Sailmaker Read Online Free PDF Page A

verandah and we walk over the wooden walkways to the sanctuary. Mr Pengelly’s tourists are eating packed morning tea, bobbing their heads up and down just like a flock of nesting cormorants. Beyond them is the tern’s colony. Mei catches her breath. She looks kind of nice, her black hair is wisping round her face under that blue denim hat she always wears. Now she has this look of wonder on her face, her eyes tilting up even more than usual. She’s right too: how ever many times you see it, the colony catches at you just the same. It’s like looking at a black and white movie, thousands of those birds crowded together and when you really squint against the sun you can see their yellow beaks, like they were painted on later. The little black crests stick out on their heads like baseball caps put on backwards.
    We walk down through the same boobialla bushes that are near the beach on the mainland. We can’t get too close to the terns or they’ll all start flapping, but we hear a few penguins grumbling in the boxthorns. Mei sees one.
    â€˜They’re so cute.’ She starts to croon. Bet she hasn’t been here for ages – she must have forgotten what they’re like. Cute’s right, they’ll take off your finger if they get a chance. She should know it too but every time you see them you wonder if you’re wrong. That is until they start to hiss and growl. Like this one is doing now. Mei backs away gently with the little bird stalking after her. Nah, nothing fairy-like about little penguins. I tell Mei how it must be nearly nesting time. When we go back to the beach we might see tracks where they’ve gone into the water in the early morning.
    It’s on the way back to the boat, after picking up the sail, that Mei nearly steps on the razorfish skeleton. She’s got her sneakers in her hand, staring up at a cormorant flying in, looking for a place to land, when I see the washed-up fish in the sand. Right where Mei’s about to put her foot. There’s no time to warn her – I just yank her towards me. I pull too hard because she lands on top of me and we both lie sprawled on the sand.
    I think of the sail first – it’s okay; and then I face Mei as she gets up. She’s going to be wild for sure, anyone would. I hate being pulled anywhere . I get ready with the explanation but I stop. She’s got a really weird look in place, as if she wasn’t annoyed at all.
    â€˜Why did you do that?’ is all she asks, and I point out the razorfish in the sand. Her eyes fade a bit; don’t know why. I’d be glad to be rescued from having my foot all sawn up by one of those. They’re like thin broken glass.
    â€˜Thanks,’ she says. ‘You never miss a thing.’ She looks like she wants to say something else; you can tell, when people fiddle around a bit, but she gets over it.
    On the way back I’m wondering how to talk Gran into letting me stay on the island with the sailmaker. If I can prove to him he’s got rats, wouldn’t he get a better night’s sleep?

7
    Dev and I are taking Grandad’s boat out. It’s a good day to get a bite. There was a bit of a blow last night and now it’s calm, so all the fish that got stirred up like leaves in Gran’s teapot will be near the surface. Yep, we should land some King George whiting for tea – Gran’s favourite. The jetty’s fine after school for a drop-in but it’s heaps cool when the weekend comes and Dev and I can do more stuff together. You’d think Dev’d hate coming after working on the trawler all week and even some weekends – Mr Pham doesn’t come in if the fish are on the bite.
    I open up the boatshed – got a key of my own now – and Dev drives the tractor out and I hitch up the trailer. The Sea Wolf is gleaming, itching to get wet, I’m sure of it. I would be if I was a boat. We check everything: life jackets,