The summer I met Charlie

part 8

It was now a hour later and I didn't see either of them. Jane or Charlie. But the night was still pretty. I did see two fantastic looking seals. Everything about them I was attracted to. The way they moved through the water. I decided to join them. I walked away from the crowd and jumped in. I expected them to swim away. To do what instinct told them, and that's when I noticed it the smallest... design? Was it possible for a seal to have markings like that, markings that look like a tree? Then it hit me. I had seen this same design somewhere. Charlie. His forearm. The day at Starbucks.  

"How odd. Did you get caught up in something? Looks like you got the same markings as my friend, but his is a tattoo." He looked right at me then and did something that scared me. He swam up to me. He was only about five feet away from me. This wasn't just any seal. This was the one that I had seen when I had gone swimming the morning Charlie had stopped me in Starbucks. This had to be him. Maybe someone had tamed him before. Could he have escaped from somewhere? A zoo? This type of thing just dosn't happen. By now the other seal seemed a bit scared herself. She was keeping her distance and splashing as if to get the other ones attention. I stuck my hand out to try and touch him. But then he was gone. I swam back to the shore and climbed back to lay in the sand. I grabbed my shoes, and then I noticed it. How i missed it before, I have no idea. A black back pack. Charlies. And leading away from it were the strange tracks I had seen on my beach, and in front of Charlie's house. What were they, and what were they doing here? The pieces fit together. Seal tracks. 

I ran then. This was not right. Something was wrong. Terribly wrong. He was what, tagging seals or something? The one in the water looked all sad. I made myself run faster, and then I bumped into someone. I looked up and there he was. Charlie dripping wet.

He looked at me for a minute before walking to where I was standing. " I know, you have a lot of questions. I will explain everything if you give me a chance. Right now you are thinking something, and I can assure you that whatever it is, the situation is far worse." He grabbed my arm and  started dragging me towards the lights where the rest of the people were dancing and that's when I saw the car. His sister's car? He opened the passenger door and let me climb in. The car was clean, nothing about it was at all like his house. Almost too clean, and it had that annoying new car smell. He turned the key and I felt sick. I had no idea what was going on. The idea that a seal would have the same markings as a boy I knew was crazy. But the idea that he was marking seals was even crazier. But for some reason Charlie had assumed I was freaking out, but over what? He wasn't there when I was in the water. Then I noticed it again on his skin. The tattoo I had noticed as Starbucks. "Your tattoo, what does it mean?" He looked over at me and then shook his head. He pulled over off the road. We were alongside a tall cliff and the moon was rising in the sky.

"Have you ever heard of Silkies? I mean do you remember when we looked in your book. The travel one. You were so amused by the seal..." 

"The one that had the caption?"

"Yes. That one, it said something about a Silkie onshore."

"Charlie, what is a silkie?" I looked up from is arm the first time 

"Something that's very close to home for me Lena."

"At least tell me where we are going!"

"Promise me, that you will remember the guy you ate pasta with on the beach. The guy you trusted enough to drive you to his house. And most importantly the guy that you kissed." He leaned over and took my head in his hands. As much as I wanted to look away I couldn't. Something had changed. He was different, and I couldn't change it. I couldn't change him. He tried to kiss me, sliding his hand down to the small of my back, but I wasn't ready for this. He wasn't going to get out of this that easy.