Et tú, Clarissa?

Chapter twenty

Present Day (New Jersey, USA)

At the same time I feel my legs go numb, I feel how someone drags me up by the collar, but after that everything gets dark again.

A fading blur in which I see an old man in the company of some more. The yellow fishing hat shines because of the pouring rain and I hear him say something before it turns dark again.

I feel how my body rock back and forth as someone carries me of the boat. A younger man than the one before.

An elderly woman surrounded by children and a blanket which she wraps around me before I slowly fall asleep.

I take a deep breath and my eyes goes wide open. At first my hand goes for my necklace, but as I feel it there, my gaze fly over the room I am in before I even have time to guide it. A living room. White furniture and fishing nets and hocks put up on the walls. A bunting over one of the walls with the sail alphabet and an old steering wheel in oak over the fireplace. I look towards the door and the kitchen and after that, the door opposite, but I cannot see anyone. Suddenly, a rattling with pans escapes the kitchen and I twitch because of the sudden sound, which this someone in the kitchen must have heard or felt, because not long after, and a wrinkled, plump face peeks out from behind the wall.

"Oh, I am terribly sorry, dear. You having to wake up along and to this noise none the less." the old lady disappears again for just a moment to pick up the pans before she walks over to me. "I am Mrs. Hubbard and you're at the Sandy hook lighthouse if you were wondering, love."

She is dressed in a light blue nightgown and her short curly hair is as white as mine, but more lustreless with all tangles yet, it is not thin. A smile fills her cracked lips and she hands over the plate of breakfast to me. I suddenly feel my hunger like an aching pain through my body, but of courtesy, I thank her and start eating calmly.

"You must be hungry." she says, but I am so concentrated on the meal in front of me that I do not answer her.

She looks at me as I eat for a while before she opens her mouth.

"Do you remember what happened, love?"

I stop eating and feel the icing pain from the cold ocean through my body and the memories of the people on the beach catches up with me. And then I remember, I am a warlock. I put down the fork and discovers that the old lady has continued talking without me noticing it.

"-and you kind of had us worried there for a moment. I asked them if they had any idea how you could've ended up there, but they didn't. Do you remember?"

Then the panic reaches me too and I don't know what to do with myself.

I need to get away from all these people before I hurt anyone! Or those people find me again.

"You are in trouble, aren't you?" I hear a male voice say from across the room and as I look his way, I see the man that carried me of the boat.

I bite my lip and nod.

"I would really love if you only could-"

"You're English?" a light voice asked and I spotted a little girl by the door.

Her wide-open eyes needed more place over her face so her eyebrows had been pulled up on her forehead and a big smile lighted up her tanned face.

"Do you want to hear my British impression?" she asks as she runs to me. "Harry, could you fetch me some tea, darling?"

A careful smile broke out onto my lips.

"Beautiful." I say. "You do got some talent there."

I am just about to ask her what her name is as her father, the man who stand in front of the fire place, feel some odd need to interrupt her.