The Eclipse of Moonbeam Dawson

by Jean Davies Okimoto

  Reid hadn’t thought too much about Michelle’s family situation before, but while he waited for her he began to wonder why they hadn’t come with her mother. It seemed kind of strange that a guy would take his daughter on a vacation during spring break and that the mother wouldn’t come. Then he wondered if maybe she didn’t have a mother. Probably divorced. But maybe her mother was dead, just like his father was dead. Maybe she never knew her mother either and they had this whole thing in common. Being an only child and having just one parent with the other one dead. The more he thought about it, the more Reid was sure this might really be the case. That they had this whole bond with their family situations even though her dad was a timber executive and his mum hated logging.

  The air was chilly and Reid pulled his collar up around his neck. The sky was lighter now, and the cedar trees took on a deep green as dawn began to break. A small figure made its way down the path from the lodge toward the marina steps. Reid’s heart fired like a machine gun as he recognized Michelle. Her hair was fastened back and she wore a cream-colored fisherman’s sweater and jeans. She waved from the top of the steps and Reid waved back.

  He climbed in the boat and put the keys in the ignition and then checked the gas tank. Good old Harv. It was full. He must have stopped by last night to check on it, and then filled it. Reid hopped out of the boat and walked to meet Michelle as she came down the dock. If only Meadow MacLaine could see him now.

  “This is sure early.” She yawned. “I almost went back to sleep after the alarm went off.”

  “It’s part of what you’ve got to do if you want to hunt.” Reid tried to act like he did this every day.

  “That’s what my dad says about fishing.” She looked at the slip where the Regina II had been moored. “Guess he got off all right.”

  “They were gone by the time I got down here.” Reid led the way to the boat and pulled it in close to the dock.

  “This is really small.” She frowned as she looked at the skiff.

  Reid laughed. “Especially if you’re only used to things the size of that boat your dad’s on.” Reid hopped in then held out his hand for her.

  “Are you sure it’s safe and everything?” she asked, grabbing his hand.

  “Sure. It’s really calm out there this morning.” As he helped her into the boat, Reid noticed that her nails were polished perfectly, each one a bright pink oval, like she was going to a party or something. He put his arm around her waist to steady her as she carefully stepped first on the deck and then on the driver’s seat.

  “I just haven’t been on a boat this teensy.” She laughed as the boat rocked.

  “Just sit here in the driver’s seat and hold the dock while I untie us. Then you can sit next to me when we get underway.”

  Michelle sat down and clutched the edge of the dock. “Oooh, it’s rough.” She drew one of her hands back. “I hope I don’t get splinters.”

  “Just hold tight, we’re almost ready to fend off. I’m done with the stern.” Reid ran to the bow and uncleated the line. “Okay, you can scoot over now.”

  Michelle let go of the dock and moved over as Reid jumped in the driver’s seat. He held the dock with one hand while he started the engine. “Forgot the bumpers, can you hold on again?”

  “I guess so.” Michelle didn’t seem too pleased, but she got in the driver’s seat and grabbed the dock again while he pulled up the bumper from the stern.

  “Okay, just one more minute while I get it from the bow.” He climbed over the windshield and flipped the bumper into the boat. Michelle moved next to him as he got back in the driver’s seat.

  Reid put the boat in gear, steering carefully away from the dock while Michelle examined her fingernails. The dawn had broken and the sky and the ocean took on a rosy glow as he drove slowly through the channel.

  After a minute she looked up. “It’s really pretty out here.”

  “I love it early like this.”

  “My dad does, too.” She yawned. “But I’d usually rather sleep in.”

  Reid decided this might be a good time to ask about her family. “What about your mum?”

  “Oh, she hates fishing.”

  “Is that why she didn’t come?”

  “No. They’re divorced. And he gets me on my spring break. We always have to do what he wants, and it’s usually fishing on one of his friend’s boats, which I find totally boring.”

  “So you must be an only child.” Reid steered carefully next to the channel marker. “That’s what I am.”

  “No, my mother had a kid with her second husband. Ashley, my half sister, goes to Hawaii spring break with her dad, which is a much better deal than having to go salmon fishing. My mother’s in the sun, too. She and Pete, her third husband, are in Palm Springs.”

  “But they don’t get to go bear hunting where they are.”

  Michelle laughed. “This year I put up such a fuss about having to be stuck on a boat the whole time that my dad said we could come here. Sort of a compromise. But it’s still boring.” Michelle shivered and leaned close to him. “Jeez, it’s cold out here.”

  Reid decided this must mean he was supposed to put his arm around her, so he did. She cuddled next to him and she was so casual about it, he figured getting close to guys was probably an everyday kind of thing with her. Then today was his lucky day. That was for sure.

  “How long does it take to get to the island?”

  “About twenty minutes, if we go full speed.” Reid reached for the throttle. “Want to?”

  “Sure.”

  Michelle’s eyes got wide as he thrust the throttle hard and the boat shot across the waves. She leaned even closer to him, and her body pressed against him with every bounce of the boat. She said something, but he couldn’t hear her over the motor. He slowed the boat down.

  “Couldn’t hear you.”

  She glanced at the rifle under the bow. “If we get the bear, how do we get him back to the resort?”

  “I’ve got a friend with a converted fishing boat. We’ll come back and haul it out.” Reid thrust the throttle forward and she leaned against him again as the boat went full speed. They couldn’t talk over the roar of the engine, which was fine with him. That way she couldn’t ask any more bear hunting questions and he wouldn’t have to make up more stuff, and he especially liked the way they were squished together with her pressing into him with every bounce of the boat. Boating with Meadow MacLaine was never like this!

  “Reid, look!” Michelle sat up and pointed to something off the bow.

  He pulled back on the throttle, slowing the boat. “What is it?”

  “There! See, that speck over to the left? I think it’s the island.”

  Reid turned the boat toward the speck and then picked up speed a bit. “Does this look like the place where you saw the bear?”

  “It’s hard to tell, it looked different from the plane. But it wasn’t a little dinky island or anything and this one looks fairly big.”

  “This is Hope Island,” Reid said, remembering what Harvey had told him. “It’s about three kilometers long and about one and a half across.”

  Reid brought the boat in close to the shore and began circling the island, looking for a good place to beach the boat. The island was empty except for some seagulls hanging out on the rocks. So far so good. He pulled back the throttle to almost an idle so that they just inched along a few feet from the rocky shore.

  “Can you imagine owning this island and putting a fantastic house on it and having this whole place to yourself?” Michelle looked up into the huge trees that came practically down to the water.

  “It might get kind of lonely.”

  “Just to come on weekends when you felt like it. You’d have a plane to go back and forth to Vancouver, naturally.” Michelle looked up at him. “Where do you live, anyway?”

  “I went to school near Heather Mountain.”

  “I mean when you’re not at school. Where does your family live?”

  Rei
d steered the boat farther out, away from some rocks that jutted out from the bank. “It’s just me and my mum. She lives in Tofino.”

  “My dad said that’s where all the granolas and the tree huggers live.” Michelle laughed. “But he says that it’s changing and that there are some beautiful big homes on some of the beaches. Retired executives and people like that, not just hippies anymore.”

  “There sure doesn’t seem to be anything here.” Reid changed the subject as he rounded the rocky point and turned back in closer to shore.

  “If you were a bear I bet this would be a great place to live.”

  “I suppose so.” He looked up into the trees, hoping not to see anything except trees.

  “Sure, especially if there was a honey tree like Pooh had,” she giggled and snuggled next to him. “Ashley, my little half sister that I was telling you about, she loves bears. She has a whole collection of teddy bears. Over a hundred of them, from all over the world.”

  “I had a nice Pooh when I was little.” He held her close to him, steering easily with his right hand, enjoying the slow rocking of the boat as they inched along.

  “Me, too. And I had a book about Paddington. I got it when we were in London, a first edition.”

  Reid smiled. “I liked Smokey the Bear a lot.”

  “I thought Yogi Bear was great.” She put her head on his shoulder.

  Slowly, Reid steered the boat around the east side of the island. The rocks jutted out into the water and he hoped he wasn’t getting in too close. The last thing he needed was to shear a pin.

  “Oh!” Michelle shrieked and sat straight up, clutching the dashboard.

  Reid thought he was going to pass out when he saw it. A huge black bear ambled through the brush, crashing everything in its path with its huge bulk. It sounded like an enormous tank was coming toward them. At the water’s edge the bear stopped, turned, and stared at them.

  They were only a few meters from the gigantic black furry mass, and they could hear it breathing with breath that sounded like great gusts of wind as it rustled the leaves on the undergrowth at the water’s edge. The bear froze, staring at them, and they stared back at the bear. Then after a minute, as if coming out of a trance, Michelle looked under the bow at the .303 and grabbed Reid’s arm. “Reid! Don’t get the gun. Don’t! I can’t let you. Think of Pooh … and Paddington … and Smokey.” She held his arm and looked up at him, pleading with her beautiful cat’s eyes. “Don’t do it, Reid. Please!”

  “Okay,” he gasped, “I won’t shoot him.” Reid pulled her close to him and hit the throttle. As the boat lunged forward, they both turned and watched the bear amble back into the brush and disappear.

  They sped along the east side of the island, heading farther away from its shore and he held her next to him all the way back. The morning sun sparkled on the water, and the thick trees on the island were a deep green against the bright sky, and he couldn’t remember ever being happier.

  Heading down Maurus Channel of the west side of Meares Island, they could see smoke curling up from a row of houses nestled along the shore to the south of Lone Cone, the small mountain which rose up in a perfect arc of the darkest green.

  “That’s not Tofino, is it?” Michelle pointed to the houses.

  “Tofino’s straight across the channel from there. That’s the Opitsat Native village.”

  “I’ve never actually met an Indian, have you?”

  Reid felt her warmth as she nestled next to him. She seemed so sweet, worrying about the bear and talking about Pooh and all those other bears she liked so much, he should probably just tell her. Reid swallowed and drew in his breath. “Well, actually—”

  “Oh, Reid, look! Isn’t that cute!”

  A seal poked his head out of the water just a few feet from the boat. Like the periscope of a submarine, he swiveled his head around to survey the surface, his big brown eyes standing out like lumps of coal against his slick tan hide.

  “There he goes, down under.” Reid watched him pop under the ocean.

  “What a cutie. I just love seals, don’t you?”

  “They’re pretty neat.”

  Michelle put her head on his shoulder. “I’m really sleepy. Getting up so early and then all this excitement.” She closed her eyes and curled up closer to him.

  Reid couldn’t tell if she was actually going to sleep, but they didn’t talk all the way back. He looked down at her beautiful face, trying to memorize it and wishing they could stay out on the water like that all day. Or forever.

  The marina at the resort was quiet as he brought the boat in. The guests were all out fishing and he was glad to see that the Regina II was still out as he pulled the skiff into Harvey’s slip.

  “Michelle,” he whispered, “we’re here.”

  Sleepily, she opened her eyes. “I must have really gone to sleep.”

  “Sure looked like it.” He held the side of the dock. “Can you hold us while I get the lines?”

  “Okay.” She slid over and grabbed the edge of the dock. “Can’t be afraid of a few splinters when you’re the outdoor type. Me, the outdoor type—what a kick, my friends wouldn’t believe it.”

  Reid finished securing the lines. “Ready?” He held out his hand to help her out.

  She took his hand, but then looked around the marina. “Sure is pretty dead down here.”

  “They’re all out fishing.”

  “Mr. Roessler’s boat is still out. He and Dad must not have caught their limit or they’d be back.”

  “They’re probably pretty far out there. I didn’t see any of the yachts from the lodge between here and Hope.”

  “Why don’t we just stay here for a while; there’s no one around.” Michelle slid over and motioned for him to get back in the boat.

  “Okay.” Reid climbed in next to her and the next thing he knew she was practically in his lap.

  She unfastened the tie that had held her hair back and shook out her hair, letting it fall over her shoulders. He thought it shone in the sun like some precious metal. Then she took off her windbreaker and threw it in the bow on top of the rifle. “Thank you for letting the bear live, Reid,” she said softly, lifting her face close to his.

  “Think nothing of it.” He swallowed hard, then grinned. Michelle’s face was there so close to his, it seemed like she wanted him to kiss her. So he did. Then some more. And some more after that.

  They stayed in the boat eagerly kissing, tightly fastened in each other’s arms, until they heard the engine of the first of the yachts coming into the marina.

  “When can I be with you again?” he whispered as she pulled away from him. He felt like he was on fire, that if he even touched the weathered wood of the edge of the dock the whole thing would explode into flames.

  Michelle sat up, fluffed up her hair, and grabbed her jacket from under the bow. “Yuk. It’s wet.” She looked at him. “What did you say?”

  “When can I see you again?”

  “I’m supposed to have dinner on Mr. Roessler’s boat. How ’bout after that. Dinner’s usually over by seven.”

  “Where?”

  “Give me a hand, will you?”

  “Sure.” Reid jumped on the dock and held out his hand for her, thinking that he really should have jumped in the water just to cool off.

  She climbed onto the dock and then watched the Regina II come past the channel marker, heading for the moorage.

  “Where should we meet?” He tried not to sound too demanding.

  “Not here.”

  “I have my own apartment in the employees building.”

  “That’s next to the basketball hoop?” She put on her wind-breaker.

  “Yeah.”

  “What number?”

  “It’s number three, on the ground floor.”

  “I’ll be there at ten.” Then she turned and walked quickly down the dock, not looking back.

  * * *

  If the last few hours had been the happiest of Reid’s life, the next hou
rs were the longest. He had never felt quite like this before. He could remember craving things in his life, but they were things like pizza, chocolate mocha delight ice cream, tacos, huge warm soft pretzels with lots of salt, Coke, Doritos, and almond brittle from the English Sweet Shop in Victoria. As far as people went, he could also remember wishing more than anything to see the Toronto Blue Jays, to go to a real game and not just see them on TV. He also had a strong wish to meet Wayne Gretzky. But what he felt now was more than a wish. It was a craving. He was craving Michelle Lamont.

  How lucky could a guy get! He couldn’t believe it. She was actually coming to his apartment! His own apartment all to himself with no one there but him. With his mother miles from there across Clayoquot Sound, safely tucked away in her nice little solar cabin on Palmer’s Land.

  Reid decided to clean the apartment. As if the Queen were coming, he smiled to himself. He got into high gear and flew through the place picking up dirty laundry, empty food cartons, Coke cans, and dust balls. He stripped the sheets from his bed and used them to bundle up his laundry, then ran down to the laundry room at the end of the complex and dumped the load in the washing machine.

  Back in the apartment he swept the rug, getting rid of the twigs and dirt that he’d been tracking in over the last week, realizing that it was getting hard to tell the floor inside from the ground outside.

  Next he started in on the dishes. Washing his own dishes was the last thing he had wanted to do when he finished work each night. All he wanted to do was eat the leftovers he brought back from the kitchen, which meant every single dish in the apartment was dirty. Dirty dishes filled the sink and covered the counters. Why wash them until he’d used up all the clean ones was what he figured.

  While he waited for his clothes to dry he tried to do the next geometry assignment for school. Ridiculous. Fat chance. He stared at the book and all he could see was Michelle Lamont. And all he could think about was how it felt to be holding her and kissing her.

  Reid took his basketball out to the court and shot some hoops while he waited for the dryer to get done. He stood in the center of the court, facing the basket, holding the ball at his side, then waved at the trees.