On a Starlit Ocean

by Charlotte Nash

  “Mum can help,” Erin said. “She said at least one Elder survived on the mainland. Maybe there’s descendants.”

  They nodded in silent agreement, the first thing that seemed truly solid and agreed between them in years. Finally, Erin said, “Does this mean we’re okay again?”

  “Not yet,” Skye said, frank to the last. “I can’t begin to process Dad. It’s such a shock. But I know how close you were. How he trusted you. Much as that makes me jealous, he must have had his reasons. Maybe in time we can work on it.”

  Erin bit her lip. “Skye … did you tell Tristan?”

  Skye gave her a look like Erin was mad. “Of course not. But I don’t want any secrets in our family again. Deal?”

  They shook, and then seemingly satisfied, Skye dragged her crutches up off the floor. “Come on then. You have to fill me in on Alex. And I want to hear the moment your idea for the marketing stuff plays out.”

  Alex had another good night, and the next morning the hospital physiotherapist had him up and moving. It thrilled Erin that he was leaving the bed, but she gave him the privacy she knew he would have wanted. She had a meeting to make.

  She dodged the lingering news vans and snuck away from the hospital towards OceanRunner, the fancy resort where Ivan had last handed her back her sponsorship proposal.

  She was extremely lucky, especially dressed in borrowed jeans and a scrub top, that the reception staff remembered her. She supposed that anyone meeting with Ivan in an exclusive resort would probably be burned into the eyeballs of the staff, but maybe her collision with the winch block had helped after all. And that was how she came to be sitting in the near-empty sunken bar with an untouched glass of sparkling wine that the waiter had brought with the compliments of Mr Borovich.

  Erin was about to give up waiting when she heard footsteps, and Ivan appeared out of the elevators, trailing a man and a woman in sharp suits who were both frantically tapping on mini tablets. Ivan shook both their hands as they exited the front doors, and came towards Erin, putting in a jog that surprised her.

  “Erin, I am sorry to keep you. I had a meeting to finish.”

  “Thanks for seeing me. I’m sorry I didn’t call first.”

  “Please, please,” he said, sitting across from her. “You do not need appointments, even if you are my defector.” He gave her a friendly wink. “Besides, you are all over the news. Tell me, how is the doctor?”

  “Out of danger, now, thank you,” Erin said, surprised Ivan had paid so much attention. She paused as an unexpected well of emotion choked her at his kindness. She cleared her throat. “I want to talk about Haven – not the sponsorship again, just for advice. I thought maybe you could point me in the right direction.”

  “Of course. Please.” He gestured her to speak.

  “Tristan’s pulling out of the project, so the whole resort and regatta development is over. And that means the village is losing its future. It can’t survive for another five years like it is now. But Skye and I have a plan.” She paused.

  “Go on,” he said.

  “We want to keep the races going, maybe as they were in the pilot events this year. I know a bit about how it was done, because I designed the courses and helped with the team, but there was a lot of background business I don’t know how to do. Promotion, marketing. Getting the cable channels interested in covering it. Can you help me find people who I could learn from? I don’t have much money—”

  Ivan cut her off with a raised hand. “Before I talk of this, I need to ask some things. Who is involved in these new races?”

  “Well, just my sister Skye and me, so far. Besides that, I’m hoping to rope in Travers – he was the one with me on the boat you might have seen on the news – and find other people in the village who can help. Keep it on the island, an all-in-the-family kind of thing.”

  “Yes, good, okay. And has anyone offered you money yet?”

  Erin laughed. “No, why would they?”

  Ivan’s eyebrows shot up. “Erin, your rescue was very visible. My people showed me the video on the YouTube. It has more than one million hits. Did you not know this?”

  “Um, no?”

  Ivan sat back, his tongue between his front teeth, arms folded, as he did when considering something important. “Let us go for a walk. I have some thoughts for you,” he said finally.

  They stepped out of the big glass windows by the pool, and walked around the sparkling water until they could face out over the ocean, where Haven was barely visible in the smudge of haze on the horizon.

  “I like your ideas, Erin,” Ivan said. “But what I like more is passion, and I see that in your eyes. You are interested. You want to make this happen. It is important for your home, for your family. You feel this project fits with you, in here, yes?” He made a fist over his heart.

  “That’s right,” Erin said.

  “It was the same for me, when I started my business. My family was poor, very poor. In the beginning, they keep me going. Over time, I enjoyed the work more and more, but I remember the reason I started. I think it helped my success. So, yes, Erin, I will help you. But if you are going to do this, you must learn business, too. Negotiation. That part, also, I will teach you, if you are willing.”

  Erin stared at him, incredulous. “How would that work?”

  “The island races will be your project, but I will keep it directly under me. If I see you need help, I will send you to other projects, have you sit in on meetings so you can see how it is done. You will have to work very hard,” he warned. “But I think you could be very good at this.”

  “Why would you do that? I mean, that’s more than I was asking.”

  Ivan shrugged. “There are not enough women in my company. Besides, I want something from you also.”

  “What’s that?”

  Ivan shaded his eyes, squinting at the horizon. “I wish to see this Great Haven. I am interested after all the videos, and I like the work of this painter, Helmut, who lives on the cliff. I bought one of his pictures. I would like to meet him.”

  Erin laughed. “Well, that’s fairly easy to arrange.”

  “Also, I wish to see the resort.”

  “You do?” Hope flared like a shooting star in Erin’s mind.

  “Perhaps it is not dead. Perhaps Tristan is simply not the man for it. Did you know this hotel, here, is for sale?”

  “No ...”

  Ivan looked back at the resort building, with its Pacific island thatched style roof and the sculpted gardens. “It is well built, for sure. But inefficient. There is no renewable energy here – unimaginable with all this sunshine! And it appeals to a very small market when it is so expensive. No, no, the model is not sound. Not sustainable. No wonder it is for sale.”

  Erin raised her eyebrows. “Ok, so …”

  “So, I am saying there is opportunity. Come, you will learn. Oh, and one more thing. I am intrigued about this Bella in Helmut’s paintings. There is a story, yes? You will tell me?”

  All Erin could do was smile. Bella’s real story would stay in her heart, part of the glue that bound her to the island. Inspiring her to make a better tomorrow.

  Chapter 29

  Alex returned to the island a week later, his body on the way back to normal, even if his mind wasn’t quite recovered. He still remembered nothing of the accident. In the afternoons, he often wandered down to sit on the jetty and stare at Bella’s Leap, as if waiting patiently would bring it all back. Sometimes, he thought he had a flash of memory: the sound of sails snapping in the wind, the crash of a pulley block switching sides, the thumps of waves … but it wasn’t a complete picture. He wondered if he was just imaging from what Erin had told him.

  He’d walked all over the headlands, and gone out with Travers into the channel, refamiliarising, searching for triggers that just didn’t seem to be there. As if the sea had washed him clean.

  As if making it safe for him to stay.

  He was almost glad his memory had blocked it. One harrowing
experience in the ocean was enough for a lifetime. But he thought a lot about Erin. He had dreams of her sitting by his bedside, but could never quite hear what she was saying.

  He began seeing patients the next week, even though with Tristan’s departure, his employment had technically been terminated. Sandy had kept the practice stocked, and no one else was claiming the surgery so he thought he should keep busy. In fact, his waiting room was full to bursting as everyone found ailments they needed checking in the wave of the now famous Dr Bell coming back to the island. Alex could only laugh. He was touched so many people were concerned for his safety. His room was stuffed with gifts, his calendar groaning with invitations to dinner. It gave him a warm sense of belonging.

  But it was Erin who truly held his heart.

  He finished in the clinic and came through to his room to find her perched on the bed, a stack of business documents fanned out around her, a pen behind her ear, one tanned leg tucked up underneath her. He found it startling and incongruous, like finding a surfer trading stocks on a laptop, but she and Skye were determined to make the races a success. Ivan was coming out later in the week.

  “What time do we have to leave again?” he asked.

  She looked up, her attention broken, blue eyes refocusing as she smiled. “It’s island time, babe. No hurry.”

  They were going up to Helmut’s for dinner, an invitation Alex looked forward to fulfilling. He sat down now beside Erin. “I decided something today.”

  “What’s that?”

  “I’m going to stay on in the clinic, set it up as a private practice. The island needs one.”

  “What about the financials? It was never solvent as a practice on its own.”

  Alex smiled to himself. Erin had become increasingly conscious of such things. He imagined in a few months, she’d have a pair of horn-rimmed glasses and a green lamp. Actually, the idea of her in glasses was sexy, like a naughty librarian. He had to swallow and redirect his thoughts before he got distracted.

  “Well, yes you’re right. Not enough patients, and the cost of supplying is higher. I’m still going to have to take some shifts at the base hospital. But I think you might be spending some time on the mainland, too, right?”

  She nodded, slowly gathering her notes into a pile. Then she rose and put her arms around him, burying her face in his shoulder for just a moment.

  “It’s nice that you’re going to keep the surgery open. Dad always worked on the mainland, too, for the same reason. And everyone will be over the moon you’re staying. I don’t think any of them expect that.”

  Alex hadn’t expected it either. From a job that was supposed to be temporary, he had found a new direction. Karen Bailey, the doctor on the mainland, was talking about setting up a regional medical association, so all the doctors who worked remotely could have a group to discuss their practices with. In an isolated and demanding profession, Alex thought it was a brilliant idea, and it was something he could help run with some time on the mainland.

  And then there was Erin. Brave and clever and fascinating, who made the days light up. He had never expected to find her, or anything like he felt for her again. She was part of the Haven paradise – a tempestuous, unpredictable paradise, perhaps, but that kept things interesting.

  They ascended the headland just as the sun was sinking down over the water. The sky was clear tonight, the first stars showing through the darkening blue, a bare smudge of pink backlighting the horizon. Instead of taking the inland path, they cut to the top of Bella’s Leap, pausing wordlessly near the summit to watch the last light fade. Erin was drawn here now more than ever, and every time she looked out on the ocean and the rocks below, she wanted to build some kind of cairn, or leave a lantern burning. Bella was part of the island, and regardless of whether she was real or a trick of the light, she had saved Alex’s life.

  Alex hadn’t asked about Bella since the accident, but something about his stillness beside her now made Erin wonder if he’d heard every word she’d said while he was unconscious, and was now turning the knowledge over like a pebble, deep in his mind.

  Finally, when the sky in the east was flat black and starlit, they broke out their lanterns and followed the path to Helmut’s studio, the air thickening with a delicious scent of Stella’s goulash. Then they laughed over food and wine deep into the night, Helmut telling stories of paintings and artists, Stella hugging Alex and Erin in gratitude of his rescue, in between tales of her years in the European bohemian scene.

  “You can’t tell me you don’t miss Europe,” Alex said at one stage, still wiping the tears from his eyes after a sordid story involving a drinking contest and a donkey.

  “Well, yes,” Stella admitted. “It’s nothing like Australia. I don’t want to live there again, but it does feel like home going back.”

  “Mmm,” Erin agreed. “I’d put up with the awful showers for a few months. The Med is amazing in places. And the food, my god.”

  “I’ve never been, apart from for Kiel,” Alex said, enjoying Erin’s constant delight in eating.

  “What? How could this be true?” Helmet said.

  Erin caught Alex’s eye. In that glance, she saw possibilities. Sailing with him in the clear waters off Turkey, or eating dinner together in a rustic restaurant on the Riviera. In response, a slow smile spread across his face. That was when she truly believed they could make a life together.

  When dinner was over, Helmut produced a bottle of port, poured them glasses and ushered them into the studio. “I want you to see my latest work.”

  There, three canvases stood proudly on easels by the dark windows, only the moon casting glow over the calm evening sea below the cliffs outside.

  Erin gasped.

  The first canvas showed the boiling cloud of a storm, tearing down from the north, the sea whipped to froth and pummelling the headland. And there, dwarfed by all of it, was a sailboat racing the wind, two tiny figures visible on the deck. In the next, painted as though looking towards the island, a white boat came perilously close to the towering cliffs, its side just visible over a wave roll, two figures bent over the side. The third was a view of Bella’s Leap itself, the storm now retreating into the south, the sky gone blue behind it. In each of the pictures, Bella appeared on the cliff. In the first she was an apparition, insubstance, part of the storm. In the second, she had solidified, a deity with a lantern shining mercy down from above. And in the last, she became part of the reborn day – calm and graceful, a mere wisp of cloud, a suggestion of a woman. Half memory, half dream.

  “She appeared a long time that day,” Helmet said. “I paint like a madman, thinking she is going to disappear. But no, she stays on. I think she stay so that you can, too, Dr Alex.”

  Erin watched for Alex’s reaction. He was stroking his chin, peering at the pictures with intensity.

  “Even I saw her,” Stella said, her voice wonderous. “Even if everyone’s saying it was just Monster, I know what I saw.”

  “Monster?” Erin said.

  Stella nodded. “Was lost all during the storm apparently. Tim was quite beside himself. The dog came back with his coat full of the burrs from those weeds that grow around the cliff top.”

  “No,” Helmut said. “This was not what I saw.”

  “But you are going blind, darling,” Stella said, and Helmut laughed.

  “Two of the pictures already sell,” Helmut said. “She is my patron saint, I think.”

  Much later, as they walked back towards the village in the lantern light, Alex paused at the top of the Leap again. He turned off the light, letting the moonlight paint the rocks in pale luminous grey. The waves shushed in and out below them. The world up here seemed so empty, a place between sky and sea, as it had been the day he and Erin had first met here.

  “I dream about her sometimes,” he said. “I feel like I knew she was there that day, even though I can’t remember anything. I know sailors are a superstitious lot, but is that strange?”

  Erin slid her ha
nd into his. “No.”

  Alex chuckled. “Maybe it was Monster.”

  Erin shook her head, and didn’t say anything for a long time. Most of the memories of that day were like wisps of fog, but her vision of Bella was a rock in a channel – the one fixed and undeniable reference.

  “She showed me where you were, you know,” Erin said. “I looked up onto the cliff top, and she pointed down into the waves. I’m not going to explain something I couldn’t be more grateful for.”

  Alex let a deep breath go, as if something long held had torn free and it was easier to breathe without the weight.

  Erin took another breath. “There’s something else I want to tell you. About what happened when my father died.”

  He put an arm around her shoulders, warm against her skin. “I have a feeling,” he said slowly, “that you may have already told me.”

  Erin leaned her head against him, knowing her time of running away was finally over.

  “Let’s go home,” she said.

  12 months later

  The dance had been Skye’s idea, a fitting end to the race weekend, and a reason to keep the crowds on the island for another night. The weather had been cooperative – twenty knots of wind that set the yachts flying, a small storm Friday night that had kept alive Haven’s notoriety, and clear evening skies that lifted spirits as the music pumped from the new village square. Erin couldn’t have hoped for better.

  Except that she was exhausted. It was worse than any sailing race she’d been part of; she seemed to spend the whole weekend dashing around, a radio or phone constantly to her ear, having to be nice and diplomatic to people, and correcting last-minute disasters, like the near loss of the caterers suckling pig. Of all the things. All this was enough to turn her mad, if she hadn’t been so deliriously satisfied.

  Because, despite the problems, she was mostly on top of it. Ivan had been as good as his word, and his training had prepared her. She’d never worked so hard in her life as this last year, but it all seemed worth it. Two race weekends had brought a huge injection of cash to the island businesses, and rave reviews across the sailing and holiday world. Sponsors were now approaching them, interested in what they had in store next year, and rumours had already leaked about the planned music festival. And just down the main beach, work was just beginning on the new, re-visioned Great Haven resort.