A Glimpse of the Future
by Denise Rushton
The miles went by slowly for the little girl combing her doll's hair in the back seat of her father's new Hudson. A light mist fell and drops drizzled down the window nearest her, and she peered out, wanting to get out of the car, to be able to get away from the others in the car and just go off by herself.
"Carolyn," nudged her cousin Harriet, "stop fussing with that doll and play this game with us."
"Yeah, come on already," chimed in Hazel for at least the 50th time that day, "don't be so boring."
Her cousins were a few years older than she, but Carolyn found their annoying ways to make them seem younger than her own nine years. She wished that her parents had not invited them on the trip, but her mother told her that it would be good for Carolyn to have some company. Carolyn found plenty of reasons not to agree with her mother, just about any time the cousins opened their mouths added to the list. The one person who should have been sharing that back seat with Carolyn was not and never would be there again.
Carolyn's head jerked upright as she heard the voice of her father. "Now don't be a party pooper, Carolyn."
His eyes met hers in the rear view mirror of the brand new car as Brad Williams continued his harangue about how Carolyn should join in the fun. Finally, the gentle hand of her mother laid on Brad's arm silenced him.
"Now, Brad," Emily admonished, "this is to be a vacation for the whole family, aside from breaking in your first new car since the war's end. We should all get to do what we want. Girls, you play the game with each other, and let Carolyn play with her doll."
The cousins grumbled softly but returned to their game and forgot about Carolyn. Carolyn laid the doll in her lap and toyed idly with the end of one of her braids. She always felt so bad about making her father upset since his return from his service in the Army Air Corps. There seemed to be so many things she felt badly about lately.
She noticed that the sun was starting to come out and she could see the ocean in the distance, the waves lapping at the shoreline. A little smile crossed her lips as she thought about a different shoreline, a different time—could it have only been a year ago?
Carolyn closed her eyes to better savor the daydream. A picture, clear as day, came to her mind. She was running along the edge of the ocean, spread out as far as she could see. As she stopped to pick up a shell, she heard a plaintive call from behind her, and she turned to see her younger brother, Jonathan, running to catch up to her. Carolyn handed him the shell she found and told him to put it up to his ear and listen. A smile crossed his face as she took his other hand and they ran back to their parents, skipping in and out of the lapping waves. She listened to him jabber on about the shell and how he wanted some of their mother's fried chicken right then and there—he didn't want to wait for lunch. It was so strange, she remembered thinking—he always ate so much and never gained an ounce.
Jonathan broke free of his sister's hand and ran into a big bear hug from his father. Brad had only been home for a couple of months, and Jonathan still had not gotten over the thrill of having him home. Neither had Carolyn, for that matter. She had not understood too much of what was going on in the world for the past few years, but she understood that her father was doing important work for America and that it was dangerous. But now everything would be perfect, he was home and they were all together again.
"Oh, no, Brad, he has another nose bleed," Emily cried out as she grabbed a napkin and applied it to Jonathan's squirming face. "Settle down, son," Brad tried to reassure his son in a voice that was not too sure itself. A look of concern passed between the adults, but it's meaning was not lost on Carolyn, and a shiver of fear went down her spine.
Carolyn brought herself back to the present, forcing the thought of the last easy day her family had had up until recently from her mind. She bit her lip, forcing the tears back from her eyes as her mind recalled little Jonathan's funeral, his burial after his all to quick death from leukemia. Fortunately, her cousins started fighting in the back seat, and their jostling broke her reverie.
"Come now, girls," Emily called out, "stop that bickering. Brad, where's the next town. I think we could all use a break for lunch. It is almost 3 in the afternoon, after all."
"I saw a sign for a place named Schooner Bay that's supposed to be about five miles from here. We'll stop there. Hopefully a tiny backwater like that will at least have one restaurant."
A few minutes later, Brad pulled up to a low wooden building, upon which was posted the sign "Stanley's Lobster House." and the family entered and sat down to eat. Emily and Brad chatted about the area. The proprietor, Stanley Coolidge, stopped by the table. Upon learning that Brad had been in the Air Corps, he spoke proudly of his son, Norrie, who was part of the occupational army in Japan. "But soon he'll be home, and then he can start learning what he needs to know to take over our family restaurant."
"Why don't we stop at the shoreline for awhile after lunch, honey?" Emily inquired after Stanley left the table. "I know you're in love with that car, but you can't expect the rest of us to want to be in it for hours on end."
Brad grumbled a little but acquiesced, and soon they stopped on a dirt roadway which ran parallel to the shore. In the distance, a lonely old house could be seen. The girls burst from the car as if they were just released from prison, and each made a beeline for the shore, leaping down the boulders of the bluff. Hiding among some large boulders on the coast, the girls changed into their bathing suits and ventured to the water. The cousins occupied themselves by slapping water at each other, allowing Carolyn some peace to wander off by herself, and she headed up the shore, her toes crunching in the warm sand.
Carolyn's attention was caught by the sight of the old, lonely looking house overlooking the shore from the bluff. She nervously twisted the end of a braid around her finger as she tentatively walked toward the house, thinking it looked as forlorn as she felt. She could not help but think about the fun she would have had exploring the house if she had her kid brother by her side. She stared at the windows, looking for any sign of life. She started to fantasize that maybe Jonathan would try to send her some sort of message, being that they both loved the beach so much and he would have loved it there as much as she did.
Just as Carolyn was about to climb the bluff, an ominous rumble of thunder rolled through the air as she heard her mother calling for her to return. Walking backwards, still staring at the house, all of a sudden she saw a glimmer from an upstairs window, like the sun reflecting off a piece of glass. She stopped dead in her tracks and looked for another flash, some other signal that her beloved little brother was near. She stood transfixed, her eyes wide, until she was jerked out of her reverie by her mother's hand on her arm.
"Carolyn, wake up! Didn't you hear me calling you, didn't your father tell you not to wander too far off? We've got to go back, it sounds like there's a storm coming."
"But, but…Mom?" Carolyn faltered, wanting to tell her mother about the signal, but realizing in the same instant that the idea would probably upset her, as did so many things after Jonathan's death. Sheepishly, she followed Emily to join the rest of the family.
Brad boomed, "Alright everyone, time to pack up the car and get going if we want to make Portland by nightfall." As the words left his mouth, a louder boom of thunder was heard overhead, spurring the group to hurry.
The Hudson pulled away from the side of the road under the close scrutiny of a pair of narrowed eyes, one of which closed to allow the other a better view through the telescope, swinging to and fro to afford him a close look at what he thought of as his private realm.
Muttering under his breath, the specter of a tall, handsome sea captain muttered under his breath, "Well, it took long enough for that blasted family of interlopers to set sail. If that little girl had gotten any closer, well…."
Captain Daniel Gregg did not finish his thought, his feelings about intruders clashing with his realization that the little blonde girl would be quite the looker in about eight more years. Well, he'd never know.