Silken Tide Page 9

  “Mark, wait. At least let me drive you back.”

  “Don’t worry about it. I’ll run.”

  “But, it’s a long way!”

  As he ran toward the steep path, he took a quick glance at Jessica over his shoulder. A look of sheer frustration crossed her face and she slapped the surface of the water. Most guys would have called him crazy for leaving a beautiful, scantily clad woman behind. But he needed to get away before whatever happened in that water had a chance to catch up with him.

  He climbed the steep incline, using any rock or stray root to help him up. By the time he crested the top of the hill, his arms and legs were trembling with fatigue. For a split second, he considered leaving his sneakers and shorts behind, but then thought better of it. What a sight he would be running down the roadway in wet, white underwear. He snatched his shoes and shorts, putting them back on as quickly as his shaking limbs would allow. After he dressed, he turned to the hill that he and Jessica ascended. Now faced with a slippery decline, Mark did his best to keep his feet from losing their grip on the slick, moss-covered rocks. Once he reached the forest floor, he ran as fast as he could past the truck that brought him to that very place. Once a green and glowing entrance to a romantic interlude, the woods now appeared to be a dark and menacing place. The branches that once welcomed him with open arms seemed to reach out and scratch his skin. Even though he wore shoes, the rocks protruding from the forest floor hurt his feet as he ran over them. Sweat poured from his glands despite the refreshing swim he had taken just minutes ago.

  Mark was relieved once he found his way from the woods onto the level ground of the roadway. But as if nature were trying to attack him from every angle, the sky opened up and rain pelted his naked torso. But nothing was going to stop him. His lungs felt like they would burst at any moment. Even though his muscles ached in protest, he pushed his legs further and pumped his arms harder. As he fought to keep moving, the memory of Jessica’s body against his own and the soft kiss of her lips attempted to slow his feet to a jog. He shook his head in defiance and pushed forward with every morsel of strength in his body.

  Mark changed course from the road and onto a cleared path that edged the sea. He couldn’t risk Jessica coming up from behind him and luring him back into her truck. His feet pounded the soaked pathway, spraying mud all over his legs. But the path he was on did not offer him any relief either. As if they were waiting for the perfect opportunity, the whispers seemed to ride on the mist from the sea and land in Mark’s path. Seeming to gather strength from Mark’s weakened condition, the whispers now had the ability to reach out and touch him. Mark felt like he was running through a crowd. They nipped at his ears and landed on his bare shoulders. When he covered his ears he could feel them trying to pry his hands away. Just when he thought his feet would not carry him any farther, the grassy hill leading to his father’s house came upon him. The rain had let up, but the whispers lingered heavily in the air. As he stumbled up the hill, the house came into view and he spotted his father sitting on the steps of the porch. Suddenly the whispers subsided, as if they had spotted his father and ran to hide. Mark didn’t care why they ceased, he was just glad they did.

  Once Mark was in front of his father’s house, he bent forward and rested his hands on his knees. His shoulders rose and fell with every breath. After a few moments, he wiped his forehead with the back of his hand and managed to stand upright. His father sat with his forearms resting on his knees, a low-ball glass dangling from one of his hands. A bottle of Jack Daniel’s sat next to him on the step, along with an empty glass. His father had obviously been waiting for him, something Mark found equally comforting and unnerving.

  “Hey, Dad.” Mark put his hands on his hips, still trying to recoup his breath.

  His father didn’t look at him, rather his gaze seemed to be focused on the ocean just beyond the property. Mark stood there for what felt like an eternity. When his father still had not addressed him, he decided to move past him into the house. As he put his foot on the first step, his father broke his silence.

  “I hear it too, son. Every day. Every night.”

  “Hear what?” Mark’s voice cracked.

  “The voices from the deep. And they won’t stop until they get what they want.”

  Chapter 15

  “One day, she’ll feed you. The next, she’ll leave you to starve.” His father took a drink of his whiskey.

  “Who?” Mark sat gently next to his father on the step, as if the wood beneath him would cave in at any moment.

  His father motioned with his index finger toward the water while still holding his tumbler of whiskey. It only took Mark a moment to realize that he was talking about the ocean. Then, his father continued.

  “She gives life. She takes it away. She’ll make you fall head over heels in love. Then, she’ll turn around and break your heart.”

  Mark sat and considered that both he and his father were insane. A father and son driven mad by the sea. However, Mark had never heard him speak of any mental illness in the family. Maybe his father had too much to drink and he was letting the whiskey do the talking. But, how would he know about the whispers that taunted Mark in his sleep and during his waking hours? Crazy or not, Mark needed to know more. His father sat in silence for several minutes. Just as Mark was about to stand up and dismiss the entire conversation as the ramblings of a drunken man, his father grabbed him by the arm and pulled him back down to the step.

  “I was young and reckless,” his father began. “I wasn’t watching what I was doing. I was just trying to pull as many pots as I could that day. When I went to throw my last cage into the water, the rope got tangled up around my foot and over the edge of the boat I went. Can you believe that?”

  His father chuckled as if he had told a joke. He reached down for the bottle beside him and refilled his glass. Then, he filled the empty glass and handed it to Mark. Mark didn’t drink whiskey, but he didn’t dare refuse his offer. After his father took a gulp from his glass, he wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and continued.

  “Over the side I went and straight down with my cage. The more I tried to break loose of that rope, the more I got tangled. Just when I thought I had met my end, someone, something freed me. I must have lost consciousness at some point, but when I woke up I was back up on the deck and there was this beautiful face looking down at me. Eyes like I’d never seen before. Deep like the ocean. She was marvelous. Long, black hair and fair skin. It didn’t make any sense. How did a woman get on my boat? Was I dreaming? When I got a better look at her, I realized she wasn’t what I thought at all.

  “Yes, she had the face of a beautiful woman. But the rest of her wasn’t human. I thought for a minute, ‘Man, that salt water is making you crazy.’ But it was right in front of me. There was no denying it. She was half seal. When I jumped to my feet she startled and tried to move to the edge of the boat to jump off. But she had a cut on her back flipper and couldn’t make it. She must have been hurt trying to rescue me. So, I brought her home with me that night. I mean, I didn’t know what else to do with her. I wasn’t about to throw her over the edge of my boat. She would’ve never survived with a wound like that.

  “As soon as we got home, I drew a warm bath for her and went to get my first-aid kit. When I returned to the bathroom, I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me again. She was already in the tub, but her sealskin was in a pile in the middle of the bathroom floor! Then, I noticed the deep gash on her leg. I got down on my knees and helped sponge her off. I picked her up from the tub and set her on a towel. When I was finished bandaging her leg, I looked up at her. She had a tender look in her eyes and she touched my face. I had been so lonely for so long. The sea was my life. I didn’t realize there was anything missing until she looked at me like that. We…”

  His voice trailed off for a moment. As if finishing his story depended on the liquid gold that was in the bottle next to him, he poured himself another glass of whiskey.

  “
When I woke in the morning, she was lying next to me. I couldn’t take my eyes off her. It was like God had sent this ethereal creature just for me. I didn’t even know what her name was. When I asked her, she told me that she didn’t have one. So I gave her the first name that came to mind. From that point on she was my Meredith.”

  Mark gasped and the blood drained from his face. His father was talking about his mother. Before Mark could ask any questions his father continued.

  “While I nursed her back to health, I came to the realization that she could not return to the sea without her sealskin. I had come to love her so much. I couldn’t bear the thought of her returning to the sea. So, I did the unthinkable. I hid the skin under a floorboard in the house. She relentlessly looked for it for a little while. But eventually, gave up the search.

  “Then, you came. She was an excellent mother. Gentle and sweet. But I couldn’t help but notice the way she would longingly stare out of the window of the house at the ocean. Or every time we would go the beach as a family, it seemed like she would go into a trance looking out at the sea. Tears would well up in her eyes. God, the guilt was tearing me apart.

  “One day after fishing, I came home to find her at the edge of the property. She was lying on her stomach, her chin propped on her hands. I ran to her and looked over the edge. I’ll tell you, I had never seen anything like it in my life. If there was one seal, there were hundreds. They all gathered at the bottom of the overhang. While a word did not come out of her mouth, I knew that she was communicating with them. The way she smiled and tilted her head from side to side. I think the seals spotted me and they got scared. When they swam away, she sat upright. She reached out to them, like she was trying to persuade them not to go. But it was in vain. They disappeared into the waves. Her hands fell into her lap and she began to sob. It was ruining me as a man to see someone I loved so much be torn apart day after day. Night after night. So, I made a decision.

  “It was that night that I retrieved the skin from the floorboard. I set it on the kitchen table. Her eyes widened as she looked between the skin and me. Her fingers wiggled at her side as if it took everything in her not to grab it and disappear into the night. It was going to pain me to lose her, but I knew my broken heart would eventually mend. But if I lost you, son, that would have destroyed me. There would be no bouncing back from that. So, I made her make me a promise.”

  “Promise what?” Mark’s voice came out as a whisper.

  “Promise me that if she decided to go back to the sea that she would not take you with her. I swore she was going to wear a path on the floorboards the way she paced the kitchen and bit her nails. It wasn’t going to be an easy decision for her. But, it was a deal that I was not willing to negotiate any further.

  “I rose early in the morning to find that Meredith wasn’t next to me. There was no sign of her anywhere. I jumped out of bed and immediately went to your room. There you were in your bed, sound asleep. I ran to the kitchen. The screen door was left open. The skin was gone. She was gone. She had made her decision. I had prayed that she wouldn’t leave. But her wild side had roots in her soul. And they ran deep, deeper in her veins than her love for me. She couldn’t be tamed.

  “She kept good on her promise. Every now and then when you visited the ocean as a child, I would catch a glimpse of her sneaking a look at you. But as soon as our eyes would meet, she would disappear into the depths of the sea. I should have known that she would come looking for you. No mother would be able to keep away from her child for long. I’m amazed that it took this long. And, she brought an arsenal with her, didn’t she? Trust me, it’s not a coincidence that we aren’t catching any lobster.”

  Mark was stunned. He couldn’t question the validity of what his father was telling him. His father wasn’t one for fabricating stories. The collision course of events that had been Mark’s life now seemed to line up neatly in a row.

  “Why didn’t you tell me this before?” Mark asked.

  “I was scared and selfish. It was just easier for me to come up with the story of a passing tourist than admit to how cruel I was to her. How selfish my love was. For both you and her.”

  “And why are you telling me now?”

  “You deserve an explanation. And my guilt-laden soul deserves some reprieve.”

  Mark looked down at his hands and examined the lines that ran across his palms. Who was he? What was he? If this wasn’t an identity crisis, Mark didn’t know what it was. Was circumstance responsible for his journey in life thus far? Or should he shift the blame to the wild blood coursing through his veins, the very part of him that was his mother? Or was a power much larger than his understanding at the wheel the whole time?

  He wondered how many times love had passed him by, simply because he was trying to avoid the heartbreak that he had seen in his father’s eyes day after day. How many times had his soul mate passed him on the busy streets of New York because Mark feared abandonment? How many times had he run up a cliff and down the road in the pouring rain to avoid being hurt? He could no longer back up the creed that he lived by for so many years. The very foundation that he had built his value for personal relationships on began to crumble before his eyes. There was no saving it. The waves were coming. The waves were swallowing it whole.

  Mark’s shock turned to anger in an instant. He stood up from the steps and walked onto the grass. Sprays of gold sparkled against the impending night sky as Mark threw his whiskey glass into the yard.

  “After all this time? After all this fucking time!” Mark had never cursed in front of his father before.

  His father didn’t respond, but his gaze was unwavering from Mark.

  “You know what I think? I think this has more to do with you not catching any lobsters than it does with you trying to make things right.”

  “That’s not true, Mark.”

  “Sure it is! All this time I was thinking she left you for another man. I couldn’t trust…” Mark dragged his hands over his face.

  “I’ve seen the way you look at her. I’ve seen the way you are when you’re around her.” His father’s voice was strong and steady.

  “What the hell are you talking about now?”

  “I’m talking about you and Jessica.”

  “That’s none of your business.” Mark tried to move past his father into the house. This time, his father stood up and met him eye to eye on the bottom step of the porch.

  “It’s not an accident that you haven’t let a woman in. I am pleading with you, Mark. Please don’t let my mistakes determine your future.”

  “Oh, yeah? And what the hell do I do about all of that?” Mark pointed toward the raging sea at the edge of the property.

  “I don’t have an answer for that. I guess we’ll have to ride the storm out.”

  “You said they aren’t going to stop until I join them. So, is this my fate? Hearing voices every day? Not sleeping through the night? No! I make my own decisions. My fate is my own! Know what? I’m going to take care of this right now!” Mark stepped down from the porch.

  “Mark, wait a minute.” His father grabbed his arm, but Mark shook it away.

  He stormed toward the overhang. The wind blew in his face and the salty mist from the ocean landed on his skin. The sea raged beneath him. He screamed. He screamed as loud as his voice would allow.

  “Hey! I know you’re out there and I know you’re listening! You’ve made your damned decision! Now, I’m making mine. I’m not going! I don’t care if you whisper. I don’t care if you scream! Do you hear me? I’m not going out there!”

  He turned and made his way back to the house. Mark’s shoulder bumped his father’s as he marched past him. “See you in the morning.”

  Chapter 16

  The next four days aboard Meredith were torturous. They caught nothing. Not one single lobster. Day after day, Mark prayed that he would see some sign of the clawed crustaceans. Unfortunately, all of the praying in Silk Cove didn’t produce a plentiful pot. Mark looked on w
hile Jeremy plucked the traps from the ocean and every time they were pulled aboard they were empty. But that didn’t stop Jeremy’s valiant efforts to ensure a good day of fishing. He checked and rechecked each trap before slinging it to Mark to once again bait the cage in vain. Mark could see the confusion in Jeremy’s eyes. He could feel his frustration in the way he pitched the traps to be baited.

  The agony of not catching any lobster wasn’t limited to those aboard the boat either. Word traveled quickly of his father’s misfortune. It washed up onto the shores of Silk Cove and into the ears of the other fishermen. As if making eye contact with Mark or his father would bring them bad luck, they diverted their gaze as they passed on the piers every morning. Mark heard rumors that his father was losing his catch due to Mark’s inexperience and mistakes that were being made. But, they didn’t know the whole story. No one did except for Mark and his father.

  As they pulled the last empty trap from the ocean that day, Mark sat down on the deck with his back against the wheelhouse. His head hung low as he rested his forearms on his knees. He could hear Jeremy mumbling and pacing the boat. Mark tried to be angry with his father, but now he just felt like a thorn in his father’s side. When Mark looked up, he found his father glaring at the ocean with his arms crossed. His stare was unwavering as if he were having a spat with the sea, something that Mark now found to be natural. Jeremy moved around Mark’s father as if he were a permanent fixture of the boat. Finally, his pacing came to rest at the far end of the vessel.

  “Maybe it’s the damn seals.” Jeremy picked up a lump of leftover bait from the deck and flung it into the ocean.

  “What did you say?” Mark’s father’s posture tensed.

  “The seals! Maybe they’re eating them all!”

  “Nah. There’s no damage to the traps.” Mark’s father shook his head. He glanced at Mark as he moved past him to the wheelhouse. Mark had seen that look before while growing up and it meant one thing: Be quiet.