by Kim Hornsby
“Hang on, Obi!” he said.
The brindled dog braced himself against the back seat, while Tina grabbed the passenger holds. “Don’t go all off-road wacko on us, Jamey.” The road had potholes the size of coffins, but Tina actually preferred a few minutes of bumpy ruts and mud to the fifteen minute walk with heavy tanks and cumbersome gear.
At the bay, they parked off to the left, amongst a stand of palm trees.
“We’re the first ones here,” Jamey said.
Conditions for diving looked good and they hooked up their scuba gear from the back of the truck. The effort to shut out her anxiety was losing the fight, and Tina found herself about to tell Jamey she couldn’t do it. But, when she opened her mouth to voice her fear, he told her how proud he was, and patted her shoulder. “That’s my girl,” he said.
She suited up, her heart racing. “We’ll be back soon,” she said to Obi at the water’s edge where he’d wait by their discarded flip flops, guarding the shoes. Tourists had told her many times that he sat patiently, staring at the water. Tina followed Jamey in, walking down a decrepit cement strip to avoid the slippery rocks. Aside from a catamaran cruise launching snorkelers near the bay’s mouth, the surface of the water was tourist-free. Tina inflated her buoyancy vest, adjusted her ten pound weight belt, and slipped the snorkel in her mouth for the kick out to the descent point. With a nod from Jamey, they took off across the surface.
The water was crystal clear. Brightly-striped fish followed them, looking for handouts. Tina had mixed feelings about feeding fish for entertainment and rarely did it. Fish needed to find their own food. As the depth below her increased, she searched the sandy floor of the ocean for anything unusual. Hank’s not down there.
When they stopped, Jamey grabbed her hand and squeezed. “Does this look good?” he asked.
From his look of concern, she imagined her eyes looked big inside her pink dive mask. “As good as anything. Can we hold hands down there?”
“Sure thing. If you feel scared, squeeze hard, and if you want me to reach inside your wetsuit for some hanky-panky, you know where to squeeze, but lightly please.”
That made her smile. “Just don’t let go unless I do.” She put the dive regulator in her mouth, took a quick look below to verify there wasn’t a dead man swaying in the current, and let the air out of her jacket to let the weight belt take her to the sandy bottom of Honolua Bay.
***
Tina’s eyes flew open. The timbers of her bedroom ceiling were barely recognizable in the darkness. She was home. Not Seattle, like in the dream where she was crawling up a long staircase, fighting against unseen forces to reach the top.
Obi lifted his head from her leg, the ribbon still attached to his collar. Even though her strange dreams about following Hank to an underwater cave had ended weeks ago, she continued to take precautions to discern reality from dreams--like tying the ribbon to Obi’s collar at bedtime. If the ribbon was gone, or her faithful companion was strangely absent, she was likely in a dream. Next, she attempted to stick her fist into her abdomen and was met with resistance. Good. Her shrink, Doctor Chan, at the Maui Clinic had taught her that one. Lately, her life had become filled with these reality checks.
Tina took a drink of water from the glass on the bedside table, and noticed the time. Just after five a.m. She turned on the lamp and swung her legs over the edge of the bed. Her dream just now seemed so real, but they always did.
Jamey touched her elbow. She’d woken him by turning on the light. “Oh, sorry, Baby.” She turned around with a sheepish smile. Two weeks into their new relationship, she still wasn’t used to him sleeping beside her.
“You okay?” His voice was scratchy.
“Just a dream.” She nodded. “Go back to sleep.”
“The normal kind?”
She smiled. “Yes. The staircase one.”
He patted her arm and turned over.
This recurring dream was worrisome, but not frightening. The theme, always the same. Her father called to her from the top of a long winding staircase, needing help, but she couldn’t get to him. Struggling up the stairs, she’d almost reach her father when he’d turn into Jamey. Dressed in fatigues, Jamey crawled towards her, his lips horribly chapped, sand caked in his eyes, looking beyond thirst. Beyond help. Just as she lunged for him, Tina would find herself back at the bottom of the staircase to begin again.
The day before, when she’d mentioned these dreams to Jamey, she didn’t say he was in the dream. Only her father. He said it was normal to worry about her dad when such a rift loomed between Tina and her mother.
“You’re probably worried how it’s affecting him. With everything you’ve gone through in the last year, you’re bound to have bad dreams.” He’d kissed the tip of her nose.
She crossed the dark room to look out the bedroom window. The island of Molokai loomed in the distance, a dark silhouette on the moonlit Pacific Ocean. It seemed almost cruel that Hank’s dead body had drifted to the island she could see from her bedroom. What used to be hers and Hank’s bedroom. They’d never have found the decomposed body if Jamey hadn’t come back into her life with his crazy, psychic abilities.
When Jamey had first told her he could enter other people’s dreams, she’d been a non-believer, thinking he was pulling a fast one on her. All her life she’d been a logical person, never giving credibility to anything that couldn’t be explained with solid science. She had an MBA from Stanford, was an educated woman, but until the last month, had never even heard of lucid dreaming. Now she was lucid dreaming almost every night, and could expertly explain electronic voice phenomena from first-hand experience with a ghost.
Tina turned off the light and sank back in to the covers of the bed, thinking about the dream. In the last two weeks, she’d worried that the strife between she and her mother would take its toll on her father. He had a history of heart problems. Obi heaved a sigh and laid his head down, this time alongside her leg.
A truce was needed with her mother, even if only for her father’s sake. Not an easy thing when you considered her mother systematically wrecked her marriage and set in place a series of events that would end with Hank dead and Tina being fed sedatives without her knowledge. But someone had to mend the rift and Tina was pretty sure she’d have to make the next move.
Today Jamey was leaving for Seattle. His twin daughters were turning ten soon, and he wanted to be back in Carnation for the weeks surrounding the momentous birthday. Was he meeting with Milton while he was there, or some other member of Sixth Force, to prove he hadn’t regained his ability to jump? He hadn’t said, and she hadn’t asked.
In the last week, she and Jamey had been diving every day. The dive at Honolua had gone well and now, after months of being terrified of the ocean for fear of seeing Hank’s floating corpse, she was back in the water. Diving. Today was the reason she needed to dive and with cautious excitement, Tina felt ready to take students underwater again. Ready for the group who counted on her expertise this week.
Realizing she was not going back to sleep, she turned off the alarm before it rang at six and shuffled to the bathroom to take a shower. The hot water pelted against her back. Today Jamey would leave her again. Her gut was telling her to stop him from getting on the plane, but why? Was it because she’d just got him back after ten years and was simply feeling insecure? Or had she inherited some of his freaky intuition along with the dream jumping? Jamey got premonitions, not her.
“Here’s a crazy theory,” he’d said one night when they were talking about psychic phenomena. “What if my ability was lying dormant since the last jump in Afghanistan? It shut down, but was looking for someplace to go, and when we touched, it transferred to you?”
“You’re right,” she said. “It sounds crazy.” She’d made a face but hadn’t discounted the theory. How else could she explain that Jamey couldn’t jump dreams like before and she could? She’d become the primary jumper ever since they touched and she’d fainted. And these day
s, Jamey jumped dreams only when Tina went first.
Once out of the shower, she pulled on a bikini and board shorts, ran a comb through her shoulder-length brown hair and stepped into her flip flops. Obi sat by his bowl in the kitchen and she laughed to see him waiting so patiently. “You are a faithful companion, you silly pittie.” As she fed her dog, the doves in the front yard made staccato cooing and the sky lightened behind the house. Another day in paradise, as the bumper stickers said, but this day would involve saying goodbye to her man. Tina opened the glass patio door, then pulled aside the screen door to the deck, letting Obi outside. She watched him run down the front deck stairs to the grass below.
While drinking a cup of coffee, she watched Obi mark along the perimeter of her front property, something he’d started doing when Hank disappeared. He’d loved Hank.
She walked back into the bedroom and found Jamey lying awake in the bed, looking like he was waiting for her.
“Come here, you Goddess.” He held out his arms.
“I have to go.” Tina smirked, knowing what that man wanted. She could see his interest under the sheet. She walked over and burrowed in to him, spoon-style.
He pulled her in closer. “I’m going to miss you,” he whispered in her hair.
“Me too.” She didn’t want to think about how much. Last night they’d talked until after midnight, trying to make a plan that involved him getting back to Maui after he’d spent a few weeks with his daughters. Securing permission from his ex-wife, Carrie, to bring the girls to Maui this summer, might take some finagling, but Jamey sounded confident it could be done. In anticipation Tina promised to learn to cook over the next few weeks. “At least I’ll figure out mac and cheese,” she said. “Maybe chicken fingers and fries too. And, I’m going to buy twin beds for that empty guest room and fix it up for the girls.” He’d looked enormously pleased.
Tina breathed in the sleepy scent of him, all musky and manly. He pressed his erection against her hip and she groaned. “Not fair.” Looking at her watch, she knew a quick exit was going to be necessary. Only seven hours ago, they’d made love, slowly enjoying every moment like it would be their last memory for a while. Jamey always made love like it was his first time, and his last time.
Tina rolled off the bed, kissed his lips, and smiled sadly. “Come back soon,” she said, and left her house.
Last time they’d said goodbye, he hadn’t come back.
Chapter 3
Tina stacked the dive tanks, buoyancy jackets, regulators, and weight belts in the back of her truck. The morning’s diving excursion was important. The date had been on the books for almost a year, and she would not let these clients down, hadn’t even considered getting someone else to take over when Jamey asked her to come with him to Seattle.
The Wheelchair Mamas were six women from California who were unlikely candidates for scuba diving. Until they heard about Tina. Very few dive instructors were willing or able to take on paraplegics and quadriplegics—to risk the danger of diving with people who had no use of legs, or arms. But it had become a cause close to Tina’s heart ever since diving with a quadriplegic years before. That woman had told Tina that her life was changed forever, and the effect it had on Tina was still fresh.
Today was the Wheelchair Mama’s first dive.
The gear was loaded, but it was still too early for the ladies’ arrival. Tina had time to run across to the Sunrise Café for a smoothie. Get some nutrition in her belly. Since Jamey had entered her life again, she’d been having regular meals. He’d encouraged her to gain a few pounds back, look healthier. Standing in line at the café, she made a mental list of what had improved since Jamey arrived—eating, diving, laughing. Not to mention regular sex, and then sleeping like a baby.
And now he was leaving. By the time Jamey boarded the 11:10 to Seattle, she’d be either fifteen feet under on a dive, or getting ready to dive again. Thinking about him flying away left her feeling like reaching for the Ativan bottle and popping two for anxiety, but she’d sworn off pills, and even alcohol, when Hank’s body was found. She’d become too familiar with self-medicating recently.
At eight a.m., Front Street in Lahaina was just waking up. The morning air was still a comfortable temperature, fresh, and salt-tinged. A surfer at the front of the smoothie lineup grabbed his drink, hoisted his board under his arm, and headed towards the break just outside the harbor. That would’ve been Hank last year, getting in a few rides before work.
Taking her two to-go cups across the street, Tina looked back to see Obi following on her heels. Someday, dogs wouldn’t be able to roam the streets of Lahaina off-leash, but that would be a sad day for Obi who still had free run of the neighborhood. Like a Mexican village dog. Having rescued him from scrounging around Laniupoko Park two years earlier, Tina suspected he had some pit bull in him like most strays on Maui. She kept a nautical-themed scarf around his neck when they were in town to indicate he was a friendly, jolly guy. She was thinking about whether Jamey’s daughters would like Obi when her cell phone rang. Balancing both drinks in one hand, she opened her phone to see the call was from Jamey, Tina’s heart sped up. “Hi there, Handsome.”
“I miss you and I haven’t even left your house yet.” His voice was soft, sensual. Even the sound of him made her insides melt.
“Me too. I’m not looking forward to the next two weeks.” She entered the store and handed Katie a mango smoothie.
“I’m heading to the other side early to get presents for the girls at the surf shop,” Jamey said.
“Good idea. When will you tell them you have a girlfriend?” She held her breath.
“Probably while I’m hugging them hello, I’ll blurt it out.” He laughed.
She loved the sound of that man’s laugh. “Don’t make them tired of me before I meet them,” she joked, sitting at her desk in the back room.
“Ha! They’ll want to meet you as soon as possible. I know my girls.”
“I’m going to get a trampoline for the backyard. Isn’t that a great idea? Oh, and remember to check with Carrie first, before you ask them to spend a month on Maui.” She hoped Jamey’s dad’s condo wasn’t available, and they’d all stay at her house. Hearing the store’s front door bell jingle, she looked around the corner to see a woman enter. “I have to go,” she whispered into the phone. “Call when you land.”
Hitting “end” on her phone was almost painful. “You must be Sharon Mayhugh,” Tina said.
The woman nodded. “That’s me.”
Sharon was the sister of the founder of the Wheelchair Mamas, and the official driver for the group’s vacation. She wore a T-shirt that read “Wheelchair Mamas, 2003 Tour”, along with a pair of lime green shorts, and rainbow flip flops.
“I want one of those shirts!” Tina said.
“We have one for you.” Sharon laughed. “But now I see we should have ordered a kids’ Large.”
“Oh I wear them big. How are the Wheelchair Mamas this morning?”
“They’re ready to go.” Sharon nodded to the idling van outside the shop. “Up at dawn, talking, making coffee, nervous, excited.”
Tina laughed. “I bet.” She turned to Katie, who was slurping the last of her smoothie behind the counter. “Can you watch the shop while I do a briefing?”
Katie looked at Shelley, one of the dive instructors who’d just walked in the back door and the two laughed. “I think we can handle it.” The store was empty except for the four women.
Shelley nodded her curly blond head. “We’ll give ‘er a go, Boss.” Hired recently when the store lost two instructors to health issues, Shelley had been a godsend with her knowledge of the dive industry.
Tina nodded to Sharon and they headed to the air-conditioned van outside. But before she opened the van door, Tina had a chilling thought, and her hand lingered on the handle.
What if Jamey was counting on her not being able to leave Maui this week, and was secretly headed back to the war zone in Afghanistan? She buried the thought,
took a deep breath and entered the van.
***
The scent of gardenia was strong inside Tina’s truck. With blossoms tucked behind their ears, Tina and Shelley headed north to the dive site at Wahikuli Beach. The water was calm, like a swimming pool, and this roadside park access to the ocean would be the best place to start the Mama’s on their dives. Wheelchairs could easily be maneuvered to the water’s edge and rolled in to the ocean, without the worry of surf. Tina was tentatively happy, which was all she could muster today with Jamey leaving.
The first participant that morning was Julie, a mother of two teenage girls. She’d been paralyzed falling off the family trampoline, and now had no feeling below her neck. Julie said she was lucky to alive to watch her daughters grow up. Hearing her story, Tina reminded herself to purchase the kind of trampoline with a safety net for Jade and Jasmine. Julie’s husband carried his wife in to the water where Tina stood waiting with Shelley in scuba gear, always keeping an eye out behind her, in case a rogue wave appeared. Tina fit the buoyancy jacket on Julie while Shelley held their student stable. The teenage girls stood anxiously off to the side, wringing their hands. Tina knew from experience that within the hour, those same girls would be smiling from ear to ear.
“Shelley, grab the weight belt and fasten it around Julie’s waist, will you?”
“At least we don’t need fins,” Julie joked.
“That’s true. Remember the eye signals, and head nods?” Tina asked.
“Two big blinks means I want to go up, and a big shake of the head means something’s wrong.”
“And no laughing because you’re having so much fun. That wastes your air.” She smiled at her student. “I’m going to put the regulator in your mouth now for you to practice breathing, and just remember, it gives you as much air as you need. Once you get used to breathing through a box on your face, you’ll relax.”
