Free North of Nowhere by Liz Kessler

Dee’s dad had gotten it totally wrong.
    We came gently around into the bay. Peter was in the wheelhouse, focusing ahead, and every now and then glancing at the compass. The wind was gentle on my face as I leaned back against the side of the boat and closed my eyes. It was blissful. I’d never felt so at peace, so relaxed, so excited, so —
    “AMELIA!”
    In a nanosecond I was upright in my seat, eyes wide-open.
    “MIA!”
    It was Mom! She was on the beach with Flake. She looked furious.
    “Amelia, what are you doing?” she yelled.
    “Mom, what’s wrong?” I called.
    “What’s wrong?” she called back, running toward the sea. “Your gran’s world has fallen apart, I’m trying to hold the place together, and you’re off joyriding on a boat with some strange boy we’ve never even laid eyes on before. What do you
think
is wrong?”
    I glanced at Peter in the wheelhouse. He’d changed course and was steering us toward the jetty, closer to Mom. I didn’t know if he’d heard what she’d said, but if he had, he was doing a good job of acting as though he wasn’t offended.
    “Look, we won’t be out long,” I began.
    “You won’t be out at
all
!” Mom snapped. “I don’t know what you’re thinking.”
    “I’m thinking I’m entitled to have at least one nice thing this week!” I snapped back. I didn’t mean to, but — well, she wasn’t the only one trying to cope with all this.
    Mom just looked at me. “None of us is
entitled
to
anything
while your grandad is missing,” she said.
    We were nearly alongside the jetty now, and close enough that I could see Mom clenching her jaw and dark circles under her red eyes. She looked as if she’d aged a decade this week. That was when it hit me. It was her
dad
who had gone missing. However bad this was for me, it was fifty times worse for
her.
How could I be so selfish?
    “Mom, I’m sorry,” I said. “Just give me a minute.” I opened the door to the wheelhouse. “We’ll have to forget it,” I said to Peter. “Nice idea, though.”
    Peter nodded. But his jaw was set, his eyes determined. “Look, I’ll drop you off,” he said, “but I’m going to fetch Dee for you.”
    “You can’t go on your own. She doesn’t even know you!”
    “You’ve described her to me. I’ll tell her I’m your friend. I’ll explain everything.”
    I thought about it. The idea was tempting. I was desperate to meet up with Dee, and Peter could make it happen. But I couldn’t convince my brain that it was the right thing to do. “Peter, you can’t,” I said.
    “Why not?”
    “Think about it. Dee has no idea who you are. She’s not likely to go off on a boat with some boy she’s never met. A boat that the boy has just stolen from her dad!”
    “I’m not stealing —”
    “
I
know you’re not stealing, but it would be hard to convince anyone else you weren’t. Dee’s never heard of you, her dad’s never met you, you have no link with this boat at all.”
    Peter let out a heavy breath. “When you put it like that . . .”
    “You know I’m right. You really can’t do it.”
    He nodded. “I guess.”
    “Peter, look at me.”
    He looked up. “What?”
    “You really can’t.”
    “OK. You’re right. It’s just a shame, though.”
    “Hey, you don’t need to tell
me
that.”
    He steered the boat perfectly alongside the jetty and jumped off to tie the ropes around a cleat. I could see what the fisherman meant. Peter did the whole thing so quickly and so naturally it was as if he’d been doing it all his life.
    He reached out to help me off the boat. “I’ll take it back around to the old jetty,” he said. “You go back with your mom.”
    “Promise me you won’t go to Luffsands.”
    “I promise,” he said. “See you tomorrow maybe.” And with that, he quickly pulled the ropes off the cleat and jumped aboard again. “I’ll leave the boat exactly where we found it,” he called, giving me a quick salute and a lopsided grin. “I