Killer Ute by Rosanne Hawke Page B

Felicity fit into our life? I grunt and collect my tackle and a torch. ‘Just dropping a line in.’
    Dev gives me a thumbs up. ‘Have fun, mate.’
    All the way back to the beach I’m stewing. With the help of my torch, I find a sandworm for bait and when I get settled on the biggest rock, Felicity comes over to see what I’m doing. I’m short with her and our conversation goes like this:
    Felicity: Think you’ll catch something, Joel?
    Me: Yep.
    Felicity: Think you’ll catch a garfish?
    Me: Maybe.
    Felicity: Do you always catch your own bait?
    Me: Sometimes.
    Felicity: You like fishing, don’t you?
    That one only gets a grunt. And what do you know – she plonks herself down beside me, uninvited, as if we’d had a great conversation. I move away a bit, then she tries a different tack. ‘I know this is difficult for you, Joel. Scary even.’
    I don’t answer that. What’s she think I am – a little kid?
    â€˜I want you to know I will do all I can to keep you and Mei safe.’
    I look at her then. Maybe I don’t manage to wipe the disbelief from my face for she adds, ‘The police know where we are. We only have to ring and they’ll be here immediately.’ She stops and bites her lip before she goes on. ‘But it is essential we all stick together. If anything should happen and I wasn’t there . . .’ Felicity and I stare into the dark water. So we’re all to keep close, except for going to the dunny. Dev and I might go mad.
    Felicity pulls herself up and moves away, but not too far, so she can still keep an eye on me.
    Mei’s talking to the sea lion, and finally I get a bite. A gar. I reel it in and take it still flapping to the pup. I lean over gently and hold the fish out. The pup sniffs, then whips it out of my hand, quicker than I thought he would be able to.
    Mei looks at me as if I’ve conquered a giant squid, but really I just did what I do best: fishing. She puts an arm through mine and we stand there, the water slapping our thighs, and watch the sea lion enjoy his meal.

20
    Every evening Mei and I try our hardest to befriend the sea lion pup. I think catching him fish helps a lot. He doesn’t growl so much as grunt now when we visit him. Mei reckons he’s pleased to see us. Pleased to see my fish, I bet. I hope I don’t turn him into a dependent pup that can’t fend for himself. As soon as he’s well, I’ll have to stop feeding him or else he won’t remember how to catch his own food.
    I manage to catch enough fish for us all tonight. That feels good and Felicity is impressed with me. When we’ve finished eating we tell stories. It’s Dev’s idea. Felicity’s pretty good at telling stories. When Mei tells her about how the sea lion seems to greet us, Felicity gets going. ‘Where my ancestors come from there wereseals who could shed their skins and change into humans. They were called selkies.’ Mei is rapt. ‘Once, a man fell in love with a girl who was actually a selkie. He hid her sealskin in a box, so she couldn’t go back to the sea to be a seal.
    â€˜She married the young man, but one day she found the sealskin when she was spring cleaning. She immediately returned to the sea to become a seal again. But sometimes she came to shore to see her husband and he decided that she should choose when to be a seal and when to be his wife. So he never hid the skin again.’
    Felicity goes quiet for a while and I can tell she’s thinking. Dev tells us how male sea lions can cause havoc. ‘Rogue seals have been known to steal the catches from fishing boats.’
    â€˜Maybe they were selkies,’ Felicity says. ‘Male selkies have been known to do stuff like that when sea lions have been killed.’
    Mei is watching her, enthralled. Then she says, ‘Maybe Joel has some selkie blood in him because he can’t keep away from the