Dance Moms - Claudia (2) Sand and Wave

Chapter 31 : Forgotten

The yacht crew never felt so awkward, to be invited to a bonfire party by pirates who almost killed them.

Masha and Emira had no problem socializing with people of the underworld, all drinking and dancing around the fire. JoJo, Tilly and Camryn sat by themselves, looking at Chloe with this strange new girl.

"I couldn't reach your friends, I couldn't reach anyone." Isabella sobbed. "Then the news said you're a fugitive, and you just vanished."

"I'm so so sorry! I was lost." Chloe hugged her into her arms.

She told her everything, from the lost of her parents to become a member of the Recovery. It was only last night that she went over her history with the Sheikh. She wondered how many people out there still not knowing what happened to her, would they all think she died, or simply have forgotten her existence?

The least they know the better. She hoped.

They sat together and stared out into sea, just like old times, flooding in old memories, until the sun slowing rose. From the horizon came a boat, riding the waves and washed to shore.

"Come! There's someone I like you to meet!" Isabella took her hand, walked her into the water where the boat met the sand.

A young man jumped into the splashing waves, walked up to Isabella and picked her off her feet, they kissed like lovers.

"This is Diego, my husband."

"You married?" Chloe asked in disbelief.

"You've been gone a long time! Lots of things happened!" Isabella laughed, turning to her husband. "Diego, this is Chloe, the friend I've been telling you about."

"This is Chloe? You found her??" he gasped, then broke into a great smile. "You found her!"

Chloe watched them hug and laugh like it was the happiest news, no doubt Isabella has been telling her husband about her. Once again her heart hurts knowing how much she meant in her friend's heart, that she has forgotten her all these time.

She saw Isabella whispered to her husband, Diego climbed back into the boat, then to her next surprise, Diego brought out a baby, placing it into Isabella's arm. Standing before the sunrise, the scene was magical.

"This is Ricardo, our baby. Would you like to hold him?"

"Can I?" Chloe hesitated, she didn't think she deserves it.

Carefully receiving the baby, Chloe held it with trembling arms, her heart was pounding, her emotion grew so strong she was in tears.

"He's so beautiful!" she sobbed.

The baby let out a cry and Chloe frowned, thinking her face might scare him, but Isabella simply took over.

"He needs a diaper change."

Having the baby taken away, Chloe almost didn't want to let go, as if she was sharing her mother's heart during her abduction, and all the mothers whom she returned their children. She nodded at the path she has chosen.

"Diego is a fisherman." Isabella watched her husband returning the baby to the boat.

"Fisherman? What do they do?"

"They fish."

"Oh." Chloe laughed silly. "I thought it's a specialty in Free Port."

"Free Port isn't there anymore."

"It isn't?" Chloe blinked.

Suddenly she felt awful talking about herself all night, she never asked about her friend.

"The place was too packed it became known. The gang broke up."

"Where did they go?"

"Oh, here and there." Isabella shrugged.

"And the Colonel?"

"We retired, sold everything and started a fishing business, went legit."

Chloe looked at her friends skeptically.

"Fishing? As in supplying seafood? Nothing fishy? Like robbing tourists on boats?"

"I'm not going to answer that question!" Isabella gave her a wink.

By morning the team already sank in with the locals, together they brought back fish from the sea, for the yacht crew to make breakfast. To the crew it was the most unforgettable experience, a story to tell their kids and grandkids.

After breakfast the team broke out their map, showing the locals in hope to find St. Augustine Island.

"We don't go to that part of the water. Many boats went and never came back." Diego said. "We call it the Dark Well, it swallows everything."

"Militarized zone?" JoJo asked.

"It's international water, it doesn't belong to anyone."

"Wait a minute. Shouldn't that be the Bermuda Triangle?" Tilly asked.

"No. The Triangle is up north, stretches from Puerto Rico to Florida." Diego ran his finger on the map. "The Well is down south, pass Cuba."

"Oh." Tilly shrank. A teen engineer she was, a geographer she was not.