Authors: Pamela Carron
“How do you know you stayed quit?”
“I don’t, I just think I would remember. I would want the alcohol if I was still indulging.”
“Why would you remember that if you do not even remember your wife?”
He laughed and Jacks gave him a ‘ha-ha,’ sarcastically.
“The loss of my memory is certainly a handicap but not something I find funny. I do not feel as if I want a drink but if it is company you want, I can join you as you have that nightcap.”
“Not necessary, you should get a good night’s sleep. I rearranged my schedule for tomorrow, so we can have a nice long sail around the island in the morning. Did you know that Chios is the only place in the world where the Mastic Gum grows? It is. Sad thing though, a fire came through recently and destroyed half of them. You will see when we get to the other side of the island.”
“I can’t wait. Remember how we used to
wrangle
invitations to Eddie Smiths because we knew his father would let us sail his boat?”
They were still standing just outside Jacks’ room and Garrett shook his head.
“There
was
no we to it. You were the slick one.
Eddie only took me because we were a package deal and he liked the girls who always followed you around.”
“What ever happened to him I wonder
“I saw his sister not too long ago and she told me he died with colon cancer.
Shame, with him so young.
Well, good night Jacks. I will see you first light.”
“Sure. Good night, Garrett.”
Jacks shut the door and turned a lock, which he thought would serve no purpose if someone really wanted to get in, but it made him feel better. The house may be filled with light but there was a feeling of gloom hanging over it, and Jacks was not sure how long he could endure it. He lay awake thinking about what to do next. There had to be another way to find his mother and he went to sleep finally to toss and turn through another night.
25
H
oney was feeling so much better, that she started sitting up most all the day. She was way ahead of where the doctors said she would be and
Romona
made a bet with Jean that the healing time would be less than half of what they said it would be. She still used the crutches but mostly not to put a strain on her insides. She walked a little every day without the crutches with someone always near her, if she needed help.
Up to this point, no one mentioned Jacks for fear of upsetting her. It had been days now, almost a week, since he left her room at the hospital. For some reason she felt at peace with what he was doing but prayed constantly for his safety. While sitting in the kitchen with Jean and
Romona
one afternoon she mentioned how much she missed him, both were nonresponsive, and she felt annoyance at them and lashed out.
“He is only away and will be back! You all act as if he were dead!”
Romona
looked up from her needlepoint.
“Oh no dear, we have kept from bringing his name up so we do not upset you. Of course, he is alive and well.”
“Well, I want to talk about him. I need to talk about him. Can you understand that? I feel like part of me is gone when I am not with him and I need to hear his name spoken at least every once in a while!”
Jean leaned over and touched her hand.
“Now that we know it will not upset you, we can talk of him as much as you want.”
Romona
added,
“He sounds like a fine young man Honey and I will be honored to meet him when he does get here.”
Cheered some, Honey exclaimed,
“Oh
Romona
, he is the best! You will see for yourself, soon he will come!”
“I can see how much you love him.”
Romona
smiled. She liked Honey. She admired the spunk she had and the will to work to get where she wanted to be. She
slid
her eyes over to Jean and sighed.
Lord, I am trying so hard not to interfere! Can you at least give me a little hope
?
About the time, she was thinking this, Hidey walked through the door. It was unusual to see him in the middle of the day since they had company so
Romona
asked him if something was wrong. He walked over to the fridge and helped himself to a glass of milk and after drinking half of it, remarked,
“Just thought I needed to take the afternoon off and go fishing.”
Romona
liked the idea for he mostly stayed holed up in his room since company had come.
“Good idea. We have not had fried fish for a while. Bring us back a good mess and we will cook them for supper. As a matter of fact if my ole knee was not acting up, I would go with you.”
Jean surprised everyone by speaking up.
“I could go. I mean, I would be happy to help catch enough fish for supper. That is if Hidey does not mind me coming along.”
All eyes went to Hidey, as he frowned and shrugged his shoulders.
“Don’t make me any difference as long as you know the fish won’t bite if you make too much noise. I am leaving in the next thirty minutes though so you might want to wear something more appropriate.”
He put his empty glass into the dishwasher and walked out to collect enough fishing gear for two. He
was torn about Jean tagging alone and made his mind up to treat her just as he would Nettie or one of his other friends
.
Jean blushed, but quickly got up to go change into some jeans, leaving Honey and
Romona
both grinning at each other waiting for them to be gone so they could talk about them. It was no secret about
Romona’s
desires, for she had shared her story with Honey also.
The walk up the path to the place where Hidey intended to fish was a quiet one, with neither attempting to be the first to speak. The trail was the same one Hidey had first spotted Jean on, but not quite as far up the mountain.
They left the main path to take a smaller one and soon reached a curve in the river where Hidey sat the gear down and prepared his line for fishing, leaving Jean to do her own. He was thinking that with the river still over full from the rains, they should get their fish in a hurry. He tried not to watch as Jean fumbled with her own line, but finally said in exasperation,
“Here, you better let me fix that for you or we will never catch enough fish to cook.”
He reached for the line but Jean jerked it back, moving several feet from him, muttering,
“I can do it myself. I do not need your help.”
The line unfortunately caught in some bramble and she pulled at it gently trying to get it loose but when that failed, she pulled as hard as she could. It came loose, hitting her in the face, causing her to lose her balance and plunge into the river.
Hidey turned around just in time to see her go in and in a panic he ran to where she was to help but she kept screaming,
“Don’t come in, please stay away!”
“I just intend to help you get out! Give me your hand!”
“No, you will fall in too and it will all be my fault! Stay away! I can get out by myself!”
Seeing that she was holding her own in the water, he stepped back. She started to climb out, but slipped in the mud and went back down under. Coming up, she sputtered and gasped for breath then went under again.
Hidey waited a while determined not to interfere, before he realized she was in trouble and jumped in aiming toward the spot she disappeared at, really panicking when he did not find her. The water was murky so he could not
see,
he could only feel for her. Finally, he touched something that felt like flesh and grabbing hold, he pulled it up. It was Jean, and he got to the bank with her and half carried and half pulled her up the bank to where she was on the ground. She was not moving and Hidey was scared. More than ever before in his life, he was scared. Remembering everything he could from his CPR class he had to take to be a volunteer firefighter, he started pushing on her abdomen. Water started spewing from her mouth and she began to cough, almost choking on the river water still coming out.
It took a while, but eventually she seemed to be all right and Hidey managed to find enough dead wood lying around to make a fire to help dry them. After it was going good and Jean was calmed down enough, he gave her the sandwich he had hurriedly made when she said she was coming with him. He insisted she eat it and drink the bottle of water he had brought. After she was done, she apologized for ruining his afternoon of fishing.
“It is not ruined yet. I figure by the time you dry and rest up to walk back, I can have that fish basket full of fish!”
“But, you are wet too. Don’t you need to dry?”
“I will dry while I fish. You might want to take a nap after that little incident. I would imagine your body was traumatized and could use the rest.”
He turned to go and she said,
“Thank you.”
He stopped and looked back at her and nodded,
“Welcome.”
He started to go again and she said,
“Hidey?”
He stopped but not turning around, took a deep breath and asked,
“Yeah?”
“I thought I was going to die.”
He still did not turn around but said,
“I thought you were going to die, too.”
“When I went under I could only think of one thing.”
Now, he turned around and looked at her with curiosity.
“What was it?”
“I thought I would die and you would never know how much…”
Now he was not breathing, daring not to breathe lest the scene playing out would disappear.
“How much…I have come to love you.”
His breath came out slowly and all he could say was,
“You think? You sure what you are feeling is not gratitude? Because I don’t think I believe you.”
Jeans hair was beginning to dry and its natural curl was showing out and with the sprinkling of freckles across her nose, she looked half her age. Her tendency to be embarrassed at the smallest thing caused her cheeks to burn, but determination won out, and she simply asked,
“What can I do to show you that my feelings have nothing to do with what
happened
? It just made me admit them.”
Without hesitation, he replied,
“Kiss me.”
As her eyes grew round with half fright and half anticipation, she closed them and leaned forward for the first true kiss she had ever had. Though it came as a surprise to her, she liked it!
26
T
he water was so still and smooth that it almost had a mirror effect. Jacks leaned across the railing to yell at someone, as Garrett maneuvered the boat out into the open sea. There were all the familiar sounds of a boat dock, horns blowing, birds screeching, and men yelling to each other from boat to boat. Commercial fishing boats were long gone with anglers already coming in with the fresh catch of the day. It being Saturday, theirs was not the only sailboat preparing for a day of sailing and Jacks was yelling back at one passing them by. The elderly captain was cordially holding up his mug of coffee as he yelled out a greeting in Greek. Jacks smiled when he saw the boat’s name was
Second Wind
.