Chapter 19
Back at the dock, Harper was lifted onto the land by a pair of burly fishermen alerted by the watchtower.
“You okay?” one asked, as Harper nodded and pointed to Shuri, who was still on the boat, clutching her ankle. The men went to carry her to shore as Murphy leaned over Harper.
“Jesus toast. What happened out there?” Murphy’s face was flushed.
“We nearly lost you back there. Don’t move, Shuri’s down.” Murphy moved to where Shuri was sitting, her face pale and her leg at an awkward angle.
“I fell when the wave hit. I think it’s a sprain.” Shuri winced as she pulled the thermal suit off to her waist. “Harper, you good?” she asked.
Harper nodded, the image of the mother-of-pearl creature imprinted behind her eyelids. A golf cart with a small padded pickup backend was approaching the dock. The men lifted Shuri carefully onto the bed and covered her with a rough blanket.
“They’re taking her to the hospital,” Murphy said as two EMTs crowded around Shuri, checking her vitals.
“Hospital?” Harper asked.
“It’s small, mostly emergency services and sniffly noses, but they’ll patch her up. You need to go too, to get checked out,” Murphy said with concern.
Harper shook her head. “Nothing wrong with me.”
“Sorry. From what Murph said you almost drowned, we need to clear you,” a woman in a blue medical EMT vest said as she approached.
“Can you do it here? I’m seriously okay, I need to radio Boston and tell them what happened.” Harper pulled herself to her feet, a considerable task with the sodden thermal suit. She pulled it off and gingerly stepped out.
As the crew inspected Shuri in the makeshift ambulance, Harper consented to a light in her eyes and a blood pressure cuff.
Finally satisfied, the EMT stood back and regarded her worriedly.
“You seem fine, but make sure to get some rest, and call if you feel anything out of the ordinary. Drink lots of water.” With that, she jumped on the back of the cart with Shuri and it pulled away from the harbor.
“I need to go to the lab and change. I’ll get Kyle to the clinic.” Harper nodded to Murphy.
“Then you’ll come back and tell me what you saw,” Murphy said, her eyes clouded.
Harper nodded and walked back to the lab, her limbs still heavy but functioning, dragging the suit behind her.
Her phone had been saved thanks to her dry bag, and she saw that Kyle was back from the lighthouse.
At the lab, she slung the thermal suit over a chair in the front. It would take days to dry out.
“Harper!” Kyle rushed to the door as she entered.
“What happened? All I saw was what looked like a ten-footer hit the boat and you went flying,” Kyle said, his voice on the edge of panic.
“That’s about right. They took Shuri to the hospital, her ankle, but she’s otherwise okay. My life vest malfunctioned, but I’m okay too. Murphy is checking the boat.” Harper pulled off her sodden sweater and shivered in the long-sleeved T-shirt underneath. “I need to change and get over there.”
“I’ll go,” Kyle said as he pulled on his jacket. “I have no idea where it is, but I’ll ask at the grocer.” He looked at Harper from the doorway. “I’ll text you, change and get warmed up.”
On the walk back to the house, Harper played the events over in her mind.
Had she been hallucinating? It was possible, loss of oxygen, stress, the idea that we see what we want to see.
But it wasn’t that, Harper knew it on a core level.
There was something out there that had pulled her out of the water and up to the surface.
Something impossible that no one else had ever seen and might never see again.
Thalassa.