Chapter 24
Harper tapped her fingers on the table in frustration. Kyle looked over at her, annoyed.
“What?” he asked.
Harper shook her head. “Boston.”
“Boston what?” Kyle pushed. “And stop the tapping. Boston what?”
Harper curled her fingers into her palm. “Boston. Boston says that my sighting was likely the cause of stress and mild brain hypoxia. Boston says there’s no precedent for what I saw and no rational scientific reason for it. Boston says I made it up.”
Kyle was silent for a moment. “Did you?”
Harper took a deep breath to stop the flood of words and venom that threatened to spew at this barely outside of his teens student who sat across from her with a smug expression.
“Did you really just ask that?” she said through gritted teeth.
“You have to consider it. That being said, we all saw what we saw, what they’re calling a rogue wave, the air pockets, everything. Boston did not see any of that. They haven’t seen a lot of things on Bell.” Kyle leaned back and Harper felt her frustration toward him drain slowly.
“I see what you’re saying, but no. I would swear it wasn’t too little oxygen or an abundance of imagination. I felt it, I saw it.” Harper stared at the laptop screen where Boston’s message glared at her.
“Boston wasn’t there. Boston is trying to eliminate the most obvious reasons why you might see something that they can’t wrap their science brains around.” Kyle softened, leaned forward. “Look, maybe get out of here a little. Get some air.”
Harper nodded. “I’m going to the East Dock, see if Murphy needs anything.”
“Good. Take your time.” Kyle turned back to the computer, where he was organizing files that did not need organizing.
At the dock, Harper found Murphy polishing the rails of the research vessel.
“Boston says I had brain hypoxia,” Harper said by way of greeting.
“You weren’t hypoxic,” Murphy replied. “You were oddly alert.”
“Oddly?” Harper asked, feeling relief and vindication simultaneously.
“People fall overboard. I have my EMT license, I know what hypoxia looks like. You were not that, you were oddly alert. Most people”—Murphy wiped her hands on her work pants—“are at the very least a little stunned when they take the sort of tumble you took. You came up fighting. Hey, if you’re cool with it, I’m going to spend tomorrow over on West Dock helping with the haul; couple of the big fish boats coming in, they need extra hands. ”
Harper nodded. “Nothing to be done until parts arrive.” Harper grabbed a rag and proceeded to spend the rest of the afternoon polishing the brass on the boat with Murphy.
She wiped down the control panel and used a Dawn mixture to wipe down the sides, grease and whatnot coming off in black smears.
The two women worked silently. Harper needed to keep busy.
Being busy meant that she didn’t have to acknowledge the pit that was growing in her stomach.
Her phone buzzed insistently from her pocket; she paused, pulling it out to see a text from Carli.
She squinted at the image. It appeared to be a small fake Christmas tree on the kitchen table with black underwear hanging from the limbs.
Woke up to this
Micah washed all her underwear in the sink last night
And this is how she’s drying it
We have a washer and dryer
Good Gawd
Hope the Octopus hunt is going well!
Maybe facetime when you’ve got a sec?
Harper stared at it. Quickly texted back:
At least she’s clean …? I mean you don’t want a roomie with dirty unders;)
Not sure the wifi can handle facetime—but I’ll try to call
She closed the message and put the phone back in her pocket, staring out at the water past the dock.
“All good?” Murphy asked.
“Yeah. My friend back in Boston filled my roommate hole with a forensic criminology PhD candidate, and it’s turned into a literal horror show around there.” She paused. “Everything back in Boston feels so far away.” Harper gave Murphy a small smile.
“Bell will do that to you,” Murphy said, putting her scrub brush down. “I remember my first month here, my aunt actually had the Coast Guard do a welfare check on me, crazy. She thought I’d fallen overboard or been eaten by a shark.”
“Why is that?” Harper asked. “It feels like Carli, my ex, anyone I was close to in Boston is on another planet. But I’m remembering things I didn’t even remember forgetting.
Maybe it’s just because I’m here, on Bell, where my mother grew up, but I could reach out and touch people who have been gone a decade. ”
“Time isn’t quite the same here. Your roommate, your ex, they are in a whole other dimension. Bell is outside of that.”
“Dimension?” Harper asked skeptically.
“Not literally. This is not the twilight zone. It’s just, I also find myself lost in the past here, it’s kinda what I like about it.
But you maybe should tell them you’re okay.
Take it from me, your ex, is he the sort who is like to send the Coast Guard out to check on you?
Because I do not recommend that.” Murphy’s voice was thick with dark humor.
“She. My ex is a she, and no, that’s all over.” Harper took a breath and stretched out the tension in her face and neck.
“Ah. So Einar doesn’t have a shot, huh?” Murphy gave her a mock frown. “He never gets to meet women and when he does …”
Harper laughed. “I think Einar might be more aware than you give him credit for. I did hang out with his mother today, though. Last night’s earthquake rattled some things in the grocery, I helped her clean up.”
“That isn’t going to help Einar like you any less.” Murphy gave Harper a grin and went back to scrubbing the sides of the boat.
Later, as Harper and Kyle walked back to the house, Harper’s arms and legs were satisfyingly labor sore. Much more time to kill and Bell would be the cleanest island in Suffolk County.