Storm Seal by Sarah Ann Juckes

Author:Sarah Ann Juckes
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK
Published: 2024-07-04T00:00:00+00:00

17

‘…Is that your nana’s old coat you’re wearing?’ Mum says as she watches the TV-show recording for the second time the next day. ‘What’s wrong with your own coat?’

I feel myself blush. I look wild and angry in the video – my cheeks red and my hands clenched into fists. I’m sort of hoping that no one saw it, but everyone in Middlesea seems to come to our house over the next few days. I didn’t think that a lot of the fisherfolk even owned a TV, but even Old Phil is suddenly cracking jokes about me being famous.

‘Ah, she can’t butter her own toast any more, Rose,’ he says to Mum, stopping her hand as she puts my breakfast down on Friday morning. ‘Now she’s a celebrity, she’ll need to have her butler do it.’

Everyone laughs and I try to join in, but it feels strange to be joking when Nana is still in hospital.

Some people, like Miss Thurston and the other teachers at our school, come with ideas for how to make the litter-picking drive at the weekend the biggest thing that Middlesea has ever seen.

‘It’s a real opportunity to educate people on all sorts of issues,’ Miss Thurston says, sorting through the dusty litter-picking equipment she found in her classroom cupboard. ‘Recycling, ocean conservation – even climate change. There are communities all over the world doing this – imagine what we could do if we joined them.’

Miss Thurston makes it sound exciting – like my angry outburst to the cameras could make a bigger change then I ever thought possible.

But some people, like Matty, continue to grumble about how they think no one will bother coming to help a small fishing town.

‘It’s not like we’re some big coastal city with celebrities living here,’ he says from the doorway. ‘Who outside of Middlesea really cares about these waters other than the people who make a living from it?’

The bickering reminds me about that day on the beach when everyone started fighting. And I don’t really know who is right or what to think, but it makes me feel like the fate of the seals rests on my shoulders. And for some reason, the fate of Nana feels tangled up in that too, so it all feels big and heavy.

Only Uncle Darweshi seems to notice how it’s making me feel, and I catch him watching me rubbing my chest on Friday evening as Mum, Sukhi and my aunties talk about money and what they’ll do whilst Nana isn’t here to bring in the expensive lobsters for the shop.

I’m quite relieved when Saturday morning comes and I don’t have to pretend to smile or listen to the bickering any more. At least today we’ll find out whether people really are on their way to help us, or whether Matty was right when he said that no one will bother. Although the thought of waiting all morning on the kitchen flagstones makes that same cold feeling seep back into my bones.

I find Uncle Darweshi waiting outside my room after my shower.

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