“No, my father.”
Minnow had no idea why she was telling Angela this right now. Her own story had little bearing on anything. It was her private deal.
“I’m sorry. Did he survive?”
“He didn’t.”
The door opened, and a nurse and doctor burst in. By the looks on their faces, both seemed surprised to see Minnow.
“Ms. Crawford, how are you feeling today?” the doctor in scrubs asked.
“Everything hurts, but I guess that’s a good thing. It means I’m alive,” she said with a weak smile.
He looked at Minnow. “Your sister?” he asked.
Angela focused on Minnow, ice-blue eyes meeting her own and studying her face for a moment. “She could be, couldn’t she?”
“I’m Dr. Gray, with the university. I study sharks.”
The doc eyed her. “Could have fooled me. Anyhow, sorry to interrupt, but I want to do another scan, so I’m going to need to borrow the patient.”
“No problem. We’re pretty much done here,” Minnow said, relieved she didn’t have to get into her story with Angela.
“Actually, we aren’t, but that’s okay. Come back for the tooth tomorrow and we’ll finish,” Angela said. “Zach would have you sign a confidentiality paper, but I get the feeling I can trust you.”
“No offense, but I don’t care who you are, and I have no problem keeping it to myself.”
One side of Angela’s mouth curled up. “I knew it.”
Minnow said her goodbyes and limped out the door.
Journal Entry
From the journal of Minnow Gray
January 4, 1998
The dreams started the night my father died. Always underwater, always black-and-white. Not all of the dreams were bad. In fact, some were quite peaceful. But some made me wake up screaming in terror. Even caused me to run through the house and claw at the door, trying to break free. They haunted me. I remember the doc on the island saying they were just night terrors—lots of kids had them. My mom called bullshit on that as she took my hand and pulled me out the door. Her words stuck with me. “How many of those kids have witnessed their father bleed to death in the ocean from a shark attack?” she’d said.
After that, we took the ferry to Newport once a week to see Dr. Ralston, a kind old man who let me play with a sandbox and shelves and shelves full of figurines. He never said much, just turned me loose and observed from behind his oval glasses and narrow, finlike nose. On the first day I avoided the plastic sharks, but after that I couldn’t stay away. They became the main players in my time there.
Dr. Ralston took copious notes and got very excited whenever I placed a man among the sharks, but over the next year the dreams continued full force. Even intensifying.
I heard my mom telling him, “I can’t take the screaming at night.”
“These kinds of things take time,” he said, pleading with her to stick with the therapy.
We never went back. Mom couldn’t afford it. Her income from the gallery was sporadic at best, and she’d had to get another job at the front desk of the Inn on the Cove. I liked that better than therapy because I had the run of the place, including the ocean out front. Though now Mom would go into a tirade if she caught me going in the water below my neck, which happened regularly. All the while, I had this feeling that my life would never be normal.Iwould never be normal.
Chapter 11
The Host
Nalu: wave, surf, full of waves
Not a stitch of wind on the water. A throbbing foot and residue of the memory made Minnow restless, and she couldn’t just lie around all day. After sharing cheese and pickle sandwiches with Nalu under thehautrellis and taking a quick catnap, Minnow insisted they go for a boat ride. Without the onshore breezes they’d had the past several afternoons, today burned brick-oven hot. A layer of sheen clung to every part of her body, and all she could think about was submerging herself in the cool blue.
Nalu thought the recent surf could have moved any surfboard or other parts up onto dry land and suggested they motor in along the rocky shoreline. The waves had dropped significantly, though a small surge still smashed white against the black lava rock. Nalu navigated the boat south, and soon a high layer of clouds laced themselves over the sun. Minnow sat up front, foot on a cooler, and kept an eye out.
