“It’s nowhere near as bad as they thought, apparently. Just a simple case of hypothermia. They’re bringing him back to the medical center later on tonight.”
“God, it’s crazy that there isn’t a proper hospital on the island. Crazy.” It had been even crazier watching Sully being choppered off the island with the three surviving crew of the Sea King. In total, Sully had actually dragged eleven men from the water, but eight of them had either been dead already or died on the beach.
Rose was making chicken soup, and I was teaching the children arithmetic and English at the dining room table. Amie was completely oblivious to the events of last night. Connor had slept through Sully’s arrival and hadn’t woken up until the chopper arrived, so he’d only caught a part of the rescue. He hadn’t seen Sully at all, thank god. A guy tearing up and down the beach, the spitting image of Ronan? That would have raised more than a few questions, and I wasn’t sure I was ready to handle the monumental task of explaining Ronan’s twin brother just yet. Connor kept asking if he could go and look at the wreckage of the Sea King that was still washing up in pieces on the beach. I was too scared to let him. Six men were still missing, presumed dead, and the last thing I needed was to take him down there, only to have a bloated, mangled corpse roll up onto the sand.
“I’m still kicking myself that I didn’t come down to the dock,” Rose was saying. “I saw all the lights and the cars zipping down the road, but it was just so cold. I couldn’t face it. Everyone’s still talking about it. Most excitement we’ve had around here in a very long time.” Rose paused, shooting me a sidelong glance that I felt burning into me rather than saw. “I also may have heard that you were quite upset about you know who,” she said slyly. We were being careful not to mention Sully’s name in front of the children. “Any truth in that?”
“Yeah, sure, I was definitely upset. He’d just risked his life out there in that tiny boat. He’d been in and out of the water so many times. I think everyone was worried about him.”
“Hmm. That’s not how Michael Gilford said he saw it. He said you were hysterical. Started screaming at the EMTs to do their jobs. Running up and down the beach like a woman possessed. He said you looked like you were on the verge of picking up our belligerent friend and carrying him off home yourself.”
“Psshh. Ridiculous.”
Rose laughed softly under her breath, pinching salt out of her hand and dumping it into the bubbling vat in front of her on the stove. “Poor Michael. Every time a woman steps foot on the island, he takes a shine to her. And then she ends up falling in love with you know who, and that’s that.”
“I am not in love with you know who.”
Amie’s head snapped up, eyes shining, distracted from the piece of paper in front of her, where she had been diligently practicing copying the letters of the alphabet over and over again. “You’re in love?” she asked, mouth hanging open. “That’s really gross, y’know. That means you have to kiss a boy with your mouth open.”
“You’re right, that does sound gross,” I agreed. “But don’t worry. Rose is wrong. I’m not in love.”
“Good. Because I don’t think boys and girls should kiss. I think they shouldn’t even hold hands really. It’s not hygentics.”
“Hygienic?”
Amie shook her head. “Hygentics. Big germs grow all over boys. When you touch them, they get their germs all over you.”
“I see.”
Rose did her best not to laugh, while Connor rolled his eyes. “Girls have just as many germs as boys, Amie.”
She ducked her head, went back to drawing the stalk of a very tall T. “I don’t think so. Mommy always smelled nice, like flowers. Felia and Rose, too. You smell like dog butts.”
“You’ve never even smelled a dog butt.”
“I have. I smelled you.”
“All right, you two. Why don’t you concentrate on your school work, and then you can go play a game or something.”
“Outside?” Connor looked way too hopeful. I knew as soon as I let him out the front door, he’d be running to the cliff face with his binoculars to scan the rocks below for debris from the Sea King.
“It’s freezing outside, and it’s still raining. I’m sorry, sweetheart. Maybe tomorrow, if the weather’s a little better.” And they’ve cleared up the macabre evidence of the accident that took place last night.
My response didn’t make him happy at all. “Whatever. I can’t wait until we can go to school properly. At least then we’ll get to be outside sometimes.”