Gathering Water (3 page)

“I am
one-hundred percent certain that no one here tried to contact me, ever. The police report clearly states that this Toby person was told about me. He was even contacted a second time to see if anyone of the family would be interested in taking me in; they’re pretty quick to find a suitable guardian if there is one. I was not told about this information until my birthday. I was not contacted by anyone here. I didn’t even know this place existed until two weeks ago. It’s definitely something I would remember, and it’s not like we orphans are burdened by a surplus of letters from unknown family members.”

“Does anyone know that you’re here?”

“Do you mean does my mother’s so-called family know that I’m here; the family that she ran away from, and that let me rot in the system for the past twelve years because they couldn’t be bothered with me?” I gave a small, humorless laugh. “No, they don’t know I’m here, and I don’t really care to let them know.” I was getting a little heated. A lot of not-so-good stuff had happened in the last twelve years, and I could’ve been away from it all if only someone had given a damn.

“I understand.
I’d probably feel the same if I were in your shoes.” He held up both hands defensively.

“No offense John, but you don
’t understand. It’s not like a “Lifetime” movie where some gentle couple fosters a houseful of kids out of the goodness of their hearts. You definitely don’t understand, but you absolutely
would
feel the same if you were in my shoes.”

“I wasn’t trying to offend you, Della. The fact of the matter is, I didn’t know about your
momma and I should have. There’s a very good possibility that the rest of your family didn’t know either. I’m certain that Connor didn’t know, because he threw a fit when your grandpa stopped paying the taxes on the house. That’s when he started doing it, because he didn’t want his baby sister’s place to be taken away. That’s what he told me at least.” His fingers tapped into the desk. “I don’t think he would’ve been doing that all these years if he knew what happened to her. He would want to know that you’re here. I think that Toby kept the information to himself, for whatever reason. They’re good people, your family is; don’t write them all off because one man was being a dolt. At least think about it.”

It never occurred to me that not everyone here would have been told. I thought families told each other everything, but maybe that’s because I’d never been a part of one before. I promised I would think about it, and we continued our meeting. There really wasn’t that much to sign, but he seemed relieved when I had initialed the last paper.

“Della, do you need a ride somewhere? Are you staying at a B&B?”
John said while following me towards the door.

“Well, no. I mean, I could use a ride, but I was just going to stay at Ga-my mother’s house.”

“I’ll take you on over then.” And before I could give my assent, he grabbed up my bags, walked out of the bank, and loaded up his sedan with me trailing lamely behind him.

“How far away is it?” I ask
ed when he turned on the engine and rolled down the windows to let the heat out.

“Not too far off. Nobody has lived there for a really long time, not since your Grandma Anise was alive and she moved out when she married your granddaddy, only spending a weekend here or there until she died and they closed it up for good. It was left in trust to Gabby, and now to you.
” He paused a moment to grab a toothpick from his breast-pocket, then stuck it in his mouth. “It isn’t in the worst shape since it’s a well built house, but it hasn’t had even minimal maintenance done since your momma moved away. Definitely not move-in ready. I’d actually be more comfortable if you stayed somewhere else for a few days. I’m sure if you called Connor, he’d be happy to have you.”

“I’m not sure I’m ready for that yet
,” I said quickly.  “Could you take me there anyway? I really want to see the house, and it’s still early so I have plenty of time to get to a hotel or something if it’s really bad off.”

“Della, I-“

“Mr. McCay, I appreciate you giving me a ride and everything, but I’ve spent my entire life without anything at all. Everything I own is in the trunk of your car; I finally have something and I need to see it. I’m really not trying to be rude, but it’s important.” To my everlasting shock and embarrassment, my voice hitched a little on the last word.

John McCay kept his eyes on the road and after a few minutes of awkward silence he gave a big sigh and pulled out his phone
to tell whoever he called that he was going to be a little late. I figured that meant we were on our way to my house, but when he finally stopped the car it was in front of a small store labeled
Lukes General.

“Mr. McCay-“

“John,” he insisted.

“U
m, this isn’t the right address.”

“Of course it’s not the right address. You’re here to get supplies. We both know that you plan on spending the night in that place. You’ll need stuff, candles and food and whatever else. Let’s go on in, and I’ll introduce you to Luke so he can set you up.”

Luke turned out to be an imposing older man. He was built like a football player, but when he came out to greet us his crinkly stormy-grey eyes were full of humor. His hair was white, and he was wearing a blue bowling shirt and a pair of jean shorts that probably started life out as pants.

“John, nice to see ya
, old man. What can I do for you?”

“I’d watch who you call old man, if I were you
, Luke. I’d like to introduce you to Della Deare. Della, Luke here runs the finest general store on the island. Anything you need, you can find within these walls.”

“Deare? Did I hear you right, John?”
His brows raised quizzically.

“Yes, she’s Gabby’s little girl, come home
to set up in the old house. Unfortunately her momma passed away a while back, but Della’s come home all the same.” John put a reassuring hand on my shoulder, which I quickly shook off.

“Gabby’s gone? I
always thought she’d come back. Where did she run off too all tho…“ his voice trailed off and he had a distant look in his eyes for a moment. “Well, I am truly sorry to hear about your loss, Della. I knew your grandma Anise very well, she was a good woman and I heard that her daughter was too, though I was away when she was growing up.” He leaned in a little, eyes roaming my face. “You have her look about you, around the mouth and the same color eyes, a blue as deep as the sea itself.” Luke seemed to withdraw into some inner place for a couple of minutes, as if he were adjusting to the news of Gabriella’s death, or maybe remembering my grandmother, who was obviously a friend of his.

It was kind of weird to see a stranger mourn more for my mother than I did, though I guess I never knew her and I
’d always known she was gone. I didn’t really know what it was like to lose someone since I’d never had anyone to lose.

“Thank you, I guess. Um, I actually just found out about all this, I mean I knew that my mother was dead, she died when I was born… but, uh, all the rest
is new. Like, she was a Jane Doe,” I stuttered out.

“Della was raised out in California in the foster system, Luke. Says that some police officer tracked down Gabby’s family and let them know everything that had happened a few years back. It’s funny that that kind of information didn’t seem to get passed along, isn’t it?” John and Luke seemed to
forget I was there for a minute; it was almost like they were talking about something different. Either way, for an instant I saw Luke get mad, really mad, like oh-my-god-don’t-let-the-giant-kill-me type of mad. He seemed to swell in size, fists balled, with narrowed eyes and a red face, but it lasted for only an instant, then he was back to the laid-back old shopkeeper.

“Well, I’m even sorrier to hear that. Where are you planning on staying, Della? There’s a great bed and breakfast down the street. Actually, there
are several great ones.”

“Well, Luke, that’s why we’re here. Della is insisting on staying at the old house. She’s gonna need some stuff, candles and whatnot. Maybe you can talk her into staying s
omewhere else. Maybe call up her uncle. I’m sure he doesn’t know, and you still keep in touch with him, don’t you?” John was clearly hoping I’d change my mind.

“Mr. McCay, I’d told you I’d really rather stay at the house.
It can’t be worse than camping.” I’d never actually been camping before. I’d almost gone once, but the family I was with sent me away again before the trip since I freaked out their other kids or something. I can’t remember too well since I was only about 7 or 8 at the time.

“It’ll be a s
ight better than camping, and you know it John. There’s nothing seriously wrong with that house, other than its needing a good paint job and maybe a few new shingles. There’s no water or electricity or anything like that, but that can be fixed in the next few days, no problem. John, you can go ahead and get out of here if you want. I can fix Della up with what she’ll need and take her on over to the house. I know the way, if that’s okay with you, Della.” Since having one stranger take me to a place I’ve never been before was much the same as having another stranger take me, I had no objections to his plan. At least he seemed on board with it. Besides, my gut instinct told me he was safe.

John took Luke up on his offer, and the two walked outside together to unload my things and pack them into Luke
’s truck. They were out there for a while, much longer than necessary to transfer my three bags, and I took the time to look around the shop. It had a little bit of everything, from fishing gear to grocery items, beach towels to boogey boards. He even had a red wagon full of potted plants for sale. I grabbed a cart and started grabbing up things I’d need for the night. Instead of candles, I opted for a yellow battery operated lantern then grabbed a couple of gallons of distilled water, bananas, some bread and sandwich things.

When Luke finally came back in, he looked at my selection on the countertop then went around his store adding a few more things, including bug spray, then rang me up. I’m pretty sure he gave me a pretty significant discount, but before I could argue at the cost he grabbed my
brand new bank card out of my hands, ran it, and hopped back away from the counter with his keys in his hand.

“Have you had any lunch yet?”
he asked while turning off the lights and ushering me and my purchases through the front door.

“No, but I got some sandwiches and stuff.”

“Well, why don’t I show you a great little spot, and it’s walking distance from Anise’s, which is to say, your place. Best she-crab soup around, but today’s special is usually a bucket full of oysters. What do you think? My treat.”

“I don’t
know, it’s really not necessary…“

“Ok, well I guess I
shouldn’t have asked. How’s this: we’re going to lunch, my treat.” Then he chuckled to himself like he was so clever or something. It wasn’t the idea of his buying me lunch that made me hesitant, it was the food. I mean, I didn’t have any idea what the heck she-crab soup was! And oysters? Seriously? I’d never had them before, but I’d seen pictures and they looked like snot balls to me. But he seemed way too excited by the idea of lunch, so I let him take me.

Luke was obviously a regular there, because he chatted up nearly everyone once we walked in the door of the place.
We sat at the bar and I let Luke order for me, since most of the stuff on the menu sounded completely foreign to me. Yeah, I grew up in California, but my foster families weren’t exactly prone to cookin seafood and I never ate out much. There seemed to be crabmeat added to just about everything on the menu.

I regretted my decision to let Luke order when they brought us a plate filled with round fried somethi
ngs that Luke called ‘hushpuppies’, and an iced bucket full of oysters with a couple of dull-looking knives, a few wedges of lemon, and some horseradish. The oysters weren’t even cooked, and I tried to mask my disgust while watching Luke open and slurp up four in a row before he noticed I wasn’t eating.

“Have you ever had an oyster before, Della?”

“No. I’m not really all that hungry either, so…”

“Ha, don’t knock it till you’ve tried it, little girl. So this here is an oyster.”
He proceeded to tell me the best way to ‘shuck’ one to eat.

I have to tell you, they were delicious. I’d only been to the beach a few times, and was only in the water once, but th
e oysters tasted like the ocean. I cut my hand twice trying to open those suckers up, and it stung pretty badly when I was squirting lemon juice onto my prizes. Luke was so fast it was like magic, and he kept opening them up for me so I actually had enough of them to fill up on.

All in all, I was having a great time, and Luke was chatting me up and made a big deal of introducing me to anyone who came by. He didn’t expect me to talk back too much either, which is good since my focus was completely on opening those darned oysters. He bought me a slice of key lime pie for dessert, another first for me, then we left to go back to my house.

It really was close to the restaurant, and I paid close attention on the way so I was confident I could walk there again when I wanted to. We were driving towards the water, which confused me a little because I thought that the beach was in the other direction. I asked Luke about it and he said that my house was right on the “sound”, and that this part of the island was only about a half-mile wide. He went on to tell me something about a flood on Ash Wednesday, but I wasn’t really listening. I didn’t know what the “sound” was, other than water, but I was pumped to hear that the ocean was well within walking distance.

People assume that if you live in California you’re automatically some sort of beach bum, and I suppose if I’d had the opportunity I would have been. Unfortunately, not all of California is within
ten minutes of the ocean, and the majority of my foster families weren’t the type of people to take a family-fun day trip to the beach. In any case, I was pretty excited that I could walk to the ocean from my house.

When Luke pulled into the driveway I found out that the sound was the bit of water that was in between the island and the mainland because in the distance I could see more land. It was beautiful, and the tiny part of me that was wishing for a beach house was totally
okay with this view instead.

The house itself was bigger than I expected and it looked like it was on stilts. I noticed all the other houses in the neighborhood were built in the air like this, and though I found it a little strange it was still kind of cool looking. There was a porch on each floor of the wood shingled house, and the flight of steps that led to the front door looked a little dubious. There was also a porch on the roof; a small one, granted, but still a porch. It wasn’t a particularly pretty house with its wood shingles and triangle roof, but I still l
oved it on sight.

There wasn’t any grass in the yard but was instead covered with
weird looking bushy things and patches of sand. There were a few trees: some that looked like bushes and others that were still not very big and kinda twisty and bare like trees you might see on Halloween decorations. Some of my neighbors had pine trees and looking at them made me miss the giant redwood I used to sit under. This place was so different from anything I was used to, even the flora was foreign to me and it really started to sink in that all of the continental US was standing in between me and everything I’d ever known before.

The
backyard was definitely my favorite, since it was right on the water. It wasn’t really a beach, at least not the kind you normally think of; there was sand and water, but also a lot of plants growing in the sand. I could also see the remains of what looked like a small private pier, and I put that on my mental ‘fix-it’ list.