An Indirect Sign of Light

Chapter 2 - Izzy

October, 2015

"93 seconds!" Izzy gasped to no one in particular as she pushed through the heavy iron door and stepped onto the landing of Gay Head Lighthouse. She looked around for some appreciative seagull to congratulate her on such a feat. No such luck.

"93 seconds!" she cried at the top of her voice.

There was no response from the people who looked like specks on the beach far below her. Oh well.

With a sigh, Izzy turned toward the wind, the clean sea air whipping her long brown ponytail about like a horse's mane. She gazed out over the vast, endless ocean with the sudden realization that the better part of a year on this island might not be quite the adventure she had thought. The sea seemed bigger, more ominous than she had first thought, and less friendly than it did last summer in Kitty Hawk. She circled around the landing and turned her gaze westward, looking past the barren, windswept beach toward where she thought Providence should be.

She squinted her eyes, straining for the slightest sign of life. An uneasy feeling from deep inside began to pull at her. She knew that feeling and didn't like it. It would not get her here. Not here. She left it behind, on the mainland. Not here.

"I'll come back up tonight", she thought. "I'll bet I can see the city lights at night".

She circled back around the landing, comforted by the idea that the dark would bring lights to remind her that she wasn't alone in this vast world. Eager to hear another human voice, she pulled out her iPod and dialed in Carrie Underwood.

Listening to how Carrie would deal with that no-good-cheating boyfriend lifted Izzy's spirits, although truth be told, her 9-year-old mind had no real idea what the song meant. But when it came time to take the Louisville Slugger to both headlights, the landing became the stage at Cricket Pavilion, and she rocked it out as only she (and Carrie) could do. The more she danced, the louder she sang, and the louder she sang, the more the uneasy feeling diminished until she managed to sing it completely out of her mind.

Izzy began spinning on the landing, a favorite trick since she was a toddler, sure to make mama laugh when she got so dizzy she stumbled around like a sailor on a two-day bender. The thought of mama's laughing face put a smile on hers, and she spun even faster, her breath coming in short bursts of laughter. Without warning, a sudden gust of wind spun her into the open iron door, slamming it shut, hard.

Her eyes jerked open with a start. The world was a spinning kaleidoscope of sea and sky and light. She stumbled to the railing, feeling for all the world like she was going to tumble over it. As she gripped the iron railing to steady herself, she felt the strange sensation of falling as part of the top railing gave way, revealing a thin band of shimmering metal where corroded wrought iron had been a moment before. Startled, she threw herself back against the window that protected the light, shattering a pane of glass with her elbow before she fell to the floor of the gallery. She sat there for who knows how long, trying to steady her heart and wondering why her left elbow was wet and sticky. Finally, mercifully, she threw up, then sat back against the brick wall, unable to move as gradually, the world stopped spinning.

She sat in silence. Her elbow throbbed in time to the only thought her mind was able to come up with: Mama.

Mama.

She spoke it once. It felt wonderful and horrible at the same time. Mama. She said it again. And again, and again, until it became a mantra that she couldn't stop repeating for fear that if she stopped, it would be forever lost to her. Mama. She said it louder, and louder, shaking violently as she tried to shout away the bad feelings that had caught her after all. Mama.

The heavy iron door began to move. She turned to look through her tears at the figure who stepped through the door.

"Mama!"

The gruff voice and leathery skin of an ancient face appeared.

"I don't hardly think so. Now what kinda trouble you been causing up here?"