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no one else to tell.
    â€˜I may have imagined it, but when I was out in the boat last night I thought  . . . ’ He paused, rubbed his chin.
    â€˜What?’ she asked, suddenly interested in his stupid sailing stories.
    â€˜I thought I saw somebody in the water. I thought I heard a cry for help.’
    â€˜What did you do?’
    â€˜Nothing. Ben wouldn’t believe me. He thought I had imagined it. It was dark. It was some storm.’
    For the first time there was something soft in the girl’s voice. ‘But you don’t think you imagined it.’
    â€˜It doesn’t matter now anyway. It’s just a bit  . . .  strange, that’s all.’
    â€˜As I said already, this town is a bit strange. You’re a bit strange.’
    â€˜Thanks.’
    There was no venom in this insult, she laughed when she said it. Fraser looked at her, noted how pretty she was, tried not to be intimidated by it. There were a few pretty girls in his school but he couldn’t think of any with blonde hair. Not that the dark-haired ones or the red-haired ones gave him much of their time. Girls were all a bit of a mystery to Fraser, intriguing, yes, a puzzle to be solved, but he wished there was some textbook that offered all the answers at the back.
    â€˜What are you doing up here anyway?’ he asked.
    â€˜I was following you. There’s nothing much else to do on this island except take a walk. I thought you might be going somewhere interesting. I was wrong.’
    â€˜You don’t think an old ruined castle is interesting?’
    â€˜Not really. Just kind of creepy.’
    â€˜Well, Nin has other delights on offer,’ Fraser said. ‘We have a nine-hole golf course, there’s the marina, a lighthouse on the north coast  . . . ’
    â€˜I’ve left my golf clubs back in Texas,’ she said sarcastically.
    They both laughed and for a moment it seemed that the ice, if not yet broken, had perhaps melted a sliver at the edge. Fraser thought he should venture another stab at friendly conversation. Deep down she was probably a lovely girl. Deep, deep down. Way down deep.
    â€˜So how are you finding Scotland?’ he asked. ‘It’s a long way from Texas.’
    Hayley sighed. ‘It is a very long way, but my mom is writing a book about people far from home and seems to think we need to be far from home to do it. There are other reasons we’re here as well.’
    Fraser waited for her to continue but it became clear she wasn’t going to say any more. He could tell from the way she chewed her bottom lip and stared into space that there was some other reason why this girl and her mother had travelled across an ocean to a different continent, then washed up on a small island on its far edge.
    â€˜Well, I better find Dunny I suppose,’ he said after a moment.
    He looked at the castle tower, lit by the afternoon sun, each weathered stone a different shade of grey. ‘He’s in there somewhere.’
    â€˜What’s the deal with your brother? Why doesn’t he speak?’
    Fraser shrugged. ‘He just chooses not to, never has. He’s called an elective mute.’
    â€˜Which is just another way of saying, weird .’
    Fraser shook his head and wondered if the girl realized just how rude she could be. Was it an American thing? Was it a girl thing? Was it just a Hayley Risso thing?
    â€˜He’s mildly autistic, if that’s what you mean. We don’t call them weird any more.’
    If he expected an apology, none came. Instead Hayley said, ‘He gave me this last night.’ She reached into the pocket of her jeans and pulled out a scallop shell. ‘Right there on the edge of a cliff in the middle of a storm, he hands me a shell.’
    Fraser took the shell from her and examined it. ‘Another one. He’s been doing this lately. Sometimes he writes on them.’
    â€˜What’s it