Page 57 of That Last Carolina Summer

I turned toward the end of the dock, shining my light to avoid slipping off the edge as I followed the beam from Liam’s iPhone.

He was squatting over the supine figure of my mother lying on the dock while another figure knelt next to him.

I recognized Addie huddled at our mother’s feet, oblivious to the rain continuing its merciless assault and ran toward them.

“Mother!” I knelt by my mother’s head, only vaguely aware of Liam’s discarded shirt.

I leaned over her face, trying to shield her from the rain, just like I remembered Liam doing when I was the one lying on this same dock.

There was a sense of déjà vu, and something else, too: something that made me think I’d been here before.

“I think her leg is broken,” Liam said. “I just tried to reach Will to have him call 9-1-1, but I can’t get service anymore.

I called the landline, but he isn’t picking up.

Can you run up to the house and make the call?

I’m going to stabilize the leg with an oar and my shirt and bring her up to meet the ambulance.

” His eyes met mine. “And ask for a search-and-rescue team down at the dock. Ophelia’s missing.

She’s in the jonboat, but Addie said there’s no gas in the motor, and she only has one oar. ”

Bile rose in my throat. What was Ophelia doing out on the water at night?

She was safe in her room when I had left.

I couldn’t imagine how scared she must be to be adrift during a storm in the dark.

Addie was supposed to have been at home watching her.

Fueled by anger and sick with worry, I ran up the grassy incline, slipping twice and crawling on my hands and knees until I reached enough grass to hold on to.

I let the back door slam behind me, dripping water through the kitchen as I made my way to the phone.

Will stood next to it, staring at it as if it were an alien creature.

“What are you doing?”

“I was trying to figure out how to answer it if anyone called.”

I knew looking back I’d find this funny, but right now I needed to get help. I picked up the receiver, beyond relieved to hear the dial tone before punching in the three numbers and explaining the emergency.

After briefly letting Will know what was going on and telling him to wait for the ambulance to direct them where to go, I returned to the dock through the back door, nearly running into Liam and Addie carrying my mother back toward the house.

“Is she going to be okay?”

Liam’s eyes briefly met mine. “Her pulse is thready. I need to monitor her until the ambulance gets here, but I’ll send Addie back to help find Ophelia.”

Ignoring my sister, I ran toward the end of the now-empty dock, shining my light out into the storm-tossed marsh, watching for any sign of the boat or Ophelia. I called her name, even though I knew there was little chance of her hearing me over the wind and the rain. But I had to do something .

Stuttering flashes lit the sky. I squatted down, making myself as small as possible and less of a target for the wild lightning.

My scar burned as if it were on fire, reminding me that I should seek shelter.

But Ophelia was out in the marsh all alone, and I couldn’t leave her there.

I waved my phone, hoping that it might guide her back.

“Ophelia!” I continued to yell her name until my voice was hoarse, unwilling to give up.

I felt the percussion of running feet on the dock but didn’t turn around. Addie stopped to stand next to me, and I grabbed her hand, pulling her down. Her hair bled down her face, the pale strands darkened by the rain, her face crumpled with anguish.

“Where the hell were you?” I screamed, unleashing all the fear and anxiety I’d felt since I first learned Ophelia was out in the boat.

“Don’t, Phoebe. Please don’t! She’s my daughter.”

“Then start acting like her mother!”

She drew back as if I’d struck her. “Why is she out there all alone?” I shouted.

“I don’t know! Mother asked me to take her far out in the boat, and I told her to wait until tomorrow.” She shook her head. “She must have asked Ophelia after I left. She tried to call me, but I had my phone turned off.”

I wanted to shake her or throw her in the water. “You don’t deserve her! If something happens to her, it will be all your fault!”

“Do you think I don’t know that?”

We were both screaming at each other, wasting energy when we should have been focused on finding Ophelia.

I brought my face close to Addie’s so she could hear me and pointed to the other front corner of the dock. “Go there and wave the flashlight on your phone in the opposite direction from me. Hopefully she’ll see it, or you’ll get a reflection from the boat. Do you understand?”

She meekly nodded and crawled toward her corner while I headed to the opposite side and began waving my phone.

We continued calling out Ophelia’s name, but it was like attempting to empty the ocean one teaspoon at a time.

The howl of the wind and the rain overpowered the sound of our voices, but we kept calling.

Brilliant forks of lightning shot through the sky, and before I could say the first Mississippi the earth shook with thunder.

The storm was directly on top of us now, the lightning touching an unlucky tree in the near distance with a loud explosion.

Cold sweat prickled between my breasts, mixing with the rain.

“Look!” Addie screamed as she stood, pointing out into the darkened marsh not far from the hapless tree.

“There—do you see it?” She held up her phone again and turned it to where she was pointing.

I saw the unmistakable reflection off something that might have been metal.

Or the aluminum side of a jonboat. On a good day, it would be an easy swim.

But storm or not, I knew we couldn’t wait for help.

If the storm didn’t capsize the boat, then the tide would pull her out into the open ocean.

Addie slid out of one of her sneakers. “I’m going to swim to her and pull her back.”

I grabbed her arm. “Don’t be stupid. I’m a much better swimmer.”

“But I’m her mother!” she shouted, angrily swiping the relentless rain from her face.

“Then wait here where you can actually help. She’ll need you to grab her from the boat.”

I stripped out of my dress and handed her my phone.

“Keep your flashlight on the boat so I know where I’m going.

” The sky flashed again, making me flinch.

The incoming tide had flooded the marsh, the water now reaching the underside of the dock as the storm shoved waves over the top.

But I wouldn’t think about that now. One thing at a time.

It was as if Aunt Sassy had spoken directly into my ear.

“And keep your head down.” Then, before I could talk myself out of it, I stepped off the dock and into the dark water.

The saltmarsh surrounding my home was as familiar to me as my own skin, yet it was a different place at night, a strange city with darkened corners hiding unseen dangers.

I tried not to think about anything except reaching Ophelia as I let myself sink beneath the surface of the water to see how deep it was, allowing my toes to touch the sticky mud at the bottom.

The water closed over my head, the storm barely a soft drumming in the odd quiet.

I pushed off with my feet, my hand grasping onto a dock piling.

I’d have to swim through the churning water knowing that the farther out I swam, the deeper the water would get.

I wouldn’t have a chance to stop and rest. With one last look at Addie, I took a deep breath and pushed off the dock with both feet, propelling myself toward the small square of light.

I had done little to no swimming in Oregon, but adrenaline forced the muscle memory in my arms and legs into action.

I’d only reached the halfway point when my strength began to falter.

I tried to float on my back to catch my breath, but the turbulence flipped me over, exhausting me further as I righted myself and began a slow crawl toward the boat and Ophelia.

Time and space ceased as I focused on a rhythm: stroke, kick, kick, breathe. After several repetitions, I’d allow myself to look and gauge how much closer I was, fighting the discouragement each time I realized I’d hardly made any progress at all.

Something skimmed the bare skin of my leg and I kicked hard at whatever it had been, wasting energy and throwing me slightly off course. I tried not to think of the black maw past the jonboat, of the vastness that was the open sea and all the dangers it contained.

I opened my mouth, desperate to fill my lungs with air, and instead inhaled saltwater as a wave washed over my head, swamping me and pushing me under.

A sound echoed inside my head. Something familiar.

A nightjar. I opened my eyes under the water, the salt stinging.

I couldn’t close them, trying to see the bird, knowing it had to be nearby.

My feet touched bottom, and the nightjar screamed again.

Except it was coming from the surface, and I was in the dream again and it was telling me something.

Telling me to pay attention . To look at the object floating in the water just seconds before it descended into oblivion.

I allowed my feet to sink into the soft familiarity of the mud as my mind’s eye followed the bird’s direction and focused on the small object in the water. It drifted in slow motion, imprinting it into my memory. Except it was already there. Because I’d seen it too many times to forget.

The nightjar screamed again, or maybe it was my brain screaming for me to come up for air.

Bending my knees, I pushed off the bottom.

I shot up from the surface, almost crying with joy when I realized that the storm had pushed the boat closer and it was now only about ten yards away, close enough that I could hear Ophelia crying.

“Ophelia!” I screamed, choking on another mouthful of saltwater. I began sidestroking toward her as a chain of lightning electrified the sky and the marsh trembled with thunder. Lightning never strikes twice took over as my new chant, Aunt Sassy’s voice in my ear with each stroke.

I bumped into the boat, making Ophelia scream.

I met her terrified gaze as she peered over the side.

I reached up with both hands and clung to the wide front edge of the boat, trying not to think about the metal I held on to or the science experiments I’d led in class using aluminum foil to showcase what an excellent conductor of electricity it was.

The waves tossed the shallow boat up and down, making it almost impossible to keep my grip. When the front dipped to its lowest point, I pulled myself up and over the front end, catching my knee on the metal cleat as I threw my leg over the edge.

I gave Ophelia a brief hug then began frantically looking around for the oar.

“Where’s the oar?” I shouted. The words were barely out of my mouth before the boat reared up then slapped the water as it landed, splashing more water inside.

She pointed toward the churning water. “I dropped it!” she wailed.

“It’s okay,” I said, even though everything was far from okay. I looked back toward the dock where Addie remained with her phone light shining like a beacon in the dark.

I carefully crawled back to where I’d climbed in, found the cleat again, and reached for the dark rope tied around it.

Getting closer to Ophelia to make sure she could hear me, I shouted, “I’m going to get in the water and pull us back to the dock.

If I get tired, I’ll hold on to the rope, so don’t get scared if we’re not moving and you don’t see me.

Keep your eye on the light, okay? That’s your mama, and she’s waiting for you. ”

She nodded, her eyes wide with fear. “Do you want me to sing to you to keep you company?”

She looked so hopeful that I couldn’t say no. “Sure, sweetie. That would be nice.”

I then told her to get as low as she could, keeping her feet together as close as possible, and put her hands on her head.

That’s what you’re supposed to do if you get caught outside in a field during a lightning storm.

I had no idea if it would also work in an aluminum boat in the middle of the marsh.

With dread pulling on my heels, I jumped back into the churning water, the saltwater stinging the gash in my knee and reminding me of the cut on my foot.

The sweet notes of Ophelia’s singing cut through the storm, surrounding me as I began towing the boat, my fatigue making me rest more than I wanted to.

I’m not sure how I managed to bring the boat back to the dock or how long it took.

Maybe it was Ophelia’s endless repetition of the verses to “Jesus Loves Me” that pushed me forward.

Or the vision of the object in the water from my dream, and the growing understanding of what it meant. And what I needed to do.

I almost cried when we reached a place where my feet could touch the bottom, giving me a burst of adrenaline I didn’t know I possessed as I pressed my toes into the sticky mud and bounced up with renewed energy.

When we reached the dock, I threw the rope to Addie, who tied it around a cleat before reaching for Ophelia.

Red flashing lit the yard as I swam my way down the length of the dock to the place where the water met earth and climbed up the bank just as Liam rounded the side of the house.

I stepped up onto the dock as static electricity plucked at the hair on my arms, standing it on end.

The air seemed to pulsate, and I turned toward Addie and Ophelia in horror.

Addie began running toward me and I shouted “Get down!” just as a bolt of lightning reached down from the sky and touched the giant cedar tree at the edge of the dock, and the world exploded into a million pieces of light.