Eve Alone

Part Four

Eve's eyes skimmed the top of the water in the direction of the cry, until they found the distinct shape of a woman's head and shoulders some way out in the water. The woman was under the shadow of the old wooden dock that stretched out from the sand not far from where Eve was standing.

Wait.....a woman?

Eve's finger moved to click the button on the phone to turn off the screen and her arm dropped to her side, her other arm still holding the lifeless form close to her as she stared at the woman, who stared right back.

The woman's skin shone in the moonlight it was so pale. The tresses of her fiery red hair hung in wet waves to her shoulders and floated on the water about her. Her arms were under the water, hidden from view; not moving back and forth at her sides like someone treading water. Instead she glided up and down with the gentle motion of the sea, every movement smooth, effortless.

At first the woman's gaze seemed fixed on the baby at Eve's shoulder, her lips parted, her eyes drawn down in sadness. In desperation,  she searched for any sign of movement from him.

Eve's lower lip began to tremble as she stirred herself from her frozen position, dropping the phone on the sand beside her once more as she eased the baby from her shoulder. She stepped down into the water a little way to hold him out for the woman to see.

She recognised the torment apparent in the woman's visage as with each passing second the reality of the baby's state became all too clear. The woman's prolonged gaze raised to her own face and a look of complete and utter hatred take the place of the distress. Her eyebrows furrowed so deeply it looked almost painful, the woman starting to shake with fury.

Eve took a step back with the power of the woman's terrifying stare, the hatred seeming to flow out from her and ebb towards Eve with the tide. The waves that had been lapping at her feet now rushed at her with force and drew her further into the water as they pulled back.

The woman's right arm appeared from under the water and she pointed at the dead baby in Eve's arms.

With horror, Eve comprehended the meaning of this gesture.

She thinks I killed him...she thinks I killed her baby!

"N-no....NO!" Eve stammered out across the water, looking from the baby to the woman, "I didn't...I DIDN'T DO IT!"

The woman either did not believe her or did not understand her and began gesticulating, strange noises of anger and grief ripping themselves from within her that she didn't appear able to control. Eve continued to protest her innocence until it dawned on her:

The woman was signing!

The woman was trying to communicate with her hands like someone who was deaf. As she swallowed hard, Eve's head began to shake a deliberate no and then slowed again, her eyes welling with desperate tears as she wished hard for the woman to understand her.

The woman halted, her arms disappearing under the surface. For a few moments the two stared at each other in deafening silence, until the woman's expression softened again into indescribable pain. Eve drew in her bottom lip in an attempt to impede the tremble as she returned the baby to her shoulder. She began walking along the shoreline to the dock and out to where the woman was, the woman's eyes never leaving her child.

As Eve approached, the woman's breathing became louder and shallower in her panic, the inescapable truth coming closer and closer towards her. Eve stopped and looked at the woman with pity, wishing with all her heart that she could have done something...

Anything.

The woman's stormy grey eyes only flicked briefly to meet Eve's and then were back on her baby. Eve compelled herself to swallow past the painful lump in her throat and extend her arms out as she knelt on the edge of the dock, the hard wood under her knees damp with sea spray. She clung to the baby with determination, while the woman stared but did not move.