Page 56 of The Scars I Bare
“Sorry. It wasn’t meant as an insult. Let me explain,” she offered, turning back toward me to take a seat next to me on the bed.
I wasn’t sure I wanted to hear much more, considering the woman had just compared me to a woodland creature, but I allowed it.
With my arms firmly planted across my chest and a scowl plastered across my face, I listened as she continued.
“A year or so ago, I was out on the patio, enjoying a bit of time to myself. About a glass of wine into my solitude, I noticed a funny-looking bird along the shore. Now, it usually takes several glasses of wine before I start seeing things, so naturally, I sat up from the lounge chair and took notice. It was then that I saw the bit of plastic wrapped around its wing.”
My scowl fell a little as I tried to imagine the poor bird with its impaired wing. I still remembered my mom being so distraught over seeing a photo on TV one night of a bird wrapped in soda can rings that she’d run to the kitchen and begun cutting all of them up before the commercial ended.
“I knew I should have called someone, but then my night would have been ruined by paperwork and animal control. It was just one tiny bird, right?”
My gaze briefly traveled up to the ceiling as I began to rise from the bed. “Look, I’m sure this is a lovely story, but I’ve got to—”
“Sit,” she commanded.
My eyes widened, and I did as I had been told.
“Anyway,” she continued without a hitch, “I marched down toward the beach. Well, I didn’t march really, more of a tiptoe.”
Oh, for the love of God, did this woman have a point?
“When I reached it, the poor thing put up a fight, wanting no help from me. He…or she—I don’t know which honestly—pretty much tried to claw and peck me to death as I did my best at removing the piece of plastic that was keeping him grounded.”
As much as I hated to admit it, I was beginning to see her point.
“I finally had to run back up to the house and grab a towel. The bird tried to peck me to death the entire way there and back. Hindsight, I probably should have left it at the beach and gone by myself, but like I said, I’d had a bit of wine. Anyway, I kept telling it, ‘I’m only trying to help. Just let me help you,’ but it just kept thrashing at me as I wrapped it in the blanket, for both of our sakes. Finally, I was able to loosen the mangled piece of trash and set him free. But, man, he was a fighter.”
“And you think I’m this bird? Dean and me?”
She nodded. “Oh, I know you are. You walk around here, licking those wounds of yours, refusing help when you need it.”
“Dean doesn’t,” I argued, seeing an obvious flaw in her logic. “In fact, he’s just like you, always pointing out how little help I take.”
She pressed her lips together. “And have you seen Dean take any since you moved here? The man with a company his brother runs? The man who’s been wandering around, doing nothing, for three years? Do you think we haven’t offered to help him a hundred times over?”
“He’s helping Jake,” I said.
“He’s helping you,” she pressed.
I swallowed hard. “And so, you think I’ve come here to, what? Save him? You’re right; I am wounded. So deep, sometimes, I wonder if I’ll ever recover. That’s why I’m so scared to start anything with Dean. I can’t open myself up to another person. Dean might be searching for his broken pieces on this island, but I’m just looking for a new start. A new beginning with Lizzie. Besides, I’ve been here for only two weeks,” I added. Like an irate child, I wrapped my arms around my middle.
“Why Ocracoke?” she suddenly asked, her change in subject nearly startling me.
“What?”
“Of all the places in all the world, why here?”
“I, uh,” I fumbled for a moment before answering, “I liked the idea of being remote. Far away from everything. I knew Blake would never come to a place like this.”
“And who told you about Ocracoke?”
I sucked in a breath. “Dean.”
Her eyebrow arched, and then she once again made her way to the closet, picking out a floral summer dress. She neatly set it down on the bed. “Dean? The handsome patient who happened to fall in love with you right before your marriage came crashing down around you? How’s that for coincidence? There’s nothing wrong with a new beginning, Cora,” she said. “Just don’t close yourself off to the possibility of whom it might include.”
She didn’t say another word. She simply sauntered out of the room, leaving me in a sort of daze.
I’d never really considered Dean’s part in my move to Ocracoke. Sure, he’d mentioned his hometown when we talked during his stay in the hospital, but I’d heard of it before. Everyone had. You couldn’t live in Virginia or anywhere near it without knowing of the Outer Banks and the tiny little island at the end.
