Chapter 3 Soon
How could he again just vanish there was nowhere to go except right in front of me to get passed, unless he went into the restaurant. My heart began to race. I called Collette and told her I was going inside to get us a table, I heard her say something but I had already turned to go inside. I knew he would be in there, I knew I might get the chance to at least study him for a bit. Dinner takes time, I could see who he was meeting, what he would eat and drink. How he would handle himself around others. I could finally see him for real, not just a flash here or there.
My heart was pounding and my mouth again went dry as I turned the brass handle of the door. I knew he would just be inside waiting to be seated, there had not been enough time for anything else. I took a deep breath and closed my eyes as I turned the handle and pulled the door open. I stepped inside and there was no one there but a man waiting for me to come in. I looked around the whole foyer and he was no where. My knees went almost out from under me – there was no where else he could have gone. The man asked me if I was alright, he said I went as white as a sheet. I asked him if a young man had come in here before me and he said no.
Collette had come in at that moment, I told the man we needed a table for 2 outside overlooking the port. He quickly walked us thru the restaurant, he must have been mistaken he must be here. Scanning over the bar and tables I did not see him at all. He walked with us down to the very end table and he was not at any of the tables there either.
I sat down before I fell down, he asked if he could get me a drink. ” Just cold water please” ” Yes just a moment Ma’am”
By now Collette had seen the look on my face and she asked me what was wrong. I looked at her. She stared back at me ” There has been something wrong all evening, now tell me what it is” the man came back with the water rather quickly and I took it and noticed my hands were shaking quite a lot. I took a deep breath, this all had to be real – it had to be.
I drank the glass full with almost one gulp, the man waited and asked me again if I was alright, I said ” Please just more water” he took the glass and left with it again. I felt a cool breeze on my forehead and realized I had been sweating.
Collette spoke again. ” When you landed you asked me if I had noticed anything strange about anyone – now tell me”. I opened my mouth to speak and nothing came out at first. I took another deep breath finally beginning to calm down a bit.
I looked at her and I began to tell her the whole thing from the first moment I saw him in the water.
The waiter had refilled my water twice since we sat down. He finally brought the menu’s and asked me if I needed more water I shook my head no and said “Thank you” ” Anytime your ready and take your time” .
I told her everything up until we came into the restaurant. When I finished I looked away out across the water and thought about the squealing Eaglets and wondered if they had eaten tonight.
She listened to all I had to say and said nothing. I took another deep breath and let it out slowly and looked back at her.
She said. ” I realize it’s been over a year since Henry vanished and I know you have been lonely” I cut her off in the middle of that ” I did not imagine him because I am lonely “. ” Christine I have known you for a very long time, I know your not crazy, but no one can just vanish like that “. I know she was not being mean she was trying to make me understand that it was not a possible thing, something I already knew. I know I had not made him up, her man had seen him but he was not here.
I could not be angry with her as I knew what she was saying was true but I knew I did not make him up. She was trying her best to reason with me but I knew what I had seen and felt.
As we ate I just let the whole thing go and began telling her about how the Eaglets had been growing so fast and how beautiful their parents were soaring high above the Ocean and over the hills behind the castle. The sound of the fervent squealing when the parents brought food to them.
When we were done it was quite late and the boat out left just before dawn in the morning, so we had to go back to her house and get some sleep before we both headed back out to the Island.
On the way back to her home, it was very bumpy as cobblestones are. She was talking about the party and how many would actually show up as she had not gotten a response for all the invites she had sent out but she was assured at least 30 would show up. I was almost not looking forward to my own birthday party.
When we got to her home her man had taken up all the packages and we went in to the living room where the fire had been in the fireplace and the room was very warm and she went over and poured us two large drinks. She had Rum cocktail and I had Gin neat. She sat down next to me and hugged me.
“Don’t let this upset you so much. You don’t need to get into such a tizzy about this. Just try to forget about him” I nodded my head but the thought thundering thru my head. ‘Forget him ? how ?’
She left me there on the couch as she went upstairs to go to bed, I told her I would go up in a bit. “Don’t stay down here too long we have a busy next few days ahead of us and you’re not getting any younger you know”. I smiled at her and she gave me a quick peck on the cheek and went upstairs.
I knew I had to get upstairs to my room before the alcohol kicked in, she had a very winding stair case. I usually spent so much time at her house I had my own room as she had her own at the castle. Here though I could not see the Ocean or hear the surf or the Eagles. I really missed hearing tonight. I wondered again if they had eaten.
I got up to my room and changed my clothes and washed a bit in the basin. Just to get the salt grunge feeling off of me that as much as I love the Ocean I did not like the way it felt on my skin I never did.
As I laid my head down on the pillow, I thought of him though I was not sure why. The way it came over me. I saw him standing in the water facing the sunset and I felt a tightening in my chest my heart skipped a beat and my stomach felt the sickness again. I rolled my eyes back and gasped for air and pushed my head back deep in the pillow trying to escape the feeling. It felt like I was drowning. I thought it was the Gin and tried to convince myself of that. Shortly after I fell asleep or tried to.
I woke up but had never really been asleep at all, just listless relaxing. It was about an hour and a half before dawn and the boat would leave just before dawn so we had to get there quickly. I heard Collette in her room so I went out to the kitchen to make some coffee. I got to the stove and picked up the pot for water and I felt him and that feeling again.
This time I gasped because I thought of when he was standing in front of me, I fell backwards against the wall and threw my head from side to side trying to make the vision of him go away, it was no use. I felt tears starting to fall. Then it stopped as soon as it had come.
I sat down at the table and Collette came in and lit the candle set on the table. It was dark and she did not see how upset I was. She made the coffee and asked me how I slept, I told her I didn’t. Well you can go to bed early tonight when we get there.
We were ready to go and down at the wharf before the man who always takes us or me back and forth.
When he came and loaded all of our stuff onto the small boat and we were getting in I felt the cold sick feeling inside and I looked back up to the dock and saw someone standing in the shadows leaning on the wall, I could not see clearly who it was but I knew it was him.
I turned my face away from him and made myself think that I could go back to the Island and at least for a little while know I was there without him, he would be here for at least a little while until another boat went out. There would be at least some time of peace. I was also looking very forward to seeing the Eagles again.
Dawn was just coming and the water was taking on the golden glow of it. When we landed and that jerk came. We got off the boat and the man was taking the stuff off I headed around the front to the stairs and Collette would go around the back as she wanted to have the packages most of them put in the back room to go thru later.
I went around the house and looked out into the Ocean and he was there standing in his spot looking at the sunrise with his hand up in front of his eyes and no shirt on as he had been before.
I burst into tears at seeing him, I looked at the ground there were again no clothes and no footprints. I heard the adult Eagles above screaming and a Sea Lion roaring. My mouth again had gone dry and I was sobbing, I began shaking my head back and forth. He turned around and looked at me – it was him, it had been him all along. Just as he turned the male Eagle came down again and swooped over him and this time I saw the bird strike him. He did not move except to dodge the Eagle out. He should have fallen but he didn’t.
I had my hand over my mouth and I was shaking so much I thought I would fall, he stood up again and looked at me. His beauty was without words. The way the wind was blowing his hair just in his face a little.
I went towards him and tried to speak but I couldn’t. He came out of the water with the look of pain on his beautiful face. He stood in front of me and did his best to smile. ” Soon Christine” he said. The Eagle swooped on him again but this time struck me instead by accident. I was knocked over and passed out. The last thing I heard was the Eagle screaming.
The next thing I can consciously recall is laying on the couch downstairs. I could feel the material before I opened my eyes. Collette was the first person I saw in a blur, “What happened” ” The Eagle attacked you for no reason” I shook my head no but she told me not to excite myself, I saw the captain standing in the doorway just beyond her. ” He was there” I tried to tell her but she only patted a cold cloth on my forehead and told me to relax and just keep quiet. “He was there” I said again, “There was no one anywhere else” the captain was still in the door and he was shaking his head no as if to say there was no one else there. He was though I knew it.
I tried to sit up but then the pain in my head started piercing thru. I could not remember how I got hit all I know is that I had and there was blood all over my dress but only down the side of the wound on my head, not enough for two people to have been hit but such large talons. There should have been blood all over me and he should have been here with me, he must have been hurt as well, I saw the Eagle hit him twice. So where was he. ” Where is he” I heard myself muttering out ” He has to be hurt too” ” Christine there was no one else out there but you and the Eagle and it attacked you for no apparent reason. I shook my head no again but the pain was intense.
Collette asked the captain if he could help me upstairs to my room. He came over to me and took my hand and pulled me up all the way and put his arm around my waist and Collette took my other hand. They both took me upstairs and laid me down on the bed, I heard Collette thank him several times as he was leaving.
She asked me if I wanted him to bring a doctor but I said no.
As she closed the door she told me to stay still and she would be right back. As soon as she left I tried to get up to go to the window. I managed to get over to it and look out to see if he was there but he wasn’t. I heard the Eagles but they were making sounds I had never heard before. I knew that he would not have attacked me for no reason, I knew this man was standing in front of me and I knew the Eagle was wanting to protect me from what though I had no idea. My head starting aching and I heard her clattering around in the kitchen downstairs. I sat on the chair beside my dressing table and looked in the mirror. There was quite a bit of blood all over but still not enough for the Eagle to have hit two people, so where was the rest ?
She came back in and said in a stern harsh voice “I told you not to get up” she came over to me and took hold of my waist and pulled me back over to the bed and proceeded to clean my head. ” The wound is not as bad as it looked before, it’s almost just a scratch ” I winced at the pain which was lessening as she bandaged it up for me. I was going to say something else about him to her but I did not think it was wise. She poured me a drink and told me to drink it all down and she helped me change my clothes. She told me to get into bed and stay there. I did as she said.
As I lay there I started to think. He answered my question, the question I had not asked him. ‘When are you going to say something or do something so everyone knows your real’ when I realized it I was scared, how could he read my thought without me saying anything and how could he have been thinking of anything else other than a Bald Eagle attacking him ?
I managed to pull myself up again I wanted to look out the window again and have another drink. So I got over to the window and the sun was streaming in. I looked out and he was still no where. I poured myself another very large drink and went back over to the bed and laid back down. I thought again about him standing in front of me the pain in his face but his smile and the paleness of his skin and again the odd shape of his teeth, like fangs. This time though the sensations were deadened by the alcohol but I still felt the drowning feeling and a tightness in my chest.
I wondered about the Eagle the scream I heard it make, had he injured it with something ? He had nothing in his hands and the pants were wet and clinging to him and showed nothing obvious in the pockets, how could he have hurt such a large bird. Or was it him that screamed instead ? Collette had mentioned nothing about the Eagle being hurt only attacking me. I heard her open the door and I asked her what she saw. ” I heard the Eagle screaming and I came around the corner as the captain was putting the boxes in the back room and I saw you laying on the ground and the Eagle soaring above you ” ” So the Eagle is not hurt” ” Not that I saw, I saw you laying there and we brought you in here and you were saying something about – him, but there was no one else around”
She smiled at me and went to pour another drink and I told her I did not need one. She came back over and asked me how I was feeling and I said “Besides drunk ? ” She laughed. My head was not hurting much at all anymore and I was just about to fall asleep. She kissed my opposite cheek and told me just to sleep for a while. She opened the window and pulled the curtains and darkness fell across the room. She closed the door quietly behind her.
I thought of him again when I closed my eyes, I was glad she said she saw the Eagle soaring so he must not be hurt. The last thing I remember was hearing his voice clearly saying in my head ” Soon Christine ”
My heart was pounding and my mouth again went dry as I turned the brass handle of the door. I knew he would just be inside waiting to be seated, there had not been enough time for anything else. I took a deep breath and closed my eyes as I turned the handle and pulled the door open. I stepped inside and there was no one there but a man waiting for me to come in. I looked around the whole foyer and he was no where. My knees went almost out from under me – there was no where else he could have gone. The man asked me if I was alright, he said I went as white as a sheet. I asked him if a young man had come in here before me and he said no.
Collette had come in at that moment, I told the man we needed a table for 2 outside overlooking the port. He quickly walked us thru the restaurant, he must have been mistaken he must be here. Scanning over the bar and tables I did not see him at all. He walked with us down to the very end table and he was not at any of the tables there either.
I sat down before I fell down, he asked if he could get me a drink. ” Just cold water please” ” Yes just a moment Ma’am”
By now Collette had seen the look on my face and she asked me what was wrong. I looked at her. She stared back at me ” There has been something wrong all evening, now tell me what it is” the man came back with the water rather quickly and I took it and noticed my hands were shaking quite a lot. I took a deep breath, this all had to be real – it had to be.
I drank the glass full with almost one gulp, the man waited and asked me again if I was alright, I said ” Please just more water” he took the glass and left with it again. I felt a cool breeze on my forehead and realized I had been sweating.
Collette spoke again. ” When you landed you asked me if I had noticed anything strange about anyone – now tell me”. I opened my mouth to speak and nothing came out at first. I took another deep breath finally beginning to calm down a bit.
I looked at her and I began to tell her the whole thing from the first moment I saw him in the water.
The waiter had refilled my water twice since we sat down. He finally brought the menu’s and asked me if I needed more water I shook my head no and said “Thank you” ” Anytime your ready and take your time” .
I told her everything up until we came into the restaurant. When I finished I looked away out across the water and thought about the squealing Eaglets and wondered if they had eaten tonight.
She listened to all I had to say and said nothing. I took another deep breath and let it out slowly and looked back at her.
She said. ” I realize it’s been over a year since Henry vanished and I know you have been lonely” I cut her off in the middle of that ” I did not imagine him because I am lonely “. ” Christine I have known you for a very long time, I know your not crazy, but no one can just vanish like that “. I know she was not being mean she was trying to make me understand that it was not a possible thing, something I already knew. I know I had not made him up, her man had seen him but he was not here.
I could not be angry with her as I knew what she was saying was true but I knew I did not make him up. She was trying her best to reason with me but I knew what I had seen and felt.
As we ate I just let the whole thing go and began telling her about how the Eaglets had been growing so fast and how beautiful their parents were soaring high above the Ocean and over the hills behind the castle. The sound of the fervent squealing when the parents brought food to them.
When we were done it was quite late and the boat out left just before dawn in the morning, so we had to go back to her house and get some sleep before we both headed back out to the Island.
On the way back to her home, it was very bumpy as cobblestones are. She was talking about the party and how many would actually show up as she had not gotten a response for all the invites she had sent out but she was assured at least 30 would show up. I was almost not looking forward to my own birthday party.
When we got to her home her man had taken up all the packages and we went in to the living room where the fire had been in the fireplace and the room was very warm and she went over and poured us two large drinks. She had Rum cocktail and I had Gin neat. She sat down next to me and hugged me.
“Don’t let this upset you so much. You don’t need to get into such a tizzy about this. Just try to forget about him” I nodded my head but the thought thundering thru my head. ‘Forget him ? how ?’
She left me there on the couch as she went upstairs to go to bed, I told her I would go up in a bit. “Don’t stay down here too long we have a busy next few days ahead of us and you’re not getting any younger you know”. I smiled at her and she gave me a quick peck on the cheek and went upstairs.
I knew I had to get upstairs to my room before the alcohol kicked in, she had a very winding stair case. I usually spent so much time at her house I had my own room as she had her own at the castle. Here though I could not see the Ocean or hear the surf or the Eagles. I really missed hearing tonight. I wondered again if they had eaten.
I got up to my room and changed my clothes and washed a bit in the basin. Just to get the salt grunge feeling off of me that as much as I love the Ocean I did not like the way it felt on my skin I never did.
As I laid my head down on the pillow, I thought of him though I was not sure why. The way it came over me. I saw him standing in the water facing the sunset and I felt a tightening in my chest my heart skipped a beat and my stomach felt the sickness again. I rolled my eyes back and gasped for air and pushed my head back deep in the pillow trying to escape the feeling. It felt like I was drowning. I thought it was the Gin and tried to convince myself of that. Shortly after I fell asleep or tried to.
I woke up but had never really been asleep at all, just listless relaxing. It was about an hour and a half before dawn and the boat would leave just before dawn so we had to get there quickly. I heard Collette in her room so I went out to the kitchen to make some coffee. I got to the stove and picked up the pot for water and I felt him and that feeling again.
This time I gasped because I thought of when he was standing in front of me, I fell backwards against the wall and threw my head from side to side trying to make the vision of him go away, it was no use. I felt tears starting to fall. Then it stopped as soon as it had come.
I sat down at the table and Collette came in and lit the candle set on the table. It was dark and she did not see how upset I was. She made the coffee and asked me how I slept, I told her I didn’t. Well you can go to bed early tonight when we get there.
We were ready to go and down at the wharf before the man who always takes us or me back and forth.
When he came and loaded all of our stuff onto the small boat and we were getting in I felt the cold sick feeling inside and I looked back up to the dock and saw someone standing in the shadows leaning on the wall, I could not see clearly who it was but I knew it was him.
I turned my face away from him and made myself think that I could go back to the Island and at least for a little while know I was there without him, he would be here for at least a little while until another boat went out. There would be at least some time of peace. I was also looking very forward to seeing the Eagles again.
Dawn was just coming and the water was taking on the golden glow of it. When we landed and that jerk came. We got off the boat and the man was taking the stuff off I headed around the front to the stairs and Collette would go around the back as she wanted to have the packages most of them put in the back room to go thru later.
I went around the house and looked out into the Ocean and he was there standing in his spot looking at the sunrise with his hand up in front of his eyes and no shirt on as he had been before.
I burst into tears at seeing him, I looked at the ground there were again no clothes and no footprints. I heard the adult Eagles above screaming and a Sea Lion roaring. My mouth again had gone dry and I was sobbing, I began shaking my head back and forth. He turned around and looked at me – it was him, it had been him all along. Just as he turned the male Eagle came down again and swooped over him and this time I saw the bird strike him. He did not move except to dodge the Eagle out. He should have fallen but he didn’t.
I had my hand over my mouth and I was shaking so much I thought I would fall, he stood up again and looked at me. His beauty was without words. The way the wind was blowing his hair just in his face a little.
I went towards him and tried to speak but I couldn’t. He came out of the water with the look of pain on his beautiful face. He stood in front of me and did his best to smile. ” Soon Christine” he said. The Eagle swooped on him again but this time struck me instead by accident. I was knocked over and passed out. The last thing I heard was the Eagle screaming.
The next thing I can consciously recall is laying on the couch downstairs. I could feel the material before I opened my eyes. Collette was the first person I saw in a blur, “What happened” ” The Eagle attacked you for no reason” I shook my head no but she told me not to excite myself, I saw the captain standing in the doorway just beyond her. ” He was there” I tried to tell her but she only patted a cold cloth on my forehead and told me to relax and just keep quiet. “He was there” I said again, “There was no one anywhere else” the captain was still in the door and he was shaking his head no as if to say there was no one else there. He was though I knew it.
I tried to sit up but then the pain in my head started piercing thru. I could not remember how I got hit all I know is that I had and there was blood all over my dress but only down the side of the wound on my head, not enough for two people to have been hit but such large talons. There should have been blood all over me and he should have been here with me, he must have been hurt as well, I saw the Eagle hit him twice. So where was he. ” Where is he” I heard myself muttering out ” He has to be hurt too” ” Christine there was no one else out there but you and the Eagle and it attacked you for no apparent reason. I shook my head no again but the pain was intense.
Collette asked the captain if he could help me upstairs to my room. He came over to me and took my hand and pulled me up all the way and put his arm around my waist and Collette took my other hand. They both took me upstairs and laid me down on the bed, I heard Collette thank him several times as he was leaving.
She asked me if I wanted him to bring a doctor but I said no.
As she closed the door she told me to stay still and she would be right back. As soon as she left I tried to get up to go to the window. I managed to get over to it and look out to see if he was there but he wasn’t. I heard the Eagles but they were making sounds I had never heard before. I knew that he would not have attacked me for no reason, I knew this man was standing in front of me and I knew the Eagle was wanting to protect me from what though I had no idea. My head starting aching and I heard her clattering around in the kitchen downstairs. I sat on the chair beside my dressing table and looked in the mirror. There was quite a bit of blood all over but still not enough for the Eagle to have hit two people, so where was the rest ?
She came back in and said in a stern harsh voice “I told you not to get up” she came over to me and took hold of my waist and pulled me back over to the bed and proceeded to clean my head. ” The wound is not as bad as it looked before, it’s almost just a scratch ” I winced at the pain which was lessening as she bandaged it up for me. I was going to say something else about him to her but I did not think it was wise. She poured me a drink and told me to drink it all down and she helped me change my clothes. She told me to get into bed and stay there. I did as she said.
As I lay there I started to think. He answered my question, the question I had not asked him. ‘When are you going to say something or do something so everyone knows your real’ when I realized it I was scared, how could he read my thought without me saying anything and how could he have been thinking of anything else other than a Bald Eagle attacking him ?
I managed to pull myself up again I wanted to look out the window again and have another drink. So I got over to the window and the sun was streaming in. I looked out and he was still no where. I poured myself another very large drink and went back over to the bed and laid back down. I thought again about him standing in front of me the pain in his face but his smile and the paleness of his skin and again the odd shape of his teeth, like fangs. This time though the sensations were deadened by the alcohol but I still felt the drowning feeling and a tightness in my chest.
I wondered about the Eagle the scream I heard it make, had he injured it with something ? He had nothing in his hands and the pants were wet and clinging to him and showed nothing obvious in the pockets, how could he have hurt such a large bird. Or was it him that screamed instead ? Collette had mentioned nothing about the Eagle being hurt only attacking me. I heard her open the door and I asked her what she saw. ” I heard the Eagle screaming and I came around the corner as the captain was putting the boxes in the back room and I saw you laying on the ground and the Eagle soaring above you ” ” So the Eagle is not hurt” ” Not that I saw, I saw you laying there and we brought you in here and you were saying something about – him, but there was no one else around”
She smiled at me and went to pour another drink and I told her I did not need one. She came back over and asked me how I was feeling and I said “Besides drunk ? ” She laughed. My head was not hurting much at all anymore and I was just about to fall asleep. She kissed my opposite cheek and told me just to sleep for a while. She opened the window and pulled the curtains and darkness fell across the room. She closed the door quietly behind her.
I thought of him again when I closed my eyes, I was glad she said she saw the Eagle soaring so he must not be hurt. The last thing I remember was hearing his voice clearly saying in my head ” Soon Christine ”