The Sea Between Two Shores by Tanis Rideout

Author:Tanis Rideout [Rideout, Tanis]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: McClelland & Stewart
Published: 2022-09-13T00:00:00+00:00

Scott

The church in Robson’s village is beautiful—all bright whitewashed lines and wooden benches worn soft from years of faithful attendees. It’s more welcoming than the sombre heaviness of the one back home with all its gloomy Presbyterian stone. Scott closes his eyes and waits for the calm that sometimes comes to him when he sits in those pews. But the air is different here: the ozone smell of earth, the thick scent of the lush vegetation. The sounds are strange too: the coo of a hidden dove, the barking of a dog; a sudden burst of children’s laughter from the school across the open space of the village, a tight knit of harmonies as women sing in the distance.

Back when she still spoke about Dylan, Michelle told him once that she could feel him near her—his hand in hers, his weight leaning against her. Scott has never felt that. Still, he tries: “Hey, buddy. Can you believe this place? It’s wild, huh?” The air shifts around him, and Scott holds himself still, hopeful. Is he here? Everything on this island is so alien to him that it feels possible. “Are you there, bud? I miss you.”

There’s no answer.

It was Michelle who wanted a house with a pool; Scott had just seen work, expense, an inability to sell the house down the road. They would never use it, he said. They’d find drowned raccoons floating in it. But Michelle described hosting pool parties and barbecues with tropical drinks. She imagined them at the centre of a small neighbourhood universe. And she was right. They strung lights across the backyard and had those parties, fruity drinks in hand, imagining island paradises that were nothing at all like Iparei; they even swam naked together more than once, when the kids were in bed.

Neither of them thought the pool was a danger. There was a fence around the backyard and motion-detecting lights. They made sure the gate to the yard was always latched, and taught the kids to check it as well. And there were plenty of rules: the kids weren’t allowed to be out by the pool alone; they all took swimming lessons. They did everything they were supposed to.

Ten kids a day die by drowning in backyard swimming pools; that’s three thousand deaths a year. He came across that statistic while trying to figure out how he had let it happen.

The weather was hot for May and the pool sparked, as Astrid would say. He’d been skimming the pool, even though Zach was supposed to come down and do it. It was just him and the boys at home.

Dylan leaned over the pool, already in his swim trunks and his hockey hoodie, his fingers dragging in the cold water, his legs goose-pimpled.

“How’s the temperature?” Scott asked, putting the skimmer away.

“Cold. Really cold.” Dylan shivered with pleasure.

Then the phone rang, and Scott thought about letting it go to voicemail. One of a million tiny, seemingly inconsequential decisions he made that morning. If only he’d let the machine pick it up.

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