Adrift Read Free Page B

in the water.  It took all of my self-control not to jump from the boat and submerse myself in a grand echo of my leap?  Fall?  Dream?  Of…   last night?  Ever?  It no longer mattered that I could not remember what had befallen me.  All I wanted was to be with the sea.  I wanted to taste it, to be held by it.  I wanted to feel the chill against my skin, the waves pulling at my hair.
    “Meg,” Devin said.
    I snapped to awareness, feeling as if I had drifted into a trance.  Devin was regarding me steadily, with a quiet, guarded look on his face. 
    “Where, exactly, are you from?” He asked.
    “Missouri,” I said, surprised.
    “How did you end up here?” He asked it as soon as I had answered his first.  I felt as if he were firing the questions at me.
    I wondered what right he had to treat me as if I were under questioning in the Inquisition.  So what if I was on his boat?  Had my trespass on the island really been such a big deal?
    “I drove,” I said, my voice dripping with sarcasm.  I felt a blush touch my cheeks and I clasped my hands together, much as I longed to throw them, and myself, back into the water. 
    “Why did you leave Missouri?”
    I narrowed my eyes at him, trying unsuccessfully to bite back a retort that I was unaware of any laws stating that I had to get permission from a Canadian to leave Missouri.  I must not have gotten that memo.
    The lines on his brow spoke of concern, not the anger that his voice expressed. 
    I sighed, and leaned my head against my hands.  “My… my father died.  I didn’t have anywhere to go.  I just… drove.”
    “And you ended up here.”  His voice was flat, his expression stony.  It wasn’t a question, so I didn’t feel like I needed to answer it.
     
    The boat skimmed lightly over the water.  The steady rhythm of the oars in the water lulled me to sleep.  I had not slept in so long… if my jump into the ocean wasn’t, indeed, a dream, then it likely was a hallucination brought on from not sleeping enough since I lost my father.
    I woke to the scraping sound of wood on wood and the jingle of dog tags as Kip leapt from the boat onto a dock. 
    I rubbed my eyes, staring around me.  I could feel my mouth drop open in surprise.  A sudden wisp of chill slid across my skin.  I couldn’t help feeling like I was stepping into a fairy tale. 
    The docks led up to a lovely blue and grey cottage.  It was small and quaint, lined with stones, all neatly and perfectly arranged.  The house was surrounded by red and white flowers and the dripping beauty of a large willow tree.  Window boxes, at every side, were overflowing with an abundance of green.  I wondered what magazine I had stepped into.  Fairytale Lodgings , perhaps?
    “This is your home?” I heard myself asking, as Devin reached out a hand to pull me up onto the dock.  I tried to ignore the way he wiped off his hand, after touching me.  I could feel my cheeks flaming.  How had I managed to offend him in such a short amount of time? 
    Devin looked up at the cottage, as if seeing it for the first time.  “It’s home,” he affirmed.
    Home.  The word hit me in the pit of my stomach.  It was such a simple word, but it stood for everything I had lost.  I no longer had a home to return to, a family to be with.  I wondered if I would ever have a real home again.  It didn’t seem possible, without my father.
    I swallowed a lump in my throat that I hadn’t even realized had been there.  I tucked a non-existent strand of hair behind my ear, hoping that there was no tell-tale brightness in my eyes.  I had a horrible suspicion that my nose had just turned scarlet, as it always did when I was about to cry.
    The back door of the cottage opened towards us and a woman with dark hair, streaked with a thick stripe of white over her brow, came out to meet us, Kip running around her legs and wagging his tail happily.  She, like her house, looked like she was out of an old magazine,