02 The Moon And The Tide - Marina's Tales (17 page)

His eyes were swimming with mirth as I pulled
up alongside him. He leaned over to pull me up and grabbed my board
to steady it. I sat up, meeting his gaze. We started laughing,
unable to hold it in.

“That was entertaining,” he said, “Why?”

I looked at him with theatrical innocence, “I
have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“No, really,” he said as he looked over at
the cluster of other surfers, “Did you surf in front of them?”

“Like I just did.”

“Why?”

“I think you’re right about the fewer people
knowing anything the better. Long took off this morning simply
because I showed up. Mike saw me surf and was a little
too
impressed.” I looked over at Mike and Shayla sadly, “Everyone else
started showing up and were just watching... because of Kimo.”

“So you started your act.”

I shrugged, “I don’t want to attract any more
attention.”

“I don’t think you can help that,” he
said.

“I can still surf with you,” I said, “and
Shayla... and Lorelei.”

He grimaced, but said nothing.

I leaned over to kiss him, “You go ahead and
get some surfing in, I’m kinda tired. I’ll be waiting on the
beach.” I went over and thanked Shayla for meeting me, telling her
I was calling it a day. She looked at me like I was a difficult
math problem.

I stripped down and changed quickly, settling
down on a towel to wait for Ethan. I wished I was by his side as I
watched him surfing in the sun. I closed my eyes and visualized
being on the water. When I opened them up Mike had come out of the
surf and crouched on the sand next to my towel.

“What was that all about?” he asked
frankly.

There was no point in denying anything,
“Nothing.”

“I don’t get it. Are you afraid to compete
with Ethan or something?” he asked.

“No,” I said, mildly annoyed. I started
drawing waves in the sand with my fingers.

“So what... is it him? Is he so jealous of
Kimo he wants you to pretend you can’t surf? I never pegged him as
that kinda dude.”

“He’s not like that!” I snapped, defending
Ethan.

“You know,” he said, looking at me sideways,
“my sister’s husband won’t let her do anything without asking him
first...”

“You’re so far off base it’s not even funny,”
I said angrily, “This has nothing to do with him– I’m simply not
interested in being put on display!”

“Whatever,” he said, looking puzzled as he
stood, looking down at me, “It was alright surfing with you.”

He walked off as I sat there fuming. It was
frustrating watching Ethan surf without me, and all the
satisfaction I got from fooling the rest of the surfers was ruined
by Mike’s annoying speculations. I rolled the legs of my jeans up a
little and started walking along the shoreline, kicking at the sea
foam piling up at the water’s edge. Something blue in the sand
caught my eye; I picked up a piece of white pottery glazed with a
cobalt blue design.

I continued walking, nearing the cement ship,
and looked up to see Lue Khang casting a fishing line from the side
of the pier. I wound my way across the beach and up the stairs to
go talk to him. He was facing west, leaning on the railing looking
down into the water when I came upon him.

“Hello,” I said, announcing my presence.

“Marina,” he replied without turning around,
“Join me.” I came over next to him and leaned on the rail.

“What are you looking at?”

“The tide is turning,” he said, and I watched
the water with him in silence for a minute.

“How’s fishing?” I asked him.

“Very poor,” he said, “The water spirits are
hiding.”

Lue Khang always spoke cryptically about the
nebulous “water spirits”. I was pretty sure he meant the very real
mermaids but I could never truly decipher exactly what he was
saying. He always seemed to talk in circles around things, and his
English was sometimes confusing.

“What are they hiding from?” I asked.

“The evil spirits want their powers,” he was
matter of fact.

“What are the evil spirits?” I asked, “And
where are they?”

He smiled and shrugged, unable or unwilling
to respond to my concrete questions. We stood there side by side
for a moment, lost in our own thoughts.

“Lue, why does Long hate me so much?” I
searched his wizened face for a clue.

He snorted with something like frustration,
“He doesn’t know the ways of the ancestors. He fears what he cannot
understand.”

“Would you please tell him that I’m not a sea
monster?” I asked.

He chuckled, and looked back out at the
water. I toyed with the little piece of pottery in my palm.

“You have the past in your hand,” he
said.

I looked at the fragment of blue and white,
“The past?”

Lue Khang went on to tell me the story of how
long ago, over a hundred and fifty years ago, there had been a
Chinese fishing village right here in Aptos. Fishermen had lived in
an encampment on the beach, making their homes out of scavenged
flotsam and getting water from the springs that trickled from the
cliffs.

They caught the fish that fed railroad
workers and San Francisco’s burgeoning Chinatown, drying and
smoking their catch on wooden racks fashioned from driftwood.
Working without a pier or harbor, they hauled their long wooden
boats up onto the sandy beach at night. He painted a picture in my
mind as he talked, and I could visualize it as if I were still
there.

The Chinese fishermen were long gone,
disappearing into the vacuum of time along with all of the
beautiful ladies dancing to the big bands that played on the cement
ship many years later. Thinking about time passing, and how someday
someone might tell the story of how we were once here, made me a
little melancholy. The only things that would remain would be the
ocean and the sand, for even the cement ship was slowly being
erased by the sea.

The mermaids would still be here too...
forever. My mother would have seen the fishermen, and they might
have seen her too. Looking at the little piece of pottery in my
hand made me feel connected to her. I stood there quietly by Lue’s
side, looking at the water and wondering about the far, far distant
past.

“There you are,” said Ethan, walking up the
pier with both of our boards and bags.

“How was your fishing this morning?” Lue
asked him.

“Everyone got salmon,” he replied, coming up
to stand by my side.

Lue started to gather up his gear, “That’s
good,” he nodded, “See you on Sunday,” he said as he picked up his
bucket.

Ethan leaned our boards against the railing.
He came alongside me and put his arm around my waist, “What are you
looking at?” he asked.

I clutched the pottery fragment in my hand,
and slipped it into my pocket so I wouldn’t lose it. “The past,” I
said, as he moved closer to my side.

“Let’s think about the future,” he
replied.

I turned towards him and he put his other arm
around me. He nudged my face up with his chin and we kissed as I
wrapped my arms around him. He was right, there was no point in
dwelling on the past with Ethan by my side. I’d already decided, he
was going to be a big part of my future.

“I think your performance worked,” he
chuckled, “None of those guys can figure you out.”

“Good, let’s keep it that way,” I said.

“Hmm,” he said, “Let’s go see if my dad can
make Abby eat some fresh caught salmon.”

We walked home side by side, thinking about
the future.

CHAPTER TEN

Holidays

Sharp little claws kneading into my skin woke
me up at dawn on Christmas Eve.

“Ouch! Charlie, that hurts,” I complained as
I pulled my arm away. He started purring loudly and regarded me
with his eyes halfway open. If he could understand me I’d tell him
to cool it with the claws. He rolled onto his back with a trill and
I had to smile as I scratched his belly, knowing he meant no
harm.

I sat up to stretch and noticed the little
package from Evie sitting on my desk. I crawled over to retrieve it
and settled back down, pulling off the ribbon. A jewelry box with a
blue velvet lining cradled a gleaming golden bracelet, loaded with
tiny intricate charms. Each finely crafted charm represented a
different sea creature. There was a dolphin, a seal and a whale. I
turned it to see a tiny shark, turtle, otter and seahorse.
Struggling with the clasp for a moment, I put it on and smiled,
listening to the soft tinkling sounds it made when I turned my
wrist. I reached for my phone to call Evie.

For as long as I could remember I had made it
a ritual to call Evie on Christmas Eve, listening to her spin tales
of the beauty of charming alpine villages dripping with icicles.
She would tell me about the cute outfits the ski bunnies wore on
the slopes and in the lodges, and describe days filled with skiing
and sledding. I’d usually be calling from some equatorial region,
and the images of snow and ice that she evoked always made it feel
more like winter.

“Merry Christmas Aunt Evie,” I said when she
picked up.

“Marina! My darling girl! Merry Christmas to
you!” I could hear the air kisses coming all the way from
Switzerland and laughed.

“Aunt Evie, I love the bracelet! I have it on
right now. And the clothes... you went overboard as usual!”

“I’m so pleased you like the bracelet,” she
went on to tell me how she’d discovered a Swiss goldsmith who was
an absolute genius. “Simply everyone who is anyone has commissioned
a piece from him. He only works for
the
most exclusive
clients.”

“Well, it’s adorable, I love it– and you
should have seen Cruz when he opened his watch. He was beyond
thrilled!”

“Yes dear, he called me yesterday. How do the
outfits look on? Have you worn any of them out on the town?” she
asked.

“The clothes are fabulous, truly beautiful. I
don’t really go out much though...”

“Marina, you deserve to be taken out and
treated like a princess! I have such plans for when you move back
to San Francisco! We need to get out to the symphony and the
theater and show you off!” She went on to tell me all about the
social scene in Gstaad. She raved about the guest lists at all the
tony cocktail parties she’d been attending.

“There are some very nice young men here who
would love to meet you...” she said enticingly. I knew by “very
nice” she meant wealthy. If I had any doubts about her assessment
of Ethan they were gone now. She was trying to come between us.

I remembered how Evie encouraged me to attend
high school and start dating. She had gotten what she hoped for,
but clearly, Ethan was not the type of boy she’d bargained on. I
don’t think she understood exactly what he meant to me. She had no
idea what we’d been through and what he’d done for me. I wondered
if it would make any difference to her.

“I’m not interested in meeting any other
boys,” I said, throwing down the gauntlet, “I love Ethan.”

Perhaps she realized she had gone a bit too
far, for she wisely changed the subject.

“How is Abby feeling?” she asked.

“She’s doing great, and eating a lot of
chocolate!” I thanked her for the mountain of chocolate and made a
few jokes about all the awful juices Abby was making us with her
new juicer. She laughed at the thought, and went on to describe
some of the lavish galas she planned to attend on New Year’s Eve.
She wrapped up our conversation, making me promise to send her love
and best wishes to Dad and asking me what I wanted for my
seventeenth birthday.

“I think I’ve got enough stuff here to last
me a long time. How about we plan to spend a day together when you
get back? There’s an impressionist show coming to the
museum...”

“That’s a wonderful idea darling. I’ll make
some arrangements. Merry Christmas sweetheart.”

“Merry Christmas Aunt Evie.”

I hung up the phone feeling a little let
down, and decided to call my father. He was distracted, on his way
to an important meeting with tribal elders. He complained about the
politics that he had to deal with and mentioned how much he was
looking forward to our vacation in the spring.

“I love you honey,” he said, “Have a
wonderful Christmas, and I’ll see you in Greece.”

“Bye dad, I love you too.”

I got up to dress, my new bracelet flashing
glints of gold. I was reminded of Lorelei’s hair in the sun and
wondered if she could hear me thinking about her. I thought of how
uncomplicated and happy she always was. I gave in to my first
impulse, quickly putting on a swimsuit and rummaging through my
jewelry box, looking for something she’d like. I finally chose a
shiny golden angel pendant, putting it on my neck.

I packed my wetsuit in a tote and slipped out
of the house before anyone was awake. Ethan and Dutch would be out
on the water early, and wouldn’t be coming over until later. I
wouldn’t be missed for at least several hours. I decided to give
myself a present and surf for just a little while.

It was a perfect morning, densely foggy and
custom made to conceal. I got to the deserted beach and changed,
leaving my bag tucked in next to a driftwood log. I knew Lorelei
could hear me now and I plunged into the sea, paddling out into the
thick gray blanket. I sat up on my board, savoring the heavy briny
air and the sense of complete isolation the curtain of fog
provided.

“
Marina
!” Lorelei appeared as if on
cue, eyes shining, smiling broadly.

“
Lorelei!
” I returned her smile with
equal enthusiasm.

“
I have something for you,
” I reached
down the neck of my wetsuit to pull out the pendant and unclasped
it. “
This is for you.
” She reached out to take it in her
shimmering palm and looked up at me, awestruck.