Arrow's Flight by Scott Joel

Author:Scott, Joel
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: ECW Press
Published: 2018-03-05T16:00:00+00:00

The party broke up by ten o’clock, and Jane and I were alone in the cockpit. The girls had decided they wanted Chinese food, and left with Danny and Clarke. Danny was in the wheelchair with Shannon on his lap, while Alana sat on Clarke’s shoulders. They disappeared down the floats in a mad race, Danny in the lead and throwing the wheelchair from side to side in an effort to keep Clarke from overtaking. With the circus gone, the fishermen finished up their drinks and returned to their boats. Maria helped Jane and me with the cleaning up, and then she and Joseph left as well.

“Alone at last,” I said.

Jane reached into her bag and pulled out a large joint. She lit it, inhaled deeply, and passed it to me.

“Here, this will loosen you up.”

I took a long drag.

“You don’t want to believe everything those clowns tell you,” I said. We were both talking in the high, squeaky tones of people holding their breath.

“I saw you. The whole time we sat in the cockpit you were watching. Every boat that came in or out, every car in the parking lot, every person that walked along the piers. You checked them all.”

“Would you believe a healthy curiosity?” I asked.

She didn’t respond, just watched me with those level grey eyes.

“It’s a long story,” I said at last.

“Does it have anything to do with the knife wounds in Danny’s chest and stomach?” she asked.

I looked up in surprise.

“I saw them when he swung aboard. My mother is a doctor, remember. I used to play with blocks in her office when she couldn’t get a sitter sometimes. I grew up with that kind of stuff.”

I took a deep draft of the joint, sucking it down and holding my breath until spots started to dance in front of my eyes. Neither of us spoke. We were leaning back, gazing up at the new moon. I felt the distance growing between us.

“There is an old theory about the origins of the moon that I’ve always loved.” Jane spoke in almost a whisper. “It holds that the moon was born of a huge tidal wave of molten matter, ripped off the surface of the earth, and hurled into space two billion years ago as the planet was cooling. The sun’s tides had been increasing for centuries, pulling on the thickening liquids in an accelerating rhythm until at last their motion grew too great for stability. When the mass separated, it left a giant fissure on the earth’s surface. As the cooling continued the rains began and gradually filled that great depression, now known as the Pacific Ocean.”

She paused for a moment.

“And now that portion of earth that became the moon precipitates the tides on the oceans of the world. What do you think of that?”

“I was in England one winter after the fishing season. In London, a few years back. Danny and I had a flat in Chelsea, we had been partying for a couple of months, practically non-stop.

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