Slipping - Book 1.5 in the Swans Landing series

Chapter 16

I woke with a start, blinking into the pale morning light. The chime sounded again and I rolled over, grabbing my phone off the bedside table.

“Hello?” I croaked into the phone. I felt like I had only fallen asleep five minutes ago. Blinking at the clock, I saw that the red numbers said 5:01 A.M.

“Josh?” It was Sailor, but her voice sounded strange. She sniffled and said, “I have to go. I can’t stay here anymore.”

“What’s going on?” I asked, sitting up and pushing the blanket off of me. The events of the night before washed over me. Telling everyone the truth about what I was. About my connection to Sailor. I was sure the news had already spread across Swans Landing by now.

“I’m getting ready to leave,” Sailor said, her voice thick with sobs. “Grandma and I had a big fight last night before she went to bed. I told her I wanted to leave, but she doesn’t understand. I have to go now, before she wakes up.”

“Sailor, think about this,” I said, gripping the phone tight in my fist. “It’s a long swim and you don’t know where to go. You can’t go off into the ocean alone.”

“Then come with me.”

A jolt shot through me at her words. I couldn’t leave. I knew I could never leave my mom. And I couldn’t leave Mara. Not now, not when we had just found each other.

“I can’t,” I started to say.

But Sailor never gave up easily. “They all know the truth about you now. They’ll treat you differently. You’ll never be one of them if you stay here.”

I rubbed a hand over my eyes, wiping away the remnants of sleep. “I have to think about my mom—”

“What about my mom?” Sailor interrupted. “What about our dad? Don’t you want to know what happened the night he died? Don’t you want to find the truth?”

I thought about Mara standing on the beach in the moonlight, shivering in the cold breeze over the ocean. I thought about her lips on mine as we sat in the sand at Pirate’s Cove. I thought about swimming with her in the waves.

Part of my heart ached with the need to stay near her. But the other ached for something I had wanted my entire life: answers about the father I’d never had the chance to know.

There was only one option.

* * *

“Are you ready?” Sailor stood at the edge of the shoreline, the foaming water lapping at her toes. The sun was just beginning to rise over the gray ocean, the hazy sun of late winter. A waterproof bag Sailor had given me lay at my side, stuffed with what little money I had saved and a few pieces of clothing. Sailor had granola bars and crackers in her bag. She had been packed for months, it seemed, just waiting for the right opportunity to leave the island behind.

“Almost,” I told her.

I bent over the paper on my knee, my pen poised. What could I say to make Mara understand? Would she ever forgive me for leaving now with Sailor and not before when Mara had asked me to?

Would I ever be back to attempt earn her forgiveness?

I bit my lip, then wrote out just a short note.

You have a million more pictures to take and a life worth living on land. - Josh

I set the note into the open box, on top of the picture of the ocean made of seashells. I ran my finger over the woman walking along the shore, the baby in her arms. Then I set Mara’s camera on top of it and closed the lid.

Brushing sand off my pants, I stood and walked down the beach to Sailor’s side. We looked out at the ocean, which stretched all the way to the horizon. Nothing but gray water for thousands of miles. And maybe somewhere out there lay the answers to all the questions that had haunted both of our lives.

It was time find them.

Wordlessly, we slipped out of our pants, stuffed them into our waterproof bags, and then walked into the crashing surf.