Raindrops

Quicksilvre

)-)-)-)

"Now is a great time for shark." Summer was now in the water, next to Sonn. Sonn had all the duties for catching fish for the Tongau, for both the dinner plate and the market, and he wasn't about to relinquish his monopoly. He did, however, need a helping hand to catch the big ones. The sun had just risen, and the ocean was numbingly cold, especially for Summer, who had nothing for the water but the light swimsuit Jai had gotten for her when she first came.

"Sonn, it's freezing."

"So what?"

"Are you sure–"

"Yes, I am. Be patient." Sonn slowly stalked though the water, looking intently in front of him. Summer followed, her spear and his in hand, pretending to go along. In reality, she was thinking how much warmer his wetsuit looked. "Don't worry. The sun will be up soon and you'll warm up quick. Trust me."

They waded out to a block of coral that stuck up from the water, to within a few inches of the water's surface. "Careful, the rocks are sharp."

"All right." A breeze came from over the land, chilling Summer's damp skin. "Aaaaaahhh..." She settled into the water as far as she could, but she could only go down so far before the coral bit at her legs.

"Careful!" Sonn chastised, taking his spear and going another few feet away along. "C'm'ere." He gestured her over. "Look down. See that gap?" In front of him, the coral broke into a ring, about twelve feet or so across. "There are all sorts of bottom-feeders down there. The sharks swim in wherever the coral is broken and snack away. I've seen them go for two, three hours without a care in the world. See, look? There's a ray there right now."

Summer looked down and squinted. A black sheet slithered beneath them, sliding slowly on the bottom. Jai nodded his head down. "Want to try for it?"

"Wha–me?"

"I've seen you swim. You could get it. It's twelve feet down, maybe ten."

"No-o-o. I wouldn't...I..." It seemed like too much, sticking a sharp object into a living thing. She feigned a lack of confidence. "You should. You do this every day, almost."

"It's not hard. Go along the ring to the far end, and approach from that side. To make sure it doesn't get away, you know. And if it does...that's all right too, we're really after the big guys."

"Okay..." Tentatively, Summer crept along the perimeter of the reef until she was opposite Sonn. Slowly, she slid off her step and into the water; by the time she was up to her neck, she took a gulp of air and dove.

She approached the ray slowly and from behind. It didn't seem to notice her; it went along its way, slowly filtering food. By the time Summer was in striking distance, the ray had only lazily swum a few yards. She felt a pang of conscience–and a bit of admiration. The ray was beautiful, a two foot disc of perfect-looking black velvet. Summer lowered her spear, and reached out her free hand to touch it.

She had just gotten a few fingertips on it when she was met with a faceful of bubbles, followed by a sting in the hand that had touched it. The ray thrashed first away from her, then, finding its escape route blocked, over it, dropping down and attacking her back as it darted by.

Summer let go of her air in surprise. Reminded suddenly of her whipping back in town, she swung wildly at the creature with both hands, moving her spear in crazy patterns. Without any way to stay down there any longer, she pushed off the bottom hard and shot upward. The second she broke the surface, Summer drew in a desperate breath.

Sonn was directly in front of her, grinning. "Stung, huh?" He looked over to her spear. "Hey. Good job."

Summer had forgotten she was holding anything at all, but as soon as Sonn mentioned it, she noticed her spear felt heavier than it had been before. Looking over, she found, to her horror, the ray, bloody and limp. Water rolling off its body sparked in the early-morning light before turning red and dripping back into the ocean.

"I...uh..." Summer could smell the light scent of the ray's blood.

"Here. Let me take that." Recognizing her uneasiness, Sonn took her spear. "I'll run this back to the inn. You keep an eye out."

"Great." Summer was eager to let go of the thing, and as soon as Sonn began to swim back to shore, she hopped onto the coral, holding her nose–trying to get the smell of blood out.

For a moment, her head swirled, but the smell of brine from the ocean was powerful enough to erase anything quickly. In a couple of minutes, the only thing left that suggested anything had happened was a tiny stain on Summer's swimsuit, which she picked at, reflectively. The image of the dead ray began to float out of her mind.

It was then, when she was looking down at her suit, that she first saw the shark.

It was a torpedo-shaped mass of gray, lazily swinging its tail back and forth, picking off the smaller fishes. Summer snapped back, hoping to see Sonn behind her...and her friend was approaching, swimming with the now-clean spear sticking out of the water.

"Sonn!" She gestured over. "A big one!"

"What–really?" He quickened his pace. "How big?"

"Three feet, I think."

"Whoa!" Sonn climbed onto the coral and peered down. "Oh, no, that thing could be four, maybe five feet. The blood from the ray must have attracted it in." He nodded his head to the side. "I'll go to the back and cut off the escape route. You dive from the side. Try to poke an eye or something; that'll confuse it."

"What? I'll attack me!"

Sonn was already moving into position. "No. When it can't escape, that'll when it'll get pissed."

Summer looked around for a second, trying to think of something to say to get her out of the situation. After a moment, though, she recognized it wasn't going to happen. Gingerly, she walked to where Sonn had indicated, and looked down at her target. Sonn was already underwater, stalking toward the shark slowly.

It looked like it couldn't be more than a few feet underwater–certainly, not so deep that she couldn't dive for it. Taking as good of a grip as she could, she waited until the shark moseyed on to her corner of the pool and, taking in as much energy as she could, plunged in, spear first.

Almost immediately, she felt her spear sink deeply into something, followed by a burst of red in front of her. For a second, all she could see was the few inches in front of her, her vision clouded by the beast's blood. Then, out of the blue, she saw the shark's huge tail, just before taking a powerful blow to the face. The hit blinded her; she tried to wave her hands around and give the shark a good punch herself, but the momentum the shark gave her was too much. She felt the back of her head plow into something sharp and spiny, and then, all turned black.

)-)-)-)

Summer could feel the spines all around her–all around her back, at least, and her legs, and–ow, her head. She tried to open her eyes, but whenever they opened by more than a crack, her eyes would lose focus and her head would pound with fury. Closing her eyes back up cured the first problem, but the second lingered.

"Summer! Summer!"

"Wuh...wud?"

"You okay?" It was Sonn's voice."

"Dib we ged the shaa-shaa..." The words weren't forming right.

"Yeah. But don't worry about that hon, we need to look after you first." Sonn carefully lifted her head from the shallow water of the coral bank. "You okay? When I saw you at the bottom, I though you were done." He looked at her face. "Probably, just a concussion."

"I'm gud." After a few more blinks, her eyes focused better. She was able to see the carcass of the shark floating next to her, on the outside of the bank. "Somn?"

"Yeah?"

"Gud...good job." Summer coughed. She saw blood streaming down from her face. "Ohhh...oh God..."

"Don't worry, we can patch you up. Think you could hold on to the shark?"

Summer half-slid and half-fell over to the shark. "It's...it's rough."

"Yeah. Hold on, I'm going to tow the two of you back to the inn, okay?"

"Inn?"

"Inn. Tongau Inn. Home."

The last word floated around in her mind. It seemed to work. "Okay," she said, dazed.

)-)-)-)

Seth exited the plane, slowly. Behind him, he dragged a rolling suitcase, and over one shoulder, he had slung a sweatshirt, with "Pitt" blazed across the chest in script print. Everyone had agreed that going east for college would be good for him. Still, deep down, the last thing he wanted to do was see...her.

It was too painful. Well, for more than one reason–not least of which, when she had gone east the year before, he had made Ryan tear off to the airport in order for him to make a drunken fool of himself. But that wasn't it.

Anna simply made Seth think of Summer. It made him think of the Thanksgiving with her in his room–and Summer in the pool house. It made him think of the Cotillion, when they first met–and where Seth drooled over Summer.

It made him think that Anna was a replacement Summer. Which was hideously unfair to both of them, and jerky of him. And painful to him.

He slowed his step. The walk from the plane to the gate seemed to be fifty miles long, but he knew it had to end sometime. When it did, his line of view was magnetically drawn to her. She was just like she was the last time he saw her in Orange County–short, light blond hair, impish smile, big eyes.

She smiled and waved, weakly. She went right up to him. "Ohhhhhhhh, Seth...I'm so, so sorry about all that's happened." Anna wrapped her arms around Seth.

He eagerly accepted the hug. Seth wrapped his own arms around her–more strongly than she expected, but not unpleasantly so. He buried his face into her neck. He tried to speak, but the words caught. The only thing that would make it out was, "Oh, Anna..."