Chapter 3
Light came back to Amelia’s world as she spat sand out of her mouth. She wondered if she had died and woken up again. Was it the prince waking her up so that he could meet her? The sky was bright blue above her head and a large ugly seagull squawked loudly and seemed to dive for her head. She covered her head for protection, but it was alright, the bird flew away. No one had come to see if she was alright, she thought miserably. This was really a miserable place. She scratched a drift wood stick angrily across the sand. A huge wave crashed onto the shore and she felt bad for having that thought; it was a beautiful place and today she was going to start selling in her shop with her beautiful woman friend. She couldn’t find the other children and she had to hold on to the friend she had for the day. She didn’t know her name. She wiped her mouth of some dribble that had a habit of coming out whenever she felt sorry for herself thoughts. She stood up. Nearby a ragged man with only one leg clapped and said to his friend,
‘Look she’s standing up. Praise be. God is not unkind. Well done little one you get up and fight another day. You be lucky little abandoned Queen.’
Amelia smiled at him. She still hated being called ‘abandoned’ and walked off. She felt bad as he only had one leg. She should have asked him if he wanted water. She walked to the part of the beach where she had left the woman near to a broken upturned boat. She wasn’t there but her hat was there and a pile of folded newspapers next to her shawl. Amelia waited; the sun was getting hotter. She noticed that many of the children gathered early at the edge of the beach where there was shade from palms. She thought this was a good idea but she would miss her customers. The heat didn’t bother Peto who did his water job all day, and she intended to make herself as strong willed as him. If you looked around at the tourists you saw they had money to give away. Why not to her? When she got the money she would buy some clothes and a hat and shoes so that when the royal people came to look for her, they would recognise her. Perhaps, she thought, they had been already and mistook her for an abandoned. She sat on the boat dreaming for a while then started to wonder where the lady was and if she should forget her, be hard, and make out on her own. Then she saw a hand waving at her from the sea. It was the lady and she slowly swam ashore. Amelia was glad. She really needed helpful, kind faces in this confusing time. The lady walked out of the sea her body glistening looking much younger than she did in her tunic. She was holding a plastic bag with something inside it. She rushed over to Amelia
‘Look! I’ve been diving for shells. You will make a fortune out of these,’ she said and handed Amelia the bag. Amelia looked in it and inside were the most beautiful shells she had ever seen, large pearly ones, purple ones, fan ones, they were incredible.
‘These are great thank you. What is your name?’
‘Rain drop’
‘ Really? That is your name?’
‘It’s what my name means in my language. Most people call me Jean. You are the only person who knows my name apart from my husband.’
‘Where is he, is he here?’
‘No he told me to leave the house.’
‘Why?’
‘I was always crying. We owed so much money, we had no money. He said “go away Rain Drop, I’m tired of the rain.”’
‘He will change his mind.’
‘No he hates me. I thought I could come to the beach and sell fish but they only like the young girls for that not old me in a headscarf. I’ve been selling papers. I collect them from tourists and rich men and sell them for a few coins.’
‘You can help me sell the shells.’
‘Maybe tomorrow. I sell my papers and fetch water and sometimes look after the tourist children while their parents go in the sea. I have a family I am helping this week, the Jones family. They gave me five paper money yesterday. I am trying to find a family who will take me to their house to be a servant. My last boss told me to go. “You cry too much Jean,” she said.’
Amelia was disappointed but the shells were beautiful.
‘How do I get more shells like these?’
‘Can you swim?’
‘yes’
‘Just dive near the rocks, there are many. The tourists don’t swim there as it smells of fish so they don’t know. Come and find me tonight and we will drink water and watch the sunset. I will comb your hair. It’s best you sell near the café. What you need to do is keep them in the bag and shout, I don’t know, something like, buy my beautiful shells, collected from the bottom of the ocean! A great gift for your house!’
‘How much should I ask for them?’
‘You have to be clever. Try different prices. Tourists try to be clever and get your price down anyway. Choose whatever you want. Bye Bye dear. What is your name?’
‘Amelia.’
‘Bye bye Amelia. I cannot be with you as then people will think you are mine and won’t give me work, but come and see me here tonight.’
Amelia thought it was a shame the lady wouldn’t help her, but was excited about shouting about her shop. She walked up to the area near the café. She remembered the waiter hitting her for taking the left-over Pizza and felt a little wary, but there were other children there selling things. One had a stall of hats and sunglasses, they weren’t new, they were ones people had left on the beach. Another was quite smart and selling woven friendship bracelets. She thought for a while. She saw an apple that somebody had discarded on the floor because it had a bruise and picked it up and ate it, thinking. She would need to make it look like a proper shop. The bag with the shells in was an old supermarket bag that looked old and scruffy. She decided to lay them out on the sand that was wispy, white and powdery here. She put the shells down carefully. They had got dry and didn’t look so shiny and sparkling so she worried about what she should ask for them. She didn’t know anything about money. She knew it was a ten coin for a cheese roll and that was all she wanted. She tucked her hair behind her ears and shouted,
‘Buy my shells! Treasure of the ocean! Buy for your house! Buy something beautiful from me right here!’
A few tourists look round which made her feel important. She held up a shell and beckoned them,
‘Come, come closer, see the beautiful shells.’
The tourists didn’t come, but she kept on shouting. The boy selling the friendship bracelet pointed at her and laughed. The boy selling the hats came over.
‘What are you selling? ‘He asked.
‘I am selling beautiful shells from the ocean.’
‘Let’s make a deal. When the tourists come to you, you tell them the sun is hot, they need a hat, buy one from me’ and I will tell them to buy your shells.’
‘Deal,’ said Amelia but she was more interested in selling than making friends. This had to work for her, at least until the royal people came for her, and there was no knowing when that would be. She shook his hand and smiled and went back to her shouting that sounded a little like pleading. After a while some people that had been looking at the hats came over to look at the shells.
‘So what is special about these shells? How much are they?’ asked a Lady.
Amelia thought only of her stomach.
‘They are a ten coin.’
‘So why shouldn’t I just find them myself on the beach. Why do you children always want money?’ The woman had on mirror glasses and Amelia, looking at her face in them, tried to think up a good answer.
‘Because these are special shells from the islands. People have to go diving for them.’
‘Look at this purple one. It looks so pretty, it would look fine in the bathroom,’ said another woman to the first. ‘Besides, she’s just a little thing with no shoes.’
‘Some of them trick you though.’ She turned to Amelia and said, ‘I’ll give you a five coin for this one.’
Amelia remembered what Rain drop had said about tourists always knocking down the price and pursed her lips.
‘I am sorry but it is a ten coin.’ The woman had on a gold bracelet and gold rings
. What was a ten coin to her? thought Amelia
‘Sorry then. I’ll leave it,’ said the woman with the mirror shades. She walked off, but the second one lingered and smiled at Amelia. She reached in her pocket and took out a fifty coin
‘Here, do you have change? I will buy it, it’s so pretty.’ Amelia smiled all over her face.
‘Thank you, but sorry, I don’t have any change.’
‘Here take it then. It’s your lucky day.’
‘Here is your shell Madam.’ Amelia couldn’t believe her luck. She remembered the hat boy and said,
‘Why not buy a hat? My friend has some very good hats.’
‘They’re second hand. That’s too gross!’ said the woman and walked off. The fifty coin burned hot in Amelia’s hand. She wanted to run and buy a cheese roll but she could not think like a child, she had to think like a woman and carry on working. She started to shout again. Some more people came over and looked at the shells. The first set just made grunting sounds and didn’t buy anything, but an old lady with white hair bought five for another fifty coin. Amelia was thirsty and wanted to run and get water but the woman spoke to her for half an hour about how she had come on a plane and all about the size of her house back home. She annoyed Amelia by saying things like her fridge was the size of a room; she bet Amelia had never seen a fridge before. That she drove a big car, it was unlikely Amelia would ever have a car, this country was too poor. She said it was because the people were lazy. Amelia wanted her to go away. When she made no replies the woman eventually gave up and went.
The café sold burgers, they looked delicious. The sign said they were a seventy coin. Amelia had wanted to keep her money for her friends but hunger got the better of her and she went to the café and stood in line for one. It looked amazing with lettuce and Mayo. She saw the waiter watching her as she held out her hand to pay, buying water with the change. She still had twenty shells left; she could use that money to buy bread for the little girls she had stayed with last night. The hat boy watched her eating her burger.
‘You doing alright?’ he asked
‘Doing big time!’ she said. She didn’t need anyone .She had taken the shells in the bag to the café with her in case they were stolen. She laid them back down and started shouting again. This time the boy selling the friendship bracelets gave her a look of respect. More tourists drifted past. One of them, a man with a hat on sat down and talked to her about if she went to school and if she could read and write. She told him she could read the name on his hat that said ‘Blue State Captains’ and she could add up. She told him she had twenty shells all a ten coin. That would make two hundred coins.
‘What will you do with all those riches?’ he asked, making fun of her.
‘I’ll buy food for all my friends.’
‘Don’t they eat at the moment?’ he asked concerned.
‘No’ said Amelia, sure that he was going to give her the money.
‘That’s too sad for me to hear.’ He said and walked off
‘Did that man buy anything off you? ‘asked the hat boy
‘No he just chat and chat and go.’
‘Same here’ said the hat boy.
Amelia had to sell for her friends’ food. She started shouting again. A little tourist boy came up to her.
‘What are you doing?’ he asked
‘Selling shells. Buy one for your cousin. Buy three for your grandmother.’
‘How much is that? Do you want to play with my Frisbee?’
‘That’s a four ten coins.’
‘Like this?’ said the boy and held out four fives.
‘No for that you can have two. One for your grandma, one for your cousin, deal?’
‘Deal’ said the boy. ‘What about playing Frisbee? I’ve got no one to play with.
‘Sorry I have to run my shop.’
The boy’s mother called him over at the café. He showed her the shells. Amelia was a bit worried that she might be angry but she just looked at Amelia and smiled. The sun was very hot but there was some shade by the café from palm trees. She sat down and relaxed and drank some water. She held up some shells and shouted, ‘ten coins’ and managed to sell three more.
‘What are you going to do when your shells finish?’ asked the hat boy.
‘I will go and dive for more,’ she answered.
‘It’s best you stop now as the café owner comes at three and he hates abandoned. You can’t sell when he’s here.
‘What is the time now?
‘It’s quarter to three. I am going now. See you tomorrow?’
‘Okay. Is it true about the owner?’
‘It’s true he calls the police and everything.’
‘Okay then see you tomorrow.’
Amelia packed the shells into the bag and walked off to see who she could find on the beach. Near the road she saw Jasper. There were seagulls diving at his head, and a mean looking ragged man was diving for them. She didn’t understand what was happening. She called out to him, and was sure that he saw her, but he made no reply. She went closer, and saw that he had bread tied to his head, and that was why the birds were diving at him.
‘What are you doing?’ she asked him.
‘Go it’s not safe. Torro caught me. He is a bad man. He likes to cook seagulls to eat. He says they taste like chicken. ‘
‘Why don’t you run away?’
‘He told me that if I did he would do to me what he did to Aldo.He tried to run away but Torro caught him, and as a punishment he tied bread to his eyes and put him in the middle of the sea gulls. He kicked and ran away into the sea. They were trying to peck his eyes out. He said it was the worst thing that ever happened to him. You better run away.’
Amelia was petrified. She couldn’t think of anything worse than a bird pecking at your eyes. How could people be so cruel?
‘I will try to get help’ she said.
‘Don’t worry, after you catch ten sea gulls you can escape as he is busy eating them.’
Amelia looked worried, but saw the men who was diving for the seagulls finish his cigarette, and come closer. She ran off quickly not wanting to share Jasper’s fate.