by Bolz, Stefan
“Fair enough. Apology accepted.”
“I didn’t apologize.”
“Oh. My bad.” His smile was back. Kasey couldn’t help but return it, despite herself. But it was short and she caught it before it got too wide.
“I’m gonna go for a swim,” Jack said. “By myself. Or not. It’s up to you.”
He took off his shirt and walked toward the water. Then he turned.
“You coming? Or you just gonna stand there and watch me walk?”
Kasey wanted to say no but began to feel ridiculous about it. She took off her shirt and pants. Then she opened the necklace with the amulet, took it off and stowed it away in the pocket of her shorts.
Jack smiled widely. “I’ll race you,” he said.
She hesitated a moment but then ran toward the water. Jack ran beside her, letting her have a slight lead. How gentlemanly of him. They reached the water at the same time and ran a few feet into the surf before Kasey dove headfirst into a wave. She swam out to get behind the larger waves. For a moment, she couldn’t see Jack but then he appeared right next to her.
“So, where you from?” she asked.
“Albuquerque,” Jack answered. “My dad was transferred to Brooklyn a few months back and we just moved here two weeks ago. You?”
“I’ve lived on Long Island all my life.”
“Cool. I’d never even been in the ocean until a few days ago.”
“I’ve never been to New Mexico.”
“It’s dry there.”
They treaded water while watching the others on the beach.
“You like the desert better than the ocean,” she said.
“How can you tell?”
“You don’t seem to feel comfortable in the water. At all.”
“I’m not.”
“You wanna go back?”
“Sure.”
“Okay.”
“Happy birthday,” Jack said.
“Thanks,” Kasey replied.
“Friends?” he asked. He reached his hand out toward her above the surface of the water.
She took it. “Friends.”
“I’ll race you back,” Jack said and started swimming toward the shore.
“What’s with you and racing?”
Even though he had a few feet on her, Kasey gained on him easily and was out of the water before him. The others had started a fire and were gathering around it.
Bernard, a tall, thin boy with glasses wearing a Minecraft T-shirt, got up. He made a grand gesture signaling everyone to quiet down.
“We are all gathered here tonight,” he said in the most dramatic way possible. “To celebrate the end of our prison sentence and the first day of freedom from slavery. Nevermore… Nevermore shall we live under the rule of Principal Chester!”
“Yeah!” some yelled. Others laughed.
“Bring forth the binders,” Bernard continued. “Those cruel and unearthly tools of torture. They shall now burn and may all their torturous teachings disappear along with them.”
“Yeah!” others shouted. “Burn those suckers!”
“Let us therefore—”
Before he could finish, one of the girls threw her binder into the fire.
“Enough said!” she shouted.
“The class of 2015 is dismissed!” Bernard screamed and threw his binder into the fire. “Wooohoo!”
Everyone cheered and applauded and each of them threw their binder into the fire pit. The flames crept higher and higher until the pile was ablaze. The music got louder and people started dancing around the fire.
“Okay, wait! Wait, wait, there’s one more thing,” Jo yelled over the music. “My girl is eighteen today!” She waved Kasey to come to her. “To the best friend anyone can possibly have! May you never get married and always be around at 3 o’clock in the morning when I need to call you.”
Kasey shook her head but embraced Jo when she hugged her.
“Happy Birthday, Kasey,” the others said, sang, or yelled, depending on their alcohol intake.
“You gonna kiss him soon?” Jo asked into Kasey’s ear when she hugged her.
“Shut up!”
“He’s cute.”
“That may well be the case but—”
“There’s no but. Just ’cause you had back luck once or twice, doesn’t mean the world’s gonna end.”
“Well it did.”
“Actually, it didn’t. We’re still here and I don’t see anything happening any time soon that’s gonna change that.”
“Whatever.”
“Don’t wait too long. After tonight, he’s fair game.”
“You’re impossible,” Kasey said.
“I’m gonna have another beer. You want one?”
“Sure.”
Jo danced her way to the cooler. Kasey stood there for a moment. The fading daylight painted the sky in shades of dark blue. The orange line at the horizon would only be there for another few minutes before giving way to the night sky. Something far out caught her eye as if a small part of the orange glow had turned red for but an instant. Then it was gone.
Jack sat by the fire stoking it with part of a branch, beer in hand. He didn’t seem to mind sitting there by himself. She decided to sit with him for a while but before she could walk over, Veronica, another girl from her class, sat down next to him and they started talking. It might be just as well. She went over to Jo and grabbed a beer from the cooler.
“Cheers,” she said even though she didn’t feel very cheerful all of a sudden.
“Skoll,” Jo replied.
“You wanna dance?”
“I thought you’d never ask.”
Kasey lost herself in the music for a while, fleeing into the rhythm of the bass drum. There were two dreams she’d had throughout her life. They came back on a regular basis, sometimes within days of each other, at other times separated by months. One of them she’d had for years until it stopped, just short of her fifteenth birthday. She had filled pages upon pages of her diary about it before it simply stopped, never to return.
A few months later, another one began. This one was always accompanied by drums. In it, she saw herself on a straight, deserted road that disappeared into the horizon. The pavement was broken, the double yellow line in the center almost unrecognizable. To her right, a mountain range rose in the glimmering heat. The deep sound of the drums pushed her forward ever further, without stopping, without allowing her to rest. She’d felt the thirst for days but the land she walked was dry and scorched and unforgiving. The amulet glowed like an ember under her shirt and her skin was burned from its unrelenting heat. But she dared not take it off. It was part of her now, part of the rhythm that gave her life, irrevocably connected to her.
“Kasey. Kasey. Kasey!”
She opened her eyes. A wave of dizziness lingered for a moment.
“You okay?” Jack asked.
“Yeah. I’m fine. What happened?”
“Nothing. The music stopped and you didn’t, that’s all.”
“I think I drank a little too much.”
“You wanna sit?”
“Yeah.”
The fire had burned down. A few people had left the party. Did she dance for that long?
“How about over there?” she asked, pointing at a spot closer to the water.
“Sure.”
They sat down in the sand next to each other.
“You want something to drink?” Jack asked.
“Water maybe.”
“Coming right up.”
Jack disappeared and came back thirty seconds later with two water bottles in hand.
“Thanks!”
“You’re welcome.”
“Tell me about Albuquerque,” she asked.
“There’s not much to tell really. We weren’t there for that long. Three years, I think.”
“And before that?”
“West Coast. San Francisco. A bit north of it.”
“That’s nice.”
Kasey leane
d her head on Jack’s shoulder. There was a part of her that objected but she was too tired for that to give her pause.
“Why are you smiling?” she asked.
“Because you didn’t like me two hours ago.”
“That’s a long time.”
“True.”
“Besides, who says that I like you now?”
“Well, for starters, there are about twenty of your classmates around the fire. And you’re sitting here. With me. Actually next to me. Your head is on my shoulder and you’re talking directly to me. So, yeah, I think you like me.”
“Why do you always have to be so logical?”
Kasey could hardly keep her eyes open.
“You want me to drive you home?” Jack said. “It’s no trouble.”
“That’s sweet of you. But if you don’t mind, I’d just like to sit here with you for a while.”
“Sure.”
She shivered.
“You cold?”
“A little.”
“Don’t go anywhere.” Jack got up and disappeared again.
In the distance, on the dark horizon, something red illuminated part of the sky. Then it disappeared. Jack returned, his sleeping bag under his arm. He sat next to her and pulled the bag around both their shoulders.
“Thanks.”
“Sure.”
They were quiet for a while. All Kasey could hear was the surf gently rolling onto the beach and the soft voices of her friends around the fire.
“Can I ask you something?” Jack asked.
“That was already a question.”
Jack laughed quietly. Kasey liked that.
“Go ahead. Ask away.”
“Where did you get that amulet?”
“How do you even know I have one?”
“You’re kidding, right?”
“No.”
“You took it off when we first went into the water. And then you reached for it a few times when you talked to me before. And now you’re holding it again.”
“I didn’t even notice.” Kasey let go of the necklace.
“It’s okay if you don’t want to tell me.”
“It’s not a big deal. Some guy gave it to me when I was eight.”
“Like a gift or something?”
“No, not really. I was playing on the beach and he came toward me and gave it to me. Then he took off.”
“That’s it?”
“Yeah. That’s it.”
“Did he say anything?”
“As a matter of fact, he did. He said he was sorry. And he said something else that I can’t remember.”
Kasey felt warm. Not so much on the outside but on the inside. She could smell the sweat and salt on Jack’s shirt. Somehow he made her feel comfortable. His presence was restful and she knew she didn’t have to worry about anything right now.
“You wanna hold it?”
“No. No. I don’t… No. It’s fine.”
“I’ll let you hold it if you want.”
“Really?”
“Sure, why not.”
Even though she’d never let anyone else touch the amulet in all the years she’d had it, this time it felt right.
“Okay,” he said.
Kasey hesitated for an instant. Then she unclasped it.
“Here,” she said. She hung the necklace around his neck and closed it.
“Wow, it’s heavy!”
“Do you feel different?” she asked.
“Yeah. I feel... wait, I feel…” and in a much deeper voice he proclaimed, “The powers of the heavens and the earth now belong to me! TOO MEEEEE!”
Kasey looked at him in disbelief.
“I’m just kidding. I don’t feel anything.”
“Ass!” she punched his arm.
“Ow! That… didn’t… hurt. At all.”
“You are so bad,” she smiled. “You can keep it for a while if you want.”
“I’d love to,” he replied.
“You wanna lie down?” she asked.
“Is that a question?”
“Yeah.”
“In that case, sure.”
He pulled the sleeping bag off their shoulders and lay on his back. Kasey lay on her side next to him, her head on his shoulder. He spread the sleeping bag over both of them.
“You comfortable?” he asked.
“Very. You?”
“Very.”
The stars shining in the clear night sky gave off just enough light to illuminate Jack’s hand on his chest next to hers. She touched it ever so slightly. And for a brief moment, before she fell into a dreamless sleep, Kasey wished that she could lie here with him forever.
Saturday, June 22nd, 05:40 a.m. to 07:20 a.m.
Before she opened her eyes the first thing Kasey became aware of was the splashing sound. Bits and pieces of a memory from last night crept into her mind. It was mostly the way Jack held her that had stayed with her. That and the fact that he was very gentlemanly and didn’t push her into anything she wasn’t ready for. He’d just held her and she’d felt warm and comforted in his arms.
When she lifted her head, disoriented at first, she couldn’t quite focus her eyes. The sun rose out of the ocean, out of the bank of fog far out at sea. The splashing sound was much closer than that. She could barely see the ripples in the water at first. When she sat up, she saw those very same ripples all the way up and down the beach. There were forms scattered on the beach — some still, others twitching, convulsing, somehow trying to move.
“What is that?” Jack asked next to her.
“I don’t know.”
Kasey stood up and took a couple of steps toward the water’s edge. The screams reached her all at once.
“Dolphins,” she said as she stumbled forward and into the surf. She could feel the fear rising in her, taking hold and paralyzing her senses.
“We have to get them back into the water,” Jack said. “Help me put them back in the water!”
Kasey nodded. She couldn’t comprehend what she was seeing. The dolphin closest to them lay half in the water, its body shaking in convulsions. Jack was there first. He lifted its head up but wasn’t able to move it.
“I can’t grab on to it. Maybe we can roll it!” he shouted. Kasey barely heard him. The cries were unbearable, pulling at her with great force. When she tried to grab on to the dolphin’s slippery tail, a wave of terror swept over her. It was as if a gate inside her opened; a doorway to a place of unimaginable horror. And part of her knew that the fear she felt was not entirely her own. The screams were not only in her ear. They were in her mind and they filled it with something unthinkable.
“What can we do?” she heard Jack ask. She saw his helplessness as he tried to push the dolphin back into the water.
“The sleeping bag. Get the sleeping bag,” she heard herself say.
Jack ran to the spot where they had spent the night. It felt unreal now, as if it had happened years, decades ago. When Jack came back he yelled something. She couldn’t hear it at first.
“…it onto the bag and we’ll pull it back into the surf. Okay? Do you hear me?”
“Okay. Yes.” She wasn’t sure how long she would be able to take the screams.
They pushed the dolphin onto the bag.
“Good, that’s good,” Jack said. “Now pull!”
They moved the bag, inch by inch into the water and walked into the surf. When it was about two feet deep, the dolphin slipped off the bag. But it didn’t swim away. It turned toward the beach and pushed itself back onto the shore. Through the tears that came, Kasey saw the blurry dots — hundreds, maybe thousands of convulsing bodies as far as she could see. The image was completely and utterly incomprehensible.
Through the blur, she saw something in her peripheral vision. She turned her head toward it. At first it seemed nothing more than a slight movement far out at sea, but when she squinted her eyes she saw the silhouette of a ship. It was dark with red sails and not quite solid, as if it was not completely in this world.
It came toward them, cutting silently through the water and at the same time seemed to stand still on the horizon. Kasey knew at that moment that the world as she had known it was about to end.
“Do you see that?” she heard herself ask. “There.”
She pointed to the spot on the horizon.
“No. I don’t see anything.”
A moment later it was gone, vanished from her field of vision. But for whatever reason, and going against everything she had learned and experienced in her life up until now, she knew the ship was still there. And when she looked down at the dying dolphin and from it to the hundreds and thousands of them, all fighting for their lives and wanting to end them at the same time, the seed of hopelessness was planted in her soul — buried deep inside to fester and to grow in the darkness that cast a shadow in her heart.
She saw the people running toward the water. They yelled to each other but she couldn’t hear them. They tried to do the same, somehow pull the dying dolphins into the water, but to no avail. More and more people stopped their cars on the highway close by.
“We gotta go,” she heard Jack say. She didn’t react. “Kasey, we gotta go!”
“Where? Where can we go?”
“I don’t know. Where do you live?”
“West Babylon.”
“I live in Lindenhurst. No idea what’s closer.”
“I’m closer.”
“Okay. Let’s go to your house. Maybe a news station has something about it.”
Kasey nodded. She wasn’t capable of more.
“Come on!” he urged.
She didn’t want to leave. She didn’t want to leave the dolphins here to die. She needed to stay with them, to somehow help them. A few hundred feet down the beach, a woman began to scream.
“We have to get out of here,” Jack said. “Before they shut down the expressway.”
Jack grabbed her arm. She began to walk, reluctantly at first, but then faster and faster until she was running.
“Get your keys and your phone. Don’t worry about the rest.”
They crossed the dunes and ran toward Kasey’s Jeep.
“Can you drive?” Jack asked.
“I… I don’t know. I don’t know!”
“I’ll drive,” he said.
She handed him the keys and they climbed inside. Jack backed out of the parking spot and accelerated out of the lot. More and more cars arrived. Spectators. Fathers on their way to work who thought they could videotape a strange occurrence and later that night show it to their wives and children. Jack had just turned a corner when someone almost ran into him.
