She of the Sea

9 of 53 - A Dog Story

Cassie liked to swim first thing in the morning before taking her shower. During a school day, she and her momma used to get up with the sun and hit the surf, swimming up and down along the beach to the rhythm of the waves. It was her favorite time of day.

Aunt Marnie decided to change the schedule. There were too few people on the beach early in the morning. "We'll wait until just before lunch when the beach is thick with visitors. Nobody will notice another mother and daughter taking a dip when there are so many people around."

She understood the reason was to keep her safe, but it would be hard to get used to the schedule change. Her momma always said the Earth had a heartbeat. The waves pulsed with that beat, and if you really paid attention, it would teach you things. Cassie couldn't hear the Earth talk to her the way her Momma could, and she didn't know what the waves could teach her.

When she would ask her momma about what she could learn, her momma would smile and say, "When you get older, the sea will call to you, and then you will understand."

Cassie didn't want to wait until she got older. Her momma was gone. Who would help her to understand those things now? She knew her momma was different in some way and she was too, but why had Momma kept the secret of those differences from her?

With so many hundreds of swimmers splashing around in this popular place, would it be harder for her to sense the calling when it happened? Could she ask Aunt Marnie about it? Would she be able to tell her?

"Tomorrow is Monday," Aunt Marnie told her while they ate breakfast. Her aunt made an awesome tasty omelet for her. "Your tutor will arrive at nine and you'll have lessons until noon. After that we can go to the beach."

She wasn't sure about the tutor business and hoped whoever was coming would be nice to her.

Aunt Marnie buttered her toast. "Unlike you and Mya, I'm not much of a swimmer. As a matter of fact, I don't care much for getting in the water."

Cassie couldn't understand how anyone wouldn't like the water. "Why not?"

"I like swimming pools where you can see what's in the water with you. Out there," she nodded in the direction of the Gulf, "who knows what might be lurking beneath the surface."

Was she talking about sharks? Her momma told her not to worry about sharks. They were afraid of her kind and always swam away. Jellyfish plagued swimmers, but Cassie and her mom were immune to their venom. "I like swimming pools, but you can't swim very far in a pool. Back and forth gets boring after a while."

Aunt Marnie took a bite of her toast and swallowed. "That reminds me. While in the Gulf, I don't ever want you out of my sight. You'll need to stay close."

"That's not fair," she protested. "Momma and I used to swim a long way along the coast."

"It may not be fair, but it's the way things will be."

Cassie went quiet. She wouldn't be able to promise that she'd obey that rule. After finishing breakfast and cleaning the dishes, Aunt Marnie made some phone calls. While she did that, Cassie went to the display case and studied the sponges. They were so beautiful, especially the fire sponge her uncle warned her about. She gawked at it studying all the holes and wrinkles and imagined what it would look like attached to the sea floor.

"You've been looking at that sponge for the past fifteen minutes as if you were hypnotized," Aunt Marnie said.

Had it really been that long? When Cassie looked at the clock on the top shelf of the display case, she realized her aunt hadn't been exaggerating. She didn't have much of an attention span, so what had caused her to fixate on that particular sponge?