Up There: Voyage 2—Melusine
Black Jack, Angie, and Seph read Jack's grandfather's message and learn more about the sea serpent Melusine.
Up There: Voyage 2—Melusine
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Voyage 2—Melusine
John continued the story that summer. He was now seven years old, and would be starting second grade in the fall.
Black Jack sailed northeast as quickly as the Sea-Devil could fly. At the end of a day of sailing away from Snake island, he fetched his uncle’s chest up on deck and took out the marked paper.
With two small pops, Angie and Seph appeared on his shoulder. They looked eagerly at the paper.
“Can you read it?” Angie asked.
“I think so,” Jack answered. “I think I’ve heard of this. It’s called pigpen cipher, and pirates sometimes used it for messages.”
“But can you READ it, like NOW?” Seph asked.
“If it’s pigpen, I will be able to. I have a book at home in Rye that explains it. Or there will be one in the library.”
“We have to sail all the way to Rye to read this message!” wailed the two sisters together.
“That’ll take months,” groused Seph.
“I have a question for you two,” Jack said. “Can you make yourselves useful?”
“How?” asked Seph, suspiciously.
“Can you find the Snake, then come back and tell me where It is?”
“We can do that!” said Angie. She flew up a bit, and vanished with a pop. A few seconds later she reappeared and said, “I’ve just been to Snake Island. I didn’t see the Snake there.”
“You went all the way to Snake Island and back in ten seconds?” Jack asked, skeptically.
“Yeah. Duh,” said Seph. “She’s an angel. She can appear anywhere in a second.”
“Can you do that, too?” Jack asked her.
“Anything Angie can do, I can do better,” Seph answered.
Angie stuck her tongue out at Seph. “Can’t!” she said.
“Can too,” answered Seph.
Angie waved her hand and a small lyre appeared in it. She played a brief tune.
Seph countered with a brief flute solo.
They looked expectantly at Jack.
“Can you two find the Snake and tell me where it is and what it’s doing?”
Angie vanished with a pop. Seph winked at Jack and vanished with a whistle.
Jack looked at the message:
He sat down with a notebook and a pencil. He tried to remember how the pigpen cipher worked. An hour later he had worked it out.
Jonathan Murphy’s message:
I, Jonathan Murphy, write this message. Together my daughter Audrey and I sailed in our schooner the J&A to this island. I have named it Snake Island, after the huge sea snake that lives in the waters around it.
The snake calls herself Melusine. She speaks English. She herself told me her name. She trapped us here, guarding the opening in the barrier reef and not allowing us to depart until we did her a favor. She is easily big enough to swallow one of us and threatened to do just that if we tried to sail away.
Snakes of her type reproduce by laying eggs. Melusine doesn’t look after the egg or the young hatchling. In fact, the eggs must be taken away from the mother before they hatch. Melusine didn’t explain why, but that was why she trapped us. She wanted us to take her egg away to some far, secret place, where she would not know how to find it. Having no real choice we agreed.
Melusine immediately became pregnant. A few weeks later she laid the egg, which Audrey named Ananta. It was large, about a foot wide, and leathery. She gave it to Audrey to take away. Audrey sailed away on the J&A. Melusine required that I stay here on Snake Island as a hostage for Audrey’s fulfillment of her promise. We proposed at first that I take the egg, but Melusine would not allow this. She has no trust in men. Besides, she thought a woman would better care for the egg, perhaps seeing it as like a child of her own. Audrey left me fishing and hunting gear and some other provisions. With these and help from Melusine, who sometimes hunted for me, I easily survived the year until Audrey’s return. Audrey had taken the egg and the small snake that hatched from it to an uninhabited South Pacific Island, Henderson, at 24° 22′ S latitude, 128° 19′ West longitude.
We told Melusine that Ananta had hatched and had been transported away. As she had asked us, we kept the location secret from her. I do not know exactly where on Henderson Audrey released Ananta. If she grows as large as Melusine, she will not be hard to find.
I do not think that Melusine can read. To be safe, I am writing this explanation in pigpen, which I feel certain she will not be able to decipher.
Black Jack has just finished this when Angie and Seph reappeared.
“Did you find her?” Jack asked.
“Her?” said Angie. “You think it’s a girl snake?”
“Well, it could be,” said Seph. “But the question is how Black Jack knows.”
“I’ll explain later,” he answered. “Did you find her?”
“Yeah, of course,” said Angie.
“Where is she?” Jack asked.
“You’ll find out very soon!” said Seph. “She’s right behind us. Isn’t this exciting?”
Angie said, “There she is, now!”
Looking astern, Jack saw a snaky wake heading straight towards them. Seconds later, Melusine’s enormous head rose from the water.
Jack drew his gun and fired a warning shot into the air.
“Truce! Truce!” she called. “I have not come to fight you. I was wrong to threaten you.”
“You are Melusine, aren’t you?” Jack called.
“Melusine!” Angie piped up
“Cool name!” Seph added.
“Yes. I am Melusine,” she said. “Are you Audrey Murphy’s son?”
“I am,” said Black Jack.
“Then your mother and grandfather did me a favor, and I am grateful. How did you learn my name?”
“My grandfather left a message on your island that explains about you and your daughter.”
“Ooo… she has a daughter?” Angie squeaked.
“So exciting!” Seph added.
“Does he say where she is?” Melusine asked. “Don’t tell me—just answer yes or no.”
“Yes, he does,” Jack answered.
“You mustn’t tell me!” sqid Melusine. “And, if you visit her, you mustn’t tell her where I am.”
“Why not?” aked jack.
“We fight,” said Melusine. “It’s very sad, but we sea serpents always fight when we meet. I can tell you now that I don’t want to fight my daughter. But if she and I ever meet, we won’t be able to hold back. That’s why there are so few of us. Will you look for my daughter?”
Angie said, “Hey Jack! I wanna find Melusine’s daughter.”
Seph added, “She’s kind of your sister, too, you know. Your mother took care of her when she hatched.”
“Yes, Melusine,” Jack said, “I will look for your daughter.”
“Thank you, Black Jack O’Toole. If we don’t meet again, I wish you well.”
#
Another year passed. John was now eight. He would be starting third grade in the fall. On July first the O’Tooles moved into the Dupont home for the summer. John checked the attic first thing. Sure enough, the mystery readers had added to the story.
“Ooo… Daughter sea serpents fight with their mothers! We know what that’s like,” said Angie.
“Yeah, and they can’t just escape to the attic when Mom is angry! Must be tough,” Seph answered.
“What about fathers? Isn’t there a father snake?” Angie asked.
“I don’t think so,” Seph answered. “Melusine never mentioned it. Some animals don’t have to have fathers.”
“Mothers are always necessary, though,” Angie said. “Girls are more important than boys.”
They looked speculatively at Jack, to see how he would respond to this.
He laughed at them and said, “You’re completely right! Girls are better and more important than boys in every possible way.”
“Is she gone?” Angie asked.
Angie and Seph vanished with the usual pop, pop. They came back a few seconds later. “Yup, Melusine is swimming back to Snake Island,” said Angie.
“Hey, lemme see that message!” Seph commanded Jack.
Jack obediently set the deciphered message down where she could read it. Angie read over her shoulder.
“Ananta!” said Angie.
“Did you notice how sneaky he was?” Angie said. “He sent us away to find Melusine, even though he knew how to read pigpen.”
“It’s like he doesn’t trust us!” Seph added.
“No,” said Jack. “I really wanted to know where she was. Besides, I wasn’t sure I could remember how to read pigpen until I tried. I just needed a little quiet time to think about it.”
“‘Quiet time’” Seph said, making little air quotes with her fingers.
“Well, you two do chatter on sometimes,” Jack said.
They looked at him stonily.
“Not that there’s anything wrong with that!” he added hastily.
The stony looks did not abate.
“So, what do you think, Angie?” said Seph. “Will strong silent Jack visit Ananta?”
“We should see if we can find her ourselves,” said Angie. “We don’t need him.”
“Where is Henderson, anyway?” said Seph.
“I have no idea. Do you know what those latitude and longitude numbers mean?” answered Angie.
“Nope,” said Seph.
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Afterword
Pigpen cipher is a real cipher that was used by pirates and masons.
The cover image is a phase portrait of f(z):
A phase portrait is a visualization of a complex function introduced by Elias Wegert in Visual Complex Functions: An Introduction with Phase Portraits.
beautiful and mysterious! nice read
Excellent storytelling!
I loved the lyre and flute competition! 𓏢🪈💯