Fake News
Page 26
“Both.”
“Thanks.”
“You most.”
Mary glanced at his black T-shirt and faded jeans. “Going to put your trunks on?”
“I’m comfortable.”
“Look like a priest.”
“Thanks.” Zack listened to the gentle swells of the ocean caress the side of the boat. He looked west toward the shoreline that he knew was there but remained invisible.
He said, “There, yet always beyond reach.”
“What?”
“The shoreline.”
“It’s there, just out of sight,” Mary said.
“So, too, are many things.”
“Thank you.” Zack moved to the aft trolling chair and, thinking he’d go fishing, began to bait a fishing hook, but stopped.
“You want to fish?” he asked.
“Nah.”
“Me neither.” He cast the bait-less line into the ocean, secured the pole in a holder and leaned back in the trolling chair. “I need to put some pieces together.”
“You do that. I’m going up top, read, get some sun.” Mary opened the ice chest and retrieved two bottles of Bohemia. “I know you want one.”
“You know everything.”
“I got a boat ride.” She opened the beer.
“That what it’s all about?”
“Almost.” She handed him a beer.
“Thanks.”
Mary began layering a thick coating of suntan oil on her arms and legs. “Need any of this?”
“Never use it.”
“You’ll get melanoma.”
“You watch too much TV.”
Zack felt the wind singing over the water, picking up moisture, blowing over the bow. He sniffed the air.
Mary noticed him sensing something. “What is it?”
“Storm, good way off, we have some time.”
“Good, do my back.”
Zack squeezed lotion on her back and smoothed it over her shoulders.
“Nice back, huh?” Mary said.
“Enough lotion?”
“Enough. Thanks, I’m going up top, read.”
He watched her climb to the top deck. “Don’t fall off.”
She turned, caught him looking at her backside. “Don’t you fall in.”
He waved her off, took a drink of beer and sat in his trolling chair. The events of the hectic week catching up with him, he closed his eyes.
Veracity gently riding the calm ocean, he dozed off and dreamed:
A sudden swell rocks the boat and just inside the stern, Hank, his former roommate at seminary, stands.
Hank, what are you doing here?
I heard you talking and wanted to chime in. You should not have dropped out.
I didn’t drop out, they kicked me out, what can I sayobedience.
It’s me, Zack.
I know, chastity…but you know, more than that, it was the doubting that got me.
Maybe this was the other plan, and it turned out better.
So, what do you think about all this freedom of the press thing?
It’s a big ocean.
A third presence with a dank smell shoves on board, says: You’re making too much out of a little nonsense thing.
Recognizing the odor, Zack shouted, “You magnificent stinking bastard, get off my boat!”
Awake, he heard Mary thumping the cabin top. “Boca, who are you shouting at?”
“I was snoozing, must have been talking in my sleep.”
“You scarred me.”
“Sorry.
Shaking his head, Zack watched a school of dolphins breaking the water’s surface. He remembered the many dreams he had of swimming with Mary.
The dolphins gone, his thoughts went to the events of the past week. Thinking he should write make notes for a future story, he retrieved a writing pad from the cabin, went back to his trolling chair, sat, and tossed the tablet down.
“Tweedledum. The hell with it, nobody would believe it anyway. Think I’ll do some fishing.”
He picked up his fishing pole, reeled in and prepared to cast when he saw Mary peering over the edge of the cabin roof,
“Who are you talking to?”
“Not sure.”
“Won’t you need some bait on that hook?”
“Maybe we’ll get lucky.” He threw the line out and secured the pole. A clap of thunder rumbled the air and a gust of wind rocked Veracity. The storm he had smelled earlier had moved in more quickly than anticipated and now began to encompass the ocean around them.
He called to Mary, “Better come down.”
He began to pull in his bait-less hook but stopped at a tugging on the line.
In a moment, Mary was next to him.
Reeling in, he said, “I think we got something.”
He pulled the last of the line in but there was nothing but the bait-less hook. “I thought maybe”
“We better go in.” She touched him.
He felt a tingling, “You feel that?”
Their eyes locked, she said, “That’s what it’s all about.”
Lightning stuck nearby followed by a crack of thunder.
Zack held her close and sensed a calming oneness with himself and the sea. He wanted to stay there forever, to be gone from the doubting, to know once and for all what lay beyond the invisible shore. But he knew he had to go back. He went forward with Mary, started Veracity’s engines and headed east toward Pompano Marina. The truth, like the invisible shoreline, must be there somewhere.
End
G.L. Rockey books also published by BWL Publishing
Five Star Review
Time and Chance
Truths of the Heart
Bats in the Belfry, Bells in the Attic
Five Star Review was previously published as The Journalist. Revised and Rewritten for 2018, G. L. Rockey has written three other works of fiction: Five Star Review, Time & Chance, a mystery/suspense set in Nashville; and a collection of sixteen "off-the-wall" short stories, Bats In The Belfry, Bells In The Attic. Also Published Is A Non Fiction Book, From The Back Of The House: Memories Of A Steak House Clan.