But, after all, he was a man who lived for risks. "I still remember the
first day I saw her. I was pissed off at the world. Dad was hardly
buried, and everything I wanted seemed to be somewhere else. The kid had
given me plenty of grief that morning, and it occurred to me that the
next part of my life wasn't going to be racing, it wasn't going to be
Europe. It was going to be right here."
"You gave up the most. Coming back here."
"It seemed like it at the time. Then Anna Spinelli walked across the
yard while I was fixing the back steps. She gave me my second jolt of
the day."
Since the food was there, and Cam seemed inclined to talk, Ethan took
the plate and sat on the edge of the dock. An egret flew by, silent as a
ghost. "A face like hers is bound to give a man a jolt."
"Yeah. And I was already feeling a little edgy. Not an hour before, I'd
had this conversation with Dad. He was sitting in the back porch
rocker."
Ethan nodded. "He always liked sitting there."
"I don't mean I remembered him sitting there. I mean I saw him there.
Just like I'm seeing you now."
Slowly, Ethan turned his head, looked into Cam's eyes. "You saw him,
sitting in the rocker on the porch."
"Talked to him, too. He talked to me." Cam shrugged, gazed out over the
water. "So, I figure I'm hallucinating. It's the stress, the worry,
maybe the anger. I've got things to say to him, questions I want
answered, so my mind puts him there. Only that's not what it was."
Ethan stepped carefully onto boggy ground. "What do you figure it was?"
"He was there, that first time and the others."
"Other times?"
"Yeah, the last was the morning before the wedding. He said it would be
the last because I'd figured out what I needed to figure out for now."
Cam rubbed his hands over his face. "I had to let him go again. It was a
little easier. I didn't get all the questions answered, but I guess the
ones that mattered most were."
He sighed, feeling better, and helped himself to one of the chips on
Ethan's plate. "Now you'll either tell me I'm crazy or that you know
what I'm talking about."
Thoughtfully, Ethan tore one of the sandwiches in half, handed a share
to Cam. "When you follow the water, you get to know there's more to
things than you can see or touch. Mermaids and serpents." He smiled a
little. "Sailors know about them, whether they've ever seen them or not.
I don't think you're crazy."
"Are you going to tell me the rest?"
"I've had some dreams. I thought they were dreams," he corrected
himself, "but lately I've had a couple when I was awake. I guess I have
questions, too, but I have a hard time pushing somebody into answers.
It's good to hear his voice, to see his face. We didn't have enough time
to really say good-bye before he died."
"Maybe that's part of it. It's not all of it."
"No. But I don't know what he wants me to do that I'm not doing."
"I imagine he'll stick around until you figure it out." Cam bit into the