The Lost Island of Tamarind by Nadia Aguiar

'Meanwhile, we’ll be in Bermuda in a week. 'I’ll talk to your father,' her mother said finally. It must have scared off the dolphins and now the sea was quiet except for the sound of the water breaking against the Pamela Jane’s hull. A nurse shark that had been following the boat for a couple of days reappeared and Maya watched it, just a few feet below the surface off the lee of the boat. It just seemed like she couldn’t help her bad mood these days. Maya didn’t want to be so unpleasant all the time. He was always sweet and cheerful and even if he was annoying sometimes, people always liked to have him around because he was so good- natured. 'He doesn’t count.' She picked at her ankle and didn’t look at her mother.

I want friends.' Here Maya felt tears welling again. I want to live at Granny Pearl’s and go to school. 'It’s lucky that we’re all together on it.' 'I don’t want to be on the ocean,' said Maya. 'I don’t have any privacy.' Her mother considered. 'Everyone’s always on top of me,' she said. Frowning, she picked ruthlessly at a scab on her ankle. 'I don’t want to live on the boat anymore.' Suddenly Maya felt more angry than sad. Maya felt tears rise to her eyes again but she blinked them away and glared out at the sea. Her mother refolded her scarf and tied it over her hair and sat down beside her. The boat rose and fell gently on the swells. She rested her chin on her knees and trained her gaze on the horizon. 'Didn’t you hear me calling you?' 'Sorry,' Maya said. Her shadow appeared over Maya a few moments later. Her mother’s voice grew muffled as she went into the cabin, and then her footsteps thumped on the steps as she came back on deck. Alban’s, where they would drop off the samples at the Marine Station. Maya’s parents had collected the last of the algae samples they needed early that morning and within a few hours they would be sailing into port at St. The warm Atlantic rushed blue and strong over the hull of the Pamela Jane and stretched flatly to the horizon where white clouds bloomed. When she heard her mother calling her she frowned more deeply and tucked her legs up so that she couldn’t be seen.

She was sitting on the bow, leaning against the cabin wall, out of sight of the main deck, which is where she went when she wanted to be alone. Usually Maya loved when dolphins swam with the boat, but today she barely noticed them. They were plump and shiny and they played like children and spoke to each other in their strangely human language of squeaks and whistles. Chapter One Maya’s DilemmaDolphins had been riding in the bow waves of the Pamela Jane all morning.

The Lost Island of Tamarind by Nadia Aguiar