Wet Dream - a short story

part 2

“Hey fishbrains! Watcha doin?” a hateful voice called out to Meghann Jarboe as she made her way through the market. She was determined to ignore the taunt and keep about her business.

“Seen your papa any time lately?” the voice continued.

Ever since her near drowning five years ago, there were always locals giving her a hard time about her story. When Meghann had been found on the beach, barely alive, she was certain her father had rescued her from the raging ocean. She told everyone she saw back then about her experience, one that had given her more peace than she could describe about her father’s disappearance. That peace quickly turned to embarrassment, then shame, then denial as her life became loaded with teasing and harassment. The worst offender was her old Middle School boyfriend, Seth Tibadoux. He had laughed harder than anyone when she told him of her otherworldly rescue, and hadn’t stopped since. He took great pleasure in telling every new person he met that might come in contact with Meghann about her craziness.

It didn’t help that her aunt and uncle didn’t believe her, and that they always hushed her when she tried to talk about it. Over the years, she had refused to get back on the boat with her uncle. He had had to hire a crew to help run the boat, so times were even harder for the family. Meghann had taken a job at the fish market to help out, since she couldn’t work on the boat anymore.

          

Meghann had succeeded in annoying Seth by ignoring him for the better part of half an hour, then managed to finish out her day uneventfully. It was late September, still warm when the sun was up, but a chill would occasionally blow in off the water. Meghann walked down the boardwalk to the beach to spend a little time watching the sea, and to enjoy some sun before it set. There was a small cove that she loved to walk to, where she could take off her sandals and dig her toes into the white fine sand. The beaches were called sugar beaches because of the character of the white sand. She loved the feel of it on her skin, even moreso since she had awakened in it after having been rescued.

She reached a hand into her pocket, fingering the shell she had kept in her pocket since the day she was found by the beach patrol, the day after the storm. She could not remember anything except the hazy picture of a golden haired man and the thought that her father had rescued her. When she had been released from the hospital, she had gone home and taken off her clothes, to find the shell in the pocket of her jeans. It was a beautiful abalone shell, with a pearl melded to its surface. She had no idea how it had gotten there, but she hadn’t let it out of her possession since then.

Kicking her sandals off, Meghann sat in the sand and began to sift the sand with her fingers, letting it fall onto her feet. She still loved the sound of the ocean, but was terrified to go into it. Longingly she watched the horizon hoping to catch sight of dolphins swimming near the shore. There were some breaker rocks out about a hundred yards from shore, and she loved watching the water spray over them.

 Meghann leaned back against her backpack and settled in to watch the sunset, and wait for the tide to come in. That would be her cue to leave, as the grasping fingers of the water crept toward her. To her delight, three dolphins arced high out of the water, and continued their antics across the horizon between the shore and the open sea.

Out of the corner of her eye, Meghann thought that she saw a person out in the water. Her heart started to pound as she frantically looked around for someone to help. She was the only soul on the beach to her dismay, and she didn’t have a cell phone to call for help.

“Hey, are you okay? Can you hear me? Hold on, I’ll help you,” she called out to the man she could clearly see now clinging to one of the breaker rocks. She swallowed the bile that rose in her throat at the thought of stepping into the sea. ‘If I die trying to save this guy, then maybe that was all I was saved to do all those years back’ she thought as she threw her hoodie on the beach. She waded into the water and sucked air into her lungs as the cold water bit at her calves.

The man’s head disappeared behind the rock, a look she couldn’t quite decipher on his face as she stepped into the gulf. Meghann took a deep breath and dove into the small waves, swimming toward the rock where she had seen the man. It had been so long since she had swam, she didn’t realize how quickly she would tire out. Fighting the tide, she pushed on, not wanting to lose the battle now that she had committed herself to it.

Meghann came up for breath and was relieved to see the rock closer, but then panicked as she saw no sign of the man that had been there. A wave crashed over her, pushing her underwater. The horrific feeling of drowning returned to her in a flash as she struggled against the pull of the current. In her panic, she became disoriented and could not tell up from down, could not tell which way to swim. As she thrashed around in the water, her pocket became warm and she calmed momentarily as she put her hand over the shell.

‘Save me, dad.’ She thought as the breath in her lungs bubbled out, leaving them burning for oxygen.

‘Here we go again,’ was all she could think as her vision was dotted with white spots again, and her limbs became leaden. Then suddenly, she was grasped around the middle and pulled into a steel embrace. With the last ounce of strength she had she looked up into a beautiful face surrounded with golden hair. It was not her father, but the image of her rescuer from years ago emerged from its haze as she gazed upon a face she now remembered.