Her father was climbing the gangplank to stand before her. For a moment, time unraveled and she was fifteen years old again, heading out on an adventure with her most favorite person in the world. He looked almost the same. His hair had more gray than brown now, and fine lines traced his face, but his eyes still sparkled with the same mischievous glint, like hewas in on a joke no one else could see. The old leather satchel hung over his shoulder, worn and familiar, as if it had never left his side.
Scout tightened her grip on the clipboard, forcing her voice to steady. “Dad, this is not the time.”
“I’m here strictly on shipwreck business,” he said, his tone light. “You won’t even know I’m here.”
Her jaw clenched as she tried to formulate a response, but the resolve on his face disarmed her. Before she could protest, Naki appeared behind him, towering over him.
Scout lifted her hands, palms up, silently asking,Really?
Naki shrugged, his expression sheepish. “He can be stubborn.”
Scout’s father slipped around her and stepped onto the boat.
She spun on her heel to watch him but froze when a voice from the dock cut through the morning air.
“Hold up! I’m comin’ too!”
She turned. “Mother?”
Her mother was making her way down the pier, flanked by Frankie and Maisie. Wearing high heels, a colorful Lilly Pulitzer sundress, and a wide-brimmed sun hat, she looked stunning ... and utterly out of place amid tourists in windbreakers and hiking boots. Scout could only gape as her mother smiled brightly, clearly enjoying the tour operator’s attention as he helped her step onto the gangplank.
“Why are you here?” Scout said, moving down the gangplank to intercept her.
“I got your message, Magnolia Pearl,” her mother said, squeezing around her, “and a girl needs her mother in times like this.”
A classic Mother-move. Arrive unannounced, at the worst possible moment. A stealth act. Panic started cramping Scout’s stomach.
Frankie and Maisie trailed after her, looking equally bewildered. “Magnolia Pearl?” Frankie said, his face lit with amusement. “Oh, thatbites.”
Maisie swatted him on the back of his head. Chuckling, he moved around Scout to head into the boat. “Scout,” Maisie said, “your mom showed up at Pops’s office and insisted she be brought to you. She said it was a family emergency, but she wouldn’t say what it was. So Pops reassigned us. He told us to bring her to you and help you out for the day.”
Before Scout could respond, a loud voice erupted from the middle of the boat.
“James Henry Johnson! What the h-e-double-hockey-sticks are you doin’ here?”
Scout cringed. The family emergency had just begun.
Text conversation between Scout and her counselor, Elizabeth:
Scout
Emergency! I need a wisdom bomb. BOTH of myparents just showed up on the Baker Island tour. Whatam I supposed to do? How should I handle them?
Elizabeth
Scout,what is your role today?
To be aninterpretive ranger for Acadia National Park.
Then go BE thatranger.
Seventeen
A walk in nature walks the soul back home.
—Mary Davis, author
Well, this was FUN. Maisie leaned against the back side of the boat, arms crossed, doing all she could to look disinterested while trying not to stare, not to eavesdrop—but nothing could peel her away fromthis!
