Page 40 of Oceansong
Where were the damn painkillers? She swore they still had a bottle when she looked into their cabinet last.
There was one other place they could be. She passed a sleeping, purring Lulu on the living room couch as she headed into Bàba’s immaculately kept room with its abundance of natural light.
The small bottle that would be Angie’s savior was on his nightstand, between a framed photo of him and Mama on their wedding day, and one of Mia and Angie when Angie was a year old. So his daughters and late wife would always be close to him. He still slept on the left side of his king-sized bed, because the right side was always for Mama.
She marveled how there was not a speckle of dust to be found. How all his shirts and pants atop his dresser were perfectly pressed, resting in neat stacks underneath two rectangular canvases with Chinese calligraphy. One with the wordsXin jìng, fortranquility of mind or calmness of heart, and the second withYongqì, for courage.
Angie swiped the painkillers and took her leave, stopping when two new medication bottles caught her eye.
Lisinopril: Take 1 tablet once a day for high blood pressure. Prescriber: Imani Thompson, MD.
Right beside a bottle of Ambien. When did Bàba get blood pressure medication and sleeping pills? To her knowledge, his pressure was always under control.
With an arched eyebrow, she left the room and made a mental note to ask him later.
Almost three hours later, she sat at the docks with Rosie chattering nonstop at her side. After downing two pain pills, she gave herself a face mask and took an hour-long nap after having a tall glass of water.
For now, she was the epitome of bright-eyed-and-bushy-tailed.
Nick was nowhere to be found, and she was content to wait patiently until he showed. Angie took Rosie to a quieter spot, far enough from the shore so the mer couldn’t reach them if they came by, but close enough so she could still see it in her peripheral vision. “How was camp?”
She was supposed to meet Kaden, and she wanted to stay within his line of sight if he swam by. Angie especially wanted to see him today, find some explanation to why the mer had been so quiet, and if she should worry.
“I drew this,” Rosie announced, rifling through her bookbag and pulling out a crumpled piece of paper. “See? This is me. And Mommy and Daddy. That—” She pointed to a smaller stick figure next to Mia, with large eyes covering half her face and long dark hair down to the floor. Eyes that were much bigger and hair longer than her true features, but Angie smiled, appreciating the effort. “Is you, Angie ayí. That guy,” she moved one finger over to the taller stick figure next to her, with hastily drawn on spiky hair and thick rimmed glasses. Angie’s smile grew even wider at stick-figure Bàba. “Is Gonggong.”
“I love it.” Angie put her arms around Rosie, giving her an affectionate squeeze.
A splash in the distance caught her attention. Kaden stuck his head above water, but as soon as he saw Rosie, he ducked underwater again. Rosie followed her gaze, leaning forward with eager, curious eyes. “What happened, Angie ayí?”
“Sorry, Rosie. Thought I saw something, but it’s nothing. Don’t worry.”
Breathless pants and heavy footfalls approached, and Rosie perked up. She jumped to her feet and rushed to greet her father. “Papa!”
“Hey kiddo.” Nick knelt, ruffling Rosie’s hair and then pinching her cheeks. His jovial smile vanished when he faced Angie, and he rose to his feet. “Angela, why would you leave my daughter by the shore? People died here!” He hissed out the worddiedthrough a clenched jaw.
Angie poked a tongue to the inside of her cheek and breathed deep. “She’s fine. We were nowhere close to the water.”
Rosie looked from her to Nick, and then back to her again, her bright eyes wide with befuddlement.
“Still. Don’t endanger my kid. But I wouldn’t expect you to understand since you don’t have any.” Nick shook his head, a condescending frown stuck to his face.
She knew he was needling her, and she refused to take the bait. “Please. You know I see her as my own.” Her voice remained steady. “She was safe.”
“Okay, whatever.” He took Rosie’s hand. “I got it from here. Come on, Rosie. Let’s go home.”
He turned abruptly as Rosie said goodbye to Angie. Angie glared after him, hands on her hips. Not even a thank you, huh, Nick?
She wasn’t sure why that still surprised her.
Nineteen
“My family has been workinghere all their life, and no matter how many times I’ve been here, I never got so close to the lighthouse.” Angie looked up beside her from Creston Harbor’s northernmost point, nearly three miles from the docks, where its lighthouse sat unused and quiet, like a ghost beacon.
“It’s a desolate area. The bright lights used to draw me to it, until the light vanished one day. I have always wondered why.” Kaden followed her gaze to the defunct structure, still standing proud.
“It stopped working a couple years ago, I heard.” She crossed her legs, into a position of comfort. “Rumor has it the last keeper vanished one day, and his body washed ashore a few weeks later. Nobody knew what happened. It’s been abandoned ever since.” Angie peered at the top of the lighthouse, imagining a keeper there, watching for incoming ships. Another thought occurred to her. “How did you see it from so deep down?”
“As I said some time ago, I come to the surface every now and again.”
