Chapter 4: A Song I Was Never Taught

In Saltsong, Caleb knows the changing tide and the harbour songs, preferring to contribute from within the Coorls' singing rather than lead others. His family sings beside the house during the evening gathering, continuing without his mother, who died from a fever two winters earlier and was their best singer. A complete but unfamiliar melody rises inside Caleb between verses, and he keeps it back while singing correctly with the rest of the family.

It feels deeply familiar despite his certainty that he has never heard it, and searching through the songs he knows produces no corresponding tune. After the evening singing, he goes to the long quay intending a private attempt, but instead sings the opening clearly in front of the gathered listeners. The listeners become silent, a small bent woman in a travelling cloak weeps near a lamp, and a sailor asks how Caleb learned the song.

Unable to give a truthful explanation, Caleb feels overwhelmed by their attention and retreats to the lower landing, with the sailor's question following him into the dark. Sitting near the boats, he finds that the expected fear never arrives, while the sense of belonging grows and his questions about the melody remain. He quietly hums the opening turn, and a swell rises against the stone, breaking gently at the note where the two musical parts approach most closely.

Two pale foam curves approach across the harbour entrance from retreating mudflat water and incoming sea water, remaining separated by a narrow dark strip before fading. Caleb considers an ordinary explanation for the swell, but comes to believe the tune has passed through him from somewhere larger than himself. When the tide begins falling, he climbs back up and decides to find the melody's source, despite having no way to investigate that night.

He returns toward the house through streets where people sing, quietly continuing the melody as harbour lanterns go out, with his wish to understand still present.