His father’s demeaning taunts proclaiming Jordan would never accomplish anything rang in his ears as he approached Hole 18. It’d taken everything to get this far, but he remained in last place. He shook his head and feigned a confidence he didn’t feel.
“Almost there, Mouse,” Jordan slapped his caddy on the back and flashed a carefree smile, “
I was but a fresh-faced eighteen-year-old, the summer I worked grounds crew at Camp Sand Lake.
Sand was a given, being smack in the Mojave Desert, and it would’ve been omitted altogether in an alternate universe where “Camp Lake” made good branding. The eponymous lake, however, was a mystery. How deep was it?
“Gerald, did you know I was top of my class at law school?”
“Oh yes, sir, you have it on your business card.” The boatman held up Vincent’s card that he’d given him earlier that day. A fit man in his late fifties, Gerald’s bushy red beard was only just starting to betray a few gray whiskers.
“You’re about to see wonders none of your friends back home will believe.” The old sailor wiped his sweaty brow with a stained cloth. “Y-e-p.”
He dragged the word out to three distinct syllables, and Daryn gritted his teeth. That dingy, smelly codger danced daily on what nerves remained in Daryn’s control…
I swim to the bar of the Trendy Anemone nightclub and hail the fuchsia-haired, green-skinned mermaid bartender, squinting at her name badge. “Hey, uh… Mara. What have you got that’s, uh, free?”
Amazing. I finally managed to telepath through a whole question without a drop leaking into my mouth. I probably moved my lips, though.
“So why Tarshish?”
The man’s shoulders tensed, but he continued counting out the coins for my fare. Finally, he shrugged. “I hear it’s nice this time of year.”
“Right.” I fought the urge to roll my eyes. Tarshish, nice? Either the man was greatly misinformed—no one went to Tarshish on holiday—or…
I found the body at dawn.
The sailor was slumped against the wrecked stern in a bloody pulp. He clung to the humble fishing boat’s planking as the chilled waters of Lake Erie lapped the crumpled hull.
Poor soul.
Bart, my beagle, set his paws on the top rail of our small fishing vessel.
I rap my knuckles on the bucket of fish to get Delphine’s attention. My muscles tense as I scan the rippling surface.
She pops up next to me, sending a wave sloshing onto the slick surface beside the pool. Delphine’s grin reveals double rows of sharp teeth. She chitters. “G’day, Charlie.”
My insides quiver
“Derek Percy handed me a challenge.” Hazel Williamson gripped the edge of her desk as she leaned toward her screen. “It’s the toughest our company’s ever faced.”
Nui grinned at his CEO. “Hazel, Earth Extreme Travel lives on challenge.” He jerked his thumb toward the advertising hologram by his X-Games trophies. “Says so, right there.”
Jenna breathed in the fresh, salty air, preparing herself for the poisonous quest ahead. Would today be the day she told him?
Professor Herbert sat on the sand with his sturdy legs crossed, scanning their surroundings.
The Australian coast spread out like a strip of grainy brown paint. It banked against the trees…
“Connor, are you awake?”
I crept to the edge of Auntie’s boat, grasping an unfinished bag of woven eel grass and kelp. Kiri’s face widened in a grin, revealing the gap from her missing tooth. A chilly breeze tugged her mass of dark curls as I joined her on the dock.
Vince was grateful for his wetsuit, even though the frigid waters of the Potomac still stung as he rolled out of his boat that fated January morning. He gasped. Instantly, his bones began to ache.
I’m too old for this.
The sign plastered on a buoy read, “POOR VISIBILITY, STRONG CURRENTS.”
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