Love is a Distant Shore

by Claire Harrison

  The rain was beating down on her head, the drops running down her face so that he couldn't tell if she were still crying or not. 'Oh, Geoff,' she said shakily.

  'So—I'd be honoured if I could come with you. Will you let me?'

  'But… your leg? What if…?'

  Even though he was freezing, even though the wind blew rain across his face, even though he wasn't sure he could swim two miles without dying, Geoff gave her one of his most charming and rakish grins. 'You'll just have to save me, Petra. Like you did the last time.'

  'You're crazy.'

  'No crazier than you.'

  'Oh, Geoff,' she said again, but he realised that he was going to win for she was smiling at him, a trembling awkward smile, but a smile all the same.

  'Good,' he said. 'So how about it? Let's hit the road.' Turning on his stomach, he began to swim and then realised that she still wasn't with him. He stopped, looked back and realised that she was crying again. 'Now, what's the matter?' he yelled.

  She just shook her head as if she couldn't speak.

  Geoff glanced up at the bobbing boats and realised with a sense of relief that the megaphone had stopped screaming at him. But everyone was watching, their faces tense and anxious. The rain had eased to a drizzle, but the wind had grown stronger so that the drops felt like needles on his skin.

  'Come on,' he hollered. 'I'm getting wet.'

  'Geoff?' Her voice wavered but managed to reach him.

  'Yes!'

  'I love you! I think I do!'

  For a second, Geoff closed his eyes, afraid that his hearing had deceived him, afraid that what he had heard was a figment of his imagination. But when he opened them again, she was still there, and he felt a surge of joy within, an incredible burst of happiness that warmed him so completely that he forgot the dark cold of the water and the fury of the lake.

  'I love you, too! Petra, I love you!'

  Her eyes were huge and dark in the pinched whiteness of her face, but she was smiling when he reached her. 'I'm so sorry,' she whispered as he put his arms around her. 'But I didn't know. Oh, Geoff, I was so dumb.'

  'It's okay,' he murmured, pulling her close to him. 'It doesn't matter.'

  They tried to embrace; they tried to kiss, but the lake was stronger than their need for one another. It sucked them in the moment they stopped kicking or moving their arms, and they were forced to part so that they wouldn't go under. All they could do was face one another.

  Petra had started to laugh. 'We pick the strangest places to make love.'

  'Just wait until later,' Geoff said grimly. 'I'll get you then.'

  Then the noise came to them; the cheering, clapping and whistling from the boats, and they both looked up, having forgotten that they were on a stage so to speak, with an audience watching their every move.

  'Jesus Christ!' a scratchy voice squawked at them through the megaphone. 'Will you two lovebirds get a move on?'

  Geoff gave Joe a military salute. 'Yes, sir,' he called and then looked towards Petra. 'Ready?'

  'Yes,' she said. 'I'm ready.' And they both knew that they weren't talking about the swim or the two miles or that distant shore, but whatever life would bring to them together—marriage, children, changes that were unknown but no longer frightening or unwanted.

  'Okay,' he said. 'Let's go.'

  NEWS RELEASE:

  (AP), August 7, 1984

  'Schoolteacher Petra Morgan, 25, the latest woman to challenge Lake Ontario, finished her marathon swim in 19 1/2 hours. While her time did not beat existing records, Miss Morgan demonstrated courage and endurance while battling rising winds, a changing current and rapidly dropping temperatures. For the last two miles of the swim, she was accompanied by her fiancé, journalist Geoffrey Hamilton, 36, who collapsed when they reached the shore and had to be rushed to the hospital where he was listed in fair condition due to severe exhaustion and hypothermia. Upon his release from the hospital, Mr Hamilton married Miss Morgan in a small, private ceremony in the home of her trainer, Joseph McGinnis. The couple will be taking up residence in Washington, DC, where Mr Hamilton has been posted as Washington correspondent for Allied Press, and Miss Morgan, retiring as a marathon swimmer, will join the teaching staff of Sidwell Friends Academy.'