Whispering Waves

by Jamie Berris

When the song was over, Travis dipped and kissed her. Everyone clapped, so Sadie ate it up and bowed. After that, it seemed everyone let loose and danced the night away.

  It was 3:00 a.m. when Sadie stumbled, exhausted, into her bedroom. She found a spot on the floor, since her bed was already taken, and curled up next to Myla.

  Travis and Cody were sleeping on the pullout couch in the basement. Crazy, thought Sadie. Never in a million years would her dad have been okay with Dylan staying over at their house. Sadie couldn’t help but wonder if Dylan had thought about her at all on her birthday.

  Dylan would have tried sneaking upstairs to Sadie’s room. Sadie was glad she didn’t have to worry about that with Travis. She wanted to wait for a physical relationship with Travis, and he was a gentleman about it.

  Her eyes were so heavy she didn’t have the energy to ponder it. She jumped when her cell chirped with a text. Sadie smiled when she saw it was Travis from the basement saying “I love you” and “Goodnight.”

  Chapter 58

  Kurt

  Kurt woke up feeling anything but well rested. Something smelled really good though, bacon? He took a quick shower, threw a T-shirt and shorts on, and followed his nose to the kitchen.

  He found Jayna standing over the griddle, frying bacon, Sadie was adding cheese, ham, and veggies to the egg mixture in the omelet maker, and even Nicholas was helping load the toaster with English muffins.

  Kurt helped himself to a cup of coffee. He preferred the way Sadie made it over himself, and took a big gulp. “You look like hell,” said Jayna.

  “Watch your language,” he said, scowling at her. Her mouth was getting bad. “And jeez, thanks for noticing.” Kurt made the rounds to each of his kids, kissed their foreheads, and told them good morning.

  He didn’t have to ask what the occasion was. It really wasn’t an occasion anyway, more like an honoring. Kurt was glad the two-year anniversary of Lydia’s passing was on a Saturday. He hadn’t slept more than a couple of hours last night. He had woken up around two o’clock and couldn’t fall back to sleep.

  When Kurt woke up and saw the full moon out his window, he immediately thought of Lydia; he wondered if it had been her that woke him. He wondered if her spirit was always with him. Did she know what he thought and felt? He wondered what heaven was really like. He touched her side of the bed. It had been empty for two years!

  For the past several weeks, Kurt had been thinking about the next step with Marissa. He thought about suggesting she prep her house to sell, maybe even go ahead and list it, but did that mean he would be asking her to move in with him, or did that need to be followed with a proposal? Was he ready for that? Were the kids ready for that? But really, what were they waiting for? Was timing everything? Or was there never really the perfect time for anything?

  All in all, both things were enough to keep him awake for most of the night. The coffee was starting to kick in and the laughter over the mutilated English muffins, a la Nicholas, was bringing him around. In the process of buttering the bread, Nicholas had managed to tear it apart and litter it with holes. He hadn’t quite mastered the art of spreading yet. Kurt had to admit it was still pretty darn good (due to the butter dripping off the sides).

  Nicholas was very proud of his perfectly skewered watermelon. He’d been obsessed with fruit kabobs ever since Marissa had made him some to try to get him to eat more fruit. Now every piece of fruit that passed his lips had to come from a skewer.

  They made a small toast to Lydia without letting the sadness of the day overcome them. Sadie had cut handfuls of lilacs and scattered them in vases around the house—exactly what her mother always had done the entire month of May.

  After breakfast, Kurt found himself looking over the Sunday paper, observing his daughters cleaning up the kitchen, with Nicholas on the floor playing with modeling clay. Lydia would be so proud—he was so proud. He remembered thinking to himself, praying, that if they could make it through the first two years, they would be okay. They’d made it. They were okay. Actually, they were good.

  Marissa came over that afternoon with gifts for the kids. Nicholas was thrilled with his first pair of rollerblades, especially since Marissa was the only other person who had a pair, which meant he was going to have her all to himself on occasion.

  Sadie and Jayna were given something much more sentimental. Marissa explained that when she and Lydia were in college, they had been out shopping, and as sort of a joke, they bought the classic best friends necklace shaped like a heart with a jagged split down the middle. The girls would wear them from time to time and would even sport them in adulthood when they wanted to have a laugh.

  They had both kept them, even during their rough period. Lydia had given Marissa her half when she was sick. She had wrapped it up as a gift and given it to her to keep. Marissa wanted Sadie and Jayna to have them. They bickered and fought and were always annoyed with each other, but at the end of the day, they were best friends and loved each other dearly.

  Chapter 59

  Sadie

  Travis discreetly swatted Sadie’s butt as he passed the table she was taking orders from. She tried to keep a straight face as she took the order from the elderly couple she was waiting on.

  It was quite ironic how the entire gang all got jobs at Snug Harbor for the summer. Sadie, Travis, Cody, Paige, Myla, and Kyla were all hanging at the beach in early June when Sadie came up with the idea that they all apply.

  Travis had applied at a local car wash and hadn’t heard anything yet. Sadie was in charge of Nicholas only two days each week, and Jayna two, which freed up Sadie’s schedule.

  Kyla was scooping ice cream but wasn’t getting enough hours to even pay for gas. Paige and Myla hadn’t given a job much thought. They were always so busy with academics and getting their college portfolios polished, but Sadie convinced them it would be fun and an added bonus on their college applications.

  On the way home from the beach, they filled out their applications. It just so happened that the mother of a girl Sadie and Paige had hung out with at tennis camp the past several years was the manager at the restaurant.

  She was hesitant to hire a bunch of high-school kids, but she was always losing the college kids halfway through August. They promised they would be available through Labor Day, and the jobs were theirs.

  Travis and Cody were freaking out because they had never waited on anyone but themselves their entire lives, okay, except for the occasional Mother’s Day breakfast or a generous offer to a grandparent. They were soon enthusiastic when they were told about the potential to make a killing in tips.

  Sadie and Paige were also hired as servers, and Myla and Kyla were hosts. They were having the time of their lives this summer. Most days went like this: carpool and hang out at the beach all day, shower and get ready in the beach pavilion showers (disgusting, but worth it), and work in the restaurant at night.

  ~*~

  Fourth of July came in with a bang. After working the dinner rush at the restaurant, the gang stayed in Grand Haven for the fireworks. Myla was casually seeing a kid named Brad, who also worked at the restaurant and lived in Grand Haven. He had started hanging with them at the beach sometimes and invited all of them over to his house after the fireworks.

  Sadie was sitting on Travis’s lap when the call on her cell came through. The screen displayed Andrea Sutherland. “Your mom is calling me,” said Sadie to Travis.

  “Why is she calling you and not me?” asked Travis, checking his phone to make sure the ringer hadn’t accidentally been bumped off.

  Sadie answered, and her face instantly fell flat. She gasped at Andrea’s quick and desperate words.

  “Sadie, your dad, Marissa, Nicholas, Jayna, and Chrissie have been in a car accident. You kids need to head home now! Drive straight to Spectrum Hospital.”

  Instantly, Sadie was in tears and on her feet, frantically trying to find Paige while listening to Andrea’s instructions at the same time. The car ride from Grand Haven to Gra
nd Rapids seemed to take forever, even though Sadie knew Travis was pushing eighty mph.

  Andrea explained that she and Benton had been driving behind Kurt on their way home from watching fireworks when a car ran a red light and T-boned Sadie’s entire family, including Marissa. They were hit on the passenger side, Marissa and Nicholas’s side.

  When Andrea had first called Sadie, they were following the ambulance to the hospital. All Andrea kept saying was that they were in good hands and it happened only five miles from the hospital, so they would be getting care fast.

  Paige was in the backseat with her head buried in Cody’s chest, crying. Sadie suddenly found herself too scared for tears. Andrea had said very little on the phone. Maybe she didn’t know. Maybe she didn’t want to say how bad they really were. Maybe she didn’t want to give false hope. Maybe they wouldn’t make it.

  Sadie felt numb as Travis held her hand. She felt him looking at her, but she couldn’t turn her face toward him. Instead, she stared out the passenger window. She was glad he wasn’t asking her if she was okay or saying everything would be okay. Sadie knew all too well that was not always true and hated those statements.

  Andrea met them in the lobby and escorted them to the ICU floor. Sadie knew that was not good. Benton, Chrissie’s parents, and two doctors were there, huddled in a circle. She got full reports, but honestly, all Sadie heard were things like internal bleeding, head trauma, broken ribs, fractured pelvis, and ruptured spleen. The list seemed endless, and she had no idea who suffered from what because she couldn’t concentrate.

  Her thoughts were spinning wildly out of control. Control. Sadie realized one thing was for certain. She hated not being in control. Possibly she had always been this way; possibly since her mom was diagnosed. Whichever, she hated the fact that she had no control over her family’s fate.

  All Sadie cared to know was if everyone would live. She could deal with the rest of the stuff later. Luckily, Paige interrupted the doctor and asked if they were all going to survive.

  “We’re doing our best to treat their injuries. Nicholas is in critical condition, and we have stabilized Marissa and Chrissie. Kurt and Jayna have several broken bones that we’re treating.”

  Before walking away, the doctor said they could see both Kurt and Jayna shortly. Kurt had three broken ribs and a torn rotator cuff. Jayna had a broken femur and . . . Sadie honestly couldn’t remember, just that they were in the best shape.

  Sadie and Paige both crumpled to the stiff, pale blue couch in the family waiting area and cried in each other’s arms. “Nicholas, not Nicholas, and your mom, I’m so sorry Paige.”

  It was then that Sadie realized something. She loved Marissa. She couldn’t bear to lose Marissa. She was over it. She didn’t care that her dad and Marissa were dating. In fact, she was glad. They were a perfect match, and she was incredibly lucky that Marissa and Paige were back in their lives. Why? Why, God, did it take a car accident for it to sink in?

  The next hour seemed endless. Sadie’s head was pounding, her eyes and face were a red, blotchy mess, and she was sweating from nerves and anxiousness. When the doctor came into the waiting room, Sadie felt a huge weight being lifted off her shoulders. The look on the doctor’s face told Sadie everything. She had a lot of practice reading the faces of doctors over the course of her mother’s illness.

  Even though Sadie, Paige, and everyone else in the room jumped to their feet at the sight of her, Dr. Kenshaw sat down and gestured for them to do so as well. She reported that Nicholas had been upgraded from critical condition to stable. His spleen had ruptured from the trauma of the accident and was causing internal bleeding into the abdominal cavity. They had to do an emergency surgery called a partial splenectomy, where they removed part of the spleen and sutured it back up.

  The doctor said that Nicholas should improve quickly over the next several days. He also had several broken bones in his right arm and hand, but his life-threatening injuries were no longer life-threatening—that was all Sadie cared about.

  Marissa was now in fair condition. Luckily, she didn’t have any internal bleeding or organ damage, which was a concern with a forceful blow to the pelvis. She had a stable pelvic fracture. Dr. Kenshaw had attached a device called an external fixator on Marissa. It had long screws that inserted into the bones on each side and connected to a frame outside the body, helping to stabilize the pelvic area so it could heal.

  Dr. Kenshaw said she wasn’t sure how badly Marissa’s muscles were damaged because of the severe swelling, and that she might walk with a limp for several months after she healed.

  “Will she ever be able to play tennis again?” asked Paige.

  Dr. Kenshaw smiled. “Give your mom a few months, and she’ll be back on the courts.” She grabbed one of Paige’s hands and one of Sadie’s. “If you have any other questions, don’t hesitate to hunt me down.” She handed them a card with a pager number on it and gave them each a hug.

  Another doctor had simultaneously been speaking with Chrissie’s parents and she was doing well. Chrissie was being treated for two broken ribs, a punctured lung, and a broken radius and ulna in her arm. Her stay in the hospital would be a couple of weeks, but she would make a full recovery. A huge collective sigh of relief filled the room as the doctors left.

  Chapter 60

  Sadie

  The rest of the summer was all out of whack, but the summer of recovering injuries definitely didn’t put a damper on anything. Sadie was once again primary caregiver and had to back off her hours a bit at the restaurant, but she was still ranking it an awesome summer, hanging with Travis and her friends.

  Jayna and her dad were treated and released in slings and casts after a few days. Nicholas, Marissa, and Chrissie all put in a few weeks at the hospital, but were breezing through therapy and mending well.

  By the middle of August, talk of Pentwater was still a go. Everyone was ready to get away, and Marissa and Paige were staying at the cottage the full two weeks with them. Sadie was beyond excited. She and Paige had grown extremely close. They were always together because of Travis and Cody, work, tennis practice, and camp, and something about the accident formed an even tighter bond between the two of them.

  Paige was spending more and more time at Sadie’s house, creating relationships with all of them, but she took a lot of interest in her half-brother. Anyone that Nicholas could get to play swords for an hour at a time was instantly his best friend. Paige would squirt water guns in the pool and watch hundreds of Nicholas’s dives and cannonballs, loving every minute of it. She had a half-brother, and she was getting a chance at being a big sister for the first time in her life, even if Nicholas had no idea.

  The week before Pentwater was miracle week for everyone. Casts were removed, crutches were tossed, and the okay was given to be active (in moderation). Bike rides and climbing dunes would most likely be limited, but hanging on the beach, fishing, campfires, mini golf, and serious ice cream indulgences were all highly attainable.

  Nicholas recovered like a champ, with no tell-tale signs that he was even injured. He breezed through physical therapy, and his right arm and hand were completely healed. Thank goodness he remembered nothing of the accident and hadn’t had a single nightmare. Kurt was still sore and couldn’t play football on the beach with Nicholas, but thankfully Travis and Cody were willing to fill in.

  Jayna’s leg had healed well. She was supposed to be wearing an air cast for the first week of Pentwater, but she “forgot” it at home. “How convenient of you,” Sadie had remarked.

  Kurt only said, “That’s our Jayna.” Those two comments had sent Jayna in a rage about how everyone was always ganging up on her.

  Sadie rolled her eyes. “Like Dad said, that’s our Jayna!”

  Pentwater was still the highlight of the summer. The cottage was a bit cramped with Marissa, Paige, and Chrissie also staying for the first week. Chrissie’s parents surprisingly didn’t bat an eye about letting her stay, not that the accident had been Kurt�
�s fault.

  Cody had joked to Paige about her chasing Travis last summer, and they all teased Cody about his fling with Liz. Crazy how things end up!

  Liz was staying with her grandparents, so Jayna and Chrissie were usually off chasing boys with her. Sadie was thankful for Chrissie—she was the brains and rule-follower of the trio.

  Sadie still went for several walks with Andrea. How different their walks were this year from last! She was very lucky to be so close to her boyfriend’s mom, she knew that. Paige accompanied them a couple of times, but usually Sadie and Andrea ventured off alone. Marissa still had plenty of healing to do before she was able to walk the beach.

  Sadie and Andrea talked about school, the excitement of senior year, Sadie’s feelings for Marissa, how Sadie had a new level of respect for Marissa, and how happy her dad was.

  Lydia’s presence could still be felt in Pentwater. Sadie knew how much her mother had loved being there, but she found it comforting to talk to Andrea about her when they were walking. Sadie could feel how much more she had healed since their walks last year, and she was thankful for that.

  In comparison, Pentwater was boring this summer. Last year, Sadie felt like her world was crashing in around her with the Dylan and Travis saga, the torment over Marissa and Paige, uncovering the truth in her mother’s diary, and still feeling a tremendous amount of pain over her mother’s death. Sadie loved boring! Boring was awesome!

  Chapter 61

  Marissa

  Marissa closed her eyes, leaned her head back on the pillow of her beach chair, and soaked up the sun. Life was good. Kurt and Benton were carrying on a conversation about boats and motors and what they had discovered from their on-line search thus far.

  The two couples decided they were purchasing boats over the winter so they would be ready to embark on a boating life next summer. Marissa and Andrea decided to let the guys do all the research on-line and they would enter the hunt when it was time to tour the boats.