horton Books

TWENTY-EIGHT

Less than half an hour later we were climbing back into the minivan. Mr. Peake had already started the engine.

“What’s the big hurry?” I panted. We’d had to run to catch up with him.

Once Alicia had found the older recordings and had started comparing the printout of their sound waves with her own more recent data, I had noticed Mr. Peake starting to get very fidgety, exhaling audibly through his nose and glancing at the door. Finally he’d looked at Jessaloup and me, raising his eyebrows and shrugging his head sideways meaningfully. “Well, if there’s nothing more we can do to help, we ought to be going,” he’d told Alicia abruptly. “You’ve got this covered, I think. You don’t need us getting in your way. Good luck.”

“But…” I had started to protest, but Mr. Peake was already out the door. We’d had no choice but to follow him as he strode back to the parking lot without looking back.

So now, as I helped Jessaloup into his seatbelt — this time he’d climbed in next to me in the back seat — I demanded, “Why couldn’t we have stayed a bit longer?”

“No need to wait around until they work it out,” Mr. Peake said, frowning at us in the rearview mirror. “I do believe you kids put them on the right track. Well done, by the way. I’m sure that between Alicia’s recordings and Kreinstead’s instruments, they’ll soon have enough evidence to sound the alarm. I give them a couple of hours, max, to come to the right conclusion. But we can’t afford to waste any more time. If it’s really happening this evening, I need to get back to pick up Mrs. Peake, and Bunsen.” His voice cracked, and I could see sweat glinting on his upper lip and on the side of his face. “Sorry kids, but we’ve got to try and beat the rush — just think of the traffic once the evacuation order goes out! I don’t want to get stuck in that traffic jam.”

I have to admit that my jaw dropped. Here Jessaloup and I had been worrying about saving everyone — hundreds, thousands of people living along the coast and on the islands, and all Mr. Peake could think about was his own family! But as I stared at the back of his rigid neck, I softened a little. Mr. Peake was scared. He couldn’t help it. Which meant that he believed us, finally…

Mr. Peake read my mind. “I owe you an apology. I’m sorry I doubted you,” he said. “Jesse, I hope you’ll forgive me.”

Jessaloup made no response. I looked over at him. He was sitting up very straight, staring out the window.

“Jessaloup,” I said softly. I felt that maybe I hadn’t been paying him enough attention. I wondered what was going through his mind.

“Izzabel,” he said flatly, almost mechanically. He kept his eyes on the landscape whizzing past.

“Are you mad at me?” I whispered.

“Mad?” he said. “Why?”

“I don’t know — I just get this feeling you’re, you know, disappointed in me or something.

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