Blue on Blue

Chapter Eleven

"Tell no one. Not a soul. Some people are not what they seem." What did Eli mean by that? Was it a threat? He doesn't seem like the threatening type. Maybe it was a warning. What or who could he be warning me about?

"Earth to Maggie!"

Maggie lifts her eyes to the DVD case Charlie's holding an inch from her face. On the cover, there's a Great White Shark charging toward a pair of legs dangling over a raft.

Drew grins. "Here's to swimmin' with bow-legged woman."

Cay saunters into the kitchen, blowing the aqua blue paint on her nails dry. "Who's swimming with what?"

"It's a quote from Jaws," Maggie tells her. She turns her attention to Charlie and Drew. "Are you sure you guys can handle this? I mean, we are surrounded by ocean water."

"Are you saying us islanders are wimps, City Girl?"

"I'm just saying, if you don't want to watch it, I don't blame you. We can always watch the Star Wars trilogy again."

Drew puffs out his chest and looks at Charlie and Cay. "That sounds like a challenge."

Charlie thumps his fist against the table. "Challenge accepted."

He tosses Cay the DVD. She shakes her head back and forth. "Don't come crying to me when you two are too chicken to go out fishing."

Maggie has watched Jaws so many times, she can practically recite the script line for line. She and Joe used to go back and forth with quotes from the movie. He liked Quint's quotes the most and who could blame him? But Maggie thought Brody's lines were the best. Brody was from the city and he had a fear of water - mostly of drowning in it. Every summer, when they watched Jaws, Joe would say, "Can you even imagine - having a fear of drowning and living on an island?" Maggie doesn't have to imagine what that's like anymore. She never learned how to swim which doesn't matter much in Fallowshill, but in Cayder Bay most kids learn how to swim before they learn how to walk.

Eli paces into the room with Briggs's leash wrapped around his wrist.

"You want something to eat?" Cay asks him, lifting the box of pizza remnants.

He shakes his head. "I'm good. You seen Briggs?"

"Look in the yard," Drew says. "He was burying a bone earlier."

Charlie slides an enormous bowl of popcorn onto the coffee table. "You want to watch the movie with us when you get back from your walk?"

Eli shakes his head. "Na." He walks out of the living room. The front door squeaks open and slams shut.

Cay shrugs. "He barely talks; he hardly eats; he doesn't sleep."

Drew scoops up a handful of popcorn. "Maybe he's a vampire."

Cay throws a pillow at his head.

"He's probably been through a lot," Charlie says.

Cay scoffs. "You sound like my dad." She wags her finger in the air. "Now Cay, he's been through more than you know." She rolls her eyes. "P-lease! I'm nice as pie to that kid and he barely gives me the time of day."

"He's a heck of a lot better than the other ones," Drew says.

Maggie almost spits out her popcorn. "The other ones?"

Drew tosses a piece of popcorn into his mouth. "Remember when I mentioned Cay's father has a soft spot for lost souls? Well, just about every year he takes in a new one. Eli isn't the first lost soul he's trying to save and he won't be the last."