The Turning Tides (Marina's Tales) (45 page)

He laughed, “You got me there. You know how much I like dressing up.”

We took the harbor exit, finally pulling up
to
our apartment and climbing up the vine covered stairs.

“I’m ready for bed,” he said, opening the door.

“I’m not really that tired,” I replied, following him in.

“Who said anything about sleeping?” He closed the door and wrapped himself around me.

~

The next morning we woke to greet a beautiful day, and I turned to Ethan with a smile, “Wanna go surfing? We can visit Lorelei…”

He shook his head no, “There’s some work I have to take care of this morning… I have a surprise for you later on today.”

“A surprise?”

“There’s somewhere I want to take you.”

“This doesn’t involve horses, does it?”

He laughed, propping himself up on his elbow, “No horses today.”

“Can we go surfing after?”

He leaned over to press his lips on my forehead, “You have a one-track mind.”

I shrugged, “I can’t help it.”

He sighed, looking up with amusement, “The only half mermaid in town, and I gotta go and fall in love with her.”

“The only workaholic surfer on earth, and–” He silenced me with a kiss.

~

Later that
day
he took me for a drive down the coast, turning onto the familiar exit that led to our land. We parked and climbed out
of his truck on
the
gorgeous
sunny
afternoon. Spring was perfuming the air with its promise of life renewed, and
wildflowers bloomed
alongside
grass
that
was almost too bright to look at. Birds swooped and sang in the warm breeze that blew across the field.

Ethan took my hand, leading me down the path that skirted the field. “C’mon, I have something to show you.”

I followed along, breathing deeply of the land. It smelled like Eucalyptus, newly turned earth
,
and salty ocean air; a perfect blend of the land and the sea. We rounded a little patch of brush to
a
spot with a panoramic view of the horizon.

First I noticed a white A-frame tent, set in the middle of a freshly leveled patch of ground. It was surrounded by wooden stakes laid out in straight lines, connected by a line of white chalk standing out against the rich brown earth.

I was thrilled, “That’s our house, isn’t it?”

He nodded, leading me around to enter from the ocean side, pausing, “Here’s the porch… and here’s our front door.”

We walked in through the entrance, and up to the tent. Ethan pulled the canvas flap aside and gestured inside. I peeked in to see an air mattress covered with pillows and blankets. I turned back to Ethan with raised eyebrows.

“Is this another thinly veiled ploy to get me into bed?” I asked.

Ethan grinned at me. “Would that be so bad?” he laughed, tossing his handsome head in the direction of the tent. “Just look.”

I ducked to enter. There were blueprints
laying across
the blankets, and I sat down to
inspect
them.

“What do you think?” he asked proudly, slipping in to sit on the opposite side.

I glanced up with a smile, “Looks good on paper.”

Ethan described the various features of the house, excited about getting started on the construction. “They’ll be a big porch that wraps all the way around, and a door here, and here.”
He showed me where he thought the kitchen should go, pointing out the upstairs bedrooms. I could already see Stumpy prowling through the halls.

“Looks like you thought of everything,” I nodded, impressed.

“See this balcony?” he pointed, “It’ll be right off the master bedroom. We can watch sunsets from our bed.”

“Okay,” I said
softly
,
mesmerized
. I loved
seeing
him like this; eyes bright with enthusiasm, full of ideas and plans. I could not have been any happier than I was right at that moment, and I could scarcely believe how lucky I was. Fate had given me everything I could have possibly hoped for, along with things I didn’t even know I wanted.

“I thought we could celebr
ate the groundbreaking,” he smiled
, leaning across the bed to kiss me gently. He reached an arm down to sweep the plans out of the way, taking me by the small of my back with the other. I kissed him back and he pulled me closer, cupping the back of my head and lowering me onto the cushions.

“I love you,” he said, his lips moving on mine.

“I love you too,” I told h
im as I pulled him down to me.

Camping in a tent pitched between the stakes planted firmly in the ground,
we lay together in the outline of our future home.
The sun sank slowly through the sweet spring air, and the moon rose in the sky to take its place.

If I was
the moon, Ethan was my sun. Blazing bright and warm, he pulled me into his orbit with a force
far
more powerful than the turning tides.

I could see it all
spread out
before me. We would put down deep roots here, and
build a home where
Ethan and I would work and play side by side
.
O
ne day we’d
start a family of our own, and we’d
teach our
children to surf along with us.

And we would
never have to worry about sharks.

~

EPILOGUE

~

The weather was perfect, the sea calm. The beautiful new ship moved along at a leisurely pace, its sonar scanning the deep ocean waters for signs of life.

“Professor Powell!” An excited girl pointed, nearly jumping up and down, “Look over there!”

He raised his binoculars, “It’s a pod of Humpbacks. Fantastic!”

The other two graduate students moved to the side of the vessel. The four of them were excitedly watching the spouting whales draw closer when a heavyset young man noticed something else.

“Uhm, Professor… Isn’t that a blue whale at two-o’clock?”

“Unlikely,” He swiveled to look, his eyes opening wide, “It’s a pair… A pair of blues!”

Now the group clustered on the opposite side of the ship, eager for a rare sighting of the huge creatures. One submerged, and another rose to blow a spout of jet propelled water fifty feet into the air.

“Blue whales are usually solitary… This must be a mating pair! Someone record some footage of this!” the professor cried.

A girl held a camera over the side, and they all watched in amazement as the enormous animals headed straight for the ship.

“Are you getting this?” the professor asked, his voice rising with excitement, “This is highly unusual behavior! To see blue whales and a pod of humpbacks in such close proximity… It’s completely unheard oof–”

A sharp jolt shook the deck, knocking most of the students to the ground. The camera went flying into the sea with a splash.

“It rammed us!” someone cried, looking back towards where the Humpbacks had converged on the other side, taking turns butting their massive heads into the ship. The girl who’d lost the camera screamed, scrambling backwards and pointing, “Look out!”

With a mighty crash, one of the blue whales struck the other side, tearing an enormous hole into the hull. The ship began to list
to one
side as it took on water.
A couple
of the boys had the presence of mind to pass out life vests, but the professor just clung to the rail and stared in horror as the group of whales methodically smashed the ship to bits.

The captain came rushing out from the wheelhouse, and a couple of frightened students helped him unlatch and inflate a lifeboat. They were having a hard time keeping their footing on the slanting deck, but they managed to launch the inflatable despite the relentless and methodical onslaught of the whales.

Everyone
scrambled into the raft amid the chaos, and the captain had to tear the Professor from the railing to get him into it safety. The furious attack continued as the fully loaded raft drifted away from the sinking ship. Soon, the only thing left of the research vessel was an iridescent slick of oil undulating on the surface.

“My God,” the professor gasped, “What have I done?”

One of the girls was shaking, hugging herself tightly, “
Professor
Powell… Why?”

He shook his head, finally dropping it into his hands, muttering something about “deal
ing
with the devil
”
.

The students watched him numbly, and then looked out across the peaceful sea at the majestic whales slowly swimming away.

If they looked carefully, they might have noticed a small spot of brick red hair
surface
in their midst,
and
then disappear with a splash.

~

—THE END—

~

T
he latest from Derrolyn Anderson:

“The Athena Effect”

~

Country girl Cali has been kept a secret her entire life, raised in isolation by two very troubled people. Despite her parent’s disturbing fits, Cal is perfectly content, living at one with the nature that surrounds her, and finding adventure inside the pages of her beloved books. When an awful tragedy tears her away from her remote cabin in the woods, nothing she’s ever read has prepared her for a world that she knows very little about.

Girls and motorcycles are what bad-boy Cal’s life is all about. Brought up in a raucous party house by his biker brother, he’s free to do as he pleases, going through the motions on his final days of high school. Aimless, Cal
vin
stopped thinking about his future a long time ago.
A
ttacked by a gang of thugs while running an errand for his brother, Cal is in serious trouble until a fierce girl appears
from
out of nowhere to intervene. She chases off three grown men, sparing Cal a brutal beating before disappearing into the night like a spirit. He can’t stop thinking about his mysterious rescuer, and when she turns out to be the weird new girl at school who goes out of her way to avoid him, he can’t contain his curiosity.
He’s never met anyone like her before, and the more he learns about the unusual girl who shares his nickname, the more he wants to know. Cal can’t help falling for Cal, but can he keep her from falling victim to a dangerous enemy from her parent’s tragic past?

~

Sample The Athena Effect here:

~

AMA
Z
ON

~

SMA
S
H
W
ORDS

~

BAR
N
E
S
& NOBLE

~

De
rrolyn Anderson is a visual artist and writer of fiction.

For more information, check out the website:

WWW.DERROL
Y
N
.COM

~