Forever and Almost Always
Chapter One
St. Augustine, Fl, July 2009
She was scared to death.
What had she been thinking? Moving to a new state, a new city, albeit one she kind of knew her way around, on little more than a whim? She didn't know anyone, she wasn't sure if she could find a job or even if she could really afford her tiny studio apartment past the next three months.
Caught between a terrifying sense of doubt, and elation, Mae stared at the boxes and bags stacked in the living area of her new space. She'd been fine up until now, when, for some reason, the small apartment suddenly seemed cramped and dark, instead of promising and cozy.
Feeling a panic attack coming on, Mae picked up the small backpack serving as her purse, and made herself leave, feeling a bit better as soon as she locked the door behind her and stepped out of the shade into the hot sunlight.
Hopping on her beloved old bike, she pushed on her sunglasses, and twisted her long, loose red hair into a knot at her nape. She looked around the quiet neighborhood, taking a deep breath of the salty air, and slowly pedaled away, admiring the wash of sand on the sides of the street, and the breeze cooling the heat in her cheeks.
Bernie and Cora Turner were an interesting old couple, seemingly attatched at the hip, and despite the amount of time they'd been talking atop of the ancient fort, the Castillo de San Marcos, Mae still found herself entertained and fascinated by their stories of their life in St. Augustine.
"Y'know, they say the ghost of a caribbean pirate haunts that beach," Cora continued mock-forebodingly, adjusting the broad-rimmed straw hat atop her short orange hair.
Bernie gave her a sharp look, then sighed, and put a gnarled hand on his wife's skirt-covered knee and squeezed fondly. "Stop it, you're going to scare her."
Cora made a funny, puckered face, and gave her husband of fifty years a loud smack of a kiss on his cheek.
Mae felt her insides cringe a little at the obvious show of love, but she couldn't help but smile. "Oh, that's cool...ghosts don't scare me. People do."
"You're too funny!" the old lady cackled.
Mae gave a helpless little shrug. She only wished she were joking.
"So, is there some kind of legend, or story about this pirate, or something?" Mae asked after a moment of staring out over the calm waters at Anastasia Island. The sun was beginning to set.
Cora snorted in her off-beat, irreverent way, and waved a hand. "Yeah, they say he pissed-off some kind of ocean deity, or something, so she killed him!"
"She didn't kill him," Bernie insisted, shaking his head. He took off his Navy cap and rubbed his thinning brown hair before replacing it. "She cursed him."
"Same difference," Cora said snidely, slipping her husband an odd look over the rims of her dark glasses.
Mae sensed a strange vibe going on between the two, so she tried to lighten the mood. "Sounds like some kind of fairytale," she suggested with an encouraging smile. She really was intrigued, and wanted to hear more.
The still-handsome Bernie gave her a weary look from his faded brown eyes. "Yeah, well, there's no happy ending, so I wouldn't call it a fairytale," he muttered.
Mae frowned - something about this conversation suddenly felt off.
Cora cleared her throat. "Say, sweetie, why don't you come to dinner with us at the Santa Maria, eh?"
Mae opened her mouth to say no, but something in Cora's friendly, twinkling grey eyes made her hesitate. "Oh...um, I don't know..."
Cora stood up, groaning as her knees crackled, and Bernie hurried to help her. "Ouch, sat too long," the older woman groused as she collected her bag.
"C'mon, Mae - it's a cosy family place, and you are too fun to talk to," Cora pressed, reaching out to take Mae's hand as she stood up, too. "It'll be our treat, to welcome you to the city."
"Oh, I couldn't -" Mae began, but after rolling his eyes, Bernie took her other arm, and they all began to descend the tricky coquina steps.
"Let's just go, ladies - if we stand around bargaining all night, who's gonna' feed the catfish?"
It turned out there were plenty of people to 'feed the catfish'. The restaurant was obviously popular, and her new acquaintances were very well known.
Mae was nervous about going to dinner with people she didn't know, at least, at first - it didn't take long for the couple to charm her into conversation again. They really were a dear, interesting old pair.
"So, what is your last name, darling?" Cora asked as Mae watched Bernie slipping leftover tid-bits to the fish teeming eagerly beneath the trap door by the table. "Where are you from? What brings you here?"
Mae looked up at the older woman, and then picked at her tasty-but-aptly-named Shipwreck salad. She speared a bit of grilled chicken and avocado, and sighed. "Um, well...it's Hayden. I'm from Ohio, actually."
"That's quite a trip," Bernie commented.
"Quite a change of scenery, too," Cora added, breaking a crab leg with surprising strength.
Mae wanted to hide. She took a sip of her rum 'n' coke, and poked at the vibrant Captain Morgan coaster beneath it. He smirked back at her cockily, and she moved her napkin to cover him up.
"Yeah, I needed one," Mae said finally, aware of their curious and expectant eyes on her. "I was, um, engaged, before I moved here." She gave an unconscious wince, and then forced a smile. "Ian. He was a friend, for a long while, and then we got...closer." She gave a shrug, and took a sip of the drink. "It didn't work out."
"Did he cheat?" Cora asked sympathetically. She brandished the long, sharp crab-pick in her hand menacingly.
Mae gave a reluctant nod. "Kind of. He was already with somone else - they weren't married, but they had a kid, and another one on the way when I found out."
Bernie slapped a hand on the table. "Shitbag!"
Cora nodded solemnly in agreement. "Dick," she muttered into her drink.
Mae almost did a spit take, before setting down her drink, and laughing until tears gathered at the corners of her eyes.
They'd been chatting for a while longer when Cora found out Mae didn't have a job yet. The older woman sat back in her chair in disbelief, and looked at her husband.
Bernie tilted his head back at his wife, and even Mae could tell he was cautioning her with his eyes.
"Well, you know," Cora began, "we aren't getting around so well as we used to. I was just saying the other day, how we could use a hand around the house."
Bernie grumbled something, and reached up to rub his chin.
Cora ignored him. "What do you say, dear? Feel like helping out an old sourpuss?"
"Oh, don't talk about yourself like that," Mae blurted, and Cora grinned.
"Oh, I wasn't talking about me."
"Watch yourself, old woman," Bernie said threateningly, but his lips were twitching.
Mae shook her head at the couple and laughed. "How can you be so mean to each other?"
Bernie took a pen from his shirt pocket and wrote something on a paper napkin. "The day she stops insulting me is the day I start worrying if she's finally gone senile."
Cora pushed the napkin at Mae. "Our address - come by when you're done unpacking, and we'll talk shop."
Mae took it gratefully, but felt guilty. "Okay. Thank you, so much."
Bernie paid the waiter, much to the consternation of Mae, and the three of them walked out onto the pier.
Mae waved at the tailights of the big red truck as it departed, and then turned to wheel her bike back up to her apartment. She couldn't believe her good luck - what seemed like friends, and a job, dropped into her lap in the same day. Not only that, but the Turner's had also insisted on driving her home when they found out she'd been riding a bike.
"There's no way a beautiful young lady like you should be going home like that by yourself, in the dark!" Cora had announced, and Bernie had informed her it was pointless to argue.
Locking up her bike, Mae let herself into her apartment, switched on the lights, and set her bag down with an exhausted but contented sigh. Then she remembered everything she had to unpack before she could go to bed, and groaned. She shuffled over to her futon, sat down on it, then fell over face first into a pillow with a self-pitying moan.
To be Continued