Broken Tides

Chapter Nine

Kat came home, not long after, way too many bags in hand. She plopped them on the kitchen table in front of me and Jay. It looked like she had gone to a few different stores and restaurants, Including the shack; I went to grab the brown paper bag with the restaurants logo stickered on and she swatted my hand away.

"Hang on, let me go over this." She unpacked the bags and each one of them was filled with different kinds of seafood; some from the market- completely unprocessed, some ready to cook from a few different stores and a few cooked meals from different places in town. The last bag, however, I recognized having the same logo as the place Kat had gotten the scrub from.

She huffed as she finished sorting through everything, and placed a hand on Jay's shoulder. "I was talking to Jay, and I explained a bit more of what's going on. Obviously we don't know everything either, but seeing as A-I can't maneuver you up and down the stairs, and he'll see this happening anyways. and B- We don't have a boat and could use all the help we can get without telling the town, I chose to explain it too him anyways."

"I-" I looked between her and Jay, I knew she was right but it worried me that she told him about all of this without talking to me first.

"I don't really understand, but I want to help." he shrugged.

"Okay, I guess." I gestured to the food on the table, "But what's all the food about?"

Aunt Kat grabbed my dad's journal off the table, along with the translated notes, and a few old notebooks she grabbed from the attic. I've never read them before, but I knew they were there. They were my mom's; she wasn't major into "Scrapbooking"-like the cutesy stuff, but she wrote letters-and kept copies of- to my dad and keeping letters he wrote. Along with old polaroid pictures and little trinkets taped to the pages, all in between her own form of journaling.

Kat had a goofy look on her face- something like excitement and concern, but a little confidence and confusion sprinkled in- I'm sure she would have called that look "determination". "I had this revelation back at the shack, when you were talking to Jay about the fact that you've always liked fish, and I know it's not the most majorly important thing, but it reminded me of something your mom told me back when she had just recently met your dad." She quickly flipped through one of my moms notebooks, switching to another one, and pointing out the passage. " Here, listen: ' Kat thinks it's gross and I guess it's not the worst thing anybody could do, I mean people eat sushi. But either way, at work, and at school Lanie -That's what your mom called your dad-' often sits alone, and doesn't let other people sit with him. I was worried about it, and decided to see if he would let me. Apparently, it's because he likes raw fish? I'm not sure to the extent where it's weird enough to sit alone, but I guess its not just like raw tuna or fancy oysters. I guess that's why his lunch box smells like a chum bucket. I asked him if he likes cooked seafood, or sushi, and he said he likes both, but he prefers just plain raw. He asked me not to tell anyone- oops I told Kat- and I know I won't tell anyone else." Kat took a breath after reading the passage, and put the notebook back down on the counter.

"So you want me to eat a bunch of raw seafood?"

"Yes, and I know like your mom pointed out that sushi is a thing, but I thought years ago that I was crazy for thinking I watched your dad crush open a crab and eat it raw, but I guess not. After she told me this, I just never questioned it."

"Okay. Kat, I think this is really dumb-"

She held her hand up to keep me quiet "If you do this, whether you like it or not, I will reward you with this-" She held up the bag of food from the shack "Double deep fried catfish big meal, two orders of crawfish, and extra hushpuppies and fries, with a side order of shrimp fries; and this-" she held up the other bag "A bag of goodies, that I can promise you'll like from that new store downtown, including the phone number of the cashier."