Any Port in a Storm: Chapter 16

Tony's Story

The room which had just minutes ago been filled with women's joyful laughter was now filled with a dark ugly energy.  I struggle unsuccessfully to hold my shivers back as I look at the wounded Mara.  My breathing had picked up, my vision refused to stop swimming, and my head pounded, but my main concern now was the emotionally and physically abused girl in front of me.

“You're wrong Mara.”  I say softly.  “You are his child.  HE owes YOU everything, not the other way around.  You did not choose to come into this world.  You did not choose to be smaller than the others.  It is up to him to see that your needs are met, to see that you can find happiness to the best of your ability.  It is his job to support your dreams and help you stand on your own feet and lift you up when you are weak.  You owe that man nothing Mara.”

Mara finishes cleaning the blood from my lips, her sad distant smile unfazed.  “You come from a funny place Tony.”  Is all she says.  I could see my words could not get through to her right now.  Right now something more than words were needed.

I force myself through the shivers to reach out and take her by her narrow shoulders.  I look her in her beautiful blue eyes and say.  “You didn't deserve that.  It's not your fault.”  

The touch of my hands on her shoulders cracks her brave facade.  I see the tears slowly well up along the bottom of her eyes and her bottom lip begins to tremble. She tries valiantly to hold it back for as long as she can but the emotional dam had already begun to burst.  She lowers her gaze in hurt and humiliation and pulling her arms into herself as if to curl up inside a cocoon...she breaks down and cries.  Crying tears of a pain that I could only imagine.

I'd been through some shit these past few weeks but this girl carried a lifetime of suffering on her slender shoulders.  Life might beat you up and beat you down, but a parent's love ought to be the one thing you could always count on.  My heart bled for her.

I pull her in for a long and gentle embrace.  Her shoulders shake as she weeps quietly into my chest.  I hold her close and whisper.  “It's not your fault Mara.  You hear me?  It's not your fault.”

How many times has this happened?  How many times has Mara sobbed these soul wracking tears?  How could anyone treat their own child like that?  I never truly knew hate until this moment, not real hate, not that deep hate that burns in your gut.  But now I did.  I hated Cormac Kane in every fiber of my body and soul.

But hate was not what was called for now.

I hug Mara tighter and stroke her soft hair.  I say the phrase I had heard her use, hoping it would help.  “You are loved Mara.  Shhhhh.  You are loved.”

I feel her, ever so slightly, relax in my arms.

Ash's Story

Huali offers me some water and I gratefully accept it.  I drink down every drop and go for more.  Those last few days on the dinghy and the hike through the jungle had depleted me.  It felt SO good as that water ran down my throat.  

I pass the cup back up.  “Thank you.”

She sets it down by the pitcher at her bedside.  With the grace of a panther she leaps over me and comes to a surprisingly soft landing on the bed behind me.  Laying on her left side she props her head up in her hand and just...looks at me.

I fidget and shift and look around the room.  From the open windows the hiss of the waterfall and a chorus of birdsong wafts in from outside.

Eventually the silence is too much for me.  “Um...so, did you want to hear about the world out there?”

Huali shrugs.  “No.  Talk if you must though.”  She continues to look at me with undisguised attraction.  I couldn't deny it was flattering, though also severely unnerving given the circumstances.

“Oh.”  I hadn't been ready for that response.  Huali didn't have the same curiosity her sister Miru had.  I could tell she was more a doer than a talker.

I shift again and look around the mostly empty room.  It was mid to late afternoon and while I was tired but I wasn't at all sleepy.  “Umm...”

“You smell.”  Huali says out of the blue.

“Huh?  Oh, uh, yeah.  Sorry.  I haven't had a proper shower in weeks.”

“I like your smell but I would like to keep my bed clean.  Let us bathe.”

I hesitate to agree but...getting cleaned up would feel really damn good.  “That would be nice.  I'm sorry to ask but...do you have any clothes I could borrow?  I've been wearing these since the wreck.”

“Do not be sorry.  You are a guest.”  Huali rolls from the bed and opens one of the lockers.  She pulls out a simple dress very similar to what Makea wore.  I already knew it would be many sizes to large but beggars can't be choosers.

I stand and take the dress with a smile.  “Thank you.”

“You can have this for now.  Mother can make one your size when you have earned it.”

I nod.  “Of course.”

“Come.”  She heads for the door.  As instinctively as I would grab my car keys on the way out of my house Huali grabs her club on the way out of her hut.  I hurry to follow close behind, my borrowed dress clutched to my chest in a ball.

Instead of heading left toward where all of the other building were Huali takes a right and leads me down a well used path that lead down toward the pond.  Her stride was long and though she was only walking she moved with uncanny speed, she never let me fall too far behind though.  Moving at the pace we were left no opportunity for conversation and before long we are moving along the shore of the pond toward one of the smaller waterfalls.  We were getting ever closer to the peak which towered over the island.  Looking back over my shoulder I realize I couldn't see the buildings any longer, and with the ever growing crash of the waterfalls ahead we were certainly out of earshot as well.

Fear grips my heart once more.  Having the others close by may have been a false comfort but it was something.  I take a deep breath and remind myself again that I was at Huali's mercy.  Tony couldn't help me and I doubted the Kane family would do a thing to protect me from one of their own.  All I could do was hope for the best.

Despite her fearsome size and bearing I found I was actually relieved to be with Huali over her sister Miru.  There was something very...human about Huali.  Down to earth.  Her directness had a charm.  When she said things I believed them.  Something about Miru's dark gaze had unsettled me.

The path cuts through an especially dense patch of ferns before all at once opening out onto a deep round blue pool at the base of the smaller fall we'd been heading toward.  The pool was separate from the main pond by a bridge of exposed stone but I suspected they met somewhere underwater.  I head the stone face of the peak was a vertical wall that stretched off forward and to the left.  From above by a few dozen feet came the steady flowing white ribbon of water that splashed down into the center of the pool.  I could feel the cool mist of it on my face.  Behind me and circling around to my right was the rich growth of green ferns and colorful tropical flowers.  

The blue of the water, the green of foliage, the brilliant yellows and reds and blues of the flowers and birds...it was beautiful!  The air was sweet and pleasant.  The mist refreshing.  The whole scene was like something from a travel brochure.

As I stand there taking it all in I hear a splash.  Turning my head I see the back side of the shimmery muscular nude form of Huali swimming underwater out toward the center of the pool.  Her club and skirt had been deposited among a cluster of flat rocks near the pool's edge.  I eye up the club then immediately strike whatever foolish notion I was about to have dead before it can even begin.  Huali swims thirty feet out before her head breaks the surface within the spray of the falling water.  She wipes her face then smiles back at me and beckons me to join her.

That water sure did look good.  It wasn't the stinging briny salt water of the ocean but the fresh clean cool water of a natural spring.  It was a very, very inviting sight.  I could suddenly feel every bit of the salt and grime caked on my body and hair.

Another deep fortifying breath...then I turn away from Huali and start to undress.