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"What the hell happened?"
"Hello Quint, nice to see you too." I mumbled as my irate father walked into the living room of my house. I had polished off half a bottle of whisky, and cried for the loss of the young boy, Alex. I had to keep reminding myself; that was his name, Alex.
"Cut the pleasantries, what happened?" he asked and I sighed.
"Well, it was a nice, simple day on the beach, and whammo, suddenly there's blood and screaming and people everywhere." I shuttered at the memory. "And there's this mom, this poor, mother, running around, screaming for her son, and I'm standing there, looking like an idiot because I just watched her run around, just like I just watched her son get killed!" tears were rolling down my face again, my lip trembled and I looked at him. "Daddy." I whimpered pathetically before I threw my arms around him and broke out sobbing. Quint, for the record, did give in to his paternal side, and he let me cry on his shoulder as long as I needed to, then he poured me another drink, and slightly flustered, told me to act like a Quint, which meant holding it together and drinking. Which I did.
"I don't see what the problem is Caroline," Robert said to me as I stood in my doorway. "It's just a walk on the beach."
"Robert, the beach is the last place in the world I want to be right now." I said crossing my arms. "The answer is no."
"Caroline, thank god you're here." Ellen said to me and I laughed lightly.
"That bad huh?" I asked with a small laugh as I walked into the house. The woman I had grown to think of as my friend let out a laugh.
"Let's see, I've got dinner to finish, a cake to ice, two children outside doing god knows what, a husband locked up in our room reading every book he could get his hands on about sharks and half the city hates us because he had the beach closed for twenty four hours." she said.
"Oh honey," I laughed. "That's nothing a little white wine can't fix." I held up a bottle of white wine I had brought for the 18+ crowd and she pulled down two glasses eagerly as I opened the bottle. I poured two glasses and she set me to work icing Mikey's chocolate birthday cake. "I feel slightly responsible for Martin's behavior though." I said as I worked on icing the cake. "He asked me to pick up the books from the library."
"I'll just be glad when all of this is over." she sighed.
"Won't we all?" I asked and she smiled gently.
"Why don't you go see if you can find the boys, I bet they're out on the dock." she said and I nodded.
"Why don't you see if you can drag Martin away from his reading binge?" I teased and she smiled lightly and laughed in a way that I knew meant it wasn't entirely a joke. "Hey guys!" I called out to the dock as I approached it.
"Carrie!" Sean called as he ran over to me. I laughed and picked him up allowing him to hug me tightly.
"Hi sweetheart!" I smiled and kissed his cheek. "Michael, honey, hop on out of there huh?" I called and he started to climb out of the small boat his parents had bought him for his birthday. "Need help?"
"No, I've got it." he insisted. After a moment he managed to climb onto the dock and walked over to me.
"What are you going to name it?" I asked as we walked back to the house.
"Shark bait." he joked and I lightly grabbed his arm.
"You haven't said that to your father have you?" I asked and he shook his head with a slight frown.
"No." he said and I nodded.
"Good, Michael, none of this is a joke, you know that don't you?" I asked and he nodded. I nodded and then wrapped my arm around his shoulders. "Well, we'll just have to think of a name better suited for her huh?" I asked and he smiled.
"Yeah." he said and the three of us went back to the house. After dinner the kids Ellen brought out the cake, and then she let Michael open the present I had brought him. It was a few books, one being the handbook to nautical terms and definitions, one being different a book of boating knots, and the last being one of my personal favorites. "Treasure Island?" he asked as he looked at the back."
"Oh sweetheart, that's a great book." Ellen said as she cleaned up the wrapping paper.
"I think you'll like it. It's for one of those rainy summer days." I explained and he smiled, before moving over and giving me a hug.
"Thank you." he said and then looked at Sean, the two of them ran off- probably to the boat and I looked at Martin who was kind of obviously preoccupied.
"So I take it things didn't go so well today." I said, referring to the city council meeting that had taken place that afternoon, making him raise his eyebrow.
"Aren't you supposed to know this stuff already?" he asked and I nodded.
"Yeah, I heard bits and pieces, but I want to hear it from you." I replied. He sighed and then nodded, before he went on to tell me everything that had happened at the city council meeting. "So, let me get this straight, there's a killer shark out there that no one will admit is actually out there, we witnessed it kill a ch- a person, and they're only closing the beach for a day?"
"Amity is a summer town." he said and I nodded.
"Sure, I know that, I spent most of my summers here." I shrugged.
"I thought you were born here." Ellen asked and I nodded.
"Yeah, I was, but my folks split when I was two, after that I lived with my family in Long Island, and spent my summers here." I looked back to Martin. "The point I'm trying to make is that this is a serious problem."
"I know." he said. "Not to mention Mrs. Kintner's reward to whoever kills the shark." he sighed.
"Every greedy kook is gonna be out there thinking they know how to kill a monster." I sighed and he nodded.
"Exactly."