Chapter 37
MAE
All afternoon as I’d driven between patients, I’d kept one ear on the radio and one eye on the sky as it darkened and ominous storm clouds gathered.
The first deep rumble of thunder started just as I wrapped it up with my last patient and headed for my car, stopping me dead in my tracks.
Out to sea I could see the storm had already hit, with flashes of lightning briefly illuminating the darkness.
I stared at it, knowing Jonah was out there somewhere.
Vulnerable. The first splashes of cold rain startled me out of my revere and I climbed into the car, knowing I couldn’t face home.
Not yet. I headed for The Cozy Catch because I didn’t know where else to go.
The rain had already started to turn the snow to slush as I pulled into a parking spot.
Pulling my hood over my head I picked my way carefully across the road.
The bell above the door jangled as I entered the restaurant, my eyes immediately scanning the room, heart in my mouth. I was hoping Jonah might have come home early to dodge the storm. Taylor was standing behind the bar and caught my eye.
‘He’s not here,’ she said. ‘Sorry. He’s on a fishing trip with Jim Kelley.’
‘I know. I was hoping…’
She nodded. I didn’t need to finish.
‘Coffee?’ she asked.
‘Thanks.’ I took off my jacket and shook the water off, hanging it on one of the coat hooks beside the door. The room was cozy and warm, filled with the smell of coffee, woodsmoke and chowder. It was busy enough, people clustered around the tables and at the bar.
‘You OK?’ Taylor asked as I perched on a barstool. She placed a coffee in front of me.
‘Just worried.’ I smiled to hide my panic. ‘I’m no doubt completely overreacting. Typical city girl. This is probably a normal day around here, right?’
She didn’t try and comfort me with false hope. ‘No. This storm is a big one.’
Jack emerged from the back, wiping his hands on a towel. Taylor shot him a questioning look and he shook his head. She exhaled softly.
‘What is it?’ I asked, feeling the panic settle like lead in my stomach.
‘Jim’s Amber Dawn isn’t the only boat out. There’s another one out there. The Golden Pearl. Skipper is a guy named Dylan Salisbury. He’s nowhere near as experienced as Jim, and neither are the two young guys crewing for him. One of them is seventeen and as green as they come.’
‘Most likely both boats are sheltering somewhere,’ a man down the bar piped up. ‘Waiting out the storm.’
‘Yeah,’ Jack agreed. ‘Dion’s probably right.’
‘Then why haven’t they radioed in?’ an older man at the other end of the bar pointed out, and the mood grew solemn again.
‘Search and rescue is on standby just in case,’ the man, Dion, added. He looked towards the windows that rattled in their panes. ‘Not much we can do in this weather though.’
I wrapped my hands around the coffee and focused on the steam that lifted off it, trying to drown out the hubbub of noise around me.
There was a radio behind the bar, and every now and then it crackled to life and Taylor would yell at everyone to shut up.
It was always other boats checking in though.
The bigger fishing vessels. Warning each other of rogue waves the size of buildings and gale-force winds that had torn the rigging clean off one boat.
The was no word from Jim or the other guy from Pine Harbor, Dylan.
I hadn’t realized my untouched coffee had gone cold until a hand landed on my shoulder and gave a gentle squeeze. I turned to see Sophie, Jonah’s sister-in-law, smiling wanly.
‘Thought you might be here,’ she said, pulling out the stool beside me.
I looked over her shoulder. ‘David’s not with you?’
She pulled off her mittens. ‘He’s parking the car. Heads-up, Eleanor and Gray are on their way here as well.’
‘I didn’t think this would be Eleanor’s kind of place.’
She shrugged. ‘It’s everyone’s place at a time like this.’
A few minutes later they walked in. Eleanor’s face was tight, and she looked at me coldly as she joined us. ‘Have you heard from him?’ she asked. Straight to the point. No greeting.
‘Not since this morning.’
‘And? Did he say they were heading in?’
I shook my head. ‘No, just that they were keeping an eye on the weather and they’d be back tomorrow as scheduled.’
‘This is precisely why I didn’t want him working on the boats,’ she said angrily. ‘I knew this would happen. And now here we all are, sitting here, worrying. This is so selfish, and so typically Jonah.’
‘You say that like he planned this,’ David said, frowning. ‘Not even Jonah can control the weather.’
‘Of course he can’t,’ she snapped back. ‘But he shouldn’t be out there in the first place. Putting himself in danger just to spite me.’
‘That’s not why he’s out there,’ I replied, feeling the urge to defend Jonah in his absence. ‘It has nothing to do with you.’
She arched her eyebrows. ‘And what would you know? You’ve been in his life for all of five minutes, and you’ll no doubt be gone again as soon as he’s bored.’
‘Jesus,’ Sophie muttered under her breath. She held out a hand to get Taylor’s attention. ‘Can I get a whiskey on the rocks please?’
‘Make that two,’ David added. ‘I have a feeling this is going to be a long night.’
‘You need to calm down,’ Gray told Eleanor gently. ‘Jim is seasoned and very capable. And this is Jonah. He’s going to be fine.’
Her anger crumpled and fell away, her face for one brief moment betraying her fear before she composed herself again. She nodded. ‘Of course he will.’
‘Remember the time he fell through the ice?’ Gray said quietly. ‘He can’t have been more than twelve years old.’
‘He was eleven,’ David said. ‘I remember because we’d just had my ninth birthday party the week before.’
‘Right. Eleven years old. I can still hear the crack the ice made when it broke. It was too early in winter. The ice looked solid enough, but it wasn’t.’
I felt my heart beat faster in my chest, even though I knew the story obviously had a happy ending. It made sense now, how sure Jonah was when we’d gone ice skating that the ice was thick enough. He’d learned from experience. ‘What happened?’
‘I was sixty feet away. Water that cold, most kids would have panicked. Flailed around and probably disappeared underneath the ice. Not Jonah.’ He shook his head.
‘That kid pulled himself back up bit by bit. Didn’t try to stand.
Spread himself flat and kept his weight even.
Crawled back the way he’d come until the ice was strong again.
I don’t know how he knew what to do; he just did.
’ He looked me straight in the eyes. ‘Jonah knows how to listen to his body. To his surroundings. He’s going to come home. ’
I nodded, feeling his reassurance wrap around my heart like a blanket. I clung to it, because even if it turned out to be unfounded hope, it was all I had.
They ordered drinks. I joined Sophie and David in a whiskey, hoping it would help settle my nerves.
Jack brought out bowls of fries, garlic bread, but I had no appetite.
The hours crawled by. Every time the bell above the door jangled we turned en masse, hoping it would be Jonah walking through the door, stomping snow off his boots and laughing, telling us about the wild ride he’d just had.
But it never was. And every time the radio crackled to life the room fell silent as we held our breath and waited to hear their voices.
But we never did. The disappointment weighed heavily on the room like a layer of smoke.
At one in the morning, with no news, Eleanor stood abruptly. ‘Let’s get you home,’ she said to Gray. ‘You’re still recovering. You need to rest.’
It was a sign of how tired he was that he didn’t argue, just got to his feet with help from David.
The bar crowd had gradually thinned out, as people had donned jackets, muttered goodnights and headed out into the cold.
‘We should go too,’ David told Sophie, helping his father into his jacket. ‘I don’t want Mom driving in this weather. We can run them home and bring them back into town tomorrow for their car.’
‘Yeah, that’s a good idea,’ Sophie agreed. She turned to me. ‘We can run you home too, Mae, if you like. Or you could come and stay at ours if you don’t want to be alone. We have a spare bedroom.’
I was tempted. The thought of being alone with my fear and anxieties filled me with dread. But I figured, hoped, that the cottage might be the first place Jonah would go when he made it made back to shore. I needed to be there when he did.
‘Thank you,’ I told her gratefully. ‘But I’ll be OK. I want to be home in case he comes there. Will you let me know if you hear anything? Anything at all?’
‘Straight away.’
‘I trust you’ll do the same?’ Eleanor asked me, her voice stiff.
‘Of course.’
She nodded. ‘Thank you.’
Sophie kissed me on the cheek. ‘Drive safe, and text us if you change your mind or need anything.’
Her kindness and warmth were like a hug to my soul, and I felt tears well up. Eleanor paused, staring at me, her expression unreadable.
‘I know it’s easier said than done,’ she said. ‘But try not to worry. He’ll be home soon.’
I left a few minutes after them. Outside, the cold stung my cheeks, and the wind whipped my hair around my head as I hurried to my car.
It was a slow drive back to the cottage.
The wipers struggled to keep up with the torrential rain, and the headlights barely illuminated the road in front of me.
I couldn’t imagine the conditions out on the open sea. Didn’t want to.
Back home, I changed into comfortable clothes and heated up a can of soup, but I had no appetite. I sat at the table by the window and watched as outside the storm raged.