Sea Change

By Diane Tullson

Lucas and his father are not close. In fact they hardly see each other, which is just fine with Lucas. When he travels to the remote fishing lodge his father manages, Lucas is left once again, this time with a lodge worker, a girl named Sumi. She makes it pretty clear that Lucas is on his own. But she does take him fishing and seems to be warming up to him. Then, in a horrible sequence of misjudgments, Sumi is shot in the foot. With no radio and no phone, Lucas and Sumi are truly alone. Fog rolls over the islands and it's up to Lucas to get Sumi to medical help, a day's journey by boat up the inlet.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Orca Book Publishers
• Release date: Oct 1, 2010
• ISBN: 9781551435350

Diane Tullson

Diane Tullson has an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of British Columbia and is a trained technical writer. She is a member of the Canadian Children's Book Centre, the Vancouver Children's Literature Roundtable, Children's Writers and Illustrators of British Columbia and the Writers Union of Canada. Diane has been nominated for many awards, including the Stellar Award and the Arthur Ellis Award. Diane lives near Vancouver, British Columbia. For more information, visit www.dianetullson.com.

Book preview

Sea Change

Sea Change

Diane Tullson

orca soundings

ORCA BOOK PUBLISHERS

Copyright © 2010 Diane Tullson

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced

or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including

photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system now

known or to be invented, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Tullson, Diane, 1958-

Sea change / written by Diane Tullson.

(Orca soundings)

Issued also in an electronic format.

ISBN 978-1-55469-333-7 (bound).--ISBN 978-1-55469-332-0 (pbk.)

I. Title. II. Series: Orca soundings

PS8589.U6055S42 2010                  JC813’.6                  C2010-903617-4

First published in the United States, 2010

Library of Congress Control Number: 2010929069

Summary: Lucas rarely sees his father. On a trip to reconnect on the remote north

coast, Lucas discovers that kinship goes beyond blood, and that while he can’t pick

his relatives, he can find his own community.

Orca Book Publishers is dedicated to preserving the environment and has printed

this book on paper certified by the Forest Stewardship Council.

Orca Book Publishers gratefully acknowledges the support for its publishing

programs provided by the following agencies: the Government of Canada

through the Canada Book Fund and the Canada Council for the Arts,

and the Province of British Columbia through the BC Arts Council

and the Book Publishing Tax Credit.

Cover design by Teresa Bubela

Cover photography by Getty Images

www.orcabook.com

Printed and bound in Canada.

13 12 11 10 • 4 3 2 1

To Stan and Dorota, with love

Contents

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Acknowledgments

Chapter One

I adjust my headset over my ears, and the noise of the helicopter drops to a dull thud. I feel the noise as much as hear it, as if the helicopter is a drum and I’m inside it. My seat faces out—the penalty box, the pilot called it—and the door is right in front of my knees. The window in the door has instructions about how to push it out in an emergency. And about how not to open the door in flight, as if anyone would do that. Still, I pull my knees back from the door lever.

My father is sitting up with the pilot. He’s got a communications headset and he’s chatting with the pilot, laughing about something. His hair used to be darker than mine, more of a sandy brown, but now it’s got some gray. He has deep lines around his eyes. Basically, he looks old.

Through the window, below, acres of trees roll out in all directions. That’s all I’ve seen since we left the airfield in Sandspit—trees. Sometimes a stream ropes through the trees, but there’s nothing else, no roads, no cut-lines. The pilot said a crew was logging on the other side of the ridge, but here I might be the first guy to see this forest. Well, me and the pilot. And my old man.

God, it is cold. The last of a nasty flu bug gnaws my gut. It got me a week off school though. Half the school has it, and apparently it’s policy of the cook training program to make sure I don’t infect the other half. My mother didn’t give me too much grief about going. It’s about time you spent some time with your father, she said. He had a flu shot, so he isn’t going to catch it.

Except for us, the helicopter is empty. The tourist season finished a month ago. We’re going to fish late-running salmon—coho, not that I’d know a coho from any other kind of fish.

My dad has been at the fishing lodge his entire working life, practically owns the place now. I’m seventeen and this is the first time I’ve been up. People pay plenty to fish the best salmon on the Pacific Northwest, he says. Only room for paying guests, he says. We’ll go in October, after shutdown, he says.

We almost went fishing three years ago, but the weather turned bad and grounded the helicopter. That was the year Mom and I moved to Torrance. Between school and Dad’s schedule, I haven’t seen him since. Not that I saw much of him before the divorce—he spends half the year at the lodge and the other half on the road doing sportsman’s shows. Maybe he’s always looked this old and I just haven’t noticed.

This year he was in LA, on business, and he called me up. I had the week off school and no good reason to say no. Dad