Wrath of the Sea Queen

by Cynthia Woods

  Apela sat in a chair a few feet away while Vin sat and waited on a hospital bed. Since his injury was not critical, he was low on the triage list. They waited over an hour and a half before the doctor finally arrived. By then, Vin's stomach was grumbling, he was thirsty, and was losing patience at the excessive wait time. He had also lost a fair amount of blood after the shooting and already felt drowsy. That, combined with the fact that Vin was worn out after his ordeal at the levee, caused him to get lightheaded when the doctor asked him to stand. If not for the nearby bed and the doctor's quick reflexes, Vin would have fallen to the floor.

  "Thank you. Sorry about that. I have been sitting here for quite a while. I guess I stood up too quickly," Vin tried to pass the symptom off as nothing.

  "No need to apologize, Mr. Harding. Head wounds can be touchy. They have a tendency to cause a wide variety of reactions, including that one," the doctor replied.

  Vin looked at the tall, thin man in the long, white lab coat. His closely cropped, light brown hair and thin mustache reminded Vin of one of his college professors. The man's clearly Caucasian heritage made it obvious that he was not a native of the island.

  "As I told the paramedic and the nurse, it is really not that bad. I was lucky, Dr…"

  "Dr. Simmons."

  "I was lucky, Dr. Simmons. The bullet barely grazed me. If you could sign me out, I would like to get out of here and let you tend to folks who need your help more than I do."

  "Not so fast. That wound may not appear serious, but I won't dismiss you until I run some tests to confirm."

  "And if I refuse?" Vin was not in a mood to sit through a bunch of useless procedures.

  "I would not advise that. You are clearly experiencing symptoms from something. It would be better for you to find out for certain if there is any unseen damage. If you don't, you could end up inadvertently hurting yourself or someone else. But, of course, it is your choice. I can't force you to undergo the tests. Regardless of your decision, we cannot let you leave the hospital until the sheriff or one of his deputies gets here to take your statement. On my way over, I overheard the receptionist and one of the nurses talking about a bad accident about a mile down the highway; something involving an overturned semi. Doubtless, the sheriff will be on the scene there before coming here. We don't exactly have large numbers of law enforcement officials on this side of the island. That's why the Guard helps us out on a regular basis. So, you may as well get comfortable. You are going to be here for a while. Why not let me run the tests while you wait? It will help pass the time and put your wife's worry at ease when you get home."

  "My wife? How do you know about my wife?" Vin, already irritated at the delay, asked suspiciously. His impatience began to wear thin his good manners.

  "Well, I don't suppose that ring on your finger is just for show. With the pending storm, I assume she is the reason you are so impatient to rush out of here," Dr. Simmons replied calmly, having noticed when he walked into the room how Vin unconsciously twisted his wedding band as he waited. It was a mannerism he borrowed from Caeli on occasion.

  Dr. Simmons was right. Vin, realizing how foolish he must sound, apologized and agreed to the doctor's terms.

  "Give me a minute please. Apela, you don't have to stay. Why don't you go on home to Max? Will you let Caeli know that I will be there as soon as I can? Please explain the delay."

  "Sure. When you're ready, have the hospital call you a cab and give them the hotel name. They will know where it is."

  "Apela, I don't actually know the name of your hotel," Vin confessed.

  "Take this. It's on my card." Apela opened his wallet and pulled out a pale blue business card for Vin. In bold, black, flowing font was the hotel name, the Sea Queen's Castle. The letters appeared to be sitting on the sand as the water lapped at their bottom edges. The address and phone number were in smaller font across the bottom of the card.

  "That's an interesting name. Does it have anything to do with the festival?" Vin asked curiously.

  "My father named the place, so I'm not certain. However, the folk lore of the Sea Queen has been around much longer than our festival. The name would only be related to the festival because the festival is based on that same folk lore," Apela explained briefly.

  "I see. Well, wish me luck. Tell Caeli I will call her if I can."

  With that, Vin watched Apela walk out into the lobby as the doctor closed the exam room door. As he did, the electricity flickered and went out. It only took a moment, however, before the backup generators kicked on and restored the power.

  Salma walked up to Caeli's bedside as she opened her eyes and tried to shake off her lingering lethargy.

  "Hi, Salma."

  "Hello, Dear. You look much better than you did two hours ago. Did you sleep well?" Salma began to remove the IV line from Caeli's arm.

  "Did I have a choice?"

  "Don't be like that. You know as well as I do that you needed to sleep and probably still do."

  "What I don't need is to be drugged into oblivion. I mean it, Salma. Please don't do it again. What I do want is to see Vin. Are you still keeping him in the lounge? I've had enough of that, too."

  "He is at the hospital."

  "The hospital? I thought we healed him. Did we miss something? Why is he there?" Caeli sat up in alarm.

  "Easy. Get up slowly. Vin is fine. They are running tests on him. They don't know what we did for him, and Vin can't very well tell them. It would be negligent of the doctors not to give Vin a thorough exam before releasing him. I imagine since his injuries are not critical, he got bumped down on the triage list. He could be there for quite a while," Salma explained.

  "Then I want to go. I haven't seen him since we arrived last night. So much has happened. I need to talk to him. Will you let me see him now?"

  "No."

  Salma's unwavering reply caused Caeli to stop halfway out of the bed and look up at her. Salma stood directly in front of Caeli with her hands on her hips, staring down at her with a serious look that Caeli knew well. Salma had a kind and generous heart, but she did not like it when her patients disregarded their own health for what she deemed unacceptable reasons. Caeli, realizing another one of Salma's famed lectures rode the horizon, tried to preempt it.

  "I know what you're going to say, Salma. Before you start, you don't know the whole story. There is more going on with me than you know. I need to talk to Vin."

  "Really? Will talking to Vin right this minute change the fact that you are not well?"

  "No, but this is…"

  "Will it tell you what was wrong with you to begin with?"

  "No, but it will…"

  "Maybe it will tell you why those protestors shot both of our husbands?"

  "No, talking to Vin won't do any of those things, but…"

  "But nothing. I am not blind or deaf Caeli. I know there is more going on here than either of us comprehends. I fear for my husband as much as you do for yours."

  "I'm sorry, Salma. I didn't mean to imply that Ben's injury was any less terrible than Vin's. It's not about that at all. What I need to discuss with Vin is confusing, tied to my gift, and indirectly involves him. It is sort of personal and not about the baby. It's…Salma, why is it so dark in here?" Caeli finally noticed that the lights were out as she stood up and started to move toward the closet and a fresh change of clothes. The t-shirt and shorts had been fine at the time, but they were grimy and uncomfortable now.

  "The power went out about five minutes ago. The storm seems to be kicking up again. I was watching the news before the outage, and they were reporting that the area near the conference hotel is really getting slammed."

  "Isn't that near the hospital?" Caeli seemed to recall someone mentioning the proximity of the hospital and their original hotel.

  "Yes. Even if I were inclined to let you visit Vin, which I'm not, you would not be permitted to travel to that part of the island. In fact, authorities have asked everyone to stay off the roads unless absolutely ne
cessary. I was surprised to see Apela pull up in a taxi when Max came to get me to check on you," Salma answered.

  Caeli had been considering getting a shower and changing her clothes. After the brief rest, she did feel much better. But, as Caeli listened to Salma's response, she also heard another nagging voice deterring her actions.

  "She is marvelous! Here I went to the trouble of keeping you two separated, and it seems I may not have needed to waste the effort," Rika stated.

  "Salma is not keeping us apart for your benefit. What did you do, Rika? Are you responsible for getting Vin shot?" Caeli demanded.

  "No. I am merely using the resultant situation to my advantage. You would do the same in my place."

  "I would not. The storm? You are causing all of this turbulent weather just to keep me away from Vin? What's the point? I can still talk to him. We can wait out the storm."

  "Caeli, are you all right?’" Salma had come up behind her and placed her hand lightly on Caeli's shoulder. Caeli stood still beside the closet and had not replied when Salma twice called her name.

  Caeli shrugged Salma's hand off her shoulder and indicated with her hand for Salma to let her be for a moment.

  "You can try to talk to him. I will stop you as easily as I did before. By the time this storm ends, your decision will be made and there will be no further reason to keep him from you."

  "Why are you afraid of Vin? What is it that you don't like about him?" Caeli was curious about Rika's motive.

  "On the contrary, I like him very much. But, as your aunt pointed out, he distracts you. Until you give my offer appropriate consideration, the fewer distractions you have, the better."

  "And you believe you can force my compliance to that extent?"

  Caeli walked over to the sliding door and opened it. The rain outside now pounded against the sand. The loud crash of the waves against the shore carried the sounds of violence along the beach.

  "I already have. I am merely maintaining it now." Rika was confident of her control over the situation.

  "Caeli, where are you going? Stop! What are you doing?"

  "It's all right, Salma. I will only be a minute," Caeli glanced over her shoulder at Salma before stepping out into the rain. She quickly trotted down to the water's edge where the water lapped up to her knees.

  "I don't believe you can do that, Rika, and I am calling your bluff. If you can start the rain that is keeping Vin at the hospital, then I can stop it and allow him to return."

  "Well, well, look at you. You do have some spirit in you. Go ahead. Try if you must. I will relish your failure. It will bring you another step closer to understanding your limits and accepting my offer," Rika taunted.

  "Ben!" Salma called as she rushed over to the interior door and looked down the hall, searching for her husband. She found him talking to Apela near the small reception desk in front of the lounge. He turned at the sound of Salma's voice.

  "Ben, come quick. Caeli is behaving very strangely."

  "What do you mean?" Ben asked as he followed Salma into the room.

  Apela trailed a few steps behind. None of the three paid any attention to Max as he walked away by himself. Ben stood at the sliding door, watching Caeli from a distance. She merely stood unmoving in the water. After hearing Salma's description of Caeli's behavior, Ben could not decide if he should go after her.

  "What is she doing?" Apela asked from behind Ben.

  "I have no idea. Let's give her a minute before we interrupt. I want to see what happens…"

  "Max! Come back here!" Apela pushed his way around Ben as he caught sight of Max, who was already halfway down the beach, running headlong toward Caeli.

  The backup generator restored emergency power to the hospital within minutes of the initial failure. Vin noted the changeover with a passing interest, not giving it much thought. His mind was occupied with other matters. Specifically, he was trying to make sense of the thread of conversation that he overhead between Caeli and this unknown lady. It was very unsettling. He reviewed the words they exchanged while waiting for someone to take him for the tests the doctor ordered.

  "Nurse, please get the patient in exam two prepped and up to radiology. I've written orders for imaging to check for internal bleeding." Dr. Simmons handed the chart to the lady in green scrubs waiting at the nurses' station in the emergency room.

  "Sure, Doctor."

  She took the chart in hand and began to walk toward the second exam room as she thumbed through the file.

  "Vin Harding?" Lorrie's surprise registered as she read the name out loud and approached the exam room door.

  The door was cracked open about two inches, and Lorrie peeked quietly inside. Vin stood with his back to the door, looking at a chart on the wall. The way he drummed his fingers against his left thigh made it obvious that he was impatient to be on his way. Lorrie surmised that Caeli's illness had something to do with that. Based on what she witnessed at the arena, Lorrie guessed that Caeli should be reaching the worst of her symptoms by now, and it must be tearing Vin up not to be with her.

  "Well, let's see if I can drag this out a little longer and have some fun with him," Lorrie said to herself.

  She grabbed a wheelchair from outside the next room and entered Vin's room boldly, careful to keep her face turned away so that Vin would not get a good look at her.

  "Mr. Harding, they are ready for you in radiology. If you would take off your shirt and put on this hospital gown, then I will get you up there straight away."

  "Fine." Vin changed clothes, but kept his shirt firmly in hand. He was not about to leave anything behind.

  "And any jewelry you have on. I will need your wedding ring, Mr. Harding," Lorrie added to see if he would comply.

  "No."

  "Sir, it is hospital policy to collect…"

  "No. You can either run the test as I am or not at all. Frankly, I don't much care either way. I am not removing my wedding ring."

  That was the final straw for Vin. From his time around Salma, Vin knew that unless the metal was blocking a crucial x-ray, the only other machine that required removal of metal objects was the MRI, and that was not the scan Dr. Simmons ordered. Vin did not care what the hospital policy stated, nothing short of his death would get his wedding band off his finger.

  "All right; there's no need to get upset. We can't force you to take it off. I will make a note in your chart. There you go; all done." Lorrie scribbled a few words at the bottom of a page in the front of the chart. Vin could not see what she wrote.

  "Now, would you would be so kind as to have a seat, or are you going to fight me on this, too?" Lorrie asked.

  "No, I understand this rule, and I know that you will get in trouble if I walk," Vin willingly climbed into the wheelchair.

  "Thank you, Mr. Harding."

  Vin looked out through the glass as Lorrie wheeled him much too slowly along the windowed hall. It was as dark as midnight outside, and the rain pounded against the glass with such force that the panes shuttered. In the distance, Vin thought he could faintly hear the call of sirens being carried by the strong wind.

  "That's quite a storm. Are you sure we are safe here?" Vin asked casually.

  "The hospital and all the businesses on this part of the island are already under lockdown. They will evacuate us if it gets much worse, but only as a last resort. They don't like to move patients unless they are absolutely certain that the storm is going to cause significant damage. Typically, we just move to the storm shelter in the center of the building and wait it out," Lorrie replied.

  "Lockdown? When did that happen? I was told I could leave after the tests were finished."

  "I'm afraid not," Lorrie smirked.

  "What about the rest of the island? Is the entire island getting hit like this?" Vin worried about Caeli and everyone else at Apela's hotel. Surely Apela would take them all to shelter if the situation called for it.

  "I don't know. Since the power went out, we have not had any news reports to get an up
date on weather conditions elsewhere."

  "Then I need to leave." Vin put his foot down on the floor in front of the wheelchair, bringing it to a jarring stop.

  "Mr. Harding, you cannot go anywhere. Security has already locked the exits. That's what lockdown means. Nobody comes in and nobody goes out. You are going to have to wait."

  "Perhaps, but I do not have to do it getting some useless tests run. Make another note in my chart. I am checking myself out against medical advice. I am refusing the tests and any further treatment. As soon as the doors are open, I'm leaving this place." Vin stood up, pulled off the hospital gown, and tugged his polo shirt over his head. Without a glance back, he stalked off toward the emergency room entrance to wait.

  Lorrie watched him walk away. She could not remember ever seeing Vin quite so upset. He had always been much better at controlling himself. Clearly, something was bothering him. Lorrie smiled at the prospect and turned away to tend to other patients.

  Vin sat in a chair in the ER waiting room, conveniently out of sight of the nurses' station while he watched the exit. He hoped that Dr. Simmons would not stroll by and find him sitting there. He did not want to have to explain himself. Instead, Vin closed his eyes and attempted to contact Caeli.

  "Caeli, can you hear me?" Vin got no response to each of three attempts.

  On the last attempt, however, Vin thought he brushed the edges of her mind. Perhaps she had been sleeping. If so, he did not want to wake her. Vin did not press the contact, but rather held the connection open and waited to see if Caeli would answer him. Meanwhile, the rain outside began to falter in its drumbeat. The storm was beginning to ease up.

  Caeli concentrated on the water around her. She concentrated on the storm over the island until she found the clouds that were hammering away nearest the hospital. This is what Caeli needed to stop. How hard could it be? She had already proven to herself that she could start a rain shower and diminish large waves. Comparatively, stopping a downpour should be a relatively easy task.