Page 36 of Oceansong
“So, what’s going to happen?” Mia squeaked. Angie thought she knew why. If she knew Mia, she didn’t want Nick to be called in for the job and work even longer hours. Mia hadn’t wanted Nick to take the dock job in the first place, knowing it meant irregular hours and unpredictability, things Mia despised. She had protested until Bàba promised her Nick would keep regular hours, putting Mia’s mind at ease about childcare and household chores.
“I’ll try to pull in a few favors to fill the position. Speaking of missing people. Beibei, you never told me how you got back to the coast by yourself.” Bàba pointed his gaze directly at her. “And where your phone is. I must have tried calling a hundred times.”
“My phone is at the bottom of the ocean somewhere.” That answer was easy enough. As for the other…
She swallowed a bit too much of her drink, choking on the whiskey and lemon juice. After a cough, she cleared her throat, breath hitching. “A-a lifeboat happened to be in the area and took me b-back.”
Bàba slanted his eyes at her, and even Mia looked at her in disbelief. Before either of them uttered a peep, Rosie shrieked. “I’m so happy the lifeboat found you, Angie ayí! And you didn’t get killed by those fish people!”
Angie swallowed hard and nodded, the motion a little too exaggerated. “Nick told me what happened,” Mia chimed in. “I was so worried. My blood pressure went back to normal after Bàba told us you were okay.”
Angie took another sip of her drink. Another awkward silence passed, and Bàba set his glass on the table with a loudclink.
“Well, it’s clear she doesn’t want to talk more about it. Rosie, I justnoticed your bracelet. Looks like sea glass.” He sat back in his chair and took another sip of his drink, giving his full attention to his granddaughter. “Where’d you get it?”
“Angie ayí gave it to me from the ocean.” She beamed.
“Did she now?” Bàba asked.
Angie slumped back onto the couch. Thankfully Bàba dropped the subject.
Seventeen
Angie never thought she wouldbe thrilled to be pulling on thick, frayed rope. It dug into her palms. She hated this part of the job, the fiery pain when her hand slid and the loose fibers lacerated her palms. Today, it signified that she was back at work after another two days of suffering and lying in bed and that she was feeling well enough to return to her usual routine.
Most of all, she hoped to see Kaden after her shift ended, who she was supposed to have met two days ago.
Even the usual, jovial, easygoing mood of the docks had taken a dark turn. These days, tension and anger and fear hung like an oppressive fog over the docks, and it wasn’t lost on Angie.
“Good to see you back, Angie!” Eva remarked once they’d pulled the empty fishing boat ashore. “What happened to you, anyway? You never call out. Thought you kicked the bucket.”
“Eva, don’t joke!” A young female worker cried from beside them. “It’s not funny. Abigail’s gone. She was—” The woman choked on her words. “She was my friend.”
Angie winced and slid her gaze to Eva.
Eva’s face fell. “I’m so sorry. Just, you know, trying to lighten the mood a bit. Poor joke.” The other woman’s face puckered, as if she were holding back tears, and said nothing. Eva looked back to Angie. “But seriously, are you okay? Boss said a lifeboat saved you. You’re lucky the mer didn’t go after them too.”
She nodded. “Had an awful cold. Felt like shit.”
Angie dusted off her hands and thumbed off the small streak of blood on her palm’s center, lips twisting into a grimace. Damn it, she should have grabbed her work gloves from her locker before coming to help tie the fishing boat to the posts. She was on administrative duties today, and when she got the call from Nick to help Eva and the younger female worker, she didn’t want to run across the docks to the locker room and keep them waiting and hanging onto the boat’s rope until she arrived.
“Welcome back.” Eva fist-bumped the first couple of fishermen, and Angie stepped off the gangway to make room. Nick’s loud, obnoxious voice drifted in her direction, and she rolled her eyes so far back that she strained the bottoms. Eva craned her neck in his direction. “Oh, there’s Nick. Let me go tell him the boat is in.”
She strode to join him, and they walked together. He passed by without acknowledging her, but it was Eva who gave Angie goosebumps.
An invisible fist curled around her innards and squeezed, and she blinked away tears pricking the back of her eyelids. Eva had straightened her usually curly hair in a way that looked like Mama’s, and she had a similar willowy build. Angie hadn’t noticed when she was in front of and beside her.
Memories came of the past, and Angie turned away. Her feet became dead weights.
When her shift ended, she walked to the spot in the harbor which also served as a scuba diving entry point, shallow waters quickly feeding into the deep sea. Stefan usually took groups out from here, Angie had been on a few back in the day. It was also the last place Mama was seen alive.
Angie sat on the creaky wooden boards, hugging her knees to her chest and resting her chin on the tops of her hands, bracing for the onslaught of sorrow that would inevitably hit as memories of Mama came flooding back. Contemplating why she wanted to dive when she was so ill.
Invisible rocks weighed heavy on Angie’s body, her breathing shaky, and tears pooled in her eyes. Sniffling, they flowed freely, salty on her lips.
Memories came, of the stories Mama told of her eventual arrival to Alaska from Taipei when she was thirteen. In her family, it had taken her the longest to assimilate and learn the English language. She met Bàba during her freshman year at the University of Alaska at Fairbanks, and he was twenty years old and on shore leave. When he retired ten years ago, they moved to Creston with Angie and Mia, and as she was finally growing comfortable with life in the States, she was diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer. It didn’t respond to treatment.
In Angie’s mind, she heard Mama’s voice ringing gentle and melodious,yet harsh and strained when she was angry. At least, before the disease affected her brain and speech, and then her voice was subdued, feeble.
