Bluedawn (A Watermagic Novel, #2) (2 page)

“It’s almost dinner time. I thought I’d take
you guys to that fish and chips restaurant by the wharf.”

Mom’s blue eyes lit up. She loved seafood,
especially raw. “That sounds fantastic.” She blushed a little.

Dad ran his fingers through his brown shaggy
hair. “I’ll get the car ready.” His voice sounded a little
grumpy.

“Why don’t we find some wood for the fire pit
so we don’t have to get it later?” I suggested to Mom.

She laughed. “Hope I don’t break a nail.”

I rolled my eyes. “If you do, I’ll super glue
it back on.” My voice was sarcastic.

“Oh, please,” she snorted as she examined the
glitter polish on her naturally long nails.

After we walked outside and examined the
campsite, Dad unhitched the car, while Mom and I gathered sticks
and branches in the forest behind the campsite for the fire pit.
Even though it was still light outside, the woods were dim and
eerie. There were some used cigarette butts on the ground and a
man’s wallet.

My eyes widened. “Look at this.” I motioned
Mom over to me.

She sort of sauntered over with her tote bag
filled with sticks. “What is it,
ch
é
rie
?” She
looked distracted. Her eyes were directed upwards looking into the
high reaches of an oak tree.

“No not up there—here.” I pointed at the
ground.

Glancing down, she picked up the wallet
absent mindedly. “A man’s wallet, Hailes. What’s the big deal? You
look frightened.”

I bit the side of my cheek. “It just looks
like someone was hanging around in here and left in a rush.”

She opened the wallet and looked through it.
Her eyes narrowed. “Fifty four dollars and a golf pass.”

“Is there an I.D.?”

“No.” She shook her head and glanced around.
“Look over there.”

I followed the direction of her pointer
finger to a boulder several feet away. “Oh!”

We both walked over to the large rock.

“A Peter Segal bikini top!” Mom picked a
garment up off the boulder by her nail. Her jaw was clenched and
her nostrils flared.

“There’s blood on it,” I said in a
whisper.

She threw the thing down as if grossed
out.

I examined the boulder more closely and saw
wet blood that had splattered against the other side of the
rock.

“I’m sure it’s nothing,” Mom mumbled as she
examined it. “Some girl probably just had her period.”

I scoffed and then shook my head. “And
splattered it against a rock?”

“Did you hear that?” I asked suddenly.

Her eyes widened. “What?”

My body tensed. “Whispers.” I looked around
through the trees.

“No. I didn’t hear anything.” Her thoughts
seemed distant. And then in the dim light of the forest she started
to sing softly. It was a gentle lullaby and under the circumstances
totally out of place. Though I could never figure her out entirely,
I think she sang like that to calm herself or maybe to calm me.

Even though I was used to her unusual
behaviors, I found myself lost in her melody. The sounds were so
soft and entrancing. For a moment, I felt like I was floating in
the clouds.

When she stopped singing, I felt suddenly
irritated. “Let’s go,” I snapped as I pulled Mom by the arm.

She looked agitated now too as I led her
through the trees back to the camp.

Dad turned to us with a wrench in his hand.
“The car is ready to go,” he said in a proud voice. A wind coming
off the ocean was blowing through his shaggy brown hair.

“We found a wallet in the woods and Hailey is
going bonkers,” Mom sang the words teasingly.

“Where’s the money?” Dad chuckled as he
walked over to the picnic table to set his wrench down.

Now Mom smiled playfully. “There was fifty
four dollars in it.” Her hand was on one hip.

Then a thought struck me. “Where is it?” I
demanded as I glanced at the tote bag of sticks that rested over
her shoulder.

“Oops,” she rolled her eyes. “I dropped
it.”

I got the feeling she left it in the forest
on purpose.

“We could use that money for dinner,” Dad
joked. “Especially with the way you eat, Jo.”

I ignored his play. “We should at least
return it to the park ranger,” I said sternly. “Somebody could be
looking for it. Maybe even the police.”

“I’ll go back and get it,” Mom suggested.

My eyes widened. “No way!”

Dad was shaking his head now. “Women and
their dramatics.” He liked to play the chauvinist to get us riled.
But this time we hardly paid attention. “I’ll get it.”

“No, Dad. Stay here.” I looked at him, but he
was already stepping into the woods.

I chased after him. “It’s over by that
boulder,” I said pointing through the trees.

“I don’t see anything,” He murmured as he
looked around on the ground.

“That’s strange. It’s not here.” I looked
over by the rock. “There was a bikini top here too, but it’s gone.”
Dirt covered the blood on the boulder now as if someone had taken a
handful from the ground and thrown it against the wetness to hide
the mess.

I walked back over to where we saw the
cigarette butts, but they were gone too. “This is so weird,
Dad.”

“What are you upset about?” he asked.

“It’s nothing.” I sighed. “Let’s get out of
here.”

But just as we turned to leave, I heard the
sounds of footsteps advancing toward us, crunching the fallen
leaves upon the ground with every step. “Hey, there,” a masculine
voice called through the trees.

Dad and I stopped and turned to look. The
three boys I saw at the market were approaching through a cluster
of tall pines.

CHAPTER TWO

Today a new sun rises for
me; everything lives, everything is animated, everything seems to
speak to me of my passion, everything invites me to cherish
it.
–NINON DE L’ENCLOS

When I saw the dark haired boy, my face
instantly turned red again. Without even saying anything to Dad I
ran out of the forest. My heart was beating way too fast.
Perspiration beaded on my forehead.

I heard Dad talking with the boys from a
distance, but I couldn’t make out what they were saying. Mom
grabbed me by the arm and startled me. I turned to her.

“Did you get the wallet?” she asked. Her eyes
narrowed.

I didn’t want her to notice how distressed I
was, so I acted detached. “No. We couldn’t find it.” All I could
think about now was that boy and what he was doing in the forest. I
was concerned about Dad. As much as I tried, I still couldn’t
figure out why he looked so familiar to me.

I strained my ears trying to hear the distant
conversation. It sounded peaceful enough. If I ran back into the
woods, I would just make the situation worse.

“What’s Jim doing?” She walked over to the
fire pit and began arranging the sticks and branches we had
gathered in the forest.

I walked up beside her and joined in to help.
“He’s talking to some kids.”

“Busy forest,” she laughed.

I clenched my teeth. “I’m going to go get the
park ranger,” I said suddenly.

“Why?” she jutted her chin back in
surprise.

But before I could leave, Dad walked back
through the trees. “What happened to you, Hailes? You looked
terrified in there and then you ran away.”

Embarrassed, I simply shrugged his question
off. “You guys ready to get dinner?” I was trying to keep my
breathing steady.

“I’m starved,” Mom said dramatically.

Dad and I looked at each other and rolled our
eyes. “Figures,” we blurted out in unison.

***

As we walked into the restaurant, I delighted
in the warm salty scents and the quaint feel. It overlooked the
waterfront. And if you listened carefully, you could hear the
sounds of the ocean through the opened French doors that led out to
a small deck.

We stayed inside though and opted for a table
beside the big windows with excellent views. I appreciated looking
out at the wharf that was lined with boats of different varieties.
But my attention was mostly drawn to some fishermen who were
unloading a net of live fish into a big bin while calling out
directions to each other.

An anxious feeling came over me when I
noticed three teenage girls in bikinis with long legs and oddly
mesmerizing looks pulled themselves out of the ocean onto the
docks. They must have swum over from the reefs. One fisherman
dropped the net when he saw them. He stood there with a scowl on
his bearded face and fixated on their wet bodies and long hair that
dripped on the wood planks.

The French doors slammed shut and I jerked my
head up off of my hand where my elbow rested on the table. Mom and
Dad were still looking at their menus while we waited for the
waitress to take our orders. With the doors shut, the sounds on the
wharf were even more distant and muffled through the glass, but I
got the impression that the bearded man’s mates were reprimanding
him now for holding them up.

The man seemed to ignore them and walked up
to the girls. It appeared as if he conversed with them briefly, but
they seemed to brush him off, laughing with each other, and then
strolling away arrogantly toward the beach.

“Hello there,” the waitress said interrupting
my thoughts as she walked up to our table. “My name is Katie.” My
attention shifted in irritation from the girls and the fishermen to
our server as the young woman twisted a strand of her strawberry
blond hair from her ponytail while reading off a list of
specials.

Dad ordered salmon on a bed of rice. I
ordered clam chowder. But, Mom ordered a steak and ten different
types of fish and shellfish with dipping sauces. She insisted that
the waitress only serve the meat and seafood raw.

“I don’t think we can do that,” Katie
responded nervously. “You could get parasites from uncooked fish
and bacteria from raw meat.”

My mother’s eyes widened. “Isn’t it
fresh?”

“Oh, yes. The freshest. Never frozen.” She
blinked several times.

“Well, then, it should be fine.” Mom stared
at her for a long moment eye to eye until the girl was
uncomfortable and looked away.

“Okay.” The waitress shrugged as she wrote
the order down.

My eyes followed Katie as she walked away to
the kitchen. “What were you talking to those boys about?” I asked
Dad, trying to not sound too interested.

He was trying to take the paper off his
straw. “You mean those punks in the forest?”

I half smiled. “Yeah, those guys.”

“They were drilling me.” He pulled the paper
off and stuck the straw in his cola.

I kept waiting for him to continue, but he
retained slurping away at his drink. Annoyed that he wasn’t
forthcoming, I looked over at Mom. She was staring out at the ocean
as if lost in thought. The teenage girls were gone and the
fishermen were closing up for the night. “What were they drilling
you on?” I encouraged Dad to continue.

He looked up with a wry smile on his face.
“The dark haired boy wanted to know where we live, where you go to
school, your mother’s name.” He raised his eyes to the ceiling.

“He wanted to know Mom’s name?” I scrunched
my eyebrows together. “That’s weird.”

Dad nodded. “You should stay away from them.
They’re bad news.”

My throat tightened. “How can you tell?”

“You mind your father,” Mom snapped at me
suddenly. “I forbid you to see those devils.”

“What?” My eyes widened. “You don’t even know
who we’re talking about.”

“The rogues in the woods,” she whispered.

“So, you didn’t even see them,” I huffed in
frustration.

She turned away and returned to gazing out at
the water. “If your father says they’re bad boys—I support his
judgment.”

Mom was annoying me, but I figured Dad was
right. I had no intention of hanging around with them. The
conversation seemed ridiculous anyway because I didn’t even know
them.

Katie brought our food out on multiple trays.
I barely ate my clam chowder. I felt distracted. Dad didn’t eat
much either, but he ordered a lot to drink. I think he liked the
straws. They had all the colors. He kept opening a new one with
every glass. In some ways he was kind of juvenile, but it gave us a
chance to tease him. As usual, Mom really got into the fish and
meat. She wasn’t crazy about most of the sauces, so she ordered
some thick cream and shortening for dipping and smearing.

Though my mother had exquisite manners,
always keeping her back straight with the poise of a ballerina and
dabbing her heart-shaped lips with the cloth napkin, watching her
dine was kind of funny. She got so into it. Sometimes she even made
noise while she chewed—a low hum with a few groans here and there.
And it was hard to believe that a thin woman like her could down so
much.

After the meal, we walked across the wharf
that was dimming in the early evening light toward the boardwalk.
The sand bit at my ankles as we trudged across the beach. But once
we got to the cement, I dusted my skin off and we approached one of
the open storefronts.

“Let’s rent a triple seat bicycle,” I
insisted as I held a twenty dollar bill out to the clerk.

“I don’t know about this,” Dad kept saying as
he shook his head. “You are bound to knock us off the seats,
Hailes.” He was concerned about my clumsiness.

Mom sort of glared at me. “We are only riding
that thing if you take the necessary precautions.”

I rolled my eyes. “Whatever…” My voice was
edged with sarcasm.

My father looked at me and raised an
eyebrow.

“Fine.” I gave in.

My parents made me wear protective gear from
head to toe. I was so wrapped up that I almost looked like a mummy.
I didn’t have very good balance when it came to biking,
rollerblading, or skating. I was pretty much a klutz. But on those
sunny days of leisure, I made up for it in the water—like Mom, I
was a great swimmer. Who could figure?