Finally, one morning, Mona awoke to Nanny, Mr. Hurston, and the fishermen’s voices. “It’s over, it’s passed!”

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She ran upstairs.  The Hurstons and Manx followed.  Pieces of their house had been ripped from the frame.  The cabinets in the kitchen were broken and the food ruined.

Through the broken window, Mona could see that many trees of the Blackberry Isles were torn from the sandy ground.  The sand had blown in unnatural-looking patterns and was littered with bottles and trash. Mona cried out.  There in the hall was the broken, shattered frame of the grandfather clock. 

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 “You’re lucky that wasn’t you.  After all, it was only a clock,” said Nanny.  Mona’s tears ran and Nanny was sorry.  She changed the subject.

“We’ll have to replenish our food.  Let’s get the Leviathan.  Where did you put it?” asked Nanny. 

Only then did Mona remember that the Leviathan was likely gone.  Mona ran out the door and down the path, but her small dingy and the Hurstons’ had been smashed to pieces.  She let out a long, low moan like some wounded calf.  If only she had put it inland on the closest of the Blackberry Isles.  Now, the Leviathan was gone and her grandfather clock was gone, and Pearly Beetle was broken in many places.  Mona sobbed harder and Lucie, who had run down after her, put her hand on Mona’s shoulder.

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Nanny mopped up the seaweed, trash, and fish carcasses.  Nanny, unlike Mona, seemed to think they’d come out of the storm pretty lucky.  She hummed as she worked and seemed glad to have chores to do and be out and about Pearly Beetle scrubbing, mopping, and wiping. 

Mona’s heart was not in its right place.  Lucie and Mona cleaned together without speaking much.  Mona had always felt her possessions to be like family members whom she loved in stories, but had never met or could not remember.  The death of the grandfather clock and the Leviathan struck her hard.  Lucie understood these sensitivities and thought silence was perhaps the best help. 

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“Lunch is ready,” called Sicily a few hours later.  After lunch, Mona played with her binoculars and held them up to her eyes for a moment to inspect the mainland.  She watched as they removed the sand bags from around the houses near the shore.  A pang of loneliness shot through her, as many people, more than could fit on Pearly Beetle, worked together.  She saw some people stoop to get trash; as others helped extricate birds from trash. A faint smile appeared on Mona’s face.  Just then, she saw a crowd gather and separate from the rest.  They shouted and held their tools above their heads, and then they boarded a boat.  Perhaps, thought Mona, the mainlanders were angry with the residents of Pearly Beetle for not letting them know about the storm sooner.  Mona was alarmed.  There was nothing she could do though.  She told no one and kept cleaning.  Maybe they weren’t headed to Pearly Beetle after all.  Her thoughts went back to the damaged house.  A half hour later, the girls heard, a Clank at the door.  Mona looked around hoping someone else would answer it. 

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“Mona, would you get that?” asked Nanny from the other room.  Mona was visibly pale.  She felt more terrified of mainlanders than of pirates.  A middle-aged man stood at the door.  He did not have the look of a seafarer about him.

“Hello,” said the man.  A number of men and women stood along the path behind him.

“We were out here trying to clean up the debris and wanted to check to make sure you all were alright.”

“Who are you?” asked Mona. 

“Why, we’re just folks from town.”

“You’re from the mainland…and you want to help us?”  asked Mona, puzzled.  She had never thought a mainlander would come to Pearly Beetle to ask if they needed help.  She was suspicious.  The man chuckled.

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“Yes.  If that’s alright with you.  Or if not, you can help us clean up the ocean.  It’s quite a mess after this storm.” 

Mona felt herself turn red.  She was confused.

“Aren’t your own houses torn up?”

“Why yes,” said the man, “but we’ll start where it’s most needed.”

“I’ll be back in a minute.  Let me get everyone,” said Mona. 

 

She had been wrong about the mainlanders.  They were not angry, but concerned about Pearly Beetle.  Many thoughts turned in her head as she walked to the kitchen and Mona’s insides were all jumbled and pulled themselves in different directions as though her liver agreed with the mainlanders, but her heart was still holding out.  Nanny had just finished lunch cleanup.  Lucie and the Hurstons had come in from other rooms to find out what was going on, but Mona kept her eyes on Nanny.

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“Nanny,” she said, “I think I am ready to go to the mainland for school.  So long as I don’t have to stay there very long.” 

Nanny smiled her biggest and widest smile and nodded at Mona.   

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