Wet Dream - a short story

part 1

** This is an entry for @dreamingthought 's Fantasy Short Story contest. Please see the fantasy club discussion thread for details ** Otherwise, please read and enjoy!

The sun was bright and cold on Meghann’s face as she shivered on the deck of her uncle’s shrimp boat. They were taking it out for a test drive after he had worked on the old engine. Since Katrina, there were more problems than they could keep up with, and if Uncle Remy lost any more time on the lines, they were going to have a very lean year.

Meghann had been riding along with her uncle for as long as she could remember, ever since her dad had died in a fishing accident in the Gulf of Mexico. She used to think she might find him when she was little. Now that she was fourteen, she knew better, but she enjoyed being out on the water, working up a sweat, pulling in shrimp baskets and working the lines with her uncle.

Her Uncle Remy had taken her in without skipping a beat, but his wife, her Aunt Lily, couldn’t stand her. She always said that Remy spent more time with Meghann than he did with his own kids, but they were so little, they couldn’t come out on the boat yet. It was just the way it seemed. Uncle Remy was proud of his little Cajun boys, but knew that when it came to putting food on the table, Meghann was the one who was helping him.

Today, the winds had picked up, promising a good gale before sunset. It was colder than usual and Meghann’s nerves were on edge, wanting to get back to the docks before the storm hit. But Uncle Remy wanted to take the boat out a little ways to test if his repairs would hold up under a load. He thought nothing was better to prove it that choppy water.

So, Meghann resigned herself to hold on tight while her uncle pushed the little shrimper to its limits, watching as Gulf Shores, Alabama got farther and farther away. She sat inside the little cabin in her slicker and boots, shivering with the drop in temperatures, watching her uncle fiddling with the controls and gauges on the display.

“Dad burn it!” her uncle exclaimed. “The oil pressure is dropping again! Meggie, take the wheel and hold ‘er steady for me, cherie. Be right back.”

Meghann stepped up to hold the wheel of the boat, something she usually enjoyed, but anxiously watched the horizon as lightning flashed in the near distance and the waves started to buck the boat roughly.

“Hurry up Uncle Remy! I want to head back, I don’t like this sky.”

“Oh hush, chile, you know I take good care of ya’,” he said as he disappeared below into the engine room.

While her uncle was below, Meghann kept a watch out the windows. Rain began pouring down like someone was throwing buckets at the window, making it impossible to see what was outside. Like usual, the weather went from bad to worse in a minute, making Meghann work her strong fourteen year old arms for all they were worth to hold the settings on the small boat.

“Hold her steady, Meggie, I almost have ‘er fixed up,” Uncle Remy hollered over the violent crashing of the storm.

            “I’m doing my best, Remy, hurry it up, I can’t hold it much longer,” she cried. At that moment, one of the riggings on the bow swung loose from its moorings and crashed into the window. Meghann screamed and ducked, but fortunately, the tempered glass didn’t shatter. She saw the rigging swinging wildly around in the stormy winds and thought that she could get it anchored down better so it wouldn’t make its way through the window. She hooked the bungee cord around the wheel, and went through the hatch into the blowing gale. Creeping slowly along the railing, she made her way toward the upright the rigging was swinging from and timed her catch to grab the rope, so it would not whack her in the face. Just as she grabbed for the riggings, a wave heaved the boat sideways nearly sending it over. The pulley on the rigging smashed into the side of Meghann’s head and sent her careening over the side of the small craft.

Meghann felt her body hit the water with a sharp smack and the weightlessness as she drifted deeper into the water. Even though she knew she needed to swim, the blow to her head made her limbs too heavy to move. Her boots and slicker filled with water and seemed to enhance the sea’s suction to its depths.

As white spots began to fill her vision, a feeling of peace settled over Meghann, allowing her to be at ease with drowning, almost as if she was an observer to the tragedy taking place. She was not angry or scared, but felt almost curious as to what the next step would be. Her vision became hazy and muddled, but she thought she saw someone swimming toward her. Her first thought was that her Uncle had found her and would bring her to the surface, but she quickly dismissed that, because this person had golden hair, her uncle’s was brown. Meghann’s heart began to race even faster.

‘Dad! Dad?’ Meghann tried to scream in the water, but no sound came out of her waterlogged lungs. The figure swam closer, then she was wrapped in strong arms and pulled to the surface.