Chapter Fifteen #2
He stuck out a relatively clean hand toward us. I stared at it, debating if I wanted to take it when Hailey grabbed it, having better manners than me. I followed her lead.
“Barry, right?” she asked. “My brother’s mentioned you.”
I caught how she still referred to Luke in the present. So maybe she was with me on the two of them still being alive for real and not just to humor me.
Barry looked over at the wreaths we’d been looking at, realization washing over him.
“Hey, you’re the sister. Hannah.”
“Hailey.”
“Sure, he used to talk about you a lot.” Barry looked at the empty space of water sloshing against the pier and boats. I guess he didn’t talk about Hailey enough for Barry to know her name wasn’t Hannah.
“Terrible thing happened to him and his friend. I met her the evening they were setting off for their date. They were pretty excited. Cute couple.”
He looked at me when he said friend, like I’d know who that was.
Guess he assumed we all knew one another.
Usually, I’d get all in my feelings like, Not all Black people know each other, bud.
But since he might have had something I needed, I let it slide.
This time. Plus, Nana always said you get more flies with honey.
And old Barry here definitely liked to buzz around shit.
Hailey thanked him for his condolences. “Between what’s on the news and the boat accident…” The corners of Barry’s mouth fell. “Damnedest thing. Real tragedy. I was out there when the weather went bad. The storm was unreal. So sudden. So weird.” Barry shivered.
“Why was it weird?” I was thinking of the dream I had that night and of how I still felt its cold effects. I forced my body not to shiver with him.
“Because it just came up on us, and there was only a little patch of it. I could see it raging over yonder, but I didn’t even get wet.
Storms strong enough to break up good-sized new boats like Luke’s, you get notice they’re coming.
But this squall or whatever they wanna call it, no warning.
Real fast. And barely made a tickle over here where the rest of us were wrapping up.
They weren’t even that far off! Not much farther than the sound. ”
A freak storm that only seemed to hit Luke’s boat? Ravaged bodies? Missing people? This news hadn’t made it to the Isle—at least not that I knew of.
Barry tucked the towel in his back pocket. “Where you from?”
I sensed Hailey’s curiosity growing as she waited for my answer. Hell, I was waiting for me too.
“From farther down,” I said, preparing for what came next. “Golden Isle.”
Barry’s eyes grew round. His lips puckered up, and he let out a low whistle as his eyebrows disappeared beneath the rim of his hat.
“Y’all are supposed to be some hedonistic island of hippies, left-wingers, and African witches.”
He said it so earnestly that I laughed. Something loud and sudden that felt good to release. But Hailey must have misread because she cleared her throat, and if stony looks could kill, there would be a report on the local news about Barry.
Barry must have realized how he sounded because he tried cleaning up.
“What I meant was—”
“It’s okay, Barry. We hear that stuff all the time.” Then I added for good measure, “I heard you mainlanders are nothing but a bunch of soft, greedy, stuck-up children who don’t know how to take care of themselves.”
Barry waggled a finger at me. “Ah, you got me there—”
“Ada.”
He considered it. “Ada. Beautiful name. Good boat name.”
“I know,” I huffed out, swallowing the surge of annoyance. “I have one.”
Hailey cut in, likely sensing danger … not for me, but him. “Barry,” she said, her voice high and loud as she gave me a pointed look that I returned with one of my own. “Did you notice anything else the night of the storm?”
“The whole evening was off. Now that I find out your friend—”
“Naira.”
“—is from the Isle, the freakiness of the whole thing, and the lady showing up makes more sense.”
Wait. What?
Hailey and I shared a look. Barry’s words had hit center target.
“There was this woman standing at the end of the dock wearing this long cloak like the one Little Red Riding Hood would wear. Only this one was black.”
In my mind, something began dislodging itself.
“I called out to her because she was right at the edge, not moving, but she could have fallen, you know.”
Coils of snakes constricted and unwound themselves in my gut, and I pulled off my backpack, unzipping it, digging in.
“I said, ‘Hey, ma’am, you might wanna back away from there.’ And I started walking to her, like so, thinking maybe she needed help or something.
My mother, bless her soul, used to do that when her memory got too bad.
Wander off and get into predicaments until we had to put her in a home. She’s passed on now.”
“I’m sorry.” Hailey ducked her head all respectful like, activating me to nod in sympathetic solidarity.
Barry’s words triggered something I’d seen and I pulled my phone out. Unlocked it. I was fumbling with shaky fingers to where I’d last seen the shots from Naira.
“But the lady turned real fast on me. Looked at me and, swear to god, her eyes glowed like rubies. And her teeth. Two long ones. Like a tiger. Big! Like a saber-tooth.”
His eyes were saucers, growing larger until they were nearly all white as he recalled the moment. His voice lowered to a near whisper. He moved in closer. Barry wasn’t bullshitting either. He was scared. I could tell.
“I mean, it—she stopped me cold. I’m not ashamed to say I didn’t think much ’bout saving her at that point. Next thing I knew, this voice from nowhere was warding me off, but I wasn’t sure if I’d heard it inside or out of my head. You know what I’m saying?”
I didn’t know, but I could imagine. Barry’s story put Naira and Luke here, and my excitement grew. Not only them, but now there was a mysterious woman with saber-tooth fangs. I’d found them. I pulled up the selfie of Luke and Naira on the boat.
“I blinked. I swear that’s all I did. Felt a gust of air. And the next second she was gone. Like she was never there.” He let out a slow breath. He checked if we believed him. I did. Hailey’s face was a blank slate. I had no idea what she was thinking.
“Haven’t told a soul,” Barry continued. “I’d been drinking that night. I don’t want to believe what I saw. It’ll give you nightmares. But I been thinking, those murders and disappearances all over the news. Then fang lady. Gotta be something. Don’t you think?”
I held my phone screen out to him and showed him the picture. “Is this like what you saw?”
Hailey craned her neck, angling for a better view. Barry’s eyebrows furrowed in concentration.
“It’s blurry.” I sounded apologetic, wishing there was a clear shot. A clear confirmation of what was out there with Naira and Luke.
With his thumb and pointer finger, he zoomed in on the picture, peering closely at the two red dots. “Right there. Those dots. That’s what her eyes looked like.”
His voice was shaky. His hand, shakier, as he swiped to the second picture of the necklace in the exhibit. All bravado erased, the tremor in his voice was clear.
“And that gold … I saw some gold on her arm. Right before she disappeared into thin air.”