Page 62 of Sea La Vie
Hours tick by, the rain pelting down harder and harder with each passing second. My teeth clatter, barely audible over the sound of the wind. Another shiver works its way through me as I watch all but Paul’s boat and another one I don’t recognize head back in. I’ve done pretty well these past few hours, catching enough fish to make a pretty great payday, even if I don’t win.
Paul crackles through my speaker again, this time his voice with a different air to it. He almost sounds…concerned. “You going in yet, Lainey?”
“No,” I say stubbornly. “I already told you, I’m winning this thing.”
“Water…getting…rough,” Paul says but I only hear every other word, my radio going in and out.
I tug my jacket around me a little tighter as a wind gust whips past me, ocean water spraying my face. For a moment, I’m distracted by the sound of my rod whizzing, and I spend the next few minutes pulling in another doozy of a fish. When I toss it on the ice and finally look back up, there are no other boats to be seen.
“You ready to go home, Midge?” I ask. “I think we’ve got a real shot at winning this.” Midge doesn’t respond and I find her snoring softly in the cabin when I peek in on her. I make my way to the back of the boat, the waves making my footing unsteady, and pull on the anchor rope. It comes up surprisingly easy, and a sinking feeling settles into my stomach. When the end of the rope comes into view, there’s no anchor attached to it. I know I tied the knot securely around the anchor. I even double checked it, didn’t I? I swallow down my fear, sure that I haven’t drifted that far in such a short amount of time. I rush back into the cabin, the waves only becoming stronger and angrier, crashing into the boat repeatedly, and I tap on the GPS screen. After studying it for a quick second, I see that I’m about three miles from where I originally dropped my anchor. I turn the key to start the motor and wait to hear its trusty crank. And wait…and wait some more. I pick up the radio and try to signal in a distress call. It crackles and pops, but no other sounds fill the cabin. I push the cabin door open against the wind, and a quick glance tells me what I don’t want to know. The antenna must have broken with a particularly strong gust of wind.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” I whisper. A wave topples over the side of the boat right at that second, knocking me to the floor and filling the boat with a couple inches of water. With shaky legs, I pull myself back up, only to be knocked down once again. I cough and sputter, trying to swallow my remaining fear instead of any more seawater. Within seconds, tears are running down my face, mixing with the saltwater of the ocean. When I try to stand, my foot gives out and pain shoots through my body. My stomach turns sour when I try to put weight on it. I slide back into the cabin and shut the door firmly behind me while taking a few deep breaths.
“I made a mistake,” I tell Midge through sobs. “I shouldn’t have done this.”
Midge gets up from her makeshift bed and slides to the side of the boat with a whimper. We’re being tossed and shaken around like a Mentos dropped into a liter of soda and I’m waiting for our boat to explode into a million tiny pieces.
I promised my family I was fine going out here alone, but I’m about to be taken from this world in the very same way as my mom. Another sob escapes from my lips. My mom died way too early, but she still had lived so much more of a life than me. She was married, had kids, had a meaningful job that she loved—what have I done? I have made a living making sure everyone’s needs are taken care of and became so focused on them, I lost what I wanted in the process.
Images of the garden I never got around to planting in that sandy, barren lot across town flash around my mind. I’ve wanted nothing more than to fill it with flowers of every variety since I can remember, but I’ve always found an excuse not to because someone else needed my time.
More images flash around of kids running around my legs on the beach, yelling for me, and calling me, “Mommy.” Tears are streaming down my face when I realize I’m missing out on all of this, but the image that passes through my mind that makes me cry the hardest is the image of my dad walking me down the aisle to meet my future husband. When he turns to look at me in this dream or fantasy or premonition or whatever you want to call it, it’s what I’ve known all along.
It’s Tate.
But it’s never going to happen, because I’ve been so busy thinking about how badly I wanted to make my family proud, following in my mother’s footsteps and making sure this business stayed afloat, that I didn’t consider the bigger picture.
I glance down at my mom’s broken watch on my arm, and I swear I can hear her voice as clear as the wind whipping around the boat outside.“They’d be proud of you regardless, honey.”
I try to stand again, knowing I have to get off this boat and back to shore safely. There’s got to besomethingI can do. I take one step forward and pain shoots up my leg again, my vision filling with stars.
“Help, please help,” I beg but instead of a reassuring voice crackling through the speaker, I’m greeted with silence instead. Through blurry eyes, I slide back down to the floor and hold Midge tight.
27
Eden
“Eden,” Henry says as he walks into my store, not bothering with any niceties.
“Good morning, Eden. How are you, Eden? Lovely, to see you, Eden,” I reply, my voice dripping with sarcasm.
“Have you seen Lainey this morning?”
I’m momentarily taken aback that he has strung six words together in my presence without so much as a mumble. I decide to pay attention to the espresso machine, his uncharacteristic behavior catching me off guard. “Not this morning, why?” I pour a freshly brewed shot of espresso into a mug then pour milk into a stainless cup for steaming. When I turn the steamer on, a loud spewing noise fills the air, and I catch a glimpse of Henry frowning. He doesn’t bother to wait for the noise to clear, just crosses over to the other side of the counter and stands pointedly toward me. When I don’t stop steaming my milk, he reaches over the counter and unplugs the machine.
“What the heck?” I whirl around to face him and cross my arms, plastering on the meanest face I can muster.
“Lainey’s missing, Eden. You haven’t seen her?” He shoves a sandy colored lock off his forehead with his hand, and blows out a breath in frustration.
“What do you mean she’s missing?” I set the mug down onto the counter and feel my heartrate pick up.
“Huck and Dad got home from Duke last night. Dad got released to do normal activities, and he went over to Lainey’s this morning to let her know. She wasn’t home, so he checked the docks, and the boat was gone too.”
The bell above the door chimes and Lainey and Henry’s dad bustles in. Thunder booms again, lightning cracking through the sky with it. Drops of rain begin splattering against the window, and the sinking feeling in my stomach intensifies.
“Have you seen Lainey?” Archer asks, scanning the store.
I shake my head as he looks at me, the tiny bit of hope I had left evaporated. “Anything, Henry?”
