Blackwater Sound by James W. Hall

Author:James W. Hall
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Published: 2002-08-25T04:00:00+00:00

Fourteen

Her father opened Morgan’s cabin door and stood there for a moment until she’d blinked and stretched herself awake.

“It’s pinging,” he said. “Started a couple of minutes ago.”

“How close?”

“Twenty, twenty-five miles south.”

“Well, congratulations, Dad. Your calculations were accurate. You must be pleased.”

He nodded, but he didn’t look happy. Not at all.

“Come on, Morgan. We have to move.”

“All right, all right. Give me a minute.”

But A. J. stayed in the doorway, arms loose at his sides. Eyes downcast, mouth warped with anguish, his throat working as if he were struggling to swallow some dry crumb of food.

“No, Dad, come on. Don’t do this.”

Her father closed his eyes, bowed his head, and shook it hard as if trying to silence a host of whispering voices.

“This is my goddamn fault. All of it.”

Morgan sighed. Veins and sinews showed in his throat. Dark voltage radiated from his flesh.

“It’s okay. You did all you could, Dad.”

He lifted his head and looked at her carefully.

“Did I?”

“You did everything possible.”

“Goddamn it, Morgan. I could see Andy just a few feet away. It was my one chance. He was so goddamn close. His hand reaching out. He was alive, looking at me, eyes wide open, waving that hand.”

“The line broke, Dad. You couldn’t do anything about that. You fell, you busted a rib. Remember?”

“I could’ve jumped into the water like you did. Held my breath.”

“It was too late by then, Dad. He was too far down. A second after the line broke, I couldn’t see him anymore. He was gone.”

“This is my fault, all of it.”

Morgan let go of another long breath. She rubbed at the ache sprouting behind her temples. Ten years later, it was still the same, like all the clocks had broken, the galaxies had stopped spinning on the day Andy died. The same exchange they’d had back then, the same one they’d had every year since. Her father’s ritual week of self-loathing. Morgan reciting her useless refrains.

“I grabbed the rod out of your hands, then I set the goddamn drag too tight. I knew better. But I panicked. I wanted to reel him back to the boat, so I pushed the drag too far and the line couldn’t handle the strain and it broke.”

“It’s over, Dad. Now we’re going to catch her. We’re going to set it right.”

“I screwed up. I lost your brother and I lost Darlene. Oh, I don’t blame her for what she did. No mother should witness such a thing. I never should have taken you all along in the first place. It was my passion, not anyone else’s. I dragged everyone out there, exposed my family to that danger. For what?”

A. J. stared fiercely at the beige carpet, as if he could penetrate the hull of the boat, see down into the awful depths.

“I had that rod in my hand and I panicked. The one time I needed to apply my skills. The one time when everything I knew about the art of fishing really and truly mattered, and I blew it.

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