Light Over Water (26 page)

          Sam grabbed his
father’s hand and bent his arm back.  He leaned forward and said through
clenched teeth, “I could kill him myself.  Do you hear me?  But I will not! 
And neither will you.”

          Alison watched as
father and son stared at each other.  She realized suddenly that she was
holding her breath.  Sam dropped his father’s arm and said, “I have had it with
killing and death.  I saw more than anyone ought to see, ever.  And so did
he!”  His voice cracked now and he went on in a strangled voice, “All I wanted
the whole time I was over there was to get back, to her, to you, to this boat. 
I prayed every day that I’d survive just to see her face again.  Somehow…” he
turned and looked at Alison, then at Aubrey.  His face was pale and tears
spilled down his cheeks.  He wiped them away roughly and continued.  “Somehow
God answered that prayer, through him.”  He shook his head now, trying to make
sense of the whole muddle.  “I hate what he did, how he hurt her.”  He was
speaking to his father, but he gazed at Alison.  “What he took away from us. 
But I can’t kill him, and I can’t let you.  We’ll do this the right way.”

          Reg slumped where he
sat.  He sighed and looked at Sam from beleaguered eyes.  His voice was almost
a whisper as he said, “All right, Sam.”

          “No!”  Aubrey spoke
through his battered and bloody lips.  “No, Sam.  It’s what I deserve.  I told
Chap Hudson I’d do what needed to be done to make things right.  I meant it.” 
He stood then, and Alison saw what she hadn’t noticed while he sat.  His arms
were tied behind him and wrapped around his ankles was a length of chain.  In a
swift, almost graceful movement he leaned to the side and slipped over the edge
of the boat.

          “Aubrey!  No!” Sam
yelled. 

          They all rushed to
the edge where he went over, and Sam leaped in after him, although both Alison
and Reg tried to hold him back.  There were bubbles rising to the green surface
and little else.  After a moment Sam burst through the water gasping.  “I can’t
see him.”  He dove back down, over and over until his lips were blue and Alison
pled with him to get back in the boat.  Finally they pulled him up over the
gunwale where he huddled shivering and wet in the setting sun.  Reg took off
his shirt and wrapped it around Sam, then slowly got up.  He moved like an old
man, starting the engine and turning the bow back towards home, hauling the
dory behind them.

          Alison knelt beside
Sam and held him close to her, trying to warm him.  She felt cold herself and
feared for Sam.  Even in June the temperature in the Atlantic was frigid.  She
put her head right next to his and spoke into his ear.  “I’m sorry, Sam, for
all of this.”  He nodded, laid his face in her neck and closed his eyes.

Her numbed mind
couldn’t hold all that this day had contained, but she felt relief on two
counts; she was glad that Sam knew about the rape, that there was nothing she
was keeping from him.  And she was proud that Sam had tried to save Aubrey,
even though for an awful instant she was glad to see him sink into the water. 
Now there would be no stain of revenge on Reg, Sam or herself. 

Just as the sun
settled on the horizon, the light at Old Bald Head blazed on.  “Look, Sam,
Remick set the light.”  They watched it swing around. Alison could envision
Remick up there, observing its first few rotations, fascinated with the
beautiful Frenell lens that could magnify that tiny light for miles over the
water.  She pictured him pulling down the weights that kept it in motion all
night, then making his way back down the circle of stairs to the bottom.  He
didn’t know they were out there still, but he knew someone might be.  She was
so glad for that light.

THE END