Lindsey tried to appear calm. She didn’t want to raise her questions in front of Darby or her nephew. But what she really wanted to do was ask her mom if she was crazy. She had agreed to let a complete stranger move in with them. A strange man. She couldn’t believe it. No matter how gorgeous he was, no matter to whom he was related, he could still be an axe murderer.
She looked at him again and he smiled encouragingly at her. Well, he had just saved her life… maybe this could be a good thing.
“Eli here,” Darby started, “is entering the seminary in the fall, you see. He wants to be a priest. He’s taking the final couple months of summer to reflect before he leaves for Rome. And Retreat house seems to be the perfect setting for reflection, don’t you think?”
Nope, not a good thing. This was even worse than what she’d envisioned. A normal man would still on the market. Disgusting, Lindsey! She chided herself. But honestly, she couldn’t speak freely around him, flirt with him, or go out on a casual date or something with him. He was going to be a priest? No way. She tried to imagine him in all black with the little white tab collar. He was too good looking to give his life over completely to God. But that was his choice and that was that. Yes, she could flirt with any other kind of man taking refuge in their guest room for the time being. But not a priest. Or a soon to be priest. She would feel damned to hell if she tried to tempt a man of the cloth.
The she wondered if priests even have testosterone anyway? Did they check their hormones at the church door? Would he even be able to tell if she was flirting with him? She wondered if she should try it, just to see. Then she felt guilty for thinking that way. She should be relieved, though. This was the safest kind of guest possible thing. She’d have someone in the house, which really would make her feel safer at night, and she wouldn’t have to worry about him sneaking into her room at night. But she had to be honest with herself. She wouldn’t mind at all if this man did just that.
Bad, Lindsey, bad! She scolded herself again.
“Lindsey? Are you OK?” Aimee was looking at her with concern.
“Um, yeah. I’m fine. It’s just been a long day already, full of excitement. The foal was born a little while ago, which was cool. But I didn’t sleep well last night, so I’m dead tired. And dirty. I’m going to take a shower and then head back over to the Robbins’ to check on the colt, see if he’s up and walking yet. Then I’m going to come back and take a long nap.”
“Alright, dear,” concern was still written all over her mom’s tone.
Lindsey walked slowly into the house, grabbed the cordless phone from its cradle on the credenza, and headed for the stairs. She was sure that Maddie and Michelle would be waiting by their phone. And she couldn’t wait to tell them about this.
She looked nervously around her room, but it looked all clear. She sat on bed and dialed the phone. Once her back was turned, a large dark shadow moved in the corner of her room, just out of her line of sight. It hovered for a moment before silently backing up and disappearing back through the bedroom wall from which it had come.
Twelve
“He’s going to live with you? No freaking way! You lucky dog!” Maddie exclaimed when Lindsey explained everything what transpired since they had parted ways. “I would be too nervous to freaking eat around him, let alone be in the house alone with him!”
“He’s going to be a priest, Maddie. I wouldn’t have an ice cube’s chance in hell, so why worry about it? Plus having him here will make me feel safer about, you know, the house and its other … guests.”
Michelle, who was listening to the conversation on speaker phone, chimed in, “Oh, honey, he’s not in the seminary yet. You have time to work your charm, make him see the benefits of opting out of the whole celibacy thing.”
“Michelle! Good Lord, you have to bring sex into everything? I hope Mom and Dad send you to Clemson with a large supply of condoms,” Maddie feigned disgust, but Lindsey was sure she was thinking something similar.
“Uh-huh. This coming from the girl who’s wearing a hat that has the word ‘Cocks’ written in bold letters across the front! And hey, God said to be fruitful and multiply. He invented sex, so why should any of us thumb our nose at it? Bow chicca wow, wow!”
“You are so vulgar. You just wish you could wear a U.S.C. hat. Instead you’re going up to that farm school with a little pussy … cat as its mascot.” Maddie retorted.
“Oooh! Who’s the vulgar one now?”
They laughed and giggled over the inappropriate comments, but Lindsey couldn’t deny that there had been an instant attraction, at least on her end. Nor could she deny that she was extremely relieved to have a strong, young man of faith living in the house. She would feel so much safer at night knowing that he was there if, no, when something happened. Seriously, she hoped his constant prayers and such would keep the thing at bay.
Dinner that night was subdued. Aimee was home and ordered pizza and breadsticks. While they waited on the delivery guy, she put together a large salad. They ate in front of the T.V. and watched a movie on pay-per-view. Eli joined them but didn’t say very much, he was more interested in hearing Aimee’s stories of “helping bring babies into the world.” He laughed when appropriate and interjected thoughts here and there. Every once in a while, Lindsey felt his eyes on her, but he would look away when she looked up.
After dinner, Eli excused himself to take what he called a “reflection walk.” He said that in seminary he would be attending vespers at this time and needed to train himself for the nightly prayers. This retreat and his reflection walks were supposed to help him learn to manage his time and to focus.
“Kind of a shame, isn’t it,” Aimee remarked after he left through the back door toward the estuary.
“Well, at least you don’t have to worry about any hanky panky while you’re at work.”
“This is true,” Aimee laughed as she cleared the plates from the coffee table.
The next morning, Lindsey came down for breakfast. Eli was nowhere to be seen. Aimee left a note saying she had some errands to run – grocery store, Wal-Mart, lunch with Darby, and then to get her hair cut. The note said she would be gone until the afternoon and that there was money on the counter in case Lindsey wanted to order a takeout lunch for herself. Lindsey put the note down, tore a bagel in half, and stuck one of the two pieces in the toaster. She opened the cabinet above the toaster, grabbed a glass, turned to the fridge to get cream cheese and juice, the unheated bagel half hanging from her teeth.
Above her, a faint shadow moved across the ceiling and nudged a small plastic lid from the top shelf of the open cupboard; it fell into the toaster slot below and began to slowly melt.
Lindsey didn’t smell the smoke right away, she was too lost in her inner ramblings – the ghost, Eli, the ghost, Eli. She chewed slowly on the cold bagel half as she looked blankly through the windows. When the acrid smoke finally drug her from her reverie, she turned around and dropped her glass, sending orange juice and shards of broken glass skittering all over the floor.
Eli rushed in from the front of the house and jerked the toaster from the wall before the flames dancing out of it could ignite the cabinets above. He threw it in the sink and sprayed it with water until the fire was completely extinguished. Dark, choking smoke boiled up into the air, causing the smoke detectors to blare. The phone rang seconds later; the alarm company was checking in, having been notified that smoke had been detected. The man on the phone wanted to know if she needed them to alert the fire department. Lindsey explained what had happened, at least the parts that didn’t contain what she suspected might be paranormal activity, and that there was no fire. She thanked them for their help.
She hung up the phone and ran to open the French doors for Eli who was carrying the ruined toaster to the back porch. While the doors were standing open, she used a kitchen towel to fan some of the smoke out of the house. When she turned around Eli was searching the kitchen and living room suspiciously; his eyes were squinted and he
was looking in every corner of the space with concern etched all over his face.
“Are you OK?” she asked.
“This wasn’t just an accident, Lindsey. I found this in the toaster oven.” Eli held up the cooled, melted remains of the plastic lid.
“How … how did that get in there?”
“I think that it wants us to believe that it just happened to fall in there, but I am not that stupid.” Eli didn’t look at her when he spoke. He glared around the open room accusingly.
“It? What do you mean?” Lindsey feigned ignorance; she knew damned well what he meant.
“Lindsey, I know there is something abnormal in this house. I felt it the first moment I entered it. And, based on what just happened, I’d say it’s dangerous, too. Have you told your mother about this?”
Lindsey felt like a balloon; inflated at the idea that he believed her, then popped when she had to admit that her mother thought she was being ridiculous. “She doesn’t believe me. Nothing ever seems to really happen when she’s here. And on the off chance that something does, she rationalizes it away.”
Eli looked around, whispering under his breath. “Well, I think we’d better keep an eye out when she’s not here then. We don’t want another repeat of this morning.”
They spent the rest of the morning airing out the house and cleaning up the mess on the floor. Lindsey had forgotten about the glass in the melee; she walked back into the kitchen and nearly sliced her foot open on a large chunk of jagged glass. Eli reached a hand out and pulled her back just in time. He swept up the mess once she was safely out of the kitchen. Lindsey went behind him with hot, soapy water to mop up the sticky residue.
The phone rang again just as they were finishing up.
“Hey, girl! What are you doing later?” Maddie was way too excited.
“Um, nothing, I guess. Why? What’s up?”
“Michelle and I are finally going turtle watching tonight! She leaves for Clemson next week so it’s going to be her unofficial going away trip. We’ll bring some food and drinks. It’ll be fun. Can you come with? You can even invite Father Hottie if you want to, too.”
Eli was standing close by and Lindsey hoped that he hadn’t overheard as Maddie was fairly loud.
“Tell her I’d love to go,” he leaned toward her, his soft breath caressing her cheek.
Lindsey blushed – he had damned good hearing – and told Maddie that they would both like to tag along.
“Cool. Meet us at the house at 6:30. We’ll take Michelle’s jeep since it can navigate on the sand a little better than either of our cars.”
Her breakfast having been ruined, lunchtime found Lindsey famished. She made herself a grilled cheese and some tomato soup, careful to watch out for anything abnormal occurring as she cooked. Eli had gone for a walk so he didn’t join her, but he assured her he’d be close by should anything happen. She felt oddly exposed in the house all alone, though, so she ate on the servant’s porch, watching the mist float along the reeds of the estuary.
Eli and Lindsey met Maddie and Michelle at the barn as planned a little before 6:30 p.m. They loaded up a couple of blankets, small flashlights, a camera, and some drinks into Michelle’s Jeep and headed out to Kiawah Island. The drive to the beach was mildly uncomfortable for Lindsey as she was stuck in the little backseat beside Eli. He seemed content to be sitting so close, but it made her twitchy. She wanted to touch him, to maybe lean her head on his shoulder, but she couldn’t. She was like a little piece of metal, and he like a strong magnet; it took all her strength to stay put. She began to count the reflectors in the middle of the road to take her mind from the tension.
Maddie twisted in her bucket seat so that she could see Lindsey’s face. “Hey, are you free Wednesday evening?”
“I’m off work, so yeah. What did you want to do?”
“I’ve been meaning to tell you but with the storm and the house and everything I kept forgetting. Mom and Dad are throwing a ‘Countdown to College’ party. Dad hosts a Lowcountry boil every year, but this year it’s more of a going away party for ‘Chelle since she’s moving in at Clemson on Thursday. They’re saying it’s for the both of us, but I’m not moving out or leaving town. I think they just don’t want me to feel left out.”
“Yeah, sure … I think. What’s a boil?” Lindsey imagined a large, communal hot tub.
“It’s an outdoor party with a shitload of seafood. Boiled, of course. Dad takes it above and beyond a traditional boil, though. He loves spending the day cooking and sees a party like this as a good excuse to expose friends and family food than they’re not used to and probably wouldn’t normally try. This year, he’s making gator tail bites, elk chili, and brown rice with quail medallions amongst other things. He’s been planning his layout and defrosting meat cuts since last Sunday.”
“Well, Dad does like to cook for people, but it’s also a little self-serving. He knows that Mom won’t let him go hunting this fall if the freezer is still full,” Michelle added as she turned off of the highway onto a long, two-lane stretch of road that twisted through remote marshlands. Men were wading in the mid-calf deep muck in several places. They each carried white five-gallon buckets.
“They’re harvesting oysters,” Eli leaned over and whispered. Lindsey nodded once.
They pulled into a public parking area just off the beach at dusk. They climbed out of the jeep and headed toward the shore. The girls each carried a flashlight, Eli walked behind them with the blankets and cooler. A few other people were walking the moon-lit beach, too. They were all watching for the same thing – a nesting Loggerhead.
Maddie pointed to the numerous houses that lined the coast. “See how they’re all dark? It’s illegal to have lights on facing the shoreline during nesting season because it confuses the turtles, especially the hatchlings since they use the moonlight shining off the water at night as a beacon.” She pointed toward a large crowd of beach combers. “A lot of these people out here are whistleblowers looking for homeowners violating the law.”
In various places where the powdery sand of the beach met oat-covered sand dunes were large posts sticking up in the air, each with a number written on it. The top of the posts were painted bright orange and carried a notice that said “TURTLE NEST. DO NOT DISTURB.” These posts were placed next to large, metal screens that were attached to the ground with wooden spikes.
“Hey, Madds, are those nests?” Lindsey asked.
“Yeah. The Kiawah Turtle Patrol checks the beach every morning for new nests. When they find one, they check it out, mark it, and cover it to keep raccoons and dogs out. But the holes in the wire are still big enough for hatchings to escape.
“How do they know where the nests are for sure? The eggs are buried, right?” Lindsey wondered softly.
“Oh, you’ll see,” whispered Eli so close to her ear that his warm breath lingered at her ear lobe. She wished he’d stop doing that, it was distracting.
They chose a spot next to a large sand dune and spread out the blankets. Eli sat and stretched his legs out, propping his body up on both elbows. Lindsey’s posture was much more tense; her knees were drawn up to her chest and her arms were wrapped around them tightly. For a couple of hours the only sounds came from the waves crashing on the moonlit beach and the lonely caw of the occasional sea gull. The girls ate chicken salad sandwiches. Eli settled for a mango, explaining that he didn’t eat meat. When they were done, the girls tossed the crusts of their bread to the hovering gulls.
“Here comes one,” said a female voice from a few yards away.
The twins stood up and quickly went to see. Eli took to his feet, too, and held his hand out to help Lindsey up. She accepted, for no other reason than to feel his hand in hers. To her surprise he held on to it as they walked to where a small crowd holding dim flashlights stood watching a turtle that was big enough for Lindsey ride.
“Look at the track that girl just made,” Eli pointed out. “That’s how they know that a nesting mother has visited
. There will be tracks to and from the nesting location.”
He was right; the tracks were obvious. As she trundled up the beach, the Loggerhead’s nose dug a trench in the sand. That trench, combined with the indention from her the bottom of her shell and the shuffling of her flippers, ended up looking more like large tire tracks than something left by an animal. She stopped every so often to rest, then she would continue on up the beach. In the water, turtles were agile and graceful, but on land moving was difficult, time consuming, and apparently exhausting.
Lindsey was astounded not only by her size and determination to get up to the dunes, but also by her beauty. And she was beautiful. Her heart-shaped shell was a mixture of deep browns, reddish-oranges, and creams; algae was growing on it in several places. Her front flippers were a reddish-brown and cream. Her large head, with its thick, horny beak was reddish-brown, too. The underside of her chin and her wrinkled neck were much lighter.
She seemed oblivious to the awed audience around her as she dug in the sand. She had a belly full of eggs and no time to spend on modesty. She used her flippers to sweep sand away in a large arc. She dug and dug until she was satisfied that the hole she’d created was deep enough for her clutch. She backed up and began to lay her eggs. One by one the eggs, which looked like slimy ping pong balls, fell into their sandy nursery.
“Why is she crying?” Lindsey leaned over and whispered to Eli. “Does it hurt?”
“No, it doesn’t hurt. She’s not really crying at all; it’s more of a way to excrete the salt that she’d taken in from drinking sea water. It also flushes sand from her eyes.”
It was mesmerizing to watch and it wasn’t until after the turtle packed sand on top of the nest and began her descent back to the ocean that Lindsey realized that she had not only been holding Eli’s hand the entire time, but that she was leaning against him.
Harbinger in the Mist (Arms of Serendipity) Page 12
