Lights on the Far Horizon Trilogy

by Stone, Sailor

  True to her word, an hour later I was sitting on the edge of a dock with her and drinking the two best beers I’ve ever had in my entire life. And it wasn’t just the taste of the beers that I remember, but rather, it was her company.”

  Kinsey’s eyes teared up as Justin put his hand to his face. He swallowed hard and looked to Sammy and Kinsey.

  “You’re remembering her. I know it hurts,” Kinsey said and reached her hand out to his arm on the table and gave it a light squeeze.

  “Just keep going,” Sammy said, “This is good for you.” Then he raised his hand to the waiter and pointed to Justin and indicated that Justin needed another beer.

  “Yeah,” Justin said, he sat up straight in his chair and looked at Kinsey. He seemed to draw strength from her and he continued, “She’s just so pretty. We talked, with our feet hanging from the dock, into the late hours of the night. We watched the stars rise from the sea and turn in the sky. Then I walked her home to her apartment. I kissed her on her door step just like in the old movies. I love movies and so does she. She invited me inside and I said no. Then what I said next are the best words to ever leave my lips.”

  The waiter came with a beer for Justin and a mojito for Kinsey and a glass of white wine for Sammy. The three diners all absentmindedly reached for their new drinks and took a swallow.

  “I do love a good romance, whether it’s an old movie, a book or just listening to someone tell their story. It sounds to me like the best part is coming.” Sammy said, as he leaned back in his plush, high-backed chair.

  Justin nodded his head, took a large draft of his beer, and then his eyes went far away as he remembered, “I knew she’d let me make love to her. Believe me, I wanted to. Badly. But I shook my head and I said no to her invitation to come inside. She was so surprised, amazed, and, I could tell, more than a little hurt. She thought I was rejecting her but I put my hand to her face and I kissed her and I said, “I‘ve fallen too far in love with you to come inside just yet.”

  She lit up.

  I just have to look in her eyes and I can almost read her mind. She is so trusting of me with her emotions. She kissed me back better than I have ever been kissed or will be kissed.

  “I love you too,” Trisha said, “I was offering because I’ve never felt like this around a man. I was afraid I’d lose you if I didn’t.”

  “You have no chance of you ever losing me.” I said.

  Justin looked at Sammy and Kinsey, “Boy has that proven not to be true. We are so lost from each other. At least I am.”

  Kinsey didn’t give him a chance to think, “Keep going. Don’t stop.”

  Justin nodded and continued, “So, as we stood holding each other on that porch, things became very clear for me in my mind.

  I said to Trisha, “I always mess things up with girls. I don’t ever think I had enough respect for them. I’m going to do this right. I’m going to put you first. I’ll respect you and love you and when you know I’m giving you everything that I am then we can make love.”

  Trisha looked up at me with her big brown eyes and then she kissed me. Then she went inside. She never said goodnight but I knew that I’d started things off right with her.”

  “I bet she was head over heels for you. You put a girl’s feelings first and let her come to trust you on her own time and, take my word, they’ll fall in love forever.” Kinsey said.

  Sammy, with a great eagerness, said, “That is so true.” And then he asked, “So what happened next?”

  “Well, that’s a good question. I had no idea where I was and I had nowhere to stay and I certainly wasn’t going to lose sight of Trisha…”

  “You slept on her porch didn’t you?” Sammy asked.

  Justin smiled and Kinsey was glad to see it.

  “I did,” he answered, “They had a rocking chair with a seat cushion on it and I untied the cushion and used that as a pillow and I leaned up against the wall in the corner and I went to sleep.” Justin paused and looked at Kinsey and Sam.

  “Yes? And?” Sammy asked, his eyebrows arched high on his forehead.

  “And I woke up with this strange girl, it was Trisha’s roommate, looking at me as Trisha kissed me awake.”

  “I knew it! Sammy said loud enough to interrupt the conversations at their two closest tables. Then, like an excited woman, he stood up and put his hands in the air, shook his head and sat back in his seat.

  Justin smiled at Sammy and nodded his head to Kinsey. “You know, I wasn’t sure about being in this little broken-hearts club of yours but this is good. I’ve never met anyone quite like you Sammy, but you are fun, very entertaining as well. I can tell that both of you care about me. Why? I have no idea, but you’re right, talking about this is good for me. I’ve kept all this inside me this last year and I’ve been feeling angry, more with each passing day, but I don’t feel angry right now.”

  Sammy put one hand out to Kinsey’s arm on the table and the other to Justin’s, “No anger. That doesn’t work. Trust me.”

  Kinsey remembered the feeling in her hand, the terrible burn, the sting, as, weeks earlier, she had slapped Tanner across the face. She gritted her teeth and willed the feeling to go away. Not now, she thought, not tonight. “Trust me as well. Anger ends relationships. It never starts them,” she added to what Sammy had said.

  Justin nodded his head, “I feel good tonight. This is the first time I’ve enjoyed myself in a year. It makes no sense why the two of you would take me in like this. I’ve never had a better meal by the way. This helps me. A lot.” Justin nodded to Sammy and then downed his remaining beer.

  “So go on. What happened?” Kinsey asked.

  “Trisha always dreamed of going to the Keys. She’d never been farther south than North Carolina and so I called my captain and told him not to wait for me, and Trisha went and got her paycheck and two days later we left in her car for the Keys. We had no agenda and no solid plan but to, eventually, get to the Keys.

  She made love to me in Williamsburg, Virginia and I knew I could never be away from her again. I’ll just go ahead and tell you she made me feel like I was the only person that ever mattered to her. She’s small framed and delicate to the eye. She’s beautiful naked and she loved me to the point of desperation and I got it. I finally learned what true love is. I tried to love her back the same way.

  Then a few nights later we were in St. Augustine on this beautiful beach with a full moon rising from the sea and she asked me never to leave her. She made me promise to never let her lose me and I promised her that. It was the easiest promise I ever made but I’m now finding it a hard one to keep. I’ve lost her; I’m afraid it might be forever.”

  Justin paused and Sammy urged him to keep going.

  “We both loved the Keys. She worked in a restaurant and I worked on a day-fisher as a first mate.

  Then her boss offered her a job at one of his restaurants in Puerto Rico and we moved there and loved it as well. It turns out we both enjoyed being around water and islands and we embraced the laid-back lifestyle of the Caribbean.

  Then we found jobs on a cruise ship. I worked as a deck hand and she waited tables. Now there was nothing special about those jobs but being on that ship did get us here to Bermuda. This was like a paradise to us and Trish managed to get us work visas and three months later we both had jobs and a little place to stay in Warwick. We ended up both getting offers for better jobs here in St. George’s after a few months and we knew it was time to get married. I was as happy as a man can be and then that giant fucking yacht, the Great Seducer, came into port last year and ruined our lives, my life at least.”

  The waiter approached and Kinsey used the opportunity to go to the bathroom and think things through while the two men ordered a selection of desserts for the table.

  She looked at herself in the mirror and found herself almost liking what she saw. She was looking better with each passing moment in Bermuda. Did she feel good? No, but she no longer felt like her world was coming to an end a
nd she could see a halo of gorgeous light far off, just above her life’s horizon. Sammy and Justin were so good for her and she felt a desire, deep in her heart, to help them. She needed to hear the endings to both of their stories and then, if she could figure out a way, she’d try to reunite them with their lost loves. She thanked God for this desire to help others that she was now feeling and she realized that her new friends would be her way out from the blackness of her depression. If she could love others then she could love herself again as well. It was something to aim for and she left the bathroom with a purpose and a determination to get well for her husband, her babies and her friends.

  The waiter was pushing the dessert cart away as she came back to the table. Sammy was smiling at her and Justin was looking at her from his chair like a guilty puppy dog. Why Justin looked guilty became apparent to her as she sat down and looked at the table. She had a dessert before her, a yogurt parfait, and Sammy had a dessert as well, a chocolate and hazelnut Ganache.

  Justin? He had three desserts.

  “I think Justin is still hungry. What do you say pretty girl?” Sammy said and then he began to laugh.

  “Is this too much?” Justin asked, fork in his hand, ready to get to work eating.

  “You eat like a sailor is all. I wish I could do that although I guess I could if I didn’t care about fitting my rear-end into this plush chair,” Kinsey said, then added, “Go for it.”

  Justin agreed with her by sticking his fork into a shallow bowl of crème brulee and taking a big bite.

  He continued with his story, between bites, as he ate.

  “So here in St. George, I worked as the captain on this party boat that takes tourists out on the water, basically, so they can get drunk and watch the sunset. That wasn’t always full time work, depending on the weather, and so I also worked as a waiter at the White Horse Tavern where I met both of you earlier today. Trisha managed the tavern so I could be flexed into the schedule as it fit my time on the water in my other job. We had a good thing going and we made many good friends in St. George’s.

  Then, like I said, one day that boat came to port and things quickly spiraled out of control.

  Dmitri, the owner of the ship, saw Trisha and her friend, Christy, who is also good looking, one day when he came off the ship and into town. He had one of his guards give them a card that invited them up to his ship that night. Trisha asked if they could bring a date and the guard said yes. That meant that Trisha could take me as her guest and Christy could take her husband, Paul, as her guest. Christy and Paul were our best friends here in Bermuda.

  So have either of you ever been on a ship like the one you saw in port at St. George’s today? There aren’t a lot of them like that one in the world. This is a rare boat and the wealth this man, Dmitri Rublev, must have to be able to afford it is more than I can comprehend.”

  Kinsey nodded her head, “Actually, Tanner and I have good friends, Bill Warner and his wife, Kim, and they have a yacht that’s about the size of … what’s the name of that boat again?’

  “The Naked Seducer.”

  “Yes, their boat is right up there with it.”

  Kinsey noticed both Justin, who she expected to be amazed at her friend’s wealth, and Sammy, who she assumed would have been around that kind of wealth in Hollywood, to each slacken their jaws as they awaited her next words, “We go on it all the time. Tanner worked on the boat for Bill before we were married. He taught his children how to surf and sail.”

  Justin looked at Kinsey with eyes of amazement, “Your husband worked on a boat like that? That is so cool.”

  Kinsey realized just how much of a water lover, a sailor and a fisherman Justin was and she said, “I tell you what. Let’s find Trisha and get you two back together and I’m sure Bill would love to have you out on his boat, as either his guests or you could work for him. It would be up to you. He’s an incredible man. Full of integrity.”

  “It doesn’t sound like this Mr. Rublev has much integrity if I’m divining where your story is going, Justin.” Sammy said. “You got that right, “Justin agreed, then added, “Let me just cut to the chase with this and say that within two days of our going to that party on that ship my wife was being hit on nonstop by Dmitri and when I tried to stop it,” Justin looked both Kinsey and Sammy in the eyes as he spoke his next words, “I got in a huge fight with Dmitri’s bodyguards and I got thrown off the ship and put in jail. And all I was trying to do was protect my fiancée.”

  The waiter came to their table and began to clear away plates. Kinsey asked for a glass of merlot for herself and a beer for Justin. Sammy waved his hand and said no to the white wine that Kinsey expected him to order and instead he said a glass of merlot would be good for him as well.

  The waiter stepped away and Sammy asked, “Did you go nuts in jail? I mean with Trisha on her own and that terrible wolf of a man after her?”

  “It was far worse than that. Paul bailed me out and when I got out of jail, the ship was gone which you would think would have made me happy but not only was the yacht gone but so was Trisha.”

  Paul and Christy said that on the night I was in jail Dmitri hit on Trisha nonstop; he followed her home and promised to leave her alone if she’d just come to dinner with him on his ship that night. She said no and as far as Christy remembers, Dmitri left her front door in anger and went back to his ship furious that she’d spurned his advances and that Trisha had then gone to bed. That’s the last any of us ever saw of her.”

  Sammy put his hand out to Justin’s arm and gave it a squeeze. Justin took no notice; he was looking hard at Kinsey for her reaction – for her help and direction as well. Justin seemed to be looking up to her like he might to a big sister for much needed support and advice.

  Kinsey chose her next words carefully, the watery look in Justin’s eyes making her be sure to give him hope and encouragement, “I would say, off the top of my head, that that man kidnapped Trisha. I bet Justin that you being in jail the night before didn’t give you much support with the police.”

  The waiter returned with their drinks. Kinsey took a sip from her glass and paused to think of what to say next, “Something just like this, only very different as well, happened to Tanner and I after we first met. We met and fell in love then we lost each other for four years. So with that in mind, I say that you must go find her. Unless she’s dead, and I can tell by how you’re acting that you don’t think she is dead. You have no choice but to leave Bermuda and go search for her.”

  “I’m afraid she’ll come back and I won’t be here.”

  Sammy chimed in, “How long would it take your friends, Christy and Paul, to be on the phone to you if she came back to St. George?”

  Justin nodded, “About three seconds,” his eyes grew big as he thought through what Kinsey was telling him to do.

  Kinsey said, “Tanner never stopped looking for me. He found me by going to where I’d been before and that’s what you need to do…”

  “Go where she’s been before?”

  Kinsey shook her head, “No, you go to where you think she might be. If she isn’t there, go to the next place. Ask people if they have seen her. Do whatever it takes. Get yourself in front of her and make her see you again. Show her how much you care for her and how much you love her by going to the ends of the earth for her.”

  Justin took a big drink from his beer, draining it in three swallows, then he stood, his eyes far off and excited, “I can do that. I’ve gone nuts trying to stay here on this tiny island, waiting. It’s in my blood to keep moving. I won’t rest until I find her.” He looked down to Sammy and Kinsey.

  Kinsey indicated for him to sit, “Let’s go over what we know. I have friends through my husband in the yachting industry. There’s only so many places a man like Dmitri will want to go in that giant ship of his. I’m sure we can figure out where he’s dropped anchor. Maybe someone in the ports he’s visited has seen Trisha.”

  Justin nodded then he shook his head, “No,” he sa
id as he sat straight up in his chair, “I’ve talked all night. We can go over that in the morning. I want to hear what happened to the two of you. It’s like you guys have dropped from the sky into my life. I barely know you and here I am sitting in an incredible restaurant eating and drinking, for free I might add, and having two new friends help me find some direction in my life. I want to help you guys also.”

  Kinsey smiled and said, “We’re the broken hearts club,” she turned to Sammy, “Why don’t you finish your story from earlier about what happened to you and Carlton?”

  Sammy pursed his lips, put his fingers together under his chin, almost like he was praying, and spoke with what Kinsey could only interpret to be a gingeresque lilt, “As Justin just said, I’m going to cut to the chase and tell you that it is I that ran away and I’m waiting for Carlton to come find me. I am crushed that he hasn’t come to apologize for his behavior and I think I’ll tell him to get off my new island paradise when he does come to get me.” Sam looked to both Justin and Kinsey then added, “I am that mad. What he did is a terrible thing.”

  “What was it?” Justin asked.

  “He cheated on me with another woman! That’s what.” Sammy said, sitting back in his chair.

  Justin’s eyebrows shot to the top of his head, “You just said another woman.”

  “That’s right,” answered Sammy.

  Kinsey knew what Justin would say next, and, in hopes of being a bit gentler than Justin with Sammy, she quickly said, “I think what he is saying is that you’re a man, Sammy. He can cheat on you with a woman, that makes perfect sense, but he can’t cheat on you with another woman; you’re a man, not another woman. Do you get that?”

  Sammy sighed, “It does. I’m nothing if not effeminate. I know that and I’m okay with it…”

  “I am too, okay with it that is.” Justin said, looking Sam in the eyes, “I didn’t know I was until just now. But I don’t really care. You’re a good guy, Sammy, hell, you’re a good woman as well, you are who you are, right?”

  Kinsey started to laugh and after a moment so did Justin and Sammy.