Eva Ibbotson - Island of the Aunts

“Can it be?” began Coral.

“We must go up the hill,” said Myrtle and she spoke like someone in a dream. “We must turn our faces to the north.”

“But dressed,” said Etta, coming to her senses for a moment. “Not in our nightclothes. Not even if—”

But her sisters took no notice and Etta herself only had time to put on her dressing gown before there was a thumping noise from next door. It was the Captain’s walking stick banging on the wall and it meant, “Come at once.”

The sisters looked at each other anxiously. If he had heard it too it could strain his heart. So much excitement is bad for old people.

And when they first saw the Captain they were very worried. He was lying slumped on his pillows, his eyes shut, and he was trembling so much that the whole bed shook. But when they came up to him, they were amazed. Captain Harper was a hundred and three years old, but he looked for a moment like a boy.

“I’ve heard it,” he murmured. “I’ve heard it and I’ve felt it. Even if that’s all, even if there’s no more than that, I’ll die happy now.”

“We’re going on to the hill, Father,” said Etta. “We’ll tell you as soon as—”

The door burst open and Fabio and Minette came running into the room. They had tumbled straight out of bed, bewildered and still half asleep, and followed the sound of voices.

“Something’s happened,” said Minette. She was wearing quite the silliest nightdress that even her mother could have bought, covered in patterns of dancing elephants and picnicking zebras, but with her dark hair wild about her shoulders and her bewildered eyes, she seemed to be listening to music from another land. “We were woken…”

“It’s a feeling…only it isn’t only a feeling.” Fabio shook his head, trying to understand. “It’s a sound, except it’s all through us. We’re not making it up.”

The three aunts and the old Captain looked at the children, and nodded. It was a pleased nod, and it meant that the children were all right; they were proper ones, without a touch of a Boo-Boo or a Little One. Lambert, they were sure, would have heard and felt nothing.

“You’d better come with us. Get your shoes on at least.”

Outside the feeling was stronger. Minette and Fabio, struggling for words to describe it, were lost. They followed the aunts on to the turf path which led to the hill. Minette wore Myrtle’s shawl round her shoulders — no one had taken time to dress properly.

The “feeling”, whatever it was, was growing stronger. It came through the soles of their feet, but also now from above, from everywhere. If they’d been doubtful whether it meant anything, the creatures would have put them right at once. In the dawn light the birds wheeled round the cliff in a frenzy of agitation. The seals, usually drowsing on the point at this hour, were all in the water, swimming towards the northern strand — and in the lead was Herbert. Like all selkies he slept with one eye open: he had been the first to know that something incredibly important was going to happen and at once he had put aside his everyday worries. What did it matter now whether one was a man or a seal? He moved through the waves like a torpedo — and close behind Herbert came his mother.

The sky was changing. It was filled with strange colours which belonged neither to the dawn nor to the sunset; colours that the children had never seen and afterwards could not describe.

On her great nest, the boobrie honked with all her power…honked and stirred…and flapped her wings, trying to fly off after the others, but she couldn’t, with the eggs so heavy and stuck inside her…and she pushed her muscles together, pressing and pressing as she tried to become airborne…

The stoorworm came out of the lake and slithered over the ground, following the aunts and the children. He was no longer the muddled creature who had lost control of his far end. He moved like a great serpent, controlled and lean and fast.

Down by the house the goats butted their horns against the walls of their sty, and broke free and went galloping along the shore like mad creatures.

The door of the mermaid shed opened and Loreen and her daughters slithered across the rocks and plunged into the water.

“To the north,” she shouted, holding Walter in the crook of her arm, and they set off for the wild strand beneath the hill.

“Wait for me, wait for me,” shouted Old Ursula, but they had gone and she was left beating her tail furiously against the side of the sink.

The Sybil had come out of her cave. The mucky old prophetess was not talking about the weather now. She was writhing and moaning, her face had turned blue and her hair was standing on end. “It’s going to happen,” she said. “It’s going to happen.”

But the aunts did not wait for her to tell them what. They raced panting up the hill with the children beside them, and all the time the feeling was getting stronger, was going through every cell in their bodies.

They reached the top of the hill — and then they were certain. From all sides it came now, like the breath of the universe. Below them the sea boiled against the northern shore; the mermaids, their troubles forgotten, trod water and stared towards the horizon; the seals made a semicircle, and those who were more than seals, who had been human once, could be seen bowing their heads.

And to make everything certain, from behind the largest of the tombstones with its strange carvings, there now rose a white, mysterious wraith, with rays of light coming from her face, and outstretched hands.

“It’s Ethelgonda,” breathed Aunt Etta, “Ethelgonda the Good!” And everyone fell to their knees, for this was a ghost who had not appeared for well over a hundred years.

The saintly hermit was smiling. She was totally happy; she enfolded them in her blessing.

“Yes,” she said, in a deep and beautiful voice. “You have not been mistaken. What you have heard is most truly the Great Hum.”

Minette and Fabio, who had been spellbound by the apparition, heard the sound of the most heartfelt sobbing beside them and turned their heads. All three of the aunts were crying. Tears streamed down Aunt Etta’s bony cheeks, tears made a path through Aunt Coral’s nourishing night cream, tears dropped on to Aunt Myrtle’s hands as she brought them to her face.

“It is the Hum,” repeated Aunt Etta, in a choking voice.

“It is the Hum,” nodded Aunt Coral.

And Myrtle too said, “It is the Hum.”

“What is—” began Fabio but Minette frowned him down. She felt that this was not the moment for questions.

“So does that mean…?” faltered Aunt Etta, and the children looked at her, amazed. They did not know that this fierce woman could sound so shy and uncertain and humble.

The hermit nodded. “Yes, my dears,” she said in her melodious voice. “It means that this place above all others has been chosen. You have been blessed.”

The aunts rose slowly to their feet. They could still not quite believe what they had heard, yet the Hum now was everywhere, filling the sky, coming up from the earth.

“So he is really coming? After a hundred years?”

The holy woman nodded.

The aunts did not ask when he was coming. They knew that one must not pry into mysteries, but accept them gratefully, and they were right.

“I can say no more,” said the saint. “You must hold yourself in readiness.”

And then she vanished and they were left alone with their miracle.

“You heard what Ethelgonda said. We must hold ourselves in readiness. Readiness means cleaning. Readiness means tidying. Readiness means cooking and scrubbing and fettling. It always has and it always will,” said Aunt Etta.