Frank gave up after two minutes.
The hut became Perijee’s new home. Frank went out to catch fish every morning while Perijee and me wandered round the island, learning new words. Then at night Frank would haul back his catch to the beach for Perijee to eat. He became a pretty good fisherman. I think he even started to like Perijee.
‘I hate that little weirdo,’ said Frank.
‘You’re still helping him,’ I said.
‘I’m not doing it for him,’ Frank muttered.
We watched Perijee work his way through a pile of fish twice his size. He loved fish more than anything.
‘He’s getting bigger, you know,’ said Frank. ‘He’ll be bigger than you soon.’
‘I know!’ I said excitedly. ‘Then he can carry me!’
Frank coughed.
‘Any idea when he’s going tostop growing, sprat?’
Perijee was emptying a bucket of haddock into his mouth like it was a tube of Smarties.
‘No,’ I said. ‘But he can’t getthat much bigger, can he?’
‘This is a camera,’ I said.
Perijee smelled it.
‘It’s called a Polaroid,’ I said. ‘It’s an old man camera. That’s why Frank has one. He said we should be “documenting your growth” rather than “larking about all day like a pair of morons”.’
I found a big rock to balance the camera on and turned round. I jumped. Perijee was standing right behind me. He was almost as big as me now.
‘Breakfast again please,’ he said.
‘No!’ I said. ‘This is important. Plus – what have I told you about following people? We don’t want you to scare Dad like you scared Frank.’
I pressed the timer button.
‘Quick!’ I said. ‘Smile at the camera. And do the peace sign with your fingers.’
We both did the peace sign. The camera snapped and spat out a picture. It was all black at first, but after a few seconds shapes and colours started appearing like they were coming up from dark water.
‘There,’ I said, holding up the photo. ‘That’s you and me, in the middle.’
It was a bit blurry and rubbish, but there we were, our arms around each other and the sun behind us. Perijee looked at it in amazement.
‘Caitlin and Perijee,’ he said. ‘Friends.Family.’
I smiled. ‘Yes!
