told Eulalia that one could wade over there when the tide was low.
“Soon I can fly over”, she said and pointed her tongue at me. I of course pointed mine at her, and then we both grinned.
“Where do you think your parents are now?” I asked.
“No idea”, she said, “and if I knew it soon wouldn’t be true anymore anyway. Maybe they’re beating some flag in Tahiti, or making waves outside of the Orkneys. If they’re not making a mess of some reed around here somewhere...”
“Are you sad they left you alone?”
“Not really, because they didn’t have no choice. I guess I was supposed to be a wind too so that I could blow around with them, but then I became a little person. Now I have to teach myself the things that winds must know, but it’s rather fun! And I already know a lot of stuff that only winds are supposed to know...”
“Like what?”
“Well, how to make a real scary blowing sound for example – you wanna hear?”
“Yeah!”
And she bent backwards drawing a deep breath before howling like a hurricane out along the coast. It almost seemed like the winds out there on the cape got scared because there was a total calm for a few seconds before I could get her to stop.
“That’s fine”, I said, “you can stop now!”
She said:
“I’m gonna make a good storm, eh?”
I said:
“Terrific!”
“What else do you know that only winds know?” I asked, hoping for something less noisy.
“Oh, I don’t know where to start... I know how to get into the heads of little boys about to sleep, and I know what the directions do when they get together. I understand what the moon is trying to say, when it’s trying to say something, and since I’m never heading anywhere special I can’t ever get lost. I know how to make white foam from blue waters, and dry dust from wet soil. Furthermore I’ve got so much wind inside of me that I can easily hold my breath for half an hour!”
“Is that all?” I teased her.
“No”, she said, “it’s only the beginning. But I won’t tell you more because now you’re gonna tell me things.”
“What could I possibly have to tell you?” I said and got a little worried.
“Hmm”, she said winking an eye at me, “we’ll have to think of something.”
She moved a little on the ground so that she came to sit right in front of me. We both had our legs crossed and her kneecaps were touching mine. Over her shoulder I could see a big yacht cutting through the water far out at sea, and I thought that maybe some of her stronger relatives were pushing in the sail...
She straightened up a little so that I would look at her instead, and silently asked:
“This stuff about moms and dads... What are they for exactly?”
“How do you mean?”
“Well, is there something special I need to know if I find my mom and dad? What do I do with them? What are they good for?”
“You know”, I said.
“Nah, I’m not sure. Of course I long for them, but I’m not quite clear over why. Imagine they’re dead boring.”
“All parents are dead boring”, I said, “at least most of the time. But if they’re good parents they know that, and all of a sudden they come and tickle your belly, saying `Kilimandjaro!´.”
“Ooh”, moaned Eulalia, “I would like that... When I think about it I’m sure I always wished for someone who could do that.”
“It’s kind of cosy”, I said.
“Nick, please”, said Eulalia, “won’t you tickle my belly and say `Kilimandjaro!´?”
“I suppose I can.”
I tickled her until she fell backwards and actually lost her famous breath and then I stopped and she sat up again, all red in the face. She looked happy.
“So”, she said, “that’s almost enough to make me wanna find my folks, but tell me something more anyway. What are they good for?”
“Well”, I said, “they can cook for you and drive you if you need to go somewhere, and then...”
“No no no”, said Eulalia, “I don’t mean things that anybody can do. There must be something special that only moms and dads know how to do.”
“I’m not sure”, I said.
“Think hard”, said Eulalia.
I looked around and tried to think of something to say that Eulalia could have said if she was me, but of course that wasn’t easy. I didn’t know her parents either, imagine she found them and they didn’t turn out too good. This is what I finally said:
“I think moms and dads exist so that there will always be someone who likes you. At least it ought to be that way.”
Eulalia looked amazed:
“Someone who always likes you?”
“Yes”, I said.
“It sounds unreal”, she said.
Then she didn’t say anything for a long time. We started walking back along the beach and I found some really nice sticks that had floated ashore, and even a small petrified animal that hadn’t been alive for some million years. I showed it to Eulalia but she just nodded and stayed with her own thoughts. I’d never met anyone with such a sulky expression while thinking. Her whole face wrinkled up and her eyebrows turned a black V. Then all of a sudden she let her thoughts go and was happy and teasing again.
“Your parents can’t fly”, she said and showed me her tongue before running away up towards the woods.
“No, but my grandpa could”, I said running after her.
“I know, I think he knew my granddad.”
“Really?” I said.
“No”, said Eulalia.
We overcame some thick undergrowth and came out on a moor I’d never seen before. We were pretty far away from home now.
At a distance you could see an old homestead but it wasn’t possible to tell if anyone still lived there. Behind a stone wall some bulls were looking mean and I pulled Eulalia in the other direction. We crawled under a rusty fence and pushed through a gang of junipers and came out on yet another moor. I couldn’t recognize this one either but it felt like the right direction and at least there would be daylight for several hours more.
“Do you know where we are?” I asked Eulalia. First she looked at me as if she didn’t understand the question, then she said:
“Didn’t I tell you I can’t ever get lost?”
“Well yeah”, I said, “but that’s only because you’re never heading anywhere special. But I need to get home soon.”
She smiled with her whole face again:
“You aren’t gonna cry, eh?”
“Why would I do that? I just don’t want Granny to think I’m in trouble.”
“Sorry”, said Eulalia, “let me feel.” She climbed a big rock and looked around, and then she came down again.
“I think it’s in one of these directions”, she said scratching her head.
“That’s a big help”, I said. I started walking across the moor and she followed. We went in a line like this for some time, and then she joined my side and said:
“Don’t you wanna ask me something else?” I could see that she was sorry for not being able to tell the way, so I tried to think of something to ask her.
“You can ask anything you like”, she said, “I think I know almost everything.”
“Okay”, I said, “there is something I’ve always wondered about.”
“Where you go when you die, you mean?”
“Yes”, I said.
“When you die you may for example get to be a star in the sky.”
I was a little disappointed in this answer because I’d heard people say the same thing before and couldn’t really believe in it, but tried not to show it too much.
“I think I’ve heard someone say that before”, I said.
“Then you heard right.”
“But”, I said, “what’s the deal? Seems to me it’s better being alive. Doesn’t it get cold up there?”
“Only at night, but then you’re shining. You ge
t warm from shining.”
“So what do you do in the daytime?”
“Then you sleep, or poke around in your garden, or play with your toys.”
“The stars have gardens?”
“Of course.”
“How come you know all these things that nobody else knows?”
“I just know”, she said. I sighed and stopped and put my hand on her shoulder:
“And how come the first time I ever get lost on this island it’s with you?”
Now she stopped and put her hand on my shoulder too, and said:
“Maybe it’s meant to teach you something?”
“Whatever could that be?”
“Well...maybe that you’re always more or less lost, and that you lose a rather nice feeling if you pretend not to be.”
I shook my head and went on walking.
“Eulalia”, I said, “you’re nuts!”
On the other side of the moor we came out on a road of dry mud that I knew. It was a part of Green Street and I had walked and biked there many times.
“Do you feel better now?” asked Eulalia. I knew she was teasing me, but I also understood that she tried to tell me something. I just couldn’t figure out what.
“I don’t like not knowing where I am”, I said.
“So I’ve understood”, said Eulalia.
“I think that goes for most people”, I said.
“Well”, she said, “I’m just a girl made of wind and weather...but I still think it’s daft. If I always knew where I was I think I would just sit down and scream until someone took care of me and moved me to a place I didn’t recognize. But lucky for me I can get lost on my own, so far.
I looked at her for a long time, thinking. Then I said:
“Some day I will try it, Eulalia. Later on, when I’m a little bigger.”
Soon the dry mud was covered with grass, and the trail climbed from the open field into