“Oh, you promise, do you? Did you get your meteorology degree in your dreams last night?”
Everly giggled. “No, Dad. I just know. The fog is here for a reason.” She sounded so much older than her eight years.
“Right, it happens when cool air passes over warm water.” Ten didn’t have an advanced weather degree either, but he knew what caused fog.
“Okay, Mr. Wizard.” Everly made her way down the path leading to the beach.
Ten followed behind feeling a bit unnerved. He could hear the ocean waves slamming against the beach, but he couldn’t see them. This was just one of those times when Ten was going to have to chill out and listen to his daughter’s gift.
“This is so peaceful,” Everly said.
“Being on the beach always relaxes me.” There was no place Ten would rather be than at the shore with his toes buried in the sand.
“I meant the fog. It makes me feel boxed in, like my entire world is smaller.” Everly twirled on the sand, leaving small footprints behind.
Ten pondered Everly’s statement. The fog made him feel nervous because he couldn’t see what was ahead.
“That’s exactly why this is so calming for me,” Everly said, obviously reading Ten’s mind. “All I see is the future, what’scoming toward me, what happens next. Right now, in the fog, all I have is this moment.”
“Is the fog keeping your gift from working?” Ten had never had that sort of problem before. With all of his daughter’s extra talents, he thought it was odd she would be limited by a weather phenomenon.
“No, I can reach out if I want to, but I don’t. This must be how regular people live, you know? Is there a rock ahead to trip over or a piece of sea glass waiting for me to discover? I have no idea what’s next.”
Everly’s explanation of her gift never failed to surprise Ten. “Do you wish you lived like this all the time, like a regular person?” When Ten was younger, he often wished his gift would go away. All he wanted back at Union Chapel High School was to be one of the guys. He didn’t want to know that the other kids in his class thought he was weird or that he was the worst athlete, or how fun they thought it would be to steal his clothes from the locker room. He would have given anything to have been normal.
“No, I wouldn’t trade my gift for anything. I don’t care if people think I’m weird or that I’m the worst athlete.” Everly giggled. “I’m happy being me. You and Daddy taught me that. You might have been a weird kid, but you’re a pretty cool father.”
“Really?” Ten’s heart felt full to bursting. There were times when he felt as if he were failing his children by working so much and investigating dangerous criminals, but somehow, his daughter didn’t see it that way. Her opinion of his parenting meant the world to Ten, which was why he needed to right a previous wrong. “You wanted to bring me down here yesterday and I wouldn’t listen to you.”
“Yeah, there was something I wanted to talk to you about.”
“The vision you had at the pirate museum?” Ten asked, taking a seat on the sand.
Nodding, Everly took a seat beside her father. “Daddy told you?”
“He did,” Ten admitted.
“I know I should have told you myself, but it needed to be here, on this beach.” Everly paused, twirling a lock of strawberry blonde hair around her finger. “I think something’s going to happen that we need to be here to see.”
“Something to do with Sam Bellamy?” Ten asked.
“I think so, but whatever it is hasn’t shown itself to me yet.”
Ten was about to ask her to explain the vision when there was a disturbance in the fog. He paused and focused his gift on the strange way the fog began to shift and swirl. Seconds later, a young woman emerged. She was dressed in black, with a kerchief tied around her head. Thin wisps of blonde hair had escaped and hung limply against her face. As she came closer, Ten noticed her feet left no prints in the sand. Turning toward the ocean, Ten heard the sound of weeping.
Everly stood up and took several steps toward the young woman. “Hi, Maria, I’m Everly.”
“Hello, lass,” Maria said, as her hands swiped at the tears falling down her cheeks. “I am glad ye’ve finally made it here at long last. I need yer help.”
“What can I do?”
“I cannot find my husband. He promised to meet me here, yet he does not arrive. Perhaps you can help me look for him?”
From where he was sitting on the sand, Ten could hear the conversation between Everly and the young woman. For the moment, he was content to let it play out.
“You’re looking for Sam,” Everly said.
Maria’s blue eyes widened. “You know him? You have seen my dearest Samuel?”
