Cursefell Read Free Page B

that had just opened, past my favorite hangout, Leary's Lair, home of the best pizza I had ever had.  We passed the street leading down to the wharf and headed toward the residential neighborhood and our rented home.  All of it passed like blurry backdrops to my own unfocused thoughts.
     Lily would want to check up on me.  Anna and Evony too.  My best friends.  My only friends if I was honest with myself.  I would have to watch what I said to them about what had happened to me.  At least until I had a chance to talk with the guy who had saved me.
     I needed some solace from him.  He needed to tell me the truth of what had lain beneath the ocean.  We did not get a chance to talk afterwards, not on the boat or at the hospital.  I needed someone to tell me I hadn't imagined it despite the burning scratches on my leg that said it was all too true.  I needed the Irishman, Ryan Galead, because he held my answers.
    *
         The week following our famously failed field trip was tedious.  I had no shortage of visitors as not only my friends stopped by to check on me, but some classmates and even teachers too.  Those who knew my mother from her work also made appearances.  They were thankful I was resting and recovering at home per the doctor's insistence, but they were also concerned for my mother's well being.  What a horrible thing to have lost a husband and almost lose her only child too.  I could almost hear them thinking: poor Diana, we hope this doesn't push you over the edge.  It only proved that they didn't really know her.
     Truth be told, it was good for my mother to have so much attention.  We had both withdrawn from social engagements since Dad's passing.  Anything beyond the superficial exchange or small talk forced upon us had been and remained, to some degree, beyond our current state.  Not that I hadn't at least tried.  That was how Walt and I started dating.  It's also why we broke up.  Well, that and Sally Mercer.  I hadn't been able to handle her flirting with my guy.  Her bubbly voice and short skirts and hovering, which was silly.  He wasn't my guy, just a guy.  Just like the guy who had saved my life.
     When the doctor at Stonecrest Memorial questioned me about the incident, as he put it, I knew the prudent thing to do was just play dumb.  Of course when you experience something unexplainable, something that frightens you too deeply, then that becomes impossible.  I blurted out the whole crazy story to him, leaving out the part about my Dad.  That part was private and just for me.  The doctor chuckled when I described the creature.  He told me in his southern drawl:
     "I'm sure you saw whatever it is you think you saw, Miss Currey.  A little knock to the head and disorientation in a scary situation will do that.  Add in oxygen deprivation and a shark and then I would say it's perfectly normal to hallucinate things.  Don't you worry none.  I tell you these scratches are shark related.  Same as the young man who went in after you.  You are both very lucky."
     "But I saw it!  He did too.  He fought it off I think.  I dunno, but he got it to let me go."
     "I know it seems that way, young lady.  You remember it that way.  But not all memories can be trusted.  Sometimes our minds make up their own stories to protect themselves.  Besides, your young hero," said he with a chuckle, patting my hand like an old country doctor out of some movie, "he said it was a small shark.  A mite young probably.  You kicked it away while he helped you swim to the surface."
     I started to argue again, but once he began to wonder if maybe I had lingering trauma to my head and maybe an overnight stay was in order, I hastily shut my mouth.  I needed to get away from the hospital, get back home, and talk with Galead.  Just what had happened down there was, apparently, better not talked about with anyone but him.
     But