Page 38 of Bewitched By the Sea Monster
“Movies?” He dragged this word out, “Mooooovies?”
“But it wasawful,” I hucked. “So cold, and the water was too rough. But Itried,y’know? Because he was enjoying it, and I wanted to enjoy it too. But I didn’t. And then…and…My side hurts…” It did. All of a sudden. In mid-sentence, the bruise on my side gave a deep, bone-aching throb. “I didn’t even wanna be here. I wanna go home.”
“Huh-h-home?”
It might’ve been annoying, having someone parrot my words. But when the monster did it…my heart gave a little tug.
He sounded the words out the way a toddler would. Like he’d heard them before, but had never attempted to say them, and maybe didn’t fully understand their meaning, so he let themsoak on his tongue for a bit before he attempted to string the syllables together.
“I’m sorry.” I mopped at my face, before the salt water from the sea and my tears could dry into crusties on my cheeks. “I talk a lot and fast when I’m nervous.”
The monster’s nostrils flared as he blew another heat puff over me, chasing the cold from my skin. “Where were you…skinny-dipping?” he asked.
“Ummm. I’m not 100 percent sure. Jackson said it was an inlet? The tide was out when we went in, so it was shallow.”
“Ah.”
“You know where that is, then?”
“Yes. I can’t go there.”
“Oh, I wasn’t?—”
“The storm will make it d-d-dangerous.For you. The waters will be r-rough. And you would need to climb…”
“Storm?” I angled my head back, peering up through the fog. It was impossible to tell what the sky looked like, with all the misty film covering it, but there wasn’t any rain. No rolling thunder or flashes of lightning.
The monster tilted his head, gesturing toward the frothing waters. “The waters feel it.”
This time, it was my turn to go, “Ah.”
The storm was coming,and the ocean was throwing a rabble-rouser party in anticipation.
“I can take you near…the…” Tension rippled down his back. “I don’t know its word. “You walked it. When you left the…” He trailed off with a sigh. “You walked it. To arrive on land.”
“The…Are you talking about the dock?”
“Yes.”There was joy in that word, as though I’d given him the answer to a puzzle he’d been laboring over. “Yes. Thedock.I can take you near it. But I can’t go close to it. Even under…I can’t get close. You’ll have to swim.”
“You’re…you’rehelping me?”I asked, shocked.
He tucked his chin in a nod.
“I…Thank you,really. I-I thought Jackson was going to be taking me home in a body bag?—”
“Body…bag?”
“It’s a saying. Body bags are what they wrap dead people in. Although to put me in one, they would’ve had to find me, and the sea might not’ve left any of me behind. So, thank you.”
The monster whuffled. “We should go now. Would you feel…” He paused again. “S-s-safe…er.Safer, on my head?”
I stared up at his devilish face.
No.The answer should have been no.I shouldn’t have felt safe anywhere near him.
But he asked the question so gently, as though he was genuinely trying to figure out how to best calm my nerves.
It soothed me and had a broken, “Yes,” tumbling from my lips.
