Chapter 19
The ladies were getting ready for their day, making breakfast, sitting down to eat, having coffee or tea, and juices, when Kat waved at a brochure on the table. “We’re going parasailing this morning.” She ate another slice of orange.
"But you can't go parasailing," Sascha told Kat as she put brown sugar on her sliced bananas in milk. Not when Kat was pregnant with twins.
"Nope. And I'm perfectly fine with it. I know it's something you always wanted to try," Kat said.
“I have, but I want everyone to have fun during our bachelorette party.” Sascha was really excited about going parasailing.
"I'll go too," Lucy said. “I’ve also always wanted to do it but never had a chance.”
"As much as I don't like heights, I'll go," Rose said. “It looks like it will be fun, and I would never do it on my own.”
"I'll sit this one out with Kat," Aunt Meg said.
"Yeah, me too." Mrs. Landry seemed adamant about it.
"We could do something else that all of us want to do." Sascha wanted everyone to enjoy themselves, not just watch her and two of her bridesmaids have fun.
"Oh, believe me," Mrs. Landry said. "I will thoroughly enjoy watching the three of you doing this."
"Me too," Aunt Meg said.
"But the next thing we do, everyone has to participate in." Sascha was serious about it.
"We thought we could go to a miniature golf course," Kat said. "There's a fun one with a waterfall as part of the course nearby."
Everyone thought that would be fun.
“That’s perfect,” Sascha said.
Then they got into a rental SUV and drove to the beach where the motorboat was waiting to take them parasailing.
“Okay, we can have all three of us go at the same time on the parasailing ride,” Sascha said, reading the brochure. “So, Lucy, Rose, are you good with that?”
“Yes,” Rose said. “That way we can have fun doing it together, and no one has to sit on the beach for a long time waiting for us all to take individual turns sailing over the Gulf.”
“I agree,” Lucy said. “Together, the three of us meet the weight requirements. That works for me.”
Sascha, Lucy, and Rose were fitted with life jackets and strapped into a secure body harness, each attached to a large canopy similar to a parachute. It was aqua, white, yellow, and purple, pretty and vibrant, nice and showy so the ladies on the beach could see it even when it went high in the sky.
Rose, Lucy, and Sascha lifted from the boat's flight deck as the crew slowly released the high-strength towline, and the boat took off across the Gulf. They were towed behind the boat, and as it sped up, the canopy caught the wind and lifted them high into the air.
“Ohmigod, we’re high,” Rose said when they were only about seventy-five feet in the air. “I’m so glad I’m with the two of you.” Her face was as white as ice, and so were her knuckles as she held on for dear life. She looked terrified.
“Are you all right with the height?” Sascha asked, though it was too late to do anything about it, but she wished she could reassure her soon-to-be sister-in-law.
Rose nodded, her teeth gritted.
With the wind in their hair, she and the other ladies were lifted higher and higher until they were about 600 feet. They sat back and floated effortlessly in the bright blue sky, dotted with white clouds, as they were pulled along.
Sascha felt light like a bird and loved every minute of it.
Seagulls and pelicans were flying high above them. Sascha couldn’t imagine being that high, anywhere from 3,000 to 10,000 feet. Though seagulls could fly up to 16,000 feet! Six hundred feet was quite enough.
“I’m having a blast,” Lucy said. “It’s a thrill to fly so high above the water, and it is so tranquil.”
“Like soaring as a bird on a breeze,” Sascha said.
“Yeah, just like that,” Lucy said.
Rose noticeably didn’t comment. She was still holding on for dear life.
Sascha hoped that she was enjoying herself, despite being scared. Sascha was taking videos and still pictures of them up so high in the sky, and a selfie of the three of them, though she knew Henry would be taking video and pictures as they started their ascent and while they were way up above.
But taking pictures up here was fantastic, though she worried she might lose the phone Rose had given her. And dropping it from this height could be dangerous if anyone were beneath it. No one was out this far, though; no other boats, and swimmers couldn’t go out that far.
Then she saw the outline of a black-tip shark swimming in the clear aqua water below them.
She snapped several photos of it. She noticed Rose wasn’t looking down, which was good.
Lucy was watching the birds, but finally looked down at the water, wondering what Sascha was so interested in, and saw the shark.
Then she looked worried, a frown appearing, and she was gripping the harness straps on her chest, which she hadn’t been before.
Sascha was having a terrific time, but she was glad she wasn’t in the water right now.
When the fifteen-minute ride was over, the captain used a hydraulic winch to reel them gently back down onto the boat deck. Their feet splashed in the water, cooling them off before they were lifted onto the boat.
They were unharnessed, removed their life jackets, and joined the other ladies on the beach.
“Oh, wow, that was fantastic,” Aunt Meg said, giving them a hug.
Both Kat and Mrs. Landry hugged them too.
“Next time, well, after the babies are born, I want to do that,” Kat said.
That made Sascha realize the importance of trying new things before she had kids, since it would be more difficult to arrange once they were a little older.
“I took videos of all of the adventures you ladies had,” Henry said, holding up a camera.
Sascha realized that while he was providing security for her, he could take clear, long-distance photos of anyone who seemed like a menace. That was good.
“We were guarding down here,” Omar said, chuckling.
“You were both doing a great job,” Sascha said.
“You were up so high,” Mrs. Landry said. “How did you do, Rose? You look a little pale. If she didn’t tell you, she is afraid of heights.”
Rose laughed. “It was so much fun, but I have to admit that when we were going up and up and up, I was terrified. Even now, my legs are a bit wobbly.”
Sascha hugged her. “You were doing great up there. I’m so glad you did it with me. I’ll tell you a secret now that we’re down on firm ground. You weren’t looking at the water, but I was taking pictures of the Gulf and saw a large blacktip shark swimming around in the water practically below us.”
Kat smiled. “At least you were so far up in the sky, you didn’t have to worry about that. I’m so glad you finally got to parasail.”
“Me too. I loved it, and I saw the shark too. Now that got to me!” Lucy said. “It wasn’t close to shore where people were swimming, but it did make me feel nervous about staying up in the air, not losing the wind under the parasail, and dropping into the Gulf.”
“Thanks for not telling me.” Rose shuddered. “I would have died if I had seen it, afraid even more of falling.”
“Yeah, I was thinking the parasail better not lose the wind while we were gliding over the shark,” Sascha said.
After that, Sascha pulled off her cover-up. “Do you all want to swim in the Gulf to cool down?” She figured everyone who had waited for them on the beach could have gotten hot, even though ocean breezes constantly whipped over them.
“Yeah, let’s do it,” Mrs. Landry said, “but we’ll swim close to shore.”
“I’ll watch all your things,” Henry said, camera in hand.
Henry and Omar walked down to the water with the ladies once they had removed everything but their bathing suits.
They splashed each other in the water, all but the bodyguards, who were watching them, so that no one was pulled out by an undertow or went under and didn’t come up. Sascha loved how diligent they were about taking care of them.
After about half an hour of playing in the water, the surface warmed by the sun, the deeper water cooler, they got out, dried off, and took a walk along the beach. They dodged little white crabs barely visible because they were the same color as the white sand, diving into their sandy holes.
Laughing gulls were flying over crowds of people tossing food to them so they could take pictures, though they risked getting pooped on! But Sascha had fun taking photos of the birds, even capturing two fighting over a steak T-bone on the beach as the water kept encroaching and covering it.
A willet bird crossed the wave-washed beach, its reflection in the wet sand in front of them. She loved seeing all the wildlife, as pelicans flew high overhead.
Suddenly, Sascha saw a purple Portuguese man-of-war on the sand and pointed it out so nobody would step on it. Omar quickly dug a deep hole in the sand while they watched, and then buried the man-of-war to protect the beachgoers.
They saw someone else pointing out another, closer to where their kids were building a sandcastle, and they dug a deep hole to bury that one too. Between the shark Sascha had seen much farther out and now the Portuguese man-of-war on the beach, she was reluctant to go into the water again.
“Hey, it’s about time for lunch,” Katrina said, rubbing her belly.
Since she was eating for three, Sascha understood how she was feeling. She was getting hungry too.
“I was going to make reservations for the Mexican restaurant. How does that sound to everyone?” Katrina asked, still in charge of activities.
Sascha loved that Kat had everything in hand. She was a great planner. “That sounds great to me. What about everyone else?”
“I love their food,” Rose said.
“Yes, our family came here one time on a trip, and their food is really good,” Mrs. Landry said.
They returned to the house, showered and dressed, and then Kat got on her phone and called the restaurant. “Fifteen minutes? All right, we’ll be there.” She got off the phone and said, “They had a large group cancellation so we can go now.”
“Yes!” Sascha said, figuring they might have had snacks to hold them over until they could eat lunch.