by Mara Webb
The first night he had shifted, he had run to my house on the beach. The eyes of the creature had seemed so familiar, but it seemed like a crazy idea to suggest that the man I was working with could turn into an animal like that. Now I knew better.
He was afraid of hurting me, but I felt safe with him.
“I would prefer it if you didn’t flood my dining room,” Honey tutted, pointing at the pool of water by his feet.
“Sorry,” he muttered, then started to shake his body from side to side rapidly and the droplets of water on his clothes and hair started flying out in all directions. I couldn’t help but laugh as I realized that he was doing exactly what a wolf, or a dog would do if they had gotten wet. Honey was less amused.
“Enough of that,” she shrieked, shielding her face from the spray of water. She snapped her fingers and Miller was suddenly dry. “Why wouldn’t you just ask one of the witches sitting at this table to help you out, instead of ruining my curtains?”
I was too busy laughing, but when Honey shot me a look I quickly stopped. Miller laughed a little too and sat back at the table next to me. I wondered if the wolf part of him had taken over for a second, but it was daytime. The moon was no where to be seen.
“You were going to tell us about Robert Barton.” I said, trying to steer the conversation. “Or the witch in the water, or why you fainted… I think we are missing a lot of information.”
“Well let’s start at the beginning,” Honey sighed. “This is a secondhand story by the way, I wasn’t even alive when these events occurred so I can’t tell you what’s real and what isn’t. My parents were both fantastical story tellers, but they aren’t around anymore so you won’t be able to fact check anything.”
Tony suddenly stood up and the sound of his chair scraping against the floor made me flinch.
“I’ve just remembered that I told my wife I’d be home for lunch!” he said. “I’m gonna have to eat another lunch so that she isn’t offended. Oh, this is too much for Tony-two-spades,” he cried as he ran out of the house.
“That man is… odd,” I said bluntly.
“I know,” Honey smiled. “He wasn’t blessed with any brains between his ears, but he will help you out when you’re in need and I can’t think of a better quality in a friend than that.”
“You were about to tell us—” Miller said.
“Yes,” Honey cut in. “Okay, so I suppose it all started sixty years ago. You know, this might be a long story, can I get anyone a refill?” We nodded, patiently waiting to hear the local legend. Was this going to give us any clue as to why there was a dead man in a bomb shelter?
7
“It’s not that unusual for people to want to leave Green Holt. You might hear otherwise from some of the older residents on the island, but it’s true,” Honey began. “This place is nice, don’t get me wrong, but you can’t limit yourself to one hunk of rock in the middle of nowhere.”
“Have you ever left?” I asked.
“I…” she paused, considering her words carefully. “I have, but it’s not something that is easy to talk about. Everyone in Hallow Haven is up in everybody else’s business. If you want to get off Green Holt you have to be very secretive about it. There are the tunnels, I’m sure you know that by now.”
The tunnel network allowed access to the main island from the outer islands. I wasn’t sure of the size of the network, or if every island was connected this way. Mapping them out was on my lengthy to-do list.
“So, you left through the tunnels?” I said.
“I did, but you have a few options. You can obviously use the tunnels, or a boat, or swim. Swimming is risky as the water is deep and… well you get the idea.”
“But using a boat means you have to sign in and out on the main island, right?” Miller said.
“Exactly. That doesn’t make it impossible, money can be a powerful tool and if you have enough of it then the guards on the main island will pretend they didn’t see you and you don’t have to sign the book. Their fee is too high for most people, so they use the tunnels instead,” she explained. “But getting to the main island is only the first part of the journey.”
“The airport,” I muttered.
“Yes! It is much harder to get off the islands altogether. You need a passport and a bribe big enough that the pilot will sneak you away from Hallow Haven without blabbing about it to everyone he meets,” she sighed.
I thought of Tom, the pilot that had flown me from Virginia to this place. He was the only pilot that lived here as far as I knew, if you were planning to leave by plane then he was your only option.
“Where did you go?” I asked.
“I went to Canada,” she smiled proudly. “I’d heard about this weird stuff called snow, that it was cold and fluffy and fell from the sky. We don’t get that here, so I wanted to see it for myself. I had to save up a lot of money to buy the passport, the bribe for the pilot, the cost of the flights and then all my other travel expenses. It was worth every penny, but there was a lot involved in making it happen.”
“Why is it so taboo for people to go on vacation?” I said.
“I don’t know, it’s just ingrained in all of us so deeply that it’s hard to break out of the cycle. If people knew that I’d gone away from here then they could shut down my business or stop inviting me to parties.”
“So for Robert to have a passport that must have meant that he had a lot of money, right?” I asked.
“Yes, no doubt. If you think it is strict now then you can’t even imagine what it was like back then,” Honey explained. “You have to realize that it wasn’t even conceivable that anyone would want to leave Green Holt when he was alive. My parents told me that he went missing, that was how it got started. He had been the most outgoing, wonderful guy and so when he first didn’t show up for a social event, people were worried.
“But maybe he was just sick, right? But then the next day no one spotted him, or the next. They went to his house and he was gone, but none of his things were gone. People started to look for him because they were worried that he might be hurt somewhere, but they didn’t find him. Then the details get a little blurry.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“He was gone and there was no body, he hadn’t taken any of this stuff so it didn’t look like he had gone off to some distant place, although it would probably be easier to run away without luggage,” she paused. “All that meant that, at least in Green Holt lore, that the island had taken him back,” Honey said.
I looked at Miller to see if he was as confused as I was, but he nodded gently as if it had made perfect sense.
“It’s not just Green Holt, there are a few other islands with similar beliefs,” Miller said. “They say we come from the islands, that the witches of Hallow Haven get their power from the islands themselves, so the island can take you back whenever it chooses.”
“It sounds silly, I’m sure,” Honey chuckled. “But they didn’t have the internet back then, so making up weird rumors was pretty much the only entertainment. If Robert Barton had been consumed by the island then that means all the lore was real, he could haunt us, poison the water or kill of the crops.”
“But us finding the body proves that it didn’t happen that way, right?” I said.
“Exactly. Did you see anything other than the passport down there?” Honey asked.
“Just the hole through the skull,” Miller replied. “I didn’t see a gun anywhere around, so he didn’t shoot himself. That man was murdered. Do you remember if your parents said anything about him having any enemies?”
“The fact that he had a passport is the biggest thing that would put a target on his back,” Honey said. “If he was planning to leave and someone found out then he could be in big trouble.”
“Why would he try to leave?” I asked. “If it was so risky to do it then—”
“You can’t let fear dictate your life,” Honey interrupted. “If I’d have allowed it to then I never would have
seen snow and eaten poutine and drank a coffee in a Tim Hortons. I don’t know where he was planning to go, but if he had a passport then he has paid off the mailman and would have needed to pay off the pilot.”
“Wait, what mailman?” I said.
“If you apply for a passport then you have to fill out the paperwork and get it processed,” Miller explained. “We have a post office on the main island, I think they sort it out there.”
“They do,” Honey nodded. “But if you live on Green Holt then you don’t go over there yourself and do it in person. The Hallow Haven mailman goes by boat to all of the islands and can take letters or bring you things, for the right price.”
“That’s what you did?” I asked.
“Yes. He came one day to deliver my Tupperware catalogue and I asked him to get me a set of passport application forms. He explained the price; I paid in cash then and there. The next time he came to Green Holt he brought me the forms and I filled them out, handed them back and he took them to the post office to get processed.”
The whole notion that trying to go anywhere was so frowned upon was something I couldn’t get my head around.
“We need to know how he got his passport then,” Miller said. “Our mailman is pretty old; would it be the same guy that Robert would have known?”
“Yeah, he’s been sorting out the Hallow Haven mail for decades. If anyone is gonna know about it then it would be that guy,” Honey nodded.
The rain eased up slowly as we sat pondering the information we’d shared. I knew that the storm would mean that the tunnels were flooded, so if we planned to go anywhere then we would have to leave by boat.
“I want to see what the water looks like,” I said, standing up. “If it is calmer then we should get back to the main island and look for the mailman.”
“Sure,” Miller smiled.
I walked out onto the lawn and towards the cliff edge so that I could look out across the ocean. The water was no longer choppy and wild; the storm had come and gone so quickly that I wondered what had caused it. I knew that Ryder had practiced magic to control the weather with Greta before she died. Maybe he would know what was going on?
I turned back towards the guest house when something shimmered out of the corner of my eye. Some sort of light rushed over the pit in the ground, like it had flown across the grass and then disappeared up in the air.
I ran the rest of the way back inside. Something was going on with this island and I would be glad to get off it, even if just for a few hours.
“We’re good to go,” I said to Miller.
“Great,” he smiled. “Honey, we’ll be back as soon as we’ve spoken to this guy. Could you just keep an eye on the you-know-what?”
“The hole in the ground with a dead body in it?” she said. “I’d rather shave my head to be honest with you, but I will make sure it isn’t tampered with.”
“Thanks, Honey.” Miller and I walked out of the house and began to make the journey down to the dock. I couldn’t help but wonder if the weather would take a sharp turn again once we got to our boat. What if it had happened to make sure we didn’t leave? What if the island really could take people back? I didn’t think I was the type of person to believe in that sort of thing, but it was hard to ignore it at this point.
By the time the powerboat was in view, the water was still calm. That was a good sign. Once again Miller helped me down into the boat, but this time when he held my hand, I saw the peridot ring glow. The little sparks of blue light that normally appeared anytime Miller touched me were all shooting in one direction, into the ring on my middle finger.
Miller didn’t notice, but I couldn’t stop staring at it. He loosened the knot in the rope that was tying us to the dock, and we were soon speeding across the water back to the mainland. I felt relieved once I saw the familiar sight of my home on the beach. I hoped I would get a chance to speak to Effie about the ring before we needed to get back to Green Holt.
We were soon shoring up to the marina, the journey had been shorter than I expected but that might have been because I was so focused on the glowing stone on my finger. Miller helped me off the boat, the peridot glowed the same way it had on the Green Holt dock, and then he disappeared to sign us in again. I wondered how long he would keep using that sign in/out book after he had learned about all the corruption going on.
“Where would we find the mailman?” I asked once he returned.
“He lives in the lower ground, not too far from Effie and Kate’s house now that I think about it,” he replied.
“Great,” I muttered. “I just need to run into the café to speak to Effie quickly, actually.”
“Are you gonna tell them that I shook like a wet dog? I’d rather you didn’t,” he laughed.
“Kate can read my mind, as soon as I see her, she is gonna know,” I smiled.
We walked along the beach from the marina to The Sand Witch, my café. Although I owned it, Effie did most of the work in running the place day to day. I had run a number of cafes back in Virginia, so I hadn’t anticipated it being much different, however now I was also the peacekeeper and that took up most of my time.
“I’ll wait out here,” Miller said. I think he knew I wanted to speak to Effie in private. I stepped through the front door of The Sand Witch and was hit by a wall of sound. Every table had customers and there was a huge line at the counter. Shell’s Day preparations seemed to have driven up business. Fortunately, Effie had brought in enough staff that they could handle it. It seemed that the lunch rush was reaching its end and the majority of people inside were just waiting to pay their bill before leaving.
“Effie, can I speak to you for a minute?” I asked.
“Sure,” she said, gesturing for Rosie, one of the other staff, to take over at the cash register. “What’s up? Is this about your cute new hair cut? Or have you and Miller picked a wedding date? I will of course be your maid of honor,” she teased.
“No, it’s not that,” I smirked. “The amber ring you gave me, it changed.” I lifted my hand up to show her the ring and her mouth fell open.
“Is that what I think it is?” she whispered. What did she think it was?
8
“Dude! I don’t care what level you’re on, get over here!” Effie screeched into her cell phone. She hung up with a forceful shove of her index finger against the screen then looked back at me. “You can’t slam the phone down on people anymore, stupid touch screens.”
“What’s happening?” I asked.
“Oh, I was calling Kate to get her to come here. She was complaining because she is in some online strategy game thing and she’s on this level that means she’s about to… you know, it doesn’t matter. The point is, I wanted my sister to get here to look at this,” Effie said, pointing at my ring.
“Are you gonna let me know what’s happening? Or are you making me wait until she gets here?” I pressed. Effie had dragged me through the kitchen of the café and through the doorway that connected the café to my house. We were now standing in my hallway as she paced up and down muttering under her breath. Less than a minute after she had hung up on her sister, there was a loud pounding at the front door.
Effie rushed up the hallway to see who it was. A breathless Kate stood on the sand outside gasping for air and clutching her stomach.
“Ran so…fast. Can’t… oxygen,” Kate wheezed.
“Finally, you’re here,” Effie teased. “Come see this.” She grabbed her sister by the arm and pulled her along until they stopped in front of me.
“Sadie? I’ve… seen Sadie before,” she said, still struggling to breathe. “New hair cut?”
“Look at her hand,” Effie prompted. Kate looked down at the ring and she replicated Effie’s reaction perfectly, jaw open in disbelief.
“Is that what I think it is?” Kate said.
“Hello?” I yelled, frustrated.
“Yeah, sorry. Is that a peridot?” Effie asked.
“I have no idea, but there’s a
woman on Green Holt that said that word when she saw it, so maybe,” I shrugged.
Kate and Effie looked at each other and then started to jump up and down excitedly.
“Sadie, that stone is not just any peridot,” Kate shrieked.
“For real, I have never heard this word before, so this means nothing to me,” I complained.
“You were on Green Holt when the ring changed?” Effie gasped. “I need to sit down.” She started to dramatically fan herself with both hands and I resisted the urge to throw a toddler tantrum in front of them to get their attention long enough to tell me what was going on.
“There is a legend over on Green Holt about buried treasure, have you heard about that?” Kate asked. I nodded. “Well, some people say that the treasure was found long ago. I know there are folk over there still digging up any bit of earth they can get their hands on, but bear with me.
“Okay, so the treasure was found, and they start counting up all the goodies; tipping the chest out onto the beach and taking stock of what they’ve won. The island didn’t want just anyone getting its hands on the loot, so it swallowed up a few items.” Kate grinned widely as if she’d said something that should have caused me to jump up and down excitedly like she just had.
“Let me guess, this stone was swallowed by the island, is that what you’re telling me?” I groaned.
“Yeah!” Kate and Effie shouted together.
“How did you get this?” Kate asked.
“I was standing on the dock with Miller, and we were about to get to our boat to go to Skerry, but I saw something in the water and—” I was cut off by the two of them squealing with delight. Effie, who had sat down on the ground to calm down, had leapt back onto her feet and had wrapped her arms around her sister. They were spinning and near screaming.
“This is a really big deal,” Effie yelled. “Kate, pack a bag for each of us, grab my camera and meet me back here in, err…” she paused to think. “Thirty minutes!” Kate nodded and ran back out of the front door of the house and was gone.
