Between the Waves and the Flames
By
Eve Foss
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Smashwords Edition
Copyright 2012 by Eve Ferris
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All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the author or publisher except for the use of brief quotations in critical articles or reviews.
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This is a work of fiction. Names, places, businesses, characters, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events or locales is purely coincidental.
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Hands clenched on the steering wheel of her five-year old compact Toyota, Nikki’s blue eyes rapidly took in the dirt and pebble driveway leading to a shabby-looking, doublewide trailer resting amid tall pine trees. “I’m not really sure about this,” she said to her best friend, Robin, who was sitting impatiently in the passenger seat. “Maybe I need to think about it for a while.” Robin has to be crazy for dragging me into this, Nikki thought to herself. And I’m even crazier to let her!
The moist darkness of early evening soaked into her skin, making the hair on the back of her neck stand on end, and with the car window rolled down, the chirring racket of Louisiana swamp crickets and the burps of frogs competed to draw her attention. She dropped her hand briefly, unconsciously swatting at a mosquito on her arm, before reaching for the keys. “Oh, no, you don’t!” Robin swatted Nikki’s hand away from the ignition. “You always think and plan and think some more. Live life for once! Embrace the impulse!” Robin threw her arms out dramatically, bouncing her curly red hair, as well as the shadows they threw on the roof of the car.
Nikki unconsciously sat up a little taller and tugged her blouse straight. Her brow wrinkled and eyes narrowed as she frowned at her friend. “I’ll have you know there is nothing wrong with plans. I happen to be quite good at making them! And I couldn’t have earned my black belts or worked my way through school without a healthy dose of self-discipline, thank you very much.”
“Healthy dose, my ass. More like an overdose the size of a wooly mammoth.” Robin sighed dramatically. “You really need to loosen up. Now, would you just come on?” The bubbly young red head bounced out of the car, darted to the driver’s side, and pulled the door open in spite of Nikki’s protests. She grabbed Nikki’s arm and proceeded to drag her toward the steps that led up to the covered porch attached to the house, and Nikki fought the urge to grab the nearest tree and hang on for dear life.
“Come on. I promise she’s not scary, and she’s really good at it!” Robin managed to jostle Nikki a few feet closer.
Nikki let her feet dig into the dirt, momentarily jerking Robin to a halt, as her hands clenched Robin’s sleeves. “But I’ve never done anything like this before,” she hissed from between clenched teeth.
Robin patted her on the arm. “I know, honey. That’s why I want you to see someone really good. Just this one time, and then I’ll leave you alone about it, okay?” With that, she grasped Nikki around the wrists and resumed her determined tugging.
“Oh, all right!” Nikki said resignedly, finally stepping cautiously onto the first wooden step toward the porch, the ancient lumber creaking in protest to her weight and sending every hair on her head into a race for which one could stand completely on end the fastest. “If I do this, will you be happy and never make me do something like this again?” she asked.
“Yep. I’ll never bug you to do it again, especially if you end up with someone as wonderful as Jim,” Robin assured her, referring to her current boyfriend, and nodding her head with a look of total sincerity on her face.
“Fine!” Nikki huffed in exasperation. She gingerly stepped up the wooden steps and stopped in front of the pale yellow, well-weathered trailer door. She ran her fingers nervously through her short, dark hair and then with a quick glance at her friend, reached out a tentative hand to the doorknob. How had Robin talked her into this? And why hadn’t she at least thought to insist on coming here during daylight hours?
Eyes narrowing in anticipation, Nikki took a deep breath, slowly opened the door, and peeked inside. The almost soothing scent of exotic incense hit her as the flames from dozens of lit candles blazed in the darkness, throwing a hazy glow over the room. The candles, in varying stages of melting, rested on every possible surface, from the heavy wooden coffee table in the center of the room to the old-fashioned buffet in the back, to the dusty, ancient looking piano resting at Nikki’s right. Some were typical tapers of the general store variety, and others were thick pillar candles of dubious origin. One candle in particular caught Nikki’s eyes—it stood about three feet tall, with three wicks, its color of green fading into blue, which in turn faded to red.
“Go on!” Robin urged, placing her hand at the small of Nikki’s back and giving a shove. “It’s just my aunt, Sally!” she whispered loudly in the darkness. Despite the witch they were visiting being a relative of Robin’s, Nikki could have sworn she heard a note of uneasiness in Robin’s voice and suspected that the bravado was a complete façade.
With a quick, “See ya!” Robin pulled the door shut behind Nikki as she stumbled inside, leaving her alone in the shadows with only the candles for light--alone with whomever was inside. Nikki slowly took a step forward. “Hello?” she called, her voice quivering. “I’m…I’m here for my…appointment?” Her voice echoed oddly in the trailer, the hollow sound bouncing back harshly on her ears, making her wish she had only whispered. Even her breathing sounded loud.
“Hello, child.” Nikki yanked around to the right as the voice came from the opposite end of the trailer she was expecting. A small, rather shrunken woman drifted forward, lips twisted upward in an amused smile, her eyes twinkling in the glow of the candles. Brown leather sandals that tied at the ankles graced her feet, contrasting with dark brown slacks and a loose-fitting olive green blouse--not exactly how Nikki would have expected a witch to dress.
Despite her short height and unimposing outfit, Nikki still found the woman slightly intimidating. “Hello,” she whispered back.
“I’m Sally Weaver,” the woman said, halting just in front of Nikki. Bright eyes scanned her from head to toe, taking in the closely cut, thick, dark brown hair, bright blue eyes, muscular shoulders and arms, traveling down her lean body, and pausing at her strong thighs and calves, and Nikki found she had to repress the immediate and familiar irritation of being under appraisal. Being a martial artist all her life, she actively worked to keep her body honed and flexible. While not the first time she had faced scrutiny of her body, she had never quite gotten used to it, though she supposed many women would have found it satisfying to be ogled by nearly every strange man on the street.
Finally, Sally looked back up, straight into the younger woman’s eyes. “So, you’re here to see me about True Love, huh?” Nikki knew the witch had not touched her, but she could have sworn she had, just from the feel of the woman staring through her eyes. Nikki also had the disconcerting feeling that she did not really need to answer, but that the woman already knew, so there was no point in holding back, either.
“Yes ma’am. Your niece, Robin, insists I come see you. She thinks I need some sort of help with my love life.”
“I see.” The witch turned and waved with tiny hands to the living area. “Come have a seat and we can talk.”
Nikki made her way to the brown-covered sofa and slowly sat down. She folded her hands in her lap and anxiously glanced around. Strange items decorated the room, and Nikki, pressing her hand against her nervously churning stomach, was not sure if the unusual decor made her feel better or worse. A green mask hung over one window, leering from the shadows, odd twin faces surrounded with feathers hung over the doorway, and a matching figurine set of a girl with flowers, a woman with two small children and an infant, and an elderly woman at a spinning wheel dominated a table near the fire place. But most eye-catching and startling of all was a vivid painting depicting a naked man wearing horns and a woman pouring milk from a flask, milk which turned into the stars.
Nikki’s eyes traveled past the painting. Now that she was looking more closely, she realized that while some of the candles were plain white tea-lights of the same kind she used in her potpourri holder, the three-foot tall candle was not the only unusual one. Candles of almost every imaginable color dominated the room, some decorated with things like seashells or leaves, some forming unusual designs that reminded her of things like twining tree branches or ocean waves.
Sally sat down on the other end of the sofa, stretched one arm out comfortably across the back of the sofa, and turned her body toward Nikki. “So why does my niece think you need help with your love life?” she asked, her eyes twinkling in the candle light.
“Well, I haven’t had much luck with guys.” Nikki’s hands nervously smoothed the wrinkles in the denim of her jeans, her palms damp and sweaty against the cloth.
“No?”
“No. I haven’t really found the right guy, yet, I guess.”
Sally nodded, her serious expression at odds with twinkling eyes. “So, you’ve had bad luck in love.”
“Yeah. I mean, no one has ever hit me, I haven’t been married, so I haven’t gone through a divorce, and no guy has ever gotten me pregnant, so I guess I haven’t had it too bad. But I just never found a guy I clicked with.”
Nikki sat silently as Sally looked intently in her eyes, seeming to consider, before rising, walking to the cabinet, rummaging around, and finally and taking an unlit, blood red candle from somewhere deep inside. She brought the candle back to the couch, sat down, and placed the candle in Nikki’s folded hands. “Hold this for me, would you?” the woman asked as she began to dig through various pockets. “I know I have my lighter here, somewhere…Oh, there it is.”
Sally presented a disposable lighter, and Nikki supposed the woman liked the color red, as the lighter matched the candle. “Now, just what kind of person do you believe you would ‘click’ with? Describe your ‘true love’.
Nikki fidgeted with the candle, the wax cool and slick against her skin. “Well, someone tall, dark, and handsome,” she said dramatically, with a grin, though her grin fell when she saw the no-nonsense expression on Sally’s face. She got serious. “Okay, not really. I don’t care about hair and eye color and stuff. I just want someone who has a great sense of humor. Someone who helps people, but isn’t controlling. I defiantly don’t want a guy to try to control me.” She considered for a moment, biting her bottom lip. “And I want someone who loves to travel, who loves dogs, who likes to get out and do things.” She was beginning to warm to the task. “Someone who won’t be intimidated by my career, who’s athletic but can still enjoy a good book, and someone who can be strong emotionally, but can still cry at a sad movie. I’ve never seen a guy admit to that, you know,” she added, staring pensively at the candle she was slowly turning in her palms.
“So that’s what you want of your true love?” the witch asked. “Is that all?”
“Um…no.” Nikki paused again as indecision etched lines in her face. Had she asked for enough? Or had she asked for too much? Was she just too picky, like some of her friends had said? “I want someone who is honest and sincere and who doesn’t play emotional games,” she finally added. “And someone who loves me as much as I love them,” she finished.
Sally nodded again, and took the candle from her. She placed the candle on the coffee table in front of them and handed the lighter to Nikki. “Would you light that for me, please?” the witch asked as she rose and went to the window. She looked out, as if expecting to see someone there, through the darkened glass. Nikki took the lighter, her hand shaking slightly as she lit the candle.
“So will I find my ‘True Love?” she asked, placing the lighter on the table beside the candle.
Sally chuckled, “Oh yes, you will. That’s not the question. The question is, will you be willing to pay the price?”
Surprised at the request, Nikki hurriedly reached for her wallet. “I….I….Well, sure. How much do I owe you?”
Sally laughed outright this time, and gestured for her to put the billfold away. “No, no. You don’t owe me anything. I don’t accept any money for this, honey. And that’s not the kind of price you’re going to pay.”
Suddenly, Sally looked Nikki dead in the eyes and spoke softly, her low voice serious. “Are you willing to face the price of facing what you know is the truth? Of your old life dying? Of people finding out you are not what they think you are?”
Nikki’s mouth fell slightly open as she looked at the woman. The serious tone took her off guard, and she hardly knew how to answer. She shook her head to clear it, and then reasoning began to return. “I should be willing to face the truth and I have always tried to be honest about myself. I would think that should be true whether love is involved or not.”
Sally nodded her head, her mouth moving upward in an amused twitch as she moved toward the door. “Well, have a safe trip, and enjoy Florida,” she said, as she reached for the doorknob. Obviously, the session was over, but… “Um…are you going to do a spell or something?” Nikki asked as she rose.
“Oh, I don’t need to. You already did,” Sally said, gesturing to the candle.
“I see…,” Nikki said, as she walked toward the door. Since when was lighting a candle a spell? “And how will I know my true love?” she asked.
Sally grinned broadly as she opened the door. “I’ll tell you this much. You’ll meet your true love inside of a year, and when you do, you won’t know it and it won’t be who you expect—or even the kind of person you would think of. That person will, however, be exactly what you are afraid of. And only when you accept the price of love will you be able to keep it.”
The door closed behind her as Nikki stepped outside, onto the porch and into the damp night air, her knees feeling wobbly and her hands trembling again. A nervous knot rested in the pit of her stomach. She stood for a moment, letting her eyes adjust to the darkness of the Louisiana woods that surrounded her, before tipping her head, momentarily letting the sounds of the tree frogs and the crickets, all trying to outdo each other with their calls, wash over her. She would miss Louisiana, even the crazy characters like Robin’s “Aunt Sally.” She shook her head, feeling like she was trying to get cobwebs out from between her ears.
All this talk of true love. Nikki rolled her eyes to herself and shoved her hands deep in her pockets as she turned to the car. She should just try being a little less fussy about the guys she went out with. But the problem was, she refused to settle. Nikki sighed. Maybe Florida would be different.
She began to walk to the car where Robin sat waiting patently, and then she paused and turned back to the house. How did Sally know she was moving to Florida? She had just discussed it with her brother this morning and had not even had the heart to tell Robin yet. With that thought, she turned back toward the car and forced herself to walk that direction, rather than run furiously to the car and throw herself inside, like she suddenly had the urge to do.
****
The next day, almost 800 miles away, Alex Martin flashed her best “guaranteed-to-get-the-girl” grin at the blond facing her from the opposite end of a canoe. She could not help but feel just slightly cocky. The “Let’s be one with nature” approach suggested by Misty had been rather brilliant, and where else could one be most “one with nature” than the Okephenokee swamp in Southern Georgia? Her current date was a relatively recent transplant to Florida and had never seen the national preserve in the neighboring state, so here they were, in the middle of the 40-mile long swamp, approaching the first mile marker of the canoe ride, completely alone. At the last minute, Alex had even insisted that they leave the cell phones in the car, so there was no possibility of being disturbed. And since it was a weekday and not quite heavy in the tourist season, the chances of actually running into someone was pretty slim. In fact, the only person they had seen so far had been the attendant at the stand where they had rented the canoe.
Alex paddled the canoe skillfully, her eyes glued to the woman in front of her. Mandy, oddly enough, was not quite so attentive to Alex in return.
“Are you sure about this?” Mandy asked. She gazed around, mesmerized by the wilderness surrounding them, and the further they went, the more fascinated she became. Her gorgeous blue eyes had no time for Alex, as they took in nothing but the morass of vegetation surrounding them. Golden club appeared sporadically, giving a flash of color to the green of leaves and lily pads. The yellow rods rose above the dark, tea colored water, floating leisurely on the deceptively still canal.
Cyprus trees angled from the banks, their swollen bases showing no connection to the dark knees that rose strangely from the black mud, knobby limbs detached from a body. Thick bunches of Spanish moss dangled from the branches, trailing loose tendrils in the canal while jade ferns fanned out on the banks, swaying in the soft breeze.
“Sure. I’ve been coming out here for years. There’s no way to get lost.” In actuality, the first part was a bit of an exaggeration. She had been here only twice before in her lifetime, though both times had been years ago. She had come out here with her dad once, as a kid, and with a school group as a teen. Both times she had spent the time hiking some of the trails, checking out the homestead replica of the way “swamp folks” used to live, and walking the boardwalk to the lookout tower. On the school trip, they had even taken the guided boat tour. Neither time had she been canoeing by herself.
The second part she was entirely confident of, however. They would just paddle down a mile or so, then turn around, and head back. No way to get lost. So far, so good. At least Mandy seemed suitably impressed with it all, which would pay off in the end. Eventually, those eyes would return to her.
“Oh. Well, actually it wasn’t getting lost that I was asking about. It was the alligators. But I’m sure it’s safe.”
Alex chuckled. “Yeah, I hope we find a few.” She calmly dipped the paddle in the water, still never taking her eyes off the young woman in front of her. Anyone who knew anything about the swamp knew there would be some alligators out and about. They were harmless enough, though. A few here and there, totally acclimated to the presence of humans in boats. Mandy would be really impressed by them, an alligator or two. But Mandy simply laughed as if the “find a few” was the funniest thing she had ever heard and pointed out at the water.
Unfortunately for Alex, what she had never expected to find on this trip was fifty of the pre-historic reptiles. As soon as she turned her head and looked in the direction Mandy was pointing, the horrific sensation of being caught in a B-rated horror film engulfed her. Alligators were everywhere, from the banks to the shallows to…to far too close to the canoe for comfort. Alex felt shock shudder through her body as her jaw literally dropped and her mouth fell open. She had never in her life seen so many of them in one area, not even at the Jacksonville Zoo. Hell, not even at the alligator farm in St. Augustine! And every one of them stared menacingly at this canoe with two humans that obviously had to be morons, calmly paddling into their midst.
Frantically, Alex’s head turned from side to side as she realized that the reptiles completely surrounded them. The bank of the swamp crawled with them, two of the greenish brown lumps lurching to their feet, staggering awkwardly on spindly legs to slide gradually into the water. A number of them were floating calmly within throwing distance, and then even as she watched, another slid menacingly into the water just ahead of them. Vaguely, Alex realized that she was still paddling, as if on automation, and that the more she paddled, the further into the congregation she was moving.
How long had it been since she had had a panic attack? She certainly could not afford to have one now, she thought as her eyes returned to Mandy. Nevertheless, the feelings of horror and terror begin to well up in her chest.
“Can’t panic. Can’t panic,” she muttered to herself under her breath. With wide eyes she looked up at her clueless date. “Do you see those ‘gators?” Alex asked, realizing even as the words tumbled out of the mouth how stupid it sounded.
“Yeah! Isn’t it awesome? We must have passed a hundred of them,” Mandy replied. At that moment, Alex realized that she was in the middle of the swamp, surrounded by fifty wild alligators, separated from them by only the aluminum of a flimsy canoe, with the dumbest woman she had ever gone out with.
“Why didn’t you say something?” she spit out frantically. Couldn’t she at least have said something like, “Ooo…look at that one!”?
Mandy frowned and looked at her, apparently confused by the question. “You’ve been paddling past them for the last ten minutes. You had to have seen them.”
How could Alex possibly say that for the last twenty minutes all she had done was stare at Mandy, or rather at Mandy’s cleavage, and imagine her wearing, well, much less? Her hands began to shake as she clutched the paddle as if it was a lifeline, the thumping if her heart so rapid and hard it was painful. She felt the panic building further in her chest, as she looked around again. There was nowhere to go, but there was no time to panic, either.
“No! I didn’t see them or I certainly wouldn’t have paddled past them! They’re alligators!”
“Alex, even I know there are always alligators in a swamp. Isn’t that what we came out here for?” Mandy said with the air of a parent speaking to a ten-year-old child.
Alex was vaguely aware that she was breathing rapidly. This could not be happening. She had to be having the worst nightmare of her life. The litany running through her head was becoming a constant chant of, “This can’t be real. This can’t be real. This can’t be real.”
“Okay, okay. Think! Think!” Alex said aloud, as she slapped her forehead with her palm. She had to think of something--just drifting in the swamp was not the answer. Alligators had to get hungry some time. The image of the caretaker at the zoo who talked to the crowed about native reptiles popped into her mind, his cheerful young voice in direct contrast to what he was saying, “Contrary to popular belief, alligators don’t eat their prey alive. Instead, they just drag the prey to the bottom and hang on until the food drowns. Then they either eat, or stash the food under something like a log at the bottom of the water to come back and finish later.”
Mandy, at this point, seemed to get the idea that this was not exactly a good situation, or at least that Alex didn’t think it was. “Don’t worry, Alex,” she said calmly. “They can’t be too hungry--I’m sure the park rangers feed them well. It is a national forest, after all.”
Alex looked at Mandy as if she had lost her mind. “They’re WILD!” she said emphatically.
“Yeah. It’s like an old Tarzan movie, only there are no wires pulling them!” Mandy grinned, eyes glued to an enormous monster waddling from the bank and slipping into the water, gliding swiftly toward the middle of the creek. At that moment, Alex not only hated her date, but her so-called best friend, Misty, as well. Knowing Misty, she probably sent them out here just so this would happen! It would fit her twisted sense of humor. If they ever made it back alive, Alex was going to cheerfully strangle her.
Alex glared at the woman sitting across from her. “Tell you what,” Mandy said, talking the seat cushion out from under her bottom and holding it in front of her with both hands. “If one of them gets too close, I’ll throw this in its mouth. It’ll think we’re the rangers feeding it.” She grinned brightly.
“They don’t feed them!” Alex yelled, a vague amazement that Mandy actually held a college degree floating disjointedly through her mind. “People don’t feed them or take care of them if they are injured or train them or tame them or anything! They are wild! They will eat us!”
“Oh,” Mandy simply said, her face falling. The two of them sat there for several moments, each trying to figure a way out of the situation and neither of them really coming up with anything. Mandy began to fidget, her fingers plucking at the edges of the cushion she was once again sitting on. Finally, Mandy spoke up, anxiety making her voice oddly high-pitched--“You know, most animal eat at dusk, and it’s starting to get late. I wonder if that is alligator feeding time.”
“Oh shit,” was all Alex could think to say. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Okay. Wishing would not change the situation, and neither would crying, begging, or praying. She had to get them out of there—Mandy could apparently barely put a sentence together, but she did have a point about feeding time. Alex took a deep, shuddering breath and slowly let it out. Maybe if she just focused on the area in front of her, ignored the alligators, and paddled calmly and carefully, she could get them out of this mess. Gingerly, she dipped the tip of the paddle in the water on the right side, focusing all her attention on where she was aiming the canoe, completely ignoring the unnerving echoes of the gators’ calls that were sounding from the banks of the swamp.
After several moments of gentle paddling, she had finally turned the canoe in the right direction, and if she narrowed her vision, Alex found that she could pretty much pretend there were no gators in site, which helped keep the panic down. At least, it was working until she glanced at Mandy. Just as she looked up at the blond sitting at the opposite end of the canoe, Mandy’s eyes grew wide, and she completely froze, staring at a point just to Alex’s right. “Alex,” she said, her voice uncharacteristically firm. “Look at me. Just stay with me, Alex.”
Of course, that was the last thing Alex could do. Feeling like everything was happening in slow motion, she turned and looked to the right, where she the tip of her paddle was just about to dip into the water. And when she did, she looked right into the eyes of the biggest alligator she had ever seen. The gator looked calmly into her eyes, and then opened his massive jaws to show her the rows of vicious, predator teeth, and Alex, who ordinarily liked to think of herself as a brave woman, felt the panic boil up. All she could do was freeze, and instead of saying anything that could have been wonderful, wise last words, all that would come out was, “Ah… ah…ah…ah…ah…”
The gator, at that moment, snapped his mouth shut and sank beneath the coffee-dark water, completely out of site. And still, Alex sat frozen, “Ah. Ah. Ah…” Then somehow, in the numbness, one thought managed to surface. What if he comes up underneath the canoe and dumps us in the swamp?
At that point, Alex managed to actually, speak English, although her vocabulary was unusually limited by panic. “Oh, shit! Oh, shit, oh shit, oh shit!” Then, fight or flight kicked in, and she decided that flight was the wisest response. To hell with caution!
Alex plunged the paddle into the water and the canoe shot forward more rapidly than either of them expected. Mandy squealed and flopped forward, as she grabbed the edges of the canoe, but Alex did not even hesitate. Mandy might think a cushion would fool a gator, but Alex did not intend to die as a meal for an overgrown prehistoric-era reptile. Her previous chant of “This can’t be real” quickly twisted into, “God, don’t let me be ‘gator poop! God please don’t let me be gator poop!” She wanted to be scattered as ashes in the Caribbean after living a full, exciting life, not become muddy crap at the bottom of the swamp!
Alex pulled every ounce of her self-control together, focused on nothing but the water fifteen feet ahead of her, and plowed ahead through the swamp, churning up a dull green froth in her wake. She forced herself to believe that nothing existed but the boat, the paddle, the water, and her drive to reach dry land, and so she was mildly surprised when the boat dock of the board building that passed as the national forest’s canoe and kayak rental, as well as sandwich shop and gift store, came within that fifteen foot range. Still, she did not slow her strokes, and the canoe drove three feet up on the bank before stopping.
Knees threatening to buckle, Alex barely managed to crawl from her end of the little vessel, only just managing to wait for Mandy climb out. Her legs felt like over-cooked macaroni as her tennis shoes sank into the soft mud, and she was more than a little tempted to throw herself on the ground and kiss it like a long lost lover, but she managed to restrain herself. Instead, she staggered into the boat rental building, hands shaking despite her best efforts to still them. She was met by the disinterested glance of the aging woman behind the register, cigarette dangling carelessly from her frowning lips.
“Did…did…did you…did you know there are ‘gators out there?” she managed to sputter out.
The woman’s only change in facial expression was a minute rising of the eyebrows. “Well, yah, this is a swamp. You’re supposed to see a gator or two. You not from around here?” she drawled.
“No…no…bunches of them…tons of them…fifty…a hundred….” Alex felt mildly hysterical.
“What, up by the mile marker, headed that way?” The woman removed the half-burned cigarette and held it between two fingers gesturing the direction Alex had traveled, dropping ashes across the counter in the process. She then angled the cigarette toward the ashtray and uselessly tapped it against its side.
“Yeah, that way.”
“Mmmhhmm, we’ve had a few run-ins that direction.” The woman nodded. “‘Bout fifty of ‘em up there. They don’ usually do that, but water’s low ‘cuzzathe drought ‘n all. You’re lucky. Yesterday we had to fetch a guy from out there—he was stuck four hours or so, so we went and got ‘em just before dark.”
Alex, mouth slightly agape, just stared at her, completely dumbstruck at first. “You mean you know they’re there?”
“Well, yeah. How could we not know?” The woman looked slightly annoyed, now.
“How come you don’t do something about it?” Alex practically yelled.
“Well, they haven’t hurt anyone yet!” The woman looked at Alex as if this were the most logical thing in the world to say, and as, still astounded, she turned and walked away, it dawned on Alex that perhaps Mandy was not the most idiotic woman to ever exist!
****
Alex carefully climbed from the bed, disentangling her legs from the soft white sheets as gently as possible to avoid waking the sleeping woman in the bed beside her. Once free, she slipped out the door and closed it softly behind her before finally stopping to stretch her stiff body. She reached her arms up, arched her back, and yawned, before glancing down at the bundle of fur waiting patiently by her feet.
The black and tan Corgi/Schipperke mix got to his feet and stretched, yawning at the same time, in response to her. He knew the drill, and he stood, tongue lolling, as Alex stooped to pat his head. While only about 22 pounds, Jasper thought he was the biggest dog on the block. He was the coolest dog Alex had ever known, and she believed that the fact that she had raised him from a puppy only made her slightly biased. She grinned at the dog and would have sworn he grinned back, lips curling in imitation of her. As she knew he would, he padded silently after her as she took the stairs down to the living room, and he curled up on the floor beside her, tucking his head between his paws to go back to sleep, as she settled on the sofa.
The room was homey and comfortable, exuding warmth and welcome to its owner. This was truly home to Alex, and she had visited here many times before actually living here. The house had once belonged to her grandparents, and since her parents had no desire to leave their home in South Carolina, after her grandmother passed away, Alex had gladly given up her cramped apartment to live in the house she had spent so many happy hours in as a child. She had quickly converted the library, which was close to the front door, into a massage room and fenced in the backyard for Jasper. The cost of living was high in this area, and not having to pay rent or a mortgage allowed her to continue doing work she loved, instead of having to go to work for some corporate office somewhere. The wooden home was older, and she could not hang a sign outside advertising as a business due to the zoning, but it was worth it.
Alex tossed on the sofa. She was never comfortable sleeping with anyone else, but decorum dictated that she not just shove a woman she had just spent two hours rolling around with out of the bed.
The evening had ended as Alex had hoped—between the sheets. Mandy apparently thought she was a hero for getting them out of the swamp, and those blue eyes had focused on nothing but Alex for the rest of the evening. Inviting her home had been simple, and though perhaps she was not the brightest spark in the fire when it came to brains, Mandy had certainly proved hot enough in bed!
However, for some reason, even though camping out on the sofa when she had “company” was her normal routine, sleep eluded her. After a while, she tossed aside the blanket with her favorite team, the Jacksonville Jaguars, emblazoned on the front, in favor of walking out to the screened-in patio area, where she flipped on the switch to the old-fashioned water fountain. She sighed as the sound of rushing water mingling with that of the frogs and insects in the back yard. Florida might have been one of the fastest growing states, but it still had more than its share of “critters” that called the semi-tropical state home, especially out here away from the bigger city of Jacksonville.
Alex flopped down in the wooden rocking chair and propped her feet up on the rattan chair beside her, her sigh barely audible and the bobbing of her head not visible at all in the darkness. Mandy was okay—Alex was aware that she was too harsh in her interpretation of her that afternoon. She had not exactly felt very bright herself, not noticing the very obvious visitors to the canoe trip. She felt like a dunce, actually.
But that was neither here nor there. The reality was that despite spending the evening with a beautiful, warm woman, she felt empty, and somehow, the sex did not cover up the hollowness, anymore. The woman in her bed up was not the first to be there, and she certainly would not be the last. But, holding a soft body in her arms did not hide the fact that she was still in possession of her own heart, and that the someone she had always looked for, that woman she could give her heart away to, was likely nothing more than a figment of her imagination. Friends had told her before that she was looking for perfection, but the truth was, she never found anyone she could truly trust. The times she had come close had ended in disaster, and she had always been the hurt one left standing on the sidelines. What was the point of giving your heart away, if it was just going to be served back to you on a platter?
And so Alex played the part of a woman thrilled to live life independently. How could she complain? She had a warm home that so many would envy, a job she loved, the opportunity to travel when she wanted, tons of friends, enough charm to pick up a woman when she needed something more…and her best friend was the dog laying loyally at her feet. She sighed again. What more could she ask for in life? No one had it all.
Nikki kicked off from the sandy bottom, easily stroking her way through the water. Until today, although she had always dreamed of it, she had never been swimming in the ocean. And it was better than any dream. The tang of salt stung her lips as she slipped through the water to catch the next wave. The water was still chilly—April was far too early in the year for swimming. Her older brother, Nate, had told her that only tourists went swimming this time of year, but this was her first year in Jacksonville, Florida, and she just had not been able to resist. When she had finally moved here last November, it had already been far too chilly to swim, and she simply had not been able to wait any longer.
A wave hit Nikki, lifting her body and shoving her forward on its crest, as she thrilled in the delicious sensation of body surfing. She laughed like a child as the wave turned her loose close to shore, and she put her feet down on the sand only to turn back to the open water again. Her shoulders and arms were exhausted, and her legs were starting to wear out, too, but…Just once more, she thought to herself. She swam out to wait for the next wave, noticing that the last wave had pushed her further down the beach. Still, she was not concerned, until she felt a sideways tug on her legs.
The unfamiliar pull surprised Nikki, and she decided that perhaps she should not be out so far, so she turned toward the beach and began to swim. However, when she took a few strokes, she realized she had not really moved forward at all. The tug of the ocean held her, and for every inch she moved forward, it dragged her back. It was like an invisible barrier between her and the beach.
Determined now, Nikki doggedly dug her arms down into the water, kicking with all the gusto she could muster. To her horror, she made little progress, and the moment she let up, the ocean simply sucked her right back out as far as she had been seconds before, pulling her further sideways in the process. She glanced backward at the vastness behind her—she did not exactly relish the idea of becoming shark bate somewhere out there.
As the ocean swept her in its grasp, Nikki fought down the anxiety, adrenaline rushing through her veins. Her body was poised for fight or flight, but she could neither fight the ocean nor flee from it, despite her increasingly desperate struggle. Suddenly she realized she was in the path of a large wave, and she braced herself for the impact. It rushed over her head, completely overwhelming her and dunking her far under the surface. She managed to struggle back to the top, gasping for air as she fought for control, arms flailing and legs thrashing to keep her afloat, but the panic was rising in her chest.
Control it. Control it, she told herself desperately. But deep inside she knew control would do her no good here. The ocean was not exactly intimidated by a jump-front kick or reverse punch, did not care that she could bench press her own weight, and would have no remorse if she became just another statistic of ocean fatalities. Here, compared to the ocean, she was smaller than an ant caught in the rush of the Mississippi River, and she was just as powerless.
****
Alex glanced down at Jasper, who ran at her side, his tongue lolling out of his mouth. She had the end of a six-foot leash looped around her wrist, but it was not actually necessary. Jasper would have stayed by her side just fine without it. The leash was for appearance’s sake, rather than a need to keep him in line. Alex slowed to a walk, breath rushing in and out of burning lungs, before finally coming to a complete halt, bending over, and bracing her hands on her knees. Jasper immediately plopped down at her feet, oblivious to the hot sand, panting rapidly and looking up at her with accusing brown eyes as he licked his lips and letting his tongue roll from his mouth again. While still only April, the temperatures were in the high 80’s, early summer around the bend.
Alex breathed deeply, the moist, salty air of the oceanside filling her lungs while the crash of the waves filled her ears. Only by the sharp keening of the seagulls that sailed through the air, sharp eyes always on the lookout for food, broke the peace that engulfed the beach. The sand squished pleasantly under her feet as she shifted her position, beginning to get her breath back.
“Sorry, Buddy,” she said to Jasper. “It’s been a while, huh? But we didn’t do too badly.” She finally stood and ran her fingers though her caramel colored hair, hazel eyes scanning the beach to get her bearings. As she looked back down the long stretch of sand, she was not sure whether to be pleased or not with the distance they had covered. Running full out as far as she could had a price.
“Damn,” she said under her breath, shaking her head as she looked down at her watch. Too bad she had to work this evening. She looked back at Jasper. “Well, we gotta go,” she said, taking a step back in the direction they had come from. However, the dog did not budge.
“Come on. Let’s go.” Alex gestured back toward their recently made footsteps. Jasper simply laid his chin on his paws, refusing to even look her in the eyes. “Oh come on, Jasper. We ran here. We can walk back.” Jasper’s round, black eyes, when he finally consented to look up at her said it all—You’re kidding, right?
With a sigh and roll of her eyes, Alex crouched down beside the dog and ruffled the soft fur at the scruff of his neck. “I know it sucks, but there’s nothing I can do about it. The Jeep’s not gonna come and get us on its own.”
The sun glanced off the water and sand, and Alex felt sweat trickle down her back. She had been coming here to jog since shortly after she had gotten Jasper. He had been quite hyperactive and not reacted well to being cooped up inside her apartment. She had begun bringing him out here to run some of his energy off, but had stayed with it because she loved it. And Jasper had become so accustomed to going with her that she generally took him everywhere with her, even occasionally to work. With a lot of his energy burned off, he learned to obey her every request, to the extent that she could trust him to stay in the Jeep when she ran into the store (he probably thought he was guarding it) or stay under the desk in her tiny office area (he probably though it was naptime). People pretty much took them as a pair, the tall, tawny woman with the short little dog sidekick.
Jasper suddenly leaped to his feet as Alex was talking to him, and Alex’s first irrational thought was that he had suddenly learned to understand English. But the dog’s eyes were intent on the surf, and suddenly he let out a sharp, high pitched bark—the same bark he used to call her when the kitten was stuck on the roof and when the kid from down the street had fallen out of the tree and broken his wrist. Misty even called it his “Lassie bark.”
Jasper took several running steps toward the water, barking frantically and then looking back over his shoulder with alert eyes toward Alex. She immediately stood and skimmed the waves with sharp eyes and quickly found the dark spot bobbing in the water. Her old Coast Guard training kicked in as she realized that there was someone in the water, someone waving an arm.
While this beach was Alex’s favorite, she knew it did have its drawbacks. First, it was notorious for strong rip tides, where the water rushed back from the shore, trying to suck anything in its grasp, including swimmers, back out to sea with it. Rip tides were not that difficult to get out of, for the experienced ocean swimmer. For tourists or the inexperienced, however, they could prove to be deadly. The shore stayed there, enticingly, while the swimmers wore themselves out trying to reach it, until exhaustion and the tide finally took control of their fates.
However, the other drawback to this beach was that it had no lifeguards to warn swimmers of the currents and to drag the hapless from the waves. Fortunately, this beach’s seclusion kept most of the tourists away, but there was always the occasional exception to the rule.
Most of the tourists preferred the public beaches, where the dredged sand was more pristine. If the sand was low, more was pulled up to keep the preferred levels and perfect look. Those beaches also had lifeguards and less chance of riptides occurring. This beach, however, was much more secluded, generally only frequented by locals. The sand was not kept up by the city, so the chances of finding treasures, such as sharks teeth and larger shells, were much higher.
Alex paused only to glance at Jasper, who danced at the edges of the waves, as aware as she was of the danger to the swimmer. She quickly reached down to yank her jogging shoes from her feet. “Stay,” she told him firmly, as she turned to the water, marking the area of the struggling swimmer. “Damn tourists,” she muttered under her breath as she plunged into the still cold water. Florida weather may have warmed up by this time of year, but the ocean still had not. Only tourists and over eager children would go swimming this time of year, locals having the luxury of knowing they would still be here when the water was warmer.
The cold water made her shudder as a wave came up to her knees, its icy fingers quickly creeping up her thighs. She had never liked the cold, and she had had her fill of being chilled and wet when she did her tour in the Coast Guard. When she moved here, Florida had seemed like a good place to be in the water and still stay warm. But apparently, not today.
Before the water reached her waste, Alex could feel the strong tug of the riptide pulling at her body, and within a few more steps, it threatened to pull her off her feet. With a strength born of long experience, Alex dove head first into the chilly waves, froth flowing over her as the water fought against her. Strong arms pulled her closer to the swimmer, which held all of Alex’s focus. The adrenaline boosted her muscles and energy, and she gave in to the tunnel vision that claimed her under such circumstances, forgetting that the rest of the world existed, not noticing the cold or the fear, only seeing the swimmer as an object to be pulled from the threatening grave.
Alex reached the swimmer and immediately threw an arm around her neck. The swimmer responded by trying to clench Alex around the neck, the sudden feeling of another floating body triggering the survival instinct to grab, all her focus simply on staying afloat. “It’s okay. Don’t fight it,” she gasped. “I gotcha—just relax.” The words must have sunk in, because after a moment the swimmer obeyed, allowing Alex to roll her onto her back, holding her head up.
Arm wrapped around the stranger’s neck, Alex let the waves buoy her along, just floating with the tide, while she rested. She knew from experience that fighting the ocean was useless; it was a far too powerful force. After a few moments, Alex began to swim with the ocean, instead of against it. Pulling the swimmer with her, she swam with the waves parallel to the beach, angling in, slowly and steadily, until the rip tide loosened its hold and her feet could touch sand. By that time, the swimmer had recovered enough to put her feet down and stumble to shore beside her rescuer. When her feet were free of the grasp of the water, the swimmer collapsed, exhausted, her back sinking into the soft sand.
Panting, Alex sank gratefully to her knees, hands braced on her thighs, beside the woman she had just rescued, trying to catch her breath. Alex shook her head like a dog to clear her eyes of the salt water, scattering droplets of water everywhere. She raked a hand over her eyes to finish clearing them, and then glanced down at the body she had pulled ashore.
My, oh my, were the only words that she could bring to mind as she stared. It was a good thing she had only been focused on dragging the woman out of the water. If she had noticed what a luscious body she had been holding, she would have surely drowned them both just from swallowing half the ocean when her mouth fell open!
But now that they were safely out of the water and the would-be swimmer lay sprawled on her back on the wet sand in front of her, Alex was unable to resist quickly running her eyes over the woman, absorbing the perfectly cut shoulders and arms, flat stomach, and firm thighs with one swift rush of hormones. When her eyes reached the muscular calves, she turned back to the woman’s face, trying unsuccessfully to convince herself that the swim was the reason her heart was pounding so loudly.
The stranger was breathing harder than Alex, stretching the swimsuit even more tautly across her full breasts in an erotic rhythm, nipples hardened by the chill of the water showing clearly under the fiery red one-piece. Alex shook her head, trying to bring back some sort of decorum to her thoughts, but she could not keep her imaginary x-ray vision from seeing exactly what lay under the tight clothes!
Alex finally managed to bring her focus to the woman’s face. She lay with one arm bent, her hand cushioning her head, face stretched to the sun, and nearly black curls of thick hair falling against her cheek. Eyes closed, thick, dark lashes graced the top of finely chiseled cheeks, delicate features giving way to lips swollen by the seawater. The woman’s tongue slipped out, licking the salt from the corner of her mouth, as Alex watched, her breath catching in her chest.
Alex gave herself a mental shake, scarcely believing the thoughts that were suddenly running through her mind and futilely trying to shove them away. She should not be thinking this way—she had just saved the woman’s life for God’s sake, but damn! The woman was hot! If she looked like this in a swimsuit…
But when the woman looked up, it was her eyes that took Alex’s breath away.
Those dark lashes framed eyes that were such a deep blue that Alex thought she could see all the way into her soul. Never in her life had she seen such beautiful eyes or eyes that exact color. The only time she had seen that shade had been on a cruise to the Caribbean, where the deepest water was so clear and blue a person felt like nothing else existed—the very shade of woman’s eyes.
As Nikki looked up into intense hazel eyes, she was surprised at the familiarity she felt, as if she knew this woman and not just in passing. It was the feeling of meeting a best friend she had not seen in years, someone she had not realized how much she missed until she saw her again. She shook her head slightly, before looking back up. I must just be dazed, she thought to herself, as she realized the woman was a complete stranger.
And that complete stranger had just saved her life. Nikki grimaced at the strange feelings—gratitude, indebtedness…and a swift rush of powerlessness that she hated. Powerless was one thing she had never allowed herself to be. She had worked too hard and too long at discipline and control to ever give into any sort of panic or fear. But somehow, the ocean had not seemed to respect that.
All she could do was whisper, “Thank you,” as the magnitude of the situation hit her. Hmm…near death could be quite a blow to the ego. But then, to be rescued by a woman like this! She felt a zing in her stomach as her gaze traveled over the woman’s tanned body, white t-shirt and kaki shorts soggy and dripping. Then she looked at her face. For some reason, the stranger’s eyes seemed like magnets to Nikki, and she could not look away from them.
As the woman whispered, staring into Alex’s eyes, Alex could hear the breath rushing between the woman’s lips, deep breaths still heavy from the exertion.
Alex shook her head. “It’s okay. I used to do water rescue all the time. No problem.” Alex was having a harder time catching her breath than she would have expected, which she immediately told herself was the result of simply the adrenaline rush and not that she had rescued such a beautiful woman.
Alex stood and reached out a hand to the woman. As she grasped the other woman’s hand in hers, the softness shot straight to her heart, a rush of gentleness masked by strength, and she wanted to simply freeze time to feel nothing but touching this woman and being touched by her.
Alex pulled the woman to her feet and then cleared her throat, forcing herself back to reality. “You okay?” I’ve been way too long without a woman in my bed, she thought to herself.
“Yeah,” the woman replied. “I just feel kinda foolish.” Nikki was trying to shake the sense of embarrassment. She had never needed to be rescued before, and if anyone had ever dared to treat her like a fairytale princess needing some knight in shining armor, he would have swiftly found himself on the receiving end of a roasting more reminiscent of the fairytale dragon. Of course, in this case, it was a knight in dripping jogging shorts…very short jogging shorts…showing off very muscular thighs.… Nikki’s breath was returning to normal, but she shivered slightly, the trembling tightening strong muscles in her arms. Almost reflexively, she shoved the image away.
“No, don’t feel foolish,” Alex said with a shake of her head. “It can be tough out there, even for the strongest swimmers. Just be careful on these beaches without a lifeguard. The public beaches are much safer and don’t get as much of a riptide.”
Alex fought the impulse to babble on further about what caused riptides and how to get out of them a person had to just sort of let herself be swept along until the riptide let her go. Riptides gave a completely new meaning to the phrase, “Go with the flow,” and most people got in trouble by trying to fight them. Unfortunately, the force of the ocean was just too powerful for most people!
The urge to ramble about nothing when she was nervous—or excited--was one thing that had always plagued Alex. She stubbornly avoided looking at the woman’s breasts, but then strong muscular shoulders and arms that she could imagine tightening around her, pulling her closer, hijacked her vision.