Page 27 of Totally Wrecked
I fain would have knelt before.
There was a flower I pluck’d in my dreams,
Fragrant and fair to see;
Oh, would I had never awoke and found
Such bloom not here for me.
There was a harp, whose magic tone,
Echoed my faintest words
But Destiny’s hand, with a ruthless touch,
Hath rent the golden chords.”
Killian turns and gives me a rueful smile. “That’s all, I’ve a lot more to learn.”
He pronounces it “larn” His Irish accent was way thicker while he was reciting.
“It’s lovely,” I tell him, “and you’re right. It’s sad—I wonder why I’ve never heard of her.”
“Because she was a woman from the 1800s, and self-educated. She was incredible, though. Learned ten different languages by the age of eighteen!”
“Good gravy!”
Killian laughs. “You don’t use curse words do you? If you want to be believable as Brooke, you might want to start getting a potty mouth. Your sister-”
“-swears like a sailor.” I interrupt. “I hadn’t thought of that. Working with kids has conditioned me to never use a cuss word.”
“Daze, have you taken my fucking sneakers?” My sister asks as she comes storming into my bedroom. I watch her kneel on the floor and look under my bed. “FUCKING GODDAMN IT!”
“Why would you think I have them?”
Is she going to the gym again? She already spent three hours there this morning. I know the shoes she’s looking for; they’re thin high tops that she uses for boxing. In a way, I wish I had hidden them. In the last few months Brooke has been even more fitness obsessed than usual.
“Shit, fuck, mother-fucker.”
“Wookie, take a chill-pill.”
Brooke gets off the floor and puts her hands on her hips. “Daze, stop saying things like chill-pill, it makes you sound like Mom,” she scoffs.
I’d rather sound like Mom than Dad, but I don’t tell her that. Instead, I pat the bed. “Wanna watch the Star Trek marathon tonight?”
“No! Shit, Daze, you may not care about the state of your body, but I haven’t given up yet.” She storms out the door and I can hear her hollering at Mom. “Where the fuck are my boxing shoes?”
Somewhere along the way of being Brooke’s twin, my drive and ambition just fizzled into nothing. The only aspiration I have… is to not be like my sister. And that’s real sad. I can’t wait to be fully adult, so I can just go off and quietly get on with a boring, bland life, away from all her drama.
Killian and I sit in silence for a while, I lean against his shoulder and enjoy the feeling of his body pressing back into mine. Without the engine, it’s incredibly quiet. I look out to sea. “Do you know why the engine stopped?”
“No, but I wouldn’t worry. They know what they are doing.”
A voice calls out across the boat, and Leander is waving in our direction. “You guys want a beer?” he asks.
Killian raises a thumb, then I do the same. As Leander turns back into the galley, Killian holds my hand for a moment.
“You’re going to be fine, Daisy,” he murmurs. “A couple of weeks and this will all be over. I have to warn you, though, Harvey did mention that he will be presenting the show from the same location as you. But I did drop a hint in his ear that people were starting to gossip about Brooke and him, and he needed to cool it.”
