02 The Moon And The Tide - Marina's Tales (31 page)

Without looking back, I swam as fast as I
could, returning at breakneck speed to the little cove that I had
chosen before. I didn’t want to see Kalypso anymore– something deep
inside of me knew I had but one chance to break free from the spell
the sea was casting on me. Clinging to a rock that hid me from
view, I exhaled all the water from my lungs and grew back my legs,
suffering the agony of it with a few stifled whimpers. I staggered
out of the sea on tender new feet without turning back, gingerly
picking my way up the path that looked out over the cove.

I crept over to a little whitewashed house,
trying in vain to cover my nakedness with my hands. There was a
clothesline with sheets blowing in the breeze and I snuck over to
take one down, winding it around me toga style. Emboldened, I went
to the door of the house and knocked.

It creaked open and I looked into the shocked
eyes of a small elderly man. He genuflected, making the sign of the
cross as he looked up at me.

“Do you speak English?” I asked hopefully. He
just stared at me as an even smaller woman appeared behind him. I
smiled at her encouragingly.

“Hristo mou!” she cried, her hand flying to
her throat. I stepped back, confused. She looked like she was
gathering her courage as she barked a command to the man in Greek.
He moved aside, and she gestured for me to come in. Not knowing
what else to do I followed her into the house where she motioned
for me to sit on a small sofa up against an earthen wall.

I sat down, arranging the sheet to make sure
I was decently covered. They disappeared from view and I started to
get nervous, casting my eyes around the little room and considering
what to do next. I looked up to see the man hurry out the front
door, sneaking a furtive glance back at me. I stood up, uncertain
and anxious, when the woman appeared bearing a tray.

She gestured for me to sit again and laid the
tray in front of me. It was loaded with small plates of food that
made my mouth water; I was suddenly ravenous. I looked up at her
with a grateful smile and spoke the one of the few words of Greek
that I knew.

“Efxaristo!” I said, hoping I pronounced
“thank you” right.

She smiled with satisfaction and launched
into a one sided discussion with me, pointing out the various
dishes and describing them in a rapid flurry of words.

I shrugged, shaking my head apologetically,
“I’m sorry, I don’t understand...”

She motioned for me to eat and I did, diving
into a plate of cheese filled pastries. There were black and green
olives with feta cheese, dried figs and slices of pita bread. Grape
leaves stuffed with rice shared a platter of sliced tomatoes and
cucumbers, and I ate it all, hungrier than I realized. I thought
about Kalypso’s meal of live fish and was doubly grateful for the
old woman’s hospitality.

After I ate I tried to make myself
understood, pantomiming a telephone. “Do you have a phone?
Telephone?” We were getting nowhere when the door opened and the
old man returned with a dark haired young girl in tow.

“Do you need some help?” she asked in perfect
English, looking a bit trepidatious.

“Yes! Yes!” I replied, jumping up with an
outstretched hand, “I’m Marina, and I need to get to a phone.”

She looked at the sheet I was wearing as she
shook my hand, “Oh My God! You’re Marina Vanderpool!”

“Yes!” I replied, surprised, “How do you know
my name?”

“The helicopter crash! Your father! It’s the
biggest thing that’s happened around here in years! It’s in all the
papers... but what happened to you? It’s been nearly a week– they
called off the search after two days!”

“A week?! I’m… I’m not sure... I need to use
a phone... please?”

She looked at me with wide eyes and reached
into her purse, handing me a cell phone.

“Thanks,” I took the phone and dialed. She
picked up immediately, “Evie?” I asked, my voice cracking.

“Marina! Where are you?” she sounded
panicked.

I looked at the girl, “Where am I?” I
asked.

“Spetsis,” she said, “The island of
Spetsis.”

I told Evie where I was and she ordered me to
get down to the harbor right away. She would send a helicopter for
me immediately.

“Where’s Dad?” I asked her.

“I’ll have you brought to him,” she said
urgently, “Go to the harbor now!”

“Evie?” I asked.

“Yes,” she replied tersely.

“I think I just met your side of the
family.”

She was silent for a moment, and then she
hung up without a word.

I looked at the girl numbly and handed her
back the phone with shaking hands, “Can you take me to the harbor?”
I asked, my voice thick with emotion.

“Sure,” she said, “but, uh... what are you
wearing?”

I looked down and back up at her, speaking
flatly, “I seem to have lost my clothes in the sea... I think I
have this nice lady’s sheet on. Could you please thank her for her
gracious hospitality?”

She spoke a few words that had the old woman
beaming with pride. She explained that she was attending college in
the states, visiting her grandparents for spring break. Suddenly
she started giggling.

“What?” I asked.

“They thought they were being visited by a
sea goddess,” she said, her hazel eyes filled with good natured
mirth.

I looked down at myself and suddenly couldn’t
stop giggling either. My life seemed to seesaw from tragedy to
comedy.

“Do you need some clothes?” she asked.

“Please!” I gasped. She took me to a back
room and sized me up, laying out a pair of jeans and a T-shirt,
chattering away about how they had sent divers to the wreck to try
and recover my body.

“Holy Cow! Wait till I tell my professors
that Martin Vanderpool’s daughter turned up at Ya Ya’s house! How
did you get here?” she asked, turning towards me with a shocked
look, “That copter crashed a long ways out.”

“I must have drifted...” I said, “I was
floating on... on a life-jacket,” I added, hoping it sounded
plausible. I was stunned to hear that I had been swimming with
Kalypso for days. Nothing made sense to me anymore.

She nodded slowly, looking at me with
skeptical sympathy, and rummaged through her bag, handing over a
pair of flip-flops and leaving me to change. We thanked her
grandparents again and hurried out the door to the harbor. There
was already a small red helicopter in the sky, hovering like a
dragonfly. We hurried down to the beach where it was making its
descent. Winding our way through the curious crowd, the girl
scolded people out of our way in rapid fire Greek.

“Marina!” a loud voice bellowed and I looked
up to see a familiar bald head.

“Boris?”

He was the last person I expected to see. He
bulled through the crowds of people, his face stony, his jaw
clenched tightly. Stooping to pick me up, he rushed me through the
crowd and put me into the helicopter like I was still a toddler. I
turned to look for the girl that had helped me but she was gone,
lost in the sea of faces that all looked up at us as we lifted off
and sailed into the clear blue sky.

Boris yelled something to the pilot in
Russian and turned to me with an appraising look. I met his gaze
with a searching look. Boris had been the caretaker of our
apartment building for as long as I could remember. He was Evie’s
most trusted employee... I knew that he knew, and that he had kept
secrets from me too.

“Don’t vorry,” he said, “Is going to be
okay.” I turned away to look out the window. I had heard that one
before.

We landed on the roof of a tall building and
took an elevator that opened up to an empty white hallway. Boris
led me to a hospital room door and stood outside as I rushed in to
see my father propped up in an adjustable bed, his leg elevated in
a medieval looking device. His face was etched with pain and
worry.

“Dad?”

His eyes flew open and he looked up at me as
I ran into his outstretched arms.

“Thank God! Thank God!” he said as we
embraced. He kissed me on both cheeks with tears in his eyes,
“You’ve been gone so long...”

“I’m sorry,” I said, “I got... lost.”

He sighed with relief as I laid my head on
his chest.

I looked across at his leg, “Are you alright?
How bad is it?”

“It’s broken, but It’ll be okay,” he said,
“We need to get you out of here. Evie sent a jet to bring you
home.” I looked over to see Boris’s hulking frame standing guard
through the glass in the door.

“I’m not leaving you,” I said.

“Marina, you don’t understand... you’re in
danger here,” he reached over to a bedside table and handed me a
stack of newspapers, “Evie’s managed to keep it out of the news at
home...”

There was a blurry picture of me holding my
father in the water with the headline “Nobel Prize Winner Rescued!
Hero Girl Missing!” The story quoted our fellow passengers about
how I had pulled them both from the wreckage and slipped underwater
tragically.

I picked up another tabloid that blared,
“Bare Breasted Siren in Sea Rescue” with interviews from the
sailors that I’d handed the little girl’s father to. They were
quoted in the article, calling me a “daughter of Poseidon,” and
claiming I had superhuman powers. The rest of the papers were in
Greek and French, with pictures of me with from varying angles,
coupled with huge headlines. I could only imagine what they
said.

I looked up in shock at my father’s concerned
face.

He reached over to take my hands, “Evie’s
going to make sure you get home and stay safe until this whole
thing blows over... I’m so sorry. Why didn’t you tell me that you
could... that you were like... like your mother?” I could see how
hard it was for him to even say it.

“I didn’t want to worry you... I mean, you
felt bad enough when you thought they just took me away...”

“Tell me what happened,” he said, his eyes
intense.

I drew a deep breath and launched into the
whole story, leaving nothing out.

He listened carefully, and I could see the
dispassionate scientist in him fighting to overcome his emotions.
“Fifty moons?” he wondered, shaking his head, “It just seems so...
arbitrary.”

“Yeah, that’s what Ethan said.”

“He knows?” he asked, surprised and maybe
even a little hurt.

“I haven’t told anyone else... Dad, he’s been
helping me through this whole thing, if it wasn’t for him I don’t
know where I’d be... I really want you to meet him.
Please
come home with me.”

I could tell by the look on his face he was
going to disappoint me.

He launched into the plans that had been
formulated to sweep it all under the rug. I listened with
increasing detachment as my father the scientist– the consummate
problem solver– emerged to make it all go away.

“I want you back to stay with your Aunt Abby.
I’ll call to tell her we had an accident and you’ll be getting home
early. I don’t think she needs to know anything. We’re going to
deny that you were ever here. Evie is going to pull a few strings
at the embassy to have your passport records purged; my research
assistants will cover for me until I can get back on my feet.”

“You’re going back to Afghanistan?” I don’t
know why I was surprised.

“Marina, we must carry on as if nothing
happened. Besides, I need to gather the research data. I can’t
waste months of work; there are no second chances in that part of
the world. Evie has promised me that she’ll watch over you until I
get back.”

I knew there was no point in arguing, for my
dad was as stubborn as I was; when he made up his mind he went
ahead with his plans come hell or high water.

“How much do you know about Evie?” I asked
him, watching his face for clues.

“What do you mean?” I could see he didn’t
know, and I hesitated, wondering if I should tell him.

“What did she say to you?” I asked.

“She told me to tell you that she loves you,
and that she’ll talk to you about everything after you get back
home.”

“How long before you get out of here?” I
asked, looking at his injured leg.

“A couple of weeks and I’m on crutches for a
while. I’ll be fine.”

“I don’t want to leave you here all
alone.”

He sat up and took my face in his hands, “You
have to get back to Abby’s. I want you out of here as soon as
possible.” He looked relieved as he flopped back onto his pillow,
“Thank God you’re okay… I’ve been so worried.” He squeezed my hand
and smiled, “You saved my life.”

“So much for our vacation,” I said with a sad
little smile.

“I want you to call me when you get
home.”

There was a knock on the door and Boris
ducked his head in, “Jet is ready... Ve needs to gets moving.”

I hugged my father one more time and kissed
his scratchy cheek. Looking back with a heavy heart, I saw him
through older and wiser eyes. He never questioned Evie because of
her attachment to me; he was blind to the fact that she had an
agenda when she became entangled in our lives.

I loved Evie, and I didn’t doubt that she
loved me. She must have a good reason as to why she kept our true
relationship hidden. First Lorelei and now Evie; as shocking as
finding out the truth had been I was a little pleased to see my
family circle growing. I decided I’d give her the benefit of the
doubt– how could anyone be upset with Evie? I followed Boris back
to the helicopter.

We flew to the airport, and skipping customs,
boarded a small private jet that was waiting to take off with its
engines humming.

When we were safely in the air I turned to
Boris, “How long have you known Evie?” I asked directly.

“Very lonk time,” he said, avoiding my eyes.
I could tell he was uncomfortable with my new awareness. He had
always been a bit suspicious by nature, and my direct questions
clearly made him nervous.