Ocean Cove

<<Good morning, East Island. The time is now six-fifteen. We just got word that we’re in for an extremely cold morning, so to everyone out there, lock your doors, shut your windows, crawl back into bed and spend your morning with me, Krissie Anderson, right here on Flame 105.1 FM, playing the music you want to hear.>>

I rolled over and shut off the alarm radio at the same time that Krissie started to play a song by a heavy metal rock band I didn’t know. It was way too early to be listening to Krissie’s annoying, sleepy voice.

Unable to get back to sleep, I threw off the covers, sat on the side of the bed and just let my head fall right into my hands. I hadn’t slept very well because the very vivid dreams I’d been having (though I could never remember them) were so realistic that whenever I had them I always woke up with my body aching and tired.

Stretching and yawning loudly, I got up to go downstairs, almost tripping over a pair of jeans I’d left by the bedroom door, realizing that Krissie was right about the cold from the way the floor felt like it was biting my feet.

“Well, you obviously didn’t sleep well,” Dad said when I got downstairs.

Mom placed a bowl of porridge in front of me when I sat down at the dining room table. Both she and Dad were already dressed and ready for work as usual. I didn’t really like porridge and I started playing with it for a while, but I was so drained that after the first spoonful I started shoveling it down.

“Slow down there, or you’ll get yourself sick,” Dad warned with a little chuckle.

“Chase, I need you to do something for me today,” Mom said, taking her things away from the table. I sighed deeply into my bowl. I was pretty sure Dad heard me, but if he did he said nothing.

Over the past two weeks Mom had been getting me to do all sorts of jobs around the house. They weren’t very difficult things, but they were very time-consuming. I was hoping there wouldn’t be anything more, but it seemed like I was wrong.

“I need you to take this over to the Morgans for me.”

Mom placed a photo album on the table tiled: Rural Russia.

“I took these when I went on that veterinarian sabbatical to Russia. It’s so beautiful there,” Mom reminisced as she flicked through the album filled with photos of the Russian countryside and small villages. “When they were here last, Salathia saw this and loved it. She told me she grew up in Russia, but doesn’t have much to remember it by, so I thought she could have this.”

“Wait, the Morgans are back?” I asked as I dropped my spoon into my empty bowl in surprise.

The night after I’d met them Dad told me they’d left to visit some family in the U.S., but that was two weeks ago and even though I was always watching for their return, for some reason I didn’t expect them to be back so soon, even though to me it felt like Lyla had been away for two months.

During that time I’d gotten somewhat used to the idea of living on East Island, though I still didn’t like it. Dad had got me a new bike, a green BMX, something to be proud of. Mom had finally got her vet practice opened. It was a twenty-minute drive from our home, and it was pretty close to the harbor. Her reason for having it so close to home was because she felt town was too far for a lot of people in the community and other neighborhoods to have to go to see

a vet. Plus she had a partner working with her, so her work with Dad wouldn’t cause any problems with the vet practice.

Things were also going well for Dad. He and his team were getting lots of vital information about the marine life around the island, but they still had no idea why the Orca and Humpback kept coming so close to the island so regularly, although Dad did say over the past fortnight they almost didn’t come at all.

I really didn’t get to spend much time hanging out with Justin and the others because they’d decided to get summer jobs, even though there were only about six weeks of vacation left.

Mom had wanted me to get a summer job as well, but I convinced her I needed to learn more about the island first, and luckily for me she bought it, even though those were some of the crappiest lies I’d ever told. The truth was I just wasn’t ready for the stress of a job. The very thought was enough to send shivers down my spine.

I was also working on getting my driver’s license, but my parents refused to buy me a car so early and, to my horror, they used my own excuse on me. They thought I should learn more about road safety on the island first. One point for karma.

Something else that also developed over the last two weeks was my growing interest in Lyla Morgan. It seemed to me like I was thinking about her more and more every day. Somehow everything I saw or did found a way of reminding me of her. Even my sketch books were now filled with pictures of her.

Of course I didn’t tell anyone about how I felt. Not because I was embarrassed, but because I felt it best to keep it to myself for the time being.

“So when did they get back?” I asked, concentrating a little too hard on my empty bowl.

Dad gave me a suspicious look before going off to get his things together.

“Well, they got back just last night,” Mom replied. “Why are you so interested?”

She added with a knowing look as though she knew something I didn’t want to tell her. My mom always liked to indulge herself with the idea that she was always able to figure things about me. Most of the time, she did.

“I’m just asking,” I said, taking the bowl to the kitchen. I just needed to get away from Mom so she wouldn’t see my face.

“Well they just got back last night. Marcus came over earlier because he’s involved in the project, so he’ll start today. I asked him to tell Salathia you’ll be dropping by later, so she’ll be expecting you. Oh, and I do believe Lyla will be home.”

Mom turned and left the room before I could say a word.

Shortly afterwards my parents left for work, leaving me alone.

Knowing Lyla was back home, just around the corner, caused me to be jittery and

impatient, yet still with enough room for me to feel extremely happy. It wasn’t 7 o’clock yet and I didn’t want to go over too early. The idea of seeing Lyla again had me too worked up and somehow had made time move slowly. Once I had the kitchen tidied up I decided I couldn’t wait any longer. After taking a shower and getting dressed I was ready to go, but was still afraid of arriving too early, so I waited until 8:30, took up the album, and left.

Ever since I’d woken up I’d been experiencing that strange magnetic sensation I had the night I met the Morgans. Yeah, that’s right, the thing that freaked me out. Once again it was like I was being inexplicably drawn towards something. But only this time the pull wasn’t so strong, because even though it was there I was able to ignore it. Seeing Lyla was way more important than worrying about that.

Even though it was just minutes away, I’d never seen the Morgans’ side of the cove, and for some reason I thought it was going to be just like our side of the cove.

Boy, was I wrong.

The landscape around the house was amazing. I couldn’t help but wonder how much it must have cost to have it done, because it just looked too surreal to be natural.

Not only did trees flank both sides of the road leading up to the house, but they were all a couple feet away from each other, wide enough to let the sea breeze flow freely around the area. There were also all sorts of plants around which grew a beautiful assortment of sweet-smelling flowers.

But I got the biggest shock of all when I turned the corner. In all my life I had never seen a house that looked like this. If I didn’t know any better I would have assumed someone rich lived there. Then again, the Morgans probably were rich.

This side of the cliff was a lot closer to the sea than ours, about half as high as ours was. Unlike our side of the cliff, the trees on this side went right up to the cliff’s edge, their leaves and branches swaying lazily in the air as I watched, giving the place a tranquil atmosphere.

As for the house, I could only describe it as an architectural wonder. It had three floors and the design made the house look like some sort of half-finished burr puzzle, but with a more exotic look. I couldn’t help but wonder how the second and third floors were being safely held up.

The house was beautifully painted in red and white, and as I’d seen with some houses on TV, there was actually more glass in the walls than wall. It really did look amazing.

Gathering myself together, I walked up to the mahogany front door and rang the doorbell. I was so nervous that my body tingled, but I didn’t have much time to think about this as the door was pulled open about two seconds after I pushed the bell by Salathia.

Strangely enough, the first thing I noticed about her wasn’t something I saw, it was something I smelled as the scent of her perfumed wafted towards me, seductively tickling my senses the second the door was opened.

“Chase,” she said with a barely noticeable Russian accent, her pale face breaking into a huge smile as if seeing me made her morning, “How wonderful it is to see you again.”

“Good morning, Mrs. Morgan. I hope I didn’t come too early because Mom told me you were expecting me. Anyway I just stopped by to drop off this photo album she wanted you to have.”

I held the album out to her, and as her sky blue eyes slid down to it, they grew big with surprise when she saw it. She took it from me as though she was in possession of some scary book.

“Would you like to come in?”

Not wanting to be rude and glad for the opportunity at the same time, I said yes. Salathia stood aside to allow me entry and as I passed her I caught another whiff of what she was wearing. Whatever it was it was strong, not in an unbearable way, but in a make-heads-turn-in-a-crowd sort of way.

From the moment I crossed the threshold the strange metallic pull I’d been feeling suddenly became too strong to ignore. In the space of three seconds it grew so strong that I actually lost all awareness of my surroundings for a couple seconds, but was quickly pulled back when Salathia touched my shoulder.

“I asked if you wanted something to drink.”

I didn’t answer immediately. I just stood there, shocked and unable to explain what had just happened. The fact that it made me feel kind of happy was even stranger. I didn’t know why, and that’s what scared me.

“Chase, are you okay?” Salathia asked, still smiling but with concern in her voice. As I looked at her I noticed that for some reason her eyes were sweeping the air around me.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” I mumbled. A strange expression crossed her face, maybe surprise, but then she realized I was staring at her and just like that, it was gone.

“Would you like something to drink?” She asked again.

I nodded. She turned and put album down on a small glass table near the door. Then I really got a good look at the interior of the house, and it made me forget what just happened for awhile.

The inside of the house was huge and very beautifully decorated. The walls and floor were painted white, while the ceiling was the same striking red as outside. This very room alone had dozens of florescent bulbs in it and I was willing to bet that every other room in the house was the same.

Beautiful, golden sunlight poured through the glass walls of the house, but I figured the windows had to be a little tinted even if they didn’t appear to be, because just the right amount of light came in the house.

Salathia was taking me to their kitchen when Nikolai, the youngest Morgan, came hopping down the stairs. I had never seen anyone move so effortlessly in all my life. It was like he was levitating instead of walking towards his mother.

For some reason I couldn’t fathom, she fixed him with a look of annoyance, which he merely shrugged off and said sorry, as if he’d done something wrong. He walked up to me and extended his hand. Feeling a little awkward, I shook it.

I started to wonder about the money they spent on expensive perfumes and colognes, because when I got a smell of whatever Nikolai was wearing, it smelled just as exotic as his mother’s, though there was a certain masculinity to it.

“Hi, you’re Chase right? I’m Nikolai, if you remember,” he said quite cheerfully.

“Of course I remember. A Morgan isn’t exactly easy to forget.”

Both he and his mother laughed. As I looked at him I started to wonder if this really was the boy I’d seen in the ocean before, because if it was, he wasn’t acting very guilty. Maybe I was wrong, and it wasn’t Nikolai. For some reason I couldn’t remember it very well. That memory was now like a very thin thread that I could barely see.

“Mother, I’m going for a swim, I will be back soon and yes, I will be careful.”

Salathia smiled at him and, just like my mom, ran her fingers through his messy black hair, but unlike mine, his simply fell back into place (I so wish mine would do that, I thought to myself) then he said goodbye and left.

Once again I was hit by that strong magnetic pull, but this time it only lasted a second.

As soon as it disappeared, she came down the stairs.

Her silky hair was moving in perfect union with her body, not one strand out of place. Lyla Morgan walked down the stairs with more grace than even her brother. Not to be too dramatic, but I could have sworn the very air around her seemed to move differently, just for her.

Just as her brother had done, she came to a stop next to her mother and I fell into a state of nervousness again when I noticed her sea blue eyes flickering towards me for a couple seconds.

“Chase, you remember my daughter, Lyla?”

She didn’t extend her hand to me, which disappointed me because I was really hoping she would, but she did smile warmly, though I took it as the smile you give people you really don’t think twice about.

It was amazing how, when they smiled, they were able to show every one of their perfect teeth.

“Yes. I do remember her. It’s nice to see you again.” Major understatement.

“It’s nice to see you again as well, Chase.”

“Lyla, we were just about to have a drink, why don’t you join us?”

Lyla hesitated for a while, as if she was trying to find any excuse not to, but eventually said, “Okay, why not?”

They both led me into their huge and wonderfully decorated kitchen which had an amazing view of a garden at the side of the house. Even I, who couldn’t care less about décor, couldn’t help but admire how the red and white walls and surfaces seemed to intensify the beauty of the room.

The most amazing thing about the room, which I didn’t notice at first, was that the kitchen felt bigger than it actually was, and that’s when I looked up and saw on the ceiling that there was a huge mirror that apparently was the length and width of the entire room.

“Don’t worry, its secure,” Salathia assured me as she handed me a bottle of coke.

After Lyla took up a bottle of water, we sat down at the kitchen counter, with me feeling extremely out of place and nervous. I was starting to wish I’d left when I had the chance.

Lyla and Salathia sat together on one side of the counter (I was sure they didn’t mean to) which made me feel like I was being scrutinized as I was sitting directly opposite them, so I merely sipped my canned Coke so I’d have something to do other than look around.

There was suddenly a loud, ringing noise which surprised me and caused me to spill Coke on my shirt.

Salathia excused herself to answer the phone, leaving Lyla and I opposite each other, but when I decided it was safe to steal a glance at her, I almost fell out of my chair when I saw how intensely she was staring at me.

“What is it?” I asked, trying to discreetly mop the soda from my chest with paper towel from the counter.

“It’s nothing. I’m just realizing how different you are. Like I’m now seeing you properly for the first time.”

She straight-pulled the rest of her water, and after throwing the bottle in the recycling bin she turned back to me.

“Chase, there is something I need to say to you.” She took a small breath and continued, “I’m sure you’re a really wonderful person so I think you should know, it wouldn’t be very good for us to be friends. I’m sorry. I’m sure you can find your way to the door.”

And with that, she turned and walked beautifully out of the room, leaving me stunned and hurt.

* * *

A whole week had passed since I’d been over to the Morgans, and during that time I felt like I was going through some kind of emotional torture, because no matter what I was doing I just couldn’t remembering Lyla saying we couldn’t be friends, and every time I thought of it, the memory manifested itself as physical pain, which always left me feeling sick.

For some reason this strange rejection wasn’t something I could just get over, but it wasn’t for lack of trying. I hadn’t spoken with Lyla since that day. She didn’t hang out in the neighborhood much, but on those few occasions when she did I tried my absolute best to avoid her. It would have been too embarrassing for me to be close to her and remember what she said, but I had to start doing this a little more discreetly because my friends were jokingly suggesting that I was afraid of her.

The main idea was that if I didn’t see her I wouldn’t think about her so much. It sounded great in theory, but didn’t work so well in practice because the longer I didn’t see her, the more I wanted to think about her. And the more I thought about her, the stronger the urge to go over and see her got.

I should have seen this coming, but I was just too weak. I decided I had to get her to change her mind. I had no idea why she thought it would be better if we weren’t talking, but I wasn’t going to let that stand in my way. So that Friday night when I climbed into bed, I made the decision I was going to change her mind.

The following Saturday morning dawned with clear skies and a bright, golden sun whose light came clear and strong through my open window along with the wondrous sound of the waves against the cliff.

The moment I opened my eyes I couldn’t help feeling light-hearted. The prospect of having Lyla back in my life clearly did wonders for my attitude.

After showering I headed downstairs to find that my parents had already left and didn’t even leave any breakfast. Working parents. As Mom didn’t leave any work for me to do (thankfully), I decided to spend my day scheming about how I would accomplish the great task and I did this over a bowl of froot loops.

There was a knock at the door. I was surprised to see that it was Kimberley.

“You answer the door in your underwear?” she asked coyly.

“Well, you never know who you might need to impress.”

“Lucky for you it isn’t me,” she replied, though I did catch her eyeing my body. I chuckled.

“Do you want to come in?”

“Oh no,” Kim responded, pulling herself together. “I’m not here to stay. See, we, Justin and the others, are riding out to the lighthouse and wanted to know if you wanted to come.”

“I’ve never been there, so yeah, sure. Let me just grab my bike.”

Kimberley started giggling when I invited her in to wait.

“You might want to think about putting some clothes on.”

“I know that Kim.” I stopped on my way to the kitchen and turned back to her. “Thanks for reminding me Kim.”

I’ve never actually been out to the lighthouse. Actually, I’d never even seen it. But I did know it was close to the harbor where my parents worked and on bicycles it was probably a forty minute ride. But once we got there, I was a little disappointed.

We rode out to the edge of a cliff and it turned out that the lighthouse was actually on the rocky beach below.

“Hmmm,” I climbed off my bike as the others did. “I actually thought we were going to be a bit closer than this. Not that this isn’t cool though,” I added when they all looked at me.

“We can get closer, Chase,” Brandon said, walking through some bushes to the side of the cliff.

When I followed, I saw that a set of old stairs and handrails had been constructed that went a couple feet down and ended just above some huge boulders on the beach, which the waves were crashing against.

After carefully hopping across, we finally landed on the shore. Even though I lived right by a beach myself, there was still something exciting about being on this completely new beach.

The second we got down, Rachael, Maranda, Brandon and Justin went running across the beach. As I didn’t feel like joining them, I found one of the nicest spots on the rocky beach and sat down.

Before I even realized it, Kimberley came over and sat down.

“Are you okay, Chase?” She asked.

I looked over at her, puzzled. “Yea, I am. Why do you ask?”

“It’s just, recently you’ve been acting, I don’t know, like you’re disappointed about something. And I know it’s stupid because I haven’t known you that long,” She giggled nervously, “But I’m just wondering if everything, you know, is okay with you.”

The fact that Kimberley actually saw through my attempted emotional disguise when everyone else was fooled took me by surprise, but what really stunned me was that she actually cared enough to say something.

I shifted my position so I was sure to look her in the eye, because I needed her to believe what I was about to say. I was about to lie to her, and knowing that made me feel a little guilty, but I saw no reason why she had to be dragged into my obsession with Lyla.

“You’re right. I have been feeling a little depressed this past week, but it’s only because I’ve been really missing home. I mean my old home, and my other friends. New York’s been my home for as long as I can remember, sometimes I just can’t help really missing it.”

I saw Kimberley open her mouth, but I heard no words come out, because at that moment the strange magnetic feeling come over me again, this time with such intensity that it made me feel lightheaded for a couple seconds and I actually had to rub my temples as if I was trying to relieve a headache.

“Are you feeling okay?” I heard her ask.

“Yeah. I’m okay, really,” I added when she looked like she didn’t believe me, “Just a little migraine.”

I was trying to sound like it didn’t matter but the pull I was trying so hard to ignore was now so strong, it was starting to make me dizzy.

“Hey, you guys, we’re having a game of water tag, let’s go.” Maranda shouted at Kimberley and I as they were about go into the water.

“Are you coming?” Kimberley asked. I got the feeling she wanted to join the others but didn’t want to leave me.

“Nah, I think I’m just going to take a walk. But you go. Really Kim, I’ll be fine.” She looked like she was going to refuse, but after a little more urging from the others, she decided to go.

The reason I really wanted to be alone was because I was going to follow the pull and I knew exactly who it was going to take me to.

The minute everyone was in the water, I headed off towards the lighthouse, which was where the pull was leading me. The lighthouse was painted with red and white stripes and was located in a corner at the end of the beach, and stood even higher than the cliff.

As I approached the lighthouse I came to really realize something. Shouldn’t it seem weird that I was following some strange feeling I’d been getting all of a sudden? Shouldn’t I be concerned? Even afraid? But did it really matter, because I wasn’t afraid of the pull or what I was being pulled to? I knew neither would hurt me.

When I walked around the lighthouse, it was just as I expected. She was sitting on top of another set of boulders in front the lighthouse. From where I stood I could see she was wearing a loose white shirt and a short pair of jeans.

When I saw how she was sitting, as she usually did with her knees up to her chin and her arms around her legs, she seemed lonely, like one of those women in stories who wait forever by the sea for their husbands who were away at during the war. It almost broke my heart to see her like that.

Unable to stop myself, I headed towards her. I climbed onto the rocks and started leaping across them towards her, noticing that the closer I got, the more the pull was receding.

When I was two boulders away from her I stopped and called out to her, as I didn’t want to startle her.

“Lyla!”

She spun around, surprised. When she saw that it was me, her surprise turned to annoyance. I was shocked, but this time instead of hurt, a huge flame of anger flared up inside me. After all, I’d done nothing to deserve to be treated this way and I wasn’t taking it today.

“Oh, if you wanted to be alone, that’s cool. All you had to do was say so.” I turned to

leave.

“Chase wait,” she called after me. I turned around and saw that she was already standing next to me. “Is there something wrong? Did I anger you?”

I stared at her indignantly before I responded. “Are you joking? That’s the second time you’ve treated me like I’ve done something to you. At first it was hurtful, yeah, but now it’s just irritating.”

A strong gust of wind came in with a wave from the sea, blowing Lyla’s hair towards me, along with the unique aroma of hers.

“I’m really sorry Chase. The last thing I wanted to do was hurt you. Believe me, it’s just…” I noticed her gaze was now focused on something behind me. When I turned around, I was surprised to see Kristian on the beach looking up at Lyla with a mixture of disgust and anger. For a couple seconds it was as though both of them suddenly forgot I was there. Finally, Lyla tore her eyes away from Kristian and he turned and left.

“That guy seriously needs to chill.” Nikolai said from just behind me. I didn’t even realize he was standing there. He was only wearing a beach pants, but whether he had just come out of the water or not, I couldn’t tell, because he was completely dry.

“Chase,” Lyla continued, as if nothing had interrupted her, “I’m sorry about just now. You didn’t do anything to anger me, it just there’s something different about you. Hmmm. Listen to me carefully, I, we really shouldn’t be talking. Not because you did anything wrong, but because I know I would be bad for you. I’m sorry, I have to go.”

She used a ruffle to put her hair in one, then walked away, leaving me alone with her brother.

“Trust me,” he said. “She really believes she is doing you a favor, but for what it’s worth, I think she’s over-reacting. If it means anything to you, we can hang out some.”

I actually laughed because he said it as if he was doing me some huge favor. At least he found the humor in it too.

79 | O c e a n C o v e – b y K e m a r J a m a l D o u g h t y . J u n e , 2 0 1 3