Nim's Island: Chapters 12–16

“You,” Alex told herself, “are a weak-kneed, spineless jellyfish.”

“I can’t land on that island in the dark,” he said. “I’m not a daredevil like you!”

“No golden sand?” the captain asked hopefully.
“A little,” Alex admitted. “But in front of the sands, curved from the rocks at one end to the cliffs at the other, is a maze of rocky reef—a treacherous, sword-sharp, boat-ripping reef.”

“There are birds, too, birds who are big and strong and tough enough to live on a mountain that shoots fire and choking gas. Birds who are so quick and agile that they can swoop down and snatch the hairs right out of a person’s head.”
The captain twitched his hat nervously around his ears. “Why do you want to go to such a terrible place?”

Back at the beach, the sea lions were honking and restless, and Fred’s friends were zipping over the rocks, even the oldest scuttling like hatchlings.

Selkie grunted encouragement, Fred skittered, and Nim scrambled the rest of the way on her hands and knees.

The gentle breeze jumped to a full-force gale, and Alex felt like the hero in a legend who let the winds escape from the bag they were trapped in.

Alex threw herself onto her stomach and clung to the tiller. Then the next wave was under her and the wind was howling and hurtling her toward the smudge of Nim’s island—“Faster than a city train!” Alex guessed.

Her sails billowed like a balloon; the mast lifted and toppled off the boat. There was a sad flap of white and her mast and sails sank out of sight.
“So now it’s a rowboat,” Alex decided.

Towering waves crashed onto the shore; spray foamed white and rainbows fountained into the clearing sky.

Nim hugged hard around Selkie’s neck and they slid into the water.
It was hard swimming, even for a brave and determined lion of the sea.

Alex bobbed straight up to the surface.
“Nim Rusoe, I presume?”

But when Alex heard Selkie bark, she said, “So you’re not a Saint Bernard! But you are a savior!” and they laughed a bit more.

They hauled broken bits out of the pool and into the compost heap, and saved two avocados, a tomato, and ten more strawberries.

“When are we going to build a new hut?” Nim asked one morning, when the island was starting to look like her home again, just with not so many trees.
“Maybe we shouldn’t,” Jack said. “It’s time I stopped being so selfish. Maybe we should go back to civilization so you can have a normal life.”
“This is my normal life!” Nim shouted. “It’s the one I want!”