The Contest and Other Stories by Joe DiBuduo & Kate Robinson

Author:Joe DiBuduo & Kate Robinson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: speculative fiction, ekphrastic fiction, connected short stories, 1960s New York, existential themes
Publisher: Tootie-Do Press
Published: 2019-03-07T00:00:00+00:00

ON HER EIGHTEENTH BIRTHDAY, Isabel stood aboard a small sloop that left New York Harbor on a cloudy morning, heading for the island that lay only twenty miles distant. Father Donahue looked unusually grim as he scanned the horizon in the direction of the island, as a man calling himself Captain O’Reilly steered his sailboat toward it. In a strange twist of fate that always seemed present in Isabel’s life, the craft bore the name “Spirit.”

When Isabel had finally confessed her story for the first time just weeks before, Father Donahue seemed taken with it. He said she would only find peace by confronting her fears and revisiting the island. He claimed only to support her quest when he offered to take her there, but Isabel knew enough about human nature by now to wonder if his real motive involved the treasure. Or was he more interested in the spirits that inhabited the island? She also figured that O’Reilly must also have his own motive for agreeing to transport them.

Thirty minutes later, their tension grew as the sloop neared the island’s shoreline. No one spoke about what awaited them once they stepped ashore. Perhaps nothing. Perhaps something. Isabel had discovered she wasn’t the only person who’d had strange experiences there. In the eight years since her rescue, she’d learned that many recreational boaters instinctively stayed away from the rocky shore. Even before her parents had taken her to the island, she was vaguely aware of some dreadful stories about it, ranging from warnings about dangerous currents to tales of cursed treasure. Some stories were colorful and paranormal and others leaned more toward cautionary tales of vague, random accidents that befell visitors to the island. Her parents had downplayed all these, presenting the trip as a birthday adventure.

Father Donahue was probably right. She needed to face her trauma and that’s what she would do. She took off her shoes, lifted her skirt, and waded through the surf, headed straight for the oak tree while the priest and the captain tugged the sailboat onto the shore. Father Donahue soon followed her while Captain O’Reilly secured the craft.

Isabel wondered if her parents’ spirits were still on the island even though authorities had removed their bodies and buried them in a city graveyard for the indigent. Her memories of Rhys Morris enticed her even though she still felt tormented by the nightmare of her parents’ violent deaths. As if in response to this thought, she suddenly saw her mom and dad in the distance, walking hand-in-hand. She ran toward them, but they faded and disappeared when she reached the spot where they stood.

As if answering her second thought, Rhys Morris appeared beside her and spoke to her as though the eight years’ absence meant nothing in his world. “They’re embarrassed by what you saw them do to one another. They think you will never forgive their stupidity.”

Isabel leaned forward and cupped her hands around her mouth. She shouted as loud as she could over the brisk wind.

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