The Howling

The curser stared defiantly at Lena Crawford. The glaring blank screen a desolate reminder of just how difficult an author’s job really was. Her last novel, about the vampire god, had brought her more money and more desire by the literary community for another best seller. But, not only had it left her creative mind empty yet again, but it left her soul torn with uncertainty.

With all the money Lena had made, there was no further necessity to remain in Los Angelis. The town was dry on ideas anyhow. She had packed up not long after the failed relationship with John and relocated to the tiny beach town of North Beach, Maryland.

How Lena had chosen the particular place was a conundrum within itself. She had been sitting in the waiting room at her editor’s office. Kyle was running late with another meeting. The travel book sat perched on the coffee table. She flipped through the pages out of boredom. When she came across the article about the east coast fishing community, she found herself enchanted by the simplicity. By the time Kyle had gotten to her, she had made up her mind.

“I’m moving to the east coast, Kyle.”

“You can’t be serious Lena. Everyone loves you here.”

“Everyone can kiss my ass. If you want another best seller by Christmas, I need to make a change.”

It was June now. Still, Lena had yet to type one word of her promised novel. She sighed and began typing.

It was a dark afternoon…

That was no good, she hit the backspace key.

He came to her out of the fog… more back spacing, returning to an empty screen and that evil blinking curser.

It was suppose to be a fantastic vacation from her normal life. But now she wondered, was it going to rain all the time? Lena sighed, put her feelings aside with a quick delete, and sat back defeated. Before the screen could laugh at her further, she slammed it shut in frustration.

Lena decided that before she gave into the urge to throw the laptop off the porch, she should take a stroll along the beach to calm her nerves. She left the computer on the coffee table and made her way down the hall. Her room, to the right of the hallway, was dimly lit by the Tiffany style lamp on the nightstand. She pulled a sweater out of the closet and slipped into her tennis shoes.

The office door at the end of the hall, used to be a bedroom. Without company, or family, Lena used it to house her collection of manuscripts and ideas. Across the hall from the bedroom was the bathroom, with lilac colored wallpaper, where she stopped briefly to tie her hair back with a rubber band. Back down the hall to the stairwell, straight down to the front door and off to the left was another door way that led to the finished basement. The previous owner had built a game room out of it. Now, it stood collecting dust since she had no desire to use it.

Down the sidewalk and across the street stood the beginning of the three mile long boardwalk that stretched the length of the beach. Near the end she would find the fisherman’s wharf, and what few shops that the locals called town. A fire department, bar, and restaurant; small police station and bait shop.

At her end of the boardwalk, several docks stretched out into the bay to form the marina. Lena watched the boats rocking gently in the light breeze as she passed them by. In a few more nights the moon would be full. The bright light shimmered across the black mass of salt water casting an eerie glow across the landscape as she ended her walk by the wharf.

The salty sea air blew in on the gentle breeze and for a moment Lena just breathed it in. She could forget about all the stress, and the let downs, and the idea that she was alone out here on the coast. As she relaxed, her mind wandered.

Before Lena could gather the wandering thoughts, a bright light cut through the darkness. The sound of tires slowly chewing up the pavement disturbed the peace as it stopped behind her and caused her to turn around slowly. The lights on the car were bright, but as her eyes adjusted she could see the white letters and lights that identified the police chief’s cruiser.

The thin black man dressed all in police issue black with shiny metallic buttons, stepped from the car. As he did so, the flashlight flicked on. Lena shielded her eyes for a moment as he focused on her face. He walked around the car lowering his flashlight as he went, and made his way across the lot to where she stood with her back to the open water.

“You shouldn’t be out this late Ms. Crawford.” The man smiled as he lowered the light.

“I couldn’t clear my mind at home Paul, you know how I get.” She chuckled.

“The beach is dangerous this time of the month.”

“You’ve been telling me this same story about the North Beach wolf since I moved in Paul. I suppose next, mermaids will come spiraling up out of the water to drown me beneath the wharf.” She jested.

“That’s some imagination you got there.” He smiled in the dim light.

“It pays the bills.” Lena laughed.

“Come on, I’ll give you a lift home.”

Paul held the passenger door open. With a defeated sigh, Lena climbed inside and allowed him to escort her home. Once there she unlocked the door, walked inside, and gave her computer a dirty look. She fixed a sandwich then went to bed far more exhausted than she anticipated.

In the morning Lena showered, dressed, and put on a pot of coffee. It was already seventy degrees by ten am so she took her coffee and laptop out on the porch. It booted right up and auto logged her onto the messenger service. Kyle popped right up with a cheesy smiley face icon.

“How’s my favorite author?” She read.

Lena typed back, “Tired, lazy, and bored. When am I going to get a break from you?”

“When you move to Italy and start writing long hand again.” He replied then added, “How’s the new book?”

“It refuses to exist,” She replied. “Worried?”

“Nah, you came through last time. Keep me posted.”

“Will do.”

Kyle logged off leaving Lena to enjoy the view with her coffee in silence. The blue green water sparkled with the yellow tint from the morning sun. Joggers came and went on the boardwalk. Dog walkers, mothers with strollers, lovers holding hands; disgusted and defeated, she went back inside.

The old Monte Carlo fired right up. Lena drove into town. The grocery store was packed full of people shopping for what appeared to be nothing in particular. In a town that small, it was pretty much the most exciting thing any of them could do for entertainment on a nice day. She stocked up her cart, and forty five minutes later, she was back at home.

Meat in serving size containers went into the freezer, veggies into the fridge, and pasta into the cupboard; everything in its place. Lena returned to the porch with a feeling of accomplishment. It was only late afternoon and she had done everything possible to avoid working on the new book. Well, almost everything, she smirked.

Lena put on her bathing suit and drove two miles to the public beach access. It wasn’t at all like the long sandy beaches of Florida or California. It was more of a man made patch of sand in-between the boardwalk and the rock barrier wall that protected the boardwalk from the high surf.

Lena passed through the gate, laid her beach towel down on the sand, and sat peacefully watching the tide flow in. It could have been far busier on the shoreline, for as nice as the day had turned out to be. All that she could see were a few toddlers with their respected parents wading through the surf. She lay down, closed her eyes, and enjoyed the feel of the sun on her skin. While she rested, she listened to the waves as they broke on the shore, another sound soon broke the tranquility.

“Look out!” The man shouted.

The Frisbee whizzed over Lena’s head. Sand went flying as the man to whom the Frisbee was intended for, came sailing down off the rocks with a string of curses and flailing limbs. He landed in her stunned lap, both unable to move out of shock.

His eyes were green, and his hair was short, wavy, and chestnut brown. Lena could feel the softness of his skin, taught over his muscular chest, as she gave him a violent shove. He left her lap and hit the sand beside her. The initial shock had passed. He smiled and blushed in embarrassment.

“I am so sorry miss.” He stood and began to dust himself off.

“You should be.” She snapped.

He appeared genuinely wounded.

“Dude, that was classic!” Another man laughed from out of her line of sight.

“Shut up Keith!” He barked.

When the man turned back, he found that the unnamed woman had already gathered her things and had a head start to her parked car.

He chased after her calling out, “Hey, wait, please?”

The pavement burned his bare feet. He hopped around trying to keep the heat off the sensitive parts of his feet as he finally chased her down.

“Look, the guys are just jerks. They didn’t mean any harm by it. Let me make it up to you.” He said.

She spun around, “I’m not interested.”

“Fine,” He gave up and walked away muttering, “Bitter crone.”

Lena was shocked. Had she become that withdrawn? In California, attention was required due to her status in the community. It finally registered to her mind. This isn’t California. It’s a small town, with normal people, most of which wouldn’t recognize her even if they held her autobiography in their hands while they stared. Fame had indeed made her bitter and blind.

The man was too far away for her to apologize. So she just got in her car and went home, alone, yet again.

“You wanted seclusion Lena.” Kyle scolded.

“Yeah, I know.” She grumbled.

“You wanted to be anonymous.” He prodded.

“You’re not helping, jerk.” She muttered.

“Come home Lena. You’ve proven nothing other than how to shelter yourself from the world that loves you.” He stated.

“I’ve got work to do Kyle. I’ll call you later.”

It was a lie but Lena was just done talking about it. It was getting late, and she really didn’t feel like working anymore than she felt like talking. So, rather than pacing the floor in discontent, she locked up the house and took off at a slow walk to the restaurant for dinner.

The night was warm and the nearly full moon broke through the shading clouds to cast brilliant light upon the darkened shoreline. If one wasn’t careful they could get lost trying to distinguish between stars and ships on the horizon.

Tonight, Lena stepped over the line and careful became a thing of the past. It was hard for her to pull herself away from the bobbing lights that danced across the water of the bay. She watched as each sparkled, danced, and disappeared behind the waves.

A dog barked somewhere off in the distance. The gentle lap, lap, lap of the water became hypnotizing. Lena stood on the shore, leaning heavily on the banister, entranced by the simple serenity. The dog went from barking to yelping, then silence, until the dull growl was just beyond where she stood.

The hair on Lena’s arms stood up, suddenly aware of being in danger. She could see, just inside the shadows, a large dog hunched on the rocks below her. She slowly backed away as the growling grew louder. Arms wrapped around her from behind. She began to scream. The hand cupped over her mouth to silence her as it turned her head.

Lena recognized him as he began to snarl back at the creature. The man from the beach put himself between her and the wild dog, growling just as intensely as the beast, until it gave up and vanished into the fog. She was trembling with uncontrolled motion.

“Tell me that wasn’t the North Beach wolf.”

“So, you do know better than to be out this late at night. I thought after earlier today, you were just that ignorant.”

“I’m sorry about that and thank you for helping me.” She muttered still shivering.

“Come on, I’ll walk you home.” He replied as he put his strong arm around her.

“Sometimes I forget I’m not in the city anymore.” She chattered on as she tried to regain her composure.

“You just go through so much there that everyone has to be out to get you.” She sighed.

“No worries.” He replied.

“It wasn’t fair of me to judge you based on my past. It’s not like you could have known.” She continued.

“Do you ever shut up Lena or do you just like the sound of your own voice?”

“I, uh,” She stammered.

“You’re at a complete lost now huh?” He laughed.

“I’ll let you in on a secret. I’m not from North Beach either. We all have our reasons to hide.”

“So, you know me, and I don’t know you, and the walk ends here.” She pointed up at her house.

“I’m Barry, from San Francisco. I was at the last book signing there. But, I’m sure, with the amount of publicity you have, one geek from the beach is just as good as another.” He chuckled.

“Not always. You should have met John Kelly, all geek none of your audacity.” She smiled.

“I’ll take that as a compliment.”

“You should.”

“Good night Lena. Please stay indoors after dark, and be safe.”

“Ok,” She whispered.