Evening in the Yellow Wood by Laura Kemp

Author:Laura Kemp [Kemp, Laura]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pandamoon Publishing
Published: 2018-12-12T08:00:00+00:00

* * *

Salmon Fest was pretty much a bust after the breakwall incident.

I tried to cajole Dylan, tried to make him understand why I’d ended up out there in the first place, but nothing seemed to satisfy him.

“At least the bleeding stopped,” I offered.

He grunted something, still energized by his encounter with Jamie. “So, you take off half-blind and try to scale those rocks? Why didn’t you tell me you weren’t really sick? We could’ve sat it out somewhere until the vision passed.”

“I don’t know how I got out there.” I looked down. “Holly doesn’t know about my visions. Neither does Dave or all those girls who worship you and the last thing I need is for everyone to think you’ve hooked up with a psycho.”

He stopped short. “That’s what this is about? You’re afraid of what everyone will think?”

I shrugged.

“Who the hell cares? You almost fell into Lake Huron!”

I looked down.

“When you didn’t come to the beer tent, I asked around. One guy said he saw you walk towards the breakwall. I wouldn’t have made it in time, would’ve had to fish you out of the water so don’t pull this shit on me.”

“I’m sorry.”

“You keep saying that.”

“I promise I’ll tell you next time. I’ve already started locking the door and charging my phone and now I know that I need someone to help me stay put. It’s not like I know what the hell I’m doing. I’ve never been this weird before.”

Something in my speech must have moved him because he pulled me close and hugged me. “I’m serious, Justine. We’re in this together or I’m out.”

His words were like cold ice on a suntanned shoulder.

A moment passed before he spoke again, and in the interim, his voice softened into, “Wanna watch the fireworks?”

I glanced over my shoulder. “Dave and Holly?”

“Left awhile ago. Seems your roommate can’t hold her liquor.”

And so we wandered down the beach and away from the pulsating lights of Salmon Fest until we reached a cove whose only inhabitants included a man with a guitar, three girls and the campfire they had gathered around.

We stopped amongst an isolated copse of trees, strains of Ain’t No Sunshine filling the silence between us. Sitting down on a blanket of dried moss, he put an arm around my shoulder.

We sat for a long time, listening to the guitar and the low voices of those assembled around it who were unaware of our presence as we sat hidden from view and in the company of darkness.

“I knew Karen all through school,” he said and I turned, looked at him and knew he’d been waiting for this moment. “It didn’t get serious until she started coming down to the docks when I worked Marine Patrol.”

“When did Jamie find out?” I asked, hoping my question wasn’t too forward, but he didn’t seem to mind. In fact, he seemed relieved.

“He asked her point blank one night. She couldn’t lie.”

“Were you friends with him before?”

“We never got along.”

“But,” I began, wondering if I should tell him what I knew.

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