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For
the
first
week
Meggie
seemed
to
do
nothing
but
eat
and
sleep
;
she
had
n't
realized
how
tired
she
was
,
nor
that
Dungloe
's
climate
was
what
had
killed
her
appetite
.
In
the
beautiful
bed
she
slept
the
moment
she
lay
down
,
ten
and
twelve
hours
at
a
stretch
,
and
food
had
an
appeal
it
had
n't
possessed
since
Drogheda
.
She
seemed
to
eat
every
minute
she
was
awake
,
even
carrying
mangoes
into
the
water
with
her
.
Truth
to
tell
,
that
was
the
most
logical
place
to
eat
mangoes
other
than
a
bathtub
;
they
just
ran
juice
.
Since
her
tiny
beach
lay
within
the
lagoon
,
the
sea
was
mirror
calm
and
quite
free
of
currents
,
very
shallow
.
All
of
which
she
loved
,
because
she
could
n't
swim
a
stroke
.
But
in
water
so
salty
it
seemed
almost
to
hold
her
up
,
she
began
to
experiment
;
when
she
could
float
for
ten
seconds
at
a
time
she
was
delighted
.
The
sensation
of
being
freed
from
the
pull
of
the
earth
made
her
long
to
be
able
to
move
as
easily
as
a
fish
.
So
if
she
mourned
her
lack
of
company
,
it
was
only
because
she
would
have
liked
to
have
someone
to
teach
her
to
swim
.
Other
than
that
,
being
on
her
own
was
wonderful
.
How
right
Anne
had
been
!
All
her
life
there
had
been
people
in
the
house
.
To
have
no
one
was
such
a
relief
,
so
utterly
peaceful
.
She
was
n't
lonely
at
all
;
she
did
n't
miss
Anne
or
Luddie
or
Justine
or
Luke
,
and
for
the
first
time
in
three
years
she
did
n't
yearn
for
Drogheda
.
Old
Rob
never
disturbed
her
solitude
,
just
chugged
far
enough
down
the
road
each
sunset
to
make
sure
her
friendly
wave
from
the
veranda
was
n't
a
signal
of
distress
,
turned
the
car
and
puttered
off
again
,
his
surprisingly
pretty
Missus
grimly
riding
shotgun
.
Once
he
phoned
her
to
say
he
was
taking
the
other
couple
in
residence
out
in
his
glassbottomed
boat
,
and
would
she
like
to
come
along
?
It
was
like
having
a
ticket
of
admission
to
a
whole
new
planet
,
peering
through
the
glass
down
into
that
teeming
,
exquisitely
fragile
world
,
where
delicate
forms
were
buoyed
and
bolstered
by
the
loving
intimacy
of
water
.
Live
coral
,
she
discovered
,
was
n't
garishly
hued
from
dyes
the
way
it
was
in
the
souvenir
counter
of
the
store
.
It
was
soft
pink
or
beige
or
blue-grey
,
and
around
every
knob
and
branch
wavered
a
marvelous
rainbow
of
color
,
like
a
visible
aura
.
Great
anemones
twelve
inches
wide
fluttered
fringes
of
blue
or
red
or
orange
or
purple
tentacles
;
white
fluted
clams
as
big
as
rocks
beckoned
unwary
explorers
to
take
a
look
inside
with
tantalizing
glimpses
of
colorful
,
restless
things
through
feathery
lips
;
red
lace
fans
swayed
in
water
winds
;
bright-green
ribbons
of
weed
danced
loose
and
drifting
.
Not
one
of
the
four
in
the
boat
would
have
been
in
the
least
surprised
to
see
a
mermaid
:
a
gleam
of
polished
breast
,
a
twisting
glitter
of
tail
,
lazily
spinning
clouds
of
hair
,
an
alluring
smile
taunting
the
siren
's
spell
to
sailors
.
But
the
fish
!
Like
living
jewels
they
darted
in
thousands
upon
thousands
,
round
like
Chinese
lanterns
,
slender
like
bullets
,
raimented
in
colors
which
glowed
with
life
and
the
lightsplitting
quality
water
imparts
,
some
on
fire
with
scales
of
gold
and
scarlet
,
some
cool
and
silvery
blue
,
some
swimming
rag
bags
gaudier
than
parrots
.
There
were
needle-nosed
garfish
,
pug-nosed
toadfish
,
fanged
barracuda
,
a
cavernous-mawed
grouper
lurking
half
seen
in
a
grotto
,
and
once
a
sleek
grey
nurse
shark
which
seemed
to
take
forever
to
pass
silently
beneath
them
.
"
But
do
n't
worry
,
"
said
Rob
.
"
We
're
too
far
south
here
for
sea
wasps
,
so
if
anything
on
the
Reef
is
going
to
kill
you
,
it
's
most
likely
to
be
a
stonefish
.
Never
go
walking
on
the
coral
without
your
shoes
.
"
Yes
,
Meggie
was
glad
she
went
.
But
she
did
n't
yearn
to
go
again
,
or
make
friends
with
the
couple
Rob
brought
along
.
She
immersed
herself
in
the
sea
,
and
walked
,
and
lay
in
the
sun
.
Curiously
enough
,
she
did
n't
even
miss
having
books
to
read
,
for
there
always
seemed
to
be
something
interesting
to
watch
.
She
had
taken
Rob
's
advice
and
stopped
wearing
clothes
.
At
first
she
had
tended
to
behave
like
a
rabbit
catching
whiffs
of
dingo
on
the
breeze
,
bolting
for
cover
if
a
twig
cracked
or
a
coconut
fell
like
a
cannonball
from
a
palm
.
But
after
several
days
of
patent
solitude
she
really
began
to
feel
no
one
would
come
near
her
,
that
indeed
it
was
as
Rob
said
,
a
completely
private
domain
.
Shyness
was
wasted
.
And
walking
the
tracks
,
lying
in
the
sand
,
paddling
in
that
warm
salty
water
,
she
began
to
feel
like
an
animal
born
and
brought
up
in
a
cage
,
suddenly
let
loose
in
a
gentle
,
sunny
,
spacious
and
welcoming
world
.
Away
from
Fee
,
her
brothers
,
Luke
,
the
unsparing
,
unthinking
domination
of
her
whole
life
,
Meggie
discovered
pure
leisure
;
a
whole
kaleidoscope
of
thought
patterns
wove
and
unwove
novel
designs
in
her
mind
.
For
the
first
time
in
her
life
she
was
n't
keeping
her
conscious
self
absorbed
in
work
thoughts
of
one
description
or
another
.
Surprised
,
she
realized
that
keeping
physically
busy
is
the
most
effective
blockade
against
totally
mental
activity
human
beings
can
erect
.
Years
ago
Father
Ralph
had
asked
her
what
she
thought
about
,
and
she
had
answered
:
Daddy
and
Mum
,
Bob
,
Jack
,
Hughie
,
Stu
,
the
little
boys
,
Frank
,
Drogheda
,
the
house
,
work
,
the
rainfall
.
She
had
n't
said
him
,
but
he
was
at
the
top
of
the
list
,
always
.
Now
add
to
those
Justine
,
Luke
,
Luddie
and
Anne
,
the
cane
,
homesickness
,
the
rainfall
.
And
always
,
of
course
,
the
lifesaving
release
she
found
in
books
.
But
it
had
all
come
and
gone
in
such
tangled
,
unrelated
clumps
and
chains
;
no
opportunity
,
no
training
to
enable
her
to
sit
down
quietly
and
think
out
who
exactly
was
Meggie
Cleary
,
Meggie
O'Neill
?
What
did
she
want
?
What
did
she
think
she
was
put
on
this
earth
for
?
She
mourned
the
lack
of
training
,
for
that
was
an
omission
no
amount
of
time
on
her
own
could
ever
rectify
.
However
,
here
was
the
time
,
the
peace
,
the
laziness
of
idle
physical
well-being
;
she
could
lie
on
the
sand
and
try
.
