Page 43 of Bewitched By the Sea Monster
Alistair nudged me with the tip of his nose, giving me a boost. “Let the waters take you,” he said.
And boy, did the waters take me. Up at first, until vertigo danced around my head, and then shooting me forward.
I would’ve screamed, if I wasn’t fighting so hard to breathe against the cold.
A hulk of wood whizzed out of the soupy air.
The dock.
It was almost within arm’s reach.
All I had to do was swim, swim,swim…I paddled and kicked, dragging my numb body through the water.
So close…so close…I stretched a hand out.
The wave I rode began to crest, the top turning over into itself, creating a vicious, frothy vat.
But I wasthere.My hand brushed against a solid pillar, and I clung to it with all my might, wrapping my arms and legs around it.
The wave grouched and tried to slurp me under the dock. I cried out.
“You’re alright,” Alistair called. “Hold on. Let it pass.”
With a growl, the water released my legs and barreled forward.
“Climb, Pippi,” Alistair said.
And I did, battering my numb fingers until they bent, twining them around the handholds on the side of the pillars. Forcing my feet to push, push,push.
I gasped when I hauled myself up onto the solid surface of the dock. But I didn’t give my wobbly legs a break.Not yet,I pleaded with them. Not yet.
The warped and weathered wood sliced at the undersides of my feet as I made a mad dash for land. Water plumed into the air when the wave crashed into the side of the island, soaking the dock, and sending bitter pellets to slice at my legs, my sides, my back. But I didn’t care.
As soon as I got myself far enough on to land to feel safe from the ocean’s grasp, I sank bonelessly down, curling myself into a fetal position.
My heart thundered. Every beat struck painfully against my chest and made a heavy hammering sound between my ears. Tremors danced along my body. And my voice, when I tried to call back to Alistair, came out in a croak, “I-I’m…I’m here.”
“I know.” That wonderfully accented voice caressed my frenzied mind. “And I’m glad. You’re safe, Pippi.”
Pippi.
A new name. And new words to come with the name.
Pippi.
It is hard. To let her go. But Ihaveto. She belongs on land. And even I can’t keep her safe from the waters in a storm.
“I-I’m…I’m here,”she calls.
“I know. And I’m glad. You’re safe, Pippi.”
Iamglad. But I’m alsonotglad. I want to call her back. While she is with me, I feel…
Different.
But…notdifferent.
My mind is clearer. I fight less to find words. And she fills my head with new words and old ones. Words that had slipped but have now returned.
