Saints and Secrets by Mark Stone

Author:Mark Stone [Stone, Mark]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Sunday Dinner Press
Published: 2020-08-10T22:00:00+00:00

15

Roman and Jessie walked into The Shell House and felt right at home. Back on Sanibel Island, fresh catch was all anybody cared about. In fact, until she moved up to Chicago, Jessie couldn’t ever remember eating seafood that had been out of the water for more than a few hours. There was something different about it. You could taste the authenticity. You could feel the history of this creature right in front of you. You felt a connection to the world, to the water, to yourself. It had always meant something to Jessie, even when she wasn’t around it. And diving back into that feeling now made her feel grounded for the first time in days.

Roman seemed to read her mind as they walked into the ramshackle looking seafood joint with painted wood furnishings and a metal roof that Jessie imagined practically sang with the rain.

“You could drop this place right onto Sanibel and it’d fit right in,” Roman said, smiling as they made their way to a hostess.

Jessie imagined they would have to be seated and wait for Rachel to join them, but in truth, the hostess told them that the weird lady who always tells everyone how they’re going to die had already gotten a table and left word for her to show Jessie and Roman to it.

When they reached the table, a prime location right by a window that overlooked the water, they found that Rachel had ordered for the table. While her look and job might have been strange and unique, her taste in food certainly wasn’t. The famous low country boil had been spilled out onto the paper tablecloth in front of them, juices and seasoning from the shrimp, crab legs, corn on the cob, and roasted whole potatoes staining it.

For her part, Rachel was in the middle of one of the biggest crab legs Jessie had ever seen. There was something about watching a woman all dolled up in black with pale skin and purple streaks in her hair taking down a crab leg like a champ that almost made Jessie laugh out loud. Luckily, she managed to contain herself by the time she reached the table.

“What took you so long?” Rachel said, pulling the crab leg from her lips and dipping what remained in drawn butter. “I was starting to think you were going to stand me up.”

“You said a couple of hours,” Roman said, plopping down in a chair across from her and throwing his elbows on the table like he had never been told not to. “That’s how long you said it would take to sanitize the aura or whatever. It’s only been an hour and a half.”

“I cleansed the energy. What you said doesn’t even make any sense,” Rachel replied, rolling her eyes. “And what can I say? I’m better at it than even I give myself credit for.”

“That must be a hell of a skillset,” Jessie muttered, sitting down herself. “Well, we’re here. It’s time to talk.”

Rachel sat

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